No more gallbladder!

Well, a lot has happened in the past few weeks!  About 2 weeks ago I had gallbladder removal surgery!  Three weeks previous, I had an attack and went to the hospital because my stomach hurt so badly and it wouldn't go away throughout the night.  The ER told me it was probably just my body passing a gall stone and that it would likely not happen again.  I had 4 more attacks though, and so eventually I went to the ER again and they took me in for surgery.  It was a pretty easy surgery and recovery and I'm already all healed!  It's amazing how fast God heals our bodies!  I am feeling all better now and am happy that I won't have any more pain!

We also recently have started to look for a new house.  This is quite a process.  We are hoping to move to a more rural area, where we can have a bit more space, bigger yard, and a more peaceful neighborhood.  We are still looking for the perfect house that will fit the bill.  We'll see!  Hopefully we'll be able to sell our house quickly when it comes time, too.  God has it all under control!

The other day, Amelia was on her toy phone and said, "Gotta be quiet mom, I'm calling Opa."  Haha!

She also said one day after church, that she wants to play the piano like me.  Awww!

Charlotte is about 1 day away from walking!  She's taken about 4 steps but will probably be off and running before too long!  She's got to keep up with Amelia!  Charlee is as happy as ever, bringing joy to everyone.  Amelia is still talking non-stop :)  She coming up with funnier phrases each day.  She surprises me with the words and phrases that she knows and in which context to use them!

Oma playing in a slide with Amelia

This is how the girls help me with laundry

Playing in the sand table the last warm day of the fall

When it got a little too quiet, I went in the sunroom to check on them and they were hiding in the toy cabinet!

A Typical Day

The other day, Josh was installing a new door bell.  No matter what Daddy is doing, Amelia always wants to help!  She was out there helping him with the tools.  She also happens to to be pantless (don't worry, panties on) :/ due to potty training!

The other day, Charlee was sitting in her booster seat and she dropped the toy she was playing with.  Amelia came to the rescue, gave Charlee the toy back and said, "Here ya go Charlee.  Don't drop it!"  Haha!  She's definitely the BIG sister.

Amelia talks all day long.  She's quite a polite little girl.  The other day my mom sneezed and Amelia said, "Bless you, Oma!"  She usually says excuse me after she burps and also says excuse me when you're in her way!  :)

A couple of weeks ago, my dad held Amelia up in the air like she was flying.  She loved it of course and asked him over and over again to fly.  The next morning, Amelia was flying her baby all around, the same way saying, Weeeeeeee! 

Sleeping with her books!

I think we wore her out!

The other day, I was apparently too distracted folding clothes.  Amelia told me that she was going to take her baby to the bathroom.  I distractedly said, "ok..."  A few minutes later she told me that her baby was going on the potty.  I wondered why she didn't bring her baby back out after pretending to "go on the potty."  Well, there was no pretending going on.  I walked in the bathroom and the baby's legs were actually in the toilet!!  Yikes!  Not my best mom moment! Haha

Mercy vs. Consequences

I'm learning a lot these days about both mercy and consequences.  Having an almost 2 year old (wow, cannot even believe that!) gives me lots of practice!  We're at the testing boundaries and sharing opinions phase of parenting and learning as we go!  It seems like much of the day, I spend saying "no, don't do that, try again" etc.  I want to try to frame things more positively and share what to do instead of what not to do.  Anyway, we're trying to be consistent, which is really quite exhausting haha!  It will totally be worth it in the end though!  Even already, I see glimpses of the fruit that it will produce soon enough.  Yesterday, Amelia was eating her sandwich while I was making mine, and she stopped eating and said, "Thanks, the sandwich, mama."  Aw, how sweet!  She thanked me for making her sandwich!  I'm so excited to see the little (and big) people Amelia and Charlotte become!

I read a devotional about mercy today.  It's main message was, when in doubt show someone mercy.  It said to always error on the side of mercy and to not worry about showing too much because Jesus definitely showed "too much" when He died for us on the cross.  We are to follow his example of being merciful to others, giving grace and forgiving even when the person doesn't deserve it.  So, I wonder how you do can do both of these things, consistent consequences and showing mercy, when raising young kids!  Ideas anyone?

I've been really enjoying teaching the Chinese kids online with VIPkid.  I teach most mornings for either and hour or two, while the girls are sleeping.  It's been awesome!  The kids are very sweet and really quite good at English!  The other day I started off teaching a kid named Roy (his English name) and we couldn't get hardly any teaching in because he was trying to take care of his 2 year old brother!  I asked where his mom was and he said she was at work...  So here he is trying to learn a foreign language (during his summer vacation) while trying to take care of a screaming 2 years old!  He was obviously in distress, pulling at his hair, picking up his brother, trying to bounce him on his lap.  Roy is only 8!  Let's hope his mom got home soon and that that isn't a regular occurance.  Poor Roy.  That day we didn't get much teaching done! :( 

Somedays though I can't stop laughing as some little kids dig for boogers during class or try to sing "Row row row your boat" or run to the bath room with only underwear and no pants on! Josh gets a chuckle sometimes too, if he overhears! 

