How Long Has It Been?

It's been a long time. Lots of growing up has been happening, so quickly, especially with Annea. She's doing lots of signs, sometimes to communicate, mostly after we sign things for her. She especially likes birds, and the sign for birds, and the other day I was sweeping the floor and stated that the floor was dirty--Annea made the sign for birdie. She's getting it! She likes responsive yelping, she yelps and then waits for someone to yelp back, over and over. She doesn't crawl, but is getting better at going from a seated position on the floor to lying on her tummy, so it's got to be a matter of time now, although... she does scoot imperceptibly on her butt, while in a seated position, so she may just be a butt-scooter. She's starting to notice when the girls snatch things away from her, will cry or fuss when someone walks by whose attention she wants, and is starting to let us know she's got needs and desires. Most of the time she still goes with the flow, even missing a nap doesn't phase her too much. Her sleep has gotten less fabulous, for me, at least. We all got a gnarly cold this winter, and she hasn't slept for long stretches since then, I'm hoping as she gets healthier I can re-teach the self-soothing, or whatever it is that I'm supposed to do to get some sleep.

Adessa's having a blast in school, and has started to fill me in on all the social goings on in her class. I'm listening raptly in case it's true what they say, start listening now and they'll keep talking throughout their childhood and adolescence. We're already worried about her peer group. She has made friends with a little girl in her class who is always in trouble, a loose cannon. Calvin thinks it's our valley, we need a whole new city and school, but I am hoping she will naturally gravitate more to kids we like better. Any thoughts?

Eliana has gone through a stage of grieving, that's what I'm calling it, as there was about a month after my mom died where she suddenly decided that no one in our family should ever leave our house. She didn't want to go anywhere, and didn't want anyone else to go anywhere, and if we were going out and she saw she couldn't stop us, she wanted the whole family to go, even to pick up a grocery item or run a quick errands. (Need I tell you that errands are never quick if all five of us go?) After lots of frustration and hugs and talking about the need to do things individually, like work, and leave the house, and say goodbye, she hasn't been bothered by the leaving any more, thankfully. Eliana can be quite dramatic and animated, and would happily play allllll day. I overheard her playing by herself, one of her girl horses had a boyfriend named: "Shining Armor."

So! We have more fun adventures coming up and I wanted to give a quick update, we'll have more to report, soon.