4 months

Elle turned 4 months this past week!

She is truly beginning to let her personality shine! When she is happy, she is truly delightful. She will coo and smile and talk to you non-stop, and you just want to hold her and chat, and kiss those chubby cheeks! When she is mad, she is MAD! Her whole body stiffens right up and she screams, and screams and SCREAMS!

She still continues her physical therapy and is showing improvement. There is hope that her torticolus will not still be evident in her first grade pictures!

She is starting to get chubby! She has packed on the weight this past month. Not sure if its just because she’s been healthy for a long stretch now, the extra bottles of formula, or that she is just growing and getting older, and I need to accept she is no longer a newborn :)

She already loves to watch tv with Dyl!

Some thoughts @ 4 mos....

*15 lbs.

*26 3/4" long

*She is still not sleeping through the night. Most nights we put her down @ 11ish and she is back up again by 2:00am. I feed her, because she doesn't want to take her pacifier, and she goes back to sleep. Tim and I have realized that she just needs to cry it out for a bit. This is not so easy when she is in our room. So, we tried this...

...and that lasted for one night and one nap, before I realized I don't have the energy for her to be in a bed yet. The smile in this photo was captured before she realized that this bed was not a new toy, but actually the place where she would indeed need to sleep. Tim has now set the crib up in Sydneys room, and they share. So far it's going okay....I won't commit to great yet :) Elle has her own room now, and wouldn't you know it, she's made it through 1 night now just having her pacifier put back in! Amazing!

*She loves to lay under her mobile in the cradle. She gets all excited and talks to the butterflys. She also loves to lay on the ground and watch the tv as the kids play the Wii.

*She is still on the soy, and usually takes 4-6 oz. bottles. She still spits up a ton, but is growing nicely :)

*She has started sitting in her bumbo. It doesn't last long, because she stiffens up and trys to get out of it.

*LOVES to be held facing out. She must see everything that is going on, and I think it feels good on her stomach.

*This past month she sadly lost all of that "newbornishness" about her. Makes me sad, but the kids love it! I am always hearing one of them shout something like "MOM!!! Elles just touched her toy!" or "MOM!!!! Elles just said Dylan!" Yes, some of her accomplishements are a stretch :)

a night with dad

Once again, Tim escorted Sydney to the father/daughter banquet put on by a local Christian radio station. Meredith Andrews was the entertainment, and much to Sydneys delight there was dancing this year! They both had a blast.

Syd had been counting down the days to their date for weeks. As I was helping her get ready, she told me she wished she had all brothers... so she wouldn't have to share her daddy with her sisters in a few years at these banquets :)

my kids, 3 mos

When people meet El, I can count on hearing "Oh, she's definately one of yours"

Indeed she is.

Well, my scanner happened to be sitting out on my desk.....and was appealing to me way more than the laundry pile that never seems to go away, so I set out on a mission to figure out what "brand" of ours she really is.

She reminds me a great deal of Austin as a baby.....the combination of her blue eyes, sleeping habits, volume of spit, and temperment. Perhaps a lot of it is also similarity in season. I can remember sitting in the recliner with Austin @ 3am watching the Salt Lake City winter Olympics, wondering why this child of mine refused to sleep when you put him down. Fastforward 8 years, same time, same recliner, only in Vancouver this round :)

Some 3 month pics .....

Ellery

Austin

Sydney

Dylan

Stella

16 more days til spring!

birthday bling

This little gal has been asking to get her ears pierced since she learned to form sentences. My response has always been "When you get older".

Well, for her birthday this year she asked if we could go to Build a Bear ...because after all that's where I took Austin when he turned 7. I thought about it, and as much as I wanted another useless stuffed animal lying around the house, we decided she has proven herself responsible enough to have her ears pierced. She was THRILLED!

So, last Saturday we made the trip to Claires just the 2 of us. She picked out little blue flowers. Had I known when she picked those out that she would insist on wearing blue EVERY DAY to match her ears, I would have persuaded her differently :)

Because there was only one girl working the store, she had to pierce her ears one at a time. She did great! Her eyes got real wide and her cheeks red, but she didn't cry. Her quote afterwords when I asked if it hurt..."No, I thought about crying but I didn't".

So far she's doing great with them. She asks me daily to remind her when 6 weeks is up so she can change them, and would clean them every 5 minutes if I would let her.

3 months

El turned 3 months this week!

This past month has been a LONG one. We have had at least 1 sick kid for the past 6 weeks! On one particularly long week near the end of January all 5 were sick in the same week.

Remember last month when I boasted that Ellery slept through the night 3 times? Well those were the only 3 times, but we are once again on the upswing I think. Only Ellery owns the 3:00am hour now .... no leaving her to cry in order to go tend to the other cryer. LOL


During this past month Ellery has had her first ear infection, first case of thrush, and first bout of pneumonia! Her chest x-ray today confirmed all the pneumonia is now gone. Poor baby is back to just having a plugged up nose, and we pray it stays that way. I think we've permanently enlarged her nostrils with the big blue booger sucker!


She has also begun seeing a physical therapist for the muscle on the right side of her neck. The official term for it is torticollus. She is doing well with the excercises and showing a lot of improvement. See picture below.... you might mistake it for a cute pose, but it's not :)


Some stats at 3 months.....


*12lbs 6oz.

*smiling and cooing all the time. I love this age!

*still nursing but takes a bottle of soy in the evening.

*starting to get better about taking naps for longer than 20 minutes. Goes down around 10pm, gets up 1 time, we fall asleep together on the recliner, wakes up again around 5 , and I usually get her back down again before I get the kids up for school....a tricky time of day because I never know where to put her! LOL . She often cries a bit while falling asleep, and Dylan has snuck into our bed and is back sleeping again by this point, so I dont' want to wake him.

*Sydney can get her to laugh. She's laughed for me 1 time....while sitting in her swing watching me hula hoop on the wii... ha ha.

*She loves the kids, and they adore her! When she is laying on the ground we are supposed to stimulate her on the right side, because it forces her to straigten her neck. The kids love to lay on the ground and talk to her and shake toys in her face... especially since they know it is helping her.


*She enjoys sitting in her swing, laying in her cradle and looking at her mobile, standing up in your lap talking to you, and being carted around by the kids :)

*She is happy! When she is not in pain or fighting sleep, she is so happy! She will sit and smile and coo and talk to you. It is so cute! We love you Els!

seven

Sydney turned 7 this week!

This picture makes me smile. Last week she got all dressed up in my stuff and said "Look mom, I'm you walking to the bus stop!" Pretty accurate minus the purse.


Some thoughts on Syd at 7...

*She is the other mom. She is a huge help, and really enjoys holding and playing with Stella and
Ellery.
*She loves to play/create with Dylan. They are 2 peas in a pod when it comes to crafting, scheming, building stuff and the likes.
*At 7, she is outgrowing all things pink and would like her room to be blue please.
*She is starting to outgrow wearing dresses, and has begun wearing jeans for the first time in her life....so sad.
*She is still very responsible and loving towards her hampster April.
*She LOVES to craft.
*She loves playing with her faux American Girl doll, Lexi.
*At school she loves music and art....not fond of reading, writing or math- especially nickels and dimes :)
*She still loves to dance with her daddy.....but is learning to share him, because a certain 2 year old does as well.



I could go on and on. Sydney you are a beautiful blessing from God. We love you! Happy Birthday!


We had a combined little party for these 2. Stella was a bit miffed with her cake and wouldn't look at the camera.


Because her birthday fell over winter break this year, she was able to enjoy her first sleepover with friends. It went well!

playing musical chairs

all lined up for Simon Says

playing pin the butterfly on the flower