wednesday mornings

townsend loves trucks. as soon as he realized that the loud rumblings on wednesday mornings were from a truck, we were out there every wednesday to watch. he would just stand and wave to the guys getting our recycling. it was usually the same couple of guys and they were nice enough to wave back as they went around our cul-de-sac. made me sad last wednesday knowing we wouldn't be there to wave any longer. guess we'll have to make new friends in denver. :)

busy busy

we have been busy getting ready to move to denver in a few days. actually we will go to gran and pawpaws house for christmas first. i keep talking to townsend about our new house and the long drive to try to help as much as possible with the transition. i'm sure he and possibly ellory notice all the boxes everywhere and all their toys slowly disappearing. now when i say we are getting ready to go to our new house, townsend says, "pawpaw." "yes, we will see pawpaw and then we are driving to our new house."
we are very blessed that townsend and ellory will be able to go to the preschool on monday morning while the moving van packs us up. that meant i didn't have to say goodbye to everyone on thursday when i picked them up. but i had to say goodbye to a few friends who won't be there on monday. i think i will lose it on monday as we drive away from alpharetta.
back to the kids though. last week we took marin in to the doctor and she had another ear infection. more antibiotics. she's definitely better but i hate that she keeps getting sick and has to take these drugs. she's still cruising around the furniture and now will take a couple of steps holding onto one of my hands.
ellory had her final evaluation by the physical therapist last week. she is impressed with how far she has come being that she has only been walking for 3 months. she gave us some things to work on to continue building muscle in her legs and abdominal area. and ellory actually seemed to enjoy her time at the session. she didn't cling to me the whole time!
townsend is sounding more and more like a little boy. speaking in longer phrases and sentences. understanding speech more and more. part of me loves it and part of me is sad that he is not my little baby boy so much. he still cracks us up at what he does after we close the door to his room for a nap or bedtime. this week we have found him sitting in bed with his entire collection of socks gathered around him. also, apparently he gets out of bed-which he is NOT supposed to do-and goes to his shelf, picks up a book and slides it under his door into the hall. we also think he has a mental checklist that he goes through after he lays down. whale? blankie? baby whale? monkey? duckie? towel? random sticker that i got at preschool and was on my shirt? wait! where's that sticker? "sticker! sticker! sticker!" fortunately i had not thrown the sticker away and when i heard him yelling i went and found it. i didn't even say a word to him. i just went in, put the sticker on his pajamas, he said night night and i was back out the door.

a day of firsts

so today mommy went and had her hair highlighted for the very first time. i had seen some pictures from 10 years ago and noticed that my hair was a lot lighter back then. these days it just seemed dark and dull with little gray strands sticking out all over. so i finally did it. i was a bit scared that i would come out platinum blonde but not so. in fact, as he was drying it i thought, " it looks like my hair used to look!" or course it's not THAT natural but i really like it. unfortunately it costs about a million dollars to highlight so i don't know that it will make it onto our new limited budget. :) i would take a picture but i don't think it would show up that well in a photo. in fact, when i got home norton said he couldn't tell i had done anything. it just shows up better in different lights.
so that was a good first.
marin had a first while i was at the salon. she woke up crying from her nap and when norton went in to get her she had thrown up all over herself and her bed. now she has spit up milk before but this was her entire lunch-peaches and carrots-and they looked just like they did on her tray before she ate them. i guess she just swallowed them whole. poor thing. and she has a runny nose too. this little one just can't seem to get completely well this season. i need to spray more lysol i guess.
so that was not a good first.

ready for our trip!

we ordered a dvd player for the van for our trip out to denver. i wondered how the kids would take to wearing the headphones but they were mesmerized by the video so i don't think it will be a problem! now we just have to stock up on elmo videos. (and barney and thomas the train)

daddy has to keep the kids in hokie gear! we watched them win their conference yesterday. townsend and ellory are actually pretty good at yelling, "go hokies!" they also raise their arms for a touchdown and will yell, "go baby!" when the guy is running with the ball. we love our football. :) and yes, that's marin, not a random baby boy, in the first pics. i guess i could always tape a big bow on her head. :)

random pics

ellory loves her "eyes." and now that it is finally getting cold here we got out the fleece hats and gloves. she's all ready for denver!

