M.I.A.

Sorry for the long delay in posting but it has been chaotic here. We've all been sick lately. I had pneumonia, Natalie had a sinus infection and Fiona had bronchitis. She got her first nebulizer treatments. Reminded me SO MUCH of my own childhood when I had chronic bronchitis and spent a long time on breathing treatments. So here are the updates.
Fiona is now 4 months old. I still can't believe it! She had found her toes and loves to roll on the floor and grab them. She immediately flips to her tummy now when you lay her down but then gets upset being on her tummy!! We are trying to transition her from the pack-n-play in our room to her crib but it isn't easy. The mattress is much harder in her crib so she keeps trying to roll over. But we are still swaddling so that poses other challenges. She loves eating solids but we are taking it slow since they seem to irritate her tummy a bit. She is so smiley and happy most of the time. The one time she is definitely fussy and upset is in the car. She HATES it and screams the whole time..to the point of almost hyperventilating and getting sweaty! Now if we can just get her to sleep better at night (some nights she is wide awake for several hours in the middle of the night) then I think we would all be much happier! She is almost 14 lbs now and 25 inches. Natalie was that size at 7 months!!! She is also trying to "inchworm" along the floor. I think she is going to be an early crawler/walker for sure.

Natalie is growing leaps and bounds. She is so articulate in her speaking and is learning to read via the Bob books. We are also trying to work on writing her name with her. She is obsessed with all things Mario and Star Wars right now. We are still having a bit of a power struggle between the two of us. She is big into talking back to me (not cool) and is learning what behaviors will not be tolerated. So she is spending a lot of time in her room. She just started soccer and likes to play so far. She is actually pretty good at dribbling and shooting for a four year old who has never played before. She is finally wearing 4T clothing (although on the bottom who can still wear 24 month shorts!) She is just so long and lean. We are debating when we will start swimming lessons again. She loves the water so much!

Paul is in the thick of his semester. He is finally done with his search for a new professor so that is one less stress in his life. He is also getting his garden going. So we have the grow lights in the living room with our tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings growing under them. We also put in 4 blueberry bushes, although we won't get any fruit from them until next year. We will put everything in the ground in early April, adding our herbs and cucumbers.

We are already looking forward to the summer. We are going to take our first family vacation to Myrtle Beach. Hopefully Fiona loves the beach as much as Natalie. And then we are going to TEXAS!!!! for 10 days to have Miss Fiona baptized. And of course to visit and get some good Mexican food and brisket!

Much love to all who read this! Leave me some feedback (even just say hi) so that I know that people are still reading!