Nellie, six-and-a-half

Nellie was asked the other day to write about what she's good at. She wrote: Making people laugh, being funny, eating carrots, reading and writing books, and taking care of my younger siblings. All true! Nellie has a great sense of humor. She learned about and loves thinking of plays-on-words. In fact, she and Kevin started their own club called the "Word-Players Club." She gets our (oh so sophisticated) jokes, which is a lot of fun. Most of the time, Kevin and I just look at each other, shaking our heads and asking where she comes up with this stuff. Like yesterday, after a very normal conversation with Kevin about making bracelets on her Rainbow Loom (best Christmas present ever), she paused, saluted Kevin saying, "Cheerio!" in a British accent, and walked away.

We don't have many good pictures of Nellie from the last few weeks, primarily because she usually only wears underwear around the house. One of the many things that makes Nellie Nellie.

New gloves in her stocking.

Both girls have been extra into baby dolls these days.

This is just a fun picture of cookie baking on New Years Day - I'm not actually sure where Nellie was at this moment!

Nellie never does anything quietly or slowly. Big personality, and a big presence in our family! Which makes it especially wonderful that she loves reading, playing piano, and making rubber band bracelets and will do those things for relatively long periods of time. Reading, in particular, can occupy Nellie for hours. It's great, except that she's going through books faster than I can keep up with, and I'm running out of ideas. Next up, the Little House series that my mom got her for Christmas. She also makes up and writes elaborate stories and games--Annie is usually her reluctant audience or participant.

She loves school, except for the getting up early part. Her favorite subject is Spanish, but really, it changes every time you ask. Her favorite food is an egg sandwich--we got Kevin a breakfast sandwich maker for his birthday, which Nellie uses every morning. But she picks off and eats only the egg and meat, so now we're wiser, and just cook the egg and meat parts without the english muffin.

It's fun, and bittersweet, to watch Nellie becoming more independent this year. She's able to do more for herself, but still in a very little girl kind of way. At the same time, she's a great big sister and still thinks her family is awesome. I'm trying to appreciate every day of this.

Annie, four-and-a-half

Annie is spunky and silly these days, but as sweet as ever. She asks me every day how much I love her, and she'll always respond with more love. I'll say, "to the moon and back," and she'll say, "to the end of the solar system." I'm not even sure how she knows what the solar system is.

In many ways, Annie hasn't changed much. She still loves her blankie, anything purple, anything girly, and her family. She's kind of a homebody, like her mom. I think that halfway through the school year, she's still not sure what she thinks about preschool. She's nervous about going every day, though of course she has a great time and loves it when she's there. Luckily, her MWF a.m. class is made up completely of little boys and girls who are just as quiet as she is. Seriously, I went to volunteer one day and it was almost silent during play time. It was a little strange, actually. The teacher said they're just a sweet, quiet class.

Annie was invited to her first birthday party last weekend--it was a winter luau! She wasn't crazy about the idea of going without the rest of the fam, and DJ sobbed after we dropped her off as if we'd never see her again. Here's a video of her doing the hula!

Annie's favorites these days are My Little Pony and playing "Elsa" from Disney's Frozen, which the girls saw twice in the theaters! They dress up as Elsa nearly every day and act out the entire movie, including singing all of "Let it Go" with dramatic motions. She's also very crafty, and loves to color, draw, paint, etc. Her signature picture is a rainbow (with all the colors in the right order) with a sun, raincloud, and her and I standing under the rainbow drawn in our respective favorite colors--purple and yellow.

Wearing her "Elsa dress" and her half-birthday crown from school. Nellie is being Nellie.

Annie is a marvelous helper (aren't four-year-olds great) and is very caring. Whenever any of us gets hurt, she runs to the freezer for an ice pack. If we're sick, she loves to deliver cough drops and medicine and play doctor. One of her quirks is that she loves to sit by a heat source. She actually carries a small space heater around the house with her and plugs it in wherever she's playing, eating, or sleeping. It's probably costing us a fortune in electric bills and a huge fire hazard.

