Soccer!

Well, it has happened. Anyone who remembers what my first vehicle was will appreciate the fact that I am finally a soccer mom! Joshua has enjoyed being an Orange Rocket this season. Unfortunately, I have not taken any action shots so far. It might be because I am so busy running up and down the field cheering for him... Or it might be because I am carrying Lanie and taking Ellie up the hill to the bathroom. Either way, I will try to get at least one shot before the end of the season!

Hotel breakfast

Lanie style! We spent the night in Arkansas during our trek to David's cousin's wedding. It was about as easy to feed Lanie in the living room chair as it was to feed her in the dining room high chair. Our kids loved the "ga-tell", as Ellie calls it!

Little princess

Oh dear. Lanie has enjoyed sitting up lately. She likes her new perspective. Apparently, she is also learning to express her wants. I sat her down with a big book and watched this play out. Joshua was watching a show next to her, and she started to fuss as she looked to the side. He handed her a toy, she turned to the side and continued fussing. He handed her another toy, and they repeated this until he had given her the very toy that had caught her eye. So I may not spoil her, but someone else already has...! Very sweet!

HEB

Dear Lanie,

We are going to HEB this morning, so if you can possibly avoid screaming the entire time we are there, your siblings and I would greatly appreciate it. It really is a wonderful grocery store, and there is no reason the produce section should hear you from the dairy section!

Thanks!
Love,
Mommy

Loves and Hates

Elle-Belle is a very passionate young lady. She either really loves things or really doesn't love them. Some things she loves are toenail (tay-tails) polish, babies, going (anywhere), bath night, buckles, bags, dresses, hummus, and Joshua. (Though not necessarily in that order.) Things she really doesn't love include rushing, having certain things done for her, "fuzzes", (don't get me started!), and not getting her way right away... Hey, she is two!

Picnics!

When the weather got Warner, we had a couple of picnics. In the backyard, at the park, our kids love picnics! Ellie has a toy picnic basket, (thanks, Albuquerque crew!), and she and Joshua enjoy pretending to picnic as well. They also pretend to picnic in bed. I went in to remind Ellie to sleep at nap time, and she was very busy arranging her animals around their picnic blanket. You will be glad to know that she had also changed every animal's diaper...

Astronaut

Here is Joshua's costume from yesterday when I went to get the kids in the morning. He was being an astronaut. :)

Buckles

Ellie has a buckle um... Obsession, I think that might be the right word! It all started with the buckle on Lanie's carseat. We used to tell her not to touch it because we didn't want her to pinch her fingers. She kept pushing it, so we decided she could learn the hard way if she really wanted to. Is that bad parenting? ;) Now, I only regret it because every time I go to place Lanie in one of her several infant apparatuses, I have to fumble with the buckles while cradling her bobbling head! Bouncy seat? Buckled! Swing? Buckled! Ellie even buckles her own carseat before she climbs into it!

Skin strugs

Lanie has had a rough time with skin care over the past weeks. Her eczema got so bad that she needed an oral steroid for several days. That was a rough week! Thankfully, we know how to handle it now, and I will be super diligent to avoid getting to that point again!

Lovely Lanie

I forget how quickly these first months fly. Lanie is 3 1/2 months old, and she is so much fun! She is all smiles, and she rolls onto her stomach from time to time. She is quite the extrovert; she loves catching the gaze of anyone nearby, and she is extremely aware if said person attempts to inch away from her. Lanie only likes to sleep in her bed, and when she ought to sleep in her carseat on the go, she is only content to face outward while being held and watching the world happen around her. She is very cheerful, and she thinks her siblings are fun!

Disastrous diapers

It seems somewhat first-time-parent of me to share a diaper story with you, but I just can't get over this one. I think it especially amuses me because I was so shocked by this occurrence on round 3 of newborn gastrointestinal issues. Lanie had not had a dirty diaper in several days. I was definitely paying attention, but she didn't seem bothered by it at all. So we just waited. We gathered our crew to go eat at Chili's, (where our family ate quite well for under nine dollars, thank you!), and I gave Lanie her bottle toward the end of our meal. I propped her on my shoulder to burp her, and I could tell that she was, well, working. I just continued to pat her and hold her while assisting Ellie in eating her chicken and eating my own french fries. Things started to go south with the older two quickly, nothing major, but it was definitely time to get going. I decided I should probably change Lanie's diaper before we went home. I stood up and realized that I was kind of wearing the contents of her diaper. This was definitely a first for me. I am not talking just a little bit of something that I could discreetly cover; this was like she was trying to add a large graphic to the front of my shirt. I could get really graphic to explain why I was so shocked, but suffice it to say that Lanie left wearing her new diaper, and I was really glad we had just finished our meal! She must have lost a pound or two!

Naptime these days

Back in the day when Joshua and Ellie had separate rooms, we could easily count on a 3 hour nap time. They didn't necessarily both sleep that long, but both kids were happy and relatively quiet in their rooms... often asleep! Then, they began sharing a room. For a few weeks there was very little sleeping. We figured out that some sleep might occur if Ellie had a chance to fall asleep before Joshua joined her. Enter Lanie into our family... and add a couple of months and some more awake stamina to Ellie. Now, I put Ellie in bed, return to remind her to put-her-head-on-her-pillow-and-don't-touch-the-curtains, and EVENTUALLY send Joshua into bed. While we wait for Ellie to fall asleep, Lanie is usually awake for a little while. Joshua creates a nice little set-up for her with toys surrounding her, and he sits and reads to her or flips through cards with her. In the picture, she is playing with Elmo while she learns the alphabet. So sweet!

