Tomorrow will mark the one month anniversary since I met Doodlebug and Sparkle. Hard to believe! It will also mark the beginning of my time at home with the kids without extra support. Up until now, I have had lots of help from friends and family. Grandma Janice was here with us for nearly a week after I first got home, J was at home for almost two weeks, and my dad was here for the past five days. I had one or two days in between there where I was mostly alone, but I still at least had friends drop off or send over dinner for me. (Have I mentioned how incredible you all are? Really you have no idea how much all of that has helped). Anyway, I am nervous but I do think we are on our way to finding a workable routine. My dad was in town, but he is really great at avoiding the camera (always has been). He's the one with his head cut off in the pic below. My brother Jerrod and his girlfriend Jamie also joined us for two days this week. Here's Jerrod trying to get a jump on this year's "Uncle of the Year" competition: And yes, he did manage to do a lap or two around the playroom like that. The whole crew (Jerrod, Jamie, Dad, the kids, and I) also went to the Children's Museum on Monday, which the kids loved. I'll add some pics from that once I can figure out how to get them off of my phone. Miscellaneous photo catch up: Here is the queen of pretend-play taking excellent care of one of her babies: And our family's artist: And here is the best one I could get of my sweet baby, who has recently become much more difficult to photograph: This might be worthy of a full post one of these days, but while I was in Ethiopia someone apparently finally told this kid that she is a toddler. You would not believe how many photos I have of the back of her head. We try to have some type of activity each day (crafts or an outing like the park, library, or zoo) and she is consistently the one who causes the disruptions and is running all over the place. At least the cheek-splitting smile is back though :) She does seem to be warming up to her sisters again somewhat. She really seems to look up to Sparkle and the two always hold hands in the car. Poor Doodlebug is still getting snubbed though. Doodlebug loves to give her kisses but Sunshine generally pushes her away. I think she feels a bit more competitive with Bug as they are almost exactly the same size.

It has been a while since we have posted any real info about Punkie�s progress, so I decided an update was in order. Here is a list of her relatively recent achievements:

1. Says �Mama�, �Dada�, �Baba� (for bottle), �Doe� (for dog). She still uses her signs as well. She also has a few made up words which sound nothing like the real word, but are relatively consistent and recognizable to me. She also points a lot and does a silly happy dance when I correctly say the name of what she wants. She seems to understand just about everything (so watch what you say in front of her!).

2. Her receptive language is really too many words to list. She has a book of animals and every day objects and can identify a large portion of them. She also knows and can identify many body parts including her hands, fingers, toes, knees, head, eyes, ears, mouth, and tongue.

3. She is not yet walking or standing independently, but can do so holding just one hand and needs very little support. I think it is her cautious nature that is holding her back at this point.

4. She has really begun to enjoy pretend play. She loves to play with her dolls. She holds them, feeds them, and kisses and hugs them. She is still absolutely madly in love with Lovey Bear.

These pictures are from a couple weeks back (we need batteries for the camera!) but they show her standing and cruising:

I also wanted to share this particularly cute one of her with her Grandpa John, who we saw last weekend: