Snow day

Greetings from a winter wonderland!  Wonderland here is defined as 2 1/2 days of Daddy off work, one inch of snow and many many many hours of playing Wii.  :)

First, the big kids and I stuck it out as long as we could trying to shape "powder" into a ball for a snowman.  I lost the kids one by one so we settled with the one pile we formed and made it a "snow head". I'm sure there are lifesavers and raisins in the yard that need to be picked up this morning.

Then it was in and out and in and out the back door for five minute spurts with it being so cold and cloth gloves getting soaked every trip.  We did do some school (after all, we are at home already!) but played alot of board games and Wii.  Ellie had a great time with all the family around her.  Here she is sneaking off with a Wii remote.

Then by a fire to "thaw out" we set up a little table for a dice game.  Ellie crawled up to it and got herself sitting at just the right angle to be at the table!

"I can play too!"

Then we did a little painting.

And more of the dice game.  This time Ellie let us know she was really trying to get her hands on the dice and fussed whenever we moved her away from reaching distance.  So, she got her own dice.  The best motor skills we've ever seen her do was watching her put the dice into this little cup we gave her!

She had so much fun, she was sooooo quiet!  Ellie the high roller!  Soon the casinos will start calling offering a private jet to fly her out and offer her free hotel stays to play at their tables.

Family Photo

Our first family photo as a family of six.  The moment is "priceless" but the cost really was...cheering, jumping up and down, sweating, acting crazy and three large cups of ice cream with unlimited toppings.  Even in the freezing weather, ice cream always works when you ask kids to do something they don't want to do for almost two hours.

Food

I had a crazy idea this week.  And it worked for...two days.  I thought we could start feeding her real, pureed food in her tube.  It appealed to me to feed her jar food and get away from the formula she's been on so long.  So, after talking to multiple doctors, nutritionists and food companies...I had a plan.  It equated to about 8 jars of baby food, some rice cereal, some orange juice, a hefty amount of cow's milk and a large amount of rice cereal watered down enough to go through the tiny hole in her tube.  Every day.  Oh and a ton of water.  Lots of water to make all this stuff thin enough to go through.  

You know the expression "you can't do it all"?  Well, it was either sit at the table and feed Ellie all this stuff sloooooowly or say...school the kids, feed the other five people - you know what I mean.  It took so long to feed her that and I didn't even get it all in!  At least I might do "some" of the food that way, but then that involves alot of math of how many calories and grams of protein and milligrams of calcium she got from her formula minus which food I decided to substitute that particular day.  Of course when the other kids were toddlers we were happy if they ate some cereal, a few grapes, peanut butter toast and chili for dinner.  But since Ellie is just still so close to all her health stuff, even after a year - she's too fragile to just "wing it". 

It was a real test of "letting go" for me because I really do love seeing our kids eat healthy food.  For now the formula she gets is really quite impressive and comprehensive.  So be it, that's what she'll get until it's time.  

It's hard to have some really perfectly soft avocados sitting on our countertop and she only takes a tiny lick of it at best.  No biggie.  I guess that will give me more to add into this while we're watching this.  Oh and speaking of our kids eating healthy food, they will be having these for dinner next Sunday.

Artists

Here are the girls enjoying some quiet time to "create" in the house this morning.  I was creating a mess in the kitchen!

Onesies

It's cold here!!  I'm sure it's cold wherever you are too - unless we have any readers from Hawaii.  :)

Anyway I had a gift card to a baby store and browsed around and enjoyed looking for the perfect "layer" for this cold weather.  I found a pack of long sleeved onesies - size 12-18 months which is cutting it close but I knew they would no longer be needed by spring.  So here she is with the bottom later...

"Good morning!" 

And the final look!

 

Girls Night

Mommy and Julia and Ellie were all alone for a little while yesterday.

We did some hair brushing in matching outfits (disregard the blue tape on Ellie - it came off the floor as part of a game the kids play).

Then we had a possible "dangerous" scenario as we gals roasted some marshmallows.  No babies or pre-schoolers were injured in the making of this video.

Gettin' around

The cutest little thing is seeing Ellie sit on her own and play with things!

Outside she's happy in her little walker watching the crazy and sometimes dangerous football antics.

Julia obsessively kept putting a red couch pillow behind Ellie's back during breaks of her Wii playing :).  We've heard the sound of her head on the hardwood one too many times, which it's only happened once if you know what I mean!

And her latest "trouble" as we call it...Ellie finds trash and recycling cans fun and intriguing.  One time of it being pulled down and a leaky bottle of milk everywhere...

and we started closing doors around here.

Full life

The other day Jacob asked me if I thought Ellie had a good life.  I told him, "yes she certainly does seem to enjoy being a part of our family". 

Here is what it's like to be a part of our family on most days.  I took this video to show what it takes for me to catch up on some of my calendar organizing/curriculum planning/letter writing so what you see is four occupied children.  

