Thirty-One to Thirty-Three Months (Eliana)

So quite a while has passed since I've updated about Ellie.  Where to begin?  Well, Eliana seems to be getting better at pretty much everything she does.  Recently Ellie has been going through what I call a speech spurt.  It happens every so often and is characterized by new words, longer sentences, and a proud mama.  It is highly noticeable right after she is spoken to.  Ellie is an excellent parrot.  It's a good thing we don't say nasty words to each other in our house.  However, she did learn that the file/pumice thing used for a pedicure is a "foot grater".

We're working out issues with bedtime.  Ellie used to be a stellar bedtime girl but has recently decided that bed is not something she wants to do.  Two hours of putting her back to bed after she's gone down is not acceptable.  We've tried what seems like everything and are still searching for the answer.  Things are getting a little better, but there is still a ways to go.

Ellie loves to jump.  A lot.  That's nothing new.  The only difference is how much more daring she in becoming.  I have to watch her like a hawk at the playground so she doesn't leap off something she shouldn't. I'm hoping that her recent leap out of a shopping cart and subsequent crash to the tile floor taught her a bit more caution.

We realized not too long ago that Ellie can count to ten on her own.  I don't remember teaching her that so it was pretty cool.  Maybe if I actually works on the ABCs she'll be able to get those down.  We were really surprised by the whole thing.Her speech is becoming more complex and her vocabulary is expanding rapidly.  We've been having fun recently with Baby Signing Time videos.  Right now she won't do command performances of the signs, but she will occasionally decide to add them in.

One big surprise we got recently was when Eliana started counting to ten.  I haven't worked with her on that much, so it was quite the shock when she popped off with it one afternoon.  Sometimes she'll just count for fun.  My current project with her is to show that counting can stop before reaching ten.  For example, when we were playing a game that has four balls she continued to count them over again until she reached ten.  I'm hoping the concept will sink in soon.  Either way, I thought it was neat thing that she counts.

Ellie's also learning ABCs.  We started to sing the ABC song a few days ago and I'm surprised with what she remembers.  Sesame Street helps quite a bit.  I love Netflix.

We've been having fun trying to be sociable.  Ellie certainly loves it.  Play group is something she looks forward to every week.  I think Ellie really craves time with other children.  Last week we went to the park and she found a new friend there.  I was a little creeped out when one of the dads at the park looked at my daughter and said, "You have one more minute before we need to go home, Eliana."  It didn't take long for me to realize that Eliana's new friend was...Eliana.  They'd been running around holding hands and playing. It was pretty cute.

Let's see...Ellie is still very much into princesses and pretty dresses, but not into potty training.  We had another false start with that recently.  She really wants to wear her princess panties, but I'm not sure she really gets it yet.  I think she assumes that underwear are the same as a diaper and it won't make a mess if she goes in them.  She doesn't seem to like letting it fall into her potty (I think that the problem, anyway) and seems to just let her panties catch it.  Every time I put a new pair on her she wet them within a minute.  I think the learning curve on potty training is pretty steep.  Especially for me.

Easter was FUN!!!  My in-laws got some chicks a week or so before Easter and Ellie loves them.  She keeps asking to see the "beebee chicks" whenever she remembers.  Eliana got in a few good egg hunts.  Mostly she liked to open up the eggs.  It was Mommy who wanted the stuff inside.  All the pictures on this post are from Easter and its festivities, except for the one where she looks drugged/evil.  We made Easter cookies that didn't turn out how we thought, but it was a good idea.

It's hard to believe that in only three more months Ellie will be three years old.  How quickly time passes.

Six Months and Seven Months (Maya)

I couldn't do a six month post very well because there aren't any working cameras in the house.  I've also kind of lost the will to blog.  That has shown with the infrequency of my posts.  So now Maya is getting her first combination monthly post.

Wasn't I pregnant just a couple of weeks ago?  Time flies when you're having fun, as well as when there are two children to chase.  Maya is so much fun to have around.  In the past two months she has become very talkative and very mobile.  She can do the slapdrag with the best of them.  She's just starting to get up on her toes, so I think real crawling may not be too far behind.  Maya likes to babble and I like to think she's been saying "mama" off and on.  Mostly she just blows raspberries and has a grand time with that.

In other physical development news, Maya is sitting up pretty well.  She's fairly steady, though she still topples quite a bit.  I've been looking forward to this bit of development because it will make entertaining her so much easier.  I'm sure she will still prefer that I hold her, but that's just too bad. ;)  The slapdrag has been a great thing for me as far as entertainment goes; she loves to do it and I love to watch it.

