KevRach News: May 2011

Casey and Mommy at Filoli

Hello Family and Friends! I hope you are all doing well! We are doing well here...Casey is now 18 months old! It is hard to believe that a year and a half has already passed! He is growing into a wonderful little boy...so smart and fun. He does have his willful moments too, though...and sometimes I feel like the "terrible twos" are coming early (especially when he climbs up on everything to get things he knows he can't have and then has a tantrum when he can't have them). But he is such a joy and treasure...he makes us smile all the time. He is talking more and more, trying to say everything and trying to express himself in every way possible.

Casey's first time in the sand.

Also, we have a great praise in regards to his sleep! He is doing soooo much better! We praise God and thank Him for helping us...and thank everyone for praying for us while we did sleep training. It was about our 5th time for trying sleep training...we were so discouraged, feeling like he would never ever sleep better or ever sleep through the night....and HE HAS NOW SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT REPEATEDLY (not every night, but often!)! We are soooooo thankful. I read a lot of books on sleep training and we actually typed out our own "sleep plan" for about two weeks and we followed it pretty well. In the past, we have tried the "cry it out" method and it just did NOT work...he would get too worked up and sweaty and then his adrenaline would pump and he couldn't go to sleep...and when he finally did go to sleep, he would wake up again and again and we would have to go through it all again. So, it didn't work. So this time, we based our plan on two books: mainly on "Good Night, Sleep Tight" and a little bit on "The No Cry Sleep Solution". It worked SOOOOO much better. We pretty much stayed in the room with him until he fell asleep. He began to actually want to go in his crib....he would point to go in it...he had NEVER done that before! Also, he began to put himself back to sleep when he would wake up in the night, also because we stopped breast-feeding him in the night (and he is pretty much weaned now, which is good). So he is doing so much better and we are thankful. We could still use your prayers as there are still some kinks to work out in his sleeping.

So, besides the sleeping, Casey and I are taking a music class every Friday, and he LOVES it. It is a great class: the guy who is the teacher plays guitar and was a music major, so he is very knowledgeable. There is a CD that we take home and practice the songs (we are supposed to sing and dance to them) and he loves the songs. In the class, he gets to play with different instruments and dance and do various rhythms. It is great for him.

Casey's first time at the beach!

Easter and Mother's Day were great this year: Casey had his first Easter Egg Hunt and he loved looking for the eggs. He also got to dye eggs, which was a lot of fun. He also got to move up to the Toddler nursery at church, a little early...he was getting tired of the toys in the infant nursery and hated to go in there. So he went in the Toddler nursery and he did SOOO well....he didn't cry when he was in there and had a lot of fun with the other kids. We were proud of him.

This summer we are going to be going on a few different trips, which will be fun: yesterday we welcomed our new little niece into the world, Kaylin Marian Wright (Marian is also my middle name...I have a name-sake now--check out pics below)!!! We are going to go visit her over Memorial Day!!! I am so excited to see her and hopefully we will be taking Casey to Sea World while we are in San Diego. Then we are going to visit Kevin's parents for a little bit and we may go to Disneyland then! Fun fun! Casey hates to ride in the car, but hopefully all of this fun will be worth the drive. Also, in July, we are heading to Portland (actually the Columbia River Gorge) to visit family and friends and to relax. I am thankful that my parents can go with us on these trips, especially since Casey ADORES his grandpa (he calls him "pa, pa, pa"...and asks for him every single day...he wants to call him all the time too...he is definitely one of his favorite people).

Another mini-trip we are taking is going to have our first night away from Casey, for our 5th Anniversary, coming up in July! We are going to Napa Valley for the night and staying at a really cute little inn in Yountville (where all the amazing famous restaurants are located). I got us "Wine Country Explorer Passes", so we can go to a variety of wineries, and we will also probably go to a spa for some couple treatments too! So it will be a blast.

As for me, I have a few weddings coming up in August and September, so the summer will be busy with planning and getting ready for those. Also, the Young Families group at our church that I am coordinating is doing really well: this weekend we went to Ardenwood Farm for a picnic and to see the animals and it was a great turnout, with lots of families attending. Also, I am starting a "Bundles for Babies" drive to collect baby items and clothes for the Shelter Network, who helps homeless families in the Bay Area. I have already gotten a lot of interest in helping out with the drive, so that is exciting!

As for Kevin, he had his annual review at work and he did really well. He got a pretty high rating, which doesn't happen too often, and his boss is going to be putting him in charge of managing a lot of projects. So that is great!

We would love to hear from you or see you if you are in the Bay Area! Check out the pictures below.

:) Rachel