Ch ch ch CHANGES!

So... it's been TWO YEARS since I wrote a blog post.  It would take some pretty big news to dig up the ol' blog address, right?  RIGHT!

Before we moved to Hawaii, Cliff and I had been making plans.  Plans for what would happen after Hawaii.  You see, we were planning to get out of the Navy.  It was a decision we had actually started toying with back when we left Japan.  It was kind of scary and exciting, but we felt good about it and as his time in the Navy came to a close he started to search for jobs.  We felt discouraged at first when our time was still too far out for companies to really consider us, (they needed him IMMEDIATELY,) and then we felt discouraged when companies that were otherwise interested didn't want to fly him out from Honolulu back to the mainland.  It was a really stressful last couple of months in Hawaii.  Two weeks before we were set to move, we still had few prospects.  Some maybes and some definite NOs.  Then came the real heartbreak.  Cliff was selected for a job at Marshall Space Flight center with NASA.  We were SO incredibly excited - this was his DREAM!!!  This selection came on Friday and we were set to start the hiring process/ paperwork on Monday.  Actually they really wanted to get the ball rolling that weekend because it was the weekend of the presidential inauguration and there was a rumored hiring freeze coming.  The hiring manager didn't want to waste any time getting things going.  We tried not to get out hopes up too high, but c'mon!  How do you not??  If you have been watching the news even a little bit, you know how this part of the story ends.  We were pretty devastated.  The folks at NASA were frustrated.  They didn't wanted us to lose hope, and set about appealing on Cliff's behalf.  They sought waivers and kept us updated, but things didn't look great.  The hiring freeze was/is expected to last 90 days and we just weren't sure we could wait that out.  Womp womp.  *tears*

We made plans to put our things into storage and move in with my parents in GA, figuring the Atlanta area would be a good home base for the continued job hunt.  This turned out to be true!  We were inundated with interviews upon our return.  I say "we" but really this is all Cliff.  He flew out to the Bay Area of California just a day after we flew in from Honolulu.  After that interview he had another interview just a couple of days later here in Georgia in Duluth.  It was a packaging engineer position and he really liked the people and the pace of the work.  He came back from San Jose and really liked that atmosphere and job description there as well.  Offers came in for both of these jobs and we had some serious decisions to make.  After such a dearth of prospects should we jump at one of these?  California sounded so awesome, but it was awesomely expensive as well!  A new 1,500sqft 3 bedroom townhouse in that area starts at about $850,000!!! !!!!!  We crunched the numbers and decided that it just wasn't for us.  We wanted a yard.  We wanted to breathe.  We let that one go.

Duluth sounded good, too, and we came very close to accepting the offer, but the travel time with this job was substantial.  30-40% of the year.  Wasn't that one of the reasons we were getting OUT of the military??  With no other immediate interviews or offers on the table, we made the decision to let this one go, too.  After much prayer and consideration, we both decided it was Aerospace or bust.  We had a soft place to land thanks to my parents and we would buckle down and wait out the freeze WHILE continuing to pursue other aerospace related jobs.  Cliff signed himself up for resume improvement classes with his Alumni Association at GA Tech.  He worked his connections and made new connections.  He spent his days on the phone and his evenings applying for everything and anything aerospace related.  He made plans to drive over to Huntsville, AL to meet with the NASA guys and keep that ball rolling.  He also made plans to visit a different friend while over that way.  This proved to be THE turning point in our search.  Cliff drove over to Huntsville on a Friday about a month ago and met with the guys at Marshall Space Flight that morning.  They toured the facility and discussed the job Cliff would potentially be doing for them as well as the status of the freeze.  They had a great time.  They went out to lunch.  Cliff still felt so committed to waiting things out.  THEN he went to visit a good friend just down the street at the company that he worked for, Torch Technologies.  Cliff was introduced to many of the guys there and given a tour of the place.  He was very impressed with the work they were doing there and the atmosphere of the work place.  He came home and did a little more research on the company and was more impressed with Torch.  He came home tired and we went to bed.  He didn't check his e-mail messages until the next morning.  Apparently, an hour after he left Torch, his friend's boss had expressed interest in giving Cliff an offer!!!!!  Just from meeting him that afternoon!  Cliff had unbeknownst to him had an interview with Torch and killed it!  The official offer came that Monday and he had a week to decide.  We weren't sure what to do!!  Wait out dream job at NASA that might not be there after the freeze if they continue to cut funding or take this other awesome job that pays a lot more but isn't... NASA...  Decisions!!  Well to save you the suspense, Cliff accepted the Torch job!  We are SOOOOOOOO excited!  It's on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville literally right down the street from Marshall Space Flight.  It's aerospace related and involves computer programming as well - which Cliff finds exciting.  The work/ life balance at this company is everything we were hoping for!  Cliff will be home in time to spend afternoons with the kids after they get out of school and he won't be traveling much at all!  I haven't seen him this excited about work, since... he was flying in Japan!  I'm so glad that he felt inspired to travel over to Huntsville to visit with the guys at NASA.  I'm actually really grateful that NASA kept that "carrot" of a job dangling over us.  If that door had been completely closed, we might have taken the California or Duluth job and missed the Torch opportunity altogether.  He starts work on Monday!!

