Just hanging out on our roof watching the fires creep closer. Jamie just took this pic a little bit ago. We really hope we aren't going to be evacuated but we have a place to go all lined up and a suitcase ready to be packed.

Oh, my bad... it's just raining ashes.... and the clouds in the sky are big massive smoke clouds..... hmmmm. We haven't been evacuated but my aunt, uncle and cousins have. My grandma is on alert with a packed car ready to go and we have two offers of places to stay if need be. Hopefully the need will not be. Here is a lovely map showing how much of my hometown is aflame... Oh the joys of living in Southern California!!!!

In other news.... Yesterday Kacey woke up at 4:19, talked and whined for a few minutes and then got quiet again until about 4:45. Jamie got her up shortly after that as she was ready for the day. Today was a bit better, she woke up at 5am ready for the day. Still no nighttime nursing nad she has not woken up at 1am or anything like that. So if I could just go to sleep by 9pm I would be all set for 8 hours of sleep!!! You think I'm kidding? HA! Tonight will hopefully be a 9pm night for me, oh yeah, party at my place!

Well I am again behind on pictures but with the fires and all, oh yeah I am going to milk that excuse! What the floors need to be swept? The dishes done? Why bother when it might all burn down? Let's just wait a couple of days! Here are some pics, unfortunately I do not have a fancy SLR camera... hint hint... my birthday is November 5th... anyways, so the pics we took at night when you can see the flames the bast are crap. Obviously you all know how to use a computer or you watch the news so you have seen those awesome pics taken with someone else's fancy camera. But what you haven't see are the ones from our house location!! So if you want to know what we are seeing, here you go.

View of the fire cloud of the Big Tujunga Canyon part of the Station Fire. This was taken from our rooftop.

One of those really awesome water helicopters. They keep going back and forth, back and forth....

View from our street in front of our house....

I just registered on the National Bone Marrow Registry for Baby Allison!!! Wanna do something good today?? Sign up!

Baby Allison is just a touch older than little Miss Kacey. I know her through my online LA Chat board. I can't imagine what it is like to have your precious little girl (or boy for that matter) diagnosed with leukemia. Since I am so very fortunate to have a healthy child this is the absolute least I can do. Can you please consider doing it too??? Thank you!

Slept from 6:30 - 6am without waking up!!! Woo-hoo!!! Hopefully tonight goes well too and then I will think we are onto something!

Alex took this at our house the other day!

Yep it's time for a post dedicated to these two little work horses. They are tired, they are drained (haha!) they are ready to stop supplying life, nourishment and comfort to little Miss Kacey. Wow, it sounds so mean when I put it that way but that is kind of what La Leche League makes it sound like when you want to wean. It's been almost 15 months and that is a pretty damn long time. I know that the WHO supports 2 years of nursing but here in the US, they advocate 6 months to one year so I figure Kacey is somewhere in the middle.

My original plan way back when was to go one year. Sometime before that I decided to go longer and just see how it went. I was one of the fortunate ones that did not have issues. I rarely leaked, hardly ever got engorged and seemed to have no supply issues. Recently I could even be heard saying I would go to two years if Kacey wanted to. Well now I am changing my mind.

2 reasons:

1. She is back to waking up 1-3 times a night and only consoled by my crystal balls. If Jamie goes in she calms for a minute but then starts back up when she realizes I am not following after him. She used to just wake up around 4-5 am and I was ok with that but lately it has been all over... 11pm...1pm...3 pm...4 pm... sometimes all in the same night. I don't know about you but it is hard for me to function on 5 very interrupted hours of sleep. I am starting to think this is becoming habit and not just teething (she has 15 of them! How many can possibly be left? yaya, 5 I know..I think?.. I hope?) so that leads me to think that if she is not nursing she won't wake up? Wishful thinking maybe but this isn't working. By the third nursing session in a night I am angry and resentful and oh so very tired.

2. I still have yet to receive a visit from my monthly friend. I have a feeling it won't happen until I completely wean Kacey. As I said before, I need this to happen so we can try on our own for another little Twiglet and then make a big decision about IVF #2 which I would also have to be weaned for as we don't need Kacey full of IVF related drugs.

SSSSooooooo to make a long post even longer, I decided at 4am yesterday that I was going to wean Kacey of all nighttime boob activity. In the past 6 weeks or so I have been decreasing the nursing time by a minute per side per week. We were down to 5 minutes each side (doing both sides in one session.) I figured this might decrease my supply enough to annoy her and make her want to quit or decrease enough to where she just might not get any. It didn't seem to do either so session drop was the next step.

Last night I went back up to 8 minutes each side (after she ate a very BIG dinner), I turned on her night light** and told her about our new plan. She smiled at me and said BYE and gave me a couple of high fives and I left the room. In preparation for a long night and to make up for the lack of sleep the night before I went to bed at 9.

At 11:09 she cried. I decided to wait and see if she went back to sleep or got hysterical.

At 11:10 she was hysterical. I went in and picked her up and gave her her sippy cup of water. She drank like a man abandoned in the desert for three days. We swayed and sang and talked and she calmed down. I never went near the rocking chair as I didn't want her to think we might nurse. After about 10 minutes I laid her down and she started screaming, stood up and grabbed hold of me like she was drowning. I didn't pick her up but I held her and rubbed her back and told her it was ok and gave her more water. She eventually calmed a bit and sat down... then she laid down.... then she stopped crying and rolled over. I stayed at the crib rail and just watched her. After a minute she looked up, saw me and smiled, then she rolled back over. Another minute, another look and another smile. Eventually she was on her back just staring at me and smiling. I told her it was night night and to go to sleep and not wake up til morning. I love you, kiss kiss.

