Catch Up #2: January, February, March 2015

We celebrated Christmas again after returning from New Jersey.  Jason made the girls an amazing boat rocker/stair & stage combo (like this), and they still use it nearly every day.  It’s been a boat infrequently, but is more often a counter with a cash register in Lilly’s store, a place to set up blocks/dolls, a picnic table, a stage for ballet, and a place for E to practice climbing up and down stairs.  It’s such a simple toy, but the kiddos find all sorts of uses for it.

(In case you were wondering, the dogs are still doing well… the kids love them and they certainly don’t mind the attention.  And they DO get presents at Christmas – new beds and bones – despite never getting air time on the blog.) My parents also visited to bring the girls a few gifts and celebrate Christmas.

We tried to play in the snow often, and sledding down our driveway is always a hit.  (Even I think it’s super fun.)  Eleanor wanted to go out in the snow, but wasn’t so sure about the snowsuit and her inability to move in it.  Which means that once she was dressed, she wanted to be carried everywhere.  Not super fun, but she seemed to be able to slowly move more as the season went on.

Speaking of Eleanor, she took her first steps the first week of February — just one week short of her 18 month birthday.  She had been working on it for a while, cruising for months, and then one night she took about 5-6 steps in a row (giggling the whole time) and there was no turning back.  Thank goodness, too, because if you don’t walk by 18 months, they send you to therapy and with all of E’s eating/vomiting, I had really had my fill of therapy by that point.

E did graduate from feeding therapy right around her 18 month birthday, too.  She can chew, swallow, and all that good stuff.  Her favorite foods are pretty much any packaged food (especially: crackers, veggie straws, pea crisps, and eggo waffles).  She is a waffle hoarder.  She’ll eat 4 eggos or 2 giant homemade waffles in one sitting, and she’ll cry if you serve waffles to anyone besides her before she’s been served or gotten her fill.  It’s hilarious, given her eating history.

I learned about baby Tres on Valentine’s day…  I’m not sure why I picked that day to take the test — we had been having an AWFUL string of sleep — nights where the kiddos just take turns waking up and actually require your help to get back to sleep.  So I decided to keep Tres to myself until we all had a good night sleep under our belts.  That was two days later, and Jason couldn’t stop smiling amidst his “now we’re really never going to sleep” sarcasm.  He was (and is) pretty excited, and likes to often joke about his potential future life with three teenage girls in the house.  We don’t know if Tres is a boy or girl (my guess at the moment is: girl! but my record for baby sex guessing is 0 for 2, so I’m not a reliable source), but Lilly gets VERY emotional if you suggest that Tres is a boy.  She wants another sister!  (And actually, more recently: she wants another sister UNLESS she is frustrated/angry/annoyed with Elli, then and only then will she accept a baby brother.)  Seriously, though, Jason and I will just feel so happy and blessed to have another sweet healthy little one that I really can’t be bothered to decide whether I’d really prefer a boy or a girl.  It actually makes me a little crazy that everyone assumes that we were/are “trying for a boy” – I was really just trying for another little smile at the dinner table.

So, March: the Tired and the Nausea hit and nearly bowled me over.  I don’t know how people care for more than two other small children while pregnant — I’m not even sure how I managed to make it through the days that I was home with them (Eggos and lots of Curious George?).  Luckily, my winter class was amazing — such great students — that my work days were fairly easy and fun.  And we took a little vacation in March, too!  (A little teaser for my next update post…)