The River

Garth says a dream is like a river...ever changing as it flows. It seems to me life is much that way too...each new age brings a different stage in life and I find that Rusty at seven is differnt than Ruthie at seven, Flip is so different at nearly five than either of the other two and Ellie at two...she too is her own little person...Some things never do change...when there are children in the house certain things must happen and one of them is the inevitable unauthorized haircut...

A few weeks ago, I was walking through the house and I found a long chunk of blond hair on the floor....there is only one blond in the house so I knew where to look. I immediately found the place on her head that it had been cut from and so I set off to to find the would be beautician...he has red hair. So I walk up to him, chunk in hand and I say, "Flip? Did you cut Ellie's hair?" He replies in the negative...I say, "Do you know who did?" He tells me she did it herself...hmmmm..."Flip, if you tell me the truth, you won't be in trouble." To which he responds, "ok, I did it." I said, "Thank you for telling me the truth, please don't ever cut anyone's hair again." I thought he understood until the next day when I found little red hairs all over the floor and noticed he had two large chunks out of the front of his hair as well...there was no talking this time...I will leave the conclusion of that story up to your imagination...

This year AWANA has included a new two year old program and we now have a child in all four sections of the AWANA program: Truth in Training, Sparks, Cubbies, and Puggles. So, I couldn't resist lining them up and taking a shot of all of them in their uniforms...after much frustration and me finally yelling, "JUST STAND THERE AND SMILE!" Here is a picture of them just so...So far, the AWANA year is going well. Last year, Ruthie was only able to stay in club until Christmas when her gymnastics schedule changed...we will have to see what January brings. Ellie absolutely loves church! As soon as she sees the steeple, she yells out, "Ellie's church!" to which all her older brothers and sister start to tease, "no, my church!" and this goes on until she cries and then they get in trouble and I explain to Ellie that the church is everyone's.

SIX MONTHS

So, you can see by the ticker that we have had Ellie now just over six months...I can hardly believe that it has been that long since we got home! Before we know it, we will be filing our 1 year post placement and then I will blink and she will be in kindergarten! Six months has brought so many amazing things! She is talking so well, she loves to read, dance, and sing. She absolutely loves "dollies." She fights with her brothers and sister like a pro and she is just so well adjusted that I almost feel guilty for not having had some of the problems we expected to have. She is a completely loving child...loves to snuggle, gives kisses and craves contact with others. She goes easily to others but runs to us with arms flung wide when we return to her. So, I have no complaints, just pure joy mingled with craziness and moments of fine tuning...for your listening pleasure...Ellie sings, LIVE! (make sure you mute the music.)