A day at the park

We visited one of our favorite parks.  Laney loved the swing! Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I cannot upload the video of her swinging and laughing.  But take my word for it, she giggled her head off!

Great Wolf Lodge

As a second part to Eliana's birthday celebration, in January we went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati with my family.  GWL is an indoor water park resort.  My sister Abby, her daughter Hannah, and Eliana all have January birthdays that we were celebrating.  We had a great (but tiring!) time.  I would say that besides Eliana, my kids were a little young to enjoy the lodge.  While William definitely had fun playing in the pool and going down the little slide, I think he would have had just as much fun at any hotel with a regular pool.  He mostly wanted to stay in the shallow area going down one slide.  We did convince him to try out the lazy river once.  He was not so sure about it but was willing to float around clinging to my sister Abby ... until he got sprayed on the head by a giant beaver statue.  After that, he was done and ran out of the lazy river crying.  To this day he still talks about the mean "be-bah-bers" that sprayed water on him.  Eliana, however, really surprised me by going down lots of water slides including big ones with inner tubes. Loving to swim, her favorite area was the wave pool.  I think it would have been tough to go to the water park if it had just been our immediate family.  With a small baby and a little boy not interested in anything but the smallest slide, we would have been really limited in what we could do.  But with extra adults there, David and I were able to go on a few water slides while someone held our baby.  We stayed in a special themed room with a enclosed tent-like bedroom with bunk beds for the kids.  They thought the room was really cool because they had their own TV.  I would definitely go again (as long as we were going with someone) but probably not for a few years until the kids are a little older. 

Eliana's birthday celebration:

On arrival, all children received a pair of wolf ears, including Laney.  Those celebrating a birthday got special birthday ears, which was approximately every third kid at the lodge.

Michael holding Eliana's cake.  Blowing out her five candles.

Abby with her daughter Hannah.  Hannah was celebrating her first birthday!  She seemed to enjoy her icing!

Eliana enjoyed her cupcake too.

My dad holding a tired Laney.

Laney and me at the water park.  Isn't she cute in her fluffy swimsuit?!  I had my water sling to carry her around in, which she liked a lot.  She slept for several hours in it at the water park.

Every night at the Great Clock Tower, a bedtime story is read with a special character from the lodge.  Eliana was super excited that Violet the Wolf made an appearance the night we went.  Will still does the special "wolf call" that they taught us at story time.

COSI trip

We received a COSI membership as a Christmas gift from David's parents and we have been loving it!  The older two love to run around and check out the exhibits while Laney most sleeps in the carrier.  On a recent visit, they had some new construction trucks to climb on, which William really enjoyed.  He kept running back and forth between them all, seeming to not be able to decide which one was the coolest.  Definitely one of William's favorite things he has seen at COSI.

Eliana told him to lay down so she could "run over him."

 And a long time favorite - the doctor area in the Little Kid Space.  Eliana took her role very seriously.  Recently she has started saying she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, but not for adults like Daddy.

Magdalena Luz's baptism

I can't believe I never posted  about Laney's baptism.  Back in December, Laney was baptized at St. Brendan's by Deacon Doug (same as William two years ago!).  Her Godparents are our good friends Joe and Deanna.  Laney wore the same dress that my sisters and I all wore, as well as Eliana, and her cousins Hannah and Rosie.  The day was a little hectic.  There were six kids total getting baptized that day!  But it was so beautiful to see so much love from all those people wanting God's grace on their children.  The sacrament was filled with noise and laughter!  Laney mostly slept through the ceremony.  She woke up briefly when the holy water was poured on her head, but she didn't even cry.  She just did her motorcycle stretch (what I call it when she raises both of her arms above her head and shakes her fists) and looked around.  Then she drifted off to sleep.  She must have liked becoming a Christian.

Magdalena Luz Bond, baptism day 12/4/16

Proud parents with her Godparents behind us

Baptized by water

Happy for my baby girl

Sibling snuggles

Then William wanted to be close to the action. 

Being blessed with the chrism oil.

Joe with her baptismal candle.

Welcome to the flock!

David, me and Laney with Deanna holding her son Simon (one month older than Laney) and Joe holding their daughter Theresa.  Lots of love in this picture!

And as a picture bonus:

Wild Child Claire - this is what happens when a baptism is during nap time!

iPhone picture catch up

Here are some pictures that I found on my computer from a while ago.  Laney is only 5 months old, but she has already grown and changed so much!!  Remember when she was a tiny little baby??

