Playing Catch-Up
I've been a little busy and our computer is slow and dying, so although I've been working on this post for about a week, I'm barely posting now because either the pictures wouldn't load or the computer would freeze or Daisy would wake up or it would just be too late at night to blog. But here it is!
Daisy isn't doing much but she is smiling, and that is fun! She still wakes up at least 1-2x/night but I'm trying to stay optimistic that she will start sleeping through the night soon. I've been trying to keep her on a schedule during the day to encourage better nighttime habits but they aren't really helping much yet.
All of these photos are a few weeks old and I don't even know where our camera is at this point (been looking for it for a few days...) so it works that I need to catch up on blogging old news.
She smiles but not enough to get easy pictures of it. She's a pretty serious girl. This is one of my only pictures of her smile (I have wanted to take more these past few days but alas, can't find the camera).
This is Daisy with her sweet new cousin, Charlotte (David & Marisa's brand new girl, born 5 weeks early). She was literally more than twice the size of Charlotte when we took this picture. Adaira was 6.5wks and Charlotte was about 3-4 days old. They are going to be great playmates someday!
These were taken December 12th, 6.5 weeks old.
She is just as bald as her older sister, who really didn't start growing real hair until she was two.
A little headband really helps to feminize her baldness :)
First picture with Grandma Barbara
Dale is still just as mischievous as ever. In the past three days he has accomplished the following on top of his regular mess-making: Jammed a reciprocating saw blade into my driver side door lock, unraveled a new roll of toilet paper all over the bathroom, ate a chunk of red lipstick and got it all over him and Daisy (after giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek), raided the upper cabinet (like he always does) and grabbed himself a true fistful of peanut butter to eat, poured himself a glass of pure Hershey syrup (which he got himself from the top shelf in the fridge after pushing a chair up to the fridge so he could help himself to everything in there), cut his hair with scissors (several times a day), overturned the water and food containers in the chicken coop, and went in a woke up Daisy 20 minutes into her nap. This is on top of the sticky messes, fits, sand and dirt eating, and the nightly strip down and crib urinations (he takes all his clothes off from the waist down every night. EVERY night! Sometimes we put his clothes back on once, and when we check on him again before we go to bed he's naked again). I have often said that if I was prone to violence, Dale would not be alive today. He is so lucky that I think he is so darn adorable, it's the only way I can survive Dale the Destroyer.
This is old news, but we had some friends over and all the kids (plus Justin) made gingerbread (okay graham cracker) houses. Doesn't Adaira look like a TV chef in this picture? Hi y'all, Paula Deen here!
Adaira is doing great in school. She is very smart and pretty much hasn't learned anything new in Kindergarten (she scored above grade level on everything when they did the assessments at the beginning of the school year). I've only had one parent teacher conference with her teacher, and that occurred back before fall break, and all the teacher could tell me was how smart Adaira was and how she "didn't know what to do with her" because she was so far ahead of the rest of the class. I wasn't very happy with this news...I'm no teacher, but to me it doesn't seem like a difficult problem to fix since she could just ask some of the first grade teachers for some worksheet ideas or something. The teacher told me she didn't need a conference with me before Christmas break because Adaira is "doing fine". I didn't even get a progress or grade report, do they not do that in Kindergarten before Christmas break? Anyway, Adaira is a great reader just like Brighton, though she has so many other girly interests that she isn't the bookworm that Brighton is yet. She is our princess with a LOUD Boston accent. We often have to tell Adaira several times a day to turn down her volume level.
Brighton won't smile for pictures much these days. I tell you the stage of the awkward big permanent teeth with the small kid mouth takes some of the fun out of picture taking. He is still reading books like crazy (like 100 or more pages a night) but we have also been getting he and Adaira out a few times a week to practice rollerblading along the canal (they both got roller blades for Christmas). Brighton (and Adaira) are catching on really well! I think at the end of this year when we take them skiing for the first time they will be naturals after learning balance from blading. He is also an excellent driver of Grandpa & Grandma Ellsworth's ATV that we keep at our house. He loves to go out in back and ride around, give rides to Adaira & Dale, and occasionally pull kids around the yard in 2-3 of the barrel trains (which he connects himself).
Justin with his creation. It was by far the most intricately designed and decorated. He is still loving his job, and I'm happy he is doing something he loves. He still enjoys running and has a few races coming up that he is excited about. He hopes to do the Grand Canyon "Rim to Rim to Rim" hike later this year.
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