So that was a slog.  If you made it this far, you might as well finish because we have MORE exciting news!  We are BUILDING a house!  Unlike California, you can buy/ build a house and have a little room to breath in the South.  We fell in love with Huntsville when we drove over for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  It's hilly and mountainous and there are rivers and streams and ponds everywhere.  Rolling hills with horses and farmhouses remind us a lot of Central Virginia.  Northern Alabama!  Who knew??  We picked out our lot in a planned community that includes a pool/ clubhouse/ nature paths/ bike paths/ a lake/ and a river with kayak docks.  Our structural contract was ratified a couple of days ago and they should be breaking ground on the build within a month!  I head back over to the design studio in little over a week to pick out the floor, cabinets, hardware, etc. for the house.  It's overwhelming and exciting!!

In the meantime, the girls are enrolled in school here in Georgia.  They are doing so well.  We plan to have them finish out the school year here and then we plan to move over with Cliff this summer.  He will be getting a short-term lease apartment while we wait for our house to be built.  He will spend the week in Huntsville and stay with us on the weekends.

I guess that's it for now!  Anyone that has built before - let me know!  I'd love your advice!!  Here is a picture of the model of home we chose.  Ours will look a little different, (I may choose different brick or trim colors,) but it give you an idea! 

Hawaii Update! We Love It Here!

Hanging out at the pool with a bestie and our kids! 

  My last update was sort of an introduction to Hawaii for my family and our friends that are far away.  I have to admit, I was pretty down on Hawaii when we first got here.  I was lonely and missing Virginia and all of the friends we had left behind.  Moving is hard!  Duh!  Anyway, we have been here in Hawaii for almost five months now and we have done a COMPLETE 180 on opinions here!  We LOVE Hawaii.  We still miss Virginia, yes, but we have made some fantastic friends here and we have been able to really exploring the island and creating our own NEW routine.  We are finding what works here and what doesn't and we are finally embracing it. 
  So what works here in Hawaii?  Um... the pool and the beach, of course!  How many people can schedule weekly play dates at the beach?  How many people can go to the pool... um... every day if we want to?  So what if westbound traffic in the afternoon makes a person want to gouge their eyes out, we can just hang out in the neighborhood and go to the pool!
 Lilia and Ivy are starting swim lessons this coming week.  Lilia has been taking Hula lessons too.  We have a membership at the Children's Discovery and we spend a lot of time there too.  It's AWESOME!  I have never been to such a cool Children's Museum.  The girls beg to go all the time, which is great because it means they aren't tired of it yet!  There are SO many fun toys and imaginative play stations that I never feel like I need to buy toys because we can just drive 15 min to the center and VOILA!  Play time and no mess for me!!!!   

