Weigh-in

I almost forgot, Keith said Elinore weighed in today at about 15 lbs. 6 oz.  Still our little peanut!

Teething

Elinore didn't nap well at all on Monday; I assumed it was from our being out and busy at the parades and her just not getting a good nap in.  I didn't think much of it.

Tuesday when Keith picked Elinore up though, the babysitter thought she was coming down with a fever. I was home when they arrived home after spending the afternoon with Caden and Caleb at their track and field day. 

I had to go to class that night and a social hour for our transitioning leadership at work, so I left her in Keith's capable hands and went off to class.  Keith said she was cranky and tired, so she had some tylenol and went to bed just after 5. 

Poor girl was still sleeping when I arrived home around 10.  She was up during the night around 1 though; she ate and went back to sleep.  Then around 3:30 she was up again and ate, but had little to not interest in going back to sleep, so we were up.  Keith stayed home with her for the day and said she was cranky, didn't eat much, but slept a lot.  He took her in to the pediatrician this afternoon. 

She is teething.  She's getting her top two teeth in. 

I feel silly sending her to the doctor for teething, but she wasn't this grumpy with her bottom two teeth and we took her in for those and she had an ear infection too.  So we were less experience parents, who weren't sure and didn't want her suffering!  So home they came.  She's sleeping now and we'll be continuing the Tylenol for her because she has a fever with it too.  (The Tylenol is really helping her out.)  Let's hope her teeth come through soon for her so we can have our happy baby back!

Bottle Feeding

I had some dental work done earlier this month and had to pump and dump from it for 24 hours.

I was not a fan.

I gave Elinore a bottle for the first time just a day before she turned 10 months old.

It was awkward; I was not a fan.  I don't think Elinore was either.  So much so that she was cranky and needed more, so we turned the duties over to someone more practiced at giving Elinore bottles, Daddy!

7 Years

Dear Caden,

You are seven now!  It seems impossible you're that old, but I love watching you grow and learn daily.

Over the course of the last year you have grown and changed in ways I didn't see come, but I couldn't be prouder of you. 

You are an independent soul and are perfectly content to play by yourself on your own terms using your imagination.  You have an imagination like none I've ever seen.  You are creative and inventive and imagainative.  I wish we could let you 'experiment' more, but some of your ideas are just so extreme we don't have the means to help you make a machine that gives everyone $12 when they come to our house!  I hope one day you find the opportunity to explore your creativity and innovation further.  I can't want to see what you create and event as your grow!

You are a giving soul too and when give the chance to make a purchase or spend some money, you are very careful of thinking how you want to spend your money.  You'll review the whole store at least once and then make many more trips around and revisit your favorite things.  More than half the time you choose something that is for someone else and it melts my heart.  I will do my best to continue to let you give as your heart leads you. 

You can be affectionate too!  More than I expected and more so than your brother.  You are sure to hug me when I leave you at the sitters in the mornings and you often come to the window to wave at my as I leave. 

You are doing well in kindergarten and have made great improvements from the beginning of the year.  Your Daddy has been helping you learn at home and doing your homework in the evenings and you've had an excellent teacher who has helped you along and coached mommy and daddy to better help you!

You are involved in swim lessons, baseball and ROCK Group.  You love swim; beyond that you just love the water!  I catch you playing hte sink, you take really long hot showers, and just love being in the water.  Baseball is something you like, but I think you do it more for the ice cream!  ROCK Group you've liked, but have struggled with some.  You and Pastor Deb have made some deals and you're working on it.  There are so many active kids you can get a bit over energetic sometimes and loose focus.  (Don't worry, we all can get that way sometimes!)

You love Caleb, but sure can push his buttons as brothers do!  You are excellent big brother to you sister Elinore too.  She adores you too.  I love watching you bond with your siblings and I hope you grow to love each other and support each other always. 

Caden, I will love you always.

Mom

Sibling Love

We had a bit of a rough might last night. 

When I got home from class around 10, Keith was pushing for turning on the ac.  I was against it, but I wanted Elinore to be comfortable so I agreed. 