Tonight I'm going out with Beth to the Wyandotte Street Fair!  Bye for now! :D

Almost Summer!

Well, summer is almost here!  My tutor kids are finishing up their online school and I'm hoping to get another couple of students next year through the same program.  In the mean time, I've started teaching Chinese kids online.  Because of the time difference in China, I'm able to teach these 5-10 year olds English from 5-7am while the girls are still sleeping!  It's been a slow start, but I'm sure the business will pick up in the summer.  The beauty of it is that I can just open up time slots whenever I am free and all while the girls are sleeping.  Woohoo!  Hopefully this will be a good little source of extra income.  Josh is finishing up his school year.  He's trying to decide if he wants to move to the middle school next year.  Big decision!  He'll be working at the golf course again this summer.  Currently, he's been helping out a ton at Southpoint's (our church) new church building.  He's been renovating the gym.  It's been fun but tiring and I'm sure he'll be ready to have some free time again.  We move into the new church next weekend.

Amelia is changing all the time!  She's more than a year and a half old now.  She is getting taller, her hair is getting longer and she's more active than ever.  She's still super helpful and gets a kick out of doing "big girl" things.  She is learning her colors and talking all the time.  She loves to play outside with her toy car and bubbles and pretends to walk around her baby doll in a play stroller.  She gets her toy keys and toy purse and tells us all goodbye, haha!  She usually says she's going to church or the store :)

Charlotte is 5 months old now!  She is rolling over, squealing all the time and busy keeping track of Amelia.  She's almost sitting up now and loves to wiggle and move.  She's still so sweet and just loves to be talked and sung to.  She really likes petting our dog.  She does not like to be separated from Amelia :)  Lately she's been testing the volume of her voice!

Here are some pictures that we just got back from Easter!

My Big Helper

Amelia has become quite a big helper!  She watches my every move (though I don't notice) and she likes to do everything that I do!  We went to Kentucky to visit my Grandmother and Grandaddy at their assisted living complex and Amelia went around the place with a napkin wiping everything off and pretending to clean!

The other day I started to vacuum and before I knew it, Amelia was moving all of her toys and doll furniture.  I started to tell her to put it back and then I realized she was trying to help.  She had seen me move all of those things in order to vacuum behind them and so she was getting them out of the way so that I could vacuum.  Then when I finished vacuuming behind each item, she put all the furniture back!

She likes to sit on a little booster seat on the counter while I cook.  She thinks she is helping me cook.  We talk about all the ingredients going into the meal and she watches me prepare it.  Maybe she'll be a chef someday.

When I make a bottle, she wants to be the one to take it and put it in the living room by the rocking chair.  She gets a little upset if I skip this step and do it myself.

She's started feeding Jumanji, our dog.  She goes to get his bowl and then when I open the closet, she gets the cup from his dog food container.  She tells me, "One, two."  Then I scoop up two scoops and she dumps it in his bowl and puts his bowl back in it's spot so he can eat.

Amelia  must have seen me put a pile of clothes down the laundry chute.  One day while I was cleaning the bathroom, Amelia came in with a big armful of clothes.  She opened the door to the laundry chute and tossed each item down.  She said, "Bye, shirt."  Haha!  How did she even know where the dirty clothes pile was!?  She surprises me with something new that she's learned everyday!

Today she opened up one of her books and said, "Let's see..."  Sure enough that's something that I say without even thinking about it.

She loves Charlotte.  Everyday when she wakes up, she asks where Charlee is.  She walks into her room and says, "Hi Charlee!"  Every time that Amelia looks at Charlee, Charlee smiles so big.  Though Charlee's things that she's learning aren't as visible as Amelia's yet, I think she's learrning just as much.  She is learning to coo, to focus her eyes, to see colors, to lift her head and to sleep through the night ;)

They sure are fun these days!

Best friends

Charlotte is adjusting to our family so well!  She is such a good and sweet baby.  She still sleeps most of the day and when she wakes up she is all smiles and coos!  She is Amelia's best friend already.  Amelia imitates all her coos and hugs and kisses her a lot.  Amelia helps me by going to get things and runs to Charlotte to pat her when she cries for a bottle.  Amelia always makes sure that Charlotte is well fed by asking if she needs a bottle, haha :) 

When they take a bath together, Amelia pretends to pour soap on Charlee and rub it in!  She also carries around her baby in a doll car seat and holds it in the crook of her elbow, just like I do.  Amelia is a little mama! 

I've started back to tutoring.  So far so good because Charlee still sleeps through most of it.  Amelia plays with her baby doll and reads books, etc. 

Below are a few pictures we had taken of Charlotte when she was a newborn:

It's so fun to see their different personalities already.  It's funny to think that I wondered if I would love two children the same way.  My heart definitely found room to love both!  So far it has not been as hard as I thought it would be to have two babies at once.  I'm sure it will get harder though, especially when Charlotte can walk and they both go in opposite directions! ;)