Elijah is 4

In the midst of our traveling, I realized I forgot to post a 4 year old update on Elijah!  So, bit late but here goes...

Personality:  Elijah is an analytical, inquisitive, silly, somewhat reserved, kind boy.  

Likes: Reading, Legos, imaginative play, and asking 1,001 questions (a lot of them good deep ones even about life and death, or about how things work...such as Does Jesus drive in the sun??)  If you allow him, he will literally ask question after question after question with no end and he really is soaking in the answers and trying to put the pieces of life together.  He loves helping with everything from washing the car to helping to cook and he's very responsive when we give him a directed task to do and takes lot of pride in having done it.  This year he was really into the show Octanauts and Dinosaur Train and lately he's been loving reading nonfiction books about tractors and trucks and also  science books (especially the magic school bus) and he wants to understand every last detail about how things work.  He like to play with friends and cousins, play on playgrounds, ride his bike or scooter, color and draw (but so far he will only draw sticks, rocks, maps, and the sun since he claims that he is too insecure about doing other things "wrong").  He likes homeschool so far, especially because it's basically all reading and workbooks, both of which he loves.  He can spend countless hours playing with building toys (legos, marble run, etc).  His favorite foods are noodles and he really likes them "clean"  aka with no sauce.  He also likes fish, hot dogs, and muffins.  He happily eats almost all veggies, but is not a fan of lettuce yet.

New: Really interacting on a deeper level, room play time instead of nap time, drawing, playing board games, really make a transition from preschooler to kid.

Routine: Up at 7:30, homeschool about 1 hour in the morning or preschool for morning time, lunch at 12, play time from 1:30-3:15, clean up room all on his own, watch a show, dinner, then bed at 7:30.  We cut the afternoon nap just around 4 years old because it was getting too hard for him to sleep at 7:30pm...it was obvious he just wasn't tired.  It took about 2 weeks to transition it out and he has been doing great ever since!

Struggles:  Moments of temper tantrums when he doesn't get his preferences, he has forgotten most of his Portuguese so is struggling to feel connected to friends and Brazil since getting back.  He has resisted wanted to go to the kids programs at church since he doesn't understand what is being said.  This week he will begin preschool and we're hoping it will help him relearn the language quickly.

Lastly, for his birthday Elijah really wanted to have an Octanauts themed party.  We got a blue cake and put an Octanaut toy on top.  We played pin the Octanaut to the Octapod and had hot dogs, sea shell mac n' cheese and decorated the table with Swedish fish and goldfish crackers and a whole bunch of Octant toys.  Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Jamie, Noah, and Hannah joined us at Popi and G-ma's house for the simple party.  I keep laughing when I remember that Elijah wanted to pray for the dinner  and after thanking God for a bunch of things, he very seriously added "And thank you for the Octanauts all over the table".  

We just love this kid who makes us smile and enjoy life every day.  It is a joy being his parents and watching him grow!

Audrey is 1 1/4

I'm stunned at how much Audrey has grown and changed in just 3 months!  She is really making that change from baby to toddler, developing personality, finding her sense of humor, having a will of her own, and making us fall even more in love with her.  

We returned back home to Brazil this month we can say with confidence, that Audrey is a furlough All-Star!  She was flexible every step of the way, through late nights, traveling, being held by so many new people.  She even managed to time her teething perfectly to wait until our visitation time was over and have her 6 teeth break through in just 4 weeks while back in a routine at G-ma and Popi's house.  

Audrey learning to walk was unending Christmas fun and entertainment.  Everyone wanted to see her begin walking before we left the US, especially G-ma, but Audrey seemed to seriously lack motivation and confidence.  Countless times we all cheered her on as she stood, poised to take her first step and slowly sank down and smiled.  She loved to talk walks around the house holding Popi's finger (he was her favorite to walk with and would let go of anyone else's finger and go to him when he came in the room).  Finally she took her first steps walking from mom to G-ma - about 7 steps one day after Aunt Jamie had worked on her walking using occupational therapy techniques and attempts to lure her with a chocolate doughnut.  After that a few weeks passed with a few steps here and there, and finally in the last 48 hours before leaving the US she took more steps.  Now, back in Brazil she's finally getting the hang of it at 15 1/2 months.

