The girls earn quarters for doing chores and extra jobs around the house. They even earn extra quarters for showing initiative in doing jobs without being asked or for being cheerful when doing a job. Ellie just likes to get quarters and has enjoyed being able to buy a toy or coloring book occasionally. Hannah is a big saver and is very close to having enough money to buy a new DS game. They also lose quarters for broken rules and other various reasons which is a great teaching tool.
Last night, I was complimenting Ellie on her eagerness to help throughout the day. She said, “Yes, I was full of helpness today and got lots of quarters in my jar.”
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Hannah was trying to find the right prefix for irresponsible when discussing dog owners who don’t take care of their pets….disresponsible?….nonresponsible?…..oh yeah, irresponsible!
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Yesterday, Ellie said, “Mommy, what is the baby boy’s name? I can’t remember. Is it Jack?”
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Julia has said “DaDa” since we were in Ethiopia. She yells it and screeches it, in fact, because she loves to be tickled and rough-housed and says it this way to engage him. Last week, she started calling me, “NaNa” and says it so quietly and sweetly. She uses it more when we are snuggling, or when she is sleepy or hungry. I’m sure it will turn into “Mama” soon, but I am just glad to be called something.
In just a month, Julia has gained two pounds and grown over an inch, and is on track with all the developmental markers. The doctor was impressed and said what a difference good nutrition can make. And let me tell you, the girl loves to eat!
Another important milestone happened this morning while Daddy was getting ready for work. Julia has been revving up to crawl all week, but I was hoping that she would wait until Ryan returned from his business trip. His plane was very late last night, due to bad weather and he finally climbed into bed at 1:00 am. So he was taking his time getting around for work and spending some time with the girls before heading out. I had told him about her crawling endeavors, and lo and behold, she crawled probably 4 feet across the floor to get to a toy. I guess we will all be on our toes since the toy she was after was Ellie’s and not exactly slobber-proof.
We are officially finished with school, although, math will continue throughout the summer. We will be hanging around for a few weeks before VBS and some day camps the girls are going attend. The biggest news will come in July with Evan’s hopefully, smooth arrival. My biggest goal for the next several weeks will be to take it slow and try not to get too hot as the summer warms up. It is almost 90 degrees today.
Here are some fun pictures to enjoy:
They say that home is where you hang your hat.
This spring my parents made an exciting, but necessary, decision to buy a second home outside of Phoenix so they can spend the winter in a warmer climate. Since Julia is doing well and I am feeling good, we decided last week that we would fly down for a quick visit to see their new place. So here we are. The weather is beautiful and so is their new house. The most important thing, though, is that my mom feels so much better in this climate.
We took a drive through the desert yesterday and a small cowboy town to a state park with a beautiful blue lake where the kids were able to swim and enjoy the day. Julia is a little fish and in spite of the cool water, didn’t really want to stop swimming. Ryan and the big girls went for a hike to check out the desert more closely. It must have been a great time because the girls came back with their arms full of treasures and Ryan came back with a story about what we will refer to as “the cactus incident”.
Well, my dad has lots of hats and some are now even of the cowboy variety. Most are still hanging in Indiana and now a few will be hanging in Arizona – at least part of the time.
We have named the boy (and told all the grandparents this time before posting it here). We are starting to call him by name a little bit – mostly Ellie and me. Ellie continues to try to feel him move and kick and is very interested to know when it will finally be time for him to be born. Hannah is completely in love with Julia – and it is mutual – Julia lights up when Hannah walks in the room or she hears her voice. I think “The Little’s” will be very blessed to grow up with her as their big sister.
His name will be Evan J. Hale. The middle initial J. is after his daddy, Grandpa, and Great-Grandpa.
I hope he will be a lot like Ryan, since Hannah’s personality is so much like mine. Mostly, I hope he will be athletic like Ryan (there really isn’t anything athletic about me, other than the fact that I wear sneakers sometimes). I was worrying about that the other day, when I realized how active he is already. The ultrasound tech could hardly “catch” him to get a good view of him, and one time the doctor had to sort of trap him in order to get a good reading of his heart beat with the doppler. When I asked her if his heart sounded ok, she said, “anyone who can move that well has a healthy heart”.
Ryan and I knew, even when we were in Ethiopia, that Julia was going to be a talker. She is such a babbler.
She can say 5 words already: Dada (to whose delight?), Hi, dog-dog, Yeah (as she cheers with her little arms up in the air), and sometimes, “ee-a” (short for Julia).
Just now, there was an article on the Today show where they were doing “Doggie Make-Overs”. Julia was making a ton of racket, “Dog-dog, yeah! Dog-dog, yeah!” And her little arms were waving like crazy.
Funny girl!
