These Days

Okay, finally. Hmmm, where to begin? The kids are growing like weeds and are my complete delight in life (also my ultimate challenge in life...). I look at my kids so many times throughout the day and wonder how I am so blessed to have such beautiful people as my children. They are so innocent, full of wonder and light; so forgiving, beautiful, trusting, loving, smart and wise. I am constantly overwhelmed with love for them. They are so unique and special.

Taking a bath together. The both LOVE the bath, especially Ronan.
Turns out, he's quite comfortable in the water.

Ellie, what a little character she is. She is obsessed with birthdays, and usually that is the first thing she will say to someone (especially someone she is meeting for the first time), "What's your birthday?" And she wants to know the month and day -- not just the month, not how old you are, your birthday. She surely knows hers (and her mama's, brother's, daddy's...). Her curiosity with the alphabet is growing. She knows the alphabet, recognizes the letters, and knows what sound almost all of them make. Often, when we see or say a letter she will think of a word that begins with that letter. She is so dang smart. I'm not even sure how she knows all of this. Kind of scary. Ellie is increasingly headstrong and independent. She wants to do everything by herself! She is always saying, "I can do it! I can DO it!" Usually if someone does something for her, she redoes it herself (ex: if you open the door for her, she'll close it and open it herself; put something away, she'll get it back out and put it away herself, etc.) She loves being so close to aunties and cousins (and grandparents too). She is such a friendly people-person -- she loves going out and about, and is really enjoying the city living.

Auntie April pulling Ellie, (cousin) Emian, and (cousin) Stone around
the backyard. What a nice auntie!!

Ronan -- nine months old now! Man, I can hardly believe it. He is so playful and getting really good at playing with other people and kids. He and Ellie have so much fun together. He LOVES playing peekaboo, and often he will hide his own face, and start giggling and giggling while you ask, "Where is Ronan?" Then he'll pop up with a huge smile on his face. I love it -- it's so much fun and so cute. He gets really fired up and playful with his aunties especially. He's a huge flirt too. He likes to find anything possible to put in his mouth. Usually when I tell him, "Oh, Ronie! No, no, yucky!" he starts spitting. Also, he knows what he's not supposed to play with (like the plants...) and when I see him starting to head that way I'll tell him, "No, no Ronan" and he gets a little mischievous grin on his face and starts crawling in turbo mode to see if he can beat me to it! He loves the bath, loves to play in the dirt, loves to boogie, loves to throw things (he's got a REALLY good arm!), loves to scold when he's mad (always quickly followed by a smile), loves to charm, flirt, play, laugh, explore, get into mischief -- and, my favorite -- loves to give loves.

Ellie on her never-ending quest for spiders (she's constantly
pretending to find spiders with her stick).


"What?! You've never seen a little guy eat dirt before?"
(I try my hardest NOT to let this happen, but inevitably it does, and
I can't deny him the pleasure of playing in the dirt!!)

The little ones playing together in the sandbox. Boy, it's so FUN to get dirty!

I have no doubt whatsoever that I am leaving important details and developments out... There are always more updates to come I suppose.