Dance, baby, dance!

The kids were enjoying some Saturday morning music and dancing ...

So funny!

Walking!

Finn has been taking some experimental steps lately, and loves walking around with the help of his push toy, and tonight he finally decided to take the plunge!  We are all so excited for him - yay Finn!

Movin' on up!

I wasn't sure we would see this at all, but today Finn has moved up from his signature "wounded soldier" to a real hands-and-knees crawl!  We were all pretty excited for him this morning.

On the outside, looking in

Legos

Sneezey giggles

Elijah is pretty creative when it comes to entertaining Finn - and he'll do anything that gets a laugh over and over again.  They never get tired of being silly together!

So funny

Finn and Daddy playing around last night.  Love those baby laughs!

Finn and Elijah

One more ...

of Finn "talking" to Elijah.  Love these boys!

Finn laughs

This one is from last night - Finn laughing at Daddy.  So far, Daddy is magic - I haven't gotten even a little giggle out of him! =)

Finn in action

Here's a little video of Finn playing with Daddy the other day - enjoy the baby noises!

Molly at 3

Today we took the kids in for their annual well-kid visit to the doctor, so it seems like a good time to do a little update on how each of them is growing and changing lately! Molly turned three a few weeks ago. They measured her standing up this time (and on the scale instead of the wall, plus she was not at all pleased to be on there, so I'm not sure how precise a measurement they got), and she is 39" tall (87%) and weighs 38 lbs (still 95%). She feels to me like she has stretched out and gotten a lot leaner in the past 6 months, but I think this is the first time that she's had a higher weight percentage than height percentage. The doctor said that her proportions are still great. Molly was anxious about the whole thing, especially about the doctor examining her, but she still did pretty well. (Sitting on Daddy's lap through most of the exam really helped.) She had one booster shot, and I was very thankful that Patrick was there to hold her - she really did not want that shot, but she calmed down pretty quickly.

Little ballerina in her leotard and tutu.

Molly is (mostly) quite a lot of fun to have around! She is a little chatterbox, and loves to talk and tell stories and sing songs. She makes up silly words and silly little songs all the time. She keeps us all laughing, and spends a lot of her day grinning about something. Her favorite toys are her baby dolls - she loves to dress them and take care of them, and would prefer to take them everywhere she goes. The other day in the van she was crooning away to her Bitty Baby, “oh, it’s ok, I’m right here,” over and over. So sweet! But she also loves to play trains with Elijah, with her pretend kitchen/dishes/food, and outside in the sandbox. Elijah and Molly have really been playing well together and like to make up silly games and pretend together. Miss Molly also loves to read and look at books, work on puzzles, and do any kind of art. She likes to dress up and pretend to be a ballerina or a cowgirl. The ladies in her preschool class at church say that she is "an angel" at children's church and is always willing to share and let everyone have a turn.

Molly is still very shy with new people, and usually takes a little while to warm up each time she sees people (even those she sees regularly). Molly is reserved around others at first, but she’s never quiet at home! She always lets us know what she’s thinking, and she laughs (and fusses) quite vocally. She does sometimes still have trouble when we leave her somewhere, like church class or with a babysitter, but usually calms down and has a great time once we’re gone.

Molly is still sleeping in her toddler bed for now, and says that she doesn’t want her big bed yet. She is potty trained during the day, and almost never has accidents, but still wears diapers for sleeping right now. She speaks very clearly and has a lot to say! Some of her favorite songs are “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and Psalm 23. Her favorite books are Bear Snores On, Goodnight Moon, Red Hat, Green Hat, and I Love You, Goodnight. She also loves Hello Kitty and everything PINK! She is very excited for her new room to be pink. She is always especially excited to see her own name, or any of the letters in her name or Elijah’s. She thinks we should name her little brother Molly Beth, and she is very excited to help take care of him.

Elijah's Preschool Easter Concert

Last week, Elijah performed in his first concert - the Preschool Easter Program at his school. When I heard about it I asked him what he was going to do, and he said, "I'm gonna sing some songs and do some moves." Hey, who could pass up an opportunity to see Elijah's moves?

Here are the kids, all dressed up and ready to go:

Um, not exactly the best photo I've ever taken of them.

Elijah was more excited to go than he looks. Both the morning of the concert, and the morning before, he was dressed and wearing a tie when I went in to wake him for school. He just couldn't wait!

Despite his excitement, Elijah ran out of enthusiasm about half way through the program. He did a great job at first, but after he had to sit and wait through a couple of other classes doing their songs, he was over it. It was so fun to go and see him perform on stage for the first time! Daddy, Molly and I loved it.

We took some video of the concert, but as of now, it won't load to blogger. We'll keep trying!

Elijah reading

Elijah has been reading on his own for a little while now. He is really enjoying being able to read to himself and to Molly. I finally remembered to take a video of him reading last week - what a big milestone to document!

Graduation day

Well, it was a big day. Four years of the Academy, a year of the prep school before that, and a couple of years enlisted in the Marine Corps before that ... We were all pretty proud of him. He graduated "with merit" (even Cameron isn't sure what that means, specifically) and was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps. I am just so happy for him that he doesn't have to wear that awful, polyester, white Navy uniform anymore. =)

At the last minute (the night before), it occurred to us (well, to Linde, who is pretty smart) that maybe a big, long morning of sitting in the sun and listening to boring speeches would be perfectly horrible for the kiddos, and we went back and forth about taking them or not. In the end, it was way too late to get a babysitter, and neither Patrick or I wanted the other one to have to stay home and miss it, so we took them. They did surprisingly well, once I got them some water and a pretzel and popcorn. Patrick zipped them right back to the house as soon as Cameron walked, which was just in time to get back for lunch and naps. So it all worked out.

