Samantha is in Kindergarten

Samantha started Kindergarten last week in an actual elementary school. Is it just me or are Kindergarten kids too small for elementary school? Today is her third day and she is a pro. They serve breakfast in the schools here for free so on her second day, she was ready to start that process... me, on the other hand, I wanted to wait a few more days until she had established some friends. So, I took her through the breakfast line and watched her help herself to toast and grits. I helped her find a seat, then left and thought... "when did she get so big?".

Today I took her to breakfast, watched her go through the line and help herself to toast, applesauce and cereal. We sat at the table and said our prayers, I gave her a kiss and left. Today was easier than yesterday. Tomorrow, I'll just get her into the line then leave. All these baby steps are for me more than her... she's fine. Why is it that they do so much better than us?

Samantha's Pre-K graduation and Rachael is finally walking

Samantha graduated from Pre-Kindergarten on May 28th. We are so proud of her. She has learned so much this year and is very prepared for Kindergarten. We will continue to work with her on things that she learned to keep it fresh in her mind. She is so excited to be going to "real" school next Fall.

Rachael was slow with her walking. She is a big girl and just didn't want to do it. She was approaching 14 months before she decided it was something she wanted to do. Once she decided, it happened very quickly. One day she was standing herself up and taking a few steps. By the end of the week, she was walking all over the place. She now walks everywhere. She is getting good with very few falls. And she's quick. Next thing I know, she's in the back of the house underneath me.

Rachael is also starting to cut some back teeth. I've noticed over the last week that she has three breaking through the skin. So far, it doesn't seem to bother her. Hopefully, that will continue to be the case as they continue to push through.

March Birthdays

Samantha and Rachael both had birthdays in March. Samantha turned five on March 1st and Rachael turned one on March 12th. We decided to do both birthdays the same weekend, that way family could be included more easily. It was a busy, busy weekend. Samantha's party was at a local park on Saturday afternoon, her first "friend" party. Three girl friends from school were in attendance, Landon, a friend from Macon, plus her cousins Mackenzie and Ayden. It wall all princess themed. So, we had princess plates, napkins, balloon, and cake. It was everywhere. But, it was a beautiful day for a party and everyone had fun. Afterwards, the family (15 people total) came back to our house for dinner. That got a little crazy, but we made it work.

The next day was Rachael's first birthday party. Her party was Pooh Bear themed and we had it at the house. Ray smoked a boston butt for BBQ sandwiches and we all had lunch. Rachael wasn't too interested in her cake, similar to her sisters on their first birthday. But overall it was another beautiful day to play outside and just enjoy God's creation.

Rachael is really wanting to walk and move around. She doesn't like to sit still. She wants to be walking either with us holding her hands, with a toy or cruising along the furniture. She sees her sisters doing it and wants to be right there with them. She also got the last of her front teeth in. So, now she has all eight and she knows how to use them. She is not interested in any kind of baby food at all.

These girls are growing up so fast.

Crawling, teeth and pacifiers

Wow, a lot has happened in the last couple of months. Rachael has started crawling... or scooting across the floor. She looks just like a frog with one leg in front and one in back as she pulls herself across the floor.

Currently, Rachael has two teeth on the bottom, which she has had since she was five months old. But, recently, she has started getting the two on top. They are almost through. Plus, the two on either side on the top are working through, as well. She loves using them when she eats her table food. She defintely prefers table food over baby food and is vocal about it, especially when I try to give her baby food while we are eating table food. Strong opinions already.

Meredith has been without a paci for about a month now. We had planned to give them all to Santa, but she had such a meltdown that we couldn't make Christmas so traumatic. Well, we gave all but one to Santa. As it turned out, about a week later, she lost the last one. She has had some whiny nights and naptimes, but overall has done really well. I had heard such horror stories about giving up pacifiers and she didn't do any of it. We were very fortunate.

Rachael waves bye-bye

Rachael is 9.5 months old and doing so many new things. Today she waved bye-bye for the first time. I got her to sign "more" yesterday, although, she didn't really want more, she still deliberately did the sign for it. She is sliding all over the floor and getting into all kinds of things while there. She got a princess couch from Santa and she enjoys sitting on it with her toys.

The other girls got dress up boxes from Santa and they can't stay out of them. One is of princesses and the other is fairies. It has crowns, jewelry, wings, headbands, shoes and three outfits in each... they love it.

The whole house is sick!

We have been in Tallahassee for over two months now. We are all adjusting well. Samantha started pre-K a couple of weeks after we arrived and she loves it. She has a great teacher, which she likes, and a small class, which I like. Every week they are learning a new letter, what words start with it and the sound(s) it makes. She is growing up so fast.

This was Rachael's first Halloween and I couldn't decide what I wanted her to be. At the last minute, I saw a cute scarecrow costume and ordered it... it arrived on Halloween day... whew, that was close.

Rachael will be 8 months in a couple of days. She is sitting up very well, although, I still keep pillows around her, just in case. She spends a lot of time in the pack-n-play, which helps when she falls down. She rolls to her tummy from her back great. She is not so interested in the tummy to the back, though. She just gets mad and fusses until someone comes to get her. She still isn't getting a lot of floor time. We have hard surface floors here and when she is on a blanket, she just scoots and slides around. It's hard for her to have any leverage, but she will get it. Rachael has also started chattering. Sounds like she is trying to say "mama" or "mommy"... "ma ma ma ma". She is a mommy's girl, after all.

November marked the month of illness. It's the 10th and Rachael has been sick for over a week with RSV. She had a fever for several days, now is just left with an awful cough and runny nose. Of course, now everyone has the cough and runny nose and Meredith is flirting with a fever. She has had one off and on for several days. Not sure what is going on with her. Samantha has, so far, dodged the fever, but has all the other symptoms. We're just hoping that we don't get it and that everyone is well by Thanksgiving... actually before, because we are scheduled to go to Macon for doc visits.

Rachael is 5 months

Rachael will be 5 months old this week and we discovered her teething. We had Meredith's birthday party a few weeks early because we will be moving from Macon to Tallahassee over her birthday. During the day, it was discovered that Rachael had a tooth breaking through on the bottom right side. It was an extremely fussy day for her, in general, because of all the chaos and people that were there. Poor girl just couldn't get any rest at all.



She still is not rolling over, but she doesn't get as much floor time as I would like because Samantha and Meredith want to be in her face the whole time.