Ellie at 11 Months

The next time I make a monthly post, you will be 1 year old!  I'm not ready for you to be a big girl yet!

This month you have discovered that you can talk on the phone too!  You love to hold the phone to your ear, and when we asked you to "call Chloe" (your friend), you like to show off your favorite trick.

You are teething like crazy!  Just today at the store you took a bite out of the macaroni and cheese box.  You have to put EVERYTHING in your mouth, and your brother and sister often forget to get their small things off the floor which gives Mommy and Daddy a heart attack at times.

You are Miss Social and love being out and about.  You like watching new people and exploring new places.  Your new thing is to scream at the top of your lungs to get everyone's attention.  You're starting to understand that you have to get loud sometimes to be heard in this family.

You have started standing up on your own.  We always clap when you stand up, so now you are trying to stand and clap at the same time which doesn't always seem to work out.  We are soaking up every second of this month before you turn one!

Happy 6th Birthday Hannah!

Dear Hannah,

How is it possible that you are already 6 years old?  This past year has been a year of change for you.  Ellie was born, we moved to a new house, and you started kindergarten at Mommy’s school.  We’re very excited to see what this year will bring for you now that things are slowing down around our house. 

Your dream of learning to read has finally come true.  With the help of your wonderful kindergarten teacher, you are able to read chapter books!  We could never have dreamed that you would be doing this so soon, but our hearts swell with pride when we put you to bed each night and watch you turn on your reading light so you can catch up in your book.  You have always loved books, but now that you are a reader it seems that you can’t get enough to read.  I know this summer will be filled with weekly trips to the library.  Not only do you read to yourself, you have been taking the time to read to Ben and Ellie.  It’s so special to watch you use your gift to entertain your brother and sister.

You have also become quite the writer.  After a guest reader came to your classroom and explained to the class that you too can write stories, you have decided that you want to be a famous author.  You write lots of stories about a mouse and her adventures.  I can tell that you use your real life adventures to inspire your writing!

You have spent a lot of time playing with the neighborhood kids.  You love to be outside and hanging out with the older crew.  You always remember to include your brother and you make sure that he is following the rules.  You have also started getting into sports this year.  You played on the school basketball team and you were the goalie on the soccer team. 

Hannah we wake up every day knowing how blessed we are to have a daughter like you.  You have been the light of our lives for the past 6 years, and we fall in love with you more and more every single day.  Happy Birthday Goose!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy 

Ellie at 10 1/2 Months

I think I'm giving up trying to hit the one month mark.  April has been beyond busy.  We've been running around with soccer, spring break, my nonbiological kids' (my students) big test, movie night, birthday parties....I'm worn out from this month!  Ellie remains the most calm baby we've ever known.  She is carted around all over town with us and she rarely makes a peep.

She is really starting to LOVE playing with her brother and sister.  She follows them to the playroom, and when they give her their undivided attention, she is over the moon.  Hannah plays puppets with her and she laughs so hard.  It is absolutely adorable.

She has learned that yelling MAMAMAMAMAMA when she's hungry will get her the food she is interested in.  She eats just about anything we attempt to feed her.  She will eat table food and baby food.  I think she likes feeling like a big kid when she gets to eat some of our dinner.  She is also starting to act like more of a big kid by standing up!  She is pulling up on EVERYTHING.  She hasn't figured out the cruising yet, but she stands up and looks around, drops back down on her bottom, and crawls away at full speed.  She is also very sneaky and has figured out the stairs.  I think it's safe to say we are ALL in love! (even Ben 90% of the time!)

Ellie at 9 1/2 months....

I can't seem to get myself on track with Ellie's monthly postings.  Poor Ellie doesn't have a baby book, so my hope is to have these monthly posts bound into a book for her to look back on when she's grown.  She went to the doctor last month and is weighing in at 21 pounds 15 ounces (92nd percentile) and she is 28 1/4 inches long (74th percentile).  She is growing so fast.  She has already started wearing Hannah's 12 - 18 month size clothes.  Right around the time she turned 9 months old, she finally got her two front bottom teeth and she started crawling.

