Growing So Big

Here are a few pictures of our adorable children. (I may be partial) Kryna took these photos the day before she left. I have to say they are better than any of the professional pictures I've had taken. I'll definatly be asking her and Bert to take some family portraits of us when we see them in Aug.
Ellie is growing and changing non-stop. This last week she has put on so much chub and gotten quite long. She's a very happy easy going baby yet somewhat dramatic. She's very alert and is starting to respond to her surroundings. Also she loves her paci, papasan, and her swing. I love that she likes her paci, this was not the case with James. The two of them are so different, right down to the whole pregnancy. I kept asking my Dr. if certain things were normal while I was pregnant and then would explain that I hadn't experienced the afore mentioned problem with my first and he kindly told me that if I had wanted everything to be the same as the first time I shouldn't have done this twice. I loved my Dr.
I'm really looking forward to settling in this week. All is calm and I can focus on all of the mundane tasks of being a wife and mother that I hold so dear. Right now James is napping, Ellie is sitting in her Papasan next to me thinking about napping and I am surrounded by three baskets of clean laundry while the washer and dryer are both humming in the background. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Before James got Rotovirus the week before Ellie was born he was almost entirely potty trained. He was down to 0-1 accidents a day and wearing training pants almost exclusively accept for nights and naptime. Then along came the Roto and he lost it all. He wouldn't even try, whenever I tried to get him to go he would cry and have a violent meltdown. Soooo this week it is one of my many goals to have him back to where he was pre-roto by the end of the week. This will take a good deal of energy and discipline on my part but so far so good. After a few lengthy and hysterical sessions last night and this morning he actually went in the toilet twice and acknowledged that he'd had an accident. These are both improvements, now I just pray it continues to improve.
Another of my goals for this week is to get Ellie on somewhat of a schedule. I've been working on this for about a week and a half now with only slight improvements. She's very unusual one night she'll wake up every 2 1/2-3 hrs. and the next night she'll sleep for 1 1/2-2 hrs. and then be awake for 2 hrs. etc. I've been trying to follow the Babywise schedule that I did with James but so far she is immune. The last three nights she did ok, nothing spectacular but no 2-3 hr. mid night playtimes so I won't complain too much. We'll see how a week of quietness affects her.
James has been missing his Auntie Nyna he asks about her and begs to talk to her on the phone. This morning I found pen scribble on the sofa again so Tim took James over to it and showed it to him and asked if he had done this. Tim swears he then said "hmmuh EhhEeehh". I really don't know what to think about this.

My munchkins

Did I mention chub?