5 months

Well, we started the month with Evi's4th birthday party. (We celebrated her birthday on at least 6 different occasions, which goes with Scott's dad belief that a birthday should be celebrated all month- Evi sure tried!!) Pirate & pixies was the theme this year and Chacha came in full pirate regalia, and Marni Mali & I were pixies. Chacha was dubbed “Mr. Pirate” by one of the kids and it stuck. Instead of gifts, I robbed my sweet child of experiencing an on slot of gift opening by doing a book exchange. (Scott says I'm no fun!) We did a cake walk to get to open a wrapped book that each kid brought. They weren't sure what was going on at first, but once they got the hang of it, they really liked it. We also did the hokey pokey, which Evi loves. I was surprised how many of them didn't know it!! It was a fun party, but it didn't out do last year's barnyard theme!!

I can't believe how much she has changed since this time last year. When she cried everyday when I dropped her off at school, was afraid of other children on playgrounds...now she sometimes walks herself into school and will go up to unknown girls on playgrounds and ask if they want to play with her!! Granted, she's always attracted to the older girls, and I know one day one of them will say no when she asks (which will break my heart!). Now on the other hand, it took me and a nurse to hold her down while another nurse gave her shots at this last doctors visit. Eli didn't flinch for the first one, and barely whimpered for the second one. And sweet Evi was standing over him telling him it was ok, it would only hurt for little bit. This was after her blood curdling scream session.

Eli is the happiest baby! He smiles at everything that moves (I know 15+ years from now I'll be rephrasing that sentence!). Anything his hand grabs onto goes straight into the mouth. It's fun to watch him concentrate on something and get his little hands to cooperate in getting it. He's almost rolling over, and give that boy a mirror and he's content! He still has this blob of curly hair on top that is always doing it's own thing. He gets lots of compliments on it! Even though sometimes it just looks like a bad toupee. I would have given anything for Evi to have had hair like that as baby for bows, but no!! She was bald as could be!(but don't worry, my sisters have already put bows in Eli's hair and took pictures..sorry Scott!) He has started cereal, and had green beans and sweet peas. He doesn't seem particularly excited about any of them! Right now my poor baby is a snot factory. He also has a horrible cough, which his sister showed signs of as well...great, 2 sick babies!!

Last month I vowed to be a more patient mom. And so far, I've done pretty good, I think. Not perfect, but better! Not that I'm horrible, or mean. I mean, it's not like I beat my children (a lot.... just kidding I do NOT beat them!) I just felt myself loosing my patience easily, and I was always the patient one! Amazing how children and a husband can wear that trait out!

Evi had her first school performance called a “Tasting Feast”. The pre-schoolers sang some religious & thanksgiving themed songs, it was cute. Then they had plates of food ready for everyone with things the kids had cooked in class. It brought a tear to my eye to see her up there singing. It was so sweet!

On a funny religious note, she asked the other day, “How did God make cars?”

She is already asking questions about how to drive the car, like what I push to make it go. And why aren't my hands on the steering wheel, does that slow it down? (I was coming to a stop at a light and was opening something up when she asked this). She is full of questions, constantly. And a lot of the time my standard answer is, “that's just the way it is” or “those are the rules”. What's really funny is when I hear her say those responses to her daddy.

We ended the month with several Thanksgiving dinners, and yet still didn't find a way to fit one in with the Dude!! Sorry Dude! And a trip to the Renaissance Festibal, as Evi says it. It was entertaining as always, and it's amazing how much money I can spend on food there!! Love those ScotchEggs, yummy!