Too Tired

I walked into Ellie's room and she had fallen asleep standing up... too tired to climb up and under the quilt Grandma Dee made her before she was born.

ABC cookie cutters

I couldn't decide which picture to include in this post, the one with the full name, or the one with the nice coloring and the smile, so I included both.
Thanks, Bev, for the alphabet shaped cookie cutters. We love them!!!

A Care Package

My more-than-wonderful sister-in-law sent us a care package... Hot chocolate, ranch dressing packets, taco seasoning, macaroni and cheese mix, stickers for Ellie, cards for Ellie. We were all thrilled, except for Abraham who is still upset that nothing was sent for him. :)

Thank you so much, Susie!

More Exercise Lessons

1. Tennis shoes are especially important on a concrete floor.
2. Weights help increase the intensity.
3. Wearing a princess necklace is definitely a necessity.

Chore Chart

This is Ellie's first chore chart. We had a couple days around here when her behavior was less than desirable, and I thought maybe a bit more routine and purpose in her days would be helpful. It also provides me a way of encouraging and complimenting her daily... and who doesn't love to get stickers?... well, aside from Franklin. :)

Because she can't read yet, I used pictures along with the words. Each day she can get three stickers... I crossed out the days that had already gone by in our week for her first chart. Changes in subsequent charts have included both days of the weekend in the 6th box at the bottom and the chores put in the order they should be done in.

I'm really glad we have started this. :)

A Lot to Learn

A smile

Hammock Happiness

 When we were in the Solomons, we bought a hammock. Last month we hung it up on our front veranda. It gets quite a bit of use.

Ellie relaxes in it, but most of the time plays in it like a swing.

And we often put Abraham to sleep in it during the day.

Playtime

Ellie playing contentedly by herself by our living room window

Mornings

"Mom, it's too early to take a picture."

Climbing

If I had one of those blogs that played music when you opened their page or a certain post, I would have that music from the Sound of Music "Climb Every Mountain" for this one. It would be a bit over the top, but that's ok. :)
We don't have a playground around here where Ellie gets to climb, so she uses one of the grills on the window in our house.
She's also started climbing the grill on our veranda, which means it needs to start being wiped down occasionally. When she got off, she was so dirty!
Just in case you are wondering what that blue thing is... it's not some fancy decoration. :) It's a mosquito net just put up for the day.

Abraham's January

I have a bunch of pictures from the last month, so I'm putting all of Abraham's together for this post. Otherwise I'll never catch up to the new, exciting photos I have to share. :)

We start early around here. In January, we taught Abraham how to read. 

 

Not quite as brilliant-sounding, but still cute, he enjoyed making sounds with his tongue. 

He reached for his toes.

He jumped in his jumper thingy and held and chewed on toys... and more impressively kept a pretty positive outlook on life while fighting a runny nose and cough.

He enjoyed biting his lower lip.

He practiced sitting with the help of his boppy.

And he smiled at us, winning over our hearts.

I can't believe my handsome little guy is already 4 1/2 months old!

A New 'Do

Ellie decided to be my hairdresser one day. She even provided me with a beautiful accessory to wear in my hair. To top it off, she was so impressed with her work that she decided we needed a picture to remember it by... she turned the camera on, aimed, and took the picture all by herself. .... If only she had then continued on to help me get the tangles out of my hair.

Eliana and Abraham

Our Future Chef

When we got back, Ellie's friend had made her a little apron. Since then Ellie has wanted to help us cook whenever she can. I'm hoping she'll take over cooking all the meals in the next year or two. :)

J Jumper

I don't actually know the technical name for this wonderful creation... The Jolly Jumper? The Johnny Jump-Up? Something like that anyway.... This was one of the first times he used it and used his hands to grab toys, too. Now (a month later) he bounces around like crazy and uses his hands constantly, but it sure was exciting to see him doing this when he first started.

Togetherness

I can't get enough pictures of my kids together. It's so great seeing them love each other. Abraham watches everything Ellie does with his expression clearly communicating, "You are the absolute coolest person on Earth." And Ellie spends quite a bit of time complimenting Abraham and caressing his head.
This picture makes me think Ellie is trying to persuade Abraham to smile for the camera.

Ellie's Exercises

Ellie really likes to exercise... especially when she gets to use my exercise mat. It's a very complex routine, but one afternoon she spent quite a bit of time demonstrating and explaining her moves to Franklin and I. Here's a glimpse... if only you could hear the explanations. If I remember correctly, we were even told which country most often did those exercises. :)

The following is one of the more complex moves. 

Christmas Cupcakes

Around Christmas time Ellie was obsessed with making cupcakes. That is all she talked about. So, the day after Christmas, we invited some friends over, and that's what we did. We made our own icing which was supposed to be red, but turned out more like hot pink.We also used some sprinkles we brought from the States. In the picture it looks like Ellie couldn't wait to get started eating!

Love

It's nice to be loved.

Brr...

 We arrived here at the coldest point of the year. Now, let's be clear, winters here are NOTHING compared to Minnesota winters. But, we don't have indoor heating, so it gets chilly in the house. There were a few days in a row where the thermometer in our house didn't break 60F. Too cold in my opinion....
So to stay warm, you can either cuddle up with Daddy...

Or cuddle up under the thick blanket on Mommy and Daddy's bed...

Ellie knew it was nap time, but Abraham must have missed that message.

No Place Like Home

Before we left the States, Grandpa Loren gave Ellie a children's book version of The Wizard of Oz and included was a little necklace of Dorothy's shoes. The whole trip over Ellie wanted to open the necklace, but I didn't want to lose it on our journey, so I told her she had to wait until we got home. So, the morning we arrived at our house, one of the first things we did was take out the necklace. As I put in on Ellie I was reminding her what Dorothy said when she clicked her shoes... "There's no place like home."
I realized that morning that I felt that way, too. We have homes all over the world, but right now this is is where we belong. And it feels good to be here, difficulties and all.
Now, a month and a half later, as we have gotten some cleaning and organizing done, as we are getting into a routine, as hopefully quite a bit of the busy traveling time is behind us, as we get to spend time building our life as a family of four, I still agree with Dorothy. "There's no place like home."