Owl Blanket Project: Five Months

Little Miss Elli Dew is five months old today! And boy is she a cutie! Look at my little ham...

 Not only did she pose for the picture above, but she kept turning out adorable moments.

 One of her new favorite toys...a toy that is always within reach...

Elli does like reaching out for toys, faces, books, earrings (ouch), hair (ouch) and iPhones (whoops). Here she is grabbing and hugging her dolly. 

Some other new milestones are:
-She is the ROLLY POLLY ELLI! She has mastered the barrel roll, which means she can move across a room within minutes.
-She is stable enough for extended time in the exersaucer. The older girls love playing with her during this time.
-She is still sleeping about 12 hours straight at night, however she has moved her bedtime up to 5ish, which means this momma gets up early these days.
-She is very distracted while nursing now, other words she is very aware of the world around her and doesn't want to miss out.
-Speaking of awareness, she stares me down when we eat now. She watches the food go from the plate to our mouth. And boy does she have the glare down to make this momma feel guilty. One more month baby girl and you can join us for dinner.
-Elli's talking lately has become singing...this video will do the talking

-She weighs about 15 pounds and is 26.5" long. Her growing has slowed down a little bit, I feel like.

I am really having a great time with Elli lately. She is constantly sending smiles my way and I just can't get enough of them! I love you Elliot!

"They're Changing"

I have to record this Orthnerism that happened tonight at bedtime that had all of us rolling...

After the girls were put to bed, Reese comes out boo-hooing. She fell off her bed and her head hurt. After being asked where is hurt, she states all over. After some consoling, I get a flashlight out to check her pupils to rule out a concussion. So lying on her bed, Karl looking at her pupils while I move the light over her eyes. Karl says "Yea, Christy, they are changing!"

Reese starts crying again... "But I like hazel!"

Reesey Poo, I am glad you love of the color of your eyes!

Time for a Reset

I know all kids go through rough phases. At first I felt as though I had two kids going through phases at the same time. Was it school starting? Adjustment to baby? Impending move? All of the above combined into one? Either way, the cause aside, this wasn't a phase, we have consistent bratty behavior on our hands that NEEDS to be corrected asap. Minor triggers would cause catastrophe. Appreciation of the good in their lives had gone out the windows. 

On Monday morning, both girls had a major tantrum, one over clothes the other over having to give Elli her goodbye kiss second. It was time for major mommy intervention. While the girls were at school, I got to work. Almost all the toys are packed away. Clothes are put away so that their wardrobe contains less then 10 outfits a piece. Not even the bath has any toys.  

Thank goodness for the extra bedroom so that I have a place to lock up all the toys. 

So I have a Good Behavior chart posted on the fridge. We are focusing on the positive here. There are five bullets for the girls:

     ·    Happily share with your sisters

·    Listen to parents the first time

·    Use manners: please, thank you, excuse me

·    Use happy voice when asking for something

·    Help out around the house 

If they have good behavior all day they will have a toy and outfit returned to them. 

Now if I feel the kids are heading towards bad behavior, I kindly take their hand and read the good behavior chart, emphasizing the bullet that needs work. 

Brady loves these new boundaries. She ran around showing Karl the empty house when he got home from work Monday. Today, she said "Mommy,  I love earning my toys, this is so fun!" Reese on the other hand is trying to figure out how strong those boundaries are. She needs the chart read to her about 5 times a day but she corrects the behavior easily after reading the bullets. We have not have a single tantrum since this was implemented two days ago. I know you are thinking that is not that long, but considering their behavior before then, I am sure we are making progress. 

Hopefully we are back to the sweet behaved girls that I so often brag about. 

As a side note, I love seeing the girls use their imagination with the few toys they have access to.

Video Clips

I am proud of my girls and the growth socially, physically and mentally that is happening at school. 

Here is a few clips to enjoy:

Reese out of nowhere has been really picking up on her German. I have not a clue how accurate this is, but I believe she is counting up to 29 (with some numbers skipped) in this video.

