Pixie Dust under the pillow

On Tuesday morning, Brady woke up and her tooth looked like this...

We tried to convince her to let us pull in, but she SWORE it was still not ready! She wouldn't let us touch it, but she just kept playing with it with her tongue. Sure enough about two minutes after I snapped the above picture, there was the tooth sitting on her tongue. She immediately (at 6:30 am) got into a giggly fit. Pure joy and elation as she ran around the house giggling, wanting so badly for Reese to be awake to show her. Look at just how happy she was...still brings tears to my eyes!

I recorded the video below about five minutes after she lost the tooth. She can see just how giddy she was. The laugh she does at about 18 seconds into the video is what she spent the first 5 minutes doing non-stop. 

She placed the tooth in the trinket box Karl bought from Bahrain so that it wouldn't get lost during the day.

She had to wait all day for night time so that the tooth fairy could come. After school she even checked under her pillow to see if the tooth-fairy might have come during the day. She was more giddy going to bed then she has ever been on Christmas Eve. 

Guess what the tooth fairy delivered...a dollar covered in pixie dust! The pixie dust also got all over Brady's pillow and sheets...oh my!

Owl Blanket: Month Four

Today Elli celebrated her fourth month anniversary! It is funny because it seems like May 24th was so so long ago, but at the same time it has flown by...make sense?

Each month (except the first) I have tried to place Elli's bottom in the same place to reference how much higher her head is. This month there was a huge jump in height!

There is a reason she looks so much bigger...she has gained about a pound and a half, to be well over 14 1/2 pounds (75th%ile) and grew 1.25" coming in at 25.75" (90th%ile). I love seeing babies grow so well on 'momma's milk'!

Not only has she grown bunches but she recently hit a lot of milestones!

 -She started laughing! I just love baby giggles.

-She has found her toes, especially when she is lying on the diaper table.

-I am pretty sure I feel molars trying to poke through in the back. She loves chewing and her fingers and sticks them way back in her mouth. Also, look at all the drool on her onesie in the picture above...enough said!

-Within the last week, I have noticed her rubbing her eyes when she is tired.

- Also, within the last week, Elliot has decided that she wants to hold her head up. She was being stubborn about this for a long time and then all of a sudden she decided she knows how to use her muscles. 

-She also reaches out for toys that are around her and tracks them with her eyes in all directions.

-Lastly, she is my first child that loves a blankie! I think it is so sweet... Luckily she loves the Aden and Anais blankets that are very light and she can breath through if they cover her face. 

Happy 4th month birthday, Elli Girl! I love you and can't wait to see what you have in store for us next!

Spotlight on Elliot

Elli Dew is becoming a very sweet baby. I used to say she was my hardest baby, but that is no longer true at all. Now that she is able to self sooth with the thumb and blankie, she is a much happier baby. Let her have her thumb and place a blankie in her other hand and she is set!

Elli is laughing now. She has laughed in response to almost all of us now. I love my Elliot laughs.

Elli is the sleeping champ these days. She averages about 12 hours a night without waking up at all. She goes to bed at 6:45 and doesn't usually make a sound until I need to nurse her to get ready to leave for school. Yes, you read that right, I normally have to wake her up in the mornings. Just the other day, I woke her up after 14 hours of sleep so that we could leave for Reese's soccer game...crazy I know.


Elli, I eagerly await to see your personality shine through. Are you going to be the typical 'baby' of the family? Are you going to be a momma's girl or a daddy's girl? Thank you for being a great baby! I am smitten with you. I love that even when your sisters are smothering you, you only have smiles to share with them; you never complain about their desire to love on you all the time. I love you, Elli Dew.

Spotlight on Reese

Reese is our easy going comedian. She has the natural ability to make us laugh without even trying. She will make faces or say things that just has me rolling. For example, just tonight, she comes out from her bedroom and says "I need a band-aid right here (pointing to her upper arm),, Brady almost bit me!"

I recently asked Reese's school teacher how she was doing since we have had listening issues at home. Her teacher said she is doing great but runs on her own clock. All I could think was, if you only really knew. Reese knows how to make a 30 second task take 15 minutes. After she goes potty, she will just sit there and stare into space for five minutes. I wish I knew what she was thinking when she does all that! I bet it is pretty interesting...

I also love watching Reese dance to music. Her smile as she floats across the floor is so contagious. She gets into her own world and just loves life, which makes me seize the moment.

Reese has a great interest in board games these days. She is a natural at board games. In Guess Who, she is able to ask the correct questions to whittle down the crowd. In memory (when she is attentive), she can honestly win the game. But all the while, she isn't in it to win, she enjoys the act of playing. I love that about her. It is about the journey not the destination.

