My Silly Crew

Well my sweeties, you bring smiles to me everyday!

Eli: I just can't believe all that you say these days! Your language is exploding and it is so fun to be your mom. You have caught on to mommy's coffee addiction and will tell me "Mommy's brown circle." Get it? My sweet Eli looks into my cup and he sees a brown circle!!! You also love to say "Oh no goodness!" which is a combination of "Oh no" and "Oh my goodness." You are the neighborhood watchdog. You know all of the neighbors names and the colors of their cars! You love to stand at the window and say "Ann's grey car" or "Daddy's black car." Your imagination continues to grow each and every day. You love to dress up and pile things into the play stroller and walk around the house. You say "Bye guys, see ya" when you leave the room. Every morning you through a fit until we put your "pippers (slippers)" on! Right now you love to snuggle with your stuffed dog and your Elmo in your crib. And yes, you still use your precious yellow binky at nap time and bedtime! I love being your mommy...

Cara: My sassy little buddy! You are trying to be just-like-mommy and I hope I live up to your expectations! When I'm dusting, you are dusting. When I'm feeding the baby, you feed your baby! It just melts my heart to see you nurturing your "mommy instincts!" I love doing your hair every morning. It is so fun to watch you pick through all of your pretties and babble while I brush your hair. We are playing a tickling game lately. I ask you "where do you want mommy to tickle you?" You always say "butt" first, then you add some of your other favorites "wrist, shoulder, neck, eyes, chin, cheeks" I think you know every body part. You want mommy to tuck you in now and I can't leave your room at naptime without hearing "tuck in?" You also have started saying "lub bu" for love you, so very sweet. You make huge messes at mealtimes and make me want to pull my hair out! You are no stranger to time outs and can really be a stinker! Thanks for keeping me on my toes and for being my girly girl.

Brady: You are a hilarious boy these days! You are getting to be quite the tough guy and are trying to wrestle Eli all the time. You start this growling sound and go up and tackle him. The problem is that he is completely afraid of you and runs away! Someday we can laugh at him for running away from you when all you can do right now is crawl after him! You are still loving you blanket and bite it as you fall asleep. Your favorite breakfast is cereal bars and you ask for all the leftovers on Eli and Cara's tray. Your favorite treats are still cookies and "mumums" of MnMs. You are learning your colors and doing great! I love the way you say "Ba-LOO" for blue. Mommy is so proud of how brave you are when we give you a bath and flush your tubies. Now you just sit there and hold the tubies for me. You love to make big messes in the play room...you pull out every book, every Little Person, and every Easter Egg. I'm so glad you give mommy kisses and snuggles when I ask. Nothing is sweeter than a snuggle with Brady...

Allie: My big girl! I can't believe how much you have grown! I have to say you are growing too fast for me. I want to stop time for a while because you are just delightful. Mommy and daddy love to oogle over you and just love the way you suck in that lower lip and smile with your eyes. You are having a lot of fun in your jumperoo, rolling over, and putting toys in your mouth. You are fighting nap and bed time now, we haven't done the best sleep training yet! Sometime soon we will start giving you veggies! I just can't say how happy it makes me to go in and find you awake and smiling every morning. My world just wasn't complete until God put you in it:)

Silliness and Sassiness

Life at our house continues to be loud and chaotic.

Eli--you are such an imaginative boy. Your new favorite activities include putting on sunglasses, hats, and random shoes and walking around pushing the stroller or grocery cart. You often will say, "Bye guys" and even will carry one of Cara's purses with you. You don't realize how silly you look. You love describing what you see outside. You stand at the window and say things like "grandma's brown car" or "big loud truck." You are very interested in what color things are, and you are about 70% accurate:) You give kisses and hugs to everyone, although you like to withhold them from mommy because you know it gets me!

Cara---what will I do with you? I love you little girl, you are my best bud, but I like the book about strong willed children was written for you. Today I told you that I think you will grow up to be a bull fighter...it suits you! You love your mommy and your care and concern for me melts me heart. You are having a lot of fun lately destroying your food and not eating it. Many times in a day you are ending up in a time out in your crib for various offenses like throwing toys, spitting, hitting the baby, being defiant. I hope you don't lose that spunk, I just have to figure out how to deal with it!

Brady--what would you do without your Poppa? You love your grandpa so very much (he loves you too!) Your favorite thing to do is play chase these days, even though you have to be carried around. We all spend a lot of time carrying you and running after Eli and Cara. I know you are a thrill seeker...I can't wait to ride the JackRabbit with you at Seabreeze someday. Your stubbornness gets you into trouble sometimes, but you are learning that a quick time out can be a good thing.

