Long Overdue, but still brief Update!

Hi Everyone! I apologize profusely for the lack of communication. Things have really been insane and still are! As I am sure most of you already know, we have bought a house with my parents and all moved in. For those of you who don't know, the house is directly between where we both used to live, two blocks for each of us. It is the same setup as we both had before, but reversed. We live upstairs, mom and dad are downstairs and we now have the basement too. Jon, Brent and sometimes, Eric, are hard at work making it nicer for us. We've made great strides in the unpacking, but still have tons to do! (Volunteers, especially for baby-sitting detail, are welcome!)

Updates on the little ones. Harry is loving our new living arrangement. He can go downstairs whenever he wants, and often does. He is driving Pepa crazy! He's been doing well in school and is almost done with the reading curriculum for kindergarten. The teacher is trying to borrow some first grade material for him. He is also excelling in math, which is his favorite. However, the whole following directions, keeping his hands to himself, not having a big mouth thing? That is apparently beyond him! He is always getting time outs for one of those things! He is very lucky that he has such a great teacher and she likes him otherwise it would be much worse.

Micah is huge. I have just found the baby scale but haven't set it up yet, but at last measure he was nearly 16 pounds! He is wearing nine month baby clothes and they fit well. He is a ball of baby fat and loves when you pretend to nibble on him. He just laughs and laughs! That little laugh is adorable too. It comes with a big gummy smile, usually accented with a thumb in his mouth. He is finally learning how to laugh without getting the hiccups. He absolutely loves his food too.

He and Leah have had all the grains (barley, rice, oatmeal and mixed - which has wheat) and handle them just fine. They've had pears, applesauce (with and without cinnamon), banana, peas, green beans (Micah will eat them but gives you dirty looks the whole time and Leah will eat them but yell at you), and yams (yums). And, if you can believe it, Daddy is making their food just like he did for Harry!

Leah was approaching 12.5 pounds at her last weighing and is adorable. She loves to smile and sometimes will laugh, although she still gets hiccups after laughing. She likes her food, but prefers the bottle - she doesn't have the whole tongue action thing down yet so more gets pushed out then down. But if you are patient she will eat the whole serving and she is getting better and better. Poor little thing inherited my eczema and has patches on her pretty little face. The smile you get when you put cream on it is priceless.

Both Leah and Micah love to stand. Any chance they get they will stand and give such a smile of accomplishment! Micah is starting to get the hang of sitting too and can even do it on his own for a few seconds. Leah gets so excited to be sitting she straightens out and fall backwards. Both still hate tummy time.

Little Golda is, as of today, 9 lbs. 5 oz!!! We are quite excited about that! She even has chubby cheeks and thighs! She is so alert and smart it is scary sometimes. She had figured out how to get her repogle (the tube that suctions her saliva) out of her mouth without you even noticing! She will give a gorgeous smile and make serious eye contact while pulling her tube out hand over hand. Then you see it pop out of her mouth and realize what she has done! She can also snuggle against you chest to chest and, while moving up and down, seeming to be snuggling in more comfortably, she pulls the tube out. She gets that thing out so often that she doesn't complain as much anymore when you put it back in.

We took her to the surgeon about a month ago to get her feeding tube changed. It was getting grungy and she was ready for a change. She now has a Mic-key tube. It is a little button like thing - similar to the thing you blow into on a beach ball - that has a tube that detaches when she isn't eating. She loves the freedom of having it off and will wiggle around whenever it is removed. The best part is that it is no longer constantly pulling and irritating her so the granuloma is shrinking and the redness and drainage are significantly less. No more constant antibiotics or dressing changes. The nurses check it with every feed and change the gauze three times a day. Most of the time it's dry with just a little drainage and her skin is looking healthy and pink now. Oh! And amazingly, that big protruding belly button she had is now an inny - her belly has finally fattened up to match it like they told us it would.

All three babies are teething like crazy! Micah even has gotten his left upper fangs! They have just broken through this past week. And the bottom ones are threatening. Leah has many white spots, but none have come through yet. Golda has a few white and red spots but again none have come out.

Oh and before we moved I printed out actual "announcements", thank you cards and moving cards. My goal is to find them and the mailing list and send it out by April. Thank you for understanding!