My Chickies

Miss Eliana had mercy on her poor mama last night and let me sleep off a terrible migraine:) She is finally past her grinchy-grouchy stage and is back to her smiley-sweet self! She is starting to get the hang of sleeping better and putting herself to sleep, THANKFULLY!!

She did another 5 hour stretch for me last night before demanding to fill her tank up. Hopefully soon she'll be sleeping through the night! But maybe not too soon because I'll miss our middle-of -the-night rondevous!

 Having a nap with daddy!

 Except she was the only one sleeping:)

 The Little Miss and the Mrs! She wore her first pair of jeans yesterday and Samuel thought it made her look like a boy! So we put a bow in her hair:)

And then she was back to her girly-self!!

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Zakkai has been as sweet as sugar lately. "Mommy, may you read me a book?" or "Mommy? May you help me, please?" He does like to throw a good tantrum here and there just so we don't forget that he has a mind of his own but I will choose to look at the positive side!

Samuel is doing amazingly well at reading! I don't always get to participate in storytime at bedtime (because of a certain someone!) but I hear Ben working with him each night. The other night I sat with them and I was so surprised at how quickly he was sounding out words! I'm so proud of him!

I must say, we breed some cute chickies!! ha!

Silly Moments and Sweet Moments

My Silly Boy:

 He makes me laugh everyday. Even when I'm frustrated with him...I can't help but laugh sometimes!

Lately:

*He sings EVERYTHING. He sings what he wants for lunch or how it tastes or about naptime or snow. Pretty much anything:) And to the tune of the "ABC's" or "Frere Jacque" usually. He has been learning a lot of songs from school and from Samuel and a recent one is "Ring Around the Rosie." Zakkai's version: "Ring around the Roses,

                                              Posies full of Pockets,

                                             Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down!"

*He cannot stop himself from touching things he shouldn't touch or making messes. The other day, after a craft, I forgot to put away the glue. And then we had lunch. Can you put together the pieces? Glue+Lunch? You've got it! He put glue on his food. Sigh.

*Is obsessed with the Christmas lights! He, thankfully, is listening to our warnings and not touching them anymore. He faithfully asks us every morning to turn them on!

*His new response when asked to do something he doesn't want to? "Bweh!" Drives me nuts!

*He has this dog he got for his birthday a year or two ago. It's a wooden pull along dog named, "Spotty." Lately he's been pulling it around and hooking it's leash on the piano. He will bring Spotty in the kitchen and say, "Mommy, can you say hello to Spotty?" Very cute!

Sweet Moments:

This sweet boy is seriously crazy about his little sister. He loves when she is awake and wants to talk to her and hold her, kiss her. Sometimes I have to ask him to back away and give her some space!

*Today he came over to her, leaned close and said, "Hello, Eliana. It's your big brother. I love you SO much!"

*He also told me that when he's a grown-up, he is going to walk to school by himself! He also said that when we drive to Mugga's house, he will follow behind in his OWN car ~ a red minivan:)

My day is made when this girl smiles at me! She was so grumpy most of last week that she didn't do much smiling but has started back up again! Today she has been so smiley and is starting to enjoy silly games like fake sneezing and "So Big!"

We have a bedtime routine for her so hopefully she will start to sleep better again. I change her into a clean diaper and jammies, feed her and read her a story. Then swaddle her and tuck her in her cradle and let her suck on my finger for a few minutes.

Tonight the poor baby was incredible tired and so pathetically sad:( I gave up on feeding her because she was so sad so I sat her in my arms and read her a story while she sucked on a pacifier to calm down. She was SO tired and as I read to her, just looked up and stared at my face with the sleepiest eyes, sucking on the paci with her hands clasps together on her chest. It was the sweetest moment!

Winter Fun

 The boys having fun decorating our tree! They only broke a few ornaments...

 Reading "The Grinch!" The boys LOVE this book and the movie:)

 Watching it snow

 Beautiful trees!

