All Good Things Come to an End

Two weeks ago, Laura (Ben's teacher) notified us that she was quitting. She and her husband were moving and she had found a job closer to home. The funny thing is that 2 1/2 years ago, we were so nervous leaving Maya with a complete stranger. But, we were so blessed to have Laura help raise both of our kids. She spoiled them both, but also always kept us up to speed with their development. She wrote a letter to Ben saying that he was her favorite, but I'm sure all the kids' letters said that. But, it sure makes us feel good.We had a little problem at day care with the interim teacher, but that has been resolved. And fortunately, Ben's next teacher starting when he turns 1 will be Jennifer, who helped Laura in the nursery with both Maya and Ben. When we heard that, Lezlie and I were very happy.

Today, Maya officially transitioned to the 3-4 year old room. For the past month, Maya has really been resisting going to school. And, I think it was because all the big kids that she knew well had already been moved up. When she starting doing partial days in the big kid room, they said it went so well, they would make the official transition sooner. So, we'll see how things go. One of the teachers had been Maya's teacher before in the 2-3 year old room, and she once whispered to me that Maya was her favorite. Again, I'm sure they tell all the parents that, but hey, I'm gonna believe every word they say.

Rockaway Beach 2010

This year, Lezlie and I didn't have the vacation time we had in years past, so we were only able to stay in Rockaway for 3 nights. But, we still made the most of it. We kept telling Maya we were going to "Raway Bee" but she had no idea. I have a feeling she will remember next year, though. I think she has associated that place as the place where she can swing for 3 hours a day, swim in the pool another 3 hours, and play with her cousins the rest of the day.Last year, Maya was a bit of a bear in the pool. She wanted to swim in the big pool, but didn't want any of us to touch her, not realizing if we didn't she'd quickly sink to the bottom. This year, we had a life-preserver. With that, she got real brave and started jumping into the pool. Then, she insisted we go to the deep end and jump off near the ladder. Then, I persuaded her to jump off of the diving platform. She loved it and did not want to stop. Of course, Daddy got wore out quickly but I was able to last.

Ben loved the pool too. He let everyone just pull him around in his floating device. He spent the rest of the time giggling at Maya. Mommy and Daddy especially appreciated all of the help everyone provided. When Ben would start squirming, he would just get passed off to the next person. Everyone kept commenting how big he was. Ya, like we didn't know that. But, after holding Macy, I had a greater appreciation.

We don't get too many opportunities for generational pictures so we had to take advantage in Rockaway. After thinking for a bit, I realized that Ben is the only 4th generation Heimsoth boy descending from Grandpa Lambert. It's hard to imagine but all the other grandkids either haven't had kids yet or have had all girls. That will soon change with Tim and Rebecca's boy, but for now, he's the only one.Since, Rockaway, Ben's legs have been getting a lot stronger. He started by pulling himself up and he has recently just starting to stand up on his own, without any leverage or help. No steps yet alone but he did take a couple with his walker. So, I'm betting he will be walking in a few weeks.

Changing So Fast

Time is flying by so fast and things are changing all of the time. Maya is talking more, Ben is becoming more mobile, and unfortunately, Vinnie is getting older. I'll start with the bad news. I'm sure many of you are aware but I will reiterate. Lezlie took Vinnie to the vet a couple months ago for a routine checkup. Just when the checkup was about done, Lezlie thought to ask the vet about how Vinnie walks. We've noticed for quite awhile that he sometimes drags his feet. But, we simply thought that he was being lazy. But, for the past year, he has been slipping a lot on our kitchen and hallway floors. The vet watched him walked and noticed it right away. Long story short, after blood tests and x-rays, he has been diagnosed with Degenerative Mylopathy (DM). What does that mean? Basically, his nervous system is breaking down, and he is losing muscle mass and feeling in his hind quarters. Chances are, it will continue to get worse, but we're taking it in stride. Let's just say he's getting babied like you would never believe.Now, on to Maya. She is definitely talking a lot more. But, she still has her own pronunciations. For the life of me, I can't get her to say yes. Her pronunciation is "da". And, like every other toddler, she starting to ask the normal questions. "What's that?" and "Who's that?" is pronounced "dat?"Maya has also taken to a new Sesame Street book that goes over the ABCs. Our normal routine is to sing the ABC song and then go through the letters and speak the letters. She soon started to speak several of the letters without coaching. She gets lost around F and then again at M but once she gets on track again, she quickly continues. Finally, the other day, she sung the song with Lezlie. I know this isn't that big of a deal but as parents, we love to see progress in the little things.

We also have a peddler now. Last year, the first word out of her mouth after walking in the door was "outside". Now, it's "ride bike outside Dada" while nodding her head in a very influencing way. It is pretty cute to see her peddle around the cul-de-sac with a big smile on her face. Our Parents-as-Teachers lady said that when she can peddle, she will soon be able to poddy. So, two weeks ago, we took the plunge and started putting Maya in panties. She did okay at first. A couple times she started to go in her pants and finished in the toilet. But, most of the time she would just go. Fortunately, she told us right away so we know she got it. From there, she told us she had to go. We would race her to the bathroom and then she would say she didn't have to go anymore. And of course, 2 minutes later, she would go. But now, after only 2 weeks, I'm proud to say she hasn't had an accident in 3 days. She's going poop and pee in the poddy. We continue to ask her if she needs to go a lot. Not that we don't trust that she'll tell us. It's just that we're not sure there will be a bathroom close enough that she can hold it from the time of telling us to the time she goes. But, we are definitely very proud of her. It seems like so many of these big transitions have been so easy. Its almost like its training us more than its training her.

