Catching Up

Things have been a little busy around here, so I thought I would catch you up on what has been going on! I did add a note to the previous post about the children waiting for those of you who had questions.

Last time we had Ellie outside, it had snowed a ton!

She loved running up and down the sidewalk, and even halted quickly to my "stop" when she got too close to the street.

There is something freeing about the first feel of spring, makes you just want to wave your arms around! She would only go to where the sidewalk ended, as the grass made her a bit nervous. After some encouragement and a hand to hold, she was ready to explore the yard of squishy turf.

Yes, they did leave the house like this. No, it is not uncommon for them to wear snow boots with shorts.

Noah, all decked out in Cars-Car gear. I don't know how we got Austin potty-trained with out Lightening McQueen! Note, Noah is doing great on that endeavor!

Monday of this week, we discovered that the basement had taken on some unwanted water. The kids had been playing down their for a while as I was making dinner and I went to call Noah up for a bathroom break. He called up that he was wet, so I started down for him (thrilled that he had ended our dry streak). After some questions, he denied wetting himself, but that he was wet from the puddle. **RED FLAG** "What puddle?!?" I run the remaining way down, and find Ellie and Noah soaked and begin to ponder why the responsible older two had not informed me of the water. Later, upon inspection of the basement, Austin says, "I didn't know there was that much water there!" Praise the Lord we caught it early and for the kind brother-in-Christ with sump pump knowledge who came to help. It was just a rock in the blades, but Daniel and I hummed the tune to this famous Disney cartoon as we were working to remove the water that seemed to be coming in faster than we could get it out:

The kids like to drag out Twister, but Daniel and I end up having more fun watching them attempt it then they have playing.

Daniel's got pretty good balance for being a ways into a Twister round and having a kid on his leg!

This is playing "Daddy's taking a Nap" and the kids are functioning as pillow, blanket and stuffed animals.

The nap quickly turns into a wrestling match. Daniel can twist with the best of them and keep four kids on the ground at a time.

On the Ellie front, she is still doing very well. I find that I am still questioning her idiosyncrasies, "Is this attachment related or just her personality?" but that will just come with the territory. Ellie is head over heels for her siblings, not so fond of dogs, starting to repeat words after us (it is the most fun to get her to say "I love you"), and understanding more English everyday. She has learned that when a new person approaches her, she gets a great reaction if she waves to them. She is up to date on her shots according to her blood work, so to Ellie's delight, she should not have to be stuck more than necessary. She has grown over 3 inches (perhaps not, she was flailing a lot the last time they measured), but she has, more accurately, gained about a pound. She is about at the 13% for both weight and height, which means we have got a healthy growing girl. Ellie is still sleeping well after five weeks of being home (has it been that long already!?). We received her COC (Certificate of Citizenship) in the mail, pretty cool.

Here, she is enjoying Sunday Brunch

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