Homeschool art project and lesson on Van Gogh

 I decided to homeschool Lilia for kindergarten and the remainder of our time here in Hawaii.  I felt a little apprehensive at first and doubted whether she would take instruction from me or whether I would have the abilities needed to keep her learning and engaged.  We have certainly had a learning curve, (pun absolutely intended,) but I feel like we have had so much success this year that I feel encouraged to continue!  We will continue to homeschool in Hawaii and maybe even beyond.  Lilia AND Ivy have come leaps and bounds in their math, reading, and writing and we are able to explore other subjects and topics that she would never be exposed to in a regular kindergarten classroom.  Another things that I have really loved about Hawaii is that there are MULTIPLE homeschooling organizations and even facebook groups that coordinate field trips and learning activities together.  Lilia has been to a Dairy Farm, a gardening and decomposer workshop, and a butterfly conservatory just in the past two months!  There are so many trips planned and available that we have to say "no" to a lot of them just so that we don't over-schedule ourselves.  Lilia and Ivy have both made some really awesome friends that will be homeschooling this year too.  We are really looking forward to getting together with these families and exploring and learning together. 
  I have also enjoyed teaching the girls about art and music.  We have been learning about different instruments and listening to different composers.  Lilia REALLY enjoys listening to different kinds of music and loves to reflect on how the music makes her feel.  We've watched Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 as a starting point and branched out from there.  Ivy is quick to point out what music she does NOT like.  She does not like Mussorgsky and honestly, who can blame her.  Night on Bald Mountain is probably the mommy fail of the year right here.  I had totally forgotten about that part!!!! 

Little Man!  Sweetest little blondie boy you have ever seen! 

 Little Joel-y man is mischief incarnate.  He lures you in with his white blonde hair and twinkly blue eyes and then BAM! He's bitten Ivy or is at the top of a 5 ft bending ladder at the playground and is falling through the slats.  He's a little devilish.  We love him, but seriously.  Terrible twos all the way and he isn't two until June.  He is VERY vocal and has well over 100 words now.  He loves to say "I don't want it!" when he doesn't want to do something.  Then he will shriek and run the other way.  If you chase after him the shriek morphs into a cackle and he flees with glee.  He's a stinker.  He is also a snuggle buddy and can be sweet and gentle... sometimes.  We love him.  I am hoping this is just a phase.  

Laie Temple with Cliff

  Cliff and I have been able steal away a number of times now that we have met a couple of wonderful babysitters and we have been able to see and do some amazing things already!  We have been able to go to the Temple a couple of times on our own now and it's been really great.  We had a night away in Ko'Olina for our anniversary and we got to spend some kidless time at the beach.   We loved exploring the area as just the two of us.   We also LOVE the drive up to Laie.  It may be one of my favorite things about living in Hawaii.  It is just so dang beautiful.  I have never lived somewhere where the ocean is just FEET from the road.  You feel almost like a big wave could come up and just wash the road away, but it doesn't.  The water is actually pretty shallow along the road due to a far off shore break and the water is crystal clear.  It's usually a little rainier on the windward side and this makes for luscious green jungle and lots of rainbows!  Seeing a rainbow over the ocean is pretty much the best.  We have also been able to try out some great restaurants.  We've found katsudon JUST like we had in Japan and we've also been to Roy's.   We went to Roy's for our 8th anniversary this year and it definitely ranks in the top 3 restaurants that we have ever been to.  SOOOO good.  We've also found great barbeque, great Hawaiian food, great Korean, and somewhat decent Mexican.  We've yet to find really good Greek and Indian, but we'll keep looking :) 

Lilia and Ivy with their new friends! 

 Lastly, the kids and I have made some really wonderful friends over the past couple of months.  We really love our ward and actually had over 30 people over for Easter dinner this year.  I have also been invited to a wonderful playgroup and the kids are so excited to have new friends.  I think that makes all the difference when you move.  Settling in takes time and we knew that it would.  Now we just have to get busy enjoying our time here because our past tours have taught us - it all goes by so quickly!!!

Everything is Awesome... except, you know, the parts that aren't.

