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I think I saw a ghost!

Granted, I put EVERYTHING in my mouth, but I’m not so sure about this

This isn’t mine! It’s Elliott’s!

I ‘m a little MOBILE monkey these days!

While watching her first movie, Finding Nemo, Natalie made the suggestion that Nemo’s dad “should take an airplane to find Nemo”.

While Jordan was sneaking spinach into the morning smoothie, Natalie tattled to me: “Daddy is putting salad in my protein shake!”

Elliott is such a playful little buddy. He LOVES peak-a-boo and often initiates the game. If I’m changing his diaper and give him a lovey to play with or set his pants on his tummy, he grabs whatever and puts it over his face. He then chuckles and squirms until I saw “Where’s Elliott???” and pull the fabric down. Then, repeat. Again and again. I really think he’s quite advanced. 🙂

He LOVES rasberries lately too. Once again, he initiates and loves when you make a silly noise back.

Finally, we’re trying to teach him sign language…. we found it so helpful when our former nanny Kaila taught Natalie signs like “more” when she was about 15 mo. old. I guess you can start as early as 6 mo. So, we’re starting with Milk and Sister. Which are two of his fav things. Our current nanny Phoebe told us that Elliott was just cracking up at the sign for sister. So cute. Those two are good buds.

How is this just not the cutest thing ever? I am such a lucky Mama.

Hey there little brother….

These two were enjoying Mr. Singer this morning! Natalie and Mr. Singer had an extensive conversation at the end of the concert… she told him that Nana works in the garden, that she was going to ask Nana where Poppy was, that her Daddy read Madeline to her this morning and that her brother’s name is Elliott. Mr. Singer commented that he feels like Natalie understands his music more than most kids and that makes him happy. He carried and talked to her for a couple minutes – I was very surprised that Nat would go to him for so long, esp. since he was uber-sweaty.

Nana’s friend from the garden, Gloria, showed Natalie how to be a farmer by laying down hay. Natalie also liked the watermelon and spiky cucumber that Nana shared! “Nana, do you have a snack for me in the garden???”

Farming is fun, Gloria. Can I have some more hay??

We give Mammaw, Pappaw and Pop credit for jumping out of bed to join us. Elliott was kinda zoned out when Mammaw arrived, so I had to get down low to catch his attention. He also tried hay this morning.

Yep, just hanging with my ladies….

The sun was super bright, hence my inability to get a good pic where both kids were smiling, but this is still super cute.

The sun is too bright! Mom’s glasses are too big! I want a snack! I want to see an animal!

Before nap, Natalie and I read Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems, which we got from the library and is a fav of hers right now. In it, Trixie dreams that Knuffle Bunny travels the world…. we think the pics are of China, Bolivia, Hawaii, Alaska, Italy, and London. When I ask Natalie where she wants to visit, she always answers…. “Alaska, where Aunt Leah is!”

Natalie keeps us laughing… its amazing to hear the things that she’s thinking about and the connections she’s making. We hear a lot of it – this girl can be a chatterbox.

Last night, Natalie decided that she needed to feed her Baby Ellie. She’s done this before, but always used a bottle. For some reason, last night, she decided to feed Baby Ellie just like I feed Elliott, so she set up her purple chair, wrapped a neck pillow around her torso and had me get Baby Ellie for her. A lot of set up for Mom… while the act of feeding took all of 30 seconds.

This weekend, she’s also been pregnant, had a baby and put the baby back in. She keeps on carrying around her “tiny little baby” (basically, an invisible baby that seems to be the size of her hand). However, she puts it back inside when it’s time to eat because she “doesn’t want to share my peanut butter and jelly (sandwich)”. Smart girl. If only it was that easy.

Natalie’s loving pretend play. Even a walk in the neighborhood has many opportunities, such as picking blue carrots out of “mud” holes in the sidewalk on the way to church/Nana’s house. When she doesn’t have a pocket to hold her carrots, she pretty much digs into the front part of her diaper (yes, she’s still in diapers). I think I’m going to have to strategically pick outfits with pockets for weekend walks for now on.

Natalie loves hide and seek lately. The four of us had a great game of hide and seek going at the park. Of course, she was famished so munched on pretend animal crackers for much of the seeking portion.

She’s also obsessed with her little farm animals as of late. They love to play doll house too. The pig and sheep are her fav.

Finally, Natalie’s really concerned with football losses. She was so sad that the Packers lost last weekend (oddly… the Packers win today didn’t seem to have as much of an impact). When Jordan was talking about the Notre Dame – Arizona State game yesterday, she asked “What’s that?” I responded that its a football game, but when she’s older she can go to Notre Dame for college, not Arizona State. She asked Why not Arizona State? Dad responded that the girls are too slutty… and I responded that she’s too smart. Jordan chimed in that she could go to UW-Madison, Harvard, or Princeton too…. gotta start this college talk early, right?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pics to share with these stories, as Natalie loves taking pictures lately, but not being in them. I was able to snap a pic of Natalie and my college roommate Tricia (who was in town for work and kindly carved out 2.5 hours to spend time with us!) on the swings. I have a few other randoms that I’ll include in here too.

Another under-duck please

I’m a giraffe. Munch. Munch

Two people doing tummy time

After a lot of teething, little E cut his first tooth!!! We will try to get a pic tomorrow! This close up doesn’t show it !

