Well Child check-ups

This week we saw the pediatrician for Eliana's 4 year old visit and William's 18 month visit.  William had actually been to see the ped just on Monday and was diagnosed with a very bad double ear infection.  The poor thing cried all day and night, had goo coming out of his eyes, and had a high fever.  Why does this always happen on the weekend?  But now he is on antibiotics now and feeling much better, and thankfully sleeping much better as well.  So our doctor said as long as he wasn't running a fever, we could come back on Thursday for his well visit. 

Both kids looked great and William's ears already looked much better.  Eliana was 41.25 in tall - 80th percentile.  She had grown almost 4 inches in the last year.  I knew she was growing! I can barely keep her in pants, she grows so fast.  She looks like she is wearing crop pants all the time because she is growing so much.  Dr. Ferguson was impressed with how much she had grown and said she is going to be tall.  Eliana responded that she is going to be taller than her daddy one day.  She tells me all the time that she is going to be taller than me, which I totally believe.  William was 32.5in tall - 45th percentile.  (I stretched him as far as I could get his little neck to go haha).  David says he thinks William is going to be shorter than Eliana.  But I just looked back at Eliana's records, and she was only 32 in tall at 18 months, which was 50th percentile for girls.  So maybe not.  Both kids were healthy and meeting all their milestones, and both got shots.  Eliana did amazingly well, perhaps because I told her if she was brave, we could go to Chick-fil-a for lunch and have an ice cream treat.  So while William cried with his shots, Eliana did not.  Both kids got to have ice cream though :)

Ready for the day

William recently discovered that he likes hot chocolate.

Eliana, however, has known that it is good for a quite some time now.  When Dr. Ferguson asked if Eliana drank milk, I said she will if it is hot and has chocolate in it.

Advent

Here are just a few pictures from Advent last month.  I struggle a little bit with Christmas because it is so commercial in our culture.  I want the focus to be on Jesus' birth and not Santa/gifts.  However, I too spend a lot of time thinking about gifts and shopping and stress out in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  This is something I want to continue to work on.  As I read recently in our Catholic newspaper, the good thing about Christmas is that is comes every year so I have another chance to make it better this year.

Someone's been playing with the nativity set.  I don't put baby Jesus in the nativity until Christmas, so Eliana decided to help me out.

Note who has come to join the nativity this day - Jack the bunny and Eliana's horses.  Lots of toys got to join in the fun in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Decorating our little tree.  It was just the right size for our kids.

Making Christmas cookies.  This was a new tradition started for us this year by the request of David.  On the day I decided to make the cookies, our oven went on the fritz, so the cookies didn't cook quite right.  However, we still managed to eat them all.  Eliana helped me make them.  William just helped eat them.

Wild Lights at the zoo.

Columbus Zoo has quite a display of Christmas lights each year.  The kids were much more into the animals and animal statues than the actual lights, but that is probably a good thing.

Winter activities

It has been such a mild winter so far, that we have spent a fair amount of time outdoors. 

A trip to the park.  William wanted to bring his dinosaur along.

All bundled up, but it is hard to get William to keep on his hat or gloves.

See - no more hat for William.  But I think it was at least 45 degrees that day.

 On the days that it is not warm enough to go outside, we find other things to do like go to COSI.  William is really starting to enjoy the museum.  It is fun watching him play and discover new things, just like Eliana did a couple years ago.  They recently updated the kids' space at COSI to change the play house to a "tree" house with nature decoration.  Eliana loves it!  Plus she was excited to see something different.  We spent a lot of time pretending to be squirrels and gathering "nuts" (plastic balls) by putting them in the tree house.  Eliana also named all of the birds on the wall.  When another child would check out the birds, Eliana would run up and tell them their names. 

Selfie through the window viewer.  William thought this was a great toy.  It has two steps up to look through the holes to see out the window.  He spent a lot of time going up and down, and up and down the stairs.

The ever popular ride on the saddle.

Driving the car - one of William's favorites.  Eliana was working the radio.