We went around the house shutting windows and when I got to Elinore's room, the window was loud.  It startled her and woke her up screaming.  That continued for a good half hour or so mostly non-stop. I gave her a sip of water and walked her around and she'd be alright for a little bit before screaming all over again. 

Finally I walked her into our bedroom where we have some photos of the kids on the wall.  She saw a photo of her brothers and her; their first day of kindergarten photo with me actually, and she smiled and waved at them.   It was a beautiful thing. 

That sibling bond is something I hope stays strong forever. 

After that she had a little snack and went down easily just after midnight. 

This morning when I told the boys what happened they were both thrilled.  Caleb is so excited for her to say brother or  Caleb or something.  It's so sweet, and I know Elinore will advance whens he's ready, but the day that happens, I can't wait to see the smile on Caleb's face!

Woobly Standing

Tonight Elinore and I were on the floor together.  She was helping me fold laundry.  By helping I mean she'd pull out each piece of clothes to find the tag to chew on.  It'd take it and fold it while she found the next tag.  Only a few of her brothers shirts had some slobber on them.  :)

Anyway, while we were sitting there she crawled up on my legs, then tugged on my shirt and pulled herself up to a stand for the first time! 

She is about 10.5 months old.

Kennywood

I felt strongly this year about not gifting the boys with more toys for their birthday.  We have some many already, and most of them go unused for long periods of time.  We're a much more on the go family and I didn't want more toys cluttering up the house and taking focus away from more important things.  So this year, we gave Caden and Caleb a trip to Kennywood for their 7th birthday!

We planned to go on opening Saturday which happened to be just two days after their actual birthday.  We got out of the house around 8:30 which is only half an hour later than planned (which is impressive for me).  However, Keith and I got lost in conversation (rare and amazing) and we missed out exit off the turnpike.  So by the time we got turned around and on the right path we were running late and decided to grab lunch before getting to the park.  Four hours after we left our house we finally arrived at the park!

It was mostly smooth sailing from there!

Our first stop was Garfield's Nightmare, which was a slow moving boat ride through a "house."  Caleb was too afraid to ride so Keith and Caden went while we sat on a bench with 'Joe'.

We walked around some more and spent some time in Kiddie Land.

While in kiddie land the boys were interested in someone riding with them, so somehow I mostly got that fun!  On this ride, Caden insisted I ride with them, but when we got up to the ride, he bailed on me to ride with his brother and left me riding solo on the ride in kiddie land.  Keith found it hilarious and photo worthy.

After kiddie land we headed on to ride a few of the bigger rides the boys were brave enough to try.

There was a bobsled ride Caden really wanted to ride.  So I took the boys on it, it was a circular ride that went super fast and titled on its side at high speeds.  They were dizzy and terrified after!  That was the end of the adventure for the day!

Our last ride of the day was the carousel.  Elinore got to ride her first carousel!

Our last stop of the day, was the gift shop.  Grandma Nancy had given the boys some money for their birthday and they were itching to spend it!

Caleb spent his fairly quickly, but Caden very carefully searched nearly the entire store twice and came back to some items a few times before making some decisions and still haveing to be stopped when we needed to leave.  He didn't spend all his money.  (He later choose to donate the leftover of his money to the church flooring fund!  AMAZING!)

We left the park and headed back toward home about a half hour before we stopped to eat at an Eat'n Park.

After dinner we took the kids to the car and put them all in their pajamas with blankets to sleep on the way home.  The boys were thrilled and thought it was like a 'camp out' for them.  At 11:30 that night we rolled into the driveway and went to bed.

It was a great day of family. 

Caleb - 7 Years

Dear Caleb,

You're seven now, SEVEN!

I can't believe how grown you are at 7; don't get me wrong you have a lot more growing to do in faith and knowledge and body, but you are wonderful just as you are.

You are doing very well in kindergarten from what I see.  You picked up your letters wonderfully and are really getting the hang of putting words together and reading simple words. 

You are motivated by things you want, dessert certainly is one of them!  You do enjoy your candy. You are easily motivated to do something if you want the offered reward. 

