elizabethjean - Stories

I posted a picture and completely forgot to write about it, but... Lucas has a big boy bed! We had planned on switching him over once we moved, but he was starting to sleep worse and worse in his crib. If we let him sleep anywhere else, he would last all night and not wake up once or nap like a champ. So we figured he just must be tired of his crib. Aunt Re-Re had an old twin bed we are able to use for now, so we grabbed it one Monday night and decided to go for it! Unfortunately, it has not changed his sleeping habits. The good thing is that it is easier to get him back to sleep since we can just pat his back or if necessary lay in bed with him - no need to take him out and rock him or bring him into our bed. I think we have come to the conclusion that he is just lonely. If you lay with him in the middle of the night, he will snuggle right up next to you (or sometimes on you) and fall right back asleep. For a while he didn't realize he could get out of the bed - he would stand in the middle of it and yell for someone just like he did in the crib. But that only lasted about a week - now he is sliding right out, strolling into the hallway and yelling, "Momma?" He thinks it is a rather fun game. :)

We received confirmation last week that Ella will be in afternoon kindergarten at Blessed Sacrament. Quite honestly, that shocked us - the afternoon class was our third choice (behind morning, then all day)! We aren't top on the priority list since we are new family and we are considered "out of bounds" parishioners, so I think at this point we are lucky Ella got in at all. One of the women in the office told me some kids are on a waiting list. Saying it out loud makes it sound so silly - a waiting list for kindergarten?! We aren't THOSE kind of people, are we?! But it IS a good school and we have been more than pleased with everything we have witnessed so far. Apparently there is just a very large number of incoming kindergarteners in the parish. At least when it's time to register Lucas we'll be higher on the list since we won't be a new family at that point! We haven't told Ella yet, but I'm certain it makes no difference to her - she is so excited for kindergarten, she would go right now and stay all night if she could.

We took Lucas bowling for the first time with the Lubbe family last weekend. He LOVED it! He started by running all over the place, checking out all the bowling balls. Then he couldn't wait to take his turn. Then he discovered our bowling towels and spent a good amount of time cleaning all the bowling balls. Overall, a great day! Ella was excited to return to the bowling alley - more so she could keep score rather than actually bowl! She did throw a few balls with Mommy or Daddy's help, but I thinhk she enjoyed the social aspect of it more than anything. We are looking forward to going again soon!

Lucas had his 1 year ENT follow up yesterday and it went so much better than anticipated! First, it was very quick and easy - always a good thing. Second, he got a great report on his ears. The left tube had just fallen out and was still in the canal, so they had to remove that. The right tube is still in and working. The removal process was the roughest part of the entire visit, but Lucas did so much better than I expected - he was such a champ and I was such a proud momma! The process did not hurt, it was just a little irritable (or so the doctor told me) - Lucas cried, but laid so good in the chair and didn't fight nearly as much as he does against anything else. He has to go back in 6 months for another check up - hopefully that will be the last time we ever have to see the ENT!

Ella had her 5 year check up with the doctor last week and, as in the past, she is in great shape! But still our tiny, tiny girl (as if we expected something different) - she weighs 37.4 pounds (which puts her in the 32nd percentile) and is 40.75 inches tall (just shy of 3 1/2 fee and in the 16th percentile). Her BMI is 15.83 (68th percentile), which is perfectly normal. She is all around a healthy girl and got a good report! She was very excited to not have to get any shots, although she did get the second dose of her H1N1 vaccine in mist form. Ella also had her first hearing test in preparation for kindergarten. Of course I thought this would be a breeze because we swear this child has dog ears. We can be at one end of the house, talking in a normal tone. Ella can be in another room, at the other end of the house, completely engrossed in her own little world, and will hear what we are talking about. We stare at each other in amazement! So during this test, her right ear was perfect, but her left ear tested a little off. The number itself was not concerning, just the fact that they were different, which raised a red flag to the nurse. But the doctor was fine with the numbers, especially since we said she has no problems hearing us. So I guess we'll just keep an eye on it and they will test her again next year!

In other Ella news, she is really starting to push us on those "tough" questions we either don't want to answer or don't have any answer for. She is still fascinated with cemetaries ("the die place" as she calls it) - I suppose we will be visiting some relatives when the weather warms up so she can see what it's all about. Every time we drive past one she asks a ton of questions. Her other big question is "How do babies get out of mommy's bellies?" We used to say "The doctor takes them out" and that was enough, but now she comes back with "But how?" I'm not quite ready for that conversation yet and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to have it with a 5 year old! So far we haven't lied to her, but kept it as simple and "medical" as possible.

Lucas is turning into a complete ham. He is fully aware when he does something funny and gets such a funny look on his face - scrunches up his nose and cracks up at himself. Then of course he does whatever it was again. He is quite the climber and has an amazing amount of upper body strength - he pulls himself up onto anything and can climb into his highchair in the blink of an eye. If it isn't pushed up to the table (we don't use the tray anymore), he will rock back and forth to try to move the seat. His vocabulary and sentence structure continue to grow, which is so much fun to witness. Today he told me, "I ride bus." He is fascinated with busses - school busses, TANK busses, it doesn't matter! He knows how to clearly ask for whatever he wants and tries really hard to say any new words. His teacher also told me this morning that he always says "Thank you" when he receives something at school, with no prompting at all. His current favorite sport is baseball, which we probably shouldn't play in the house but amazingly he hasn't broken anything yet! The little bat is padded and the ball is stuffed, but he can kill the ball when he gets a hold of it!

