The Burkett Bundle

The Many Sides of Kyran and Karyssa:

The Stander:  That's right!  Karyssa is now standing for extended periods of time, and has even taken one good step several times.  It started on Wednesday afternoon, when Kyran crawled over to me and pulled up on my shoulder.  I held him out and let go, and he stood for about two seconds on his own, which is GREAT for him.  I went a little crazy cheering for him, and I guess Karyssa got a little jealous.  She came right over to me, put her hands on my leg, got on her feet, pushed herself up and let go.  She just stood there, as if to say "Look, mommy, I can do it too".  After that, she did the same thing several times in a row, and her balance is great. 

The Teether:  Kyran has officially cut his top 15-month molars.  His gums have been puffy for over a month now, but on Wednesday night, we saw our first sign of them.  Yesterday, he bled a little, but you'd hardly know they were bothering him at all.  He has been a little fussy, especially when he bangs his head on something, which usually doesn't phase him, but he's still sleeping well and eating well. 

The See-Food Dieters: The seasonal allergies are gone, and so are the picky eaters!  When Karyssa and Kyran see food, they eat it.  They have no off-switch in their stomachs, so we just have to stop feeding them before they get sick.  I asked Dr. Bartlett at their follow-up appointment if there was a trick to get Karyssa to eat her veggies.  She said, yes, but I wouldn't like it.  The best way to get a kid to eat their veggies is to just feed them veggies.  I think Karyssa heard her, because she is back to being a champion veggie eater now!

The Shoppers:  They love to shop.  They love to people watch; they love to try to grab clothes as we walk by; they love to experiment with toys in the store.  Once, they knocked down some clothes at a store.  I thought I had picked them all up, until I realized later that one thing had landed in the bottom of the cart.  I had to go back to the store and explain that one. 

The Game Player:  When we get the babies ready for bed each night, it is always in our room.  I guess it's habit from when they slept in there with us, but that's also where we brush their teeth, so it just makes it easier.  One of Jason's favorite games before bed is to swing them, and then lightly drop them on the pillow.  They love this game and giggle like crazy when they are swinging.  Last night, I brought Kyran up and laid him on the bed.  He crawled over to the pillow, turned around and sat, then threw himself back into the pillow, giggled, rolled over and did it again.  I realized that he was playing this game by himself!  Check it out:



The Cherubs:  For the first time in eight months, I went to get my hair cut on Wednesday.  The plan was for my mom to meet us there and take the babies somewhere to play, but she wasn't able to make it on time, so I took them in with me.  They sat in their stroller the entire time and only made noise when they were saying hi or talking to the hairdressers in the salon.  What a lucky mom I am!

The Deviants:  On the flip side, they are not always so perfect.  They both like to start to do something they know I won't like and then just look at me and smile.  As soon as I say "no" or "don't do that", they start doing it.  I know that they are testing their limits and we are trying to be firm and consistent. 

The Animal Lovers:  Nothing makes my children light up quite like the sight of an animal...any animal.  They love our dog and cats, and any other dogs and cats that they see.  They also love the animals at the zoo, the rabbit that was in our yard the other day and the squirrels and birds we see on our walks.  They just get so excited and it is absolutely precious!

The Dancers:  We had a YouTube sensation moment last night, although we, of course, didn't get it on video.  You all know my kids love to dance.  We went out to a little festival last night with live music and had a blast.  The weather was perfect.  There was good food.  There were lots of people to watch and other babies to play with.  The band was great.  They did a lot of funk cover songs, one of them being "Play That Funky Music, White Boy".  I was telling them that that was the first song they every heard all the way through (Livin' on a Prayer was playing when they were born, and Play That Funky Music was the next song), when Karyssa started shaking her hands and dancing like crazy.  She was having fun doing that until the line "Play That Funky Music, White Boy", when she stopped dancing and pointed right at Kyran!  It was hilarious.  Jason and I just stood there with our mouths open, as if to say, "Did she really just do that?".

They have many, many other sides, but I'll save those for another day.  One update I want to share is their weights from their appointment on Tuesday.  Karyssa was 18 lb and Kyran was 19 lb, 2 oz.  This means that Karyssa is over, and Kyran is almost at SIX TIMES their birthweight!  Absolutely amazing!