I can see you wanting to fit in at school with the other boys in your class.  I remember those feelings growing up and I so want you to know that it's okay to be who you are without stress of acceptance from those people.  You will find your people.  And I will love you and support you always. 

You have been attending ROCK Group at church, swim lessons and baseball.  You like ROCK and baseball, even if Daddy strongly encouraged you to play baseball again with an ice cream incentive.  Swim lessons your are less comfortable with, but you warm up to it much faster than before!

You are very hesitant to try new things and have a fear of a many things.  If it doesn't fit in your box, it's hard to get you to be interested in or try it.  Your daddy and I encourage you to try something first before you make up your mind.  Although, often times I can see that you've already made up your mind so when you try something it's a much harder sell!

Some of your favorite things to do include playing with your tablet, dress up and going outside.  You love watching cartoons and America's Funniest Home Videos. 

You are constantly making sure everyone around you is following the rules.  You make sure everyone knows if they step out of line.  You are constantly lettings us know what your brother is up to, even if you're in the same boat.  You are a little rule follower, and that’s perfectly fine; I'm a consistent rule follower too!

You love your brother and help him out with things sometimes and give him reminders.  (Thanks for helping me remember too!)

You are an excellent big brother to your little sister Elinore.  She loves and adores you.  You are patient with her, interested in what she's doing and learning and protective of her too.  It melts my heart daily to see the bond between you and your siblings grow, especially as you've grown with the introduction of Elinore into our family!

I'm looking forward to watching your grow learn and develop over the next year as we move towards 8.  EIGHT!

Caleb, I will love you always.

Mom

Elinore - 10 Months

Compare to 9 Months Old

Compare to 8 Months Old

Compare to 7 Months Old

Compare to 6 Months Old

Compare to 5 Months Old

Compare to 4 Months Old

Compare to 3 Months Old

Compare to 2 Months Old

Compare to 1 Months Old

Compare to 9 Days Old

Grass

Last week during one of the boys baseball practices I sat Elinore down in the grass.  Unlike our house the ground wasn't so wet at the park and was alright to be playing in; however, she did NOT like it.  She'd never sat in the grass before and she cried when I sat her down in it.  I tried it a couple different times at practice and she was not a fan.  It's something new!

A few days later during a picnic, she slowly ventured her hands out off the blanket and into the grass.

Finally over the weekend we were in our yard on a blanket and she was brave and crawled right off the blanket into the grass; I think because she was interested in a dandelion. 

Here come the grass stains!

Kindergarten Spring Concert

The second Monday in April was the kindergarten spring concert. Caden and Caleb were excited about singing their favorite folk songs, and they wouldn't tell us what they were singing in advance because they wanted it to be a surprise!

I wasn't sure how sitting through a kindergarten concert would go. Would it be hard; would it be fun? Well, it was AWESOME!

We were a little nervous about how the boys would do, they've never been on stage in front of so many people. The concert was held in the middle school's auditorium and the room was full! When I dropped them off in the music room, they were hesitant and stood together in the doorway for some time! I left to go get seats, and they showed up on stage just fine!

The boys sang and did motions! Another thing I was nervous about. Caden especially tends not to participate in those kinds of things in functions at the church and I didn't know if this would be similar.

They sang along and did so well! We were very please in the audience! Grandma Nancy came for the show too.

Elinore loved the concert too! She stood on my lap and watched them sing and move around with a big smile on her face! And when everyone clapped after every song, Elinore was SO excited! She jumped up and down and flung her arms. I think it was her attempt at clapping like everyone else. She wasn’t so easy to entertain between songs and during introductions, she liked the action! The last song, she got a bit fussy and was ready to go, but she did so well through it!

Open Mouth

I've noticed lately that when I feed Elinore, it's nearly impossible for me to keep my mouth shut and feed her a bite at the same time.  I constantly find my self with my mouth wide open when I'm giving her a bit, and if she's being stubborn with the bite of food, I'm opening my mouth wider.  I don't know if I think I'm trying to show her or what I'm doing, but I've tried to keep my mouth closed when I feed her and it's hard!