I asked for just one more snow storm so the kids could get out and play. God answered me in triplicate. It started snowing a week and a half ago and has only stopped here and there in between. Round 3 hit early this morning and it has yet to stop snowing today. I'm sure my friends from the north are shaking their heads and saying "You have got to be kidding!" as they read this, but in the Greater Cincinnati area we aren't used to getting 7+ inches in less than 24 hours, on top of the snow that was already here. We may never see our grass again. The good news is that our kids are loving this! They absolutely love to play in the snow and get mad when we have to come in. They never get cold or tired of being out there. I am a cold weather wimp, but being outside and having fun with them even makes me excited. The weather was so bad today that both Mommy and Daddy got off work early, so we had extra time to play outside - yea!! The dogs are also having a blast. If you haven't checked out the videos on the home page, please do - all sorts of fun stuff!

What a great birthday party!!! I think it is safe to say that Ella's Jump Zone birthday party was a huge success and a fun time was had by all. The ONLY downside of the day is that the kids were moving SO fast I didn't get many pictures. There are a lot of Lucas because he doesn't move quite as fast as the big kids, but he held his own pretty well. Ella's closest friends met us at Jump Zone for 2 hours of running, bouncing and sliding in the giant inflatables. The kids all got along great & seemed to be having a great time. I also received lots of thanks from parents for wearing out their kids. :) It was so much fun to watch the kids run, slide and bounce, then run off to another inflatable, laughing and shrieking. After the "friends" party, we had our family back to the house for pizza and presents. Ella is such a lucky girl to have so many people who love her. She got some cute summer clothes, LOTS of earrings and some new Barbie stuff. By the time our last guests left tonight both kids were almost begging to go to bed. Lucas didn't want to brush his teeth (one of his favorite things to do) and Ella said she didn't want to read a book, she just wanted to go to sleep. Hopefully this means Mommy and Daddy will get a little extra sleep in the morning.

Well, once again we have fallen behind! I am making another promise to not let it happen again. :) With such a big BIRTHDAY weekend coming up, we will have lots to report next week so we might as well get caught up now. We have been sooooo busy, which is the biggest reason we have fallen behind. The biggest news in our house at the moment is Ella's earrings! She got her ears pierced Saturday and did great. She hopped right up in the chair and in true Ella fashion asked a million questions, but at the last minute got a little panicky and covered her ears. After some reassurance, she was ready to go and very confident. She only cried for second (even though she looks so pitiful in the video!) and is SO proud of her new earrings. She is doing a great job taking care of them and is showing them off to everyone in town.

In other Ella news... she's back to pushing her limits lately and has been told several times she will not have a birthday party with her friends if she cannot behave. Then she gets really upset and says, "But I want to turn five!" She thinks no party = no aging! So funny! At this point she is so far beyond excited there is no containing her so we are just doing our best to keep her under control! Speaking of turning 5 - a couple of weeks ago we officially submitted Ella's kindergarten registration papers. She will be attending Blessed Sacrament in the fall and next month we should receive a letter letting us know what class she will be in. She is beyond excited to start kindergarten and we are gettng more excited for her, knowing how much she will thrive in that environment. As much as she loves her friends at school, it's obvious to us she is ready to move on and she is getting kind of bored.

Lucas news... we have a shirtless boy! This kid is so happy to run around half naked, regardless of the weather. He flips out if so much as a drop of water lands on his shirt and demands it be taken off. Then he runs around shirtless, happy as can be. He also pulls his socks off every chance he gets and now likes sticking them under peoples' noses and saying "stinky sock." His vocabulary is really picking up and he will try to repeat just about anything. He is putting more and more words together and puts a lot of 3-word phrases together. We hear a lot of "I get Ella" and "Daddy hat on" and "My candy please," just to name a few! Luke's coordination absolutely amazes us - he can pick up any sport and seems to be a natrual at it. He is now fascinated with hockey, so thank goodness we have the NHL network. And to think we thought that would be useless! As far as playing sports, his determination is amazing. He is a kid that will keep practicing and working until he accomplishes what he set out to do - he doesn't get mad or frustrated (which is shocking since just about everything else sets him off). He's been playing basketball and we keep raising the basket. Instead of trying to pull it down, he keeps shooting until he makes it.

The Spider Baby: At some point, many months ago, Lucas attached himself to this stuffed girl spider at school. No idea why, because it looks or feels nothing like any of his loveys at home. But he fell in love with this thing and started calling it Baby. He would ask for it as soon as I dropped him off every day and all the other kids in his room think it is his. If they find it laying around, they will take it to Lucas! So after googling "blue girl spider" and several other combinations, we found it! It is Leap Frog toy named Lulu. We ordered it from Amazon for Christmas and Luke was SO excited to pull it out of the gift bag Christmas morning! He shrieked "BABY!!" then kept saying it over and over, wrapped his arm around it and stuck his thumb in his mouth. So now there is yet another thing that must come in the car, into bed, etc.

As you can see in the pictures, we spent New Years Eve with the Hiatts and had a fantastic time, as usual. The kids played hard and surprisingly, all of them except Lucas stayed awake to ring in the new year. He crashed around 11 PM and slept on the love seat, right through all the horns, screaming, poppers, etc. No idea how - Lubbe genes, I suppose! I'm certain none of the little kids had any idea what the "new year" is or why we were partying, but they didn't really care since it gave them an excuse to stay up late and make lots of noise. Lucas did eventually wake up and look around at all of us with a "how dare you disturb my slumber" kind of look.