 Z collecting the snow in his bucket. He wanted to go out first thing in the morning and spent a long time playing!

 Samuel:)

 Winter Wonderland

 The First Failed Attempt at bottle feeding. Even if it didn't go well, the first few minutes were sweet as Eliana looked into Daddy's eyes:)

 "I love my daddy!"

I finally captured a few smiles on camera today. It's very hard to do by yourself! Her biggest smiles happen so fast that by the time the camera clicks, it's gone! She's been sticking her tongue out a lot lately:) Wait til I get a big smile pic and you get a load of her dimple! She's a heart-melter!
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Snow!

I have been so foggy in my sleep-deprived brain that I haven't been able to think about blogging, let alone do many things that need to be done around the house! My Little Miss and her 5 day funk have take a lot out of me! She has slept better today so I can only pray she will sleep better tonight....But even when I feel really frustrated, she looks up at me with her dark, intense eyes and her sweet round fat cheeks and I can breathe again and know we will get through this, even if it is one day at a time! She is so sweet:)

Yesterday in the middle of the night, after a feeding, I stumbled out to peek out the window and see if the predicted snow was really falling. It was!  There is nothing like soft, pure white snow falling on a still and quiet world. It is so peaceful and beautiful!

The boys were so excited to see the snow when they woke up and spent most of the morning out on our porch, shoveling the snow with their sand toys and made a little sand castle. And this afternoon we all went out to the park to play in the snow. The boys had SO much fun (and that includes Ben!!). Their cheeks were so rosy and they tromped around in their boots, looking like overstuffed snowmen:) Ben built a huge snowcastle and let the boys knock it down, which they did with great relish!

Then we all came back and thawed out with hot chocolate! Except Eliana, of course:) She got to have her very first bottle, which failed miserably! She looked really surprised at first and then after several minutes, protested quite loudly that she didn't know what the heck Ben was trying to do to her but she wanted NONE of it!! We'll try again soon. He has really been looking forward to feeding her so I felt bad for him.

And now, I leave you with an awesome pancake recipe! Really. Awesomely delicious.

GOOD OLD FASHIONED PANCAKES
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 TB white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 TB butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Preparation:
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla. Mix until smooth.

2. Heat a griddle over medium high heat. Pour batter onto griddle, approx 1/4 cup each and cook until lightly browned on both sides! I would highly recommend using a griddle over a frying pan, as they turn out a lot nicer.
*My mom added blueberries to hers and sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on the top before flipping.
They are SO good!!

Missing Home

I miss Home tonight. As in my home state where I grew up. Where 22 years of my memories are. Where (most) of my family is.

Really though I could care less about the corn fields (we have plenty here) or the gray weather (I never realized Ohio was so cloudy!), the slow drivers (seriously, sloooooooowwww. Chicago road rage speaking..) having to drive everywhere instead of walk.....

It's the people I miss. I have missed out on a lot of memories with my family in the past 7 years. Parties, get-togethers, Buckeye games, game nights, or "just because" visits. I miss my mom. My sister. My cousin (even though she lives in TX now:(. My grandma and grandpa. Bear hugs from my aunts and uncles.

Living away from home hasn't been all bad. In fact, it has changed who I am. I am stronger now. I learned how to rely on God and formed a very intricate bond with my husband because I had no one else to lean on. I learned how to get outside of my comfort zone. How to make friends. How to survive some intensely stressful situations.

But I also know what it is like to lose friends or have them move away. And how lonely it can be. And how children are meant to be raised with lots of family around. How important family is.

When I go home, I see that even though I have changed and even though home and everyone in it has changed, I still have a place where I belong.

It could be that it's Thanksgiving/Christmas time which always brings on a little homesickness for me. It could be that I am very tired and have had a tough few days. It could be that I just have a wonderful family and they are missable! All I know is:

I miss Home tonight.