guess what is happening at our house???

charlie has been asking to wear lightning mcqueen underwears for the past week, but he had a bad gastro bug that was not compatible with potty training.  we held out on him for about a week, but i didn't want to miss our window so on sunday he chose to wear underwears and we agreed. I was in denial for a couple days that we are actually potty training, but i have finally embraced it. the picture above was taken on sunday when he wanted to have his feet in hot water to help him go pee. thankfully as of today he is over that!

this is the story of my life right now!

he has done awesome and didn’t have any accidents today (only had 1 a day the other days) and we were doing tons of stuff (music class, sams club, etc). even tonight it took me 1+ hour to put the girls to sleep and he came into the nursery 3 times to tell me that he had to go pee. very impressed especially since he was totally entranced by “the grinch”.

fyi – too much info, but I have to record it… the funny thing about charlie is he can squeeze out a little poop easier than he can go pee. for just 2 gum drops he will squeeze out the tiniest little nugget (well not really a nugget right now because of the gastro illness). it is quite unbelievable, but he gets so proud I can’t help but get excited for him.

hopefully this no accident thing continues!

totoh nehnek

who doesn’t love little butt cheeks?!??

ellie almost taking off. you can see claire is literally marching because she is so excited to get into the tub.

charlie getting in on the action.

he even helped wash the girls’ hair the other night. let’s just say that all 3 kids in the tub was not a success and won’t be repeated for a bit. too many slippery moving babies to manage.

8 month old little munchkins

I am way past due on giving some updates on eleanore and claire. some bits of their personalities are really coming out and I wanted to record my observations and see how they play out.  I have to say writing these updates are really hard and my brain hurts the whole time because in general eleanore and claire are more similar than different, but we are really trying to see the differences between them and record them. I also don’t want to pigeon hole either of them into a typecast. I love watching them develop and change and the funny thing about these observations is often times I will say “oh claire is always doing X” and then realize the next day that eleanore is doing the same thing! so confusing. both of these girls are active, smiley, joyful little beings and we are so thankful for them!

Eleanore

• is definitely more calculated and cautious than her sister, which leads her to sometimes have a bit of stranger anxiety or study a situation before joining. this by no means suggests that she doesn’t bonk her beezer 100+ times a day. when in a new situation or place ellie likes to quietly explore her surrounds (play with toys). at home she is more adventurous and louder.
• is extremely active and is adventurous, but since I have an almost perfect comparison with claire I can see that she assess a situation for a few seconds before diving in (unlike her sister).
• when crawling she likes to have her left leg out straight like a peg. she must think it makes her faster or able to stand up super fast.
• loves to be with people. if you are on the ground ellie will instantly crawl over to you and “climb” up you. she continues to love to be standing – especially on her tip toes.
• can walk while pushing charlie’s cat truck, but doesn’t get much practice because when he sees her using his truck he runs over and takes it from her.
• I wish I could spend more time reading books to her because she really enjoys them.
• loves to eat and will keep her mouth open like a little birdie. she likes picking up cheerios and cheese and giving her a baby mum mum will keep her from grunting and groaning in her high chair. the only issue with ellie is she still spits up quite a bit, which earns her the nickname of pukeymon. I am hoping she doesn’t have reflux or some allergies, but I can’t quite pin down what she pukes up more. I really think it happens when she gets really twisted or her tummy gets pushed on quickly after eating so she usually has to spend a few unhappy minutes in the office before she is free to roam.
• in the morning, ellie is delighted to see her sister. if claire is in her crib while I am changing ellie she will twist and smile and twist more to see her. dressing and changing her is like wrestling an alligator.
• she will babble “bababab” or “dadadada” all the time and when she is tired or melting down she buzzes her lips over and over. she will also fake cry a bit more for attention.
• we notice that ellie is using her right hand more and claire her left hand. we are not sure if they will have mirror image handness – either way it is fun to watch.
• LOVES charlie. she lights up when he comes in the room and makes her laugh all the time. she likes to play hide and seek with him around the kitchen table.
• we have been bringing the family swimming at the RAC on saturdays to wear everyone out. eleanore definitely loves to splash. she will splash water and it will hit her face then she evaluates what happened and gets a big smile on her face or lets out a giggle and starts all over. she will also splash like crazy in the bath tub. if you bathe her you will get wet!
• ellie is still the “littler” sister, but not by much. I have no idea what the girls weigh, but they are still tiny for their age. bill and I both agree that they are having a growth spurt though. ellie wears size 3 diapers and 6-12 month shirts. the shirts fit length wise, but are pretty wide and baggy around their necks. 3-6 month leggings and pants still fit her best. they both wear size 4 overnight diapers at night and can still sometimes blow them out!