No, maybe this is William's favorite part - the light switch!  Boy, those designers at COSI know just what kids will like! They also have a doorbell on the outside of the house.  What child doesn't love switching lights on and off and ringing door bells. 

Pictures of William made me think of this funny story of him.  Will has been saying a lot of new words lately, both in English and in Spanish although not always pronounced correctly.  The one that makes me laugh the hardest though is how he says fork.  He pronounces it with a "u" sound and no "r" - like "fuk."  If you set down a plate of food in front of him, he asks for a "fuk" and will wave it excitedly when you give it to him.  A couple of days ago, David came home while we were eating dinner.  William greeted him from his high chair by waving his fork at him and saying "FUK!"  What a greeting!  Welcome home Dad! We both busted up laughing.

Eliana's 4th Birthday

Can you believe my little baby is a big four year old!  Eliana is growing up so fast!

Unfortunately I had to work on Eliana's birthday.  I think I was so concerned about working out my schedule for Christmas, that I wasn't paying any attention to January.  Eliana asked me several times if I could not work on her birthday, which really made me feel guilty.  However, I know she had a great day even though I was only there for the very end of it.  David was home from work by 2:30, so they spent the afternoon playing and decorating her chocolate birthday cake that I had made the night before.  Eliana helped with the chocolate icing, chocolate sprinkles, and requested an "E" and "W" written on the cake with the purple icing gel.  Isn't she so sweet?!  She wanted her birthday cake to be for William too.  And for his part, William has been singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" for days now. 

When I got home from work, Eliana was very excited to tell me about her cake and sprinkles.  She said that they saved me a piece, but "just one!"  David waited to give her her birthday present until I came home.  Eliana is in a really sweet age right now where she totally didn't expect a present but was so joyful to receive one.  We gave her an ice cream scooping set since one of the only things that compares with her love of chocolate is her love of ice cream.  I let Eliana stay up an extra 30 min after bedtime to play with her new toy since I got home so late.  We played together in her room where she served me the ice cream through the window of her cardboard box play house, like it was a drive through window!  When I finally said she had to go to bed, I did let her take the ice cream to bed with her, and I heard her playing with it for another 15 min in the dark after she had been tucked in.  I think she really enjoyed her 4th birthday!

The ice cream scoops stick together with magnets.

David has repeatedly told me that age 4 is the golden age - all of our problems with raising out little girl will be solved at age 4 when Eliana will be old enough to start to reason and understand things better.  One example of this is going to mass together.  Eliana has always been difficult to bring to church - she cries, throws herself on the floor, and tries to run away.  For the past couple of years, we have bee having her go to the nursery at our church instead of attending mass with us.  That has been a great way for David and me to be able to participate more fully in mass, but I do feel a little sad that we aren't all going ot mass together as a family.  Plus I always said that the nursery was a temporary solution and I was worried it would just make Eliana resent mass even more when she had to attend.  David kept insisting that Eliana would do better at mass once she was 4 - the golden age!  For Christmas, I bought Eliana a book about the mass.  It explained the parts of the mass step by step with lots of pictures and questions.  I like that particular book because of the questions - it made learning about the mass more interactive.  ("What is the name of your church?  What color is the priest's vestment? Can you find the tabernacle in your church?).

Eliana has been really interested in the book! We read it together and she was excited to answer the questions.  The last two times we have been to mass, we have brought the book and followed along with the pictures.  I will find a picture and tell her to watch for this to happen next, like the priest washing his hands.  Eliana will whisper (shout) in my ear when she sees it and excitedly point at the picture.  It seems like giving her tasks to do and a way to follow along with the mass has really helped.  These last two weeks have been the best experiences we have probably ever had with Eliana at church.  Perhaps David is right - age 4 is the best.  I don't know if this will keep working or if some of the novelty will wear off, but I am so proud of Eliana.  I have been praying fervently that Eliana will develop a love of the mass and will one day be excited to go instead of required.  If you have any ideas on how to help Eliana to love and understand the mass more, I would love to hear them.