Blessings from above

Each day I spend with my babies, I am reminded that they are but gifts to me from God above. There are some days that I am reminded even more so. Alina was diagnosed with an innocent heart murmur in January. I believed it only to be innocent until she started to complain of being tired doing different activities this past June. I scheduled a visit with a cardiologist and she demonstrated concern as well after evaluating Alina and thought her PDA might have reopened. She then scheduled an echocardiogram of her heart this past Friday. After waiting a few days, yesterday we learned that Alina continues to only have an innocent heart murmur and not a reopening of the hole in her heart. In our prayers, we prayed that God would give us peace and strength to deal with any results that might have been. Our gracious Father has allowed Alina to be without problems and we want to praise Him fully for this. So yesterday was one of those days that I was double reminded. I feel so blessed to have three of the most beautiful HEALTHY children in the world!

My little Conlin continues to demonstrate the desire to learn. He now knows his colors and alphabet quite well. Counting to ten is almost a piece of cake. He and Alina are up to 5-6 word sentences. Conlin is a climber and loves to do what little boys do best, scare their mothers. He is close to flipping over while holding on to the dining room table. Suprisingly enough, he or Alina do not try to escape their cribs. We even put down the rail and let them climb in at night. Conlin loves his new baby brother. When he cries, Conlin is saddened by the event and wants me always to go get Niamh. Conlin also has a laugh that is contagious. Both he and Alina are talking constantly if they are not singing. Conlin is demonstrating some potential signs of speech issues such as a lisp, but I feel that he is more progressed since Alina has been his buddy than he would have otherwise. He is starting to find out that he is not as small as he used to be. At 20lbs and I think 29 inches, he is now bumping his head on things because he is too tall :)

Alina knows her colors and shapes well and counts to ten well, but has not quite mastered the alphabet, however she sure does sing that song well. She is singing a lot! She sings in the car, when playing, while riding in the stroller, and as she says good-bye to the day. Alleleuia, Jesus loves me, ABCs are he favorites. She often does a medly of all three. She demonstrates such a loving heart, her and Conlin both lately will be sitting with their arms around each other. They both love hugs and kisses. Conlin and Alina are best buds and lately have been playing and sharing well together. I find it quite a joy in the morning when I am nursing that they go off into the play room and just get busy with all their toys. She has developed a little girl laugh. ALina's favorite color is pink, she is becoming quite girly without teaching.

Niamh is growing well and now nursing well. He has a double chin and at times can be slightly heavy to hold for long periods. I think he might surpass Conlin in his weight and size, but we will see. He is over half of Conlin's weight:) Last week, he started to giggle and is very easy to get smiling. His smile warms me up to a melting. I can see how I got so twitterpated and wanted to have one so close to the twins. He has rolled belly to back a few times, but not quite achieving this milestone consistently, but he is pressing up at times close to a 30-35 degrees. Head lag still exists with pulling him up to sit, but he has done it with minor lag a few times. A PT friend had leant me a Bumbo seat that looks like a rubber potty, but it is really a seat. So, Niamh gets to see how the rest of us live. He loves being upright. When in the presence of Conlin and Alina, you can find Niamh quite interested in them and he can be caught smiling at his brother and sister. They are all going to be best of buds. We are still out on who he most resembles.

I know this is a long posting, but I was feeling like there has been a decline in our documenting of the children's growth. So it is for our sake that I wrote most of this, but I also wanted to share with the rest of you these beautiful blessings from above. I wanted to Praise our Lord and Savior above for these gifts and to remind myself not to take them or my wonderful husband for granted. I am so thankful that God has given me the opportunity to stay home with my children. I want to give Him all the praise, honor and glory.