Family Updates

June 09, 2011

Family Updates

What are we up to? Well that depends on the day but for the most part, just taking life day by day.

Trey is still working at Residential Home Health as a physical therapist and rehab manager for the West Michigan side of the company. The company is doing very well which keeps him very busy with manager work and seeing patients. He is off from teaching for the summer but will return to GRCC in the fall and will also be joining the adjunct staff at Aquinas College on Thursday mornings teaching a modalities class to the athletic training students. This will be a fun new adventure for him teaching at our alma mater. Since this is a class he has not taught before he will need to spend the summer preparing for it. Besides working for his employer he has been busy working around the house. He spent most of the Memorial day weekend and the following week extending and replacing our back deck.

Cecelia was a big help to daddy. She handed him screws and was always reminding him to be careful.

It is hard to get a whole picture of the deck but you can see where we replaced boards and extended the deck.

In this picture you can see where we added another 5 feet to the end of the deck and added a bench across the end.

Daddy and Eloise playing ball

As for myself, I have taken a position at our church as Children's Ministries Coordinator. This position oversees the Children and Worship program during the school year, the Sports Camp on Wednesday nights that runs 6 weeks in the fall and 6 weeks in the Spring, coordinating the summer PromiseKidz Sunday worship program and overseeing the nursery where need be. I am very excited for this new opportunity but with new opportunities come new challenges. Right now I am working on the Promisekidz schedule and will then tackle Children and Worship for the fall. It has been a few years since I have had so many responsibilities outside of the home that I need to find a good schedule to help get myself organized. The girls and I are enjoying our summer schedule which is very relaxed. Much of our planning is day to day depending on the weather and how we feel that day. Since we tend to be very busy and planned the rest of the year I like to keep the summer free.

Mother's Day

Cecelia is just so much fun at this age. Her mind continues to amaze us. About a week or two ago she came into our room about 10pm and said to us "My bed in not comfy, I am going to sleep on the couch." We laid there debating if we wanted to start this trend. We told Cecelia she could not sleep on the couch and that she needed to go back to bed. Her respond as she left the room, "I will be on the couch if you need me." We again told her she couldn't sleep on the couch when from the hallway we heard her say, "Yes, I am". Needless to say she did not sleep on the couch but did sleep on the floor of her room for about the next week. The other conversation that stands out is one I had with her in the car. Cecelia asked if she could have three gummy bears, I told her we were headed to dinner and that she couldn't have any gummy bears right now. She then says "How about just one gummy bear and I promise to eat dinner". How can I argue with that reasoning. So that is what we did. When we got back into the car she said I ate my dinner can I have the other two gummy bears now. She is always negotiating with us. I think this is something we started with her since we usually try to give her choices in most things. She is just too smart for us and has figured out that the choices we give aren't really the only options available. The problem is that usually the option she gives us is not a bad one and one that we would consider. We have learned that we need to try to be one step ahead of her thinking in order to keep us on our toes. She continues to be very independent and loves being outside. Her favorite thing right now is swimming in pool on the deck. It is so nice that deck is now big enough to have the blow up pool and other toys on it. Cecelia and even Eloise can go out on the deck and play. I bought her a bike with training wheels at a garage sale and she has attempted to ride it a few times. Since our driveway is not really good for riding since it is just one big hill, she rides on the deck. When she goes over to Grandma and Grandpa J's we will bring the bike over there for her to ride at their house. Cecelia continues to be a momma's girl. She wants to go everywhere with me and doesn't like to be left anywhere unless it is with a Grandparent. We struggled with this all year whenever I dropped her off at nursery for church or Bible Study. It will be interesting to see how school goes next year. In the fall she will be attending Northpointe Christian preschool on Monday and Wednesdays from 8:45-12:15. School actually goes until 11:30 but I elected to have her stay for lunch on those two days. Cecelia was enrolled at Forest Hills spanish immersion preschool but I had many reservations regarding the program and when I heard that Northpointe was starting a spanishspanish class this next year but will enroll in spanish the following year for 4 year old preschool.

Enjoying being outside once the weather started to get nice

Wearing a princess outfit is a daily occurrence. If she watches a princess movie she has to dress up like that princess.

First trip to Grand Rapids Township park for the year.

Memorial Day weekend. Taking a break from swimming.

Meijer Gardens

As you can see, puppy is still around. Pup, as she calls him, (everything is shorten right now) is attached to her at all times in the house and the car. Pup does not leave the car when we are out. He does have a highchair at the table so he can sit and eat with us though!

Enjoying the new deck with the pool.

And then there is Eloise. Since Eloise started walking the beginning of May she has not stopped. I would even say she is running now. From the time she gets up to the time she goes to bed she is walking around the house. We close all the doors in the hallway to keep her out of the rooms but if she spots one up she races down there as fast as she can. For some reason the bathroom is her favorite place and of course the toilet paper is just such a fun toy. It is so funny to me since Cecelia never had an interested in the toilet paper. The stairs are also a favorite place of play. She is very good at climbing up and down them. The gates are only up now to keep her contained in one area. Many times I will leave the gate going upstairs open with the bedrooms closed so she can play on the landing. She loves to be up there just walking around and playing in the boxes. She has no fear and unlike Cecelia does not care where I am when we are out. Just the other day we were at Northpointe dropping off paperwork and off walked Eloise with all the kids. She was mingled in with them walking down the hallway. The next time I found her in the teachers lounge walking over to a teacher wanting to be picked up. We were at a party the other weekend and we sat and watched her walk around the yard, not knowing where we were, just exploring and going over to the other kids wanting to play with the ball they had. Fearless. She also knows how to work it. Just the other day I witnessed Eloise and Cecelia playing with the cozy coup car. Cecelia had just sat down in it when Eloise sat on the deck and screamed and cried. Cecelia had not done anything to her. Cecelia then got out of the car when Eloise was crying and moved away. As soon as the car was free Eloise stopped crying instantly and got into the car. I think we may have our hands full with her.

We had our appointment at the Gerber Center and it went very well. She weighed in at 17lbs 10oz and was 30 and 1/8 inches tall. Her new weight had her gaining over a pound in two months which was great since she had started walking. We discussed the original concerns with the doctor and she agreed that two month ago there was definitely a reason to have her seen but since she has started walking and gaining weight she didn't see any additional need for concern right now. She asked many questions regarding her development and nothing brought up any concerns. She advised us to continue working with Early On for as long as we could and that if any new concerns came up to give the office a call. For now though we do not have any follow up appointments. I was originally upset that we had to wait two months for our appointment but when Eloise had such big changes in the last month I was glad we had to wait. She is continuing to eat really good and I can even see that she gets fussy when she is hungry and is starting to ask for food. She doesn't say many words, uh oh, ball and up but that is it besides mama and dada but even those are not to us specifically. I spoke with her social worker today and we scheduled and appointment with a speech pathologist for next Friday to have her evaluated and get some ideas of how to work with her.

Overall she is doing great. It is so much fun watching her explore and learn new things everyday. I can finally see the baby leaving her and the toddler starting to form.