A long overdue update

I truly had hoped to make an entry for every event that occurred this fall; unfortunately that didn't happen. Part of it was because some of it was hard to write, and most of it is just due to the fact that time is precious, and playing and interacting with my daughter and son takes priority over keeping the blog up-to-date. That being said, I did want to summarize the last few months before we head off on our Christmas travels:

Violet's Updates:

• at her 3 year well-child appointment, it was discovered that her heart murmur had re-appeared. After a visit with a pediatric cardiologist, it was determined that she has a cleft mitral valve, which is causing moderate leakage of blood back into her atrium. It is not causing her any significant health problems at the present time, but will probably require surgery sometime in the next two years. As you can imagine, we were shocked and stunned, and covet deeply any thoughts and prayers you can send our way. It is a common surgery, but we still are quite worried over the fact that our daughter will more than likely require major surgery before or during her kindergarten year.
  
• is taking acrobat class at the local dance school. Ben and I realized over the summer that we needed to get Violet into an environment where she could learn how to take authority from people other than ourselves. She LOVES the class, and her teacher is phenomenal. I know I used to teach kindergarten, but it takes a special person to WILLINGLY teach a group of 12 3-4 year olds somersaults, cartwheels, crab walks, and the like!
  
• has also started Children's Worship and Sunday School at our church. It really warms our hearts when Violet comes home and starts telling us about Jesus, Jonah, and all those other 'kid' Bible stories.
• is really enjoying having her Uncle Nick as a babysitter. We know that Violet and Nick had a special bond, but I was a little concerned that the bond may strain a little when they're with each other every day, for many hours in a day! But, they both seem to be enjoying it just as much as the first few days...however, I will say that Nick's reaction to getting to leave for 2 weeks for Christmas was much different than Violet's! She really did not want to see him leave!
• loves to talk about Santa coming, but will not go near him.
  
• is, overall, a very good big sister. Now that Miles is playing with things a little more, it may be interesting to see how the sharing thing goes, but she does love him immensely, and will be his biggest defender--that is until he is bigger than she is and the roles reverse!

Miles update:

• grows by the day, we believe. He is currently tipping the scales at 16.5 lbs. and is 27 inches long. That was early-mid November. He's got some chub, but he's pretty much just long. He's outpacing Violet by about 3-4 months. Finding clothes that are long enough for him that don't hang too loosely is becoming rather difficult!
  
• loves food. Took him a couple of tries to figure it out, but once he did--he eats! For you new mommy's out there--at 5.5 months, he typically eats one container of Gerber 2 cereal/grain fruit mix at brunch, and then a container of veggies AND at least a 1/2 container of fruit at dinner. This is on top of his regular nursing schedule, although I can tell that at his dinner feeding he's not necessarily drinking as much. Of course, we have light days, but that's pretty much what we average!
• loves toys that make noise. We have a variety of little things he can grip and shake and chew on to explore, but if we give him one that doesn't rattle, he literally gives us a dirty look.
  
• loves to watch our cat--thinks he's the funniest thing ever!
• loves to watch his big sister--thinks she's the funniest thing ever!
  
• has rolled over front to back once. He's not a big fan of tummy time (neither was Violet) so both of them are late rollers. I figure that just gives us more time to make sure everything is out of the way that needs to be out of the way!
  

Ben & I update:
Things happen to us too, I guess: I am still working full time and enjoying my job. It has it's ups and downs as all do. My schedule is nice in the fact that I can come home for lunch most days and have 40 minutes with the kiddos. I don't have to pump as much, AND it breaks up my day, which is nice. I'm also participating regularly with a praise team at church, and finding some time to do some scrap-booking. I've also managed to read a few books for leisure!
Ben is still teaching 2nd grade, and has a year full of anecdotes that I'm sure he could share. His cross-country season had it's ups and downs, and I enjoyed the one week when cross-country ended and track and field practice hadn't begun yet... I believe that he will be looking into taking another grad class either in the spring or summer.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I hope that we do a little better job posting in 2010 than we did in 2009! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and blessed New Year!

Until then,
Charissa