Mama!

Elizabeth learned to say, "Mama" today! She's on a real learning roll!

And Robbie is making awesome progress in the area of potty training this week! (Can you tell I'm excited? I'm using a lot of exclamation marks today.) :) Anyway, blogging is my new way of keeping record of all these neat milestones they reach.

I hope to share some pictures soon, but I sort of need to take some to share... :) I'll be sure to work on that soon!

Elizabeth News

It's hard to put a date to when a child learns to crawl usually. Elizabeth has been in the process of learning for many days now. Probably weeks, actually. Still, she hasn't officially crawled the classic crawl yet. She gets around really well with a mix of the classic crawl and Robbie's crab crawl. I'll have to make a video of it soon and post it.

Other new news: Elizabeth has been saying, "Dadda" and "Bah-bah" a lot the past week since Brad got back from starting his new job. I think "Bah-bah" may be her way of saying, "Brother," but am not entirely sure.

Teeth!

My baby girl, Elizabeth got two teeth in this week (Tuesday and Wednesday, I think)! They're her first teeth and it seems like she has been working on getting them in for many months! They're the two little front, bottom ones. I thought I had better make a record of it somewhere before I forget! :)

Onto the Next Chapter…

As I squinted into the sun, crying tears of exhaustion, relief, loss, and change I realized that it was time to update my blog. A chapter of my life is over. I know, it wasn’t a profound thought by any means, but seriously… I’ve abandoned this blog for far too long. I have posted video updates here and there, but that’s pretty much it. This past season of my life was busy. The move was the hardest, worst one I’ve ever been through (and I’ve seen my fair share of moves – 20 now) and I suppose it isn’t officially over. We still have to (in the future – maybe not so near) move everything into a new place and unpack. Right now I would feel content living in an RV or furnished rental for quite awhile. I DO NOT want to move another box for a very long time. My back aches, my wrist feels damaged, my wrinkles look deeper, and I’ve had laryngitis for about 5 days (maybe more – I’ve lost track with all the busyness). My family has had more colds/flues during this stressful move than we’ve had over the course of the past three years combined. Maybe it’s just a bad year for germs, though, I’m not sure. I really think the stress has something to do with our immune systems having issues fighting off the germs.

There are many things to be thankful for, though. I had friends by my side helping me for many days with packing, cleaning, and filling vehicles with boxes to move. (Thank you, Crystal!) I’ve had friends and family there for all the days I needed to vent. No one is seriously injured, no one got food poisoning in spite of lots of eating out during the past two weeks, and the weather has been spring-like. Rain and warmth. During the end of our move we had a lot of warm days, which I’m very thankful for. Moving things would have been far more difficult there at the end if we had a lot of windy, cold, and/or snowy days. Instead we had a lot of sunshine, temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s (Fahrenheit), and blue skies.

Brad is starting a new job and things are up in the air a bit. We may or may not stay in the U.S. for the summer, but if not we’ll be headed to Nicaragua in the near future.

Well, I guess that’s basically all that is new for now. Things are a bit up in the air, but there are many things to be thankful for!

Mr. Blue

A couple of days ago I discovered a garbage bag that I had put food (herbs, vitamins, miscellaneous things) into the night before, torn open. Food was scattered all over on the floor surrounding it. I quickly decided our cat probably wouldn't do that, which left three people who could have done it - Ethan, Madeleine, or Robbie. I questioned all of them and decided it definitely wasn't Ethan or Robbie. Madeleine's answer was questionable, though. She at first said she didn't know how it happened, then changed her story to that she saw the cat do it. See why I wasn't sure still? I decided not discipline her, due to I still felt a bit unsure, but warned her to not lie and told her I hoped she was telling the truth. Well, that very evening I saw the culprit. It indeed was Mr. Blue. I was sitting in the dining area of our home after a full day of moving talking to a friend on the phone when I noticed Blue acting like a dog, chewing into a garbage back and pulling things out of it! I went over to investigate. I pulled out the bag of herbs from inside the garbage bag that he was getting into. It was a mixture of herbs for making a "Snooze Tincture". I read through the ingredients and quickly figured out the problem... catnip. LOL! No wonder my cat was going crazy over those bags! I grabbed out a handful of the herbal mixture and put it in a sock, then tied the end of the sock shut, gave it to Mr. Blue, and grabbed my camera. Here he is: