We're back

We had a wonderful Christmas! We've seen most of our family and spent lots of time relaxing, eating, and laughing together.


The girls got some really cute new clothes from Aunt Nancy. We spent 4 days in Cleveland. It was fun as usual.
We got Mary some new markers and easel paper which resurrected our easel from the basement. She also got a beading kit, and an EZ bake oven that she is way excited about!! She's sitting in her new glow in the dark camp chair that she is so excited about. She asked if we could have a campfire that day.
Elijah wanted a video game system for Christmas. Unfortunately for him, he has parents who won't spend $300 on a new system. We bought him some games for our N64 (I know, it's archaic right?) for a total of around $50.00 and he is happy as a lark. I know in a few years the peer pressure will be much harder to deal with, but for now he has no idea that our old system isn't cool. I am truly thankful that our kids are so happy with so little compared to others they know. I mean, Elijah was thrilled when he unwrapped new superman underwear. He just about went through the roof when he opened the Prince Caspian dvd.

Updates

Mary got a cute new dress for Christmas. I love Gymboree!!
Elijah loves wearing his new sport jacket. He chose it for his school winter program and church on Sunday.




Emily went to the doctor on Monday and she doesn't have an ear infection (yay!), but her teeth are coming in on the top and the doctor thinks that is what is causing her so much pain and crabbiness (boo!). I don't remember this with my other two kids. These teeth have been ready to come through for a month. We are increasing pain medication, but she is still super grouchy. We have bought a few gifts for the kids and family members. I feel my desire to have a clean and organized house reaching the max (well, at least my desire to do the work). I am ready to start the "being lazy, ahem...relaxed" portion of winter break.

Winter Break Day 1

Today Elijah spent the day with his Grandparents Greene since he was missing them so much lately. He used to spend one "special" day a week with Grandma Susan, but now that he is at school he doesn't see them nearly as often--or solo. Mary has strep throat again so we spent the evening caring for her. Also, I think Emily's ear may be bothering her. She's been tugging at it a bit and she was fussier than normal today--especially at bedtime. So, if it doesn't seem better tomorrow I will take her in on Monday to see the doctor.

I cleaned out the kids' closets and took 2 bags to Goodwill. I am dead set on doing some Christmas shopping in our attic this year. We have so many things that go un-played with; I just can't possibly think of more things we must have. I haven't bought anything yet.

We ended up having Christmas dinner with my mom and dad and the kids opened their gifts. Very simple; thank you mom and dad. A bit of clothes for the older two, a deck of cards for Mary, a how-to Juggling kit for Elijah, books for all. It was SUPER fun! We sat by the fire, watched cable, made cookies, put together puzzle ornaments, and listened to XM 36 Holiday Traditions while we ate dinner.

I like spending the first few days of break getting the house organized and cleaned so I can enjoy being in my home. Like so many others I know, I am starting to love my living room by the glow of white Christmas lights. I also am liking the artwork in there, the furniture arrangement, our new clock with a pendulum, and how clean the rug feels with our new vacuum cleaner.

9 years and holding

Tomorrow is our anniversary! Today is my grandparents'--Happy 59th Grandma and Grandpa LaCombe! If you are doing the math you realize that the year we got married was my grandparents 50th anniversary. That is really special to me. Unfortunately we got married just a couple years before digital pictures were all the rage and we don't have a scanner so you won't be able to gawk at Brian's baby face and wonder," just how young were you guys?!" So what are we doing for our anniversary you wonder? Well, I will be making and filling 20 bags with Royal icing for my kindergarten students gingerbread house making on Friday and Brian will be writing finals for his high school students. Sounds romantic, huh?

Elijah, Elijah, Pumpkin Eater

Elijah's school had a Independent Research Night (IRP) night last week, where the kindergarten classes had a living museum. The kids had to dress up as a Mother Goose character and recite their poem as people come through and press their "button" . Elijah chose Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. We were awfully surprised when we googled this rhyme and found out it was about a man who chopped up this woman who wouldn't be his wife and stuck her in a pumkin. Eek. That Mother Goose, she's kind of morbid.

Do you think it is possible to change parts of your personality-- like how you react to certain situations? I am realizing lately how much I want to be a calm, steady person and not react emotionally to things. Two situations that happened yesterday:

1. I had a missed call from Elijah's school. All afternoon I worried and played out different scenarios in my mind about how he was in trouble, but then thought no, they would've left a message or called my work number. Turns out, his after school club got canceled.

