The New Normal

Blog? What blog? Oh, that blog. I guess I should write something...


Time for an update. I will start with the smallest.

Elizabeth is almost 6 months old! I can't believe how fast the time goes, but at the same time it seems like she has been here with us forever. She is now known as "Princess Drool", "Rolly-polly-olly", or "Squirmy Wormy". She never stops moving and will be crawling before we know it!
She has mastered the art of rolling over in both directions, can arch her back right out of her car seat onto the floor if I forget to buckle her in, and can wiggle her way around in circles to reach whatever we thought was just out of her grasp. Her brown hair is still pretty sparse but has filled in the bald spots she had a few months ago.
She hates the bath tub, being left alone, and riding in her car seat. She loves her brother and sisters, esp when they are making funny faces at her. She likes to put anything she can reach into her mouth, sucking her fingers, and is especially delighted when she is able to catch her toes and get them to her mouth.
The one thing she doesn't want put into her mouth is solid food. We tried cereal for a few weeks but have stopped, since it took forever to get anything to stay in. She kept drooling it all back out faster than I could spoon it in. Maybe we will try again in another week or so.

Rebecca is my little fireball. Her curly red hair is as crazy as ever, as is her temper and her emotions in general. Anything she feels, she does in a big way. She coming out of a rough last few days but considering all the changes she has been through the past 6 months, I am glad it isn't any worse.
Our goals for the next few months (in order of my priority, not neccessarily hers) include getting her back to sleeping through the night in her own bed, going to the nursery in church, learning to ask for things without whining, and learning to use the potty.
She loves being a big kid and doing everything she can with Lenna and Andy. She likes to help with chores, especially in the kitchen. She also loves water.
She told me last week that she was working hard to turn into Ariel, her favorite princess with fins. She is excited to get fishy feet, which can be grown, apparently, by bathing at least twice a day, swimming at every opportunity, and drinking large amounts of very cold water. She wishes she had a pool in the backyard.
Her other favorite is birthdays, and she claims every other day as her "happy birthday cake present" day. We have been attending some sort of birthday or other celebration requiring cake at least twice a month since we moved here, so she has gotten to pretend easily.
She is mastering words and loves to talk, sing, and read books. She is learning to name her letters and spell her name but is really enthusiastic about shapes right now, so we are going with that for a while. Her current favorite shape is an oval, which she can spot just about anywhere. She likes bare feet and bubbles and wants to be the baby sometimes.

Andrew is growing while he sleeps! He lost another tooth last week and his pants are all at least three inches too short. He loves to play outside and ride his bike. He learned to climb a tree at the start of the summer and is working on dribbling a basketball. He loves swimming at the pool at his cousins' house.
He has proven to be very responsible at doing his chores such as taking out all the garbage and vacuuming. He also likes to help in the kitchen.
He has spent most of his summer playing with girls, and we are all praying for a nice boy his age to move into our neighborhood. There are plenty of boys around, but finding one that is fun to play with, uses clean language, and doesn't beat little kids up, is proving to be a challenge.
His reading skills exploded in kindergarten and he is turning into quite a reader- he is into Geronimo Stilton and Magic Tree house books right now. He has taken to borrowing Lenna's beginner piano books and teaching himself to play. He is ready for lessons as soon as we can schedule and pay for them, probably next year. After a couple tries, he has the songs memorized and can play through with both hands and no music. Not prodigious, we are only through Old MacDonald and Jolly Old Saint Nicholas so far, but Lenna has forbid him from moving ahead of her.
 His favorite thing about the move was his chance to spend more time with his relatives, especially his Papa Bear. So far he has enjoyed "guy time" at a minor league baseball game and is scheduled for a fishing trip and some gardening work this weekend. His aunts, uncles and cousins have all shown him a good time with sleepovers, bowling, swimming at the pool and the lake, riding a horse, watching movies and playing video games.
His little spirit is really starting to show now that he is better at expressing himself. He introduced himself to the ward by going up to the front in Sacrament meeting in June and bearing his testimony of prayer and Heavenly Father's love. Everyone was very touched. He enthusiastically prepared a talk about the importance of temples and eternal families for primary on Sunday. His sensitivity sometimes causes him trouble but is sweet.