cuteness

townsend has decided that he wants to help with the dishes now. he loves to put his hands in the water and get all wet. what i usually do is hand him the rinsed dishes and let him put them in the drying rack. yesterday he was doing his job and then he sneezed all over the drying dishes. nice.


we are very glad that townsend and ellory love to read. i really hope that habit continues since norton and i are readers. and of course we hope that marin will love to read also. i guess from the picture it would seem that ellory isn't too interested in books but don't let the picture fool you. she loves, loves, loves to have books read to her. and she is so cute when she puts a doll on her lap and reads to it. sometimes she reads and turns the book around to show the pictures to everyone, just like a teacher. :)
on another note-if i can learn how to put video on here i will post the video of dinner tonight. townsend asked for a napkin and so of course ellory did too. then while she was eating she started wiping her mouth after every bite of food. it was soooo cute. norton and i started complimenting her on her good manners and then townsend started doing it too.

what a day

you would not want to see pictures of this day. mommy woke up at midnight to run to the bathroom and throw up. she continued this ALL NIGHT LONG. daddy woke up a bit early and was having some troubles too. townsend started calling out at 5:30am. not because he was sick, just ready for the day. argh! marin has been under the weather and had a fever yesterday so i called the doctor's office and they said they wanted to see her this morning. thought it sounded like an ear infection. norton(at the time) was the least sick so he took her. right as they were going out the door i reminded him to ask the doctor about her stinky breath. well, i get a call awhile later and poor daddy threw up at the doctor's office! first time in over 10 years. marin's ears were clear but after hearing about the breath the doctor looked in marin's mouth. lots of pus. yuch. so she took a culture and after a few minutes came back and told norton that marin had strep throat-apparently rare in children under 2. and very contagious. nice. you can picture marin putting townsend's car in her mouth and townsend grabbing it out. this goes on all day. we are praying the other two will be spared. the kids are now sleeping for the night and i am praying that none of them wake up with what norton and i have. one of our hardest days as parents so far.

home over a year

this was right after the attorney handed her to norton.


townsend was already in bed when we got home and marin was comfy and cozy in my tummy

we brought ellory home a little over a year ago. it seems like forever. we were waiting in our hotel room all day for her. the people kept saying they were going to be there in just a few minutes but it was more like hours. then, there she was. a beautiful little dark-haired chubby cheeked miracle. we didn't get many smiles out of her while we were in guatemala. in fact, she didn't smile much for weeks. it was quite the challenge. she also didn't really respond to sounds. we thought she had some hearing problems and had them tested. no problems. we think she just didn't get alot of attention, especially once she was in the orphanage. we visited the orphanage and it was very nice as orphanages go but very loud. i can imagine that one would just have to learn to block out the noise to get any sleep. she was a bit behind when it came to physical ability. about the only thing she could do when we got her was lay on her back. no rolling, no attempt at crawling-and she was 6 1/2 months old. but slowly and surely she has come along and at 17 months old finally decided she would try that walking thing. i still kinda laugh when i watch her because she has this frankenstein way of walking where she sways from side to side. :) right now she really loves her mommy. sometimes daddy. and she is starting to use more words and lots of nonwords. i love to watch her read out loud. she loves putting marin's leftover newborn diapers on her dolls. the teachers at preschool say she is very motherly. she is really the only one of the three who will cuddle with us for which i am very thankful. she is our precious ell bell. we are so thankful to be her parents.

yet another milestone

no picture but wanted to write this. the last little while whenever i am holding marin and going up the stairs she tries to wiggle of out my arms. today townsend and ellory were climbing up the stairs and i was holding marin and she was doing her wiggling so i just decided to put her on the stairs and see what she could do. she climbed up all the stairs! i guess she has watched her brother and sister long enough to learn. who knows how long she has been able to climb and mommy just wouldn't give her a chance. :)

whose new car seat?

