Happy Birthday, Emma! 3 years old!

Ok, like usual life got in the way and I'm a bit late with this!

Wow! I can't believe she's already 3! Jerrod and I have said several times over the past month that we can't believe we have 2 kids, let alone that one of them is 3! We had a birthday party for Emma and her cousin, Jackson on Saturday. Emma's birthday is on the 18th and Jackson's is on the 19th. Jerrod made the cakes and did a GREAT job! Our house was full of princess decorations and balloons. She was so excited when she saw the princesses on the wall! She got all kinds of cool presents from everyone. A new big girl princess bike, a doctor's kit, an outfit for her dolly, princess placemats, a tinker bell dress up dress, books, the Little Einstein's Rocket & characters, and I'm probably missing a few others! We had a great time at her birthday party and it went perfectly (except it rained and we were planning on having it outside).

She loves going to new places and doing "special" stuff. She gets so excited when we tell her that we are doing something special. She loves the zoo and she loves to go to hotels and swim. (We've been doing a lot of that lately because of all our trips to Indy). Her favorite characters are the Little Einsteins, princesses, and Mickey Mouse clubhouse and she still likes Calliou alot. She's starting to get a sense of humor and she loves to be funny and tease!

Emma is getting to be such a big girl. She has relinquished the stroller to Jacob and walks now. She's really good at staying close to us (which I thought would never happen). Her obedience issues are getting so much better. She sometimes has tough days when she's not feeling well, but other than that she's really good at doing what we ask. She's at such a fun age and she makes us laugh all of the time. She loves her friends at school and her teachers too. She has a posse at school that includes two other girls. They are best of friends and they act just alike! Who knew at three she could have such good friends! She is completely potty trained. I still keep a pull up on her at night because when we tried a couple weeks without one she had a few accidents. But for the most part she keeps it dry at night. She loves singing songs by herself. Her favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E, Old MacDonald, the ABC's, B-I-N-G-O, and she also loves to make up songs (she gets this from her Dad!) She also likes it when we make up songs, she asks us to sing the wall song or the door song, etc, where we have to make it up as we go.

In Jacob news, he's five months old now. He is rolling over! Not just onto his belly, but back onto his back as well. He does it really quick! I'm not sure that Jerrod has seen it yet because I say, "look, he rolled over!" and as soon as Jerrod looks he's back onto his back. This happened about 3 times the other day :) He sounds like an Ewok when he talks, it is very funny! Emma and Jacob really love eachother. Emma loves to talk to him and Jacob talks and smiles back. We're trying really hard to teach Emma to always treat her brother nicely because she loves him. Can you teach them not to be rivals and instead always be friends? We're certainly going to try! Tonight is Jacob's first night in his own room. We set up his crib yesterday and he is sleeping in it tonight. He loves the mobile above him and before he went to sleep tonight he was trying to grab the animals on the sheets.

Jacob is 4 months old!

Jacob had his 4 month checkup today and 3 yucky shots. He didn't get horribly upset though, he just cried for a bit. He is 26 inches (90th percentile), 16 lbs 10 oz (85th percentile), 16 inch head circumference (10th percentile). So it looks like he is growing consistently. He just recently started to show some interest in trying to turn over. No success yet though. He actually fell asleep tonight on his side while he was trying to turn over. He plays really well with toys now, he'll reach out and grab the toy from my hand. He loves his play mat with the toys above him. He can also switch the toy from one hand to the other. He loves to just sit and watch all the activity going on around him. He loves his sister very much and I'm pretty sure he finds her very entertaining. He'll be sitting up very soon unsupported. He can sit up now very well supported. He's finally starting to stand up on my lap, he's a little behind when Emma started standing. I think Emma was about a month old when she started standing. Jacob loves to talk and smiles a lot when someone talks to him. He loves when Daddy talks to him! He still loves to suck his thumb and now he can get his whole fist in his mouth. He also has a bad habit of sucking on his arm and has actually left a line like bruise where he sucks on his arm.

Jerrod is doing pretty well. We are traveling to Elkhart 3 times a week in the morning for therapy. There are only 4 hand and arm therapist specialists in this area. 2 in South Bend and 2 in Elkhart. So we opted for the closer of the two cities. I am soooo thankful that I have the most awesome bosses in the whole world! I am taking a laptop and working during his therapy sessions. I am so blessed to have such flexibility in my job! They ordered a dynamic splint for Jerrod and we picked it up today. It cranks his arm up or out and holds it there. The point of it is to help his range of motion. In his last therapy session he got to 12 degrees out and 92 degrees up. The therapist is very happy with the 12 degrees. Of course when he gets home he can't replicate it.

Last week Jerrod had a Dr.'s appointment in Indy. I took an extra day off and we went to the zoo. We had a great time. Emma got to pet an elephant! Then she looked for the elephants the rest of the day. We finally found them, they were taking a bath in the river :) Emma loved the zoo and keeps asking to go back. We also saw the dolphin show and she got to ride a pony twice. She picked out small mini animals to take home with her.

This last Sunday the Merrill's came to visit for the morning. It was short, but a great time. Jeremiah and Emma love playing together. Jeremiah really liked Emma's truck.