Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Ellie is 21 months old!

I am a week or so late with this post...but out little girl is 21 months old!! She is saying more words, specifically Hi and Bye to almost everyone. Her word for most things is Uh-oh, but she also likes to say Mama a lot. And she has gotten pretty adept at please and thank you, and up as down! :-)

Today Elle had her first Popsicle, which she loved slurping on and licking till it melted all over her. James also enjoyed his Popsicle a whole lot. 
Ellie is a climber... She climbs on almost anything anywhere and has no fear of heights. She goes down big slides in the park and climbs big ladders (which freaks me out). Ellie loves to do whatever her big brother does, from coloring to eating blueberries off the bush in the backyard. She is also doing great in swim lessons with daddy... She's progressed from water babies to water kids! James is doing well in his lessons too, he had almost done a full bob under water and is working on floating on his back and keeping his kicks small.

The tomatoes are ripe in the garden today, which excited James. He kept calling them strawberries, and when I reminded him they are tomatoes, he said, "oh right, TA Mos!! I almost got! (Forgot)" :-) He eats those things like candy.

Not everything is sunshine and roses over here... James has decided to start lying about things (which we quickly managed) and Ellie throws giant tantrums when she is tired and doesn't get her way. But mostly they are good kids who are super silly and sweet. We are truly blessed. <3


Saturday, July 5, 2014

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Independence Day everyone! We had a nice day hanging out as a family... We played at home in the morning, James helped daddy pick some rhubarb and then helped me make a pie. Ellie helped Daddy water the lawn. 

After naptime, we went over to the lights of liberty celebration here in Springfield. The kids went "fishing" for prizes, went down a big slide, got some balloons, listened to some marimba music, and had a blast seeing some turtles and snakes. Then we went home and had BBQ dinner of chicken, corn on the cob (the kids loved both shucking an eating it), potato salad, chips, and watermelon with the strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. The kids munched happily and we talked about our military and what they do to protect our freedom.

After dinner we went back to the park for fireworks. Ellie was so tired (10pm) she pretty much dozed through most of them while laying on my lap. James loved them, and he said a lot of "wow" and "that was a GREAT one!" It's the first year he actually loved fireworks and it was wonderful to share them with him.

Now we are all super tired so it's time for bed!

Happy 4th everyone!