Ellie is 6 months old!!

My baby is 6 months old today!! Half a year! Time is just flying by. She surprises me everyday by her laughter, her mobility, and her desire to explore the world around her.

Ellie has been eating solid foods for a few weeks now. She loves most everything she eats, but her favorites so far are oatmeal and applesauce (homemade, of course!). She has also had sweet potatoes, carrots, and banana. No teeth yet, but she does love to chew on everything! She also sits up very well (supported) and rolls to get to objects she wants. I have to be extra vigilant these day that James's small toys aren't anywhere near her!

James is doing well... Potty training is a journey, he had two accidents today and stayed dry most of the day, which makes me hopeful we will be able to leave the house again someday. He obviously ready to train, though, and I'm glad we are making this transition no matter how hard it is.

And for some cute things...
James says "I keep Mommy" instead of "I love mommy" because he has a hard time pronouncing his Ls. It's so wonderful to hear him say it particularly because we didn't teach him to say it... He just figure out his own way to communicate love. <3

He also tries to pull down his short shirt sleeves and short pant legs because he's not used to wearing them (only remembers clothes with long sleeves, most likely). It's funny to watch him try to pull them down. :-)

We spent most of the day today in the backyard... The kids played while Eliot and I put up supports for the sugar snap peas in the garden. It was wonderful to be outside in the beautiful weather, though I was pretty tired from being up all night with Ellie (probably her 6 mo growth spurt).

Anyway, happy 6 months to my baby girl!!!

Here are a few pics I happen to have on my phone...

Pirate Potty Party!

Today we had a Pirate Potty Party for James to celebrate his graduation from diapers to undies! James started off the day discovering a present in the bathroom... a wrapped plush Captain Hook who talks and wears underwear! James also woke up to balloons, streamers, decorations, and a ton of fun food. He kept saying "WOW!!!" over and over, he couldn't believe it.

We spent the morning with him still in diapers and him teaching Hook how to use the potty correctly. By noon, James could tell me where he should go, well, you know, and was, gosh darn it, HAPPY when he talked about it! He got to share Hook's treats and stickers all morning when he was dry or had a potty success, and this layed the groundwork for the afternoon.

After his nap is when he got to unwrap pirate undies and put them on and try the potty himself. We had limited success at first, but it got better in the afternoon. A few accidents and a few successes... baby steps. We will be working intensely on this for the next few days (or weeks, whatever he needs). He was SO proud of himself when he got it right though. And we were darn near giddy that he actually did it.

In the evening we hosted a Google hangout with the family and had a blast opening some small pirate gifts and tossing away his old diapers (well, really just giving them to Ellie, and he probably could have cared less about them because he wanted to play with his Pirate toys). We had a Cake Boss cake and pizza (Eliot and I ate while sitting in the bathroom with him... as parents you have to make some sacrifices) and celebrated James becoming a big boy.

I know this is just the beginning, but I am so glad he is not resistant to the process and is instead quite excited about it. He still has a long way to go, but we've made great strides today.

Yo ho, Way to Go James!!

Ellie's First St. Patrick's Day!

It's Eleanore's first St. Patrick's Day today! Eliot played at a church worship service at New Hope this morning with our friend Glen, and I dragged the kids out to hear him... James liked playing in the childcare area, but Ellie HATED the loud music and wouldn't stop crying so we had to leave. We made a short detour to Best Buy (had some rewards points about to expire) and went home to try to get the kids down for a nap (didn't go well, lots of crying).

James rounded out the afternoon by dumping his dirty diapers all over his room, making a sort of dirty diaper/stuffed animal/book/bedding soup in the middle of the floor. It was truly awful. I sent him out front to watch the Veggietales St. Patrick's day video while I cleaned it up. Eliot had printed out a rainbow/shamrock coloring page for him and I made some chocolate marshmallow oreo Leprechaun hats, which James did NOT get to enjoy because he was so very very bad today. :-(

BUT, then we took some pics outside, which is always a challenge with James running around these days. He was falling apart by 4pm, so he had a quick dinner (as did Ellie) and we put them both in a bath and in to bed by 6:30pm. Ellie seemed pretty happy after the initial loud music scare in the morning... I think she had a pretty good day. She liked chewing on the tutu I made her. :-)

Ellie's first solid food!

