A New Routine

John has made it to the 3 month mark and has started sleeping though the night in his own crib. He and Thomas share a room, but neither of them realize it. John's little snorts and slurping noises hopefully won't wake his big brother like they do us. Just this week, he found his thumb and has mastered the grand skill of thumb-sucking.

Thomas is using words a lot to tell us what he wants. Some common phrases are "uppie,uppie" (pick me up - even to Malcolm at the phone store), "BUTTONS" which means (omgosh I see buttons, let me press them all!), "Mulk" which is a short form of mulkie (used by Amelia to mean milk or all beverages), "macaloni" (all food), "ring around rosie," "rode it, pat it" which comes from Pat-A-Cake (both taught by Grandma), and our favorite, "Know my, Know my A-D-D" which is really "Now I know my ABCs." On Sunday morning, when he got dressed for church, Amelia exclaimed, "Oh no! Thomas is going to work today!"

Today was Amelia's first full day at preschool. She's had several orientations, playdates and cleaning days there, so the room, her classmates and her teachers were all familiar to her. She said she made a picture (I think using potatoes as stamps) of all the people in her family. She said it had a lot of people in it. She said she got to play on two playgrounds and was very tired on the drive home. Somehow, that tiredness hasn't translated into a nap, but at least she's playing in her room for now while the boys are both sleeping. Here she is with her big hair all pulled back away from her face, ready for playing and learning at Binkley!

And as for the adults in the family... I have three books on the table: Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and Once A Month Cooking, Family Favorites. None of them will actually get read (there is no time to read with 3 children this young), but it is fun to think they will be read before bible study starts back up next week. I'm excited about getting my hair cut this afternoon and completing the task of changing out all the outgrown summer clothes for the fall ones in bigger sizes. I was never good at doing that for ONE person, but now that I'm responsible for doing it FOUR people (Michael wears the same thing year-round), I find it overwhelming, especially given the storage space in our house. Consigning outgrown clothes 2x/year is a wonderful thing.

Michael has started a new year of Bible Study Fellowship. He's a discussion group leader again and is very excited about studying the Gospel of John. He's got some exciting projects at work that he looks forward to, and a full time job here at home as well. We're thankful for all these things! Here he is wearing Amelia and getting ready to push the boys through the zoo last weekend. He was moving some 300lbs so I could swing my arms and be carefree. What a sweet husband.