I'm BAAAAAACK!!!

So, I'm doing laundry late tonight because Rebekah packed her dirty uniform in an old backpack instead of in the hamper, and she needs to wear it tomorrow for chapel. So, while I'm piddling on Facebook I'm reminded that this was the time I used to sit and write blog posts. Late night before bed. So, why not post now?

Now, where do I begin? I guess I'll start with our eldest. Rebekah just turned 6 1/2, and that was pretty significant to her. She is no longer our little 6-year-old daughter. She's now a big 6 1/2-year-old girl, and she was sure to tell everyone she saw that day and the following few days after that she was "six and a half". I think she was nearly as excited about her "half" birthday as she was her real one! She is maturing more lately and is becoming a better helper at home. I have found that when I make a list of specific things for her to do (i.e. "put away books", "fold blankets", "pick up paper") she is able to tackle the items that need to be done, and she marks them off in her own way as she completes each task. It has allowed her to become much more independent, and now she wants to help me in other areas.

Joshua just turned 4 years in February. He has really matured a lot in the past few months as well. I notice it more, though, when Rebekah is not around. I guess when she is with us he takes on the "little brother" role (pestering his sister), but when she is at school he is the oldest, so he acts bigger. Yesterday after we left The Little Gym I had to run an errand and then we went to DQ Grill & Chill for lunch. I love that it is not busy, plus they play Christian music. They had run out of spoons in the plasticware container, so I let Joshua walk up to the counter by himself while I watched him from across the dining room. When he came back he nearly jumped to me, so proud that he had done it all by himself. After his meal he got to pick out an ice cream treat, so I let him go back up there to let the cashier know what he wanted. He walked in line behind another customer, waited patiently for his turn, and then after ordering his treat he waited and walked slowly back to our table so he wouldn't spill his ice cream. I was so proud of him! Before we left an older couple about in their 70s came up to us to compliment me on Joshua. "That's a fine boy you have there!" They had watched Joshua and saw me keeping an eye on him. It made me feel good as a mom to have an older and wiser couple compliment me. Now, most days are crazy, esp. with big sis around, but that truly was a proud mommy moment, and I made sure Joshua knew it, too.

My baby is ONE! Yes, Micah is 12 months! It's hard to believe! (I guess this means I need to update my header.) He has had a rough winter along with Joshua. They both have had lots of colds, but Micah has been hit with some ear infections lately. He is on #3 now since February. I am hoping once the warm weather is here to stay that he will not have any more problems. Micah has also been dropping off the weight chart, so we went to see a GI doctor on Friday, and he has put him on some supplements to increase his calorie intake. So far he has gained 11 ounces in 4 days! Plus, he is sleeping through the night! It had been so long since he had slept this well. I never realized it was because he wasn't getting enough, but it makes sense now. He is such a happy boy that it is hard to know when he needs something. He doesn't cry much, and he is very content. Even with this most recent EI he has never complained. He just plays with his ears, and he does that at times anyway, so it's hard to know if it's infected or just messing with them out of habit or fun.

I'm about to fall over asleep, so I'd better wrap this up, and hopefully get the second load of laundry in the dryer soon so I can hit the hay. Reason #497 to homeschool: no specific uniform that you HAVE to wear on a particular day of the week. OK, that's a whole other blog in itself!

Here are a few recent pics of the kids.

Long Time No Post!

Yeah, it's been a while. Life got busy with a newborn, and then I had things and ideas I wanted to post, but I got behind, and then it just felt overwhelming to post it all. So, the perfectionism in me determined that if I couldn't do it right I just wouldn't do it at all. I hate that. I enjoy blogging, and it's the only way I journal, so I really need to get back to posting again.

Thanksgiving is upon us, and Christmas will be here before we know it. I am not sure how well I'll post trying to start back up again with the busy holidays happening, but I'll do what I can. Here is a little update on life since May.

