Getting ready for Preschool

Today we went to preschool to see the 4 year old classroom and meet Elise's teachers for this school year, Mrs. Bowman and Mrs. DeGrush.
She brought each of the teacher's a cake pop to enjoy & got to play and meet new classmates as I filled out paperwork. She will attend 5 days a week, and I'm praying for another mom at the school to possibly car pool with. I got a few names while I was chatting with the teachers, but we'll have to see how schedules work out.
Elise is excited and I know it will be a good year. She needs a little more stimulation than I can give her right now.

Excited to have a loft this year in preschool!

Chatting with the new teacher, Mrs. Bowman

4 year old Elise

Last Weekend in August

The summer is winding down and Elise has been taking in some of the "lasts" of summer 2011. We went to the water park at Carowinds on Sunday, and the day before she had a pool party for a friend's birthday.
As she has been busy getting in the "last of" our little Ariana is now 15 weeks old, and found her thumb this past Thursday (8/25). She is now able to soothe herself, and so the next night - she slept through the night for the first time! Hallelujah. She has consistently been sleeping through the last 3 nights & I think we've turned a corner. What a blessing.

Enjoying some water fun!

John also has wanted to wrap up a few projects around the yard - so he and Elise worked on scraping the back shed & he was able to do some painting, too. It's hard to believe summer is nearly over. We've stayed close to home this year so far, and it's been full of adjusting to life as a family of four - but we look forward to the school year and getting back into daily/weekly routines.

Working on projects: repainting the shed

14 weeks

Life here continues to be busy! Here's some pictures from this last week. Ariana is 3 months old (14 weeks) and Elise is 4 - going on 12!

Story time with Grandma June

This past weekend I had an extra person to care for - Curt had all 4 of his wisdom teeth taken out & so he came over Friday for the day so we could make sure he got his pain meds and some food in his belly so he wouldn't be nauseated. He was a good patient...I just couldn't resist taking a picture of him during his recovery.

Uncle Curt recovering from his wisdom teeth out

Glimpses of the girls..

Another month & a 4 year old habit broken...

We are now a quarter of the way through Ariana's first year. She has been starting to give us a little more of a schedule, and for this Mama who likes to plan and have some semblance of order...I am so grateful. Her night sleep is pretty well organized, however, we're still working on the naps. She falls asleep easily - I put her down drowsy, but not fully asleep, and she'll drift off just fine, however, just like clockwork, she will wake up 45 minutes later. I try to sooth her back to sleep without picking her up, but it doesn't always work...so this is where I'm a little baffled. I think Elise had her naps worked out by 3 months, but each child brings their own personality and challenges....this is what I'm learning.
Ariana has been playing more with toys and loves her exersaucer. She is using her hands more to grab and work to get things, and it's fun to watch her concentrate.

Ariana - 3 months old

Sweet Rosebud

We also have pretty momentus news at our house: Elise has stopped sucking her thumb! We've been talking about it for several months that big girls don't need to suck their thumb anymore, and with the arrival of Ariana, it seemed to have gotten worse. She said she wanted to quit, but she just couldn't help it - her thumb was her comfort and joy and tasted so good. Elise has been a great sleeper as a thumb sucker, too, but it was just time to take the next step after months of coaching.

We ordered a product, Mavala, which our dentist recommended & I "painted" her fingernail on Friday morning. It only took one time in her mouth & we had tears and crying that she had a nasty taste in her mouth. I helped her brush her teeth and tongue & I had her eat a little something to get a better taste, but she was so upset & kept trying to spit out the bad taste, that she threw up twice. Oh, boy~ I hadn't planned for this. The rest of the day, I saw her put her thumb to her lips, but it didn't go in her mouth. That night, she had trouble falling asleep, because she wouldn't put it in her mouth, but here we are on Monday, and she hasn't sucked it since Friday morning. Amazing! We keep telling her we're so proud of her and knew she could do it. She is truly growing up...just another step on this journey.

Reading a pop-up Narnia book...one of Elise's favorites

Story Time!

Sisters!

Busy Playing

It has been a summer of many indoor activities for Elise, simply because the temps have been much too warm to take little Ariana outside for any prolonged period of time. So, I decided to show you what a typical morning looks like at our house. I feel a little sorry for Elise, since it's been a summer unlike her others, but it's just for this season and next summer will look much different.

Busy coloring

Last Monday I took Elise for her 4 year old check up. No wonder I feel like all her clothes are getting shorter - she's grown 4 inches & gained 5 pounds since last August. She also had to have 3 vaccines which amounted to 3 shots...ouch! We went for a little ice cream treat after the visit to the doctor, and I think it helped get her mind off of it. She also invited her friend, Kaylie over to play for the afternoon.
These girls love to play dress up, and Elise is showing us her bright bandages....
In fact, they were having so much fun, that Kaylie stayed until bedtime in the evening. She ate with us & I got the girls in the bath & p.j's on & they loved it!!

Girls playing dress-up..E showing us her bandages from her shots

So fun to have a friend next door to play with! What a fun day & fun memories for these girls.