We got our first big snow of the year last week! We got a small amount last Tuesday, then a storm came through Thursday and dropped about 3 inches on top of that, so it was a good amount to get out and play. This was Luke's first venture into the snow, so that was interesting. He was NOT such a fan at first and cried for the first 5 minutes he had all his snow gear on! He wanted to be outside and check things out, but he did not want to be put down. So that made things a little difficult... He did love riding down our little front-yard hill on the sled and eventually did warm up to the idea of walking around, following Ella with a shovel. Eventually he was having so much fun he was mad when it was time to go in. Ella on the other hand, was ready to go outside the second I picked her up from school. She charged out full force and for the first time rode the sled herself, which is a huge step for our formerly fearful and not-daring little girl. She was a little upset and didn't understand why this snow wasn't good packing snow and we couldn't make a snowman. And as usual, our 6 and 7 year old dogs turned into puppies again and had an absolute blast charging through the front yard and wrestling in the snow. I'm hoping for at least one more good snow so we can get out and play again.

As you saw in the pictures, Lucas was (as suspected) not a fan of Santa. His first meeting at Macy's did not go well and he screamed the second we put him on Santa's lap. However, with each meeting things got a little better and although he never did sit on his lap, he did eventually accept presents directly from Santa at a Christmas party. Both kids loved the train exhibit, so that might have to become an annual visit for us. It was very hands-on for the kids, which was great.

Our Christmas festivities began the 18th with the kids' party at school. (Pictures to follow - totally out of order. We forgot our camera so Mawmaw Donna had to play photographer.) It's so much fun to watch the kids in that environment - with their friends, the kids and teachers the spend all day with. Santa made an appearance and passed out presents for everyone. On the way home we asked Ella if she knew Santa was coming. She said, "It was Calandra's dad." We tried to convince her it was Santa, but she said no, Hayden noticed it was Calandra's dad and told everyone. It didn't seem to make her question things, though, so that's a relief! The next night we had the Haungs family Christmas party, got a break for a few days, then jumped in full force on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve brought an adventure in itself...

I had to work (wonderful, isn't it?) so Brandon was home alone with the kids until he had to be at Grandma Lou's at noon. He calls me just before 11:00 to report that Lucas climbed on top of their little picnic table and deliberately did a free fall into the Christmas tree, pulling it down. Brandon caught the tree before it landed flat on the ground, but that didn't stop the tree stand from breaking, thus resulting in the need for kitchen chairs to keep the tree up until we could get something fixed up. Check the pictures if you haven't already. The tree made it through Christmas but we wound up taking it down earlier than normal for fear it would fall down!

Christmas morning was wonderful!! Santa probably went a little overboard this year, but the kids got a lot of great things and they have enjoyed every last one. The favorite Santa presents are easy to pick out: Ella's Barbie house and Lucas' punching bag. Is anyone really surprised?! Lucas also loves the Barbie house and we find all sorts of things in Barbie's bed - his book, his cereal cup, his juice, the remote control for his car... just to name a few! He always puts stuff in the bed, never anywhere else in the house. Ella had specifically asked Santa for the Barbie house, clothes and a Ballerina Barbie. Santa brought the house, Mommy and Daddy bought her clothes and Mawmaw Trisha and Pawpaw Todd bought the ballerina Barbie. Well, nothing gets by this little girl! Even though she technically got everything she asked for, she was quick to point out that SANTA didn't bring her everything she asked for. So I guess he needs to stick to the list next year! This is the first year we let the kids buy a present for each other. Brandon took Lucas to Bath & Body Works where he got Ella some Sweet Pea lotion, shower gel and body spray. He had a blast smelling everything in the store! Now every time we get our lotion out he says, "I smell!" Ella, after being pulled away from the Barbie aisle, chose a Little People car hauler, which works great with some other Little People presents he got.

The day after Christmas we packed up and headed to Bowling Green for even MORE Christmas! The trip itself rivaled a Griswold's vacation, but we got there eventually and had a very RELAXING time (which was needed after the journey). So now after collecting presents for a week we are still trying to find a place for it all. Soon our entire basement will be full of Rubbermaid containers and drawers, but at least it will be organized! Our children are very lucky to have so many people who love them and want to shower them with gifts - now maybe they will buy us a new house to store it all. ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... the decorations are slowly falling into place! I don't remember it ever taking us this long to get everything together, but I suppose that just goes to show how busy we have been lately. As expected and hoped, St. Nick visited our house last Saturday night and left a few little treats for the kids. They each received their ornament (Ella - Wonder Woman; Lucas - a car) in addition to stickers, notebooks, punching balloons and a few other items. The kids had a BLAST putting the tree up. That was totally expected from Ella, but we weren't really sure what to expect out of Lucas. When we plugged in the first strand of lights to test them, Lucas shrieked with excitement. He still gets excited each day when we turn on the tree. It is fun to witness his excitement with the small and simple things. Surprisingly, we have had very few "tree touching" incidents. Honestly, I thought Lucas would be all over it and the tree would be destroyed. Other than trying to throw the round ornaments the first night ("ball!"), we haven't had any issues at all. Thank goodness!! Ella remembers all our traditions and decorations and is excited to get them all back out. She loves looking at all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood, so I have promised her in a week or so we will drive around and look at all of them.