It seemed that Ellie went from not crawling to being the most speedy crawler in about 2 days time.  She is EVERYWHERE now.  Ben is not appreciating her being able to get his toys and papers, and it's almost like Ellie has a radar for Ben's things and she works very hard to get to them.

She is a very stubborn little person and will do just about anything to get to something she wants.  She LOVES to get into wires and electronics.  My phone is her absolute favorite thing to mess with.  She had her first tantrum a few mornings ago.  She did not want to take a nap for Mommy.  She did everything shy of jumping out of her crib to let me know that she was not a happy girl.  This is very out of character for her.  She is usually so calm and goes down for a nap with little to no fight at all.

Ellie's personality seems to bloom more everyday.  She loves to be outside and she will sit for hours in the wagon just watching the neighborhood kids play.  We can take her anywhere with us because she is such a sweet baby.  It is very rare to hear her cry.  She loves getting attention from Mommy and Daddy.  She has the most ticklish tummy and we love making her laugh.  She has started eating finger foods, and will eat pretty much anything we give her.  She loves dancing and she seems to have octopus arms with the way she grabs everything around her.  We are so in love with this baby girl.

Interview with Ben on his 3rd Birthday

Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Sport: Soccer
Favorite TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Coolest Person in the World: Ellie
Favorite Thing About School: ABCs
If you could go on a trip anywhere, it would be: playground
Favorite Color: red
What do you want to be when you grow up?: doctor
Favorite Song: Scooby Doo (theme song)
Favorite Book: Wheels on the Go
When I was little, I used to: cry
Favorite Season: winter
Favorite Snack: Scooby Snacks
Best Friend: Harrison

Ben's Party

Ben had a wonderful 3^rd birthday party.  We are so grateful to Gigi, Nana, and Mrs. Shaniqua for their help with the food.  Ben absolutely had the best time!  He was such the little host and greeted all his friends and gave them each party hats to wear.  It was adorable.  He let his friends play with his new train table in his room, and they all had a blast playing on the play set in our yard.

We had a pinata and the kids enjoyed collecting all the candy. Ben got loads of presents and he did a pretty decent job of saying thank you to all of his friends.

This was the first party that he was able to have all of his friends attend. All of his best buddies from Mrs. Gloria's house came to help him celebrate his special day.

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Ben!

Dear Ben,

I can’t believe you are already 3 years old!  The days leading up to your birthday have been so much fun because you really understand what is happening this year.  You were beyond excited that Mommy and Daddy surprised you with a train table.  Your sisters gave you your own scooter this morning.  Hopefully you will be able to keep up with the neighborhood kids now!

2 years old has been a busy year for you.  Your speech really took off this year, and you went from barely saying anything, to speaking in full sentences.  I was so worried that you weren’t talking, and now I can’t seem to get you to stop talking.  You have also mastered potty training this year.  We had a rough start, but once you understood the idea you did wonderful.  You became a big brother this year.  You adore your sisters.  They are so lucky to have a brother like you in their life.  You and Hannah play together all the time.  It’s rare to find one of you without the other.  You love to tag along with her and play with the big kids.  You occasionally get on each other’s nerves, but for the most part, you seem to get along very well.  You are Ellie’s biggest fan.  You love to watch her on the monitor, and your favorite thing to do is wake her up from her nap and turn off her sound machine.  You tend to love on her a bit too much sometimes, but I think as she gets older she will be able to hold her own with you.  I pray that you and your sisters remain close as you grow older. 

At 2 years old, you can be a very demanding little boy.  You tend to want things immediately and will not stop until you get things done to your standards.  Although it can be difficult to negotiate with you at times, I know this quality will suit you well as an adult.  You LOVE to read.  You crack us up with your renditions of “Wishy Washy” and “Green and Eggs and Ham”.  We find you several times a week in our “library” reading books to yourself.  You are also an excellent puzzle solver.  You love to build your ABC puzzles, and could spend countless hours at Aunt Betty’s house catching the fish on her magnet puzzle.  You enjoy taking the pieces and creating characters so they can talk to each other.  Each of your dinosaurs is named after a member of our family.  Even Auntie Ashton’s mom, Mrs. Pam, has a dinosaur named after her.