ellie has officially started sleeping 12 hours (probably for over a week now)!!! baths start at 6 pm and she will take 8-14 ounces and then sleep until around 7-8 am!!! in the morning, she will drink 4-6 oz and have breakfast at 8am. around 9:30/10 am she is ready for her nap. we are often on our way to the rac at this point and ellie will often take a pretty decent nap in her car seat. she will drink another 4 oz after nap and then have lunch around noon. she goes down for nap around 2 and will drink 6-8 oz before nap. in a perfect world she will sleep until 4 (and today both girls slept until 5!!), but usually a 1.5-2 hr nap is what she needs. then she has dinner around 5 pm and it starts all over again.

ellie was pushing the CAT truck and fell backwards. she holds on so tight that she wouldn’t let go and kept the truck like this for awhile until I can and rescued her.

ellie showing off her pukeymon skills. check out g.pop’s shirt!

e & c both trying to work the CAT truck.

morning happiness for ellie and stress for claire.

eleanore and claire playing tug-o-war with a rag. ellie has her left leg cocked out.

ellie getting ready for ski season.

Claire

• is very well balanced. bill has been practicing with her and she can stand for 10 seconds while catching her own balance before she gets to distracted and tries to lean toward a toy. does sumo squats a lot!
• is more demanding when it comes to getting what she wants. she is louder when she doesn’t like something (like being stuck in the jumperoo) or when she wants something and isn’t getting it (or getting taken away from it). 
• will squeal (loudly!) when she is delighted and often squeals or screams (like a girl would) when she is happy instead of laughing, which ellie does.
• when entering new situations or getting dropped off in childcare she is not timid. she just jumps right in and joins the party. 
• she prefers to chew on books versus read them and is most happy when she can play with charlie’s cars.
• still likes watching tv if it is on, but sadly she only stays still for about 2 minutes.
• also likes to be standing up and on her tip toes. she is really try to cruise between different pieces of furniture and is pretty successful, but she too bonks her beezer about 100+ times each day from different daring activities.
• LOVES charlie. she squeals when he comes around and tracks him down wherever he is playing cars. I often find her next to him or trying to crawl towards him. he usually yells for me to come help him (which is what he is supposed to do versus hit her). usually I pick her up and relocate her only to find her motoring over to charlie.
• when claire gets stressed out or tired she puckers her lips and starts blowing air out of her lips. it kind of comes out like a coo, but you can tell she isn’t happy.
• usually crawls “normal”, but is now starting to stick out her right leg like a peg (opposite of ellie!). watching the different mirror image traits is so cool!
• claire loves to eat finger foods like cheerios and cheese. she will eat the pureed food, but it is more of a battle to keep her hands away from the spoon. she mostly grabs her food with her left hand and is pretty successful on getting it into her mouth.
• in the morning, I usually change the girls and then stick them in one crib so they can hang out and I can get charlie up. claire is always standing up and jumping up and down while I am changing ellie because she is just so excited to see her. I imagine the girls are saying in their heads “oh hi sister! I missed you!!! how was your night??!”. 
• claire wears size 3 diapers and 6-12 month shirts. like her sister they fit her length, but are baggy. 3-6 month leggings are the best. also maxes out size 4 overnight diapers!
• she is definitely putting on a bit more weight than her sister, but I attribute it to her not spitting up as much as ellie and that she was getting up around 2 am for an 8 oz bottle for a couple weeks when ellie was sleeping through the night. this has all changed now because…

claire has officially started sleeping 12 hours (probably for over a week now)!!! baths start at 6 pm and she will take 8-14 ounces and then sleep until around 5-7 am (if she gets up at 5 – she gets her bottle then and goes back to sleep)!!! in the morning, she will drink 8 oz and have breakfast at 8am. around 9:30/10 am she is ready for her nap and will sometimes fall asleep in her car seat on our way to the RAC or church, but if she doesn’t when we arrive at our location she comes out of her car seat and is ready to party.  childcare workers will often say “she just drank 4 ounces and kept going”.  usually if she didn’t nap in the morning when we drive home she will crash instantly and sleep for about 30 minutes in the car seat. we have lunch around noon. she goes down for nap around 2 and will drink 6-8 oz before nap. in a perfect world she will sleep until 4 (and today both girls slept until 5!!), but usually a 1.5-2 hr nap (longer if she didn’t nap in the morning) is what she needs. then she has dinner around 5 pm and it starts all over again.