Brady has been working on the monkey bars ever since she started at that school. They have a low set that Reese can reach while standing on the ground to practice on. Then as the kids get older they learn on the big monkey bars. In September Brady was so excited because she could go across two bars. Well look at her now...

Reflection of Friendship

A little over a week ago, I had the privilege of throwing a shower for my bestie from college, Kristen. I didn't hesitate to buy a plane ticket and head north to celebrate this new momma of two.  Our group of eight have now officially thrown a shower for eight weddings and eight new arrivals (however sometimes they come in twos). 

This lovely group of ladies are the moms of a total of sixteen kids with three more to come, that includes three sets of twins. Another interesting fact of the 16 kids, 12 are girls! Did Meredith College do something to us when we graduated to generate the next generation of Angels?

I was lucky in college to have two sets of really great friends. There was my amazing ladies at Meredith College. However, I also had my fantastic set of friends at N. C. State. This group consisted of my sister, some of our high school friends and then a few new recruits. This group was about eight to ten people large as well.  Here is the funny part, of this group only four are married...me, my husband, my sister and one other. And only two have kids, me and my husband.

When I thought about this one day, I honestly started laughing. When I was in college I was very defensive about what people would say about the all womens' college I regarded with high standards. "Marriage farm" "are you getting your MRS degree?" etc etc. Well, I guess I know now why people say that. My thoughts just zoom off from here, but instead of dispensing them to you, I will let your thoughts zoom off too; hopefully to a positive place.

I love my Meredith girls and all that we have become and I love my wolfpack and the adventures they have all partaken.

Show and Telli

Yep, shall I write show and tELLI. I always like to post about the girls when they get to be leader of the day at school. This is a responsibility the girls do not take lightly. Shopping for snack, picking out a the right outfit, deciding what to bring to show and tell so that their friends will be in awe; this is all serious stuff. However, lately what to bring to show and tell has been an easy decision...a baby!

I love that the girls are so proud of Elli that they want to share her with their class. It works out that she is on display about once a month. The teacher discusses the new milestones for her age as the kids watch and ask questions. On Friday, Elli even showed off her latest move, the barrel roll!

I just love the bonds I have with my siblings and love even more that my kids love each other just as much.

 Showing off her neck exercises

 This right here is pride and pure love all mixed into a three year old.

A funny side note: When Reese was leader of the day, Brady was on her third day of missing school for a fever. So that I could be in the room so help Reese show Elli, they allowed Brady to sit in the loft. She looks so pitiful over there. 

Halloween's Past

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Playing Hookie

So my poor Brady girl keeps spiking a fever at dinner time for the last three nights. She is fine all day (constant checking tells me so) with no symptoms and then BAM at 5:00 spikes to 102 fever. School rules (and common etiquette) state that she must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. So essentially during the day she feels fine but has to play hookie. So today we decided to make the most of it.

Let's start off with a lunch date (alfresco) with Daddy on base! I am quite pumped about how adorable this quick picture turned out.

So next I asked the girls if they wanted to go to the park or the beach next. Don't look at the picture below to guess their response...they wanted to go to the park. We headed over to the base park, only to be told they would get 10 minutes of play because they were about to spray the sand with chemicals to kill the grass growing. So we walked to the beach to "just play with the sand". Well, just playing with the sand led to "mommy, can we just put our feet in the water" then to "why can you get so much deeper without your pants getting wet mommy?" to my statement "well, there is no one else on this beach so lets break our modesty rules" I will say I felt rather European...or Russian (thinking back to St. Petersburg and kids of all ages stripping to play in public fountains).

They had a blast, the outside weather was 80 degrees but I am pretty sure the water was just as warm!

Elli hung out in her stroller. Her daily antibiotics make her vulnerable to the sun, so she just enjoyed the breeze. See her on the walkway?!?!?!

What a fun day of playing hookie! Why not make the most of a unpredictable fever and living in a state that has only two seasons: 11.5 months of summer and 2 weeks of winter.