 In case you haven't heard, we moved to Hawaii.  Honolulu, Oahu to be exact.  We found out that we had orders to this duty station in July and have clung to the Dream of Hawaii ever since.  The Dream of Hawaii got me through Cliff's deployment and a seriously stressful move, (is there any other kind?!)  Mostly this dream became a reality when we arrived on the island on November 24th, but you know how the military is.  They prefer "challenges" to dreams so we started off our tour with some (yay!) fun "challenges."  We spent just over 6 weeks in a very small hotel room and were taken on a ride by the Housing office, but... that's ok and it's all behind us now.  Despite the challenges, we've had a lot of silver linings too and we are starting to settle in.  So far Hawaii has fallen short of, met, and totally exceeded expectations and I will attempt to give a quick breakdown:

Fallen a bit short:
- So.... Hawaii has a bit of a crime problem.  This was totally UNexpectedby me.  Maybe the rest of you out there are watching Hawaii Five-O, but I sadly was out of the loop.  When we first moved here there were a couple of murders locally.  One of them was a military spouse in her home.  Car break-ins are a thing.  Everyone locks all of their doors and turns down blinds when they leave the house for any amount of time and garage doors are always closed.  Another military spouse was the victim of an attempted car-jacking at the Target that I shop at.  It was in the afternoon and she had her children with her.  Not so awesome.   I guess it comes with a big city? 

- It's hard to feel like you are in paradise when you are confronted with the reality of poverty in Hawaii.  I'll admit it.  I was terribly ignorant of the extreme poverty here and it's sad.  Really sad.  I'm glad that I am aware of it now, because we hope to do some serious volunteering here, but it's also been a wake-up call.  I wonder how many Americans on the Mainland have ANY idea?  There are homeless tent cities here that the tourists will never see.

- SHIPPING.  Shipping anything to Hawaii is EXPENSIVE.  I became an independent consultant for UBAM this summer and enjoyed my relatively inexpensive standard shipping for my products very very much.  I have also thoroughly enjoyed our Amazon Prime membership for the past couple of years.  Not anymore!  Amazon Prime is still free... but you wait and wait and wait for it.  UBAM?  Arm, leg, and future children.

-  THE TRAFFIC.  I grew up just north of Atlanta and Cliff and I have made multiple trips to DC via the Beltway.  Nope.  Not even close.

- For some reason I thought there would be beaches everywhere I looked a people dropping out of palm trees with drinks in pineapples and ukulele music.  You have to DRIVE through said traffic to get to the good beaches.  We are slowly but surely learning where and when to go, but it was a bit of a surprise.  I also thought that every inch of Oahu would look like the lush wet jungle of "Jurassic Park" or the show "Lost."   Some parts of Hawaii definitely look like that.  A lot of parts look like concrete jungle Japan only more dilapidated and more potted palms and hibiscus.  There are a TON of chain-link fences.  

- Military families are are lot less friendly than I was expecting.  When we moved to Japan we were instantly taken in and I made some of the best friends of my life very quickly.  For some reason I thought that moving to another OCONUS station would be similar, but it's not.  It's very much "fend for yourself" out here.  Fortunately I have learned to be outgoing and less sensitive, but this definitely came as a surprise.  I am very thankful to have a church network wherever we go or I would probably be pretty lonely.  I have also found a great mom's group that meets on Mondays, but you definitely have to be willing to put yourself out there more than any other place that I have lived! 

-  No Michael's Craft Store and no Chic-Fil-A.  Yeah, yeah, I'll quit whining now.  But seriously.    

 Expectations met and absolutely exceeded:  When you do get to the beaches they are gorgeous.  GORGEOUS.  Postcard travel channel gorgeous.  Idyllic.  So we try to go to the beach whenever we can.

- The hiking is varied and fabulous views are often less than a mile away on many hikes.  Quite a few are keiki friendly. 

- I will say that my expectations were exceeded in the bug department, but not in the way that you think.  The bug situation is a million times BETTER than I thought it would be.  I have yet to see a spider of any kind and the only roach I have seen was a tiny german cockroach and it was in the Navy Lodge.  I have yet to see a large centipede, but I know they are out there.  Cliff saw one while he was on his bike to work.  I am grateful for the lack of big crawlies in our home. 

