An Epoch in Her Life

Well, it finally happened! That tooth that has been hanging on forever is now gone. She finally let me pull it out last night! She is very proud and we're all excited for her! You can't really see it in the picture, but her new tooth is almost completely grown in already.

It's hard to believe that I now have two children losing teeth. This morning Ali discovered that one of her top teeth is loose. Thus far it has only been bottom teeth for her. It's so sad - once they start losing top teeth they look so goofy!

Our Littlest Princess

Right now our girls have a fascination with nightgowns! Ali got several of them for her birthday (they were her favorite gifts!) and several have been handed down to us from friends. For the past several days they have been putting their nightgowns on at betime and then running across the street to Miss Sherry's house to show her.

Well, yesterday Miss Sherry stopped in at Once Upon A Child and they had several nightgowns that she brought home for our girls. They were all so excited - except for Julie who is completely oblivious and the only one of the girls who doesn't eat, sleep and breathe princesses. She certainly is adorable though!

Insight from a seasoned mother . .

No, that "seasoned mother" is certainly not me! It's my neighbor across the street. While she was only ever able to have one child of her own, she and her husband took in 350 foster children in the course of about 30 years. She has been a widow for about 15 years now, but still loves children as much as ever. She is like a grandma to my girls and is a joy to have living nearby. Among her many talents, she does a bit of writing, and recently shared this one with me:

Even though we think they're great

There's a special time after eight

When all the little ones are in bed

And all the prayers have been said

Just Mom and Dad sitting on the couch

Mom says today she's been a grouch

Put on a record, pick up a book

Know you better take one more look

You tiptoe in, they're all asleep

Dad comes in to take a peek

Nothing for them would you take

But you're glad it's after eight!

Spring has Sprung!

Nothing says spring like nests of baby animals. Yesterday we discovered these baby rabbits in our backyard. It's been so sweet to see the girls marvel at the miracle of God's creation! (Of course they're cute and tiny now . . . it's a shame to think that they'll be the little stinkers eating my flowers this summer!)

Princess Party

This year for Ali's birthday we had a Princess party (Again! Repeat of birthday #5 with slight variation!) This year, all of the princess activities were copied from Karis' 5th last birthday (Thanks Amber!) It was a great party and I'm not interested in reinventing the wheel!

Each of the girls came to the party dressed as a princess. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive they enjoyed some dancing!

Once everyone was there we made sparkling tiaras for our craft.

After the tiaras were complete we had a bit of a spa experience! Here is Amber (right) waiting to paint nails and Jodi waiting to do make-up. I did the hair.

All 7 fully primped princesses! (L-R) Karis, Rachel, Grace, Ali, Meg, Alyssa and Emma.

The Arielle cake!

Blowing out the candles!

It was a great party, but I have to say that I'm glad to be done with birthday festivities for a while!

The Grown-up List

Well, I've decided to add an adult version of our booklist. I have actually kept this list in a Word document on our PC for Aaron's sake (Several of my Christmas presents came from this list last year!) Now I can have it accessible to anyone who's interested. Right now it's just an Andrea List, but I'm sure Aaron will have something to add later.

Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter
The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton Porter
Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright
Pollyanna Grows Up by Eleanor H. Porter
Emma by Jane Austen
How to propagate : techniques and tips for over 1,000 plants by John Cushnie
Easy Care Perennial Gardens by Susan McClure

Our Book Wishlist!

For a long time now I have been telling our friends and family that I would put together a book list for my kids. We LOVE getting books as gifts and REALLY don't need even one more toy! : ) Unfortunately, I have just never gotten around to it. Well, here I am making my list. I am posting it on my blog so that the next time someone asks me about it I can just tell them it's here and available to anyone who wants to see it. I also have a link to this post to the right, below my Blog Archive so it's easily accessible later on. I will remove titles as we get them and add new ones periodically. Well, here goes:

The Little Island by Golden McDonald
Billy and Blaze by C.W. Anderson
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Yonder by Tony Johnson
Noah's Ark by Linda Hayward
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Babar's Little Circus Star by Laurent DeBrunhoff

First Steps!

Well, this morning I said she wasn't walking, and now here I am announcing her first steps! Here starts the real work - My life will never be the same again! As a side note - there is nothing quite so cute as a baby taking her first step! : )

Happy Birthday Julie!

Well, my baby is now officially one! I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's so wierd to think what life was like just one year ago - Chaos! We moved into our new place on April first. Between then and the 13th we got ourselves settled, got the old place cleaned and vacated, had 2 Dr. appts, 3 birthday parties (Ali), unloaded all of our children, went to the hospital and had a baby! It really makes me laugh when I think about it! It is also a huge testimony to me of God's grace in my life! The thought of having to do all of that makes me feel like I need to hyperventilate - but I didn't! We just took it one day at a time and made it through!

