Nate & Ellie

Almost There!

I am almost caught up but my hands are getting tired. Forgot to mention the most awesome of things, which is that NATHAN IS POTTY TRAINED! YAY YAY YAY YAY. We had made a lot of progress in JC before we left and then had a setback with all the transition so we started up again and were struggling to find the correct approach that would work for Nathan...Knowing how smart he is, Scott and I just got so frustrated that he would go in his diaper when he knew how to go in the potty. So out came the potty training books and internet researching and I was in the middle of about three of them when I discovered that all recommended that the child have their own potty. So off Nate and I went to Target where he picked his own potty (Fisher Price "singing" potty) and he got to pick where he would put it (basement where interestingly enough he was going to poop anyway) and we were off! We had some success with peeing and hit or miss (haha) with pooping and then he started to go more consistently. We did toys for every time he pooped which he quickly caught on to, but it just wasn't consistent enough to make us hopeful that it would ever end! What helped was Nathan going to speech therapy every week at preschool, asking to go to school, and me reinforcing that he can't go to school until he didn't wear diapers anymore...that, in conjunction with his birthday coming up and "three year old big boys don't wear diapers" seemed to be the magic pill that worked and literally the week of his birthday he only wanted to wear big boy underwear. It is still amazing to me. We have not conquered nighttime yet, but we have had a few mornings with dry diapers so I am hopeful that it will be soon. Our son is so amazing and everyone is so right about "when they are ready, they're ready." Saved me some reading.

Will post later about his birthday....

Mommy and Nathan at sushi lunch for his birthday

His potty corner with the sticker chart that didn't get used because he was 99% trained at that point

Birthday!

Daddy, Nate, and Ellie in bed. So cute!

Big Brother Nathan and Baby Ellie. Oh we are so blessed.

March cont'd

The second snowstorm...Nathan looking at our sled tracks down the driveway. I haven't laughed that hard or had that much fun since I was a kid...I think I enjoyed sledding more than he did!

Happy kid in the snow (totally unprepared...no snow pants or boots or anything...)

Ellie sits in the booster seat for the first time!

Playing in the snow

Front yard/street

March 2009

Happy girl in her jumperoo....since we had the space, I got a used one and she loves it

Visiting Will Nelson in Baltimore (so nice to be close!)

Nathan still loves his sister. Thank goodness.

ELLIE!

Showing off her cute booties and sweater from Jane Hoyt.

More pictures - February 2009

Ellie takes control. This is her first experience with "real" food...oatmeal. February 2009

This is what happened when I paused to give my cramped hand a break

"Where's the food?"

Will Nelson comes to visit!

Alex and Will

More Pictures - January 2009

Our first (of two) snowstorms...unbelievable. I moved South to escape the cold, not to have more cold. It is still not warm by the way. Mid-April and we have had less than a handful of sunny warm days. What the heck is going on?!

Eating snow

Our "retro" kitchen with blue countertops

New House

Playroom/basement

Family room

Daddy and Nathan at the "new house"

Nathan watching the movers

Moving day....in the new empty house

Changes

Seriously, not a day goes by that I don't think about the blog and feel guilty that I haven't posted any updates since December! We have had so many changes since then and I didn't even post Christmas pictures...so I am going to try to catch up a bit.

We are now happily settled in Arlington. Boy it was a long road to happiness though...with so many changes at once and smack in the middle of holidays, plus with a colicky kid that screamed all the time and a needy 2 year old, the months of January and February were very trying to say the least. Thank goodness for small favors in that our lovely daughter who screamed every time we put her in the car stopped screaming on car rides literally the week that we moved down to Arlington.

So we said good-bye to Jersey City and left on January 9th to move to Arlington, VA and start a new chapter of our life here. The departure was more emotional than I thought...though I really had prevented myself from becoming invested in the area because I didn't want to stay there and I knew we COULDN'T stay there in a cramped two bedroom apartment, I guess I got attached more than I thought and was sad to leave our friends, the waterfront, and the familiarity of where we had called home for 2 years. I knew it was time to leave and move on but walking along the waterfront, commuting by ferry, seeing the Statue of Liberty every day, spending time outside, eating bagels at Two Aprons, Nathan's birthday parties in the common room...will all be great memories for us.