Maya's giggle is an elusive thing that is difficult to capture but well worth the effort.  She's full of smiles, but her giggle takes a bit of coaxing to release.  I'm still hoping to capture it on video.  The little laugh/grunt is adorable.

Maya remains a momma's girl.  I can't say I don't love it.  Miss Maya is my sweetie pie.  It might get a bit tiresome to have her on my hip all the time, but it's very sweet.  I love that little girl.


Measurements at the doctor's office showed a slight increase in her weight percentile and a small loss in her height percentile.  I'll have to get the numbers when i go back for her 9 months checkup.  She's very healthy and doing well.  Maya's two teeth are pretty cute and she's getting two more on top.  Slowly.  Maya is chewing on everything she can find, but that's fairly normal.  We've just started putting her the walker.  She thought that was pretty good stuff.  It's nice to have another way to entertain her.

Hopefully she'll get better with sleeping through the night.  We're crossing our fingers on that.

Maya is a great little eater.  She sucks the food right off the spoon and asks for more.  We are happy to oblige.

Before too long I'll be updating about more new things that she's doing, but for now I want my baby to just stay my baby.

No Camera!!!

So I haven't posted anything of the girls recently because we're low on pictures.  How can that be with two adorable girls?  The answer is that the older of the adorable girls has any affinity for any "cammer" she happens to see.  She has successfully broken every camera we have in the house and I need to take them in to see if they can be repaired or if I need to shell out the money for new ones.  I am not happy about that.  So, until I can access the pictures I did take I will leave you with the post I put on the other blog.

I've mentioned a couple of times that makeup is my new hobby.  That came from a blog called Classy Cosmetics.  She's such a cute girl and very sweet.  Her blog is a great way to learn about techniques and products.  She's also got a giveaway on this post that looks great.  I've always wanted to try MAC, but it's a little pricey for me.  So go to her blog, become a follower, and comment on this post that I'm the one who sent you.  She really is a lot of fun.  Just make sure you go there before the 17th so you can enter the giveaway, too!

Five Months (Maya)

Maya is growing beautifully.  She certainly gets more beautiful by the day.  She is so mild and calm.  Sadly, she has been kind of sick for the past couple of weeks.  Maya is better now, but she had us really worried for a while.  The worst it ever got was a snotty nose and a hoarse voice that scared us pretty good.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that her sister has pneumonia at the same time.  We didn't want to deal with that at Maya's age.  After two trips to see the doctor we finally just let the sickness take it's course.  Thankfully, she's just fine.

Lately I've been a little concerned that Maya has not started rolling over.  Other babies I know of have rolled over and Ellie had it pretty well mastered by this age.  Then I remembered how often I actually put Maya down on the floor...not so often.  She can't learn to roll over if she doesn't get the opportunity.  I'm working on that. She may have rolled over once when I wasn't looking, but it's also likely that her big sister was helping her.

Maya has seemed a little extra hungry and fussy lately.  I was pretty sure that she was teething and I thought I could see a bit of tooth starting to come in on the bottom.  Nothing came of it and I kind of let it slide and thought maybe I was wrong.  Today (the day after she turned five months) I looked at her gums again and it is quite clear that she has both of her bottom front teeth coming in.  I'm thinking the extra hungry was her teething.  She won't take a pacifier, so Mommy gets to be the teething apparatus.  That's going to change.

Maya had her first Valentine's Day this month.  I don't think she really noticed or cared, but I certainly had fun.  I put her and Ellie in matching red dresses and gave lots of snuggles.  I just don't think it gets much sweeter than that.  There will be lots more of that in the years to come.  I couldn't be more excited.  Next month will have St. Patrick's Day and I'm excited to put her in the little green romper Ellie wore on her first St. Patrick's Day.  I love cute hand me downs.

About a week ago I introduced Maya to her feet and I think it's a love for the ages.  Time spent on her back is no longer so odious as it once was.  It's really fun to watch her trying to sit up to reach them better.  I've included a couple of the "outtake" five month pictures showing her grabbing at her toes.  There are even more on my camera that what I've posted here.

Hopefully all the discomfort of teething will end shortly and Maya will work on sleeping through the night.  A mommy can hope.  Either way I love this little girl to bits.

Thirty Months (Eliana)

Two and a half.  Sigh.  My baby is growing up.  Ellie may have a little sister, but she will always be my baby.  In the past few weeks she has been asserting her independence more and more.  Naps are becoming a thing of the past.  If I put her down she just gets back up.  We're working on that.  It happens at night, too.  She just gets out of bed less if she hasn't had a nap.  I'm not ready for her to give up naps, but I'm not sure I have much choice in the matter.  Maybe once it warms up and I can take her outside more she will use up enough energy to require a nap again.  I can hope.

