Appreciation

We have been so fortunate this past week to have the help of Grandma, Grandpa, and Grammy as we transition from a family of three to a family of FOUR!





Along with the much-appreciated help with laundry, dishes, meal preparation, diaper-changing, and errand-running, the extra attention that Elizabeth and Ashley get from their grandparents is a joy for us to see!

Big Sister and Little Sister

There are many, many advantages to having so much help from loving grandparents following Ashley's birth...but one of the greatest of these is having the time to just sit and enjoy the precious moments with each of our children. It gives us a special appreciation for each of them and allows us to pause and cherish the short amount of time that they will remain at this stage. Also...it gives us plenty of time to take lots of pictures!!!

Here are a few that we've taken of Elizabeth and Ashley over the past several days.

Mommy and Me

And so it begins...Here's Mommy in the hospital with Ashley on her second day of life!
And here is Mommy with Elizabeth on the day after we returned from the hospital!

We are so very blessed to have these two precious little girls. But now the real juggling act is underway, and Mommy can already tell it is going to be a challenge to make sure that each one gets the precious time that she needs! Please wish Mommy luck...

Elizabeth's World According to Eric Carle

Elizabeth just LOVES rhythm, rhyming, and songs. So Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" is perfection to her ears! Here, she gives us an innovative and modified reading of "Polar Bear, Polar Bear"--she replaces the "What Do You Hear?" phrase from that book with the "What Do You See?" phrase from the Brown Bear book! We think it's pretty clever...

Welcome Ashley Rose!

Peter, Michelle, and Purple are so happy to welcome PICKLE into our little family! Ashley Rose joined us on Sunday, March 15 at 8:19am...weighing in at a whopping 4 pounds, 13 ounces! She's a TINY little peanut...but very healthy, and, of course, we think she is just precious!

Elizabeth has oh-so-generously agreed to share her Blog space (the first of MUCH sharing in Big Sister's future)...so henceforth, this BLOG will be retitled, "The Adventures of Purple and Pickle"!

Above is one of the first pictures of Ashley, followed by a video of Elizabeth and Ashley's first face-to-face meeting! :-)

For Mom

You know how I hate to take pictures of my big ol' pregnant self (complete with oh-so-attractive double chin!)...but at the request of my Mom, I am posting this ONE. Here I am on Friday just before heading to the doctor's office for my 36-week exam. Let the ridiculing commence...

A Conversation About Nothing...

More and more frequent are the conversations that Elizabeth seems to have with herself. Sometimes it's narrating her activities, and other times it is a mix of imaginative play and just general chitchat. Today, she was playing with the Three Little Pigs house that is on loan to her from Mrs. Sue (mommy's wonderful small-group leader at Mom-to-Mom). Throughout this several-minute video, Elizabeth comes up with some surprising little gems--hope you enjoy!

P.S. The electronic noise you hear in the background is our computer printer scanning some documents. Hope it is not too distracting!

Sweet Serenades

So...Elizabeth has been VERY into singing these days! But, rarely does she voluntarily sing on cue or on camera! Yesterday, however, she seemed to be in the mood--sort of!

As you'll see, at first she refuses and punctuates her point by shaking her head vigorously and adding, "I'm having a fit! Mommy can sing it!" (which...let's face it...if this is the best she does for having a fit, we are in good shape!) But, when asked again, she busts out with a pretty good rendition of "Down By the Station"--which I will translate for you below!

Down by the station,
Early in the morning,
See the little puffer billies
All in a row.
See the engine driver
Pull his little lever,
Puff, puff, beep, beep,
Off we go!

And...a few minutes later, she offers up a fairly decent version of "The More We Get Together"

Most of her on-camera performances conclude with the eager question: "Do you wanna see Elizabeth?" Like most children, she gets the biggest thrill out of seeing herself on screen!