Elena's Snack

Elena is a wonderfully independent child.  She will ask for something once, but if she doesn't get it quickly, she will just figure out a way to get it herself.  I love this quality in her.  I try to instill independence in all of my children, and it is definately more natural for some than others.  Because of her independent nature, at 2 1/2 she is able to dress herself,(most of the time with a backwards shirt and shoes on the wrong feet) get her own water, wash her own hands, and climb the climbing wall at the park.  Every once in awhile the independence is a bit much.  When she is hungry, she will help herself.  This photo was taken after a bout of the stomach flu and so she hadn't eaten all day.  She was hungry and had already eaten one peice of bread.  I wanted her to wait to make sure she could hold it down before giving her anything else.  She decided to take things into her own hands.

Smiley Michael

Look who is smiling!  Michael likes to be played with and has a very cute smile with little dimples. 

Chess

So the boys had their regional chess tournament in Austin this weekend.  They both did awesome.  I am really proud of them.  Josh has worked really hard and improved his game so much this year.  He tied for 2nd in the JV Elementary division. 

 Ethan has also worked hard.  He tied for 11th place in the primary JV division. 

We've had a couple of fun weeks.  I have some great kids and it is fun to spend time with them.  Elena got to go to an art studio and had a great time creating.

We also went to the zoo.  We wanted to use our zoo pass before it expires next month.  Michael didn't like it at all, but everyone else had a great time!

We went to the Winter Olympics at Carson Elementary.  There was snow and skiing and hockey and everything.  OK, so the snow was trucked in and limited to a tubing slide,  (We only had to wait 1 hour in line to go down it.) the skiing was 2x4's with ropes attached, (no snow, just walking on the pavement) and the hockey was in the gym.  It was fun and the weather (75 degrees) was lovely.

"Snow" in San Antonio!

We had a snow day today!  The kids of course were excited to stay home.  Unfortunately there wasn't much snow to play in.  We had about a 1/4 of an inch of snow, but it was over an inch of ice.  The ice made it pretty treacherous to drive, but by noon it was mostly gone. The temperature has been in the 20s for the last several days, and while I know the rest of the country is a lot colder than that, we aren't used to being that cold around here!!!  Lets just say it's not flip flops and shorts weather.

Joshua and Ethan freezing in their jackets.

 Elena didn't know what to think.  She lasted about 5 minutes.  Then decided it was way too cold.

Rebecca scraped enough snow off of the trampoline to make a snowball.

1 month old!!

Michael is 1 month tomorrow!! He is a very pleasant baby 90% of the time. He doesn't seem to have issues with me eating dairy, he is content to swing or lay on a blanket. He has his moments of fussiness, but I'm not complaining!

And 1 more makes 5!

Our big news for this month is that Michael was born at 5:10 am on January 2nd. He was 2 weeks early, but certainly ready to come. He weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz and was 19 inches long.
After 2 days in the hospital we were ready to go home. Unfortunately Michael had a little infection on his umbilical cord stump. This is called omphalitis. He had to have 7 days of antibiotics given through an IV. This meant 7 days in the NICU. Of course we were very sad that we couldn't take him home right away, but were very glad that the doctors caught it early and that the infection didn't spread. Jonathan got to stay home and play Mr. Mom, while I stayed in the hospital with Michael. The kids couldn't come and visit, because they weren't allowed in the NICU, but I went home every day to see them for a few hours. It wasn't an easy time, but we were blessed to have lots of help from friends and ward members.

Elena

Elena is saying new words everyday. She now say's wa-wa, when she wants a drink. She continues to say thank-you when she is given something. She has been sleeping in ever morning until at least 9. I don't remember any of the kids doing that. I am certainly not complaining!