Personality: Continues to be sweet, flexible, and generally a happy girl.

Likes: Dogs (even big ones), cell phones and remotes, jumping in her jumper still, being tickled, feeding herself, sitting in her high chair and eating, sleeping with her bunny blanket, noodles

New: Imitating a dog barking when we ask "What does a doggie say?", saying "Li-ja" for Elijah, calls out "Daaaaaadeeeee" for daddy, (nothing for mommy), signs "more" by clapping, knows what she wants and if she can't make is clear or doesn't get it can be a "bucking bronco" at times, eats absolutely anything and everything we offer, took her first steps at 14 1/2 months and now at 15 1/2 months is beginning to actually try walking out as transportation, curly hair (went from stick straight to curly as soon as we arrived in humid Brazil, playing intentionally with little people and other toys (such as stacking or putting people inside a house or making sounds)

Routine: Wakes at 8 (though sometimes keeps sleeping as late as 10 am or later if we let her!! Once she slept 16 hours straight!!)  This girl LOVES to sleep!  If she wakes at 8 she still takes a morning nap at around 10:30 and I wake her at 11:30 or so, just so the afternoon nap still happens.  If she sleeps in late we skill the morning nap.  Then afternoon nap approx 2pm-4:30.  Bed at 7:30.  

Struggles: The red rash from last update has continued until now, though she's doing a month long treatment for fungus/yeast which looks promising.  She also has heat rash on her neck since coming back.  I think the biggest struggle is the phase she's in in which she doesn't yet play very involved with toys.  She doesn't get into anything for very long so she wanders around bored at times, even though there are options.  So finding ways to keep her engaged even when I'm busy with household tasks is a challenge.  She also often hates baths and will scream.

Audrey Sophia - 1 Year Old!

I can't believe our Audrey is a year old!!!  What a wonderful, wonderful year it has been with this girl in our lives and part of our family.  I can't even imagine how we had a family without her!!

 We had a fun family cake smash to celebrate this girl's birthday.  Christa make a cute pink cake for her and we all watched her dig in.  At first she was kind of shy and just picked at the frosting, especially going for the pink candy balls on top, eventually she dug and just kept going, having a fabulous time.  It was such  fun, no-stress, all fun way to celebrate this girl who means more to us than words can say.  And since she is such a sweetie, nothing other than a sweet dessert celebration would have been appropriate.  :)  

After the cake smash it was direct to baths, followed by a pizza dinner.  Fun, fun, fun!!!

Personality:  Sweetie pie, go with the flow

Likes: Dancing and singing with music, making loud noises of celebration at totally unexpected moments, eating all on her own, Cheerios, swings, slides, eating rice cakes as she sits in a shopping cart, cell phones, Elijah, feeding us bits of food, being tickled and flipped upside down, getting a hold of my earrings and pulling (ouch!) 

New: Being able to hold unassisted if we prop her up, but when she realizes what's going on she shrinks down to sitting and refuses to let us do it again (goes all floppy), climbing up stairs, starting to do some things intentionally like move blocks into a container

Routine: Nothing new

Struggles: Red bumps around mouth that seem to be an allergic reaction.  We are trying to figure out what's going on and think it may have to do with milk so we're trying cutting out milk

Audrey is 11 Months

This month Audrey has been such a sweet, flexible girl even as we've traveled around and had many stretching situations with little routine while on furlough.  She has been nothing but a joy to have around.

Personality: Sweet, happy, easy going

Likes: Playing in a walker (sit in kind, not the walk behind kind), cruising, trying to get a hold of phones and remotes, dancing and singing with music

New: Trying to climb up stairs, causing, 6 teeth, saying "night night" or waving very occasionally, having fun with cousins and Elijah,

Routine: Trying a new routine of waking at 7:30, napping 9:30-11:30, napping again from 1:30-4, sleep at 7:30.  She has done amazing bouncing back to a routine even after weeks of instability and has been completely flexibly and sweet (never, ever cranky) even when we miss or delay a nap due to our furlough schedule.  This sweet girl was made for missionary life :)

Struggles: Dealing with bumps around her mouth that we can't seem to identify the cause of, but at least don't seem to bother her

I can't believe these are the last few weeks until Audrey is 1 year old.  We love you, Sweet Audrey!