Christmas morning, very excited about her gum and opening the first presents.  Note the space heater and blankie.

She's given us a bit of a scare, lately. About three weeks ago, now, we noticed a strange rash on her legs. We tried to find something similar online and everything we read basically said, "if it's this kind of rash [doesn't temporarily fade when you press on it], call the doctor immediately." Kevin and I aren't the type to run our kids to the doctor, but we called the next day. Long story short, Annie was diagnosed with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP), which is some kind of faulty immune system response that causes capillaries to swell and leak. In her case, we found out she had the flu, but with no symptoms of that. Just the rash and temporary arthritis in her knees, ankles, and wrists. Several doctors appointments later, we've learned that she doesn't have any of the more serious complications at this point, which we are immensely thankful for. There's no treatment, and it could still last for weeks. The rash comes and goes consistently. It's so weird! Only one person I've talked to (other than the doctors, who said they see one case every few years) has ever even heard of it. Here's a picture of Annie's legs this weekend, when the rash was particularly bad--if you're interested in such things, or if your kid ever gets this and like us, you have no idea what it is!

Otherwise, Annie is our strong, steady girl, coming into her own more every day.

DJ, 2 years old (!)

Oh, I am so behind on this blog. And everything else in life, really. But I decided at this point there's no sense in catching up...onward and upward! So I'll just take each kid and record some of the stuff they're up to right now, today. Also, anything else I remember to throw in!

I meant to start with DJ, but I guess I should at least mention this little guy!

This little guy, who I thought was most certainly a girl until the sonographer told us otherwise (all that nausea!) He's due June 5th. So far, he is much more active in utero than DJ ever was. Heaven, help us. We can't decide on a name, yet. Annie's top choice is "Prince Humor," DJ's is "DJ 2" (his two answers to the questions he's asked most often), and Nellie has all kinds of suggestions. Stay tuned!

It seems there's a lot going on in DJ's life these days--he turned two, he's going to be a big brother, he moved into a big boy bed! The bed decision was made basically because he's been sleeping so badly, we figured it couldn't get any worse. Plus this way, one of us can sleep in his bed for awhile if needed without him coming in our bed. Since, you know, there's usually another kid there.

DJ had a little Thomas the Train Engine birthday party, which we apparently have no pictures of. He loves Thomas right now, though. And Elmo, Cars, Dora, Daniel Tiger, Jake (the pirate), and anything else he can figure out how to watch on the iPad. Also, he loves playing on the iPad.

New birthday blocks! It took awhile to put all those together the night before. 

A new Cars book for his stocking Christmas morning

DJ still loves his bottle, which is the next thing to go. Two kids in diapers will be bad enough, we don't need two drinking from bottles. He sleeps with two blankies these days. He refers to the "original" blankie as "One." As in, "where's One? I want One."

He follows his sisters around and does pretty much every single thing they do. Sings the songs they sing, says the things they say, laughs at the things they laugh at, go where they go. His biggest heartbreak every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is when they both leave for school.

DJ's in that stage where he knows lots and lots of words, but he's the only one who really knows what he's saying. It usually takes me a long time of thinking and asking questions before I can figure out what he wants. I think we'll all be a lot happier when he can communicate just a little better. But he can count up to 20, sing the alphabet, and spell his name, and report that he's two (holding up one finger on each hand), all of which he's very proud of. :)

His eating habits are most like Annie's--a ridiculous amount of milk, and not a whole lot else. But some of his favorites are pasta, pretzels, beans, dry cereal, and lentil barley stew. Also, DJ will pretty much eat anything you give him--hot peppers, mushrooms, olives. Just not a lot of anything.

I think that's all I've got for now. DJ is a fun little guy, and I've been appreciating our mornings alone here and there when the girls are both in school. I'm learning how fun it is to play with cars and trains and blocks, and how nice it is to watch sons hang out with their daddies. I'm looking forward to a year with 2-year-old DJ!