Rebekah graduated from preschool and spent much of the summer making up stories and typing them on the computer. I translated her misspelled words and put them on Facebook, and there I have a hard copy as well as Rebekah's originals. In addition to her stories she made a doll out of paper who she named Taylor and called her sister. This was her way of coping with the fact that Micah is another little brother. For the first few months of Micah's life Rebekah showed a bit of interest in him, but she mostly did her own thing. However, in July we went to the Smokies and met up with some friends during our vacation. The two girls Rebekah's age doted on Micah and thought he was so cute. They wanted to hold him and play with him. From that moment on Rebekah realized that her baby brother was very special, and she took much more interest in him.

Before long it was time to start school. My little girl started kindergarten! She was so thrilled to attend the academy where she went to preschool. She knew three children in her class, and the only child I was confident she knew attended phase-in with Rebekah. They were so excited to see each other that first day. Rebekah transitioned great into kindergarten. She has enjoyed school very much. Getting up early in the morning is starting to get old now, and she has mentioned homeschooling the past week or so. I am still very much open to that if she would like.

Rebekah has been doing really well academically. She is bringing home a first grade reader since she is one of two students who is reading in her class. Just the other day she decided to read one of her books to us as a family. She held up the book so we could see the pictures. She looked like a little teacher reading to her class.

Joshua is growing by leaps and bounds as well. He started pre-K 3 this year and really likes it. We were concerned that Joshua would not be able to attend a three-year-old class (requirement is potty-trained and not having regular accidents) because he was having poop accidents and not going on the potty. Well, he would hold it more than have accidents. He had a couple of really bad days at the beginning of the year, but he is doing much better, however, even though he doesn't have accidents he doesn't poop on the potty either. At home he asks for a pull-up, and many times I find that he is constipated. I may be making a phone call to the ped's office on how to deal with this because I think he is holding it and backing up himself.

On a good note, Joshua is already starting to read. He can read 2-letter and some 3-letter words. Most words are sight words, but the other day he sounded out 'hot'. I'm sure he is picking up a lot from Rebekah. I've thought about taking the kindergarten readers Rebekah brings home that her class is doing, and let Joshua look at them. I had thought about formally teaching him to read, but then I decided against it. He needs to move at his own pace and according to his own interest. As of now he really likes to figure out what letter certain words start with. For example, he will say "sun" starts with "ssssss" "S!" And he'll ask me to spell words as well. Rebekah did the same thing at about his age. While I'm reading he also likes to point out words he knows, or if he hears a word he likes he'll ask me to point it out to him.

Micah is 8 months now, my little peanut at 14 lbs., and a pretty easy baby overall. He was a great sleeper until at 4 months he started teething, and he went from being a great sleeper to waking in the night wanting to nurse. Over time we ended up spoiling him unintentionally, but because he shares a room with Joshua we didn't want to let him cry it out for long. Just a few days ago I decided to make sure he is on his tummy (he loves to sleep on his tummy) and pat his bottom and rub his back and head. He settled down and slept the rest of the night. We are down to waking once in the night or less now.

Micah has also been a slow gainer. For a while the pediatrician was concerned about his weight. I tried adding bottles, but he had no interest in them. I looked for ways to increase nursings and food feedings, and he did well. He is still slow gaining, and I'm keeping tabs on his weight at home. He is a very happy baby and doesn't complain unless he is really hungry, and we are on the road home. I couldn't ask for a more laid back child!

One exciting thing is that Micah is almost crawling! He has scooted his knees forward a couple of times, but he isn't actually making much progress moving forward yet, although he is so close! We keep watching in anticipation for him to take those first crawling "steps".

Since it has been several months since my last post here are some fairly recent pics of the kids.