Allie---my sweet little cupcake! We got out the jumperoo yesterday and you love it! You figured out how to jump away within minutes. You are talking all the time, an adorable little babble "aahhhh, arrgghhh, aahhooo." Feeding you is difficult right now because you are very nosey. You constantly whip your head around to see what is happening in the room. You are still eating only rice/oatmeal...I plan on trying veggies after your appointment next week.

The Clean Team

After dinner I was walking around cleaning the baseboards with a broom. As always, Cara you were behind me immitating my every move. You will silently follow me from room to room as I clean and do just what I do. It is too sweet! Tonight you brothers joined you and I as we cleaned. Eli had his play dustpan and Brady crawled along with us carrying a play mop. I kept saying, "Come on Clean Team" and then you each would say "clean team." It was so adorable to watch you each trying to be just like mommy:)

Today Allie you just started talking up a storm. You definitely are learning that your can make neat sounds with your voice. You make sounds like "goo, arggg, and ahhh." You are becoming a nosey little girl and you turn your head towards sounds all the time.

Allie: My sweet, sweet baby girl. I just can't imagine life without you. Your whole life so far has been consumed with Brady's illness. Mommy is away from you so much that it breaks her heart. The wonderful thing about you is that when I come back I always get a sweet smile and coo from you! You really are a gorgeous baby with a sweet temperment. Today you rolled over from back to front for the first time...hooray! You eat every 3-4 hours and eat rice/oatmeal twice a day. You take a nap from 10-11:30, 1:30-3:00, and a short nap later in the day. You sleep in your swing during the day and in your crib at night. You sleep all night from about 9pm until 7:30am. Your giggle is so darling that it melts my heart. You laugh and smile most at your daddy who always says to you, "I've got a crush on this baby!" Allie you don't get out much becuase of the circumstances, but I promise to show you so many exciting things in the months ahead. Love you baby girl!

Brady: You deserve so much more than what you're getting in life right now buddy! But, despite it all, you amaze me everyday. You are a HUGE momma's boy and love to say "up please" all day long! You can play by yourself for an hour in the toy room and other days you just want to be held. We've never seen sillier boy than you Brady. You giggle at bedtime every night and do funny things like "pounce" like Tigger. You are coming along with your words all the time. Your new words/phrases are " look bus, big clouds, and sit dadda!" Since your surgery you are doing more and more things every day. You are pulling to stand more quickly and the look on your face tells me you feel more in your legs than you did before. You love cookies the best, but also love vegetables! In your crib you snuggle your Cookie Monster and have to fall asleep biting your "bankie." We love you Brady!

Cara: My little diva! We call you Cara Bara just because it rhymes I guess:) You have more sass than anyone I've ever met (and secretly I love that about you!) Your favorite thing to do is drink your cup...you definitely get most of your calories from that darn milk cup! Every morning mommy puts your hair up in "pretties" and you sit so patiently and love to play with your "pretty box." You and I play chase around the house and you just love to scream when I catch you. You take very good care of your baby doll that grandma got you for Christmas. An hour will go by as I watch you put clothes on, take them off, feed the baby, change the baby's diaper, and burp the baby. Speaking of burp, your favorite words are "toot, butt, loud, and burp." What a lady you are! You put 3 words together very well, sometimes 3, like "On the baby" or "Baby, burp, Loud!" When mommy does housework, like dusting, you will follow me around the whole time imitating me...too cute! I always tell you that you are my best buddy! I love you little girl!

Eli: You're are such a funny little man these days. We still call you "Beezer," a name mommy gave you because I used to say "Sneezer Beezer" after you sneezed and you would laugh. You are a big sleepy head and still like to take a little morning nap in addition to your 2 1/2 hour one in the afternoon. You love your binky (only in your crib), your Elmo, and to snuggle! I've never seen a child eat like you! You clean your plate almost every time and often clean the plate of your sister too! Your vocabulary is so big right now that I can't count your words. You literally say EVERYTHING! You can put 2-3 words together like "Gmas black car" and "go downstairs momma." You are learning your colors and can tell us what color car everyone drives. Eli you are such a caring boy, you care for everyone and make sure everything is fair. You are sensitive and kind of a big baby! Our family just wouldn't be as special if it didn't have you. Love you buddy!