Pictures

I finally charged the batteries for my camera, so here are some cute pictures of the kids! Will hooked up Lauren's Peek-A-Block Wagon to his Winnie the Pooh car as a "coal tender" and took Lauren for a ride around the house.
Mollie enjoying a Chew-ee. Isn't she getting big? She is recovering from her surgery where she was fixed twice - she was spayed and she had her hernia fixed. She is so happy that her hernia is gone (it was about the size of a tennis ball) and she is overdoing it a bit - trying to tackle stairs and running around. Lauren is now crawling - well scooting around. She has started to pull up her knees a bit, but she mostly pulls with her hands and pushes with her legs if she wants to get somewhere. This is just a "sequence" picture of Lauren crawling. She's almost 7 months. Will just loves his puppy - sometimes a little too much. Mollie is a bit of a mama's girl, but she just loves her kids, too.

Joe and I visited Will's preschool last night for orientation. It was strange to be on the other side of things! He is going to have a great time and I know he's going to make wonderful friends. We found out his teacher and his classmates (all of which I was very excited about!) and we even brought him home a t-shirt with his school's name on it! He was very excited about that.

Joe left this morning for his BNCOC (I think that's what it is) school. It stands for Basic Non-Commissioned Officers something - National Guard school to be promoted. He will be gone for two weeks down in Mississippi tackling various Army classes, etc. He was very excited that he didn't have to bring his field gear to this school. At PLDC he got a ton of ant bites from their field training. We will miss Daddy while he is gone! Luckily, my mom is flying up here on Monday to help out with Will, Lauren, and Mollie (the latter being the most work!). It will be great to see Mom and I know that we'll get a lot done while she's here. She's already told me that I get time off during the day to do whatever I want - I'm going to try to get caught up on my scrapbooking. I need to finish Will's toddler book and start his preschool book (I've scrapbooked through Christmas 2006) and I need to get caught up on Lauren's baby book (I've scrapbooked all the "before" pages, her birth, family, and coming home pages). Well, I better go get ready for the day.

Tooth

Lauren got her first tooth last night! Just wanted everyone to know. This first tooth came in around the same time that Will got his first tooth - sometime between the sixth and seventh month. Yeah!

Parenting

Well, last week was a difficult parenting week, but we have come out of it successfully! Starting with Will: Will hit the stage where he's realized that he is a person. He decided that he didn't have to do what I told him to do AND he didn't really care about his consequences. Joe and I worked it out together and now Will is listening to us and obeying us. Not only did we have to teach him to respect us as his parents, but he had to learn that while his needs are important, they don't always require immediate attention. I know this is going to take longer than a week to control, but we're headed in the right direction. We have to keep our eyes on our long term goals for our kids - 1. To love God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength and 2. To become loving and caring people that get along well with others. I'm sure our goals will lengthen as we become more seasoned parents, but that's my short list for now.

Lauren learned to sleep through the night last week. We started on Wednesday night and we listened to her scream for an hour and a half. On Thursday night she woke up once and only cried for a couple of minutes before she went back to sleep. Ever since then she has been sleeping all night and she wakes up at 6:00 to eat and the she goes back to sleep until around 7:30 or 8:00. Letting your kids cry it out is an awful feeling, but I am so excited that it is done and I won't ever have to do that again.

On a brighter note, Lauren is crawling. Well, she is scooting around the house. AAH she is mobile! She started this last week and she is getting faster every day! Will has memorized his first Bible verse at church this month! We are so excited for him and we're looking forward to him learning more of God's Word!

Mollie is recovering from her surgery and we are so excited to have that ordeal behind us! Sorry, no pictures today!

Simpsonized

Joe found this website that "Simpsonizes" pictures. You upload a picture of yourself (or someone else) and they turn you into a cartoon

Pictures

Here are some updated pictures. Not too much going on around here - just settling into a life with a puppy and two small children. The kids are doing great. Mollie has been through some tough stuff - she had three types of worms! That was an adventure! She gets her hernia fixed next week and she will be spayed during the same surgery. Lauren riding her "bike"Lauren trying to crawlWill on his Pooh Car - notice the large bruise on his headMollie sleeping in the hallway - she's getting big! Mollie sleeping on her bed one night. She has a habit of sleeping on her back - you can see her large (dirty) hernia.

