Spotlight on Ellie

Since I am so far behind on posting, I thought I would make one post dedicated to each child over the next three weeks. First up is Ellie, who recently had her second dance recital. She danced to Zippa Dee Doo Dah. She had a great time and absolutely LOVED skipping on stage. We also curled her pony tail into tiny spiral curls - very cute!!


I also wanted to include one more picture of Ellie from soccer. She is in the middle, wearing blue. If you look closely, you can see Ellie has her tongue sticking out - just like her brother does when he is playing sports. Is that a Fulton family trait Pop Pops??

baseball, baptism, and babes

The past couple of weeks have been full of activities for the kids. First, we had Drew baptized on Mother's Day. He didn't complain at all, but did try to wiggle free. As pastor Bob said 'May the Lord use Drew's strength and activeness towards His end". Ellie also sang in the kids choir that morning.

The next weekend saw the end of both Tyler's and Ellie's soccer seasons. Ty had a late morning game, followed by a lunch pizza party at a local park. Ellie had a late afternoon game, followed by pizza party dinner. I think we have had our fill of pizza for a little bit. Dave had a great time helping coach both teams, but we are glad to be down to just one sport - Baseball.

Ty has adjusted quickly to machine pitch baseball. He has gotten a hit at every at bat so far. And Ellie has lots of playmates at the games. What a bunch of divas.

Just returned from falling off edge of the earth

So the last time I posted, back in January, I said I would have video of Ty playing basketball. Umm, Tyler not only started playing basketball, he finished it. Not only that, he has gone on to soccer and baseball. Oh yeah, Ellie has started playing soccer too. And guess who got volunteered to help coach all three? Now that I am officially helping coach, and Melissa has her hands full with Drew, I don't think I will be boring you with too many sports pictures.

So lets see. Tyler did great this year at basketball, often scoring several times in one game, and being very aggressive on defense - can we say 'foul'? As for soccer, he is really enjoying it. He helped lead the team to victory in their last game by scoring 2 goals in the first half, then switching to goalie the second half. It was the first time he has played goalie, but he made some great saves. Must be the coaching. So far, baseball is just practice. Ty has a big adjustment to make, since this is the first year of machine pitch.

Ellie is super excited to be playing soccer this year. I was spectacular in coaching her team to a 5 - nothing loss. But the girls definitely had fun, so it wasn't a total loss (pun intended). She is also getting ready for a dance recital next month. She likes dancing, but not the practicing part.

And Drew keeps growing. He is long and lean (95% length, 50 percentile weight - where does he get that from?). Still babbling away, with an occasional da-da or ma-ma- having no idea what he's saying. He is eating more baby food and just starting to crawl. For now, his preferred means of locomotion is scooching or rolling. Can't leave that rascal alone for more than 20 seconds without him finding trouble. Don't let the sweet looks fool you.

Lots of 1st for Drew this month

No, Drew is not talking, at least not saying anything we understand yet. And it is still too early for him to start crawling - thankfully! No, it is something much more fun, and messy. Drew has started eating solid food. Well, I'm not sure you can call baby food solid, but you get the idea. He has really taken to it, making all kinds of happy noises when we feed him. And like any baby, he likes to make a little bit of a mess with the food too. We started off with rice cereal mixed with milk, in the last week have added peas, sweet potatoes and applesauce (his favorite).

The only downside? Stinky diapers!!! Hard to believe such a sweet face can make such a mess. Also this week, Drew has finally decided he is okay with sitting up. Usually he prefers to recline - must take after his daddy! Tyler took the picture below the other night for us. Drew was sitting up to watch Ellie do some silly dance for him.

Next week I should get some pictures and maybe video of Tyler playing basketball and Ellie singing in Church.

December

This December was one of the snowiest in Kansas City history. Since the kids were off from school, we did what any parent would do - put them to work shoveling snow! Ty and Ellie are still too young to realize it is not supposed to be fun.