As far as development goes, Julie is about 21.5 pounds, and has 8 teeth (with two molars cutting right now!) She is the only one of my babies to make it to their first birthday w/o walking (again - God's grace to me! Especially after having Megan jumping at 18 mos!!) She says "ma ma" and "da da" and signs "more" "all done" and "tired." She is such a sweetheart! She is actually healthy right now, which is wonderful!

Thankfully, birthday festivities will soon be over and we can settle into life again. I'm looking forward to the end of the school year and a relaxing summer!

(I never did post an update on her ears: we went to her specialist and he said her ear wasn't infected and did a test showing that her tubes are open. She had some sinus stuff going on which he said is probably causing her some ear pain, but she was not infected.)

Happy Birthday Alison!

Well, Ali is now officially 7! I think that April is always going to be rather bittersweet for me. Every April my oldest and my youngest will have a birthday . . . fun, but sad! I can’t believe that 7 years ago were just having our first! Life has changed so much since then!

As with Easter, Ali’s birthday celebration becomes a week long event. On Friday night we had the Pattons over to celebrate birthdays (Phyllis [My mother-in-law] Ali & Julie), on Saturday we went to my Mom’s house for Birthdays (Austin [my nephew], John [my brother-in-law], Ali & Julie). This coming Friday we are having some family friends over for Ali & Julie’s birthdays and on Sunday Ali’s having her Princess party with her friends! CRAZY!

Tonight we are celebrating with just our family. Ali is getting a new bike for her birthday . . . hopefully the rain will subside enough that she'll be able to ride it a bit tonight!

He is Risen!

Happy Resurrection Day! What a day to celebrate! Our Easter celebration is always drawn out over several days and mingled with birthday celebrations (Ali & Julie). This year has been unique in that we are temporarily the proud parents of 3 extra children. Our good friends Jason and Amber took a sudden trip to Florida due to the death of Jason's grandfather. I know they miss them dearly, but we're having a good time!

Our morning started out with a phonecall from Miss Sherry (across the street) saying that she had Easter Baskets for all the kids. Once everyone was dressed we went outside to get them and take a few pictures. Due to our large number of children and a crazy/hectic past two days we did not go to church this morning. We stayed home and just enjoyed some family time. It was so sweet to have the kids hunt for the Resurrection eggs and then sit down together to talk through the story. It's adorable to me how these kids who have been through these eggs (and heard the resurrection story) a million times can still get so into it and wear such a look of amazement on their faces. They're getting old enough now that they actually understand as we talk about different prophecies that Jesus filled in His life (and death) and what that means to us. Afterwards we sung some songs together. Each kid picked one song. They were so sweet and sincere, yet such a riot. Watching Meg and Aubrey sing the "Hallelu" song . . . they're not sure when to stand, when to sing, etc . . . but they sure made a joyful noise. Jonah tends to be quite the Vegas singer . . . Aaron and I actually had to turn our faces away during his rendition of "Awesome God." After "Alive, Alive", "God's Not Dead" and "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" we finished with "Be Like Jesus." It was so sweet . . . it almost made up for all of the extra noise we've had over the past few days! : )

Here are a few pictures from out weekend. I know there will be more to post over the next few days, but here's a starter!

All 7 kids with Maw Maw (Miss Sherry's mom)

6 of the 7 in our front yard sportin' the sunglasses from Miss Sherry's Easter baskets

Jonah and Karis hunting Easter eggs at my mom's house

Aubrey showing off the eggs she found in my mom's yard!

Ali, Emma and Meg after hunting eggs at my mom's house

This one's a bit blurry, but she's so cute I couldn't resist. Here's Julie sitting on the front porch of Miss Sherry's doll house!

A "Sucky" Update

As many of you know, trying to rid our home of the "sucky things" (thumb and pacifier) has been a major event around here. Julie seems to be completely over the paci (praise the LORD!) She has had a rough couple of weeks . . . shortly after we took the paci away she got an ear infection. We used her antibiotic ear drops for a week as directed and only a few days leter she was back to being monster baby. Not sleeping, ALWAYS fussy! I took her to the Dr. yesterday and told him to either fix her or take her home! : ) Well, she has another ear infection (which is probably the same ear infection). The wierd thing is that nothing is coming out of her ears (which is what should happen b/c she has tubes) He said the tube must be blocked. Fortunately, we have a follow up visit with the ear doctor today . . . so we'll see what he says. Right now we're back to putting drops in her ears and giving Tylenol and Motrin consistently. I'll keep you posted!

