Standing Tall, Standing Proud ---

I apologize for no posting in so long, almost forgot we had this blog. Will try to do better in the future.

Both girls are continuing to grow. Ella Grace is now in second grade and is coming along nicely with her reading. She likes to read to us in the car, and Eliza seems to enjoy this. She's also taken up horseback riding which she is becoming proficient at. She got stung by a bee while out on the trail one afternoon (so did the horse) and she kept her composure very well according to all accounts. We did film one of her recitals, but Ella doesn't seem to like to showcase her riding... I think it's something she finds personally enjoyable and is disinterested in sharing it with, which is good.

Eliza is beginning to put together sentences and leads a very active life around the house. Two years old now she likes to help with cooking and cleaning and still does a fair amount of finger wagging when she sees something she doesn't think is right, or just doesn't like. She's an avid Wiggles fan and watches the show every morning, I think because they do a fair amount of dancing on the show, which she joins in on. She's also a bit of a trouble maker and is already playing jokes on people for laughs.

Illness strikes ---

Ella Grace has come down with what so far is a mild case of bronchitis, and we're trying to keep it that way. She visited the doctor this morning and has started taking some medicines to help. Her temperature did top a little over 104 this morning, so we have been concerned, but it seems that she should be okay now that we know what it is. She was very fatigued yesterday at school and when I showed up for her enrichment class they thought I had showed up to take her home! She slept pretty much the rest of the day, but then began to develop a fever. She is resting comfortably now and is getting lots and lots of sleep.

A Day in the Life ---

Wow. Been far too long since the last post. Especially with how these girls grow.

Both Ella and Eliza have grown phenomenally in the last six months. Eliza has greatly increased in almost all ways her understanding of the world around her and her ability to manipulate it. She still loves food, it is her favorite thing. We have been teaching her sign language to help her communicate when her tongue won't do what she wants it to do (we can tell she's trying to say much much more, but just can't get it to come out) and she spends a great deal of her day signing "more food" to us. She's also discovered television and, like her mother and sister before her, is capable of becoming completely mezmerized by it. Eliza likes to play games now, mostly her own version of Simon Says. She's showing a great mechanical aptitude like her older sister, and loves to dance to music.

Ella Grace has begun to get the hang of reading. It's the first thing she's come across at school that she wasn't instantly good at, but she's now learning how to deal with that aspect of life quite nicely. Far from avoiding the subject completely as she had done in the past, she is now very interested in reading and does so whenever she can, either reading to us or reading along we read to her. Her collection of books is greatly increasing, and as Eliza likes to look at books they are spending more and more time together with them.