Changes

It has been busy around our house. We all have new things happening, things changing, and all for the better! We are counting our blessings often these days.

It is hard to decide what is the biggest news because I think it is all important but what will have the most impact on our family as a whole is that Jon got a new job!!! It has been a long road from when he graduated in December 2007, the weekend we found out about the twins actually. Life and the job search was put on hold while we adjusted to having two babies. And then when things seemed to settle down, the recession hit...and no one was hiring people without lots of experience. It has been challenging for him. But he is really excited about his new job...I will butcher explaining what he will be doing so I will say he will be selling equipment to medical research labs, dealing with the types of things my dad's labs work with. Basically Jon gets to be a science geek all day, every day, and I am sure he and my dad will have lots to talk about!! I am so proud of my hubby for working hard to get this job. It will be awesome that he is home at nights with us...helping with baths, having dinner, and just relaxing together.

I have decided not to return to teaching after this year (well sometime in the future) but in the meantime I will be a stay at home mom full time and will also be watching another family's two kids. I am so excited to be able to be home with the kids and be a part of everything. I missed teaching when I took last year off but it has been very challenging balancing work (where I spend all day dealing with children) and then coming home to my own. I feel like I have nothing left to give. I am really excited that I get to do this!!

Elaina, oh Elaina. Well she decided she was going to start potty training herself last weekend. We are taking it slow until I am home over spring break and we can go at it 100% but she is going every night before she gets in the bathtub. She needs no reinforcement yet but lots of cheering and hugs. Our little pleaser! She is so proud of herself:)

And Skylar we learned this week has qualified for First Steps which will come to our house for speech/language. We are so happy he will be receiving support until he is old enough to get it through our school district. And bless his heart he is signing Milk and More all the time. We are working on other ones but so happy he is able to tell us something.

So lots of changes in our lives. All good, all exciting! Now if only I could get over being sick....

It's a good thing she has a brother!

Elaina has always been affectionate. She loves to give hugs and kisses. Will rub your back when you are holding her and is just in general a very loving child. It used to be with people she knew. You could always count on her to snuggle on the couch and give you a bed time kiss. But now, it is getting a little out of control. She kisses EVERYTHING!! Not as much people as things. All her stuffed animals especially bunny are fair game. So are animals in books (she kissed every page when Jon read her a story the other day). Her "owies", our "owies", and anything that might look like an owie i.e. food on her hand, or a freckle. She wants to kiss Marley and Vaughn. But the strangest was the other day she kissed the kitchen counter. Just a clean counter. Needing a kiss. This child is just so full of love she can hardly contain herself! All Jon and I keep saying is, it is a good thing she has a brother, to keep an eye on her!!

Anxiously waiting

Skylar and Elaina are now 26 months. Yeah, after they turn two you don't really count months any more...they become 2, then 2 1/2, then 3. But for our purposes 26 months is important to note. On Monday, Skylar was evaluated through First Steps for speech/language delay. In order to qualify, he must be at least 50% delayed which means he is at the level of a 13 month old. We have been concerned for awhile. It is so hard to not compare the two of them...I mean there is no "Do you remember when she did that" because they are of course the same age. Elaina has a large vocabulary and uses it a lot. She strings words together and is constantly absorbing and using new vocabulary. But Skylar says three "words"....mama, hot, and mi which is milk. He has better receptive language but still is not where he should be. He is very expressive and uses inflection in his grunts but he is not able to TELL us what he wants. When he was evaluated, he was in a very bad mood, easily frustrated, clingy. Basically in a 30 minute period showing all the ways he struggles to express himself. We will find out next week if he qualified and where we go from there. One of these days I am sure I will look back at this post and wonder why we ever worried. But for now, we do, and we are hopeful this is the way we will be able to help unlock the words!

