Checkups, School, Ballet and an Angel

Whew! I really have had great intentions of updating that last couple of weeks but it just seems like I have had NO time! Sitting down for 5 min to read a couple of blogs is one thing, sitting for 20 to write one? It just hasn't happened!

I do want to update quickly on a few things though...

First, Ellie and Josie had their 3 year and 4 month checkups last week. Ellie is still just a little thing at 27 lbs and 35" but is perfectly healthy. Josie is chugging right along at 14 lbs and 25". The doctor detected a heart murmur with Josie so she had to have an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) last Wednesday. Thank God it showed that her heart is completely healthy! It is now defined as an "innocent" heart murmur and she will likely grow out of it.
I am so thankful for my two healthy girls!

Ellie started back at preschool last week too. We took off the whole month of December because I was so tired of her always having a cold (and a subsequent ear infection) from being around so many new kids and new germs. I know she just has to build her immunity but I really didn't want her to be sick for the holidays. School started back on the 7th but it was so nice not having to get her and Josie out of the house so early that I put it off just one more week. She was very happy to go back though! And, of course, she now has another cold.

This week, Ellie started ballet and tumbling. She LOVED them and I'm so proud of her willingness to just jump into a new situation with no fear what-so-ever! She joined classes that have already been in session for awhile and she is also the smallest (and I think the youngest) in both but this did not stop her from just joining right in and dancing and somersaulting her little heart out! After her ballet class there was a tap class for her age and she SO wanted to do it too! So I signed her up for that one and dropped the tumbling. Since the classes are right after each other, it will make it much easier on me to only have to get her into her tights and leotard and make it class on time (with baby in tow!) just one day a week instead of two (in addition to school two days a week). She will still get to do a tumbling class at the same place once a month with one of my Moms groups so it all works out well.
Some pics from ballet (a little blurry since they are taken through a window)...

(She's on the very end.)

(in the middle)

(uncropped version of same pic- look how cute the studio is!)

Lastly, Ellie has all the sudden starting telling us about her "angel friend". It started after bath the other night when I draped a towel over her shoulders and she said "Mommy! I look like an angel!". It caught me off guard because, even though we are a very spiritual family, we do not attend church and I'm pretty sure that we have never talked to Ellie about angels or have anything that she would have seen to even know what an angel looks like. (We do have these wonderful books by Connie Bowen
that have beautiful whimsical illustrations of figures, some with wings, but nowhere do they mention the word angel. More about these books here.)

When I asked her how she knew what an angel looked like she said, "She played with me...but then she had to go back up to the sky where she belongs. She had to go back to her angel friends." She then proceeded to give me all kinds of details such as "her arms were out like this" (as she stretched her arms out far from her sides) and that her hair was "round like a circle" (like a halo possibly?) and that she was "nice" and that they "played in the playroom". She even told me that her name was "Howawooya" which, when she later told Eric, he thought she was saying "Hallelujah" and she said "Yep, that's her name!". Again, not a word she would have heard in our house. It is possible that she has learned all of this from school (it is part of a church) but like I mentioned earlier, she hadn't been to school in six weeks so it would be unlikely for her to all of the sudden start talking about something she learned that long ago. Also, I have a copy of their lesson plans and there is no mention of angels. She has mentioned the angel a few more times (and even drew a picture) since then but insists that she was only here just one time. Even though Ellie can be very imaginative at times, she always tells us "I'm just being silly" when she makes up things. This time, she believes "her angel" to be very real. So I do too! I believe that we all have our own guardian angels (or spirit guides) and that Ellie is just one of the lucky few who actually got to see hers. :)

(This is from a book I just recently found (at Walmart) to help explain to Ellie about her guardian angel. It is called "The Gift of an Angel" (by Marianne Richmond) and it is BEAUTIFULLY illustrated...)

So that's what has been going on around here. I just joined another Moms group that have things planned 3-5 days a week so we will have a whole lot more choices on what we can do. It feels good to finally start getting out more with the girls instead of staying in just because it is so much easier (and warmer!). Now I just need to learn how to keep the house up when we are coming and going so much. It seems like each thing we do requires a different kind of packed bag and/or different clothing and that things just keep getting dumped and repacked and left into (ever growing) piles all throughout the house. Someday, I'll figure it all out! :)