Reese, you are my middle daughter. I think you are perfectly sandwiched. You are the peanut butter in the Orthner sandwich. You have always loved the peanut butter more then the bread, therefore I think it is the perfect spot for you. You know how to play the games that Brady makes up for you, and share selflessly like none other. But at the same time, you are great at being role model for Elliot and looking out for her whenever you can. You are the best big/little sister ever. My wish for you is that you continue to love being the 'lucky' one that gets to have an older and younger sister. Thanks for all the smiles, Beautiful!

Spotlight on Brady

Tonight I want to dedicate a post to just Brady (yes, Reese and Elliot are to follow).

Brady started Kindergarten four weeks ago. I have already seen tons of growth in her. Going to school over six hours a day really does make a difference. She is able to retain the foreign languages she is learning; sign language, German and Spanish. She is more interested in vocabulary, constantly asking what words mean to confirm her definition from context.

I have also loved watching her grow in gymnastics. When she started in dance she was a natural talent. She has a natural ballet line and picked up right away. With gymnastics, she is in a 5 and 6 year old class, with girls that have already taken for a year or two. She is not a natural. She has been practicing all over the house though. Within three weeks, she can now do a bridge and is pretty close to a cart wheel. She is becoming quite the dare devil; climbing up to the top of sofas and jumping off or...

We have also watched her love of reading develop. She has a HUGE interest in chapter books being read to her. She is also able to summarize at the end of the chapter accurately in 4-5 sentences. We currently have an American Girl compilation book of 6 novels. She is determined to finish the whole thing before we have to return it 3 weeks later.

Here is a recent funny story that really demonstrates her personality. Karl and Reese were at soccer. Elli was sleeping and I was cooking dinner. Brady entertaining herself outside, digs up dirt and wants to plant seeds.

I provide her with some seeds and she states she needs to make a calendar chart to remind herself to water the seeds everyday. Using her monthly calendar she writes Sunday through Saturday on a piece of paper. She shows me and states that she messed up on the W for Wednesday. I assure her that we can still understand what it says. We work on creating a chart together. She wants a stapler to complete the chart so I give her one and then finish my chores. This is what I come up to next...

She taped it to the sliding glass door and everything. I was wondering why the handwriting paper got added but didn't think much about it. Then I realized it is Brady and she does everything for a reason. Since she messed up her W, she attached the W handwriting paper so that she can practice her Ws every time she waters! She is her father's child!

Brady, I love you for your beauty inside and out. You are my big helper with perseverance like none other. I love that the times I have to 'get on' you about something, it is because you are trying to help out too much! I love that you have a deep sense of who you want to be. I hope that you keep all these personality traits. You are going places!

A Night Full of Laughter

We started our Friday Family Game Nights. The first night was a HUGE success. We were able to successfully introduce a couple new, but classic, games to the girls this week: Bingo, Go Fish and Guess Who.

When you are in Florida you have to play bingo...especially using dabbers (for you BINGO novices, that is the dot markers that are like a giant marker that you use on disposable board). And don't you know we have a cage to mix up our number balls too.

 Go Fish was a bigger success then we thought possible, the girls were able to hold their cards and easily understood the concept and even developed basic strategy.

 The always competitive Karl taking advantage of the photo op ;)

 The girls just loved the way Karl told them to "GO FISH"

 One of my all time favorites as a kid was Guess Who.

Elli Dew sat in her bouncy chair the entire time and just enjoyed the family laughter while using two hands to suck her thumb. 

Now I said it was a night full of laughter...that is because after the games were cleaned up and the girls were in the shower, Elli laughed for the first time! It must have been her observing all the laughing we were doing while playing the games.

So I was giving her her nightly antibiotics, which is a two person job. Someone has to hold her at a certain angel so she doesn't choke, someone has to slowly squirt it in her mouth and then someone has to wipe the medicine she spits out. Well, I asked Karl to be on wiping duty. For some reason tonight she was actually swallowing all the meds. Karl said to her "You didn't need me to be on wiping duty" in a fun daddy to baby voice and she laughed at him! Karl has never been home for the first laugh so not only was he here but he 'caused' it! YAH! I think she is going to be a daddy's girl!

What a great night we had as a family of wholesome fun 

Rain Dance

My girls, as many of you know, do not really like to play outside. At least when they are at home.

You may also know that we were skirted by Hurricane Issac last week. Well, on the expected landfall day we had mainly sunny skies...with school cancelled for three days. The girls didn't go outside to play in the sun at all. But mid afternoon the rain starts and then they ask to play outside!

Always posing for the camera!

 The scatter to come in when the sideways rain started

 Now Reese's turn... talking to Brady through their bedroom window.

So now they can say they have played in a hurricane...not even sure i can say that!