Ellie drinking

Merry Christmas!

October 2013

October always seems to be a busy month. But we had beautiful weather, so that makes it all that much better! Ian, Caleb, and Levi all played soccer. They had 2-4 games per week. They all seemed to enjoy playing. And thankfully most of their games turned out to be in nice-ish weather. Above freezing, at least :). Until the last game the grandparents came to.....that one was cold!

Ellie is, of course, surrounded by cars and trucks. She seems to like garbage trucks. She plays with them and likes to watch the real garbage truck out the window as much as her brothers do. She has really become a happy girl, she's talking a lot more and playing happily a lot more of the time. 

We had some really beautiful, sunny days. So John had some help cleaning out the rain gutters (too bad most of the leaves hadn't fallen yet).

Just a cute picture!

Caleb and Levi built bunk beds for their bears. I can't remember why the bear was wearing sun glasses to bed......

Since Levi and Caleb are being homeschooled this year, I got to take their school pictures!

Caleb

Levi

I'm working with Ellie on her eating, still. She's doing really well putting this brush-like thing in her mouth and closing her teeth down on it. Now I've got to get her to chew!

Weeks ago Caleb and Levi found some Halloween recipes in a cookbook and really wanted to make them. They were even more excited when they found out Grandma and Grandpa were going to be here for Halloween! This was their dessert, ghosts on broomsticks.

All dressed up, ready to trick or treat downtown Halloween afternoon. Levi was a builder, Ian a mad scientist, and Caleb an eye. He designed and made it himself!

And Ellie was a ladybug. I stuck her costume on her when we got downtown, hoping she wouldn't really notice she was wearing something different. I never let her see the antennae on the hat or she might not have worn it! She did really well for sitting in a stroller being walked around town in the cold wind, without even any reward of candy.

And Levi and Caleb's monster burgers! They wanted to make these so badly, but when it got right down to it, they don't like hamburger meat (although Levi did try it), they don't really like ham, and they don't like pickles, which was what the eyes were supposed to be. But they improvised with cheese and it all turned out yummy!

We had fun with grandparents here, they went trick or treating with us, and we took them to the cheese and ice cream factory. Mostly they helped us build shelves, rake leaves, and do dishes! It was very nice to visit with them.

Ian participated in a Monster Mash program at school. The fifth graders do this every year, I think he said this was the 26th annual show. They all dressed up in costumes and sang 6 songs, they performed at the school, then the retirement home, and then the mall. Most of the kids had some part in it, either behind the scenes or in the actual show. It turned out really nice. Ian had a great time.

Ian also has become the one in charge of raising the flags at the school flagpole every morning. He gets another boy to do it with him. We went and watched one morning, he did a great job!

Happy birthday, Ellie!

Daddy caught Ellie saying she is three. It didn't take her long to get her fingers right.

Ellie with her bear. She's not eating him, she's giving him a kiss :) (much better than last year when she screamed at the sight of him). When she was born, she was the size of this bear, only skinnier. I may have to add the picture of her then for comparison.

Ellie loves to swing! So we took her to the park for her birthday. Probably the only part of the birthday celebration that she liked.

I took three year old pictures of Ellie to hang on the wall, and this one, when she was done with getting her pictures taken, has one of the best smiles.

Judging from the picture, she had a great birthday! In reality, she didn't want to open any presents, although once Daddy opened them she liked her new stuffed friends, and took them to bed with her that night. She was blowing when she saw the candles, and was so happy to be sung to (that's what the picture is). Then she turned around and saw that the candles had been lit. That freaked her out, and when Daddy blew one out the smoke coming at her was even worse. I made cupcakes with Winnie the Pooh on them to entice her to want to at least touch it, but when I broke it apart she got rid of the decorated part really fast. She did feed me a few crumbs, but that's the extent of it. She's not much for birthdays.

We are so grateful to have Ellie as part of our family! I can't believe it's been three years, she's a fun little girl and most of the time she is happy and jumping around the house.

I don't know how to add a picture in the middle, but here is Ellie when she was three weeks old, but just back to her birth weight, her first picture with the bear. Yes, it's the same bear!

September 2013

Ellie has really been playing with her "friends" lately. Mostly stuffed animals, especially Winnie the Pooh characters, but also baby dolls and whatever else is stuffed and soft (notice the bunny, Web?). They are all sleeping. She got them all tucked into the blanket in various places.

Or, she lines them up while she "sleeps"!

Levi and Caleb made a circus. They had moved some of the things before I got the camera out. There were several contests, among which was a honey eating contest, a dog race, a tree sleeping contest (I wanted a picture of that one!), and a map reading contest.

School! Caleb is busy painting a map of our neighborhood.

Sometimes they practice math facts or spelling words on the computer. Ellie is really helpful when Levi is trying to answer his math facts quickly.

Do you think Levi will wake up with a black eye? (Not to worry, I moved Caleb's knee after I took the picture :).)

Ellie went on an eating strike in September. For about 5 days she only ate yogurt and a little bit of milk. Perhaps it had somewhat to do with wanting her independence? She will put foods in her mouth, especially flavorful ones like Cheetos or Doritos and licks the flavoring off. She also likes to eat ranch dressing (big surprise, knowing her brothers!). She started holding her own bottle (sometimes), taking more of her own drinks out of her straw cup, and feeding herself more of the time (yogurt, at least). Thankfully, I was able to get her back to eating more things and drinking a little bit more, so that she's no longer hollow feeling like she was there for a few days (it takes her about 10 minutes to lose weight, and months to gain it, it seems).

For some reason, she will "drink" the milk off a spoon after I've eaten cold cereal. This day she was lucky that the only cereal opened was a chocolatey kind, she had several sips of the chocolate (powdered) milk before she dumped it all over herself.

Ellie has also given up on naps. I still put her to bed at nap time, and she plays happily, but she only falls asleep once a week, if that. Unless she's downstairs and everyone leaves her and she spins herself to sleep.......

Sometimes school is a little tricky to fit around things like canning. I canned all the peaches and pears mostly in two days' time. One of those days was Labor Day, but the other day meant school happened on the kitchen floor while I peeled pears! But they're good sports about it.

Also, at the end of September, Ellie had a qualification assessment to see if she qualified for developmental preschool (since she's almost three!). Although her eating is at the level of an 8 month old (well, maybe a tiny bit higher after her independence streak when she started feeding herself some), her overall "self-care" score isn't very bad, since she scored above her age in other parts of that category. She had one other category that was low, but nothing was low enough to qualify her. She is behind other kids her age, but not significantly enough to need help, so we're thankful for that! She is talking more and more all the time, and playing more, so those are all good signs that she will continue to develop, even if it's not exactly on track for her age.