Thursday, February 10, 2011

Finally...

Ok, so I've finally gotten back to update the blog. No excuse is a good excuse, so I won't make one. I'll try to be more regular in posting, recording my thoughts, remembering funny things the girls have done, ect. but I'm not making any published statements on how often I'll post or else I know someone will ask me what's going on with the blog if I haven't written in the said amount of time. Oh, and pictures... they may take a while to get back up on the blog. You see, we had an incident with our laptop and a glass of red wine- enough said. Thankfully, we're able to borrow this computer, and once we have a new one of our own, I will provide an onslaught of pictures. Now to the fun part- the updating!

We welcomed our sweet little love, Meredith Sarai to our family on Thursday, December 9th. She shocked me with her speedy, early arrival, petite size, and amazing amount of dark hair. While I was afriad I was going to have a sensitive baby on my hand based on the first month or so, Meredith has mellowed out and only fusses when she's really tired or hungry. Also, she sleeps a lot more than Elise or Rebekah did. When I commented on that, I was reminded that Ray loves to sleep, so I shouldn't be too surprised and maybe it's genetic. She just had her two month check up today and is measuring 22 1/2 inches and weighs 10lbs 13 1/2 ounces. Meredith is in the 50th percentile for length and weight. Finally, I think we'll have a child that will wear the same size clothes as her age, since Elise was always smaller than average and Rebekah was always larger than average. Meredith is in the lovely stage of readily providing smiles and "talking." She is the cutest two month old I know, and I think it's funny that she looks like a completely different baby when she has her hat on. I'm looking forward to these next couple of months to see her little personality come out.

Rebekah celebrated her second birthday on January 4th, and we are in the middle of her two year old world. While she's the most affectionate and loving girl, she's also the most emotional! For the most part, everything has to be on her own terms. She likes to test the limits to say the least. One of my favorite things about her is that she so badly wants to be a "big girl" like Elise and even older girls. She's not shy at all with other children and wants to be friendly with them wherever we are. Rebekah is definitely a people person, always asking what so-and-so is doing. Just recently she has shown interest in wearing panties (because Elise does), and she's doing a great job. The first couple of days of potty training, it felt more like she was training me because I was the one suggesting taking her to the bathroom to head off any accidents. Now Rebekah will let me know when she has to go, but I have to be quick to get her to the potty because her request follows an immediate need to go. Rebekah loves Elise and Meredith so passionately; I just pray theit relationship will continue to grow, develop, and strengthen over the years so they are the best of friends.

Elise is three and a half and such a joy! She is really blossoming and coming into her own. She attends Tot School two mornings a week, and while the transition at the beginning of the school year was really tough for Elise, she's made a complete 180. Elise's favorite thing about school is craft time. She loves to show me what's in her folder after school and talk about her day while we eat lunch. Ray and I especially like attending Chapel services monthly to see Elise and her classmates sing songs they've been practices. For her first Chapel in October, Elise just stood up in the front with the rest of her class. Now, she sings and does the hand motions to the songs. Elise also loves doing "homework" with some of the workbooks we've received from family and friends. She can recognize some numbers and letters, and thinks it's all great fun. I hope her love for learning continues to grow as she progresses through school. Elise also seems to have picked up the art of speaking with her hands. Ray and I have to laugh at least once a day with something Elise has told us while she's using her hands, shrugging her shoulders, and tilting her head in just the right ways to get her point across. She is also a very generous little girl, (almost) always happy to fulfill a request to help with a chore and regularly volunteering to help Rebekah or Meredith with something. I just hope her delight in sorting dirty laundry and putting her clean clothes away continues as well. I know, I know... wishful thinking!

Until another time!