Another fun/frustrating show of independence is when Ellie gets things for herself.  She will usually ask me for whatever she wants.  If I'm busy I'll tell her to wait just a minute.  She then asks me again two seconds later and I repeat the same answer.  After the second request she just does it herself.  That generally involves pulling a chair over to the counter and getting whatever she wants from there.

Ellie continues to be a great big sister.  She likes to hold Maya's hand and give her kisses.  She becomes very distressed if I leave Maya with anyone else.  Ellie enjoys pointing out Maya's body parts and "tickling" them.  It usually doesn't make Maya cry, but sometimes Ellie isn't very gentle.

Dressing up is the only way to go for Ellie.  Sometimes I have to hide her dresses if I need her to wear something else.  She is highly talented at stripping her clothes off and bringing me whichever dress she wants to wear.  More often than not I let her wear what she wants.  The pictures below are an example of that.  In the last one she's wearing her dress, a pettiskirt, and one of my maternity shirts.

We love our little Ellie and look forward to all the time we have with her.

Four Months (Maya)

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Our little slice of heaven just turned four months old.  It's been a busy month.  She had her first Christmas and New Year's, as well as her first "road trip" to visit her grandparents.  "Road trip" is in quotes because it was only a three hour drive.  No biggie.  We didn't even snap a single picture while we were there.  We did, however, stuff the car so full of gear and clothing that there wasn't room for anything else.

Maya is getting really good at twisting her body around to see things, no matter what position she's in.  She not rolling over yet, but she can redirect herself to get another view of the world.  I'm not sure that Maya understands what she's doing just yet, but she'll get there.

She weighs 12 lb 2 oz (looks like about 25th percentile, but they told me it was closer to 50th) and is just over 25 inches long (95th percentile).  It looks like she's following her sister's growth pattern.

Giggling is happening more frequently.  When Maya's really amused it's almost a growl rather than a giggle and it's pretty cute.  Her big sister is better at getting her to smile and laugh than anyone else.  Maya is also using her voice quite a bit more.  She makes the sweetest baby noises.

Maya's hair seems to be growing in much lighter than what she was born with.  It happened the same way with Ellie and now I'm excited to see if she gets curls or if her hair remains straight.  They both have their pros and cons.

I was interested to read back on Ellie's four month and see that the two share the same sleep problems.  2 am-6 am is a vicious time to not sleep well.  For me.  I don't know if either of the girls give a hoot about how Mommy sleeps.  Maya isn't in the crib yet because I like  the proximity of the crib to my bed.  I prefer not to have to go to another room in the middle of the night.

Maya is growing well and, as always, we're happy to have her in our family.

Twenty-eight and Twenty-nine Months (Eliana)

How does time pass so quickly? Ellie is growing up so quickly that it takes my breath away. It seems like I was bringing her home from the hospital yesterday and now she is a tall and agile little girl. We just started a class called Tumbling Tots. I thought it would be fun Mommy-Ellie time so she can have a bit of me for herself. She loves it. She also the tallest kid in the class. Two of the other kids are older than she is.

Ellie seems to be loving her little sister and taking more interest in her. Watching the two of the interact is probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen. No one can make Maya giggle like Ellie does...and she loves doing it. When I dropped Maya off with my friend for the first Tumbling Tots class I was surprised by Ellie's reaction. She was very distressed that I was leaving her little sister somewhere and driving off without her. Despite my reassurances that we would get Maya after class, she called out for her sister until we got into the class with all the toys. It's heartwarming watching them together.

Ellie loves all things princess and will repeat "princess...dress" whenever she sees one until she is satisfied that we have all noticed the princess and her dress. She loves putting on her pretty dresses and twirling. "Princess hair" occassionally works as my bribe to get her to let me do her hair, but she's pretty much grown out of that. We got her a singing Belle doll for Christmas and she has thoroughly loved it ever since. The picture shows her asleep in the car the day she got it.

Meals are a difficulty. I don't know why Ellie refuses to eat, but that's a pretty common scenario around our house. Meals and snacks are often refused and it's a struggle to get her to eat. Sometimes she even refuses to eat things we know she loves. Some days are good eating days and others are like yesterday,when all she ate was goldfish crackers and one bite of her grilled cheese sandwich. The doctor assures us it's normal, but I can't wait for this phase to pass. I have no idea how Ellie continues to grow. There are certain things she'll ask us for, such as cheese and chocolate milk, but we try to give her a more varied diet.


Other children are another favorite thing of Ellie's. She loves having playmates.

Most of the other things for this past month were Christmas things, so hopefully I'll be able to do a post including all of that.