Monday we had a little change of plans - just as dinner was about to come out of the oven, the power went out! Luckily the food was done, so we ate by the light of Daddy's camping lantern, then debated whether we needed to bunk elsewhere for the night. While waiting ever-so-patiently for the lights to come back on, the kids were amazingly well behaved and had a ton of fun playing with flashlights. (Just check out the video on the home page!) After about an hour and a half, the lights came back on, but went out again almost immediately. Ella cheered. They did this 2 more times so we finally decided to get a fire going and sleep downstairs on the sleeper sofa. Not exactly the most comfortable night's sleep, but I have to admit it was very cozy squeezing all 4 of us into that bed next to the fire. We stayed warm all night. :) The power came back on sometime around midnight, so the house didn't get too cold and we were able to get ready in the morning. Ella asked if we can turn the lights out again sometime and play with the flashlights.

This weekend we are finally getting all the Christmas decorations out. Traveling onThanksgiving always pushes us back a week and the kids are seeing all the decorations out in the neighborhood, so they are dying. The tree went up tonight and everything else will come out tomorrow. We have an absurd amount of Christmas decorations, but they are so much fun to get out. This year will be tricky because last year Lucas was just starting to pull himself up, so he wasn't able to bother anything. We've already had issues with the tree tonight so we'll seee how it goes... St. Nick comes tomorrow night and believe me, Ella has been warned MANY times that St. Nick is going to report back to Santa and if she wakes up Sunday morning with nothing in her stocking, that means Santa isn't bringing her anything either. She's had a lot of issues with pushing the limits lately! We have a lot of fun holiday plans - visiting Santa at Macy's, the train display at the museum, possibly Krohn's Conservatory - we'll see what we can fit in! Ella is exciting about our shopping excursion tomorrow - we are going to buy for all the names we pulled from the giving tree at church. She wants to go to Target to get all the toys, so I'm sure we'll come back with much more than we planned on, as is always the case at Target. :)

So apparently our kids are eating anything and everything in sight at daycare. We still get a paper for Lucas, which (among other things) lists everything he eats during the day and how much. It is usually followed by "x2." If it's pancake day, it's followed by a 6. (Yes, the boy can eat 6 pancakes!) Every day Ella asks how much Lucas ate. If he ate 2 pieces of pizza, she ate 3. If he had 2 scoops of pasta, she had 4. For a while we thought we were getting a bunch of fish stories but we were informed by Ella's teacher this week that she is in fact eating that much food. Where do they put it?! You'd think we don't feed them here. Lucas eats 2 breakfasts every morning - he eats cereal at home, then whatever they are serving at school. Thank goodness our kids are blessed with good genes because you would never guess by looking at them that they eat as much as they do!

The main reason I logged in was to share two good stories from the weekend. Saturday Lucas was sitting with Aunt Mary when she blew a bubble with her gum. It never occurred to us, but I guess Lucas has never seen a bubble before - we don't blow bubbles with our gum. Well he did NOT like it!!! The bottom lip went out and he cried for Momma! Once I was holding him she did it again and he made a horrible face! He was not a fan of Mary's the rest of the night - if she was coming, he went the other way! She finally bribed him back into her arms with a football (she knows what the boy likes!) but I think he was still a little uneasy!

Later Saturday night Ella told us she wanted to tell jokes. She begins by saying, "My jokes are awesome." We got a lot of knock-knock jokes that didn't make any sense and some silly 4-year-old jokes that made us giggle just because she was telling them. Then she wanted to hear ours. Daddy told a few and she laughed. I finally came up with "Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9." Ella sat quietly for a minute, then said, "Mommy, I will teach you some good jokes. I know lots of good ones." I guess I should just make something up next time!

First, as I'm sure you saw from the pictures we had a great Halloween! Ella picked the kids costumes (or at least the theme) - Lucas' was great because it went over his clothes and kept him nice and toasty. Ella's came with about 30 different parts and pieces and was about 2 sizes too big! It was a 4-6 but of course she is on the low end of that range, so we did a lot of adjusting throughout the night. Lucas did a good job walking our block - we never did get him to say "Trick or Treat" but he did say Thank You every time someone put candy in his bucket, so I guess that's the important thing. Ella on the other hand made a good round of the neighborhood and wound up with entirely too much candy that Mommy is enjoying a little too much! I carried a plastic bag with me so the kids could empty their buckets / bags when they got too heavy and start fresh. Ella was just fine with this plan and emptied hers about 4 times. Lucas, on the other hand, thought we were stealing his candy and screamed so I just let him go and let his bucket drag the ground! One of his new favorite words is "candy" and I'm certain he would eat the entire bucket in one sitting if we let him. He asks for candy at all hours - definitely his momma's boy! Ella has taken an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach - since we've hidden the candy from Lucas she has completely forgotten it's there and doesn't even ask for it unless she's reminded. Overall it was a wonderful day - Mawmaw Susan & Pawpaw Damon came to visit for the day and joined us for some pre-Trick or Treating dinner with Uncle Chad, Erin and Haley.

Ella is on a big reading kick lately - reading herself! She seems to be learning really fast, now that she has the desire, and recognizes A LOT of words. She is really getting the hang of sounding things out and has the basics down. I'm certain it won't be long before she just takes off and considering how much this girl loves books, she might have her nose stuck in one from now on! I promised her a trip to the library tomorrow so she is very excited - it's one of her favorite places. Ella has been doing great with gymnastics and really likes taking them at Silverlake. They do have more variety plus her friend Charley is in the class. She is doing really well and it is so exciting to see her fears slowly melt away. She will now walk across the mid-size balance beam by herself - now if we can just conquer the tall one! I do believe it's safe to say the highlight of the past month for Ella was her role as flower girl in Nick and Brittany's wedding. She absolutely LOVED being a part of the entire day and did such a great job. We got so many compliments on how well behaved and sweet she was and what a good job she did. She thought she was big stuff getting her hair done with the rest of the bridesmaids and riding in the limo with the wedding party. By the end of the night we had one tired little girl on our hands! And now for our favorite Ella story, quite possibly the best story yet this year: We went to Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and there was a group of elementary school girls collecting canned goods outside the doors. Ella asked what they were doing, so I explained the food drive. (It so happens we were there purchasing food for a separate drive that night, so she understood.) When we came out they had made up a "We want CANNED GOODS" chant, with a dad yelling "CANNED GOODS" very loudly. Ella asked why they were yelling that; I told her that way people would know what they wanted. She thought for a minute, then yelled "TACOS! TACOS!"

