Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving soon...

Now we are preparing for Thanksgiving. We surely have a lot to give thanks for, first of all, the Lord who has been so faithful to us this past year. We are always grateful for our families, wonderful friends and the greatest therapists.

End of October report

October 25th Manna’s best friend, Detti, came from Hungary with her little toddler girl Hannika (she is 5-6 months younger than ours). They stayed for three weeks. Let me tell you these three weeks were like an Oasis for me. We went through so much though. Staph infection and yeast have been a constant battle for us. Especially for our girls who have passed it back and forth. Well, this time I came down with Mersa. It was really tough and it’s God’s miracle that nobody got it from me.
Having Detti my friend here meant so much through these difficult times. Cliff and Debbie helped a lot with homeopathic ideas. If you are in a similar situation we are happy to share about some of the remedies we have tried with them.
On Saturday, November 7th, a very dedicated team of enthusiastic ladies came to rescue us in a form of a BIG cleaning day. We tried to bleach anything what the kids came in contact with. Again, it was one of the warmest days in November so our deck looked like a huge garage sale with all the kids’ toys and books. Thank you so much again ladies and your children.. We could not have done all this without your help! It was also a neat day of fellowship.

One by one two year old quints

Let us tell you a little bit about each kid.

Annabelle is still strong willed, yet becoming a compassionate little munchkin who is so much better about sharing. Well, sometimes. She is the one who has not started to talk yet so she is going to get some awesome services through First Steps, which we love in our family. Annabelle has quite the Teddy bear collection. She calls them “Maci” that stands for bear in the Hungarian language. Among all of them probably she is the most thankful and she needs one on one time with us everyday. So a few weeks ago she went with us, mommy and daddy and we visited Holliday Park ’s awesome botanical trail and playground. She loved it. She is very obedient and loves to help for the most part.
This fall Annabelle started swim lessons, which she loves but because of the yeast problem we had to discontinue for a while.

Hanna, she is probably the most advanced in both languages. She puts two or three words together in either language. She can say “Jesus loves me” or “peanut butter”, “nose wipe” etc. She is still a book lover. She is also strong willed yet very sensitive so when we discipline her it gets to her through her emotions. She is like a big sister for them. She is probably the pickiest eater at least when we try new things.

Lili is our chatter box. She is still cute as a button and gets away with that a lot. She is one of the most disobedient quints. She loves to cuddle and read books. She is one of the greatest eaters (well they all are). Her absolute favorites are avocados and muffins. Lili loves music and sings melodies back the way they sound. In fact they request music very often. She very bubbly and still our social butterfly. We love to hear her “stories”. She goes around and keeps labeling things until I understand what she means. It is the cutest.

Mate/Matthew made the biggest catch up we could ever dream of. Our three weeks Hungarian break did really good for him. Ever since then he is labeling things, imitating, repeating unusual words after us. We only have to patch his left eye an hour a day b/c his lazy eye made progress. He only need a little bit of assistance and he walks with us hand in hand. Also the boys are becoming best little buddies which is so fun to see. Mate’s favorite thing is to climb on everything. He feels like such a big boy when he is on top of the slide. He still loves balls and they make him so happy. One funny story about Mate and Detti’s little daughter Hanni. They had a “love story” going on during their three weeks of visit. It was so hilarious to watch them as they followed each other everywhere. They stroke each other’s faces and even kissed each other under the table. Mate is so loveable and Hanni surely noticed this. Who would have thought that she will pick Matthew as her best friend over our girls. Conclusion we have to watch Mate.

Tomi is still our charmer and teaser as well. He loves technical things. He is very systematic and organized. It’s amazing that even this age they can be so precise. We are working on his “play skills” b/c as the “product of his environment” he doesn’t sit down to play with toys but he grabs them and tries to seek out a “safe” corner where his sisters can’t get to him and leave him alone.
He loves spending time with us in the kitchen. Tomi is very obedient. Boy, we only have to look at him with a certain look and he knows how to correct what he is about to do. He is very compassionate and comforting to his siblings. Very sweet to watch… We love Tomi’s adventuresome curiosity.

Group dynamic
They comfort each other now knowing which one is crying and what they need to do to sooth the crying one. It’s sweet to see how much they care for each other. They also love to tease each other especially around the table (our 6 seater)
Hanna and Lili are like peas and carrots. The other day they were sitting on the window sill like little sparrows both reading some books.
It’s amazing to me that even at this age they can learn so much about the Bible and God through Bible stories. On Sundays Debbie and Cliff bring little flannel figures from church and they learn about Noah, Moses, Joseph, Esther etc. They also do songs. Our children talk about these Bible stories and request their favorite Bible songs. It’s so precious to see. They know what praying is and they all fold their hands around the table and say Amen. Sometimes earlier than we finish but that’s okay.

Natasha's amazing photos

Thank you Natasha for your gorgeous pictures, your time and wonderful talent what we could all enjoy on this pleasant sunny afternoon which happened to be our anniversary.

Big thanks for Cliff and Christina for your assistance.

You can view more of Natasha's beautiful photos (many of them about families and children) at www.natashakempsonphotography.com

Fall happenings- September& partly October

There was so much happening in our lives that updating the blog was put on the back burner. Let me summarize what we have been doing this fall before it will be officially December.
Labor day was so beautiful that we decided to take them to the Zoo. Grandma Manley, Papa Cliff and Debbie was our team and yes mommy Manna as well (she would have not missed this for the world). David stayed home to catch up with things and make some home made yoghurt.

The kids are at an age when they name everything and they get super excited about all kinds of nature stuff especially animals. So the zoo was a perfect place to take them. We all really enjoyed and learned a lot. Indianapolis has a really friendly zoo and it's easy to go around in a comfortable pace. Since it was the five of us everybody could have some special one and one time and of course we switch them up. Our toddler backpack mainly on mommy's back came handy for the fifth pumpkin.

Then October came around. The first time David and I were able to be "kids free" and left for Cincinnati for our anniversary. Oh well, I didn't count when we were both had to be gone in Hungary to straighten out some visa problems but this was planned.
Cliff and Debbie looked after them. We all had such a great time. Everybody was blessed with what they needed the most.

October 7th, which is our anniversary we took them to Lion’s Park in Zionsville. Again we were blessed with a beautiful fall day when we could take pictures with Natasha. We consider her amazing photos as their two year old pictures.

Sunday, October 18th our beloved family on David's side came to celebrate the quints 2nd Birthday with us. It was special and we captured many great moments as you can see on some of the slide shows.
Next day on their official Birthday we took them for a real walk what I mean by that is without any strollers. You know as big boys and girls walk on the sidewalk. Of course we had enough people with us. Cliff and Debbie, Kate, Elizabeth our neighbor friend, Christina, David and I. We took beautiful fall pictures.
Debbie brought her famous sugar free yet sweet muffins those were our “cupcakes”.

As far as a bigger Birthday party we kept going back and forth whether to have friends over or not. Annabelle and Lili ended up with high fever and sore throat so it’s great that we did not end up having it. Maybe when they will be older…