Five Firsts

We've been going through some great...and not so great...changes here in the Ouellette family. My kiddos are all growing up so fast, it's hard to keep up with all the changes. So, here are a few of the most recent "firsts" for some of those changes...enjoy!

1. Rebekah is standing and cruising. She will stand right up in the middle of a room, and shake her little butt, with the biggest, proudest smile on her face. If she is holding onto furniture, or a wall, she'll cruise, but hasn't dared to step out on her own...although she isn't far away. You can see it in her face...she knows what is next, but can't quite figure out how to make her legs move like everyone else. At the rate she's going she will still beat our her brothers who were 15 mos. (Ethan) and 16 mos. (Joshua) old before they began to walk...slugs! :)

2. For the first time in months, Mike and I were able to sleep in our bed...by ourselves. Granted it only lasted until 1 am, but it's a start. I'm not complaining about Joshua being in our bed all these months, he's been a nice bed warmer on these cold nights!! However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep Ethan in his own bed, when he knows his brother is "allowed" to sleep with mommy and daddy. The words "it's not fair" keep ringing in the air, and I know it's just the beginning. Needless to say, we decided to take up on an offer of a crib mattress that was being given away by a friend, and place it on the floor between the bed and the wall in our room. It fits perfectly, and Josh was very excited about his little nest...until around 1 am, where in my groggyness I vaguely remember the words, "mommy, up, up, up, up, bed, bed, bed...pwwwease??" We'll see how tonight goes, but it's a great start in the right direction.

3. One word for you...THUNDERSTICKS. Yup! We "won" a bunch of them at Hannaford last week when we were trying to pick up a few things with all three kiddos. At least my hubby was there to witness first hand, why I don't take them grocery shopping anymore!! :) Anyway, they absolutely loved the idea of being allowed to beat these two sticks together to make an awesome noise. Of course, they figured out you could make similar, if not better, noises by beating the sticks on each other...but we knew that going in...and they are now only allowed to use them for 10 minutes at at time. Can we say over stimulation??

4. Joshua is discovering his imagination. He's never been a big fan of having anything on his feet, and the first time we tried putting these monster slippers on him, he screamed!! That's why it was so surprising when I turned around to see him strutting his stuff, with monster feet. The trick?? He put them on over his other slippers. That's the only thing I can think of. However, he thought it was great to stomp around the house, and growl...because that's what you do with monster feet...right??

5. And the best first ever...Ethan actually helped me make play dough!! He's never really been interested in "cooking" past the initial dumping one cup of something into a bowl...then he'd be done. He not only dumped into the bowl, but helped to measure out all of the dry ingredients. (We still won't let him near the stove!!) Anyhow, Ethan was the only one who ever really used play dough and that was before we were gluten free. But since we were diagnosed, we gave away or sold all of our play dough as well as the "tools" that go along with it. For those of you who don't know play dough is made with wheat flour, and even though most kids won't eat it, it gets under their finger nails, so that when they do eat something, or put their fingers in their mouths, they will then ingest it. So, I finally took the recipe and made it gluten free! Ethan couldn't wait to get his hands on it...Josh wanted nothing to do with getting his hands on it. He wouldn't touch it, until I gave him a spoon, which he then used to beat it, and scoop it up to move it around. We'll see how well it stores for, but I plan on making some green and blue as well.