Six Month Doctor's Visit

Lauren went to the doctor today for her six month doctor's visit. We saw Dr. Menkus at 3:00 in the afternoon - not the best time to bring two kids to the doctor! We left a little early because I thought we'd hit some school traffic (it was the first day of school today) and we arrived at the doctor's office about 20 minutes early. We waited in the waiting room until 3:15 (yes, 35 minutes) and then we went back into the other "waiting" room. Lauren got measured and weighed and she is growing well. She is 26 inches tall (55%), 14 lbs 8 oz (20%) and her head is 42.5 cm (49%). So, she's long and skinny - sound familiar. She still weighs less than Will at this age and I'm not sure about the height. I don't remember that one and I'd have to look it up. We waited longer to see the doctor and I thought I would lose my mind. There's something about a tired 3 year old and a tired 6 month old in a small room that can just drive you crazy. Dr. Menkus came in to see Lauren and she said that Lauren looks great. The doctor noticed Lauren's strength as she sat up perfectly for her. I told Dr. Menkus that Lauren is starting to pull up (she can either get into a squatting position or she gets onto her knees) and she will reach for toys out of her reach and "crawl" her hands to them until she falls on her belly and scoots. We talked about feeding and she said that everything looks great. Lauren is still waking up in the middle of the night and so we talked about that. I'm still not sure if she's hungry or if she just wants attention. She was sleeping the night at 4 months until she got that awful ear infection (the one that took three trips to the doctor and three different antibiotics to clear it up) and then the time change from our trip to CA got her a little turned around. I know she just got through a growth spurt because she was eating a TON of food and now she is back to "normal." We'll see about the night time feeding - it would be nice to sleep. Lauren got her two shots and one oral immunization and we went home. When we got home, Will wanted to play outside, Lauren wanted to eat and go to sleep, and Mollie needed a bath because she pooped in her crate while we were gone and she got poop all over her. Talk about a fun afternoon. I got the dog cleaned while Lauren screamed (sweet Will tried to calm her down and he found a pacifier and kept trying to put it in her mouth - she's never liked her pacifier....), I nursed Lauren and put her down for a nap, got my potato casserole in the oven, got the chicken out to defrost, and then Will and I went outside to play. While we were outside, I hosed down the dirty bedding and ran back inside to put it in the washer. Mollie enjoyed drying outside and Will played with the girls. What an evening. Here is a picture of Mollie sleeping - she's been sleeping on her back!

6 Months

WOW! My little girl is already six months old. It is hard to believe that my baby is getting so big - she is growing out of her 3-6 month clothes and she is getting so long! Lauren appears to be long and thin, but that's really not a surprise to me. She is eating really well. She loves to eat peaches, squash, bananas, sweet potatoes, yogurt, and any type of bread (cheerios, puffs, etc). Today I made some carrots, pears, chicken and some more sweet potatoes, squash, and peaches. I've progressed her food about the same as Will, but at a little quicker pace. I'm hoping that she'll move on to finger foods within the next couple of months. She really wants to eat whatever we're eating. She loves to drink from a cup and she will try to grab your drink from your hands. She absolutely loves ice water!

She has really started to play well. She will spend time on the floor playing with the peek a block wagon, leap frog table, and all of her miscellaneous toys. I brought up new toys from the basement that she's not quite ready to play with, but I know she'll be hitting the next milestones faster than I think. She has started to lean forward to grab toys and she's very determined to get things out of her reach. I'm watching her move and I keep thinking that she's going to start crawling soon. You never know with little ones. They seem ready to do something and then they'll wait a couple of months before they accomplish it.

Lauren is my sweet natured baby. She is always happy and she is pretty content. She has started some stranger anxiety (or better called the I want my mommy/daddy syndrome). She has the sweetest laugh and she will just sit and giggle at her brother or new puppy. It's very sweet. She seems pretty spunky and full of energy, but her brother has a lot of energy, too! We're used to high energy kids around here.

Will is doing great. He absolutely loves his new puppy, though he could do without the play biting. I just love it when she follows him around the house or curls up next to him. I really want them to be close, just like Ella. We're getting Will ready for pre-school. I am very excited about him making friends on his own and I know that he is going to love the stimulation of pre-school. He doesn't need academics (I don't think they need academics at this age) - he needs the stimulation of his social skills and development. I'm excited about him learning how people work together and how the world functions outside of his home. I hope that I've given him enough preparation to go out into the big scary world of 3 year old pre-school..... but I really think he'll have a great time.

Updates

I don't have time to write much this morning, but we're doing great with Mollie. She is a beautiful dog and she checked out great at the vet yesterday. Everyone was so happy that we got another dog- they all miss Ella and remember that terrible day.


Lauren is now sitting up really well. She is at the point where you can leave her sitting and she will play with toys without falling over! It is a great milestone! Now the two kids can play together in the playroom! She is also eating biter biscuits and zwieback toast. She loves to feed herself!

Mollie

Tonight we are going to pick up the newest member of our family - Mollie Stone. She was born at MicWen Hounds in June 2007. She is a beautiful red and white female basset hound. She was actually chosen to be a show dog, but she has a hernia and she will be unable to used in the show ring. Joe and I decided to "rescue" her and bring her to live with us. She will have to undergo surgery, but we don't mind. Our home has been so empty without Ella and we are so excited to bring Mollie home to live with us. Will decided on the name Mollie (after given some choices) and he is SO excited to have a dog again. I think I'm a little crazy to bring a dog home, but I'm hoping that she'll just fit into our home and learn where to go potty quickly! Here are some pictures of her.