- We've found a lot of good food and although we don't have Trader Joe's here, we DO have Costco and have been able to cook and eat the way we want to.  We even had our traditional "Bethlehem" dinner in the hotel room thanks to an awesome Israeli restaurant that provided both the pita bread and hummus.  We have also found excellent food at the local farmers' market.  There are a TON of Japanese restaurants and that has been super fun for us too.  The girls love their mochi ice cream too. 

 - I don't have a ton of experience with commissaries since I really only shopped at one when we lived in Japan, but I have to say the commissaries here have exceeded my expectations.  They really do save us money and if you skip the Pearl store and head to Hickam, it makes for a less crowded and more peaceful experience as well.   We love being able to buy organic chicken for so much less. 

 - My expectations were also FANTASTICALLY exceeded by the weather.  There is nothing on Earth better than the weather in Hawaii.  It is just so darn PLEASANT.  Never too hot and never too too cold.  I sometimes where a light open cardigan, but I have yet to be freezing or miserably hot.  I will have to check back in this summer, but it looks like the temps are mostly pretty consistent the year round. 

 I will try to check in again soon, but until then... ALOHA! 

Ivy girl! She's Three!

Happy "Bubble Guppies" Birthday, Ivy!! 

   It's been a long long time since I wrote anything on this blog.  Joel had a birthday, too... but I'm writing about Ivy tonight.  Oh Ivy.  My crazy Ivy girl.  We had a really fun birthday for her this year at the end of July at the splash park with cake and friends and lots of sunshine.  Unfortunately the temperature was a little less cooperative and thus the blue-ish lips in this picture.  We wrapped her in a town about 5 min after this picture was taken.  She had a blast, though!  It was so fun to see Ivy having a party that she really got the hang of.  This was the first year she really understood what a birthday party was all about.  She kept shouting, "It's MY birthday!  I am having a party!!  These are MY friends!  Poor second child/ middle child.  But seriously, we did it up right.  We had a huge cake and she was well loved.  I really love that she has some of her own friends this year too.  Legitimate Ivy friends that aren't borrowed from Lilia's stash. 

I'm three!

Too cool for school.

   Ivy has so much personality.  I mean, all of my kids do, but she just LIVES life all the way.  When she is happy she is MANIC and when she is sad or angry, hell hath no fury.  I hope this is just a three-year-old thing and not like a bi-polar thing, but either way she keeps us on our toes and we wouldn't change her... except for some days when, you know, she's hitting her brother or screaming like a banshee or jumping off of furniture or smashing butterflies...  But I digress.  Ivy is Ivy.  She has retained her hilarious/ slightly frightening laugh and now that she can jump she is bouncing, leaping, bounding.   We just enrolled her in gymnastics with Lilia and it is SO FUN to watch her take to it with such... gusto!  She ran laps around the other kids and was grinning from ear to ear the entire time.  She's so cute.  She is also very snuggly when she wants to be and LOVES to give me kisses.  We call them "kiss pops" because we open our mouths at the same time to make a loud "popping" sound.  It's weird, but we're weird, so... there.  She insists on sitting in my lap every night for a story and some snuggles and then I hold her and rock her for a minute before laying her down in her crib... yes, she still sleeps in a crib!!!  (TENDER MERCY OF THE LORD!)  and then, melt my heart, she says, "Good night mommy!  I love you!"  every single night. 

Thoughtful/wary Ivy

 Other interesting things about Ivy:
-She loves to spell her name.  She knows that there are some street signs around here that have HER name on them so she is always on the look out.  I...V...Y!  "That's MY name!  I.V.Y! 
-She is TERRIFIED of flying insects.  Bees, flies, butterflies, you name it.  ABJECT HORROR if one is within 5 ft of her. 
- She has a love/ hate relationship with dogs.  She was terrified of my mom's dog when we went to visit, but once she got over it she was all over Sushi until she was being borderline abusive, and then she went back to being terrified when Sushi tried to protect herself from Ivy's "love."  Sigh. 
- She has a love/ hate relationship with... Joel.  She's actually pretty mean to him.  It makes me sad.  She CAN'T leave him be.  She has to constantly touch or push or smack or bump him.  He has a toy in his hand?  Nope!  It's Ivy's.  She screams when she sees him toddling towards her.  She does, however, stand up for him in a mighty way when anyone else tries to mess with him.  "DON'T HURT MY BROTHER!!!!!"   I guess only she can have that privilege.  Sigh. 
-  She doesn't nap anymore, but she really should.  Whenever she does, it's amazing.  AMAZING.  And precious.  Just look at that darling.  So sweet and angelic. 