2. After school (whilst I was picking up one son who didn't have science club) I got a call from my school. It was the secretary (who, by the way is about as calm and steady as they come) calling to ask me if I remembered how one of my students went home. He didn't get off the bus. So, I am now panicking. He, as it turned out, forgot to get off at his stop. But for that 15 minutes while I waited for her to call me back, I was again trying to talk myself down.

Two scenarios in a matter of 2 hours that had my heart racing. Can I operate differently?

I love it when Laura comes to our house and adds her pictures to our computer. This is one from earlier this fall when we took a trip to Dispennets orchard.



Man, I just keep getting worse at blogging regularly. Emily went for her 12 month visit this week and while I don't have her stats--they are on a slip of paper...somewhere... I do know that she weighed around 23 lbs. and that was the 75th percentile. Her height was 90th percentile and head was 50th. She got her 4 immunizations and did just fine.

The last two weeks have been a change from our regular routine. Emily's sitter, also known as our good friend, Annie (and her 2 girls) has been coming to our house every morning since they sold their house and are living with her mil until they close on their new house next week. It has been fabulous for a number of reasons. First of which is, Emily can sleep in her own bed and I don't have to get her up and ready in the mornings. Even more than that though; it has been motivating for Brian to help keep the house clean since he knows they are going to be here during the day. It has been so great--the dishes get done regularly, the floors stay swept, clutter is (mostly) put away.

Part of the fantasy of lights parade on Friday night
Lily and Mary snuggle up to watch the parade
Just part of the candy table for gingerbread houses
Elijah, Emily, Mary, Dylan(?) and Noah(?)

We are home from our flurry of a weekend in Michigan. As I look back over the pictures (and maybe based on how tired I am today) we stayed busy while we were there. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving day. Mary got to ride up with my parents on Wednesday and Brian, Elijah, Emily and I drove up Thursday morning. We listened to The Magician's Nephew book on tape and Elijah LOVED it! He was making all kinds of connections since he is so familiar with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It made the 5 hours go by pretty quickly. The weekend was so fun because my kids had playmates wherever we were. Between both sides of my family my cousins are between the ages of 2-21. On Friday we got to spend the morning at my cousin's house. Their twin boys are 2 years old. They just bought a new house and it is super fun! They have a finished basement that is a huge playland. The adults might have had a little fun too, playing air hockey. From there we went back to my grandparents' house and got ready to make our traditional gingerbread houses. We put tablecloths over the ping pong table and decorate like crazy. That night we took the kids to the Fantasy of Lights parade through Howell. They absolutely loved it! The floats are all lit up with Christmas lights. Our evenings after the kids were put to bed included some intense games of Rummikub. Saturday my grandma made waffles, and we started packing up a bit and kind of relaxed before my grandpa's 80th birthday party at an old car museum. There was a Fabulous Hudson Hornet that Elijah was nuts for! They had a big display about the movie Cars next to it, and the man who worked there gave him a postcard with a picture of Doc Hudson on it (from the movie Cars). Elijah stayed with my mom and dad to drive home today, but the rest of us drove home late last night. We had a fantastic time seeing all of our family. I am so glad we got to go.

Birthday party #1

I just really looked at the calendar

I realized it is exactly 1 week today until Emily turns 1. And it hit me. She is growing up! So, I will take this moment to reflect a bit on her 1 year of life outside of me. (As we will be out of town on her actual birthday and I am home with sick kids who are sleeping). Unfortunately they are in reverse order, but I am not messing with moving them all around now. I guess if you want to view them in chronological order scroll down to start and work your way up.

Early October 2008-Eating solid foods, loving cheerios by the fistful. Drinking out of a sippy cup.
July 2008-Owls Nest Macatawa. hanging on the beach with the fam. Not crawling yet. Likes sitting in one place playing with toys or laying on tummy.
May 2008-At the wedding of her godparents. Sitting upright is fairly new. Likes to be held most of the time. Spending days with the Fish family while mommy is back at work.

February 2008-big sister loves holding and snuggling. Emily prefers to lie down on her back, but will sit up when someone is holding her.
At one week old. Man, do I even remember what was happening? I wasn't doing much sleeping that's for sure!
Brand new baby. Just minutes after delivery. You can still see the umbilical cord on her. Technology is amazing. Since I was all drugged up and in recovery I didn't even see this particular moment live. So I am thankful that Brian had the camera in with her.


