Last night for our Family Home Evening activity we decided to take a drive up the mountain. We wanted to see the beautiful Fall colors and be outdoors. We popped some popcorn and set out for our adventure.
Here is just a little look into what we found:
It was so nice to get out and enjoy the nice fresh air and be all together! Daddy is so busy these days we really treasure the time we get to be with him!
Micali loves taking pictures. She will take the camera randomly throughout the day and you never really know what you are going to find on it. She has even mastered taking pictures of herself on it, thanks to Aunt KayKay. It is so fun to look at the pictures and see what she has taken pictures of. These of course are some of the better ones. There are also random pictures of the floor, ceiling, TV, computer screens, and random toys on the floor. I am glad she has an interest in and is helping me out on getting little snippets of what goes on here everyday!
These blankets are part of their new bedding and they both just LOVE them. I am sure they will love them even more when it starts cooling off. And just so you know sometimes Abigail wears clothes but in the afternoon it gets to HOT in the house for her and she gets cranky if she has clothes on. I get cranky too but just have to deal with it. :)
I have been having lots of random thoughts through out the day. I keep thinking—Oh, I need to remember that and write on the blog so I don’t forget about it.
I will just start with highlighting what each of the kiddos are doing these days:
Abigail—
this girl is on the move. She isn’t crawling yet but can somehow manage to get herself where ever it is she wants to be. She is scooting and rolling, nothing on the floor is safe. If she finds something it is instantly in her mouth. One of her favorite things seem to be paper she loves to wad it up and chew on it. She is now pretty set on her new sleeping schedule. She likes her bed when she knows it is time to be in there. She is also easy going when something comes up and we aren’t home when she should be napping like, church from 12:30-3:30.
Elijah-
I am totally loving this little man these days. He loves his mommy and says it all the time. He knows that saying “Mommy—need go potty” will get me to move. He has figured it out in the morning that as soon as he says that, I will come open the door for him to come out. Then as soon as he sees me that urge to go is gone and he just wants to climb in bed between mom and dad. He is staying dry all night already. He is very good at saying “thank you” if anybody gives him anything. He finally went to nursery without crying yesterday since our vacation that hasn’t been his favorite place. I love hearing him talk to Abigail—“Good morning Princess!” “I Yuv you, Abby—Gail” He likes to point and her and say princess and then point at himself and say prince. He never forgets to tell me in the morning to “Make smoothie, PLEASE” The biggest shocker came the other night when we put a chicken enchilada in front of him and he just totally cleared his plate.---remember he isn’t a meat eater--- We have been putting our dinner on his plate for nearly a year with the same results---he didn’t touch most of it. He finally figured out when I say “this is dinner” that it meant oh I better eat.
Micali-
This little girl is growing up way to fast. I love it and hate it at the same time. She can do so many things all by herself. Shower, shoes and socks, quesadillas in the microwave, and she is such a big help. She loves feeding Abigail, helping Eli get on the potty, singing songs to her baby sister to make her happy. If I can’t get to Abigail right away she will just climb right in her crib with her and sing her songs until I come in. She is doing really good and not sucking her thumb. This morning I said why don’t you just stick that thumb in your mouth and see if it still tastes like strawberries. She got a yucky look on her face, barely stuck her tongue out and said, yuck, it doesn’t taste good anymore. I have been trying for the last 9 months or so to think of something that would be really special that she would be excited enough to actually stop putting that thumb in her mouth. So, last Sunday I was talking to her and asked if she would want to go to the store and pick out something special---but she isn’t really attached to any certain thing so I couldn’t think of anything specific and I pick up toys and things all day long, we don’t really need anything else. Then a thought came to me A HORSE RIDE!!! For the first few days I would just remind her when I saw it in her mouth or just say—uh oh looks like Mommy and Daddy will go ride horses without their Micali girl. She would get a smile on her face and take it right out. On Friday she finally asked me to put the yucky polish that tastes horrible on her nail to help her remember, Saturday she wanted “remember tape (band-aids)” and yesterday she didn’t need anything. Now we just have to find some nice person who will let us ride their horse. I think it might actually work this time but I have thought that before. I told her she had to do it for 7 days and today is day 4. It never really sunk in until I made the chart with her and explained it all to her. Let’s hope this works.
Well it is that time again. Another month has passed and our sweet Abigail is still melting our hearts on a daily basis with her absolute adorableness.
How could this possibly be comfortable?
She has started eating a lot more food: mangos, apricots, applesauce, bananas, green beans, and sweet potatoes
We finally moved her into the crib last night. She had been in a cool little sleeper since she was born. She loved it ( I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone) but, had started moving to much I was afraid she would wiggle out of it.
Since we were moving beds I also decided that it was important for her to learn to fall asleep on her own because nursing her to sleep wasn’t working so well anymore. She liked to wake up as soon as I put her down so, especially during the day I wasn’t getting anything done except keeping her happy ---which is important—but so is her sleep.
So last night and tonight she cried for about 25 minutes and went to sleep. Today for naps it wasn’t more than 15. I am confident after doing this with the other two that she this crying time will keep getting shorter and she will be one HAPPY well rested baby! Yay!
She is moving all over the place, rolling and kind of pulling herself around with her arms and scooting her feet.
I am loving her chubbiness so instead of dressing her up and taking a nice picture for this seven month post I decided to take a couple to highlight her chubs.
A friend of mine at the library was totally laughing at her pants and called them “sausage casings.”
The little sweeties had already been tucked in bed an hour before. They were playing and having a good ol’ time and then came out to inform me they both had to go potty. They have both picked up the PELESS trait of reading while taking care of business.
This scene seems to now be repeated nightly one or two times. I am grateful Elijah is potty trained but I could do with out this nightly ritual.
It’s just me and the kids. Some days we don’t really see Daddy at all. He sometimes comes home for about 15 minutes between school and class at 4:00. Then he has class until 9:30. We do whatever it takes to stay happy on these days. Things like:
--cereal for dinner
--baking chocolate chip cookies
--favorite shows—tonight was DORA and Clifford
--library time
--TWO hour naps---ALL of us
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So far this has happened three times. I am grateful that we were eased into this schedule this semester because next semester it will be more frequently. Micali is such a great help and does what ever she can to help out like, making her own tortilla and cheese while I fed Abigail.
Sometimes we let Micali use our old digital camera to take pictures on. She can do a good job if she slows down. Other times her pictures look a little like this: 
These pictures just make me laugh. Love that girl.
Last night Micali and I got to enjoy some time out of the house together. There is a concert series that Blue Mountain Entertainment does every year and last night was the start of it. It was the Lowe Family. They have been performing their show in Branson, MO for 10 years and recently moved to Nashville. Micali loved all of the dancing and music. She was sure the girls were princesses. I enjoyed spending quality time with just her too.
Eli was even kind enough to open the doors for us!