Meg is still the miracle child with regards to her thumb. I have only seen her suck her thumb one time in well over a week. That one time I had taken her band aids off for her bath and forgot to put them back on. She sat on the couch sucking her thumb and watching Cifford for several minutes before it even dawned on me that she wasn't supposed to be doing that! Instead of using the Dora band aids we have changed to using fabric ones. Then we draw a smily face on each band aid. (Thanks Shantel!!) If she sucks her thumb at all, the smily faces disappear and we know it. That has been great for overnight . . . most nights I think she's sucking her thumb in her sleep and she really doesn't know she's doing it. She'd wake up in the morning with this shocked look on her face, as if she has no idea what happened. At naptime she hasn't sucked her thumb at all, and she has made it through a few nights with both smily faces (which is rewarded with 2 M&Ms!). I still feel like I'm in a state of shock . . . I really can't believe this is working!!

Yummy Yummy CHOCOLATE!

Aaron got the girls donuts this morning! Usually Meg just gets a glazed donut in order to avoid a mess. She has always longed for a chocolate donut and Daddy was extra sweet this morning!

It's a Miracle!

If you have been around Megan for any length of time, you know that she is a serious thumb sucker. She could efficiently get her thumb in her mouth the day she was born. We pushed the pacifier with all our might and lost the battle. She would suck her thumb through socks or mitts . . . it didn't matter . . . she was bound and determined!

We have tried to at least confine the thumb sucking to bedtime. No luck there. She will be three in July, and her teeth are a mess. Her bottom teeth are pushed in, her top ones are pushed out. We decided that, without intervention, she would soon be able to put her thumb in her mouth without even opening her jaw (I'm not kidding!) Our plan was to attack that this summer. Julie is still a little on the edge from giving up her paci, so I really wasn't interested in taking on something else.

Since Julie gave up her paci, she has had her thumb in her mouth a lot. Not sucking it . . . more just playing with her teeth. I REALLY didn't want her to go from the paci to the thumb, so I decided to put a band-aid on each thumb. I thought that might just be enough to keep her from thumb-sucking until she's over the hump. Well, as I was putting Julie's band-aids on Meg came to me saying that she wanted a band-aid too. I decided to do it . . . at the same time thinking, "there is no way that this is going to even slow her down . . . she will peel it off, suck over it . . . she'll find a way . . . she always has."

The miracle is that those stupid band-aids are actually working!! She wore them for 2 days before it ever dawned on her to take them off, and when she finally did she cried and cried b/c she knew she shouldn't have done it. She hasn't taken them off again. I haven't seen her put her thumb in her mouth even once (it's been 4 or 5 days!) At naptime and bedtime she is taking forever to fall asleep and crying a lot, which is a bummer, but to be expected. If this actually ends up kicking the habit I will be shocked! Ali ended up having to get a habit device to stop her (to the tune of $600!) - a box of band-aids is certainly easier on the budget!

Cutting the Cord . . .

Well, we did it! No more paci for Julie! After I posted my comment about her bottle I called Aaron at work to ask him if he was okay with me taking the paci away, and we did it. This picture is of Emily the Elephant. Julie got her for Christmas and I attached her paci with a ribbon. That way she could find it easily if she woke up in the middle of the night and it didn't fall between her crib slats.

Well, the first thing I did for her nap on Friday was to cut the cord . . . When I handed Emily to her at naptime she kept pulling on what is left of the ribbon and looking very confused. I closed the door and she proceeded to scream for an hour and a half! I drank some coffee and tried to enjoy some Pride and Prejudice since my headache wouldn't allow me to do much more than that! She did eventually take a very short nap, and at bedtime she was so tired that she only whimpered for a minute or two and went right to sleep. I was concerned that she would wake up in the night, or wake up crying very early in the morning . . . but she didn't. She slept great and woke up happy.

On Saturday she took 2 good naps and only cried a little each time. Then she went down fine that night but woke up at about 1:00 and was up most of the night. Finally I thought that maybe she hadn't had enough to eat in the evening (she doesn't drink as much out of the sippy cup as she did out of her bottle) and I got a bottle for her. She drank 8 ounces and went to sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day I was very careful to make sure that she was getting enough so we wouldn't have a repeat of the previous night . . . well, that didn't matter b/c once again she was awake most of the night. I tried another bottle and she drank about half of it. Finally she cried herself back to sleep, but I was miserable, assuming that this was all pacifier related.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that she had tons of dried goop in her ear, which means ear infection! I've never been so glad for an ear infection in my life! We started her ear drops (she doesn't need oral antibiotics since she has tubes in her ears), gave her some Motrin at bedtime and she slept last night without any problems!

So, to make a short story long . . . the paci is officially history. Now if we could just cut off Meg's thumbs we'd be done with the "sucky things" for good!