Greenwoods at Home: Update on the Kiddos

It has been ages since I have been up to leaving anything here on the old blog. Any reason I give would just sound like an excuse, so I'll just say, "I'm sorry!" and jump right into an update on the kids. :)

Charlotte is 13 months now. Her new favorite things include unplugging the phone at the answering machine, so that none of the cordless phones work, (If you have tried to call and can't get through to anyone...you now know who to blame) and also turning off the glowing red light for our computers. Lovely how this seriously go with the flow easy baby is now trying out her toddler ease of finding trouble. But, this is small potatoes to where her sisters were at this point, so no complaints. In the below picture, you can see her shirt sleeves are too short. That is a 12 mth outfit and we have just moved her on up to the 18 mth clothes and they fit perfectly. I can't believe she was already there. Although I shouldn't really be surprised. She weighed in at 25 lbs at her one year check-up, putting her in the 90th percentile for weight and she's also in the same range for height. She is doing some major teething here lately and also having to suffer with some skin issues...she's gotten attacked by the eczema fairy with one large patch on her back and one on her ankle that just seems to keep coming back. She is walking all over the place, but is still a bit unsure of herself outside. Hopefully, as the weather improves she'll get more opportunities for practice.

Abby is such a beautifully interesting child. She has come into her own when it comes to vocabulary and will talk to you as long as you're willing to come up with responses. She will chat with people on the phone, while I could never get Anna to do even a hi or goodbye. She is also extremely polite and helpful. She is always saying, "Thank you." and "You're welcome." and "Are you okay?" We are having a bit of a problem with pinching right now, but hopefully she'll grow out of it soon. Here she is in the dress-up outfit that Grandma Greenwood made for her last birthday. She likes to get dressed up before she she heads to "work." :)

Anna, our oldest, is "almost" potty-trained. Every week or so, we get a little closer, and I hope, I hope, I hope we'll have her completely potty trained before the newest baby comes. On other fronts you'll notice that Anna is clothed in the below picture. This is something we're working on and at times we actually go like a whole hour now where she'll keep her clothes on. She is turning into somewhat of a ham when it comes to the camera and loves to say, "cheese" and flash her mega smile. She is also becoming more of the typical older child in terms of finding perfection. Which, at times is throwing a wrench in our school time. She likes to practice her letters, but gets frustrated easily if one doesn't follow the form or doesn't look like Mommy's. Oh, well. We'll keep at it. :)

As for the newest baby, Maddie, she hit the two pound mark this past week and we'll enter our final trimester next week. In some ways I can hardly wait for this time to pass. I want to meet her and trace her features. I want to introduce her to her sisters and start that next chapter of our lives. In other ways, I don't know how I'm possibly going to get everything done that I need to before she gets here. We know that we won't be making the leap to a bigger place this year and possibly not next year either, unless God intervenes in an amazing way. Because of that, we're doing all we can to utilize all the available space we have and make the best possible storage decisions. We're getting rid of a lot of things that we haven't used in years and perhaps our new biggest challenge, we're preparing the girls room for a new occupant, as Charlotte will be vacating the nursery. I'm really excited about this project and will share bits of it with you as we make progress there over the next three months before Maddie gets here.