Sibling love

All ready for bed! Joshua and Ellie are great with Lanie. For the first month or so, we never could quite time the evenings, so Lanie often fussed through our entire bedtime routine. Ellie and Joshua are pretty patient with her. They like to pat her and give her toys to make her happy.

Smile!

Just to get a couple of pictures out there...

We had been having trouble getting Ellie to smile for the camera, when it dawned on me that she might not know what "Smile!" means.

Mommy Brain

I have heard several references to "pregnancy brain." I am sure it is a real thing, but I don't know that I suffered from it much. I am, however, daily dealing with "Mommy brain," and I almost feel like a different person. A list follows of the worst offenses:

• I lost a stroller. Not an umbrella stroller, not Ellie's baby stroller, not even a large single stroller. A huge, heavy double stroller. Not during a long and wonderful outing, but during a 20 minute trip to the park that was cut short because Lanie hates her carseat. I can hardly say more than that because I don't want to start obsessing over it again. Thanks to our wonderful, gracious parents, said stroller has been replaced. I hope someone else's life is changed through the use of our other one!


• I made cookies with baking powder rather than baking soda. It wouldn't matter except that if you use the same amount of soda, you can actually taste it. It would be more understanding if I hadn't done the same thing several years ago and promised I would never do it again. Seriously, they were GROSS. Joshua had one, and I watched him trying to eat the individual sprinkles off of the cookie!


• I took Lanie to her 2-month doctor's appointment a little early...

There have been a couple of other major issues, but I can't even remember them right now!

Joshua

Joshua is a wonderful big brother. He is learning how to stay calm when Ellie breaks his meticulous creations, and he shares toys with Lanie. Joshua continues to love music, and he has been enjoying a dvd series of various Bible stories. It is so interesting to watch with him and listen to him process what he understands. He recently had "Guinea Pig Day" at Mother's Day Out, and he liked holding "Jenny" and the other one. :) Joshua and Ellie have both enjoyed getting out and about with Daddy, and I think they are kind of disappointed when Mommy and Lanie join!

Ellie

Ellie is adjusting well to her life as our middle child. She did ignore me when she visited the hospital, but other than that, she has been great! Ellie is thrilled to see Lanie in the morning, and I think she finally understands not to climb on the crib to sneak a peek at her.

Ellie's vocabulary has really grown. She learned a lot of new words when she started sharing a room with Joshua and was held captive listening to hours of talking and songs. She seemed to learn even more when she realized there was more competition for attention in the house after Lanie was born! I wonder if every child goes through the phase where they need Mom or Dad to acknowledge their comprehension by repeating every word uttered? Well, both of our children have done that. And it sure is noisy around here these days!

Ellie loves to dance and take care of her baby dolls. Ellie is also very interested in discussing and helping with diaper changes. I guess it is a sign of the impending potty training process, but it is one that Joshua never showed. She likes carrying lots of things around. Last week, she followed me around asking me to "hold you baby doll".

Lanie

I started this blog as a way for people to hear stories about our kids while we were overseas. I continued it after we moved back because I thought it would be fun for the kids to read through the stories long after I forget them. :) I know I asked my Mom countless times to tell me "more baby stories" when I was younger. This will still be my goal, but apparently the stories not be recorded as frequently! Furthermore, I can hardly manage our daily life these days, so I am probably not going to try to think of creative titles for each post... Also, we continue to have computer problems, so again... lacking pictures!

Lanie Evangeline joined our family on January 21. I had been praying and praying that my body would start labor before the doctor wanted to induce, and it happened! It seemed like a totally different experience than the other 2 births: the surprise trip to the hospital, the methods in the States. I was thrilled to not have to "pick" her birthday! Also, aside from a couple of wonderful English-speaking nurses and the hospital food, I would like to fly to Lebanon to have any future children. Let's just leave it at that.

Lanie is a wonderful baby. She got her days and nights figured out pretty quickly, and she eats reasonably well. Lanie is the first of all 3 of our babies to actually allow me some sleep in the hospital, and I would definitely say I needed it! She smiles and stretches in her sleep, and she likes to listen to Joshua when he reads to her.

Shout, shout!

Joshua's favorite music is the World Mandate cd. He would listen to it 24/7 if we let him, and when it isn't playing, he is singing it. It is pretty incredible to me how quickly he has learned most of the words. (And amusing that he insists he is correct even when he is mixed up on some words.) On another musical note, David now sings the 50 States song while he brushes Joshua's teeth. I never learned this song, and my 3 year-old now knows it better than I do! Aside from some minor, (and some more major), pronunciation issues, he can sing the entire thing!

Almost 2

I am about ready to explode, and Ellie is turning 2 on Sunday! I think I will have time to catch up a little now that classes and Christmas chaos are behind me... at least until Baby Girl is born. :) To add to the chaos, we have had a lot of computer trouble over the past month, so I can't post pictures for the time being.

We were hesitant to plan anything major to celebrate Ellie's birthday because we had no idea what the month would look like. With no signs of a hospital trip in sight, we decided to have Chick fil-a and made-by-someone-else cupcakes at the museum last night. We had Elmo cupcakes, Ellie had an Elmo balloon, and Joshua gave Ellie a stuffed Elmo. Ellie enjoyed her "pah-dee," and she appreciated all of the "Mo-mo" things. Joshua has done reasonably well actually letting Ellie play with her special Elmo. Definite progress!