I've let my journals slip a little bit, but much has happened since we last talked. Phoebe has started to really follow things that are dangled in front of her. She seems to focus on faces more, and she enjoys laying on her back looking up at all the dangley things on her play arch. She can inadvertently hit things that she swings at. She has started smiling socially more as well. Phoebe's face is filling out, and she is starting to look like her own little person. When we've put her on her tummy for tummy time, she has been able to roll over to her back. She started doing that 3 weeks ago. (way ahead of schedule, I must add) We haven't been able to capture it on video, but we've had many witnesses. Phoebe's sleep habits still leave something to be desired. Now that she is becoming a more social being, she doesn't want to miss anything. We have spent hours at a time trying to get her to fall asleep and then she sleeps just precious few minutes it seems. She wakes Ellen up pretty frequently at night. Though in the last week, she has been able to string together some longer stretches during night. A couple nights she actually slept for about 3 hours at a time early on. But she always wakes up around 2.30am or so and again around 5am. Then she snarfles around for an hour, and she falls asleep after we have to get up. It's been rough that's for sure. Luckily for Jada, she will take a bottle at night at least the first time. She won't normally take it again after that. Phoebe's is growing really fast too! She's out of her first pajama set already, and we don't give her baths in the sink any more.
Ellen has been growing and learning too. She just kills us sometimes. She's really starting to parrot a lot more things that we do and say ("How 'bout that?"). She certainly shows she's listening to us. It's hard not to think of her as a big girl with all she does. She still loves her books. They are her favorite thing to do. She remembers things from them and uses that information to tell us what she wants to read. Sometimes it's the title, but more often it is something that takes place in the book that she likes. Then we have to figure out what it is she's talking about to figure out the right book. She's more coordinated now too. She loves to run, so when it has been nice out in the last 3 weeks (which has only be 3 times) we try to get her outside as much as possible. She really does a good job. It's hard not to worry that she's just going to face plant, but she has really good balance. She's also starting to be more and more like a big girl. She is doing great in the big girl bed. We don't even put up the gate any more unless we are punishing her for doing something dangerous. We're back into swim class again, too. She isn't as scared of the water any more. She still goes through spells where she doesn't want to be there, but more of it just having fun. What else can I tell you that I haven't already. She climbs into her car seat on her own now (just in the van), and unfortunately, she knows how to unstrap her chest strap so we'll need to get a new car seat soon. She also knows how to get herself out of her highchair. She can get the tray off and unhook the straps. Sometimes it seems she's growing up too fast.
Ellen got to go roller skating for the first time this past week at Portland's Oak's Park. I didn't get to go, but Jada said that she did a really good job. She did the chicken dance and the hokey pokey. Though I don't think she did "Shoot the duck". Phoebe spent the time in her stroller, which they allow on the rink.
Ellen also had her first Easter Egg Hunt experience this past weekend courtesy of the Casey's. They provided the Easter Bunny with a place to hide his eggs. Ellen figured out how that worked really quickly thanks to watching the Casey kids. They were all so cute. The Easter bunny had hidden 2 different sizes of eggs. The Casey's were looking for the small eggs, and Ellen was looking for the larger eggs. It didn't matter. Kevin and Julia were helping Ellen find her eggs, but any egg Ellen found would end up in her basket. We had to sort them out before we left, or Ellen would have left with more candy than anyone.
We've had lots of visitors lately too. Grandma Freeman has returned to the Northwest, so she's gotten to see her grandkids plenty. Nana and Bapa came to spend the week with us along with Auntie Mandy. Ellen and Phoebe got to get plenty of attention. Even Savannah got some much needed loves. I don't think Phoebe had to be put down for the entire week. Unfortunately, since I'll be home on my sabbatical in a few weeks, I didn't have any vacation time to take to spend with everyone. The nice thing about the visit is that Jada and I got to go out to see a movie in a theater...together. (We went to see Holes which is based on a Newbery Award Winner that we both read.)
And on a personal note, Jada and I have given up soccer for our kids. We just got to the point where we didn't have the energy or time to participate as much as we wanted to. We left the team in good hands though. We wish them all well. We are both hoping to get back to the gym and on the tandem again soon. Looking forward to spending time together as a family during my sabbatical, although Jada will be back at work in the afternoons. Only 2 and half weeks left...
Journal Entry: April 24, 2003