My Mother's Day

My mom: she is a truly incredible woman of God. She is an inspiration and has taught me so much over the years. She continues to guide, teach, and encourage me in my life as a young mother. Not only that, but she provides babysitting services for us. :-)

After early church then lunch at Red Lobster with my parents we went home, and my family presented me with gifts. The kids gave me a new hand mixer. Yeah! My old one from when we got married was on the fritz. Darrin gave me a new Mother's ring to include Micah's birthstone.


More than jewels or gifts I am blessed by a wonderful family.

See Rock City

Rebekah had her last field trip to Rock City at the end of April. Originally, I had thought I would probably end up taking all 3 kids with me along with my parents, but instead, my mom offered to keep Micah at their house while Joshua attended preschool. This worked so much better. I was able to enjoy my time with Rebekah and not have to worry about extra little ones with me. It would have been way too hard to watch Joshua too as well as to fit through the "Needle's Eye" and "Fat Man Squeeze", two very narrow alleys between two humongous rocks, while wearing Micah. Rebekah was frightened that she would get stuck even though she is so tiny. I ended up carrying her through both of these. The first one she was absolutely terrified, and I had to have her look up so she could focus on the sky above so as to not feel claustrophobic.

When it came time to choose between crossing the swinging bridge or the stone bridge she chose the latter. However, after we had crossed and she watched some of her friends take the swinging bridge she wanted to try it. It was too late, though, so maybe next time.


After crossing the bridge you can overlook Chattanooga and see up to 7 states through the telescopes.



All the girls hung out together except one who had moved on with two of the boys from the class.






These pictures don't do it justice. These set-ups of fairytales are lit with black light.




All in all, a fun day. I had been wanting to take our family for a while. It had been a few years since I had been to Rock City. But we just felt like Joshua was still rather young to go. I couldn't get over all the places that would make nice photo backdrops, but we just didn't have an opportunity to stop since we were with a group, plus a large school group was behind us. It was a beautiful day to enjoy Rock City!

Innovation at Work

Rebekah's latest craze this week has involved lots of paper, scissors, crayons, and requests for me to staple her work together. Most of the time she creates books or cards. However, she got the bright idea today to design her own shirt with her name on it. She came to me with the paper already decorated and placed an S where she wanted me to staple. Everything was done on her own accord. I thought this took some creativity on her part to come up with the idea and create it. There is also another piece of paper that goes around the back of her torso which you can barely see behind her hand. Funny how she was ready to model as well.

More Family Fun

Since the kids go to preschool on Wednesdays I had not planned on doing anything with Carrie today. I figured the kids could play this afternoon while I took Micah to Breastfeeding Support Group and then we might visit a bit, but that would be all. Well, my parents and my sister had decided to go to the zoo today, and since it was cooler this morning they were thinking about going in the afternoon, particularly since I said we'd join them if they waited until lunchtime. So that is what we did. Grandpa is visiting for a few days while Carrie is here so he can see most of his great-grandchildren at once, plus, he hadn't gotten to meet Micah yet.

Yesterday we had a little get together at my parents' house. We had planned to go to Coolidge Park, but it rained us out, so we just hung out at the house instead. Grandpa joined us then and then again for the outing to the zoo. I have to say that I was very impressed that he walked so much. He did great! He used one of the strollers as a support for his balance.

Here Grandpa held Micah for the first time before we headed out to the zoo.


Here are a few animal highlights from our visit.





This mama Tamarin is carrying 2 babies on her back, although you can only see one because the other one is on the other side of her.






What did Micah do the whole time?


Grandpa managed to get all the girls in one place for a brief moment.


While we were looking at the chimps my mom and I saw Rebekah looking at one of the information posts about them. Rebekah told us she read it, so we asked her to read it aloud. Sure enough! She read all but Gombe Forests, and she almost read chimpanzees calling it "chimpanz". I wish I had a photo of it now. She read more than I realized she knew.

Carrie and I took our oldest girls on the carousel (Joshua didn't want to ride it) before heading home. It was a fun afternoon, especially for $1 per person on Dollar Day.

I've Moved!

I hope you have found me! :-)