My beautiful little family.
(Look at those kids. Cute? Yep. Handful? Yes, sir.)

We were way, way up there, but we could see everything.

The Blue Angels did a fly over, and the speaker was VP Joe Biden, so there were helicopters and all that jazz as well. I have no comment about him, and I missed his entire speech anyway because I was walking with Molly outside. I did manage to keep her in long enough to witness the Marine officers oath and commissioning, and to see Cameron get his diploma, which was all that I really needed to see anyway. Molly got excited as soon as they started reading names, and clapped and yelled, "Yay Cam-wen!" for each graduate as they walked ... for a while. She gave up on it ever actually being Cameron before they got to him. I'm sure all the honors graduates who went first appreciated the extra applause. They asked the family and friends of each graduate to stand when their (not midshipman anymore) was called so that the support of everyone's family and friends was acknowledged as well. We stood and yelled our best, but we were pretty high up there - I doubt Cam could hear us. Oh, and I did get to see the famous hat toss at the end (after the kids left) as well.

Cameron, about to get his diploma. His roommate, teammate, good friend, and one of his groomsmen, Mike, is behind him. The graduates in black (about 200 out of the 1,025 graduates) are going into the Marines, those wearing white are Navy.

Happy, proud, DONE!

I don't know if there was another family in the crowd there that was honestly a little surprised that their kid graduated from high school at all, let alone got into college, let alone graduated with merit from one of the more demanding colleges in the country. Probably not. If we were any more proud of him, we would have exploded. Awesome. Here's John's post, with a link to some more pictures.

A quiet week

With two kids trying to get well again, we've had a pretty quiet week at home. The kids spent quite a few days in their pajamas, and drank a lot juice (both very popular perks of being sick around here), and played and colored and watched videos. They didn't really eat much, and Patrick and I survived on quick, easy meals like scrambled eggs and frozen pizza. Holding a sick baby all day just didn't leave much time or energy for cooking! But we all came through it pretty well, and Patrick and I are thankful that we didn't catch this bug too.

Elijah has been getting better pretty quickly, and he was actually well enough to go to his gymnastics class yesterday morning. Molly has had a much slower recovery, and is still not completely well (even though she got sick earlier than E). We took her back to the doctor on Wednesday. Fortunately, her 6 day-long fever finally went down and stayed down that day (and we got to avoid a trip to the hospital for a chest x-ray - 'cuz that sounds like a lot of fun with a toddler). Her doctor said that Molly had been by far the sickest kid that she saw the day that we first took her in with croup (last Tuesday), and that she was sure when she came in and heard Molly's breathing that day that she'd be sending her to the emergency room right then. Fortunately, her lungs were quite clear and her oxygen levels were great and we did not have to go to the E.R. The doctor said this time that she wasn't surprised to see her still sick, since she had been so very sick last week - it's just going to take some time to get well. Anyway, she seems much better yesterday and today, but she is still having a lot of trouble sleeping and is still coughing a bit.

Here are some pictures of our low-key week.

Elijah got to build some pretty amazing train tracks while Molly took extra naps.

Molly's favorite activity lately has been coloring. She demands that I write her name for her many, many times a day.

Showing me her crayon - "broken"

Here's a little video of Molly coloring, spelling her name ( she says "M-O-Y" or "M-O-Y-Y" - I guess the Ls are the hard part) and saying some of her colors.

Molly talking

Just a little video of a typical conversation with Miss Molly. Enjoy her cute little toddler voice! Yes, she does love Elmo. No, she is not potty training. (I'd like to be done with Elijah, first, even though she is expressing quite a bit of interest.)

This kid ain't shy!

In November, Elijah made his second annual appearance in a very large show at Patrick's university which they put on every year to raise money for the local childrens hospital. Last year I forgot to take pictures or video, but Patrick got a good one this year. Elijah's job was to escort one of the contestants in the show across the stage. Last year I wondered if he would be nervous when faced with such a big crowd, but no, he had a great time. You can see in the video how much he enjoyed himself, and the fun present he got for his effort!

Touchdown!

Here's a little video from earlier this fall when we were teaching Molly "touchdown."

Molly's birthday videos

Here are a few videos from Molly's birthday party last week.


Eating dinner (chicken soup again - it's her favorite!):





Opening presents (watch her feet go - she's all excited!):




I wish I had video of Molly when we got the baby doll out of the box - she was just loving that baby! I was cracking up when she tried to "try on" her new clothes - what a funny little girly thing to do! How does she know this stuff?


And the cake:



Hilarious. You can see that she likes cake about as much as Elijah, so far. But that's OK. The grown ups actually enjoyed eating the cake, and watching Miss Molly play with it. Elijah was still not a fan, although he did eat some ice cream. Molly seemed to enjoy both of her first birthday celebrations, even if she had no idea what was going on most of the time. And she is still in love with that baby doll.

Birthday present

Molly got this fun walker for her birthday from Aunt Diane, Uncle Bill, Rylee and Brynn. We got it put together last night and she took it for a test run. She is having so much fun with it! She loves being able to get up and walk, and is enjoying all the little toys on it, too. It's a big hit!

Singing

Here's a little video of Elijah singing. He usually is too distracted by the camera to sing anything, so I'm surprised I got this much. He is singing the alphabet song and Psalm 23B (yeah, the tune is not easy to recognize - some days he does better than others), and he does know both all the way through, but he's easily distracted. =) Oh, and I'm sorry about the angle!