Lucas is growing like a weed and learning so much lately! He had his 18 month check up on November 4th and good a clean bill of health. He weighed in at an even 26 pounds, which puts him in the 50th percentile. He has shot up 2 1/2 inches since his last visit and is now at 33 1/2 inches, putting him in the 80th percentile. I don't know what his head circumference was, but I do know it measured in the 98th percentile - must be lots of brains.

For the record, his head circumference is the only measurement that has consistently increased on the percentile chart since he was born! The doctor checked his ears and said the tubes are still in, in perfect position and his ears look great so for that we are thankful. Easy visit this time - no shots and he is meeting all the milestones they are expecting him to. (Although the kids did go to the doctor this Tuesday for their H1N1 vaccine - SOOO glad we got in for that!) I think his speech is a little ahead of schedule - he will try to say anything you tell him and knows a lot of words on his own. He even puts 2 words together for mini-sentences (Here Momma, Bad DogDog, There Ella...) Some of his new favorite words (in addition to candy!) are cookie, book, Big Bird ("Bi Bir"), cracker, fish... there are just so many! He does a great job of letting us know what he wants, but he has absolutely no patience so if you don't produce whatever he has asked for immediately he will scream. I can usually get him somewhat calmed down by reminding him to say please. Lucas is trying really hard to say the dogs names and can easily tell them apart - we have "Cakey" and "Ruh-ruh." He has also learned to say I Love You ("La Lou") which is sooo sweet. And now for our favorite Lucas story of the month, although this one is not good! A few Saturdays ago, the kids woke up on the wrong side of the bed - both of them. Ella wanted to sit alone in the recliner and watch cartoons, but Lucas wanted to sit with her. She proceeded to pick on him and annoy him the entire time. So he reached over to the side table, grabbed Daddy's watch that had been left there, and used it as his weapon to whack Ella right across the forehead. When she shrieked, he grabbed her hair and pulled her over. Mean, mean, MEAN!!! We do not know what to do with this boy!

At long last, we are posting our vacation story! It started out perfect and didn't veer far from there the entire week. We headed out at 4 AM Saturday, September 19 and made excellent time on the road. Other than the rainy state of Alabama, we had a good trip. The kids were amazingly good little travelers! They kept themselves entertained with books and toys and we didn't have to resort to the DVD player nearly as much as anticipated (much to Mommy's delight!). When we were mid-way through Alabama, we started saying "Who wants to go to the beach?" and we would all raise our hands and say "Me!" Lucas caught on quickly and now, whenever he hears the word "beach" he will still raise his hand! Once we arrived, the kids could not wait to get to the beach. Lucas, as you can see in the video, loved the sand which wasn't a huge surprise since he has a blast in the sandbox. Ella ran right for the water and stuck her feet in. Lucas tried it out, but did not like the feeling when the waves went back out and the sand washed out from under his feet! It only took a few days for him to get used to that, though - by Wednesday he was running full force into the water and would keep going until someone grabbed him. (Who cares if the water is too deep?!)

We decided this was, by far, the most relaxing vacation we have ever been on. Hard to believe with a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old, isn't it?! We spent our mornings and afternoons at the beach, let the kids take a late nap, then got cleaned up and went out to dinner. That was it! Nowhere to go, nowhere to be, nobody to answer to - it was glorious! It certainly didn't hurt that our condo was very nice and this time of year, the beach was fairly empty. Our place was right on the beach, so we had our own private space and plenty of room to spread out. We couldn't have had a better place to stay - THANK YOU Pawpaw Todd and Mawmaw Trisha!!! The pool area was very nice as well, but we surprisingly didn't spend much time there - the kids loved the beach so much we didn't leave! Ella had fun building castles and looking for seashells. Lucas would climb in any hole you dug and had fun stomping on all the castles his sister built. :) They both had a blast in the ocean. Ella loved jumping waves and didn't mind at all when there was seaweed in the water. There was a sand bar that made its way closer and closer as the week went on, so by Friday she could walk out by herself (of course telling us that she did NOT need any help). Lucas loved splashing and kicking in the water - what else?! He did better than we thought with his ear plugs (those neon orange things you see in the pictures - necessary due to the tubes) and only ripped one out throughout the course of the week.

