Where we are

This summer I have had the chance to share in celebrating two of my friends and their new twin babies. Abby welcomed two healthy baby boys into the world in August and Lindsey is in her second trimester. I am so excited for them both but my thoughts immediately went to the hard part of having newborn twins and especially the first 6 months. Randomly, one day I was looking back at this blog and re-read entires from 2011. I was flooded with precious memories that had been lost in the day to day "real life" of parenting. I am so thankful that I decided to take time and journal that first year. We did have many, many wonderful moments, days and weeks. Although I did not purposefully leave out the hard stuff, I really just wanted to focus on the good.

As things have gotten more manageable with the kids this past year, they have gotten busier and I have not been great about jotting down those special little nuggets of great times. I hope to be better. I have been updating the blog and thought I didn't have a lot of pictures from the summer-just random everyday stuff. Then I started scrolling through my iPhone pictures. I have never been so thankful for technology. Treasures of smiles, laughter, love and fun were sitting on my camera roll. If you read my "summer update" you can attest to all the pictures!

I am actually laid up today on self induced "bed rest" after other try at a frozen embryo transfer today. I have taken time for a nap, catching up on Facebook, blog stalking and getting this little project up to date.   It has been a long time since I have given an update on the kiddos...

Ely:
This kid is getting bigger by the minute. He is such a big kid and it is so much fun. He will turn 7 on Friday and is enjoying 1st grade so far.  He is still one of the tallest kids in class.  I guess this comes from Al's dad because no one else in the family is overly tall.  He is wearing a size 8 in all his clothes.

 Over the summer he has gotten into Power Rangers-the tv show, toys and wii games. For a kid who never really played with toys, it has been fun to see him get attached to something.

His passion continues to be sports. Any and all sports. I had him in several different sports camps this summer and more often than not, he didn't know any other kids participating. It has been great to see him appear totally comfortable on any playing field. As long as there is a sport, he is happy. We have seen that he is a vocal leader when on the field. Encouraging and pushing his teammates on the field.

Ely continues to be great with Molly and Luke. It is so fun to see how he is different with each of them. He is very doating and protective of Molly and loves to play rough and tumble with Luke.

1st grade has been ushered in with a great teacher and more responsibility. He is in a technology classroom and loves working with iPads. I am able to leverage his competitive nature with their reading programs. So far we are 2 for 2 for daily reading without a fuss!  On the flip side, we I have been in a head to head battle with his attitude.  We are working on treating and talking to others with respect and The Golden Rule. Last week was really tough but this week has been better, knock on iPad glass.   In the past I have felt bad after he has gotten in trouble and wanted to make it all better quickly. I have recently discovered it is okay for him to be sad and "feel" his consequences so that it makes an impression on him.

Luke
This 2 year 7 month old is a ham and going to be the comic relief in our family. Talk about loving to get a reaction from people. I laugh at him all the time. He especially loves to "scare" you by roaring very passionately!

When we went to meet the teacher last week I noticed for the first time that he can be shy-it was almost painful to watch him try so hard to not make eye contact when we first arrived. He eventually warmed up to the classroom and the toys but didn't want me to leave.

Since starting speech therapy with ECI, he has made such great improvements in his verbal communication. He has started forming 2-3 word sentences which is a HUGE accomplishments. I literally jumped for joy the day he came to me two weeks ago and said "more milk please"!  Totally unsolicited. I would have bought him a whole cow for that one phrase!  He is still having trouble with clear enunciation.  He will start getting more dedicated time with our therapist each month instead of sharing time with Molly. I know this will make a huge difference.

He loves Ely and Molly equally yet differently. He looks up to Ely like any little brother should look up to his big brother. He was to keep up with the big boys when Ely has friends over. Luke loves to "play" the wii with Ely.  He loves going to the park-any park. He is a total boy and is most happy outside playing.  He will often say "no" to a lot of activities at first but will then be the last one to want to leave.

His most note able trait is that he wants to do everything himself.  "self, self, self" is something we hear all the time-getting into chairs, opening or closing doors, brushing his hair, bathing, getting into or out of cars, anything....

Luke hates having his food touching (he gets that from Al), having dirty hands or feet and being told "no". He is more sensitive than our other kids. A very stern "no" can send him into a puddle of tears.

He knows his color words but has trouble matching the word to the color. He loves to count and his favorite number seems to be "16"!

Molly
My sweet Molly girl -where to start?  She  has a zest for life that you can almost touch.  When she has the highest highs and lowest lows...very much a two year old toddler.

She has recently developed very strong likes and dislikes  she loves her babies-most favorites are Baby Girls and pink baby. She has started to like wearing play jewelry and some dress up. I won't be surprised if this ramps up ober the next few months. She loves to play in my makeup and have her hair blown dry.   She is my girlie girl.   She would,love to pick,out her clothes every day and sometimes I will let her. I have started to let her selected her pjs every night. It just isn't worth the fight.

Molly's favorite activity is coloring. Her newest art collection is a lot of rainbows. She is great with her colors and is very descriptive. Pink just isn't pink, it is "pretty pink". Molly has an uncanny ability to put together jigsaw puzzles-she prefers the 24 piece ones.   She is just as into counting as Luke is. She doesn't like the number "7" and skips it all the time. She can count to 13 but will then toggle between 12 and 13.

Molly likes the park as much as Luke and loves the big swings and slides the most. She also wants to start the climbing things which scares me to death. Of all my kids, she is by far our most adventurous.

Molly has made great improvements with speech therapy. In fact, she has almost progressed out of the program. They are going to still work with her twice a month just to reinforce her progress. Although she wouldn't talk to her teachers on meet the teacher days, she is Chatty Cathy at home. Often talking for Luke, even.  She has more words than I can count and makes 4-5 word sentences. Her favorite phrases are "right back", "almost done" and "last time"!  The other day I asked, hypothetically, "Molly, when did I change your diaper last.". Without skipping a beat she answered, 8 o'clock,  it wasn't the right time but totally took me by surprise!


Ok-that's a lot of updating for one night!