It has been another long while since the last message, so I'll try to impart what has been going on.
Ellen has started experimenting with her abilities. She has started to try to jump. She can't leave the ground yet, but she's close...and oh so cute to watch trying. She can climb up into her high chair when she wants to all by her self now. This girl will be ready for Smith Rock in no time. (that's a popular rock climbing location in central Oregon for those of you non-left coasters out there) Ellen is becoming more and more helpful with chores. She has always liked pushing the clothes basket to the laundry room, throwing her dirty clothes in her basket, and taking the bibs to the kitchen. But now she has watched us enough to know how to do other things. She carries my lunch bag to the front door for me in the mornings, she'll take my watch and put it next to the bed. She helped Jada with the garbage the other night. With Jada at her classes on Monday's and Tuesdays, Dave sometimes give the baths by himself, and she loves taking baths. We just have to mention it, and she runs to the bathroom. Dave's also been taking her for walks in the evenings since the weather has been so nice for this first week of fall.
Jada enrolled Ellen in 3 classes at the Tualatin Valley Park District this fall: swimming, dance, and music. Dave gets to take Ellen to swimming class on Saturday mornings. It is a very large class (~20 people), and it lasts 30 minutes. We haven't had to go under water yet, but Jada was able to order some ear plugs and head band to hold them in for Ellen since she can't go under the water much without them because of the tubes. Dave is worried that Ellen doesn't remember how to hold her breath to go under the water. We did ring around the rosey, but daddy didn't want to put her under the water just yet. She seemed to have fun all the same, and was pretty comfortable in the water. She was more nervous about all the other people.
Dance and music classes started this week as well. The dance class meets on Monday mornings for 40 minutes. After removing our shoes, we do a warm up activity like walking around the room imitating a variety of animals. Music is playing constantly and is incorporated into dances and games. Ellen loved using the hula hoop-she tapped it on the ground and learned how to make it roll away. She didn't especially enjoy the streamers, but she had fun riding in the center of the parachute while all the mommies pulled it in a circle (some the the kiddos definitely did not enjoy this ride and demanded an immediate departure.) All in all it was a fun class and we look forward to 11 more classes for this session. The music class began with the instructor blowing sugar bubbles-not the regular soap bubbles that we are all used to seeing. The kiddos really enjoyed this. There were lots of songs for dancing and learning games. (Starting to sound like I signed Ellen up for the same class twice? Really, they have distinct differences.) The movement class is focused on the movement, while the music class is focused on the music. The music class lasts for 30 minutes and was also very fun. An interesting fact: there is only 1 boy enrolled in each of these classes. Hmmmm.
Reunion
Elsa's Bday
Obi seems to be coming along swimmingly. We can feel it moving around in there. (Speaking of which, Obi is doing some aerobic moves while we type!) Jada is really starting to show. She has decided that there needs to be a clothing line for tweeners: Not pregnant enough for pregnancy clothes, but too pregnant for normal clothes. There just doesn't seem to be anything out there in that niche.