Audrey is 10 Months

I can't believe Audrey is already on her way to turning a year old!  This month she showed off how flexible she is when we transitioned to life in the US for furlough.  We drove 10 hours to Manaus, then on a boat to visit friends living on an island in the Amazon, and then took 3 flights to Phoenix.  Despite a bad diaper rash, teething, a fever of 104, an ear infection, and crazy sleep schedule (or lack there of) she still did amazing considering the circumstances.  She bounced back quickly from everything and is as cheery and sweet as ever, loving every moment of crawling around and discovering everything new.  

Personality: Sweet, happy, flexibly, independent

Likes: Sitting in her high chair, being held, playing with toys, sucking on toys and toothbrushes, crawling around and between furniture like an obstacle course, everything she is offered to eat especially things she can gnaw on

New: Meeting cousins and really playing around older kids, pulling up every chance she gets though still not taking any steps while up or takings steps while holding our hands, crawling quickly and exploring all around houses on her own, scrunching up her nose in a goofy exaggerated way when she is really happy, a total of 5 teeth now and another one almost coming in.  I've also been surprised that in places where she has had to sleep in the same room as us that she has easily fallen asleep in our bed when necessary.  This is so different than Elijah who would only "party" and play around in our bed when we had to have him sleep with us.  Audrey has no problem cuddling up and falling asleep between us, which has been very helpful in a pinch while traveling.

Routine: Same as before but wake up time has been a bit earlier due to being in different places and sleeping in the same room as us

Struggles: Persistant yeast infection diaper rash that is only now clearing up after trying several prescriptions, intentionally throwing food on the floor from her high chair for fun

Here are a few pics of Audrey having in California this month:

Audrey 9 Months

 Our sweet Audrey is 9 months old already!

Personality - Sweetness through and through, flexible  (this girl is cheery even if she misses a nap on a crazy errand day!)

Likes: feeding herself, swinging, being held by anyone, exploring things in the house (inside open cabinets or anything left out),

New: Pulling up to standing, crawling (rather than just scooting) 80% of the time though she hasn't picked up much speed yet, hearty belly laughs (a very cute one on the back of her throat that comes out in little choppy eh eh eh sounds), one top tooth and other one coming any day - that's a total of 3 so far, giving high-fives,  a little clingy to mommy at times,  going un-swaddled at naps (would probably be ready for night time too but we have continued so she doesn't get cold with the a/c), lots of interaction with Elijah (Elijah and her play games, especially in the car such as taking turns making noise and both cracking up), standing up waiting for me in her crib, taking baths with Elijah, and most of all eating!!  This girl can sit in her high chair for an hour or more just eating and eating and eating by the handful or gnawing on a rice cake…happy as can be!!  In fact the other day I dropped her off in the church nursery with a container full of semi-smashed babyfood and asked if the nursery worker could feed her since we had been in a huge rush.  Later the worker told me she and the other worker had commented that there was NO WAY Audrey would eat the large quantity I had packed, but she ate it all and a cracker too and they were in shock!!  :)

Routine:  Continues on the same.  8 wake up, morning nap 10-12, afternoon nap 2-5 (approximately) sleep at 7:30pm

Struggles:  The only struggle we have was at Audrey's last doctor's appointment she had lost weight (about 1/2 lb)  We are focusing on giving her higher calorie food, treated her for worms since Elijah has them, and reweighing tomorrow.  Hoping she has put on some weight this time)

Happy 8 Months, Audrey!

Personality: sweet, smily, chill

Likes: Army crawling, putting all kinds of things in her mouth that she shouldn't (flip flops, stray things she finds on the floor, plugs, etc), sitting her chair eating - happily does this for 30 minutes or more feeding herself finger food, being held, papaya

New: Feeding herself almost exclusively, getting fast at army crawling and going places intentionally, trying to swifter crawl out the front door, acting like she is teething the top teeth but nothing has come through yet, moving easily between sitting and crawling

Struggles: Wanting to be held at times when I'm trying to get things done around the house, crying during diaper changes

A few pics from this month:

Audrey's two bottom teeth

 Elijah is all about interacting with and "helping Audrey".  Here he is trying to help me take this month's picture. 

 And giving her water after a meal…I love how he's so into it that he's making a drinking face :)