Last but not least, Ben. Lots of changes with him. He started crawling on June 24th and has been going strong ever since. Not surprising, he follows Maya and Vinnie around everywhere. No matter what, he always wants to play with what Maya is playing with. If she's playing with a puzzle, I can give him a puzzle and he'll still want to play with hers. So, the sibling rivalry has begun. She gets a little frustrated sometimes, but she is doing pretty good. Currently, for the most part, you can take whatever away from Ben without him fussing as long as you replace it with something else. So, when Ben gets something of hers, we simply ask her to get something else for Ben to play with. But I have a feeling that won't last too long.
Two weeks ago, Ben started pulling himself up. That reminds me, I need to lower his crib before he jumps out. He's even let go of what he's holding and stood for a few seconds. I'm betting he will be walking around furniture soon. But until then, I'm sure he'll continue his monkey stage of crawling all over us.
With all these changes, we have gone through a lot of sickness. He had double eye infections, some unexplained rashes, and black eyes that the doctor thought was either allergies or eczema. He's also had runny noses and had to go through breathing treatments a few times. We were going to try and get his 9 month pictures this weekend, but his eyes were black again so we had to cancel. But, they seem to be looking better today. Not knowing what the real cause of the sickness was, we did a lot of house cleaning, had Vinnie shaved, and have also made a much better effort keeping his skin moisturized. And, so far so good. I'm just praying that this all wasn't caused by a dog allergy.

When he is healthy, the nights aren't too bad. He still wakes up once a night, but most of the time, he has one span of 7 hours of sleep. And the doctor said that 7 hours is technically sleeping the night. But, we'd still like to see that change to 10 hours of sleep and no feedings.

Las Vegas 2010

I say "Las Vegas 2010" because I'm hoping to make it a routine trip every couple years. Lezlie and I were in a definite need to get away. So, since Lezlie got off for Truman Day (no, I'm not kidding), we opted to make a weekend trip to Las Vegas. She had been there a few years with friends, but this would be my first trip.

Things didn't start out too great. I don't know what it is, but airports just stress me out. It's not that I'm afraid of flying. It's the whole "am I forgetting something" thing. I told Lezlie while we waited for our delayed flight in St. Louis that I wouldn't relax until we're on the ground in Las Vegas with our luggage in hand. So, what happens? We get to Vegas and wait and wait for our luggage while the rest of the St. Louisans go off to their hotels. We go to the luggage counter where they were very apologetic but were not able to locate our luggage. So, they gave us a toiletry kit and said they would search around and call us each day. Long story short, the bag was tagged for a Ralph Heim going to Louisville, Kentucky. They quickly found a flight from Louisville to Las Vegas, but we still didn't get our luggage until the night before we left.

That being said, we both had a very good time. On night #1, we got a little crazy trying to forget about our lost luggage. We went a club called "Jet" at the Mirage. There was no line so we said, what the hell. There were lots of people, lots of good music, and lots of strong drinks. So you could easily guess that the next morning was slow-going for us. Because Lezlie had virtually no casual clothes, we slowing walked to the mall--bought some shorts, shoes that she didn't need, and we both bought a couple shirts. That night, we made our way to Margaritaville. I would definitely recommend this place. Good atmosphere, good food, and very reasonable prices. Nothing real fancy but just the way I like it. Below is the Volcano Nachos of which we could only eat half.
Friday night, we toured a few casinos. Going cheap that night, we got our entertainment from the Bellagio fountains--definitely worth seeing. It was a little packed but we found a pretty good spot to watch the show.To finish off the night, we headed back to the Venetian (where we stayed) and took a Gondola ride. Yes, they have a river flowing through the casino. An Italian man did the steering while he sang some Opera songs, most of which we understood nothing. But, it was quite romantic. He tried to do a little small talk, but he was what Seinfeld would call a "low talker" and in combination with the thick Italian accent, I just nodded my head and smiled. After that, we continued to tour the Venetian and discovered another half of the hotel we had not seen.
On Saturday, we did more touring of the casinos--Caesar's Palace, Treasure Island, Mirage, Bellagio. But, I believe that was the extent of it. Next time, we'll have to go to all the rest we missed. I've heard everyone say how big they are but I still didn't realize. We got lost in the Bellagio and finally stopped at a gift shop and asked them how to get out of the place. I'm sure that's how they're designed, though. They don't want you to leave.

Each casino had it's strengths. I felt the Venetian was the most ornate and romantic. Caesar's Palace was also very ornate and had the best shopping mall of them all. The Venetian shopping was way too upscale for us--most of the stores I wouldn't even step into. I felt the Bellagio was the classiest casino. I don't know how to describe it, but it was definitely packed. And, every casino had it's own smell. I don't know what it was, but it seemed like they all pumped pure perfume through the air system--so much that it became a little bothersome to me. But, maybe I just have a sensitive nose.

Saturday, night we went to a show. After a little debate between the two of us, Lezlie got what she wanted and we went to see "O", a Cirque du Soleil show. And, I believe it was probably the most expensive show we could have seen. Oh well. It's Vegas so you might as well blow your money, right? I didn't know what to expect, having never been to an acrobat show, but it was very impressive and I would recommend it. After the show was over, we headed to downtown Vegas on Freemont Street. I don't know what it was but we weren't real impressed. It was a neat atmosphere and the drinks were cheap, but it was a lot different from the strip. Maybe it's because we are too snobbish, maybe we were depressed that we had to leave in the morning, or maybe it was the fact that it looked like you would get held at gun-point if you walked around the corner. But, we didn't stay long since we had an 8am flight back to STL.

So, for all you interested, we'll probably go back in 2012 or 2013. There's so much more we have yet to see. And maybe next time, I'll sit at a table and play a little blackjack. And who knows, maybe our luggage will be on the same flight as us.