The move was as smooth as I guess it could be, thanks very much to the help of GG who stayed for two weeks to help with the kids and unpack. She is a tireless worker and we were pretty much all settled by the time she left! It was a little disorienting to go from a two bedroom apartment where you could touch every space in 5 minutes to a five bedroom 3600 square foot house where there are stairs and lots of space to fill. I still haven't adjusted and have to say that I miss the simplicity of our smaller apartment. Seems like there is forever something to clean, organize, move, rearrange, pick up, etc. around here and my work has expanded to where I feel like I never sit down.

The kids have oriented well. As SOON as we moved, I put Ellie in her own bed and in her own room. No offense to her, but I was more than ready to have my bed back and her nuzzling to eat throughout the night was becoming more and more frequent. She was such a good sleeper and would go right to sleep when we put her down, without fuss or jiggling (unlike Nathan), but didn't sleep for very long. That has been a struggle since the beginning....

Nathan has taken to his "new home" quite well. He really likes the space and we have watched him do more things alone now that we are not on top of each other. We have the most amazing yard which is really what attracted us to the place and he loves to be outside playing. We are learning about boundaries in a house and neighborhood, as our gregarious, friendly son loves to just run over to the neighbors' houses and play with the "kids" without telling anyone where he is going. I would never want to temper his social nature or his free spirit but need to figure out some system so that he isn't disappearing all the time. Makes it hard to get things done around here, especially when we are outside.

We were lucky enough (ok, yes, I did some hard work in the beginning) to find Nathan a new speech therapist who has done a great job with him, as well as enrollment in two preschools (so we have options). Apparently we were SO behind the curve when we moved and, though not like Manhattan (thank God), the preschools around here are competitive and fill up quickly in January for the September school year. Craziness. I am very happy with the two that he is in and Nathan is SO excited about school. It helps tremendously that his speech therapy is at one of the preschools so he sees the kids every week and wants desperately to join them. Makes me wonder if we should have started him earlier...Good news is that he is enrolled in summer camp at the preschool too so that will get him oriented. Another competitive aspect of the area is the Arlington County recreational activities. Wow. The most organized system I have ever seen and with so many options, you could fill your days with activities! I missed the beginning of registration for summer camp by 5 minutes (online registration was at 8am) and 90% of the camps were full....SO when it came time to sign up for soccer, t-ball, etc. I was online at 7:50 poised and ready! And it paid off as Nathan starts t-ball, swimming, soccer, and music next week. I am going to take a tennis class to do something for myself as well. We are really excited about it.

Scott has taken to the neighborhood as well and gotten reinvolved in lacrosse as an assistant coach for the youth lacrosse in the area. It is really awesome to see him passionate about the sport (something besides work) again and he is such a natural with kids...they all love him. Though it does take time away from us, it is well worth it to see how happy and excited he gets about coaching and coaching his favorite sport. Plus we get to go watch the games which is fun too.

Hmm...what else? We started feeding Ellie solid foods at 4 1/2 months...same issue as Nathan with just being hungry all the time and not sleeping. Unlike Nathan, however, she took to food right away and is a bit of a control freak...snatching the spoon out of my hand to feed herself and screaming for more. Made for very stressful feedings initially, though I won't say she has calmed down much. She has proven to be quite a healthy eater and pretty bossy too. Takes after her mom, I think, which scares me. As of her six month checkup she was 18 pounds 7 ounces and growing! I am still adjusting to life with a little girl and trying to prevent my brain from jumping ahead 14 years when all the trouble starts. Ugh. So now Ellie is well into baby food but seems to have some food sensitivities. I gave up pork begrudgingly long ago because it caused her to scream. Oh the things I do for my kids. And she seems to have some allergy to orange foods as they make her vomit. So we have one kid who eats everything and whose favorite food is sushi and another who is on the way to eating only bananas, pears, and applesauce for the rest of her life! Should make mealtimes interesting!!

Now I will post some pictures to try to catch up as it is getting well past my bedtime and there are a billion things to do before I can lay my head down....