One good thing - we had a white Christmas. We decided to stay in KC for Christmas. It was a quiet, relaxing time. At least until Christmas morning. Actually, Ty and Ellie were extremely well behaved, letting us sleep in until 8:00 am. They even helped Drew open some presents!

After opening stockings, we had our traditional coffee cake complete with candle and singing happy birthday to baby Jesus. Then, on to more presents!

Melissa had fun picking out the kids' Christmas outfits. The boys had matching shirts, and, of course, Ellie had a "fancy dress."

Fall Flies by

Wow - Fall sure flew by. The time between Halloween and New Years is one big rush. Even though it is snowing out now, I thought I should post an update from November before getting to the Christmas photos.

Every year, whether in NY, VA or KS, we try to get out as a family and see the trees turning color. This year we took a hike to the nature sanctuary in Parkville, MO. The trails were pretty challenging, but the kids did great. Melissa and Dave took turns with carring Drew in the Baby Bjorn. He loved being outside.

Of course, what would Fall be without ranking of leaves? We don't have nearly the number of leaves to rake like we did in Virginia, but it was enough to keep the kids busy. We even got help from the neighborhood's kids. Ty is playing in a pile of leaves with Lily, who lives down at the end of the cul-de-sac and is in 1st grade with Tyler.

A few more pics - from Tyler's 7th birthday party. We had a soccer party (indoor) at All American Indoor Sports. Lots of fun - the kids played soccer for an hour, than ate pizza, cake and played games.

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we made our annual trip to the KC Pumpkin Patch with some friends of ours, the Wilts. The kids all had lots of fun with hay rides, corn maze, pumpkin cannon, petting zoo and haunted barn. We even managed to convince the kids to pose for a few pictures.












One we got home, Dave spent the better part of the day carving the pumpkins. You can see the results of my attempts online at
http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.french/PumpkinPatch

Ellie's 4th Birthday Party

Eliana had her 4th birthday party at nearby rec center . In honor of her birthday, we had a "Barbie 12 dancing princess party. For the first hour, each girl got to dress up in ballet costume, complete with tiara, wand and tutu. The girls really seemed to enjoy it.

I am trying a new feature this week - I am only uploading a few photos, as usual to the blog. However I am uploading more pictures to an on-line photo album. If I do this right, all you have to do is click on the link above to view it. If that does not work, try entering this URL: http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.french

Tea for two, downtime and a new babysitter

Ellie recently went to a friend's birthday party - a tea birthday party. Melissa curled Ellie's hair and dressed her in a beautiful navy dress. The party was held at a Victorian gift shop and tea room. The place provided fancy dresses & hats for all the girls to wear. Ellie had a pretty red and black dress and hat. The girls were served tea and crumpets (soda and cake) and had a lovely time.


However I don't want you to think all we do is run the kids around from one event to the next. We do occasionally get some down time. I couldn't resist taking this photo of Melissa and Drew catching some zzz 's together. Too bad you can't hear them both snoring in this picture.









I am happy to report that Melissa and I finally found a baby sitter we think we can trust with the kids. She is very patient with them, can match their energy level, and is someone we have known for years. I included a picture of her watching Drew for us the other night.

Family Photo time

We had some family pictures done recently at a couple of different places. Before I get to them, wanted to share a candid of Drew. He is growing fast!

The next few pictures were done by a local portrait studio.

Back to School

Wow - I can't believe summer is already over. Tyler started first grade last week. He is very excited about going to school for the whole day. With the birth of Andrew, I think this is perfect opportunity to put a little more structure back in Tyler's day.

Lots of other firsts also. Andrew had his first bath at home. He screamed bloody murder through the whole thing, but snuggled up nice once he got the towel around him.

Tyler and Eliana continue to be wonderful helpers and great big brother / big sister for Drew. Eliana insists on helping us change Drew, usually by singing him songs and holding his 'bink' to help keep him calm. Both kids are always asking to hold Andrew and rock him to sleep.