We've got one on line studying which colleges each professional golfer attended, we've got one doing a puzzle who does not like starting puzzles but loves finishing them, we've got one playing with pre-school manipulatives since I finally decided to keep them out and not in a cabinet where they were never used, then we've got Ellie in the middle of it all.  Oh and we somehow have the volume of a kids CD kind of loud.  That adds to the humor of what our life can look like sometimes and why I think Ellie just fits in nicely here.  Never a dull moment for an exploring, growing little girl!

Eating

Well, I like vanilla pudding. Straight up sugar and food coloring - give it to me.

I offered Ellie some the other day and although the lighting is terrible (not sure why!) and I thought I had turned the camera off at the end but kept recording, I thought I'd still share our experience with it.  She does something funny that she sometimes will do that shows me, she um...does not get the concept of swallowing.  She does this hilarious little imitation of a lizard.  I got some of it captured but like I said it's not a good video. If you're a holeyellie die-hards, go for it.

Milestone #1

Ellie has begun to sit!!  She is sooooo happy and so in love with the fact that she can now get herself to the sitting position rather than what was happening a week or so ago:

                                     

Here is the "star" :).                               

"YOU want some of this?"

"It's green foam on a stick that my Mommy soaks in ice cold water."

"Nevermind, you already know how to drink."

The other kids celebrate each and every time Ellie finds her way to a sitting position.  Today they celebrated by getting down with her and cheering!

But then...

...she's off!

She does fall backwards occasionally so we are still in protection mode like were above.  She's already had her first fall on the brick floor of the house.  She cried very little.  She's a tough one!

Milestone #2

Ellis has never really been able to "bear weight" on her feet before.  You know how you always laugh at your 6 week old baby who appears to "stand"?  She still does not do this. But with a little encouragement and help from Grandma :) she started doing it the other night. Here is the end of the show...

girls laughing

Every little girl should be so lucky to have another little girl to laugh at her laughing :)...

and who loves to be tickled!  In the background the boys finally agree to choose a coat from the pile on the floor as I convince them of dropping temperatures!

Life out of the house with the four

January 2013 was a challenge.  We were inching closer to the surgery and we all had colds.  Fear set in on top of fatigue and life was just kind of upside down.

But a year later, I find  myself out running errands with the four and feeling somewhat normal. I wonder how long it will take for me to forget how all that felt to not have freedoms and abilities that I now possess again.  I ran four errands in about two hours and even though a large amount of gum and tic tacs were employed ("how many can we have now before the next stop?") - nothing was too terribly hard about it!

I still wouldn't choose to do it alot since I've gotten quite used to staying home during the day and dashing out when Jeff gets home.  But it's nice to know it's not too bad if I have to do it.  I'll just have to check the price of tic-tacs at Sam's.

Bathtubs that double as toilets

This post is gross.  Of course not as gross as it was for those of us here, so enjoy the distance you have reading this.

Twas the night of Christmas and all through the house,
One parent bathed the kids -the female spouse.

She was hurried and busy, trying to pack
All the laundry and items in a giant stack.

It was past time for bed, and we would leave early in the morn.
We weren't all just tired, we were plain worn.

When it was Ellie's turn to bathe in her little seat,
I sat for a moment because I was so beat.

But the warm water relaxed more than just her skin
I knew what was about to happen due to her grin.

She proceeded to dump the hugest load of waste
So I snatched her up quickly without any haste.

It now took both parents and even an aunt
And a Grandma too to get the girl some new pants.

We cleaned and cleaned and embraced our cross
The timing of this event put us at a loss.

But it all got done and we had to laugh
At the turn of events that can happen starting with a bath.

Kids are work, ya'll!!!  They ARE!  Embrace it! Is that Murphy's Law or what that we would be at the finish line of Christmas day and have to go out in the freezing cold with gloves on and spray the plastic crevice-laden tub seat out on the driveway and then clean our stained bathtub with bleach.  She's our first baby with poop that can stain ceramic.  And what I've learned with Ellie is that when faced with this type of task, you just have to stay in the moment and get the job done.  No time for "I can't believe this".  I used to waste time on that thought.  But what is there not to believe when your bathroom reeks of bleach and you throw two bath towels away instead of choosing to wash them?  (her poop also stains cloth)

So while away from home we realized that when you hold her arm a little, she can sit up in the tub and  you can get her clean!  It was a gift to myself to come home and donate that little tub to the charity of my choice.  Hopefully the baby that uses it next does not have a habbit of going in the bathtub like Ellie seems to. It happened away on our trip too by the way but was easy to just clean the bathtub afterwards.

We had that little tub for about 3 months and drove all around Atlanta finding the flea market that had it on craigslist.  Another Murphy's Law.  Parenting just makes no sense sometimes!

But it does make good poetry.

Happy New Year

The New Year baby Ellie announces a rebirth and new beginning to all of you for 2014!  

Julia did a great job candy cane sword fighting with Ellie during the last difficult stretch in the car.  Too bad Ellie couldn't eat it.  Also too bad that Julia couldn't understand why she could not eat yet another candy cane.

 

All is well - most of us are healthy and cold-free (although not temperature cold free!) and letting the New Year settle.  Our resolution as a family is to stay out of hospitals in 2014!!! :)