Finally...Pictures and a Growth Spurt

So I finally went to my sister's house and put new pictures on the site. For those who don't know, we live out in the boonies and cannot get high speed internet so we are still in the dark ages of dial-up connection. I tried to pick a few of my favorites of all the girls. As for the girls:



Sydney: We are so proud of her. She has finished up her Kindergarten year and will be off to first grade next year. It has not been easy though. They have so much to learn in Kindergarten now, she was still in a half-day program and she was pretty behind when we came home from the hospital in January. She was still not sound blending words and could not get through the word lists that were sent home. 2 months later she was a different girl! She was sound blending, reading words on her list in a matter of minutes, reading books and more. It was amazing! We're sure a lot had to do with homelife being so unstable and Ellie in and out of the hospital. We are just so proud of how much she was able to accomplish this year. She played soccer this spring and asked to play again this summer and fall. It is so much fun to watch her out there.



President Reagan: She's always tempting us with being potty-trained but it hasn't happened yet. She sure is stubborn. We're hoping we can get her pinned down on it before the fall so she can go to pre-school. She's also going to play soccer this summer. She's a bit younger than the age limit, but we can tell how much she really wanted to be out there with Sydney. It should be entertaining. She's also taking swimming lessons right now so that is fun to watch too.



As for Miss Ellison: What an amazing couple of weeks she has had! Seems like there wasn't much new going on, then boom! she gets this growth spurt! She is sitting up now for up to 5 minutes or more at a time on her own. We have waited so long for this!! I know most kids are learning to walk by now, but this is Ellie's pace and we couldn't be happier. Sydney is so excited that she can sit up now and puts her in a sitting position to play with her all the time. And there's more, she is self-feeding now...cheetos, baby meat sticks, graham crackers...whatever I stick in front of her that she can hold and bring to her mouth. Apparently my spoon feeding wasn't fast enough for her. This kid loves food! Then over Memorial Day Weekend, while we were hosting my family's get-together, the kid starts waving using her wrist (not the whole arm wave) and clapping!! And still there's more...she is clearing saying "hi", has said "yeah" when we clapped this week, occassionally uses the sign for "more" or still tries to say "more" ("mmm", "muh"), and has started nodding and shaking her head!!!! The nodding and clapping are things she started before her gastric pull-up and is finally recovering, the rest is all new. Hopefully the spurt will continue. We are so excited at the new personality that is developing. Enjoy the pictures!