Days 171 and 172

My beautiful baby taking her morning nap in her bassinet, August 26th:



Have you ever seen that old tv show, "Married... With Children"? Remember how Al Bundy would put his hand down the front of his pants? Presenting Elise Bundy! August 26th:



Cheese! August 27th:

Days 168, 169, and 170

Shopping for avocados, August 23rd:



August 24th:



Sleepy (Elise often falls asleep with her fingers in her mouth), August 25th:

Days 166 and 167

Elise and her dog-cousin, Mocha, on August 21st:



Peek-a-boo! August 22nd:

Days 162, 163, 164, and 165

August 17th, morning nap:



Playing on August 18th:



Sick baby. She had a fever of 101 degrees. August 19th:



August 20th, running errands with Mommy:

Days 159, 160, and 161

Cookie Monster, trying to take Daddy's snack right out of his mouth, August 14th:



August 15th:



August 16th:

Bye Bye, Lydia and Drew

Lydia and Drew left earlier this week to go live with a relative. The foster care system tries to place children with relatives whenever possible. Most of the time, that policy is probably a good idea. We don't know anything about Lydia and Drew's relative, but we're hoping that the move is good for them and their family.

Since the kids are from a different county, we probably won't see them or hear about them again. This makes me sad, as we've been able to get a little bit of a follow up on all of our other foster kids.

Having three kids under 2 years old was QUITE a challenge. I'm proud of our hard work, though, and even though Lydia and Drew were only with us for a short time, I like to believe that we helped them and provided them some much needed stability and security.

Day 158: Sitting Pretty

Good thing I'm not superstitious. My sweet little Beastie, who was 6 lbs 6.6 oz when she was born, decided to hit a major milestone on Friday the 13th-- she found her balance and can sit unassisted for short stretches. If I sit her up, she now leans forward onto her hands and can sit that way by herself until she gets excited and throws her head back or tries to stand up.

Here's a picture of Elise sitting up for the first time. It's a little blurry because I had to snap the picture quickly.



She's getting close to crawling, too. When she's on her belly she can get her little legs up underneath of her body and stick her bottom WAAAAAAAAAAAAY up in the air. She's scooted herself forward a few times, but it doesn't really count as crawling yet because she doesn't know what to do with her arms. She'll have it figured out soon, though.

Our Pal William

We take Lydia and Drew to the same day care center that William still goes to, so we see him every once in a while. He looks like he's grown a few inches since he lived with us!

William is sweet and gives us hugs when he sees us. We miss him, but it's great to see that he's doing well.

Days 154, 155, 156 and 157

August 9th:



August 10th, playing with her friend's toys:



August 11th:



August 12th twisty baby:

Days 152 and 153

August 7th:



August 8th:

Days 147, 148, 149, 150, and 151

August 2nd, hard at work playing in her bouncer:



August 3rd, toe grabblin':



August 4th, napping:



August 5th:



August 6th:

Lots of Babies

Lydia and Drew are doing well. Elliot and I are... tired. Three babies! We're figuring out a routine and things are steadily improving, though.

Lydia is a wonderful eater-- better than William ever was. And she sleeps through the night. Drew wakes up once or twice during the night. The real problem happens when either Elise or Drew wakes the other one up in the middle of the night because then we have two crying babies and it takes a little bit of effort to get them both calmed down.

We're doing our best. And actually, I think that we're doing a pretty good job. :)

Days 145 and 146

July 31st:



August 1st:

Days 143 and 144

Sometimes when Elise is playing, she moves so much that all of my pictures (taken with my cellphone) turn out blurry. July 29th was one of those days.



Sleeping in her swing on July 30th:

Day 142: Work of Art

July 28th: