Quick Updates

Mom: Martha will be starting a year long internship position starting Monday, October 15 in the Department of Health Psychology at the University of Missouri. I will primarily be working at the Thompson Center which specializes in Autism and other developmental disorders. I will be doing a combination of assessment, therapy, and research. I have been working at the center for a year and love it. I am really excited to be moving on with internship and the rest of my career!

Dad: Matt is still doing the same old thing except his department has merged a couple times recently. He went from CDIS to Mizzou Online to now ET@MO. Now if he could only find time to for home-brewing...

Matt and I have had visits from the grandparents the past couple weeks which was really nice. Its finally not super hot (its actually quite cold) and the past month has seen us actually venturing out and keeping up with the house, etc. I made a lot of fall recipes this weekend (chili, cornbread casserole, apple cake). Its been a long time since I have felt like cooking/baking. Thanks to our nanny Abby we have been observing a weekly date night which involves baking soda volcanoes for the kids and dinner/movies for us (win, win, win, win, win).

Kids: Alex is a perfect combination of charming, silly, and sweet. He is talking in full sentences (though its not always easy to understand what he's saying), and narrates life pretty much nonstop. Mommy sit in this chair. I see a blue car. Eva play red car. (after he steals it) Eva crying. He takes his affection for his sisters a little too far for their comfort especially when his affection takes the form of tackling them or stealing their toys. He is also the one that serenades us in the morning with calls of Mommy Daddy Good Morning! We rely way too much on this (rather than our alarms) to wake us up. He hates to have his face washed.

Lucy is into her stuff. I recently got her a 100 or so miniature animals that she loves to move from bag to table to floor to bag. She gets very upset when one of her siblings tries to play with one unless a parent steps in to more evenly distribute the toys. She also likes: stickers, legos, puzzles, dolls, and anything that belongs to her parents. She is talking in perfect sentences with pronouns and frequently explains things to the other kids for us "No Alex, we'll have water when we get home." "No Alex, we don't stand on the table." She doesn't sleep as soundly as the others but does better when Matt or I sit in their room while she falls back asleep. She hates it when some one takes something that is "hers".

Eva is still our cuddler. She gives lots of hugs and loves to be tickled. She is best buds with Alex unless he is interrupting her play (which is all the time). She reads books and sings. She also has some very impressive expressions when she gives the stink eye just before she smiles.She's getting really good a pouring things in the tub. She "opens" her PB&J sandwiches before the eats them like some one eating the filling of an Oreo. She hates to have her hair combed.

The kids started at a full time home daycare back in August. They love it and we love it. They've gotten sick twice which has involved a total of 2 weeks where Matt and I had to juggle at least one kid at home while we tried to get our work done. Don't love that part. As far as potty training I'd say we are in the pre-training phase right now. They need a little more time to figure things out or I need a little more time to work up the energy before we push the issue. For now watching 3 toddlers sit on potties while reading various books is really, really cute. They also still sleep in cribs and with pacifiers. May need to make some adjustments before they go off to college.

In September they participated in a 3-week gymnastics class. See our picasa site for pictures :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/earlymiller/2012September

That's it for now. Really hope everyone is having a great fall!
Martha