Middle of the day sleeping Ivy!?!?

- She is smart and more importantly, determined.  And stubborn.  She will fight you tooth and nail if she doesn't want to do something.  She'll fight you if she DOES wan to do something too!  She just likes to put up a fight. 
- She knows her alphabet and can count to at least 30.  We've never really tried more, but maybe we should.  She likes to count. 
- She LOVES sugar, but sugar doesn't love her.  It makes her insane.  INSANE.  We limit sugar so that all of us survive. 
- She is my easiest kid to put to bed and stay in bed.  Once she is in her crib, she is asleep moments later... and STAYS that way. 
-  She says really cute things.  She loves to say "sure" as in, "I sure do love you, mommy!" or "This cheeseburger sure is yummy! It sure is!"  "It sure is a good day!" 
-  She loves to dance and always tell me to "bob my head and shake my fingers" while I am driving. 
-  She has really hilarious facial expressions.  She likes to purposefully make funny faces, too, and then giggle about them. 
- She doesn't really loooooove clothes.  In fact, most days around the house she is just in a diaper.  She always claims that she "wants to dress up!"  But I know the truth.  She just wants an excuse to be naked. 
- She becomes super attached to very strange and very small toys.  She loves to sleep with said toys.  Once she slept with a 3 inch rubber cockroach for a month.  Lately it has been an orange Barbie purse and an orange rubber dinosaur.  Sometimes it's her Littlest Pet Shop caterpillar.  You never know what you are going to have to scour the downstairs for before putting her to bed....  
- She loves nursery class at church and... is super well behaved there!  So very unexpected, but she consistently takes directions well from others and is kind to all of the other children.  She is not shy at all and loves to meet new people.  She will readily give a new acquaintance a hug or a kiss.
- In some ways I think the deployment has taken its greatest toll on her.  Her emotions and her ability to describe them is still growing and forming and Ivy gets frustrated and upset easily.  She misses her daddy so much and doesn't really understand why he isn't here or why she can't see him.  It breaks my heart to see her sad about this. 

  I'm sure I could add a million more items to "The List of Ivy," but another day another time.  I love her so much.  She is our little sugar duckling.  She makes our lives so much more interesting and I'm glad to know her! 

Lilia Humor

I just have to write this down so that I don't forget... Lilia said the funniest thing tonight and it may have been her first true intentional joke!  A little background so that you understand...

 Tonight after baths we were gathering all of the kids into Lilia's room for our evening family prayer and of course it was chaos as usual.  Ivy was jumping all over the place, Joel was trying to crawl out of Cliff's arms, and Lilia was running up and down the hallway pretending to be "Elsa" from the movie "Frozen," and making comments about how she "had to keep her power inside, and that she just didn't want to hurt anyone else!"  Pinning her down for a prayer was all but impossible.  We finally got her into the room and she went immediately over to Joel to kiss on him and give him a few cuddles.  He was laughing and drooling up a storm and when Lilia finally pulled away from him her whole arm was covered in drool.  Cliff wiped her up a little and I wiped the rest off and made the comment that "it was a good thing that she wasn't bothered by drool" and she replied "drool never bothered me anyway - COMPLETELY DEADPAN.  Cliff and I were nearly in tears, laughing so hard.  What a little ham! 

 

(This is a reference to the song, "Let it Go" from "Frozen.") 

Joel Update!