Ellie is sitting up (supported) very well and keeps reaching for my food, so I decided that she may be ready to try some solids. Today was the day (At 5 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day)! She tried some oatmeal baby cereal mixed with breastmilk and she LOVED it. I only gave her about a tablespoon and a half, but she probably would have eaten more if I had given her more. She didn't spit much out, she opened here mouth most of the time, and she gobbled it all up in minutes! I'm not too surprised... I've been watching her take big developmental leaps (almost getting on hands and knees, almost army crawling) and I could just tell she was ready. My pediatrician mentioned she may be ok to start solids sooner than 6mo because of her growing really well... I think she was right.

Anyway, my little girl is starting to eat FOOD. Lord help me, I'm not ready for this!












P.S. Sorry about the wonky pic sizes... I don't have time to go back and fix it!

Here is a video of her enjoying her first solid food!


And I added a couple more pics to the Spring 2013 album. :-)

Spring 2013

Easter outfits!

I finally got the kid's Easter outfits done! I'm especially proud of Ellie's outfit... I made the whole thing from scratch, headband, pattern, and all. It was quite fun to challenge myself and combine multiple skills that I've learned to sew my baby girl's first Easter dress. And the fabric... Well, I saw it in the store and could NOT pass it up! It is one of those fabrics I used to have to pass up and ignore when I had a boy only to dress.

Of course I also had to make a matching bow tie for my sweet James as well.

I just love my kiddos. <3

Reading, Rolling, Bouncing and Bubbles!

I'm just amazed at how fast my kids are growing. Everyone warns you that it will go by in a blink of an eye, but until you live it, you don't really realize how fast time goes by until you look up one day and suddenly your NEWBORN is 5 1/2 MONTHS old! And James is not only talking up a storm, but he is READING words, for goodness sake. He's not even 3! I'm just astounded at what my kids are capable of... you think of them as those helpless little babies who can't do anything for themselves... Ellie may be a bit of that, but by the way she rolls across the floor to get a toy, she's creeping ever closer to bigger milestones and pretty soon she won't be a baby anymore...

Ellie found her feet this week. She doesn't grab them all the time, but sometimes she manages to get one in her hands. She's also reaching for just about everything... toys, my smoothie cup, food, my cell phone, and basically anything that looks interesting to her. Ellie has excellent head control and is working towards sitting up... she also loves bouncing in the rainforest jumperoo and strengthening her legs. She is always looking for Eliot and will follow him around the room with her eyes and turn her head to see him... she's daddy's girl indeed!

James is letter/number crazy these days. He looks for them everywhere and tries to read almost everything. He's been spelling out words... last night he did WOW and COCONUTS and UP. I've been reading a book about baseball to him (a book that has the original Take me out to the ball game song in it) and he LOVES it. He learned how to say baseball and he does the "one two three" strikes you're out part of the song. I called my dad yesterday and told him about it, and he said, "Next he'll say "Opening day!" Well, guess what he said today? Yep...Opening Day! He's just amazing. :-)

James also helped me plant our sugar snap peas and lettuce in the garden yesterday. He did a great job digging in the dirt, putting the peas in a line, pushing them into the dirt, patting the dirt over them, and watering them with a watering can! I was so happy to be able to share this part of my life with my son. He kept talking about the "seeds" that he and daddy went on an adventure (to the local home improvement store) to go get. James also likes "mowing the lawn" with his toy lawn mower.

The other thing James is into these days (besides Jake and the Neverland Pirates... he is REALLY into that) is airplanes. He loves watching them fly overhead and excitedly says, "I sit on that!!" I told him we will be flying on an airplane soon, and he got all excited (we are going to a family wedding in June). So we've been reading books about the process of getting on an airplane. He saw a picture of a kid eating a snack and having juice on the plane and he said, "I sit on that and eat!" Apparently the idea of dining at 30,000ft is a dream come true for him. :-) I made up a little calendar he can put a sticker on every day until we go so he can learn about months, days of the week, and develop a sense of time.

We will also be potty training James this month, which I am dreading but know it needs to be done because he's ready. Sigh.

In other news, I am singing again with the Oregon Chorale starting this week, and Eliot will be playing in a concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle later this month on the 24th. Then on the 25th we will be celebrating 7 years of marriage... hard to believe it's been that long. Time flies, I suppose...

Eliot also hosted an Art Show at the college he works at this past week. He even performed a few tunes on the pipes... Here is a short clip from that:


Here are two videos of James spelling some words, followed by a couple pics!



This one... we did NOT tell him the word before Eliot started spelling it.