Just a few days old.

I have very distinct memories of Eliana in this outfit.  Now she got to share with her baby sister.

This says "I'm the Little Cousin."  While Laney is the youngest cousin, I wasn't sure how long she would hold onto the title of "littlest."  With my track record of giant kids, I thought she might pass up her older cousin Rosie pretty quickly.  However, Rosie has been growing fast and has managed to stay ahead of Laney so far!

About a month old in this picture.  She really liked that bouncy seat.

Brother cuddles.  He asked to hold her a lot at first, but it would only last a minute or two.

This was at 1.5 months old.  Pretty girl in her pretty dress!

The girls are dressed up for our Christmas pictures.  Those were a disaster... but after all was said and done, I finally got a smile out of Eliana back at home.  Oh well...

Getting bigger.  2 months old.  I have a (quite boring) video of Eliana in this same outfit in her bouncy seat.  I actually think Laney looks more like her brother than sister, but I just don't have too many "same outfit" comparison picture for her and William.

What a sweet brother.  Look at her look at him!

William wanted to give Laney some pretend ice cream.

She liked it!

Snuggle bugs

Time is flying by!

Gymnastics class

Last fall William was signed up for a toddler gymnastics class.  We went on Tuesday mornings while Eliana was in school.  We had so much fun!  William really liked the hanging bar, trampoline, and the balance beam.  In the class with us was his friend Paulo, who is just two weeks younger than Will. 

Paulo and William, swinging from the bar

Friends!

Parachute time!  When this activity was all done, Will liked to roll himself up in the parachute and pretend he was sleeping, preventing the teacher from putting it away.

More time on the bar

Obstacle course

Eliana turns 5

Almost two months ago now, Eliana turned 5 years old!  What an exciting birthday - a whole handful.  For her birthday, we celebrated by having her best friend Adele and her family over for dinner and cake.  Eliana is not much of a fan of surprises, so she actually helped make the cake with me.

Blowing out her candles

Eating the icing off of the cake

For her birthday, Eliana really wanted a snuggie tale.  For those not in the know, this is a sleeping bag style blanket that looks like the tail of an animal (fish, shark, dolphin, etc).  Eliana is the queen of memorizing commercials and anything she sees on TV she wants.  She was so excited to open her gift and find a mermaid tail snuggie tail.  She said it is perfect for just about anything you want to do - sleep in, watch TV, watch a movie, have a slumber party... Pretty much everything!  I was cracking up when she was telling me this because she was totally a perfect advertisement for this blanket.  I love my sweet little girl!

She of course slept it in that night and has ever since!

So excited.

My little mermaid

She spent the next day kinda hopping/walking around in her tail.  She wore it on the couch while we read books or watched TV.  She wore it to sit at the table.  She wanted to wear it in the car, but found out it was not compatible with a 5 point harness on a carseat, which made her cry a little (side note - she has now officially graduated to a booster seat full time, which she is also excited about - but she has lost interest in wearing her snuggie tail in the car).  She even brought the tail with her to COSI, the children's science museum in town, to wear when we saw a movie in the planetarium!

It's perfect for watching movies!

I should contact the company and tell them about their biggest fan.  Eliana would make the perfect spokesperson for their commercials.  This has to be one of her top favorite things right now.

Eliana also received some money for her birthday.  This is the first time she has really gotten birthday money that was hers to spend (and not meant for a college fund) that she really understood the point of.  Shortly after her birthday, we went to Once Upon A Child to pick up some shoes.  She and William of course found some toys that they wanted, which always happens when we go to Once Upon A Child.  At first I told the kids no to the toys because we were shopping for shops.  However, Eliana asked if she could spend her birthday money and buy the toys herself.  I thought that was a great idea!  She picked out a pony, a little stroller, and a craft book with paper and supplies like glitter.  She even had a little bit of money left over that she used to buy William the large T-Rex dinosaur that he had found.  How sweet!  She spent her own birthday money on buying a gift for her brother.  We often talk about sharing what we have with those in need, and she mentioned that when she got the toy for him.  I was so proud of her!

At her 5 year appointment, Eliana was 45in tall (90th percentile) and weighed 45lbs (82nd percentile).  She passed her hearing and vision screens.  All in all, she is a pretty normal girl.