The only activity we participated in was the dolphin cruise, which both kids loved. We had fun taking pictures, too, since the cruise was out during sunset! We were a little nervous going in because this was a 2 hour cruise and we thought for sure Lucas would get antsy. But not at all! There was so much to entertain the kids on the boat, in addition to cruising around looking for pods of dolphins. We did wind up seeing 3 pods (not that you can tell from the pictures!). The kids also got to feed seagulls, touch a crab, drive the boat and play with all the sealife caught in the shrimp net. (If you ask Ella what she did on the dolphin cruise, she will say she fed birds, got a snack and went to the bathroom and it had a tiny sink!) Lucas loved cruising around looking for fish and Ella would get so excited whenever we saw them. Happily, no seasick issues either! :)

It someimes seemed as if the kids had just as much fun in our condo as they did on the beach. The 2 main closets had mirror doors, which entertained both kids, but Lucas more than Ella. He played with his reflection all week and reminded us of those cats you see on America's Funniest Home Videos. Several times he would walk up to the mirror holding something, look at his reflection, then pull back whatever he was holding and say "Mine!" Most of the time he had fun smashing is face against the mirror and rolling around on the floor making faces at his reflection and laughing. Ella, our little drama queen, thoroughly enjoyed dancing and singing where she could watch herself. Those mirrors can be so distracting when you're supposed to be doing something! Another fun part of the condo: bed buddies! After night 1 we gave up on the Pack & Play and let Lucas sleep in the big bed with Ella. He did really well and it was so cute to listen to them once the lights were out and we were in the other room! They laid there and giggled for 20-30 minutes every night until Ella would finally sing Lucas to sleep. It was precious! After we knew they were asleep, we would check on them and find them in various strange positions and places on the bed! They never cease to make us laugh.

First of all, we have been BUSY! Can you tell? It's been a month since we last updated! We had a very fun-filled summer, spending time with family both in town and out, and spending as much time as possible outside. Looking back, it's almost hard to remember exactly what we did because it was such a whirl-wind. I guess going forward we will have to update more often because looking back, it's really hard to remember what happened with each kid and what I want to post on here!

Lucas is becoming wilder with each passing day. He is loud, stubborn and comes with a bad temper. But he is also such a sweet little boy who loves his big sister more than words can explain. It is so cute to watch him follow her around and try to play the things she plays. He will ask for his "baby" (bear), and once you give it to him he said, "Ella baby." Then he will ask for juice and say, "Ella juice." He tries to take care of her as much as she takes care of him! Speaking of "baby" - all lovey-type items are now "babies." Anything he cuddles with - bear bear, blankets, actual babies... There have been times he has cuddled with 4 different "babies" at once! Now that football season is officially upon is, Lucas is hooked! He has moved on from baseball to football without missing a beat. Everytime he finds the TV remote, he points it at the TV and says "football." As you can see in the pictures, we took Lucas to his first Bengals game (pre-season only - regular season gets a little rough in the stands!) and he loved it. We hit a rough patch once we got close to bed time but that second wind kicked in (with the help of a soft pretzel) and he was ready to go again! To add toall the "typical boy stuff" he is in love with, his new favorite toy is his bag of Hot Wheel cars. He will roll them over everything, up everything and around everything, making car noises the entire time. He looks like such a big boy when he does it! Lucas is trying to say a lot of new words and makes an attempt at a lot of them, even if we are the only ones who understand him! :) He is also working on 4 new teeth right now - hopefully for his sake they break through soon because he is having a bit of a rough time. (Those back teeth are a killer!)

Ella started soccer a few weeks ago and is loving it! She plays for 1 hour each Monday - the first 30 minutes is practice, the second half is the game. There are times during the game she reverts back to "Ella's world" (like last night when she ran off the field in the middle of the game to say hi to a friend!) but she is pretty easy to reel back in. Sunday School has also started up again and Mommy is one of the teachers this year. Ella loves Sunday School and, as in any situation, is quite the little chatterbox and social butterfly. As much as she tries to avoid our questions about what they talked about after church, I have now witnessed first hand how involved she really is and how much she loves being in the class. We are having some "pushing the limits" issues with Ella of late, and we really aren't sure what to do! We are getting a lot of "no's" or "in a minute" or "I said wait!" or just blatant doing what she's not supposed to do. Trips to the corner are losing their effectiveness so we need to come up with something new or this little girl is going to take over our house! The problem is that she is too smart for her own good, and she knows it! Ella has also been earning her own money lately. She has a "chore chart" that consists of 5 daily chores (basic things like putting her shoes away, dirty clothes in the hamper, etc.) If she completes her chores each week (she gets a sticker each day for each chore), she gets $2 to spend on anything she wants. You would think we are giving her $100! But it is very neat to see her learn how to save and how to spend her money and how far money actually goes.

We haven't posted a story in a while and I wanted to give a quick update while I had a chance. First Lucas is a wild man, can't take our eyes off of him for a second, or we will find him places like standing on the dinning room table throwing the pepper shaker. He wears us out, but it is fun. Also, he has started sleeping better at night, and a little later on the weekends, which is wonderful. We have started putting him to bed while still awake and are finding him in some unusual positions, much like his big sister. He went for his 15 month check up on 7/30. He is 23lb 13oz, and is 31" long. Considering how much he eats, the little amount of weight he gained just proves how busy he really is. Even though his weight and his growth have slowed, his head is still in the 96th percentile. I think he has become even more obsessed with sports, if that is possible. When we sit down at night to start rocking, he is now pointing at the TV and asking for baseball to be turned on.

Now for Ella. We signed her up for soccer which starts the week after Labor Day. She is incredibly excited, but we think she is just as excited because she got Alisa's hand-me-down soccer equipment. She will play every Monday from 6 to 7 in a U6 league. Anybody that wants to come watch please do, she will play at the Ft. Mitchel park. I think that I am just as excited as she is because I get my first shot at helping coach. Ella has been a busy bee this summer, and all of the sudden decided to get over a lot of her fears. This weekend we had her at the pool and she was going under and touching the bottom of the pool where is shifts from the shallow end to the deep end. She has also taken off on her bike. We let her ride down by herself about 2 houses, and she flies. A few weeks ago we were at the Hiat's and Ella was hanging from the monkey bars, by herself. It really is fun to watch her doing all this new stuff.