I’m so excited to see what this year will bring!  I know you are going to continue to keep us laughing every single day.  Not a day goes by that Ben doesn’t do something that has us all hysterical.  You are an amazing boy and I feel so blessed to be your momma.  You teach me new things every single day, and I love exploring the world through your eyes.  You mean so much to me, and not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for blessing us with you.   You will always be our baby that was an answer to our prayers.  We love you Ben bear!  Happy Birthday, little man.

 Love,

Mommy

My Lobster

Ben is SO excited to show off his lobster hat that he made today.

He made this hat today at "school" and he is VERY proud of it.  He had me take about 15 pictures of him wearing the hat at all different angles.

Hannah had soccer practice tonight, so I got to spend time with my two little guys.  Ben helped me make Ellie's dinner and he fed her the first few bites.  I decided that him yelling, "Eat it Ellie!!" while shoving the spoon in her face and slamming it against her cheek and nose was not the best way to feed the baby.

Ben was telling me all about his day over dinner.  The theme this month is the ocean and they have been doing puppet shows with ocean animal puppets.  He told me that he got to be the orange whale and the red sea "horsie".  He then tells me what all of the other kids used for their puppets.  He never fails to put a smile on my face!

SO proud...

At the end of January, it was announced that Hannah had the most Accelerated Reader points in the kindergarten!  We are beyond proud of her.  She is a fantastic reader, and she really likes reading nonfiction books and learning about new things.  We have learned all about bucket trucks, motorcycles, the water cycle, and cows.  I find it hilarious the books she chooses to read.  She is starting to read chapter books, and we have to make sure we check back in her room after bed time because she is often reading after lights out.  She reads to both her brother and sister, and Ben is beyond jealous that Hannah can read all by herself.

Ellie at 8 Months

I'm so very far behind.  Ellie is actually 8 1/2 months old now, but we have been very very busy.  Ellie remains the sweetest baby in the whole world.  The only time she cries is when she sees her brother coming toward her.  He has a habit of laying on top of her and smushing her, and she's realized that if she cries before he gets to her, someone will usually rescue her in time.  She has started moving around, but not yet crawling.  She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth, occasionally moves backwards, but never forward.  She seems to get where she needs to go though!

She loves to go after my phone.  If she could chew on the case all day long, I think she would do it.  She is also a rascal around the remote.  She will do anything in her power to get her hands on the remote, and then she loves to change the station. 

Ellie has been sitting with us at church on Sunday mornings.  She loves to look at all the people around us, and when the choir starts singing, she falls asleep.  She FINALLY has some teeth.  Her bottom two teeth came in almost at the same time last Wednesday.

Ellie REALLY loves to munch on her puffs.  They are becoming her favorite snack! 

It has been a crazy month!  I've had to abandon the 365 project which makes me very sad.  With Hannah doing basketball and now soccer, and having a broken foot, I needed to let something go and that happened to be it.  I'm still taking lots of pictures and hopefully I can get my act together a post more often!

A Bit Behind

We had a super busy weekend.  We started with the Chili Cookoff/Bingo night.  Hannah and Jay were big winners!!  The next night we hung out with one of Ben's bestest friends.  It was a great night with friends, and we had a blast.  On Sunday I got to babysit my puppy niece.  We're pretty sure that Hannah's got Fifth's Disease, and Ellie has been having issues with a partially blocked tear duct.  Needless to say, I'm exhausted and need another weekend!  Here is my 365 project for the past 10 days or so....

1/14 Ellie at Sophia's Birthday Party

1/15 She's starting to hold her own bottle...yay!!

1/16 Breakfast for dinner!

1/17 Hannah showing Ellie how to play with "the project"

1/18 Mr. Quackers (Ellie's version of blue bear/lovey)

1/19 Ellie and I always seem to fall asleep together at the end of the night

1/20 My VERY handsome husband

1/21 Daddy playing with his kiddos

1/22 My sweet niece Elle (Hannah and I made a bed for her in the laundry basket)



1/23 Playing with is favorite car



1/24 She head-butted the spoon