   Our little "bud bud" is over five months old!  Another month or so and we should be through the worst of it!  Yay Joel!  Yay US!  There have been a lot of tears around here these past 5 months... tears from Joel, tears from the girls, and tears from me, but we are doing so much better!  Joel is becoming more aware of his surroundings and more mobile and interactive every day and this is WONDERFUL!  I've always loved Joel, but now I am finding him delightful as well as lovable.  He coos and smiles and flashes those big blue eyes at me and I melt, I really do.  He is just so snugly and squishy and yummy!  Just look at those cheeks and fingers!  Delicious!  All of my children have been this way, but for some reason I thought a little boy would be different.  Silly me.  He's won me over just as everyone said he would. 

   Joel tried out our exersaucer this week and SCORE!  He loved it.  This is so great because it means I don't have to have him in the carrier 24/7 anymore like I have been.  This means I can use the bathroom and he doesn't have to tag along!  It's glorious.  Yesterday I actually SAT at the table with the girls to eat lunch!  I didn't have to rock and sway him while I tried to eat my food without dropping half of it on his head.  This is really huge, people!  The girls love it too.  Lilia really enjoys pointing out all of the different parts of the toy and talking to him at his level.  Ivy like to try and climb on it with him...

   It's just super great.  I see the future getting brighter every day!  Thank you, Joel!  Thank you for letting me put you down!!

   Look at those peepers.  We always knew our kids would have blue eyes, but just look at them!  Gorgeous! 

This was taken right after Cliff walked through the door.

   We still love holding him, too.  Joel gets especially excited when Daddy comes home to hold him.  He starts flailing his arms really quickly and hooting like a little monkey when he sees and hears Cliff.  His eyes get even bigger, (if that is possible,) and he just hoots and flails like crazy. 

   Two of the best boys in the world!

   Seriously, though!  What is better than a squishy, snugly, baby boy in a hoodie?  What?  What?? 

  Anyway.  Now that the weather is getting much colder I am truly grateful that Joel is coming through the colic.   I need smiles and laughter and flexibility as we slug through the dreary winter months.  Thank you, Joel for being so compassionate and understanding of your mama! 

As far as an update goes... Joel was over 16lbs at his 4 month appt.  He was 25 in?  maybe?  I can't remember.  Poor third child.  He is healthy and chunky.  Not as chunky as Lilia was, but more so than Ivy at this age.  I still only nurse him on one side during his feedings.  He seems more than content with that.  He is still in size 2 diapers and is wearing 6 month clothing.  He can still fit into some 3-6 month onesies.  He is starting to scoot himself backwards on the floor and has been rolling over both ways for about a month.  The minute he started rolling over from back to tummy we started putting him on his tummy for naps.  He is still in the bed with us during the night, but those days are drawing to a close.  We hope to move him to his own space after Christmas.  Not that we don't love cuddling with our little guy, but whew.  Sleep uninhibited sounds soooooooo good.  Soon enough.  

Joel has a delightful laugh and is very interested in those around him.  He watches Lilia and Ivy intently as they run circles around him.  He was watching them on his tummy in my bedroom one day and they ran out into the hallway.  He started to cry and tried to push himself in their direction.  He didn't want to be left behind!  As soon as they came back in he calmed down!  It was so sad and so sweet at the same time!  I hope they include him as they get older.  I love to see the three of them together.  I read Lilia and Ivy a book yesterday with Joel sitting on my lap and it was great.  It really way.  I hope I can do that for years and years.  We're so happy to have Joel.  As cheesy at it sounds, I really do feel complete with him here :)

Ivy-isms

   I always forget to write down all of the crazy kooky things my kids say or the adorable way they pronounce different words.  Here are a few "Ivy-isms," but only a few because it's late and I can't remember all of them...

"Leeya!" - Lilia
"eyesore" - dinosaur
"gunky" - monkey
"manas" - bananas (it used to be just "mas.")
"hold you!"  - pick me up/ hold me
"punkin" - pumpkin
"all done ___" - No more/ I'm done with this   ex:  All done diaper cream!!!  (She had a bad rash and didn't want anything else down there."
"nibbles" - *points to Lilia's nipples in the bath tub.  Lilia - "Mom!  Ivy just called my nipples, NIBBLES!!"  (She then giggled and giggled...)
"A spittup" - any time Joel even drools a little
"Onions" - Minions from "Despicable Me."


  I will try to add more when I remember them.  She is such a funny kid.