We love you Emmaroo!

The Friday night blues

Here I am at home alone on Friday night. The kids are asleep, Brian is out playing music and I opted not to get a sitter and go too. What am I doing instead? Mopping floors, scrubbing behind the toilet, and dusting. All things that don't get done enough in this household. I am trying to remember that the end product will be a clean, happy home that I will feel comfortable to relax in. I sometimes feel like there is a list two miles long of jobs that need to be done around here. Not just the weekly chores, but the bigger things. I'll try to be grateful that I have a home to clean. It could definitely be worse.

UPDATE: Just 30 minutes later and I really do feel like I like my house again. Just goes to show you how fickle I am.

Not to keep the suspense going for so long

Yes, it is indeed Wheel of Fortune. Or "the wheel" as Elijah affectionately refers to it. He structures his whole evening around it.

At 6:30 pm: "Mom, it's almost 7:00 I can't ________." (fill in anything I might ask him to do...brush your teeth, clean up your room, do your homework)

He always roots for the coolest looking male player and wishes "bankrept" on anyone other than that. Unless the coolest looking male starts to lose. Then he roots for whoever has the most money.

It's seven o'clock...where are we?

Gathered around the tv watching Elijah's favorite show. Any guesses?

There are so many little posts swimming around in my head, but lately I barely get time to sit down at the computer. We just keep passing around different types of illnesses (read: mom and dad have been writing a lot of sub plans and not getting much sleep over the last few weeks). There are so many good things to write about though, so I don't want to dwell on all the germs!

Emily's first birthday is in three short weeks. The past year has gone fast and slow at the same time. I am so thankful for my extended maternity leave and then summer vacation. I really do feel like I got to spend a lot of time with her. She still only has one tooth with one just about to break through. I am hoping it will be there for her first birthday. We have yet to get her professional portrait taken, so I think I will do it in the next couple of weeks (once she doesn't have the double snot drips). She is close to walking, but I think it will be after she turns one. She amazes me with things all the time. It's like she's a real little person in there. She thinks it's uproariously funny to pull her socks off as soon as I put them on her, she has all different kinds of babbles that sound like her own little language. She adores her friends Caroline and Lucy. The other day at church Lucy was fussing and Emily flung her head around to see what was the matter with her and then she started "talking" to her. It was so sweet.

We're going to Michigan over Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday (and to have Thanksgiving of course) so I am starting to gear up for traveling with 3 kids. We always do fun stuff up there like make gingerbread houses which my kids are really looking forward to.

Fuzzy fall pictures

I don't know what has happened to my camera. The settings are messed up or something. It seems like all my pictures are not in focus like they used to be. So, here are a few cute ones I got of Emily playing in the leaves last weekend. She loved it. She almost never sits still anymore, but she sat in the leaves for almost 5 minutes.

I totally get this business about the baby of the family

In all the latest Greene news, Emily is being super cute these days. Now that she is almost finished with her antibiotic, she seems to be feeling back to her old chipper self. She is crawling so FAST. And getting.into.everything. There are definitely preferences for things she is not supposed to have. Garbage cans. Boxes of STH cds. Anything on the floor in Elijah and Mary's room. And what's funny is she starts crawling faster when she rounds the corner toward the bedrooms. I can hear her little knees pounding away on the floor. She laughs and laughs. I am starting to block off every room. What's also fun is that she stands up all the time and is just starting to cruise from the ottoman to the loveseat. Just this week she started saying mama. She now drinks from a cup independently.

So, all these things are great and fun and noteworthy. And at the same time remind me that she will be 1 in a month. I have had more than one conversation lately about moms feeling sad on their baby's(or young children's) birthday. For me, this emotion seems exceptionally strong because in most likelihood she will be our last. I don't want her to grow up. It's fun having a baby. Okay, it's also a lot of work. But. My point is that I am starting to get a lot more insight into birth order and how, as parents, we shape so much of our child's behavior because of our wants and desires.

when it rains, it pours

I think it was just last week I was commenting on how things have just been moving along smoothly here. We are all adjusting to our schedule and no one has really been sick, so I have missed almost no work yet this year. Why do I do that?