claire trying to jam 2 different cars into her mouth.

claire bellying up to her favorite spot…right next to charlie. notice he is playing with his back to her. he was getting frustrated that he was all up in his business so I suggested that he angle a bit. also notice that he is wearing lightning mcqueen underwears. more on that later.

both girls love technology! claire is facetiming with her auntie suz.

claire’s stressed out pursed lips look.

watching these two girls interact has been such a joy. I cannot wait to see how their relationship develops over the years. ellie is on the left.

christmas tree hunt

friday morning we headed out to cut down our christmas tree. we were so thankful my parents were happy to tag along to help carry and corral our chitlins. we had high hopes of driving north to nesbitts tree farm, but decided driving an hour each way was just not worth it this year. especially since there wasn’t even any snow! we headed to enzenauer’s evergreens again and found a great tree.

my mom happily carrying claire.

me and ellie. they were stunned because we yanked them from their cozy car seats where they were sleeping.

charlie loved the tree hunt this year. it is so fun to watch him get excited about some of our traditions.

charlie would point at a tree and say “probee buy dis one!”

bill and charlie inspecting one of the trees. you can barely see charlie here (just the tip of his hat), but it was so sweet how he would imitate whatever bill was doing.

bill with just the right tree. he had an unspoken goal to get the biggest tree ever this year and I think he succeeded (9.5 ft tall).

a quick family photo in front of the tree.

claire and g. pops. I totally didn’t even pack the girl’s gloves…whoops!

this is where things got really cute. bill laid on the ground to start cutting down the tree and charlie laid right behind him.

then charlie even started to “saw” his hand back and forth like bill. I had recorded the best video of charlie “sawing” his hand like bill and then he pushed the tree over by himself and was just delighted. it was awesome – until I mistakenly deleted it in the car on the way home. I cried –literally. I was so disappointed that I deleted that sweet video, but bill reminded me that I can remember it in my head like people did for generations. it sort of helped, but I was and am still really bummed. at least I have a few pictures of the events.

all pumped up after pushing over the tree by himself!

c-little following the guys while they carry out the tree.

whoops – he crashed!

charlie insisted on helping carry the tree – so he was in charge of carrying the tip.

intently watching the shaker and baler.

all the girls.

enjoying our hot chocolate, marshmallows and christmas cookies after cutting the perfect tree. a family tradition.

then, like last year, we found the tractor & farm equipment auction on the way home. since we are such a huge family now we had to take 2 cars tree hunting, which worked out perfectly since we could have charlie, bill and g. pops go to the tractor auction and my mom and I took the girls home for lunch. charlie had a blast checking out all of the farm equipment.

with g.pops inside a huge combine.

a classic.

do you think he had fun?

when the boys got home the tree made it’s way into our living room. bill – proud of how tall it is.

during naptime, we got the lights on and the majority of ornaments. when charlie got up from nap he was able to put up his ornament from last year (a tractor) and open his ornament for this year.

charlie opening his gift from this year…LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!!!!

this boy is just a bit obsessed with CARS (the movie) and all other cars.

ellie liked munching on the wrapping paper.

lightning on the tree.

eleanore and claire have ornaments coming, but they are still in the mail. the tree lasted about 3 minutes without the gate going up. so thankful for the gate this year!

thanksgiving

what a great thanksgiving we had! we are so thankful for our precious family. we have such supportive parents and wonderful friends. God has blessed us beyond what we could have asked for or imagined this past year. I look forward to what He has in store for us this coming year.

our thanksgiving weekend started when bill came home early on wednesday and was greeted by these three little ones.

bill with a full lap.

claire was crazy over g.pop’s beer bottle. charlie was just like this and we have a pic of charlie doing this exact same thing!

my mom, laura and I put on the thanksgiving dinner. we watched the packer game and it made our turkey day even better since they won keeping them 11 & 0! go pack go!!!

bill and charlie bellying up to the table.

eleanore and claire enjoying their thanksgiving dinner of puffs. they did get tastes of other things, but overall they enjoyed the baby mum mums the most.

our full thanksgiving table. ellie and claire are in the highchairs in the back. check out our sweet charlie’s smile. I can’t wait until his preschool picture next year.

SO thankful for these two sweet girls (eleanore on the left). they light up my day!

getting really excited about diving off the couch or about a packer touchdown.