Melissa is recovering very well. All the help we have received from our extremely generous neighbors, friends and family has made it easier for all of us. From bringing over meals to driving the kids to events or offering play dates, we are extremely blessed and can't thank you enough.

We even got a visit from 'Auntie Ceil' who flew all the way out from DC area. I am not sure who was more excited - Ellie to have someone to play with, Tyler for having someone to kick the soccer ball around with, Melissa for having one of her best friends to talk with, or Dave, who got to go mountain biking with Ceil. Always good to catch up with good friends.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The Good - We celebrated Andrew's one week birthday by taking him to Children's Mercy for a follow up on his PAC. They performed a second EKG and a chest X-ray. The cardiologist said everything looks okay, and definitively ruled out PVC, and Long Q T syndrome , both of which would have been cause for concern. That leaves PAC, which is just something we will have to watch, but is not cause for extra concern.

The Bad (relatively speaking) - Little Drew is doing his best to follow in his brother's footsteps, so to speak. For those who can remember, Tyler's nickname when he was an infant was 'Sir Whizalot'. Well let's just say Drew is no slouch when it comes to peeing all over the place. We try not to laugh, but when he gets himself all wet and then gets upset about it (dare I say.. p!ssed off?), it is pretty funny.

The Ugly - No, I am not going to subject you to a picture of me in the morning. This is worse - we have officially embraced suburbia by giving in and buying a mini-van. After much research, we chose to go with the Hyundai Entourage. Not as cool as the HBO series by the same name, but a great car. The kids absolutely love it. Melissa and I find have found we actually like it too. Like our neighbor said, mini-vans are the car you want to hate, but can't.

Next post - Ty's starts back to school

We have finally decided on a Name

It is official - we submitted the birth certificate today. Baby John Doe French is now.........

Andrew Richard French.
Melissa always favored that name. My hang-up was Andrew has been a top 10 name for at least the last 5 years. I am a little sensitive to that, having a somewhat common name myself (Seems when ever I am in a group of more than 5 guys, at least one other is named David). Turns out that Drew is not nearly as common. While his name is Andrew, we will call him Drew.

Melissa has been doing great - she is recovering well from her c-section. She started walking around yesterday, and was up for a shower and solid food today. Drew has a slightly irregular heart-beat, called premature atrial contractions. However it is pretty common and almost always corrects itself. If all goes well, we will be going home tomorrow (Thursday). As you can see, Tyler and Eliana are very excited to have their little brother come home.

Pics from the kids

We bought the kids digital cameras. We figured we'd need assistant photographers to help us keep up with all of the recent changes in our family. Plus some pictures from kids' point of view should be interesting.

Tyler's camera is a Polaroid i531. Very kid friendly, easy to use and hold, with 5.1 MP camera and video. Tyler has learned pretty quickly how to use it.

Ellie's camera is Fisher - Price Kids Tough camera. While the resolution is not nearly as crisp (640 x 480), the camera is great for 2 - 4 year olds. Easy to hold, both LED and view finder, it is a great camera for her. The last photo gives you an idea of the range of output.

New baby is here!

No name yet, but Tyler and Ellie now have a new baby brother! 7lbs, 13 onces and 19 inches long. Melissa and baby are both doing great. The little monkey has already learned how to roll over on his side and is grabbing everything in sight.

Now if we can just settle on a boys name.

Zoo, Pool and grandma

A few more pics to show what a tough live the kids lead. Trips to the pool, the Kansas City Zoo (snake picture is for Grammy French), Princess Dance class and visits from grandparents.





Even thought we moved to KC within a couple of months of our parents moving to Charlottesville, they have been wonderful about coming to visit. And yes, I realize it is a little weird that both sets of grandparents live near each other and that they are good friends.


Also, I finally got the video loaded from Ellie's dance recital. Be sure to go to the bottom of the post to see video.