Wednesday I was starting to not feel so well, but I have had a low level cold for a couple of weeks. No big deal. Sudafed and ibuprofen have gotten me through. Emily also came down with a cold over the weekend, but again not really anything too serious, mostly a runny nose. Well, by Wednesday afternoon she was wheezing a bit, so I thought I'd stay home with her on Thursday to give her a break. By Wednesday night I was feeling worse and worse--chills, body aches, really sore throat. Brian got home from work around 8 p.m. and called in sick for Thursday as well, because he had a bad cold and he saw the state of affairs around here.

I went to my doctor first thing yesterday morning and found out that I have strep throat. Emily went to the pediatrician and she has bronchitis. Well, I was really hoping to go back to work today because of some things that were happening that I wanted to be there for. I kept telling myself that I would have had 4 doses of antibiotic and another night's sleep, I'd probably be feeling lots better this morning. Brian talked me into getting a sub for this afternoon so I could teach in the morning and then come home and rest and I thought that was a good comprimise. So, I logged on to the website and requested a PM sub and it was filled within minutes so I was feeling like this was all working out fine. Until we put Mary to bed.

She had complained once earlier in the evening that her eye hurt when she closed them. I think I told her she probably had an eyelash or something. As we were laying in bed reading Brian goes, "her eye is all gooey." My heart sunk. Then I looked. Sure enough, red, swollen eye and yellow drainage coming out. Pink eye. So I went back to the computer, canceled my half-day sub, put in a new request for a full day sub and check the NBC website to see when the Office would be on. Since it wasn't until 9:00 I packed up and headed to school to work on plans for today.

This morning I am not feeling much better yet, so I am resting. Mary is watching Dora and Emily went to Annie's, at least for the morning.

A fun Bloomington weekend

We had the most fun hanging out in Bloomington this weekend. Brian and I along with Laura, Dallas, and Bethany drove down Friday after work. The band played the coffee house show to a medium sized crowd and even sold a few cds. There was this crazy (maybe fairly drunk?) middle aged guy in the audience who was kind of a crack up. He was totally calling out requests and kind of heckeling, but in a good way. After the show we got some Jimmy Johns and headed back to John and Lisa's apartment. Do any of you ever forget something really important when you travel? It seems like I always forget some key thing. This time it was the air pump for the air mattresses. So at midnight we were trying to figure out who was going to sleep where. Not to worry though, everyone got a decent night's sleep and the morning was even more fun.

The guys went over to the church to set up and the girls had a leisurely morning tea and walked around the farmers market. It was much bigger than the one in Lafayette and they were having arts/crafts booths too (but not country crafts, more like pottery, recycled jewelry, knitting, tie-dye-- that sort of thing). Around noon we headed over to the church and spent the day hanging out at their festival. The weather was hot, but as always a good time. They have a beautiful grounds with lots of trees which were all in full color. The music was good, and it was so great to just be able to be free all day. After the festival was over I attended their Vespers service and by the time all the gear was packed up and loaded in the van we were ready to head out.

Before we left Bloomington we stopped at this yummy Irish restaurant with John and Lisa and this other friend, Maximos. Oh, one last funny thing. We ran into two groups of people we knew at the restaurant. One was a guy who used to go to Saint Alexis, and the people who ran the coffee shop they played at the night before sat down right behind us. We also visited with my aunt's sister at the Farmers Market. She sells chili peppers and lives in Bloomington. It's a small world after all.

back to the grindstone

Man, this week has flown by! It is hard to believe that last week at this time we were in Indianapolis at the Ryan Adams concert! I think it took me most of this week to recover from our weekend of fun, and now we're packing up to do it again this weekend. I am heading to Bloomington with the SmallTown Heroes + Laura for Friday night and Saturday. They're playing a coffee house show tomorrow night and then a fall festival at All Saints Orthodox Church. I am definitely looking forward to it, but wondering how my lesson plans for next week and the usual weekend chores are going to get done. Oh, well...I guess we can pull dirty clothes out of the hamper if we have to! : )

Birthday weekend

This weekend we celebrated my 30th birthday!!!!! It was the perfect birthday weekend. The weather was perfect for fall. I booked a shelter at Happy Hollow Park that was near the playground so the kids could run and play and the adults could talk without having to be right there with them the whole time. Many of my wonderful family members came from Michigan, as well as my dear friends, Scott and Melissa. They stayed with us Friday night. It was so good to see them again. Melissa is a Purdue engineer turned professional cake decorator and she made my cake! It was gorgeous. We had the best time hanging out with everyone. We hung out around the campfire two nights in a row, went to the Farmers' Market in the morning to walk around (and I got 5 lbs of honey crisp apples for $5.00), I got to visit with so many people that I don't get to see very often as well as some of my closest friends that I do get to see often. Oh, and I am super excited about my gifts. I asked people to dig a perennial plant to share from their gardens and I got some great new additions including hostas from my great grandma's house where I used to play as a child (courtesy of my grandma--my great grandmother is deceased). I cried when I saw them. My family also bought me a composter. I can't wait to start using it. It is coming in the mail this week.

are you ready to be shocked?

