Ellie Update

Elena Anne had her six month checkup last week. She's 16.9 lbs, 26 inches and just as sweet as ever. She's about average for height and weight and is doing all sorts of new and adorable things. I love this age! Now if she would just drop her 4:30 am feeding, I would be thrilled :)

Some of her cute new things:

 Sitting up unassisted and playing with toys :)

Graduating from the swing and bouncy seat to the walker/exersaucer :)

Discovering the cat!

And the cutest of all:

Her first official "babbling"! I will try to get a better video of this, but you can clearly understand what shes' saying, right? :)

Mia's Forest

I love where we live. We have a great old neighborhood with lots of nice people and we can walk to schools, restaurants, shops, movies etc. etc. Recently our little Colley Avenue even got street performers, which I think is super cool.

That being said, we do have a rather urban existence. Yards are small, so we walk to nearby parks on a regular basis. We are also fortunate enough to have a Nature Preserve at the far end of our neighborhood. Mia loves this place, which is only open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-5. She calls it her "forest" and asks all the time if it is "open". My poor kid is growing up thinking that forests have operating hours! :)

One day I dream of moving to the country with no neighbors and only fields and horses and forests as far as I can see. For now though, we'll make do with Mia's forest.

Playing Tarzan!

Happy Half Birthday Ellie!

It is hard to believe that it has been 6 months since our little Elliebean entered our lives! She is such a joy and we all just love her to pieces! Mia's new favorite thing is to make Ellie laugh. Check out the video below--you are guaranteed to laugh (or at least smile) too!

Mia also loves to "hug" Ellie which is often a bit rougher than we would like. But Ellie tolerantly puts up with it.

This is super cute too. I love how Mia reads to her!

The 1/2 Birthday Girl. Could she be any cuter??

This is actually a lot longer, but I can only upload so much. You get the idea though :)

Twin Day

Finally got around to dressing the girls in the same outfits from Aunt Alexis :) 

I still can't get a photo with two good smiles though!

This is an example of how you are much more laid back w/the second child. Of course I was horrifed that she chewed on the dirty old swing, but I had to get a picture first!

Mia loved pushing Ellie.

Cool feature on new camera lets me do some of the photo in black and white and some in color. Stay tuned for more playing around with this!

Back to School!

Ahhhh, school is back in session! Mia goes 3 mornings a week at her same little preschool. She's had so many changes since this time last year! She's potty trained, sleeps in a big bed, and has a little sister! Lots of her little friends have had similar years, so I'm sure they had a lot to catch up on during recess! :) 

First Day of School Sept 2010 on top and Sept 2009 on bottom. She's not a fan of smiling in front of the sign I guess :) But look how much older she looks!

I still can't bring myself to cut her hair, but I know it has to happen soon. I just love her curls.

Lesson learned

If I've learned anything over the past few days, it must be this:
NEVER LET YOUR THREE YEAR OLD ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR CAMERA!!

First, Mia (who has her own, adorable, orange digital camera that she got last Christmas) attempted to turn off my camera by pushing the lens down on the table as hard as she could. After a week or so of trying to fix it ourselves, Sean decided to take it in to Best Buy and see what our options were.  He brought Mia, and the camera, in order to compare it to the others. Can you guess where this is going? While consulting with the salesman, Mia somehow got a hold of the camera. Again. And that is the last we saw of it. Oh, and it had 2 years worth of photos on it because I have (had) a giant memory card and a problem with deleting old photos. I'm so bummed that someone swiped the broken camera and I'm trying not to be too bothered by the fact that they now have all of our old photos. Ick. At least I have them all on the computer and most of the good ones printed by now, but still... what a pain.

So, I got an early birthday present and I'm having fun playing with it.  But I am keeping it as far away as I possibly can from my Mia.

Who me??

Ha! Trouble is written all over her face! 

Ellie is teething like crazy right now. I can't seem to find anything to give her relief. She liked this cold carrot for a bit today though.