well, marin is finally getting too big for her infant carrier so we had to get a new, bigger carseat. and like any good sister, ellory decided to test it out first. she loves to snap those buckle things together-can't get them apart so i have to always go and unlock them. but she gave a good smile for the camera so i had to put it on the blog. ellory is also getting better at walking down the stairs. for the longest time she wouldn't even attempt to go down a 1 inch step at the end of our driveway. she is our cautious one. but in the last couple of days when we are going downstairs i just take her hand and she grabs onto the rail and-very slowly- walks down the stairs. yea, ellory!

on the move

awhile back i had written that marin went from commando crawling to pulling herself up and doing a little bit of cruising. i had wondered if she was just going to forgo the regular style crawling. nope. one day in the last week she just got her tummy off the ground and started crawling. now she's even faster. she's wearing us out.
we also started calling her our little snaggletooth because she had one upper tooth coming out but it was one of her side teeth instead of a middle one. it looked so funny. then in the last few days 2 more upper teeth have started to poke through. she's starting to eat more table food now. bananas, cooked veggies, peaches, pears. and if she doesn't always have a bite of food ready to go in, she starts to grunt and growl and basically have a fit! i was wondering if this might have to do with her reflux issues so i asked the doctor a couple of days ago at her 9 month visit. she said,"i don't think it's the reflux. it sounds like it just might be her personality." oh my.
at her 9 month visit she was 20lbs 10oz and 28 inches long. around the 65th-75th percentile.

naptime fun

i know there have been a few more posts about townsend recently-isn't that always the way it is with the firstborn? but i could not pass up what he did today. i put the kids down a little before 2pm as usual and i could hear little peeps and sounds for awhile but pretty soon it was quiet. norton got home early and we were talking and realized it was after 4pm and still no sounds from any of the kids. this is not normal, i might add. someone always wakes up early. anyway, we both went up to the rooms. norton went to townsend's room and i went into the girls' room. pretty soon norton came in and said, "you've got to go into his room." so i went in, ran out to get the camera and took these pictures. i think i've said it before, but he is just so cute.
oh, and he is really starting to imitate what we say. "what (are you) doing mommy?" "whoa!" and the latest, "gosh!"

nicknames

i always think i will remember everything but i probably won't so i wanted to write down the nicknames that the kids are called at this point. some aren't intentionally nicknames-just the way that townsend and ellory pronounce things.
townsend-mommy and daddy usually call you "bubby" or "towney"
ellory calls you "tsin." she says it real fast so there's really no vowel sound.
ellory-mommy and daddy usually call you, "ell bell."
townsend calls you, "ray ray."
marin-mommy and daddy call you, "mare bear."
townsend and ellory call you, "mare mare" or "mare bear."

elmo

it's so funny to me. we only have a few books with "elmo" in them but townsend and ellory just love elmo! ellory calls him, "melmo" with a deep raspy voice. they have rarely ever seen a sesame street but still pick elmo out whenever we are in a store or in the library. actually a couple of weeks ago when we were at the library i found the kids dvd area. townsend just started pulling all the elmo videos off the rack. we checked out a couple and now they want to watch elmo all the time. as soon as the video is over townsend says, "gan?" (again?) i can see now how easy it is to let the tv be a babysitter. townsend and ellory will sit like statues for over 30 minutes watching these videos. today when we were at walmart townsend spotted these elmo pj's. since we couldn't find any bedding i went ahead and got him the pj's. as soon as we got home he started taking off his shirt and wanted the elmo shirt on. he's just such a cute little guy.

i'm a big boy now!

