Taking a Breath

The title of this blog is dual meaning - one, because I WISH I could breath through all of the lovely pollen, and two, because we're finally slowing down from the hustle and bustle of holidays and birthdays over the last several months, not to mention the crazy of work that always happens at the beginning of the year.

So now...I breath...or try to. Casa de Guthrie has been a tizzy of comings and goings, coupled with weeks of down and outs battling colds and stomach bugs. By the grace of God (literally), we were able to emerge from the horrible flu season unscathed. Next year will be a whole new ballgame. 

Emma is officially registered for Kindergarten. My nerves and my immune system are preparing for the worst. We took a short tour of her new school last week and it was awesome! Her school is about five of my elementary schools rolled into one. They have over 1,000 students, but that also includes an early intervention program with pre-school age kids. Still, that's a lot of little bodies in one place! I am excited about all of the activities that she'll be able to participate in. She'll have art and music, which was not something that I got to experience that young. I think she'll excel in both ;) Of course, her favorite part of the tour was getting to ride the school bus around the parking lot. What kid doesn't love riding the big cheese?! 

Penny will get to experience one-on-one time with me once Emma starts school. I figure the first few weeks will be tough because she loves having her sister around, even though it usually ends in a sibling fight over toys or sitting with me. It'll feel like a mini-vacation to me! (you other moms of multiples will understand) 

We're finally getting in a good routine with the terrible twos with Penny as well. Her separation anxiety has all but gone away and she's not quite as emotional as of late. She still has her moments of breaking down for various random (and often hilarious) reasons, but I think she's starting to figure this whole "life" thing out. Her vocabulary has exploded over night and she's putting more and more words into sentences. My favorite part has been that I can have her repeat phrases instead of just words, which has been perfect for getting her to learn her memory verses for Bible class. We're still working on the sharing thing, especially with big sister. P is still very much a bully when it comes to deciding that she wants to play with a specific toy, and she will literally just walk up and take it, whether someone already has it or not. Emma still has about two inches and a pound on her, but I give it until the fall for them to be the same size. That will definitely be a challenge for me (and my prayer life) when Penny realizes that she's bigger than Emma and can use her size to get what she wants. I see a lot of spankings and timeouts in Penny's future...

Emma continues to exceed expectations from her endo. Her last visit resulted in an increase in her hormones because they want her to stay on this growth pattern. We saw the nurse practitioner this last time, who also happens to be head of the Turner's Syndrome department at Children's, and she was so excited with how Emma has responded to the growth hormones. She was also very excited that Emma hasn't experienced any other issues that are common with the syndrome. She did suggest that we have a hearing test done sometime this year, as it's typical for girls that suffer from Turner's to have some hearing loss. Emma's weight was starting to taper off, but I attribute that to the fact that, even though she eats a lot, she's still very picky and her weight is starting to be distributed up as she continues to grow quickly. It's not a shock to me, either, because her body type is very much like mine. She'll be mostly knees and elbows for a while, poor thing.

We're looking forward to a visit from the family this weekend before heading off on our first cruise in a couple of weeks! I'm mostly looking forward to uninterrupted relaxation and getting some much needed Vitamin D. I just hope I don't blind too many people with these clear Casper legs before they can get a little color. 

I hope everyone is having a good start to spring (and hopefully not suffering too much from the awesome pollen that comes with the beautiful foliage). 

God Bless!