Lenna is living up to her name, which she recently learned means "Bright one."
She adjusted right away to the new school and had no trouble academically. All schools come with mean girls and she had some trouble for a while but ended up well. Her prayers were answered when two girls in her class at school were found living right here in our neighborhood and they have become good friends.
We had to do some hoop jumping and pushing to get her tested for the gifted program here but after getting the right people involved she was able to get tested and accepted into the magnet gifted program here and will be in a class with all other gifted fourth graders next year. She is looking forward to the challenge, it will be interesting how she adjusts to not being the first one done every time.
Instead of taking the summer off, she has been trying to fill every week with something new to do. We had a great reunion in West Virginia with her best friend Leara, where they made cookies, dyed their hair with kool aid, and went on a nature scavenger hunt.
After that she has kept herself busy with Spanish class at the library, memorizing the bookmobile schedule, devouring library books like they are ice cream cones, taking piano lessons from her cousin Zan, and joining horse club. She went on an overnight adventure where she learned to ride a horse, braid horse tails and manes, and care for horses in general and got to sleep in the hayloft.
This week she is finishing up drama day camp with the local children's theater and will make her stage debut as Perdita in 101 Dalmatians. She is very excited to memorize lines, sing a solo, and do some dancing while wearing a doggy costume and stage makeup.
Lenna has been a great helper with all of the juggling we have had to do lately. She is learning to cook some things in the kitchen, is in charge of loading and unloading the dishwasher daily, and keeps all the kids in check when they go outside to play.

Mike is very busy with work, and the commute to and from work. We miss having him around in the afternoons but love our time together on the weekends. Mike's brother Matt just moved into our townhouse complex and has a similar commute, so they have started carpooling. It gets them both home in time for dinner and an hour before the bus would for about the same cost, so we are enjoying that blessing.
Mike loves his job and the important work that he is doing. There are lots of advancement and learning opportunities that are available to him that he is excited to take advantage of in the future. 
Mike is enjoying finally coming home after 14 years of living in other states. He has wasted no time embracing his role as son, uncle, brother, and grandson and works hard to be present at special events whenever possible and help out whenever he can. We are all enjoying the chance to be part of a local extended family, though it seems to come with an abundance of cake- at least every other weekend!
We are feeling the difference in the smaller ward here, since we both just got callings and people actually notice when we aren't there. Mike was asked to teach Elder's Quorum our second Sunday there, then was called to do it permanently the week after that. It always makes me smile when an older couple comes up to us, especially Andrew, and tells us they remember when Mike was just that big.
I am finally feeling like I have a little more control over things. It seems to be directly correlated with the regularity of Elizabeth's sleeping schedule and the ability to keep things following a routine. They say kids thrive on routine and regularity- I guess their moms do, too.
I have only gotten hopelessly lost once or twice but was saved by some over the phone navigating by Mike. And am down to getting a little bit lost to only once a week or so, and only make wrong turns every other trip, instead of every time I get in the car. It's getting better. For a while the kids took to adding "unless mom gets lost" to every plan we made. "We will be there in 10 minutes, unless mom gets lost." "We are going to be home in time for dinner, unless mom gets lost."
I was just called as the Relief Society secretary. The calling I left behind in GA. I guess I wasn't done learning from that one yet? I have only done one Sunday so far, but so far so good. Except, when they sustained me in sacrament meeting they read my name as the RS president, not secretary. So I got to have a mini heart attack for about 5 seconds, until the bishop corrected the counselor and he started over. Then I got put in the right place and felt much better.
I was feeling squished and overwhelmed with all of our stuff stacked all over the place here, so we stuck it all in storage. It is my goal to have it all back here and unpacked before school starts again so we don't have to pay for it anymore. I think I might need to buy another book case though.
We have enjoyed the benefits of apartment living when it comes to not being responsible for maintenance and lawn care, but enjoy the large yard and little space for a flower bed that comes with the townhouse. For Mother's Day I was given a flat of flowers to plant with the kids help, and so far they are still alive! Becca and Andy were a great help in getting them planted. I enjoy our close proximity to the park across the street and the elementary school that the kids can walk to- hooray for no more carpool lines!
Hopefully as things settle into our "new normal" I will be able to get things in order here then find time for things like blogging, reading, and crafting again. And to find a gym with child care so I can start running again. After I find the boxes with my sewing machine, craft supplies, and books! I have to remind myself that I just had a baby in the midst of all our chaos and to give myself and our family some time to adjust, which is harder than I thought it would be.
Mike just told me to contact a publisher so I could finish my mini novel, so I guess I am done. Pictures to come in the next post!