Welcome to our blog

We wanted to start this blog as a way to keep track of all the new things going on in our family...read along for fun tales, lots of pictures and just try and keep up with the chaos!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Rosa Parks Uses Her Words & Socks on Hands

We continue to really love Ellie and Tommy's daycare.  They both go to the daycare that Cerner provides for its associates.  At the end of each week, we get PowerPoint presentations giving us a recap of the week.  I thought it might be fun to share ones from this past week.  I wasn't able to upload the presentations themselves, but I took some screen grabs for you to see.

Tommy's is pretty cute - lots of pictures of smiling babies and discussion on his lesson plan for next week...Its Socks on Hands week, which means, well - putting socks on the babies hands.  They did manage to get one of the custest pictures on record of him.






 Ellie's Week Recap told us about their focus on Black History Month, including how they told the children about Rosa Parks.  Rosa "used her words" to say No Thank You to getting up from her bus seat.  For those of us raising toddlers to "use your words", this was a priceless example of a great way that Ellie is learning at school.

Tommy Hits the 3 Month Mark

Tommy celebrated his 3 month birthday last Friday.  He rung it in at school, followed by a family dinner at Houlihans, made especially fun because both children made it through with out a meltdown.  That makes for a happy Mom and Dad!

We continue to love and adore Tommy.  He is a very, very smiley little boy.  He is happy almost all day every day, which is a switch from a certain other child we have when she was this age.  He has won over the teachers in his classroom, who claim that other teachers are coming to visit just to see this smiley child of ours. 

Tommy is up to all sorts of new things.  He is just now starting to grab at toys or for your hand.  His favorite pasttimes do still include looking at ceiling fans and light fixtures.  He is pretty excited that the nice weather has allowed him to take some walks outside.  He is sleeping pretty well - we put him down around 7:30 pm and he sleeps until anywhere from 4 am to 6 am.  Mom and Dad prefer 6 am - he seems partial to 4 am still.  But we are awfully proud that he is sleeping that well!

Here are some pictures of Tommy from the past month.

Happy Guy

Hanging with Papa

A little unsure...

Duke's up

Cute in a hoody

Me and Dad

Tommy was extra happy this day, so Mom turned it into a photo shoot

Smiley Guy

Just so happy

With his pal Sadie

This is his 3 month photo shoot.  It did not go well.  Here is an "ok" shot I got

Mad

Sad...the bottom lip is proof.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Ellie Update

Ellie turns 2 and a half this week, so we thought it would be a good time to share an update on her.

Ellie is a super fun, very smart and strong little girl.  She is talking up a storm.  There is very little quiet time in our house anymore!  She is very into counting and her abc's.  They have been working on letters at school, plus we have some large foam letters in her room that we play with that are helping her learn.  She knows "my letter" - "E", Tommy's letter "T" and Mom's Letter "A" and Dad's Letter "M" - as she often calls Mikey and I by our first names instead of Mom and Dad.

As anyone who has recently babysat for her knows, Ellie adores Mickey Mouse.  She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on television and asks for frequent viewings.  She also likes playing with her doctor's kit, puzzles, and likes to do art of all kinds: stickers, crayons, markers and Mom's least favorite - watercolors. 


Ellie and I bake a lot.  She is a good helper in the kitchen.  We frequently leave the kitchen in shambles after we bake, but it's still a lot of fun.


She is still in gymnastics class on Saturday mornings and enjoying it.  Her teacher told us last week she is ready to move up to the next level.  So Mighty Munchkins Level 2 today, with the Olympics on the horizon!




Ellie is now potty trained, and she is working on the next steps of holding it through naptime and bedtime.  She has really done a great job at this and is a pro!

She is still an amazing big sister to Tommy.  She loves seeing him and is now so proud that he is at school with her.  She visits his class during the day and loves to go with me to drop him off in his room and pick him up.  She is really proud of him!

We are so proud of Ellie - she is getting so big.  She is a really bright, strong young lady!


Here are some other recent shots of her....

Playing at Little Monkey Business, which Mikey and I are keeping in business this winter

This is Ellie on Round 2 of 3 rounds of stomach flu we have battled.  The girls were helping her feel better.

Playing with Play Doh

Such a little lady! 

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day!  First, Tracy sent Ellie and Tommy a Valentine in the mail.  Ellie was pretty excited about getting it, as you can see by the pictures below.  She even made sure that Tommy saw it.



The night before Valentine's Day, Ellie and I made her valentines for her friends at school.  Ellie made extras for her dad and Tommy.  Here is a picture of Tommy with his.

On Valentine's Day morning, Ellie had some fun opening gifts from Mikey and I.


She got pretty excited about opening her card...


Ellie also had a party in her classroom; here are some photos from that.  For those with a keen eye, you may notice that Ellie is in a different, non-cute, non-red outfit at her Valentine's Day party.  She had an accident during naptime that day, hence the random shirt.



Maddy and Sadie also participated in the Valentine's Day fun.  Here is a shot of Maddy delivering her card to Mikey.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Tommy's first day of school

I went back to work last week, so Tommy had his first day at school. I took his picture before we left. He was smiling and flirting with his teachers before I left, but was in tears when I picked him up. The noise of all his new friends was a bit overwhelming. His teachers said he had a much better second and third days! Ellie gets to visit him and she says he is happy there!
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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Mom this is my whole family!


Ellie recently discovered a picture of the Burgess, Postlewait, and Kline families at our wedding. She now carries this picture everywhere with her since it has "my whole family" in it. Really cute!!
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Burgess and Coulson, the next generation.

We recently got to meet Clarke Coulson, who was born six weeks after Tommy. Clarke is a strapping young lad, weighing more than Tommy already. They hit it off, sowing the seeds for a great Lancer class of 2028!!
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See Mom I covered him all up

Ellie and I were recently playing in her room, with Tommy laying on her bed. I left the room for a minute and came back to Ellie standing over Tommy, laying blanket after blanket over him "covering him all up". As we can see, Tommy was a pretty good sport!
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