Stuff

We actually have winter weather in December! This has been pretty rare these past few years. Cold, yes. Winter elements? Nope. But last night it iced everything. Now ice is not near as fun as snow but I'll take what I can get.

Eily has almost started crawling. Sunday night I had her on the floor in front of me and Mom and she was just right there. We got so excited and totally missed the last five minutes of the sermon. Sorry Bro. Steve. Yesterday she moved both legs and one arm but then dive bombed on the last arm movement. She gets so excited rocking back and forth that she hinders herself. But it's totally cute. She's down to two naps now. One at ten and one after lunch. She is getting the idea of the sippy cup much faster than the other two girls. Claire was about 10 months before she figured it out and I think Elaina was around the same age. She doesn't laugh but she chuckles at me and her sisters. Apparently we are quite silly. Daddy is completely wrapped around her fingers. We always let the girls cry themselves to sleep and he has the hardest time letting her do that. Thankfully, her cries last less than a minute most of the time. She's a great sleeper.

Elaina is getting more and more adult-like. Ok, maybe adult isn't the right word. Maybe older-child-like is a better way of saying it. She has finally started acting better most of the time. (This morning is not included in that last sentence.) She is generally happy, obedient and easy to work with. We are doing How to Read in 101 Lessons. We are on lesson 6 and she loves it! Afterwords, we do a few pages in a pre-K workbook I bought at BAM. This is her favorite part of school. She calls it her hickory-dickory-dock book because there is a mouse on the cover. She gets to match things and color things and learn how to make alphabet letters and all sort of fun things in that book.

Claire is...well, Claire is 2. Need I say more? We are definitely having to work on not being bossy and not being defiant and not throwing fits and not whining, etc... but she also is the most tender and loving child in the family. The other day the girls were fighting over which chair belonged to which person and I squatted down by Elaina (b/c she should be old enough to get this concept, right?) and told her I really needed her to just be older and sit in the other seat b/c it would be such a big help to Mommy, blah, blah, blah and while Elaina's lower lip started sticking out Claire jumped up and said, "I'll do it for you , Mommy!!" So sweet. She even patted my cheek on the way to the chair. And no matter what toy the fight is over, as soon as Elaina starts crying with a broken heart about losing the battle, Claire immediately hands the toy to her and tries to console her. Yeah, I think Elaina has caught on to this too. We are going to have to talk that maneuver out soon. We are also trying to work on potty-training. We were doing pretty good and then she got sick and now we are back to square one. I'm just following her around with a bottle of Resolve. But she does look so darn cute in Elaina's panties.

Jason starts school in January. January 26th to be exact. He's going for his MFA and doing it on-line. The school is in California and they are so excited to have Jason on board. Mucho talented.

I'm good.