I think she cut off about 3 inches. It was definitely not the "below the chin" I had in mind. It looks okay to me in the pictures, but in person it is a little more whacked looking. I guess that's what you get for making the decision to get your haircut and getting it cut all within 15 minutes.

The Feast ended up being really big fun today, but we are so tired. Elijah really, REALLY enjoyed dressing up and working at the New Community School booth where they sold tea and roasted corn. After our shift we walked around and tasted all the yummy Feast food.

Here are the highlights

I feel like so much is going on in our lives right now that I gloss over some major things in the sake of time spent on the computer. So, here are the highlights...

Elijah is really liking school. He is having some trouble with one little boy so there has been a little bit of drama with that, but he likes his teacher and today he came home and told me about his first little crush. I couldn't even begin to write about it in the way he told me. It was too cute. He likened her to Padme Amidala (spelling?). He said, "she's just so beautiful. I just wanted to look at her."

Emily just took off this past two weeks! She is now pulling up on everything. We lowered her crib last Sunday when we found her standing up in there. She is crawling ALL over the house and getting into everyone's stuff. Her favorite thing to do is find dust bunnies along the baseboards or chew up paper. Thankfully I'm not the only pair of eyes watching her. Her big sister and brother keep a pretty good watch over her. Her first tooth FINALLY broke through today. 10 months old...whew! I was beginning to think she'd be gumming her first birthday cake.

I quit nursing her last week when it was just too difficult and I wasn't really making enough milk. It was hard for me, but on the bright side she is sleeping through the night pretty consistently now so I feel like a much more rested person most days.

Big things happening this weekend are the Feast of the Hunter's Moon which is a really big festival here along the banks of the Wabash River. Elijah and I are working at the booth for his school. He is working at the tea booth and I am babysitting the worker's kids. Tomorrow night is the long awaited cd release party for The SmallTown Heroes. It's gonna be big! Next week will be a short week! I am taking my class on our first field trip on Tuesday--its the pumpkin patch/apple orchard one, so that's pretty fun. Then on Thursday night we are heading down to Indy to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Thanks, Megan and Everette!! Brian and I took Friday off work and then Saturday is my big 30th birthday party at Happy Hollow Park. I can't wait. Several of my family members are driving down from Michigan as well as our good friends Scott and Melissa. We haven't seen them in ages. She is a professional cake decorator and she is making my cake!!! I. can't. wait.

Please pray for this friend of our family. He was just diagnosed with leukemia.

Jonathan turns one

Emily and Jonathan were standing up at the chairs looking at each other and holding hands. It was so cute. This picture is a little dark on the left side because I took it through the rungs on the back of the chair. I loved her expression. I had to keep it.
Emily is doing her usual chest pounding--mine. Whenever I pick her up she gets so excited that her little legs are kicking in the air and she slaps my chest.
You may be wondering why Jonathan is naked. Well, maybe not if you've been to a first birthday. I'll wait to post Jonathan's cake-y birthday pictures until Megan gets a chance to post. By the end of the evening the babies were so tired they kept crawling over to each other and laying their heads on one another.

Child labor and homemade booze!

Brian decided to make some homemade hard cider this year. Now we have all the supplies and he went to an orchard near Attica for some unpasteurized cider. Now the yeast is added and we just have to let it sit for 2 weeks to ferment.

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. That is a long time for me. We've been busy hanging out with visiting family. Last Monday my grandparents drove down from Michigan and we had dinner with them at my parents' house. Then my brother and sister-in-law flew in Wednesday evening and my kids went to pick them up at the airport with my mom. So they came over Wednesday when they got into town and we had a delicioso authentic Mexican dinner at our house on Thursday night. Michelle is from Mexico and she cooked everything for us. We had lots of yummy leftovers that we've been enjoying for the last two days. Last night Mary and I went shoe shopping and I came home with two new pairs of shoes for under $25.00!! Woo-hoo~! Mary also got a new pair--light up Skechers athletic shoes. I had to almost pry them off her feet to go to bed.

