Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Has it worked? I am wondering if all of our wonderful readers have given up on us, as we have all but dropped out of the "blogging" world of late. I would like to think that this marks our long awaited return, and we will from now on fill our space with update after update...however...:-)

We are all adjusting to life with Ellie quite well. Maddie and Emma LOVE their little sister, and it is a constant challenge to keep their enthusiasm within "appropriate" boundaries. We have had to establish numerous boundaries, because if Ellie is awake, she is surrounded by her adoring sisters :-) I love it! It is a whole new dimension of parenting, adding in older siblings. When our Emma came, Maddie was only 16 months old, and was completely oblivious to her younger sister. Now, I have two of the greatest helpers EVER! They love to help, and really enjoy dressing their very own live doll! :-) Ellie is growing FAST! At her two week check up she had gained a pound and a half, and grown a whole inch! At 5 weeks she is stretching out her 0-3 month outfits, and I am thinking that I'll need to bust out the 3-6 month stuff by next week! :-)

And, as Eleanor basically sleeps through the night, I have absolutely NO complaints! Miles and I tell everyone that if we'd had Eleanor first, we'd have believed parenting was a breeze! Ellie is our little miracle in more ways than one! :-)

Miles is finally back at work. He was able to take a whole month off for paternity leave (sometimes the Navy really comes through for us!) He returned to work last Monday, and we are all adjusting to not having Daddy around all the time. He left this morning for a brief two-day trip, and the girls are going through major Daddy withdrawals! This is the first time Miles has left since March of last year...it has been really nice! He is very busy saving the world one memo at a time!

In our really BIG news our little Maddie has been pulled from her Special Ed. program! What a miracle we have witnessed in this beautiful little girls life! I met with the program coordinators last Monday, and as we went through each of her skill sets, we all marveled how she has progressed from significant delays and problems...to where she is today. Our little girl is functioning at age level, and in several areas is above and beyond! We are still working with her behavioral therapist, but she is home full-time now. The plan is that I'll continue working with her on her pre-academic skills at home, and in the fall she will be enrolled in kindergarten. How awesome is that?!!!!

So, besides taking care of my beautiful 5 1/2 week old, and home schooling my 5 and almost 4 year old...I am really not doing much of anything...that's why I have LOTS of time to update the blog! :-)

OH! I know what else we've managed to do this last week...Miles and I have been doing our part to stimulate the economy by pumping most of our tax refund into various awesome purchases! Most of it went to curriculum materials for "schooling" the girls...however, we did splurge a bit and bought ourselves a new camera, and a Wii FIT! FINALLY! The best thing we did with our $$ was paid off the balance on our Honda! WHOPEE!! We own our Civic...and it is only 4 years old! I was soo excited, because our car just became an asset! :-)

So, Ellie is up, and that would mark the end of "free-time"!

Love you all!