Clean little girls

From the lips of babes...

Here's a quick overview of some of the things Elise has been saying lately....mostly recorded here for us as parents, but for your enjoyment, too.

Every morning for breakfast she asks, "I would like chocolate milk, slightly warmed up." It's hard to say no when I am sipping my coffee with sugar and creamer.
Then, for lunch she likes "bread with just butter and the crust off." She will eat the turkey and cheese on the side, but just not all three in a full sandwich form...perhaps someday she'll convert and eat the crust, too. 

On Monday she asked me for some "root-beard" to drink with her lunch. I explained that it's called root-beer...so now she knows. Her world is just expanding as she continues to grasp larger concepts.

When we read to her, she's been asking about the meaning of words. I forget the story we were looking at, but it talked about a legend & we explained that a legend is like a really old story passed down. Now, we can be driving in the car & she wants me to tell her a legend...oh boy, this is when I really need to get myself an iPhone. :')

Mid-Week

Well, we may have a break through - or simply God's grace to answer our prayers for Ariana. The last 36-48 hours have been very good. Monday night she went to sleep around 8pm & was up at 12, 3, 6 & finally at 8am (every 3 hours) but only took 15-30 minutes to sooth each time and seemed much more rested in the morning. I've been watching her closely to see signs of sleepiness & have been putting her down again & got a great morning nap & an OK afternoon nap; then last night she went down at 8pm & slept until 3am; 30 minutes to sooth/feed to sleep & then awake at 7am. I can live with this! And as I type, she is again down for her morning nap. Thank you, Jesus, for answering our prayers. 
On Sunday night I was talking with some neighbors in the next cul-de-sac & one of the mom's said that she had to cut out all dairy from her diet while she was nursing her daughter & she was much more comfortable. So, I decided to try it out for myself, even though the test was negative for a milk protein allergy. I've been very careful about avoiding dairy since Sunday night & this may or may not be a contributor to our happier baby. I'll try this for a week, then slowly bring it back into my diet & see if there is a difference? I miss my creamer in my morning coffee...

Ariana - 11 weeks

 It becomes very important with the second baby to find a place for her to play while I help Elise or just keep our household running. Ariana has been holding her head up well for several weeks, so I got out the exer-saucer & she does really well. This was one of my great garage sale finds this Spring! I bought it from a grandmother who had bought it for her granddaughter & it had only been used a handful of times.

Good morning, sunshine!

 It's been high 90's and with the heat index and humidity, we've pretty much just been staying indoors, however, during Ariana's nap, Elise and I went outside and rode around the cul-de-sac together just to get a little vitamin D. She and Kaylie had so much fun...even though we could only stand the heat for about 45 minutes!

Follow the leader!

Elise - 4 years old

Heading into August

August 1st. ..every year these summer months fly by faster and faster, but especially this year. This past week we took Ariana to a GI specialist, and he determined that she has a immature digestive system, and it will resolve itself in a few months time. He tested her for an allergy to my milk and dairy products and it came back negative. He also took an x-ray and it didn't show any blockage or abnormalities. That is all good news, but for this sleep-deprived mom the waiting game feels like a slow, painful process. Lord, grant me strength, endurance and grace for this season.
I feel like she is a happy baby & pretty content when she is awake and comfortable, but our biggest challenge right now is her sleeping and soothing to sleep. I have pumped milk for bottles for a 24 hr period to see how many ounces she is eating, so I know she's getting enough to eat; and we've started her on prevacid for her reflux, but she still is not sleeping like the baby we had for the first 4 weeks, when she would nap for 2-4 hours during the day & could go for 5-7 hour stretches at night...we're going backward. As a woman, I feel the need to "talk" this through - so here is my outlet:
Right now she is going to sleep around 8:30-9pm & sleeping until just before 2am; then I am up with her feeding, burping, soothing until 3am; then she will go back down until around 5-5:30am & sometimes 6 or 6:30am; then she is up to eat, burp & is wide awake for the next 1.5 hours & gets sleepy, so I sooth her again & she falls asleep, only to sleep for about 30 mintues. This is not enough of a nap & she's still sleepy, so I leave her in the crib & offer her the paci & she will close her eyes and sleep a bit more or she just gets irritated again will wake up. Sometimes I try soothing again & some days I just get her up with a toy to play with some more & try to sooth to sleep a bit later. I feel like this is the pattern I deal with all day until evening again when she will readily go to sleep for bed. I have resorted to putting her in the swing to sleep & she does seem to like this & will go for a longer stretch, but I feel like this is somewhat of a crutch when I need more than 30-45 minutes. So - we just take a day at a time & I pray over little Ariana that Jesus would sooth her little tummy & give her comfort for He is the giver of life. I keep reading in my book, "Healthy sleep habits, Happy baby" to try suggestions to make sure she can learn to sooth herself to sleep & develop good habits, but I also feel like she's dealing with the reflux & gassy tummy, and I have a hard time letting her 'cry-it-out' when I know she's uncomfortable. We just take a day at a time & pray for new mercies every morning.

Here are a few snapshots of our smiley, happy baby.