Thankful...

Can anyone guess Ellie's new favorite show?

It's "Billy the Exterminator"! If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. The show follows Billy and his family-owned exterminator business down in Louisiana, and Billy is, how shall I put it, quite a character. One recent show followed Billy and his brother dealing with a severe infestation of wasps, and after Ellie watched the show she had to go put on her bee mask and hat and pretend to be a bee. Thankfully, she still has other interests. Her swimming lessons are going swimmingly. She just may pass this time! And she's excited to get back to school tomorrow, though not half as excited as I am. :) In the car this weekend, she was bragging to Dave and me about what a great memory she has when suddenly she said "High five, brain!" and slapped her head with her hand! Ellie's quite a character, too - there's just no one like her. And that's just fine with us.

Zoe had her MRI a couple weeks ago and we met with her neurologist last week, who was happy to see that there were no real changes in her brain other than growth in the gray and white matter, which corresponds with her development. The Dr. was impressed with how well she was doing; however, she noted that Zoe's muscle tone in her legs is a bit "high", which I guess to the rest of us means a little rigid or tight. Her left leg in particular doesn't extend fully at the knee, so we've started up a little PT again and are doing some stretching with her at home. We've also consulted with an orthopedist who wasn't concerned but agreed PT should resolve the issue. Her language skills are coming along, and I'm sure it helps her to have Maddie, Aidan and Ellie to look up to. Each morning when I go into the littles' bedroom, I'm greeted with three voices saying " 'Morning, Mommy!" And she's saying things like "please", "thank you", "pretzel", and "popcorn", among other words, pretty clearly. She's definitely coming along, though at 17 1/2 pounds, she's still a peanut!

Aidan is chatting up a storm and getting frustrated when we don't understand him. He frequently uses 3 to 4 or more -word sentences and is usually very clear. Up until recently, instead of saying "yes", he would say "ha", but just this weekend I noticed he's made the switch to a very clear "YES!"

There's not much new with Maddie; she's also speaking more often and more clearly, but she's still stuck on no more than 2 words at a time. I think she's just biding her time and it'll all come at once. Hopefully soon!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and we've been swept up in the rush to get ready for Christmas. I succumbed to the media frenzy this year and went out shopping at 4 a.m. on Black Friday, and while I did get a few Christmas gifts crossed off my list, I'm not sure I'll repeat the experience next year! We put up our Christmas tree on Friday as well but I ended up napping that afternoon instead of getting out the ornaments, so we didn't get it decorated until Saturday, and we've been constantly pulling the kids away from it ever since. They fragile ornaments are out of their reach but they're just fascinated with the others, and just don't get the concept yet of "look, but don't touch." Since Ellie has been right in there with the triplets, I don't have a lot of hope that things will be much better next year. We took everyone swimming at the Y this morning, and it was quite a workout for Dave and me to get everyone in the pool, keep them above water, and then get them dried and dressed afterwards. Aidan and Maddie both took a dunking when their feet slipped out from under them, but Aidan didn't seem to mind it nearly as much as Maddie did. Zoe just didn't enjoy any part of the experience, but Ellie had a blast!

We didn't do a family photo this year, and since these are the type of photos I tend to get when trying to photograph all 4 of our kids together:

...we enlisted the help of a fabulous photographer, Annie Torrini, to give us her best shot at a nice photo of our kids. While the kids gave her a run for her money, we did get some really cute shots, one of which most of you will see in your Christmas cards this year! Here is one of my favorites, which reflects their personalities quite well:

This photo just makes me smile and is a good reminder of how incredibly blessed we are to have these 4 miracles in our lives, and we're definitely thankful for every moment we have with them. There's never a dull moment around here, but we wouldn't have it any other way! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.