Jesus Loves Me

The last few weeks we have been hearing from folks at church about how much Ellie enjoys singing during children's church. I guess last week she actually helped lead the other children in the songs. I have been trying to get her to tell me what songs they sing and she always starts singing "Jesus Loves Me". I am sure that there are others that they sing, but this must be her favorite. I finally got it on tape! She is feeling much better this weekend. Must have been a 24 hour bug she picked up at the pool, or playgroup, or church, who knows. Enjoy the music!

Miss Us?!?

Trying out a new hairdo!

Playing at an indoor playground near our house.

She is OBSESSED with being a ballerina lately!

And with temporary tatoos. Yes, that's Ethan's shirt.

Finally got the baby gate up before little E took a header down the stairs. I give him a month before he tries to scale it.

Weekly trip to our neighborhood library.

Trying to take off her jammies.

Eating pancakes!

Making pancakes!

Playing with shaving cream...good for fine motor skills.

Spray n' Play!

Washing mommy's car.

We're back! Sorry again for the delay...life sometimes gets in the way of blogging. That and painting the living room (which we finally finished this weekend - Tim started it in April, so that is saying something about what life has been like around here lately). Now Ellie isn't feeling well, so I thought I would sneak in an update while she is napping. Hopefully nothing serious, looks like a stomach bug, but she is running a fever, so I am going to take her to get checked out this afternoon just to be sure. I'll keep you posted.

We have been enjoying the warm weather (well, I wish it was a little less humid, but I guess I should get used to it) and sunshine. We visited the spray n' play park three times last week and went to the pool yesterday afternoon. Hope you enjoy the new pictures. I'll try and post another update asap.

Another Hiatus

Mommy with "both her babies"!

Just wanted to let our followers know that we won't be posting for a few days...I won't have my computer until Thursday. I promise to take lots of great pictures this week to make up for it!

Just Pictures

That's my boy!

Puddle Jumping!

Falling in the puddles!

Dr. Ethan checking Cousin It's heart "beep" (while taking his own temperature)...

up next, curing cancer.

She was trying on Ethan's pants...yes, she has them on backwards...and yes, the were a little baggy around the waist...size, 18months!

Yes there is more...update #4!

Well, not a real update, just pictures....that is what you want anyway, right!?! Enjoy!

We are really enjoying the Ice Cream man...and sharing with our brother!

Washing dishes...she likes to have a job - practicing for having a job in school in the fall!

Here is bowl #1 of the strawberries from our plants out front. It is pretty cool, but I do not know how to take care of them or have the energy to keep up with them, so we will probably get rid of them soon.

Three generations of Taylor men!

He's got that "uh, ya caught me" look on his face. Things are getting interesting now that he is always on the move.

De De the graduate!

Wynn the dog (James and Barb's baby) came to spend the weekend with us. Here she is doing one of her favorite activities...chewing on Ethan's fingers! As Ellie would say..."they are playing tug-of-war"!

Ellie laying on the floor with Wynn. She was so excited to have her sleepover. I think she wanted Wynn to sleep in her bed. She told me once she wants to marry Wynn. She is Ellie's #2, right behind her daddy, now that is saying something.

Playing in the sprinkler!

Sorry this one is sideways...it's getting late and I have been at this awhile. Ethan had fun splashing in the puddles.

Here's our cool dude! We actually made it to the pool today, but of course forgot the camera. I promise to remember it next time. Ellie loved swimming on Tim's back and it is quite the sight!

Update #3

Ethan's turn...our baby is moving! This just about says it all!

Ok, one more just for fun!

Update #2

Ellie has had a few appointments in the last two weeks. While we were in the hospital, we weren't able to meet with a speech therapist. Ellie's speech has been our biggest concern regarding her recovery since it seems to be the area in which she has had the slowest return to "normal". The hospital told me that we would have to wait 6 months to a year for an appointment. Thankfully her neurologist at children's gave us a referral which helped us get an evaluation sooner. Monday morning we got the kids up early and sat in rush hour traffic for Ellie's speech therapy evaluation. The evaluation took about an hour and a half and consisted mostly of pictures that Ellie had to identify for the therapist. She also asked her to preform a number of tasks ("The bear is thirsty, can you give the bear a drink?") to test her hearing and interpretation of words. She did really well and the therapist said she was within normal range for a three year old. She didn't have any trouble understanding Ellie and said the few sounds that she is struggling with (especially "s") is completely normal for her age. She doesn't think Ellie needs any speech therapy at this time! A few weeks ago I think we would have had a different result. Her "chatter" and conversation increase daily. While she is not talking as much as she did prior to the stroke, she is starting to talk more while playing and riding in the car. The only thing the therapist recommended was that Ellie have a hearing evaluation. Just to cover all our bases, not cause we suspect anything is wrong. She also noticed that Ellie had some difficulty focusing on the tasks. We have been noticing the same thing at home - she is really "spacey" sometimes and we aren't sure if this is just cause she is three or if it is a side effect of all the chaos lately. So, we are going to keep an eye on this and see if there are any changes in the upcoming weeks and I will bring this up with the neurologist in July.

Also, we had Ellie's vision checked this week - twice! The neurologist recommended that Ellie be seen by an Opthalmologist just to be sure that there aren't any issues with the blood vessels in her eyes. I got a referral from my pediatrician, but the doctor wasn't accepting new patients until December! They referred me to another doctor in their practice and I took Ellie last Thursday. Well, I think the combination of the doctor not being used to children and Ellie being a bit overwhelmed by all her visits lately, the appointment was a complete disaster! It took over two hours and they weren't able to do any of the tests. They were able to get us an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist though, so we went back yesterday. It went much better. She was able to identify all the pictures and only fussed when they did the eye drops. She screamed the first time we tried to do them. I think the big bag of M&Ms mommy brought as motivation helped a bit! Her eyes checked out - her vision is fine and she doesn't seem to have any issues with the blood vessels. She doesn't need any follow-up.

Playing with her pom-poms, her "prize" from the speech therapist. We also went to chick-fil-a twice this week as a reward for being so cooperative during her visits. It was really a reward for mommy too, I really needed a chocolate milkshake after those appointments!