So thankful!

It's amazing how we take the simple things for granted - especially when it comes to our children.

We get annoyed or frustrated or even worried when they don't meet milestones when they "should."

It's easy to forget how lucky we are to have heathy children.

A close friend of mine had her baby girl yesterday morning. In addition to dealing with the emotional turmoil of being separated from her new baby due to severe respiratory distress, they were devastated to learn that their baby girl has downs syndrome. They had NO clue.

She is coping well now after a lot of tears.

Please keep my friend in your prayers!

Something likes this really puts things in perspective. Who cares if our kids are a little behind on various milestones. They will eventually get there.

Thank you God for my two beautiful and healthy girls! I should thank You more often!

So Proud!

I'm off on Thursdays.

We go to our church's Moms' group, which is playtime for the kids and a chat session for the moms.

My friend Erin and I almost always go. My Mom watches my niece Gemma on Thursdays, so she comes sometimes too.

Our latest bad habit has been going to McDonald's afterward. But we decided to go to Eat-n-Park today.

I'm sure the other diners were cringing when they saw us: 3 adults (one 8 months pregnant) and 4 children under the age of 3.

I am proud to report that as we were packing up to leave, we got 3 compliments about the behavior of our kids.

Even though I stress about taking my girls to restaurants, I guess we have been training them well!

February 2011 - Alena 10 months

Alena went from barely crawling to motoring around like a champ in no time. She also figured out how to pull herself up and cruise around furniture. She can only stand on her own for a few seconds, so I think that we may have a few more weeks or months until she is full-blown walking. Luci was pretty much walking this month, but I think that Alena will be a little behind her, which is fine by me!

Due to her new method of mobility, I have to be on constant watch - especially the bathrooms. She loves to unravel the toilet paper and getting into the toilet bowl! Sanitation alert!

Her new thing is waving. When we ask her "where's daddy?" or "where's sissy?" she turns to them and waves - it's so darn cute.

Since she is so sturdy with sitting now, she is now getting a bath with her sister. They both LOVE it! The laugh at each other the entire time. Alena gets so mad when the bath is over. If she had her way, she would be in the bath tub all day long!

Luci continues to be a champ with going potty. The only accident she had was when she missed the toilet somehow. The month of February has a sticker in every block on the calendar. I am still keeping a diaper on her at night, but I think I am going to stop that soon too because 99% of the time her diaper is dry in the morning.

We have officially registered her for preschool. We went to the open house for the one at our church and I was convinced that we were going to send her there. We still went to the open house for the other preschool (the one where I went as a child) - just to see another one, and we totally changed our minds. So that is one we are sending her to.

I am hoping for warm weather in the coming weeks so we can start to enjoy some time outside!