The Little Chef

Elise has been asking for a play kitchen for months. I was hesitant for the longest time to get her one. They can take up so much space, and what if we got her one and then she got bored of it in a month? After her love for cooking endured months I finally gave in though. I found one on craigslist and got it for her for Christmas. It's been sitting in the garage for a couple of months and I have just been craving to take it out and show her. Well her day finally came last week. Now she can cook all she wants and she seems to love it so far!

(original post 12-28-08)

Baby belly

Joel has the cutest baby belly! It's funny b/c a couple of his adjustable 2T pairs of pants barely fit his waist on the largest setting, yet I have to role the bottoms to keep him from tripping on them because they are too long. Elise's mid-section had slimmed down quite a bit more by this age.






Anyway, one day Joel really wanted to wear this pair of green pants that were size 18 month. I had a feeling they were too small, but he was insistent, so I gave in. Oh, what a laugh I had! I could barely get the things over his hips and then they simply wouldn't fit over the belly - so they just squeezed his little body below the waist and his belly hung out on top. So adorable! The pictures don't quite capture it, but you get the basic idea. I think we have to retire those cute green pants!

(original post 12-28-08)

Camo Kids

When Elise was somewhere between 20 and 24 months, we had a particularly amusing experience. Nik had gotten a camo shirt from his family for Christmas. Somewhere along the way we must have told Elise what camo was (she's the kind of kid who only needs to hear something once, and then she has logged it in her brain for life!). Anyway, one day Nik had his new camo shirt on. He picked up Elise and she looked at him, touching his shirt. Then she said, "Ooooh, camo! I like it!" I think to date, it was her longest sentence. I wish we had it on video!






Anyway, since we've had the kiddos we have tried to have little pieces of camo here and there in their wardrobe. Not much, just a small tribute to Papa and his love for the great outdoors. Today I happened to get them both dresses in camo pants (the only camo either of them currently has). Matching camo...time for a picture!!

(original post 11-5-08)

Animal Noises

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about our kids calling their animals by the sounds they make. Here is a video of Joel making his animal noises. His binkie is in his mouth unfortunately, but I think you can still make most of it out! (original post 10-29-08)

The Flower Girl

Elise has had the privelege of being a flower girl in 3 different weddings over the past year. She takes the duty of flower girl very seriously. And I think she is perfect for the job! We had the joy of watching her walk down the isle at my brother's wedding this past August. And then just two weekends ago she was the flower girl in our dear friends wedding. It was so fun to watch her go down the isle. And I wish I had it on video, but halfway down she recognized someone who she had just met the night before at the rehearsal dinner. She looked at him and almost paused as she waved and said, "Hi!". It was really cute! One of the coolest parts was at the end of the ceremony though (coolest of course aside from the bride and groom being pronounced husband and wife!). The groom had one more groomsmen than their were bridesmaids. Nik was the best man so he came in with Brandon (the groom) at the beginning of the ceremony as opposed to walking a bridesmaid down. That left him without a bridesmaid to walk down the isle with after the ceremony. So, he got the honor of escorting the flower girl, and his precious daughter Elise, back down the isle. It was really precious! I will try to get a picture of it!

Laundry Baskets

I have two really fun memories of Elise and laundry baskets. One night, when she was just a couple of months old, I was doing laundry. I had a bunch of clean clothes in the laundry basket and a sleeping baby in my arms. It was time to go to bed and I needed to bring both Elise and the laundry basket down the hall. Obviously I couldn't both carry Elise and the basket so a moment of brilliance (brilliance by my standards!) came. I could put Elise in the basket and then carry the basket down the hall. The basket was a little heavy, but it worked quite well. And Elise was so tired she didn't even notice.




When she was maybe 16 months or so, she had another laundry basket encounter. I had our dirty clothes laundry basket downstairs for laundry. I had just emptied it and Elise wanted in. So we put her in the basket, and she really thought it was the coolest things ever. I think that the picture we got of her is one of our favorites of her!

(original post 10-16-08)

Happy!

Yesterday, I think it was after dinner or something, Joel looked at me and he just said it..."Happy!". He had a huge smile on his face. I couldn't believe it. This little boy, completely on his own, was telling us that at the very moment he was happy. I don't think we use that word a ton, and I don't think we even ask him if he's happy too often. But somewhere he picked up what it means. Today he threw himself at me and gave me the hugest hug - he gives amazing bear hugs by the way! Right before he dove at me though, he said, "Happy!". So while I didn't get the spontaneous "happy" on video, I got a version of him saying it. If you listen carefully, you can actually here him say, "I'm happy." Enjoy!

Wakey Time

As I mentioned in another blog, my newborns, like most, were sleepyheads! Those first several days, we really treasured the awake time with our babies because they were few and far between. I could have just stared at them forever, looking into those beautiful newborn blue eyes.

Cranky!

Cranky, cranky, cranky! Elise was rarely cranky as a baby. She was a sweet little doll baby who rarely got upset. This photo we got of her is just about the only one we have like it. Joel on the other had frequently got, and still gets, quite upset. As a newborn it was partly due to the pain caused by the acid reflux he had. But as we quickly learned, it is also just part of how he is wired. As I mentioned in another blog, Joel is extreme. Life is awesome or life just stinks! And when he gets upset he gets really upset! This picture of him well desribes one side of our dear Joely. I love this boy!!

)original post 10-14-08)

Snuggling with my babies

As a mom of a new baby I was very big on getting my kids on a schedule. And I had my kids sleeping in their own beds from day one. But I also loved holding them while they slept, and I often couldn't resist holding onto them during their nap time instead of putting them in their beds. I love how you can just hold a newborn, and they just sleep. I just love it!!


I swaddled both Elise and Joel. For Elise the swaddling only lasted a few weeks. She was a kicker. She kicked me in the womb and actually caused me so much pain in my abdomen that it took a couple of months after her birth for the pain to completely go away. As soon as she was born I got to see what she was doing in my tummy. She would stretch out her legs as far as they would go and then kick both legs together up and down. It was so funny - I would often hear her kicking on her mattress from the next room. So with all her kicking she would usually break out of her swaddle within minutes. It quickly became a lost cause.
Joel on the other hand was not a kicker. He loved to be swaddled, and we actually swaddled him for a long time. He suffered from acid reflux as a baby and so he actually really struggled with sleeping at naptime. 45 minutes was usually the longest amount of time he would sleep for during a nap (thankfully he slept great at night!). Anyway, I tried just about everything in attempts to help him sleep better, in addition to medication. We tried elevating his crib, putting on a noise maker, and of course, swaddling. I had to work with him for several months, but by about his third or fourth month he finally got consistent with his naps. By this time he was pretty hooked on being swaddled, so I was nervous to stop. But summer came and it got too hot for it. We stopped swaddling and he adjusted well!