Excuses, excuses...

I realize I have not updated this in two months! I tried on at least two occasions and had issues with the computer (blogger still seems to not like pictures from my laptop-tells me they are corrupt for some reason) or the internet has been uncooperative (they have been redoing some of the cables in our neighborhood the past month and so we have had some unannounced internet and cable outages). Mostly we have just been really busy! Since the last time I updated James has had a birthday, we celebrated Easter, my gran arrived from Scotland and we celebrated Ali's baptism into the church. We have also had a lot of family stuff we have been dealing with all while trying to adjust to life with three children under five. Just in the past two days Mari has had a rock removed from her nose and and a CT scan (unrelated). We were lucky that James was able to remove the rock without having to take her to the ER, but it was large and I am not sure how he managed to remove it. Mari's ear was protruding again and so I carried her back to the pediatrician and he did blood work and ordered a CT scan just to make sure it wasn't mastoiditis again. This happened last June as well and the ENT said it just looked like an inflamed lymph node was pushing it out and that is was only a coincidence that it was her same ear that was affected by the mastoiditis last March. They have no clue why it is happening but thinks it just might be more prone to movement now due to the mastoiditis and drainage from her allergies is causing it to protrude which is why it doesn't happen in the winter. James and I were relieved but sort of laughed at the fact that she has had two x-rays (unrelated incidents) an MRI and a CT scan all by the age of 2.5. She is our emergency room kid. Jake is way more cautious than she is. I have no idea what Ali will be like in a few more months. It is kind of consoling that they can't all be alike in some ways:)
Jake turned 4.5, Mari turned 2.5 and Ali reached the three month mark this past week. Ali is a happy baby on the whole, although she does have her fussy moments. She smiles and "talks" to us often. She has started reaching for toys and scooting around on her behind (sort of like the backstroke on dry ground). She seems quite opinionated already and seems to have clear expectations of how she should be treated. She does not like to be put down! Despite starting life smaller than Jake and Mari she has caught up to Mari's same age measurements and her hair seems to be falling out (not a lot, but she now has less hair than when she was born) and she looks very much like Mari at this stage. I still think she looks a lot like James but James thinks she has a Schuchs nose. I think she looks more like me than Jake or Mari did at this stage, but I think she looks my like James than like me. I see a resemblance to my baby pictures from her nose up, but she has the same mouth and chin as James, Jake, and Mari and she and Mari share James' head shape. She also still has blue eyes like me, as do her siblings, despite their daddy's brown eyes although there is still time for that to change and she is beginning to get yellow in her eyes like Mari did at this same stage. Jake seems to enjoy being a big brother a second time round a lot more than he did the first time. He and Mari like helping me by making faces and talking to Ali when she is in the swing. James and I are splitting bedtime duties at the moment. I feed and put Ali to bed while he reads with Jake and Mari. Jake helps James read and seems to do well with sight words. He and Mari will both start preschool at our church this Fall. Jake will go half-a-day MWF and Mari will go half-a-day MW. It seems to be a very good program and it is accredited by the state. His birthday is after the cut-off for Kindergarten and so he won't get to start that until next year even though he will be 5 at the end of this November.
Even though I took a semester off from my Ph.D. courses and teaching/research position at MSU, I agreed to teach an online class for a local community college this past semester. It got a bit overwhelming as Ali arrived during mid-terms week and so I had a lot of grading to do. That finished first week of May and I am now completely off for the summer. This Fall I return to MSU although my course load will be light as I only have the last three required courses that I missed this past semester (they won't be available again until Spring 2012) and two more electives to take. I am going to take a class called Functions and Methods of Research in Education and some research hours. At the moment I am really enjoying not having anything to do except play with Jake, Mari, Ali and of course James! James is preparing to sit his Principles of Engineering exams which is for his engineering license. In order to be a licensed engineer you have to pass your Functions of Engineering exams and work for five years under a licensed engineer, before you submit letter of recommendation, certain documentations of experience, etc and then take this final test which is all he has left to do. The test in in October and so he will be pretty busy studying over the next few months. We are busy but happy and hopefully it won't take me two more months to post new pictures!