A BIG week--sleeping, pooping, chopping!

So, the McKneelys have had an eventful week this week!!

Baby MATTHEW:Turned 4 weeks this week. Has dramatically changed his preferences for soothing--used to LOVE the pacifier and to be swaddled. He also would sleep best in his carseat all bundled up like in a cocoon. This week that all changed! He screams like a banshee when swaddled for sleeping or soothing, and will not let you put a pacifier in his mouth. This made for a couple stressful days and non-sleeping days at the onset of this week, but we've got him well figured out now and he slept last night for 5 hours straight! Woo-hoo!! too bad it was from 7-1AM and I didn't hit the sack until almost 10! Bummer!!

SAM:
Completed his poop chart by filling it with stickers every time he had a successful time on the toilet! To celebrate we went to McDonalds for lunch! (his last mini-milestone). At this point he'd been accident free for about 4 days and we were SO EXCITED!! We now have a calendar where we're tracking accident free days. 5 days on this calendar and we'll go get new underwear! But I am so convinced that we're through with this that I called the pre-school this week and got his registration packet! I can't believe we've made it! It only took a YEAR and seeing SPECIALISTS but he's doing FABULOUS!!

KAITLYN:
Late last year we had a family friend (an 8 year old boy) die of cancer. For months our family followed his illness and prayed for them--in fact hardly a day goes by that we don't pray for his family to be comforted. So fast foward that to January when Kaitlyn AGAIN was asking to cut her hair short like the cute "bobs" so many of her friends have. Her hair was so long and is so GORGEOUS that I started talking to her about donating her hair.

We talked about Peyton and that sometimes the medicine for cancer can make you so sick you lose your hair and that would be REALLY HARD and even embarrassing to lose your hair and we could donate it. She LOVED the idea and we committed to growing it out until spring when it would be long enough to donate.

This last FRIDAY was THE DAY!!
She was SUPER excited (I however was having a harder time with this than she was but I didn't let on--she's ALWAYS had long beautiful hair and I was trying to imagine it short, worried she wouldn't like it and be upset, and it was such a big change) We thought about how nice it will be to be short and low maintenance for the summer, and it is just hair and totally grows back......

Here she is after the big chop!! Her hair was so thick we did it in 2 ponytails--maybe 2 kids can benefit right?
And here is the AFTER shots! She looks so grown up--and so darn cute--and SHE LOVES IT!!

For those who are interested, the charity we chose was Children with Hairloss (www.childrenwithhairloss.com) who donate hair just to kids and only needed 8 inches in order to donate. Some require up to 12 inches!! And Kaitlyn REALLY wanted her hair to go to a child not an adult. This one fit our needs perfectly!!