Ella "Jockeys are boys" (replying as if the nurse is dumb for not knowing this")

It's been almost a month since our last story! Hard to remember everything we've been doing... So far our summer has been fun, but going way too fast! It seems to be just flying by. Looking back it's hard to remember exactly what we've been doing because it seems we are missing the things we normally do, like swim and go to the zoo. That's not to say we have totally missed these things! We've done a bit of swimming and pulled the sprinkler out a couple of times. Once Lucas got used to things he loved it - the boy loves playing in water. He likes floating around in the pool just as much as someone holding him and swimming around. Ella (thankfully!) has finally gotten a little more adveturous in the pool and wanted to practice all her old swim lesson stuff. We think it had something to do with the fact that her friends were more hesitatnt to get in withouth all their floaties so she wanted to show off, but hey - whatever it takes! She did a great job so hopefully we can get her to keep practicing. Hopefully next year she'll be tall enough to stand on her own!

We went to the zoo for the first time this year a few weeks ago and Lucas LOVED it. (Of course Ella did, too, but that's nothing new!) He watched all the animals so intently and was so focused, so serious. He and Ella rode in the wagon which went surprisingly well. Only a couple of arguments over foot space! Hopefully we will be back many more times in the coming months!

Our 4th of July was very WET! :( We still had a good time, but it was disappointing to have a July 4th with no fireworks. It rained from the time we got up until the time we went to bed. We spent the day at Aunt Barb and Uncle Mike's party and still had fun, huddled under the tents all day! Well, all of us except Ella - she had entirely too much fun playing in the rain! The weekend before the 4th we attended Villa Hills' "Fire in the Hills" - the weather was much more cooperative! Ella had a blast riding all the carnival rides with Liam and Bryn - thank goodness for "all you can ride" wristbands! We finally bought some tickets and put Lucas on the little cars that go in a circle - he LOVED it! He was so excited and so proud to drive his little car. Daddy also took him down the giant slide, which he liked but didn't really seem all that impressed with. We didn't get to see the fireworks on Saturday, but both kids were plenty tired and had so much fun that I think they were OK with that. ;)

A few other kid notes... Ella has been very into conservation and recycling lately, which makes us very proud. She will always turn things off so we "don't waste water" or "don't waste batteries." She is very aware of what goes in the "red garbage" (recycling bin) and likes learning about ways we can save and reuse things. Her imagination continues to grow, which is so much fun to watch. She is able to visualize a lot of things - like what she can make out of a few random articles laying around the house. We have also been spending some time at the library, which is her heaven. Our first trip included Lucas so it didn't last as long as she wanted. She asked if Mommy would take her by herself, so that is what we did last week. We spent 2 hours reading and playing with the little toys there. I had to literally drag her out of there, so it looks like we have many more trips in our future! She is very responsible with her library books - takes good care of them, always knows where they are and is very concerned about returning them on time. Our only recent issue with Ella is her being the "little mother." It has gotten extreme - we find ourselves saying quite often, "You are not the mom!" Bossy little thing! :)

Lucas is changing every day. He is learning to use a fork and spoon and doing really well with them. He will get MAD if you don't give him one of each at dinner. He also seems to be getting tired of the highchair - he wants to sit at the table like the other big people! So we will try that with the booster seat tomorrow and see how things go. He is jabbering nonstop - most of the time we aren't sure what he's saying, but it usually has something to do with a ball. :) Along with his baseball bat, Lucas is now carrying around a glove and velcro ball. He can't quite get the glove on right (and won't let anyone help him!) but he will still do his best to catch the ball. We are amazed at how well he follows directions... Go get your shoes, Give this to Ella, Let's read a book... Today he even put his toys away without being told! Such a big boy!

We have been so busy and have so much to report, so let's get to it! As I'm sure everyone has seen from the pictures, Ella "graduated" from preschool / pre-K last week. The tricky thing about this is that she isn't going anywhere - she still has another year until she starts kindergarten. So they let the kids who still have another year participate in the ceremony and wear a different color than the soon-to-be kindergarteners. Instead of diplomas, they received awards. Ella was named "most outgoing" - we figure that is a nice way of saying "talks a lot"!!!! All the other awards were along the lines of best handwriting, best dancer... Our girl - the social butterfly! We have some videos to post as well - they will come soon! Speaking of butterflies, we went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Conservatory last weekend. Ella was so excited to go and had been talking about it for a week. She ran from the van to the entrance. We got in and she reached out to get one to land on her finger (which didn't happen). A few minutes later, when she wasn't expecting it, a big, beautiful blue butterfly landed on her stomach and she SCREAMED!! Absolutely freaked out. After that she was done. Lucas was more interested in playing in the water and trying to grab butterflies that landed on Daddy. So not exactly the fun trip we were hoping for, but it wasn't all that bad and we got some great pictures! Ella has been a super helper lately. She wants to be involved in everything (sometimes to the extreme) and is always asking what she can do for us. She is getting a little overzealous with Lucas, to the point where we have reminded her several times she is not the mom. She is definitely our bossy, take-charge child! Ella recently went to the driving range with Daddy and in true Ella fashion, wanted no part of his help or tips on how to hit the ball. However, when it was Daddy's turn to hit, she was all over giving him tips!

