Then There Were Four: Updates and Birthday

Hello again my blog followers,

I am slowly making my way back to the regular world and gaining back energy I thought I had long lost. Since my surgery I am noticing many positive changes a couple of them being improved moods and increased energy. So, one of my first tasks is to update my blog and let you in on what the kids have been up to. (P.S This blog is a mix of two notes, I had a death in my family two weeks ago. It completely removed me from my normal life. Because of this I have decided to include birthday pictures to this blog. Hope you all understand.)

Jacob is now 16 months old and growing quickly. He is into everything and has little noises to commentate all of his movements. He knows what gets him in trouble (i.e: pushing the power button on the computer, pushing the power button on the t.v., pushing the power button on the XBox, taking off with one of our phones and pushing all the buttons on it, you get the idea) so he will watch for the one second that you have your back turned and move in for the kill. Once you have noticed his unfavorable behavior and he knows you have noticed he runs in the other direction hoping that you won't catch him. He likes to lay on the floor and play with his trucks making as close to an engine sound as he can. He has recently learned how to kick his toys across the living room and just today learned how to kick his sister. He likes to be sang to, for long periods of time. He LOVES Keebler Club Crackers asking for them by saying "cacka"( not to be confused with kaka). He has four teeth, two on the bottom and two on the top, those coupled with his dimples get him lots of attention most every where he goes. Jacob has the best laugh. He is learning how to play and interact with us quickly. He and Alexis play hide and seek through the house most every day. In addition to asking for a cracker he can say bye-bye, get down, hot, this, up, and he is working on boots-he watches Dad get ready for work. He can tell you where his eye is and his nose, just be prepared for him to shove his finger completely up his nostril when you ask. When he is pleased with something he with either inhale deeply with his mouth wide open or pucker up his lips together and say "OOOOOO"! He can tell you what a monkey says which sounds very similar to what the train says. He can also tell you what the dog says. In his world the dog doesn't bark, but pant. Blue tends to pant whenever Jake is around him. Our little man is basically still bald having only a few little luffs of red hair here and there. He still is no picky eater, taking in whatever is in near proximity from whoever will give it to him. For example, he seems to have a fear of my sisters room mate, Mallory, crying every time he is left alone in a room with her or even just seeing that she is watching him from afar. When Mallory joined us in the living room with her dinner she and Jake became instant BFF's. Thus proving that the way to a mans heart, even a little man, is through his belly.

Alexis has just celebrated another birthday. She is now the ripe age of 6. I really can't believe that I have a 6 year old daughter. Mostly because she acts like she is 16. We had our first official "I'm not going to school because I don't have anything to wear" day! She had plenty to wear, just not the things that she wanted to wear. She wants a striped sweater dress from the Gap to go with her black boots with some leggings that will match both of them. *sigh* She ended up wearing some cute Old Navy fleece pants with a fleece zip up that, you guessed it, matched her boots. I am going to need two jobs to support her fashion sense. I see it already. She is very outspoken and very opinionated, which at this point tends to get her in trouble more than help her out. We mostly use the method of taking away her belongings. This usually works but I am nervous that we will have to move on to another solution because a few days ago after fighting and arguing with her all day she was finally sent to bed and told one last time to behave. She went to bed and was silent for about 10 minutes before she came out to say this, "This is the rhyme I made about today. 'I lost my Wii, I lost my MP3. My dad said if I don't go to bed then I'll loose my t.v' Thank you and good night".So you see what we are up against. We had our first parent/teacher conference in November. Alexis is ahead in some areas and right where she needs to be in others! She loves going to school (as long as she is dressed right). She is very dedicated to her home work every night, always doing more than she needs to be doing. Every night we are to sound out the words to one sentence. She not only sounds out the words while I write it down, but then copies the sentence on her own 4 more times! She was recognized at a PTA meeting in December for being responsible. It was her first big award and we treated it as such. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner and then treated her to her favorite ice cream shop, Maggie Moo's" when the meeting was over. For the past two weekends in a row my parents have taken her up to their favorite ski spot and let her take classes, just to see if she would be interested. Surprising to all of us she fell in love with it. The fist day my parents signed her up only for morning lessons thinking that she would be tired and ready to go by lunch. Wrong. She asked to go to afternoon class as well. She came home with a whole report on how much fun she had and what she had learned. This last weekend, her second lesson, she was able to take her edgied-wedies (contraption that prevents skis from crossing) off and use the chair lift to go down a slightly bigger hill. Gene and I are so proud. I will work on getting pictures from my family so that I can brag a little more. She is smart and witty and silly, and I love her more than the world.