Happy Birthday Amelia!!

Dear Amelia,

We can hardly believe that our beautiful, bubbly, brilliant little girl is three years old today! You continue to amaze us on a daily basis with your humor, intelligence and creativity! We could not be more proud to be your parents and we are holding on tight to our little girl because each year seems to be flying by faster than the one before. We know that 3-year olds are not necessarily the most rational and cooperative creatures, but we celebrate your strong-willed independence and ask that you have patience with us as we learn how to work with you :) Happy Happy Birthday to our dear daughter. We love you sooooooo much.
Love, Mommy and Daddy

The big bday present!

4 Month Stats

Our little Ellie bean is 4 months old and doing great. At her check up last week she weighed in at 14 lbs, 15 oz., (75%) and 25 1/4 inches (90%). This is a reversal from her 2 month stats, and the Dr said that is great, since she's more active now! She's had a bit of a sleep regression and is waking up again in the middle of the night to eat. I think she's hungry! We may start some rice cereal trials in the next few weeks just for fun! She's grabbing for her toys and does this really cute nose-scrunching thing that I'll try to get on video.

Her big sis has a big birthday coming up next weekend! Can't wait! Hope everyone is staying cool--it is an oven out there!!

The girls at 4 months

Hooray!! Ellie is napping in her crib right now, which means she's not napping on me, or in the stroller or car-seat, which means I have some ME TIME! I've been wanting to go through old photos of Mia and compare them to Ellie to see how/if they resemble each other at this age.

Their baby personalities are so different. Mia was more intense and serious and it took some work to get her to smile at first. She has always been very independent and brave. Ellie's default expression is a smile and she laughs at so many things, from her big sister to her own feet.

Anyway, here are a few photos of them at around 4 mths of age. Do you see much resemblance? They are both as beautiful as can be, but I really don't think they look alike, yet.

MIA AT 4 MONTHS:

ELLIE AT 4 MONTHS:

Summer Summer Summertime

Hola! Apologies for being a lazy blogger lately. We certainly haven't had a lazy summer so far though! We are all doing well and trying to stay cool.

Mia is almost 3 which is just crazy. She's doing really well with potty training (finally!) and after a visit to the ENT specialist, her ears check out just fine and she'll likely outgrow any problems she's had. She taking another gym class this summer and loves to swing on the bars and climb anything possible. We will be going to our local neighborhood pool for the month of August, and I'm sure she'll keep me on my toes as she shows no fear of water. Some of the cuter things she's done lately:

• Whenever the song "You are my Sunshine" comes on in the car (on one of her many "kids" cds) she says "Mom, this song makes me love you". Makes me melt everytime.
• She has adopted some strange New York/New Jersey accent for certain words and cracks us up. You have to hear her say "Waterside Drive". Hysterical.
• She loves her little inflatable "kiddie" pool which she calls her "kitty cat" pool.

Ellie is almost 4 months and as sweet and happy as ever. She's teething and constantly shoving her fist and fingers in her mouth. She has rolled over one way a few times and is just content to go with the flow. That is a good thing because we've been very active!

We had a fabulous visit from the cousins and Aunt Katie and Uncle Maz. We did something fun everyday; beach trips, botanical gardens, and Busch Gardens! Wish we could see them all the time!

So, not a dull summer so far... which is good because staying home with 2 small children can definitely be a challenge. By the end of summer I hope to have Ellie sleeping in her crib full-time, and Mia fully potty trained. Wish me luck! We also want to squeeze in more beach visits, trips to see family and friends and maybe even a date night! :)

Hope you are enjoying summer! Photos below in no particular order...

We obviously have to root for Spain to win the World Cup!

Mia LOVED all the rides at Busch Gardens.

Gabriel and Norah hangliding :)

Maz/Katie, will you please send your better photo w/all 4? :)

Such a sweet face.

Ellie's baptism

We had Elena baptised last weekend at a fabulous church in Southern Maryland. The priest (a Mt. St. Mary's grad!) and parishioners were so incredibly welcoming and friendly. Elena was an angel and we enjoyed a yummy seafood lunch with friends and family after the (2-hr long!) mass.

Pictures courtesy of Alexis and Delight as I completely forgot to grab my camera!

The proud Godparents, Alexis and Dave!

Father Scott

Sleepy Ellie

This is where we found Mia and Maddie and the other kids during lunch.

Group shot :)

Grandpa W visit

We had a nice, quick visit w/Grandpa W last week. He got to meet Elena and play with Amelia. You gain a whole new perspective on your parents when you have your own small kids. It was sweet to see Grandpa with the litte ones and we hope to see him again soon :)

lots of cute

Is there anything cuter than a baby laughing? This is a very short clip and I'll try to get more soon. Now she's actually starting to chuckle! She is so happy :)




Photos too. Enjoy!

She's a Star :)

Mia's last preschool program of the year was as adorable as ever. This time more kids participated and they all look so much older than even Christmastime! Here are a few clips of our little star :)

2 months! and other stuff

Ellie had her 2-mth check up yesterday. She's doing great and growing very well. She's 23 inches long (50th percentile) and 12 lbs, 8oz. (90th percentile)! She is normally very happy and has started some extremely adorable laughing!

Mia has had fluid behind her ears, off and on, for over a year now, and we've finally decided to go to a specialist. We think she hears and speaks extremely well, but want to definitely rule out any hearing difficulties. Her pediatrician seems to think she'll just eventually grow out of it (the fluid issue) and we do too.

Mia continues to be wonderful with Ellie. She is struggling a little bit with sharing and playing nicely with her friends at school and on play dates, but we hope that we are being consistent with her and that she will soon outgrow this too. The late 2's have been much more challenging than the early 2's, and I hear that 3 is even tougher. Sigh.

I'm a bit sad that the first year of "pre-school" is almost over and I'm trying to plan some fun summer activities! Hopefully we'll get to Md. and Pa. to visit friends and family and have some visitors here too! We'll try to tackle the beach with 2 kids this summer and I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures to blog about.

We hope you are well. More from us soon.

They are both looking at the camera and smiling!

Checking in

Hola! We've been a busy little family of four lately and I haven't had much of a chance to blog. We've been spending lots of time outside enjoying the gorgeous weather!

Ellie continues to grow at an alarming rate and she's just as sweet and cute as can be.

See? :)

Sean spent the better part of last weekend putting this together.. What a great Dad! Mia loves it and it is so nice to let her play in the back yard while I can feed Ellie and watch her from the window!

We had a nice visit to the Botanical Gardens and Mia splashed and had a blast.

Mia is our little outdoors enthusiast and loved climbing this tree, until she discovered all of the ants. She's not a fan of insects lately.

All I wanted for Mother's Day was to sleep in (check!), not to clean (check!) and to have a picnic outside on the water (check!) We went to Town Point Park in Norfolk and watched the boats, played with hula hoops and had a lovely lunch.

She kind of needs to work on her form :)

To top it off, Sean made me this for dessert!

All in all, a great day! We hope you are well, and we'll check in again soon!

Sisters

Cheese!

Ellie started smiling and cooing this week!