I guess last time I updated this, I announced that we were going to have a baby. I think everyone knows that we had Keeley Katrina McDavid 8 MONTHS AGO! Her birthday was May 3rd, and she is the sweetest girl EVER!!! She just turned 8 months a few days ago, and she is crawling all around, trying to pull up, babbling all the time (she is going to be a talker like her brother), and starting some solid foods. It is amazing how much you forget from one child to another. I don't remember when to start any foods anymore. She is eating almost all the stage 2 foods, and we are starting some mandarin oranges, soft pasta, puffs, cheerios, yogurt melts, etc. We have been lucky that she has been really healthy. She has had only one ear infection (as compared to Taylor when she was a baby, she was practically scheduled to have tubes at this point), and a couple stuffy noses. She has slept all night long (for the most part) since she was about a month old!!! She was even a sleeper in the hospital. The nurses had to wake her up after 3 hours to eat, then she would just go back to sleep. I think she knew from the beginning that she needed to be adaptable, and thank goodness she is!!! She is all over the place in the house now, and I am back to baby proofing all over again.
I guess I will just go on the updates from the youngest on up! Merrick is in pre-K this year. He is doing really well. He knows the sounds to all the letters, recognizes all of them, sounds out a few words with help, and writes most of his letters. We are working on him writing his name in a straight line, all on one line. His writing isn't exactly legible yet, but he still has 7 months before Kindergarten. We (me, mostly) have really struggled with deciding if he should go to Kindergarten next year or not. His birthday is July 28th, so he is the youngest in his class. He is pretty athletically inclined, socially is on track, and seems to be ok academically as well, but something is still telling me that maybe we should wait?!?! We have conferences with his teacher before kindergarten round up, and she will give us all the information we need then, so we will keep you updated. Merrick LOVES all sorts of things that a 4 year old boy probably shouldn't be playing with, but that is pretty hard to limit with older siblings. He loves Nerf guns, Star Wars, Sponge Bob, play swords, shields, and computer games (I am shocked how well he is able to get around a computer, at this age Taylor was just learning how to use a mouse). All his small little toys are presenting a challenge to his baby sister who wants to put everything in her mouth! Merrick is currently on his second round of strep in a month in a half...I hope he doesn't follow in Taylor's footsteps and have to have his tonsils out! Despite being the youngest in his grade, he is still the tallest. There is one boy on his soccer team that is either his height or a little taller, and one boy in his pre-K class that turned 5 in the fall that is his height. Other than that he towers over the other boys. All signs are pointing to starting kinder next year :) Merrick plays soccer and is in ice skating until he is 5, and can then start hockey!!!
Taylor is in 3rd grade this year. She is doing great, has good friends, is learning multiplication and division, is reading at a very high level, and loves volleyball and cheerleading. Cheer has ended up being a perfect outlet for her love of yelling, jumping, and dancing. I am thinking about getting her into some type of drama/singing class. She loves to perform, but says she has stage fright in front of a lot of people. We are so booked with all the things the kids are doing though, that will need to wait a bit before adding something else. Taylor still makes trips up to Minnesota as often as she can to visit her dad, step mom, and siblings. She has a 1 year old brother and a 4 year old sister there. Being an only child, I would have loved all the siblings she has!!! We had some transition issues last year with all our moving around the world, and this year she is finally settled, and realizes that her friends last year, and still there this year, and will be there next year again. She is very happy about this!!!
Phillip permanently moved in with us in July last summer. He is 16 now, and a junior. He will hopefully be getting his license at the end of this month!!! We surprised him with a car just after Thanksgiving break for Christmas, and he was so excited. It is a 2009 Honda Fit, which is a hatchback, and the back seats fold down for plenty of moving to college room! He wants to leave Texas and go to college on either of the coasts: UCLA, Berkeley, Columbia, or Penn State. He went to visit Penn State last October and we will be going to California this spring. I have a feeling he will end up in Cali. He is taking a very hard load of classes this year. He is in 3 AP or pre AP classes and has to take two English classes to make up for missing them in Russia. He had so many credits from his freshman year in Russia, that he was able to skip 10th grade and go straight to 11th. I had some hesitations about this, but I think he will be ready to go to college in the fall of 2013 as planned. He is a pretty mature and smart 16 year old! School (and texting and facebook) take up most of his time. He is currently not in any sports, but is in a drawing academy, and takes lessons every Sunday. He is a pretty talented artist and wants to go to school for architecture.
I have been very very busy with all the kids. This fall was insane with all the sports. Merrick had soccer on Monday, ice skating on Tuesday and soccer games on Saturday. Taylor had volleyball on Monday, cheer on Tuesday and Thursday, and volleyball and football games on Saturdays. Phillip was also in Mixed Martial Arts for a couple months this fall. I feel like half the time my life is being a chauffeur! Aside from the sports, just getting kids to and from school required some skill with a baby in the house. Merrick is in school M, W, and F from 9 to 2. So, Taylor is dropped for school which starts at 8, Phillip starts school at 8:45, and Merrick at 9. Pick up is at 2 for Merrick, 3 for Taylor and 4 for Phillip. Then we get to sports, have dinner at some point, get homework done, and go do bed to do it all over the next day! And don't forget that poor Keeley needs a nap at some point during the day, which is why she is a cat napper! Burke is usually able to get one or two kids to school, but does not get home until at least 7 or later every night. Let's just say that procedures have been completed already to assure we will not have anymore children!!!
We had our dog, Leo, until recently. I was truly not able to take care of him. He is a bichon, and they need way more attention than I was able to give. Without getting the attention he needed, he acted out and peed and pooped in the house, and was constantly eating pacifiers, bottle nipples, google straps from the pool, etc. You could say he had a bit of a silicone fetish! My mom tried to take him for a week, and she decided that it was too much for her to do alone, and he had to be in a crate all day when she was at work, and she felt bad about that, so now he has another new, very good, home. My mom was able to send the word around Neiman's that Leo needed a home, and found one quickly!
As if everything else I have going on isn't enough, I have decided to go back to school! CRAZY, I know....but I am really really excited about it. I need something for me, and I think I will be such a better student this time around...if I can somehow find time to study. I did it once with one child, but now with four...well, we'll just see! My plan is to become a nurse or physicians assistant. Nursing is the front runner at this time because of the flexibility. I have science, history and government prerequisites that I need to take before applying to nursing school. I didn't have enough history credits from St. Thomas, and no government, which is a Texas state requirement for a bachelors degree, which is what I would be getting with nursing. The PA program is a two year masters program, then a year of residency. My ultimate goal is to still be home when the kids are for the most part once I am working, so nursing is going to be the best thing for me I think. After my prerequisites are completed, I can apply to nursing school. My goal is to get into the 2 year weekend program at Texas Women's University. Since I already have a degree, I am eligible for the weekend program. We will see how these pre-req classes go first to see if I have it in me to do all this!
Burke is doing well. Work is busy again, which is a great thing for him, but this means he is home less, and needs to bill hours on the weekends as well. He is still playing soccer twice a week, with some objections from me about him diving around playing goalie. We just don't have time for him to be injured :) Selfish of me, yes, but I don't have time to take care of him in that way too! He is also Merrick's soccer coach, which Merrick loves!!! Maybe he can get on here and give some updates some day too! Our 5 year anniversary happens to be today, and I can't believe it has already been 5 years!!! It has gone so fast. We are a very happy family. Despite all the craziness I wouldn't have it any other way. We, ok, maybe I, felt that something was missing without Keeley, and are all so happy to have another (final) addition to the family.
Now, I will try very hard to give more updates!!!
CHEERS!
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