Sick, snow, sick, snow

It has been a rough couple of weeks. Skylar got sick first. Fever, cold, very lethargic. He couldn't go to school or the sitters so Jon and I took turns being home with him. We thought we were in the clear for Elaina. But almost a week after he got sick, she came down with a fever. At first, she was a real trooper. You really wouldn't know she was sick because she was still active and happy. Then something happened and she got very lethargic and her body obviously said, I need some rest, slow down girl! She was home most of this past week with Jon who has also been fighting sickness. As soon as they were everyone was feeling better on Friday, wouldn't you know, we got snow. It seems we are meant to be housebound. Snow melts today, and I am getting sick. After I said yesterday, I never get sick. I am a teacher I have a great immune system. Snow is supposed to start tomorrow night. I think we are all getting ready for spring.

Oh what personalities!

Every day brings us laughs and challenges. The kids are full of life and personality and we are loving this age!

Quirky! She is so silly and loves to do things that make us laugh. She saw my glasses and put them on while eating her snack.


Check out that lump on his right side of his forehead. That was the result of Elaina chucking her Elmo bath toy (which is hard not soft and cuddly) over her shoulder and hitting him. Immediately this bump came up, tears followed, and a certain girl was taken out of the tub and put in time out because she had been asked not to throw her toys already.


Having lunch.


They love to sit at the counter in our kitchen and eat. It makes it easy for me because I can clean up while they eat.



Our little artist hard at work on her painting which she was so proud to show her MoMo when she came over.





This is soooo Skylar. He is always trying to figure out how things work. It took him awhile to manuever the stroller into the climber but he did it.






Such the caretaker, feeding her baby. It cries when you stop feeding it and Elaina rocks her and kisses her and even gives her "bunny" which makes everything better!

He loves to wear his shoes around the house. You take them off, he brings them to you to put back on.

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning started with Elaina waking up at 3...not from excitement but I think because her stomach was upset from all the spicy Mexican she ate the night before! So she and I watched tv and read in the basement until Skylar woke up. Then we got up Jon and let the kids see the tree...

Elaina getting her first look at the presents.


Skylar spies the kitchen set.


This was a big hit!!

Elaina loved her art table (she always asks for "colors" when she wants to draw).

Opening her bassinet for her doll.

Big girl undies, Elmo of course, to go with the potty she got. We are just introducing it for her (Skylar is NOT ready!). But she seems to like to sit on it but doesn't quite get the idea of actually going on it.

We finally got him away from the kitchen to open another present...his cash register!

Lots of buttons, sounds, and a drawer that pops out...cool!!

Unfortunately, this is pretty common when one tries to use the art table.

Our little music girl

The Christmas card picture we finally got!!

Then they moved to Elaina's room to rock in the chair.

Giving hugs:)

Checking out the snow we got Christmas morning...yay, a White Christmas!

Tired from opening presents she decided to rest on the floor with Vaughn.

Christmas night at our house. Erika and Olivia

Skylar opening a present

My mom got pictures of the three grandchildren painted from photos we had. They turned out GREAT!



Elaina and Grandpa P

Pretty girl drawing on her Etch and Sketch (looking cute but refusing to wear tights and shoes)


Of course we have a picture of him on the ground:)

Thanks to the Grandmas, Jon and I got to eat.

Jon and Olivia

At home with me during my winter break, Elaina and I had a tea party.

She loves to try to fit into small boxes and here, the wagon. Luckily she is so small that she usually does fit!

Wild Man!!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Tim and Erika's. It is getting so fun to see Skylar and Elaina interact with Olivia. She is definitely an advanced one year old and she loves trying to keep up with the older kids. Elaina was very resistant to Olivia for awhile...I think because she didn't want to share her MoMo with anyone! But now they are starting to play more and it is really fun to see. We put all three kids in the bath after dinner which was hilarious to see. Finally we got them matching PJs when mom and I were at the Ozark outlets and hoped to get a cute picture of the kids all together. What were we thinking...they are one and two year olds?!?

Giving Olivia a "drink". Lots of pretend play these days.

Olivia dancing to the Taylor Swift video on Tim's phone. Hilarious!!


Attempting to get a picture...

Love how my kids are the ones not cooperating...

And they are out of here.

It is more fun to play with the toys:)