Today we went to the LayFlats festival. The SmallTown Heroes were one of 60 bands that performed and we walked around the artsy booths and jumped in the big bounces. Tonight we're off to a birthday party for one of Brian's co-workers in West Lebanon. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but so far today has been HOT and sunny.

P.S. We were going to look at that house in Williamsport today while we were out there, but the owner called and said someone was making an offer on it, so we decided not to mess with it. We're not in any position to be making offers this week! :)

We may have ruined her

upon eating the gourmet peanut butter and jelly slamwhich dinner I whipped up tonight for Mary and myself:

Mary: "Mom, this tastes like duck bread" (you know the cheap, leftover frozen pieces of bread I keep to take to the park).

Me: "Well, Mary, daddy is gone tonight and he hasn't made any bread this week. We just have to suck it up and eat store bought bread."

My brother is coming, my brother is coming!

My brother and his wife, Michelle (yes, how weird. She is now Michelle LaCombe and I am not), who live in Florida, are coming for a visit next week! We can't wait to see them!

We have found a house we just might be interested in. We are contemplating a move. There. I said it. We are beginning to think about moving toward Warren County, which is much closer to Brian's work. The trouble is, we don't really have any kind of plan. In my mind I think about the pros and cons of staying and going, but I just get all confused. Here's the deal: we are going to outgrow our house in the next couple of years. The bedrooms are small and sharing rooms is tight. We only have one bathroom. Ugh. This is the hardest one for me. There is almost never a time when I am alone in the bathroom--or anyone is for that matter. What will happen when we have 5 people that need to use it? During times of inclement weather, we are on top of each other. We have more space that we could convert to usable space, but then comes the argument about spending money on a house that is already not going to sell for what we've put into it. We kind of just want to get out from under it. But we love (hate) the location. It is close to many of our friends and family, shopping, the park/zoo, and church. Our cars have been broken into at least 3 times in our driveway and there was a drug bust (that I called the cops on) on the street behind us that backs up to our backyard. So, there you have it. We don't really want to buy something else here in town because 1. we can't afford much more in this area than what we have 2. some of the reasons that we want to move include more space for gardening, animals, and outdoor living. The house we are looking at is 2500 square feet on 2 acres of land. It has 5 bedrooms, it has all the updates that Brian doesn't want to do: roof, siding, furnace. It is within our price range. It is in Brian's school district, so he could take the kids with him to school in the morning and walk them down the hall to their classrooms. It is also an hour from our friends, family, shopping, and church. Now, I haven't actually seen this house in person yet--only internet pictures and what Brian told me about his trip there. It probably won't be as perfect as I imagine. But, the arguments are still the same. If not this house, another? Is this a good time for us to move? I know that lots of people live a ways from their family and friends, but are WE those people? People drop by our house almost daily. Are we willing to give that up for another bathroom, a dog, growing lots of our own produce, and a much shorter daily commute? We will certainly still see our family and often, but it won't be the same kind of drop in after work visits that we love. Brian made the point that if the two older kids are in school next year, I could still conceivably keep my job in Lafayette. He would be in charge of the other two in the morning and I could drive Emily with me to Lafayette. While it would be more driving, it would certainly be less hectic than my current morning routine which includes getting all 3 kids ready by myself and dropping them at 3 locations before I get to work. Also, we have 3 different school calendars. Brian's, mine, and Elijah's. For instance, we will have 3 weeks of Spring Break in March. None of them coincide. Elijah will have to go to the babysitter for his Spring Break. I don't like that. So, that is my rant for the day, I know that God will make it clear to us when and if the time is right. But in the meantime I wonder why can't we have it all??!! : )

Apparently I incorrectly assumed that although my camera automatically flips images from side-to-side and up and down for still shots, the same does not hold true for video. So, here is a very short, sideways, dark view of Emily doing her first crawling at home on Friday (her first actual crawling was at her sitter who graciously got it on video and emailed it to me at work!!!) Today is Monday. She has been cleaning my floors with her belly. Brian suggested attaching Swiffer wipes to her shirt and calling it done for the week.

Bath time fun