(Almost) a big girl!

This weekend we planned to use our three-day weekend to go to Pittsburgh to visit friends and family while I can still travel. Then Molly decided to fuss all night long for a couple of nights (for no apparent reason) and then she woke up with a fever on Thursday morning. Not wanting to infect any of the pregnant mamas or new babies in the waiting room at my prenatal checkup, Patrick kept the kids outside - they went for a walk and played around, and then Molly fell up a cement step and cut the inside of her mouth, and skinned her chin and her shin, and bled all over Daddy. The nurse who was supposed to be taking my blood pressure and getting my Rhogam shot got to clean her up and get her some ice and a bandaid. It was a rough day to be Molly.

Anyway, by Friday Molly was over her fever but certainly had a cold and a cough. On Saturday morning, Patrick and I had to make the unfortunate call that she was not well enough to go anywhere, and certainly should go nowhere near my fragile little grandma at the nursing home. So the boys went to Pittsburgh and Molly and I stayed home, both of us heartbroken not to be able to go.

Molly and I have been talking about getting serious about potty training, and we were planning to start on Tuesday - after Elijah finished preschool, and we got back from our trip to the 'Burgh. Since we were going to be stuck at home for the whole weekend anyway, we decided to go for it.

Molly has been wearing her training pants whenever she's awake since Saturday morning, and went a full two and a half days before having an accident!! WOW! We offered her the same deal as we did Elijah - keep your training pants dry for three days in a row and you get to go pick out some big kid undies. I thought she might just pull off a crazy straight-to-panties victory today, but the streak ended around 10 am this morning when she was too involved in solving a train-track related problem and didn't make it to the potty on time. Still, she's obviously been ready for this for a while, and she's doing an amazing job. I'm so glad we waited until she was ready and excited to do it, and that we had this weekend to just focus on Molly and the potty. Molly has been proudly telling people on the phone that she is "almost" a big girl, since Daddy always tells her that she will be a big girl when she doesn't wear diapers anymore. She really is getting to be such a big girl!

Last day of school

Today was Elijah's last day of school. Wow! I can't believe that he's done with a whole year already! He loved both of his schools this year, and made the transition from one to the other pretty easily. He has grown up so much and learned a lot. He's made a lot of progress in his scissor skills, figured out the calendar, learned about patterns, memorized rhymes and songs, and learned a ton about animals. He also enjoyed taking soccer and gymnastics at school. Elijah was very blessed to have a great teacher who really knew him as an individual and cared about his development. He is both sad that school is ending, and excited for summer! On Tuesday, we all got to go to Elijah's end of the year party (with his whole school) at the park. It was so fun!

One of the big things that I was hoping for him to get out of his preschool experience was a good friendship. Elijah is not at all shy - but he's usually happy doing things on his own, totally absorbed in WHAT he's doing, and not too concerned about WHO is there (or not) to do things with him. He has a great time playing one-on-one with friends and cousins when we see them, but he doesn't need a friend to play with to be content. I love his self-sufficiency and his focus, but I also wanted him to experience the joy of a great friendship! And, just in the last month of school, Elijah suddenly had a best friend! Just like Elijah, she is the oldest kid in her family and very curious about the world. (And, strangely, almost as tall as he is - the only one in his class at his eye level.) They get along so well and love to do the same kinds of things. We are so thankful for her, and hope we can get them together often during the summer.

Best friends.

More pictures with Cam & Amanda

Hey look, I found some more pictures!

So glad we got this one, even with Elijah's awesome silly face.

Crazy blanket monsters

Beautiful kid pictures

Amanda sent me these beautiful pictures of the kids, taken on Sunday when they came up to visit. The kiddos are hot and sweaty - we had so much fun playing outside, but it was humid - but the photos are fantastic anyway. =)

Love them!

A fun visit

On Sunday we had a wonderful visit with my brother Cameron and his wife Amanda. They came up from Virginia for the day - we didn't do anything exciting, but we had such a good time just spending time together and catching up. The kids were very excited to have Uncle Cameron and Aunt Amanda here to visit, and played hard all day. I'm not sure who got more worn out by the end of the day, but everyone sure had fun! Patrick made really yummy burgers stuffed with cheese for lunch and we all ate until we were stuffed! We're really glad that we could spend some time together before Cam & Amanda move to Japan this summer!

Playing with chalk - love those chalky jeans!
(It was really humid, and the kids got pretty sweaty playing outside.)

Loving Uncle Cameron

Elijah reading for everyone.