Lucas has had some minor ups and downs lately. Nothing too bad, just some really cranky days here and there. We think he might be getting more teeth - we hope so since he got 6 then stopped! His sleeping habits are getting better and he is getting much better at soothing himself and putting himself back to sleep if he happens to wake up in the middle of the night. He still cries every time he wakes up - hopefully that will stop soon, too, and he will be his usual happy self and babble in bed like every other baby! His favorite thing to do these days is carry around a plastic golf club and either whack a plastic ball or, on some occassions, whatever might be in front of him (furniture, people, dogs...). After doing this for a while, he walks to the top of the steps, throws whatever is within reach under the gate then looks at us and says "Uh-oh." We pick it up and the game starts all over! He also loves playing with his cars (and makes car sounds to go along with them) and reading books. He will find a book, then back up to you until he lands in your lap! Of course the biggest event of the past few weeks is Lucas' haircut. As much as I hated it, we had to cut the curls. :( His hair on top does not curl and it was getting longer and longer and just looked like a ridiculous mess! He hated every second of sitting still but Jeannie still somehow did a great job and now our baby looks like a big boy. His hair definitely still has some curl and as it grows out I think it will curl right back up. If not, I will have to occassionally glance at the envelope full of curls I gathered as they hit the floor!

We have more busy, but fun, weekends coming up so stay posted for more summer updates!

The long awaited gymnastics pictures have been posted! We still have some video to post - I promise it's coming soon! Ella's gymnastics "season" was great and she had a blast. We can't wait for the fall so she do it again! She quickly overcame her fears and tried anything and everything they had for her to do - a huge change over swim lessons! The balance beam is by far her favorite thing to do but there really wasn't anything she didn't like. She made some headway on her cartwheels (still look nothing like a cartwheel - just wait for the video!), got skipping down pat (although it's a big slow) and was starting to learn back rolls. We have decided to take the summer off so we can enjoy some schedule-free time for a while!

We had a great summer kick off this weekend. Friday we headed to Louisville - all SIX of us! - to stay with our friends Jon and Carolyn for the evening. Mommy and Daddy got to visit with some college friends and Jon and C's backyard turned into kiddie heaven! It was great to see all the kids run around together and they all played so well together. Saturday morning we loaded back up and went further south to Bowling Green to visit Mawmaw Susan, Pawpaw Damon and the rest of the Tabor family. Overall it was a nice, relaxing weekend - we just spent the weekend at the house playing in the backyard. Such a nice change of pace! For the most part eveyone, dogs included, traveled really well.

We moved from one medical drama to another... Lucas has an ear infection! Last Monday he woke up with drainage from his left ear. This is his first since the tubes so he went another round with ear drops (not fun - he hates them!) and amoxicillin for some minor upper respiratory stuff. (He's OK with that - it tastes like bubble gum!) We are wating the right ear closely because we're afraid the infection is going to jump - cross your fingers!

Other than that things have been pretty uneventful - no big milestones to write about! We are hoping for some quite weekends around the house, doing typical summer things (we haven't even been to the zoo yet!). Stay tuned!

More drama for Ella! I supposed summer has officially started in our house because the skinned knees have arrived. Ella wiped out on the sidewalk Saturday morning and tore her knees to pieces. :( She fell hard, but we figured we were just dealing with some bloody knees - really nothing new around here. After a while (once we stopped the shrieking and screaming) we realized she knocked on of her front teeth and it a bit loose. We called the dentist but they were able to find a doctor at 11 AM on a Saturday so they sent us to Children's Hospital (where there is always a dentist on call) for fear she fractured her root. One trip to the hospital later and that theory was ruled out, but we had to follow up with a trip to our regular dentist this week for fear she pushed her tooth up and it would affect her permanent tooth. Once again, this was ruled out and it turns out her tooth is just a little loose and should reattach itself in a few days. A lot of drama for nothing!! The knees are looking much better and healed surprisingly fast, although if you ask Ella they are still causing serious pain. The pain returns when the timing is right... say, time to clean up or get ready for bed. ;) The pain was obviously absent Sunday when Ella went fishing and caught her first fish! Well, sort of... Everyone had left their poles propped up and walked away. Pawpaw Kenny happened to look over and see only the handle of Ella's pole sticking out of the water and reeled in her fish for her. So in her mind, she did NOT catch the fish. She also refused (by screaming and running up the hill) to get anywhere near it. It will be interesting to see what happens when a fish actually bites while she is holding the pole...

Lucas is officially off the bottles!! It only took one week after his birthday and he was done. This is shocking since we assumed it would take forever to get rid of them. Not so long ago he preferred the bottle over any other type of food. As a matter of fact, he really doesn't even drink that much milk from a cup before bed time. By the end of the day he is just ready to crash! He is our "8:30 and I'm ready for bed" kid whereas Ella would party all night if we let her. He is regularly doing the signs for "bath" and "more" and starting to say more along with it, although the sign now looks more like he is clapping his hands. To go along with that, when he wants more food he makes sort of a fishy-face with sucking noises!! It is so funny. He still has only 6 teeth but manages to eat just about anything and lots of it. Now that we have moved on from basketball season to baseball season, Lucas has a new favorite sport. If you say "baseball" to him he will grab whatever stick-like object he can find and swing it like a bat. Sometimes he will just pretend he is holding something. This is something he picked up on his own from seeing baseball on TV - does this boy love sports or what?! Lucas' other recent development is his meanness!! If you do something to make that boy mad, watch out - he will haul off and smack you! Maybe with his hand, maybe with whatever he happens to be holding. Either way - know it is coming! His temper probably equals Ella's stubbornness - TROUBLE!!!

Quiz Results
Loading..........