I walked out of the room and all was quiet. It was 11:30

Jamie had gone to a concert and got home shortly after and our stupid floors squeak like crazy. She started to wimper but not cry loudly. She went on and off for about 10 minutes and then all was quiet again. I fell back asleep somewhere around 12.

I woke up and looked at the clock, it was 5:51. The house was quiet. 5:55 and I heard Kacey talking. She was not screaming, she was not hysterical. She had slept and almost more importantly I had slept. 8 glorious hours total with only one interruption. Oh my.

I called my mom to tell her we could do our walk this morning and I got her up. We never went near the rocking chair and I gave her a big sippy of OJ to help fill her up and quench her morning thirst. (I know some will say a bunch of juice isn't too healthy either but boo on you I say! Too bad, it's better than a Diet Coke and I wanted her to forget about the boobs!)

We went on our walk and all was well. Come nap time she grabbed her kitties and stood by the rocking chair. I nursed her and she fell asleep. We were both very happy.

Wish me luck for tonight and the next few nights, I don't expect them to go as easy but I wouldn't complain if they did!!!

*If we get down to just a nursing session before bedtime and I get my monthly visitor I would go ahead and continue nursing her until she is two.

**We decided to start a night light because when she has woken up she has almost sounded scared in the last week or so. Her room is pitch black and when you go in to get her she is cowering in a corner of her crib clutching her kitties and crying. It's so awful and sad. Maybe she is scared of the dark all of a sudden? Don't know but figured a night light wouldn't hurt.

I finished nursing Kacey (another post, another day) and as I put her int he crib she said something. I told her night night and that I loved her and will see her in the morning. As I turned to walk out of the room she said "BYE!" I looked back and she was waving. :) Damn I have the cutest kid!

This morning Kacey and I went to an introductory class at the Little Gym and she loved it! She was not clingy to me and just ran all over climbing on everything and watching the teachers.

Here is a little video and some pics!

Last Tuesday (hmmmm.. that puts me lass than a week behind, I'm still more caught up that Alex!!!) We met up with Alex and Taline and went to the Americana. They have a kids band and Kacey was really getting into it. Here she is watching the lady play the guitar, she sure loves the guitar!, and dancing along.

A tender moment of friendship between the girls. This is how Kacey likes to show her affection to Taline. Taline on the other hand love to hug Kacey making Kacey try to get away and then they both fall down on each other.
Later on we caught up with Vanessa and Ellis and did some book shopping.


On Thursday we went to KidSpace in Pasadena and Kacey had a blast. She played in the water fountains....

rode a tricycle for the very first time. She didn't really ride it, more like she sat on it and walked it around, her feet don't quite reach the pedals.

She collected and dumped water on the ground making a very large puddle to splash in.

On Friday we went to lunch with Grandma Pat and GG Peggy. Kacey ate a ton of salsa again! This girl can pack it away! Her mouth got really red but she just kept on eating.



On Sunday morning we went to Uncle Tom's for breakfast. We forgot to bring Kacey's high chair so she got to sit in a big chair! Tom put a bit of a booster under her so she could see the table. She behaved wonderfully and not a speck of food got on the floor! Amazing!

Later she went with daddy back to KidSpace and played in some more water.


It's been a fun week!

So a couple days ago I posted and said that I take too many pictures. Several of you said I didn't..... well darn these digital cameras for making it tooo easy!!! I just added 12 (yes, twelve!!!) posts full of pictures..... Enjoy!

Today we went to Descanso Gardens and Kacey ran around for over an hour! At the very beginning, she found some sort of berries on a bush that looked like cherries. We agreed she could carry them if she didn't try to eat them. She held onto them like they were her treasured kitties. Anytime one fell, we stopped to pick it up. She would hold them close to her chest and every now and then just stare at them to make sure they were all there.


Now how is this picture for a pose!

Running off!

Great pic with Great Grandma Peggy..


Swimming with daddy, Megann and Renee

So easily amused.....

Isn't Dash one of the cutest little guys you have ever seen????

Mommy, can we take this home?
OOOOOHHHHH favors!!!


Birthday girl Lauren and her mommy Rebekah! She's nekkid because she demolished her cake!!! The best smash cake ever!

Yep, lots of fun!!!

Look this way Taline and Dash...

Wait Dash, don't leave!!

Oh now everyone gives up!

And they finally stay put in the chairs! YAY!

Ok, so how do you do this??

OK, I think I got it. Now hand over the shovel and walk away.
Yep, fillin a hole is pretty easy!!

Kacey is making sure the pool is fun for everyone before they get here!

Feeding Nathan some watermelon. Kacey is such a sharer ;)

Nathan and Veronica playing with the turtle sprinkler.
Kacey got bored with sharing the sandbox so she decided to make her own....


The two Nathan's with their mommy's Amelia and Andrea.

Getting in and out without ANY help from mommy!
Watching all the other big kids.

Learning how to check the chlorine level.


Why oh why won't the boys play with me?

Lots of fun mom!!!