Natalie is a silly, goofy little girl…. who likes to tease and play tricks. Nearly every night, when she gets her vitamin, she gleefully runs away with my vitamin. She used to hide it behind her back. Now, she puts it under her bum while sitting in Elliott’s pod and squirms around. I usually have to close my eyes, open my mouth and count to c (a, b, c) to get her to give it to me…. these minutes are always filled with tons of giggles and smiles. The other night, when doing this routine, Natalie stuck her foot in my mouth on C. I was seriously surprised – which she just LOVED. I guess sniffing her smelly feet (a long time favorite game) wasn’t enough… I needed to taste them. Thankfully, she had had a bath that day!

A trickster? Who? Me? Never!

Natalie, Elliott and I met Nana, Pop, Mammaw and Pappaw at the Farm Zoo this morning. Natalie showed everyone around the farm zoo – the cows, pig, ponies, barn, tractor, chicks, owl and rabbit. We saw many different types of poop (always interesting). Mammaw and Pappaw get around incredibly well and we feel lucky that we were able to spend such a nice morning with them. It’s also great to have many adults available to help carry Elliott, who is increasingly curious, wiggly and heavy.

I don’t have a picture of this, but Elliott’s favorite animals were the baby chicks. Mammaw discovered that if you went to the side of the casing, you could get a really close look at the chicks. I put Elliott right up there, and he was grabbing for them and pumping his arms. Four little chicks lined up to see Elliott too. It was really adorable.

Photo credits: Poo and Nana

Just your standard tractor ride through the City

Ride ’em Cowboy!

Whoa. Those cows are aggressive!

Just your standard 10:55am lunch!

A night to remember! Today is the first day that Natalie initiated an “I love you” without anyone prompting her or saying it to her first. I am such a lucky mama! Let the weekend begin!

It happened while we were reading her fav book as of late: Madeleine (the ones when she goes to the hospital and is rescued by a dog)

Update: The following day, Natalie offered impromptu “I love you’s” to Elliott and Dado too!

Happy 6 Months, Elliott!!!!

Hey there.... I'm enjoying being the center of attention! Cheese!

I cannot believe Elliott is 6 months old!  I feel like we are definitely past the newborn stage and totally enjoying time with our son who has an incredibly sweet disposition!

Weight / Height. At his 6 mo appt (which was about a week late), Elliott measured 21 lbs, 4 oz (95th percentile), 28.75 inches (95th+ percentile) and head circumference of 18.25 inches (95th+ percentile).  So, he’s about the size of an average 9 or 10-mo old.  (No wonder my upper back and wrist/forearms ache when carrying him!) For comparison, at 6 months, Natalie was in the 33rd percentile for height (don’t have the exact inches in front of me) and 19 lbs, 5 oz (97th+ percentile).  I was 17 lbs, 11.5 oz and 25.75 inches.  Jordan was 21.5 lbs and 27 inches.

Disposition/Personality:  Elliott is THE BEST little baby.  He’s easy going, smiley and goes with the flow.  Sometimes, when we’re on a family outing, Jordan will jokingly say “Elliott, Behave!” after he’s been quietly cruising in the stroller for 30 minutes without so much of a peep.  He pretty much only gets fussy if he is having a bad teething day.  Other than that, as long as we honor his sleeping and eating schedule, this boy is as good as gold!

Oh mom... did you hear the Flamingos talk? They are hilarious!

Schedule: Elliott wakes up around 6:30 or 7am and goes to bed around 6 or 6:30pm.  He usually naps 3 times a day, for a total of about 3.5 hours (9 am, 12:30pm, and 4pm), though sometimes that last nap is missed if the 2nd nap starts later and is long.  He always eats after he wakes for the day or from the nap, as well as right before bed and one time around 2am.

Developmental Milestones: Elliott is loves to roll and tries desperately to crawl.  Although he’s not there yet, he can pivot and rotate, meaning he’s often at quite a different angle than I expect to be after leaving the room for a minute.  He is not a proficient sitter yet… but, let’s be honest, we probably haven’t given him as many opportunities to do so.  Elliott and I were rolling a ball back and forth with Natalie and Baby Ellie yesterday, and he was able to sit in the tripod pose for 10-15 sec or so.  Reading back on Natalie’s blog, she was sitting for a few minutes at a time by now (but couldn’t roll).

He is great at passing things between hands and can even put his paci in his mouth.  Everything is all about teething.  I think I spent $50 on teething remedies last week.

He has tried oatmeal baby cereal.  (No rice cereal for this guy, since I read about it being laced with arsenic a couple years ago.)  He is definitely confused and trying to figure out precisely what to do… but Elliott is so happy, its hard to even captured a confused look on his face.  The moment I say his name or take out a camera, he’s smiling.  Lucky for Elliott, I am much better at making baby cereal… somehow, Natalie’s managed to be crunchy the first time.  I must have bought the wrong stuff!

What IS this stuff? Please pass the milk instead....

Ooo... this gummy spoon feels awesome on my sore gums!

Favorite Activities: 1) Swinging at the park.  2) Gumming on anything and everything.  3) Watching his big sister – I think he was even laughing at her dancing the other day.  4) laying in her bouncy gym (especially “eating” the apple in it).  5) Rough housing with Dado.  6) Hearing me sing “Elliott Elliott Man” to the tune of Nacho Man.  7) Standing and Bouncing.  8) Playing the Sophie, Be Quiet Game with Dad.

Hey, I know you!

Favorite Places to Go: Anywhere!  Once again, he is so good!  He likes to go to the park, pick up Natalie at preschool and visit Nana, Pop, Alex, Jira and Clayton at their new house less than a half-mile away from us.  One of Natalie’s favorite places to go was her friend’s houses… he doesn’t really have a lot of friends his age yet.  Life more revolves around 2.75 year old Natalie and her friends.  However, I’m hoping to sign them up for a baby story time at the library, so he can interact more with his “peers”!

Where are those silly flamingos?