well, we decided to transition townsend to a twin bed. it was either that or try to potty train him before we moved. i wanted to do one and figured the bed would be easier. :) for the last 2 weeks we have been talking about big boy beds and showing him pictures. this morning we went out to walmart hoping to find some "elmo" bedding for him-no luck. but i let him pick out a fitted sheet. then we went to the mattress store and picked out a bed. norton went and picked it up and we started the big switch! we put townsend into the room that marin has been in and put marin in with ellory. he watched all the furniture moving and then when we put the bed up he seemed pretty happy. once we got all his animals and blankies onto the bed it was time for a nap. amazingly, he lay down and went right sleep-not a peep. i was wondering how tonight would go but he seemed just fine. norton read him some stories in bed and then he went right to sleep. not a peep again. the top picture is how norton found him when he went in to wake him up. for some reason he keeps putting his pillow on the table next to the bed. kinda funny.

trick or treat!

last week norton and i were in denver looking for a house. gran and pawpaw stayed with the kids-thank you again! hence, no blogs for the past week. but we're back in action now!
ever since we moved to our house in alpharetta, our cul-de-sac has gotten together for halloween. we set up tables, order pizza and put our candy on the tables so the kids have 1-stop shopping. sometimes it's been the only time we've communicated with some of the neighbors. this year marin wore townsend's dinosaur costume from last year. ellory was a (grumpy) ladybug and townsend was a bear. i couldn't believe townsend kept the hood on his costume the whole time! i think they liked seeing all the kids dressed up, although i don't think they really "got it." we didn't bother with trick or treating since the kids haven't really had sugar and mommy and daddy would eat all their loot. :) but it was a nice time chatting with neighbors and letting them hold and play with the kids.

joy

early thursday morning our very good friends, bianca and steve, welcomed their baby boy, shepard, into the world. we are so thrilled for them and rejoice in the miracle that has taken place! we are thrilled for us too because someday in the future we expect that he will be our son-in-law! :) will he match with our dark-haired, exotic ellory or our fresh-faced blue-eyed blonde marin???? only time will tell.

grace

as soon as the kids are seated at the table townsend says, "pay, pay." so we fold our hands, close our eyes and sing our song to the Lord. lately townsend has started moving his plate to the side while we pray. maybe so he won't be tempted to eat while we pray? who knows? but it's very cute. also, ellory didn't seem to understand what it meant to "close your eyes" so sometimes daddy would put his hands on her eyes so she wouldn't be looking over at townsend and giggling. and now when we pray she goes ahead and puts her hand over her eyes. again, very cute.

townsend's 2nd birthday-3 months ago

townsend celebrated his 2nd birthday at preschool on july 15, 2008. since pinatas are popular at birthdays in guatemala, we decided to do one for his class. of course the thought of 2 year olds swinging a bat did not sit well so we found a bull pinata that had ribbons hanging down to pull. one of the ribbons held a piece of cardboard over the opening so when that ribbon was pulled all the goodies would fall out. i also decided that parents would probably not appreciate us loading their kids up with candy right before pick up time so i filled the pinata with balls, cars, etc. i think it went over pretty well. the kids liked pulling the ribbons and i had a clue as to "the" ribbon and made sure that one was not pulled until the very end. townsend pulled the last ribbon and we started shaking out the toys. one little boy got a horrified look and started yelling, "no! stop!" i don't know if he thought the bull was real and we were ripping it apart or what. but it was kinda funny. also, after everyone had grabbed all the toys another little guy came up and asked me, "where's the cake?" a kid after my own heart. :) we love you townsend and we are so thankful that you are our son.

what happened???

last week marin got herself to standing. i wrote about it. well, since that day she has not stopped in her quest to be standing at all times. no matter where i sit her she immediately crawls for the coffee table, a chair, the couch, a box, anything that she can get her hands on to help her pull up. it's driving me bananas. the most pitiful part has been when we've put her down for a nap. she stands right up and cries. sometimes we've gone in her room and she's standing up at the back of her crib facing the wall just crying. almost like she is being punished. i just don't remember this with townsend and ellory. where did our little baby go??

so proud

this morning townsend and i were getting ready to go to the store. i was upstairs and when i came down he was so proud of himself. he had put on shoes all by himself! we praised him appropriately and clapped and cheered. then we had to tell him that the shiny brown and pink shoes were his sister's. :)

just some pics