That's what's been goin' on.

* I'm getting a new nephew this winter!  I couldn't be happier about this little guy, and I hope he looks just like Kris  :)

* I've been offline recently due to a small technical disaster.  I can still close my eyes and envision my sweet Elyse trying to take a drink of water out of my big girl cup not three feet from our computer.  The wave of water splashing onto the keyboard is forever etched upon my mind.  Note to self: do NOT plan to cook chicken enchiladas, talk on the phone, and expect that your toddler will sit quietly and twiddle her thumbs. :)

* My girls are getting so big.  Schedules have aligned lately in such a way that these two get to go through the bedtime routine together. I love having a girl on each knee as we try to read, sing, pray, and keep Emily's hands from touch Elyse in any way.  Ah, sisterhood.

* Elyse won't stop talking.  No, I'm not upset about this, but it's just the way it is.  I should count how many times I hear "Mommy?" in a day, but I'm not sure I could.  It's quite possibly the most adorable stage yet.  I hear "look at this!" and "C'ya!" at least 4 billion times during a day.  She makes her hand go "bye bye" under her shirt (while laughing hysterically), and she loves to identify each and every item around the house.  "Mommy?  Emmie's banket."  "Mommy?  New shoes."  I do love "Mommy hug" and "Mommy kiss" the best!  Lately, she's been confirming her obedience by chanting, "I will obey Mommy, Daddy, Emmie..."  Can't wait to tell Emily that one some day...

* Emily is just loving life.  Plain and simple.

* We pulled out the little pink potty the other week to break Big E into seeing what her little potty looks like.  She seems to love looking at it.  Going on it, not so much.  We'll take that one slowly...  We do have a lot of "potty" language going on, though :)  FUN.

* New favorite moment with my girls: as I'm burping Emily, Elyse loves to come up closely to her face and just smile at her.  Emily just smiles back :)

* I've made at least 6 trips to the grocery store this week.  3 of them were made in the span of 1 hour.

* Elyse loves having tea parties.  We had a tea party this morning with Daddy & Emily.  Elyse downed the pretend sugar bowl.

* It's been raining for three straight days, and I've actually loved the excuse to stay in with my girls!  Plus, naps have been longer :)

* I am totally and completely addicted to Smuckers Natural Creamy PB.  New favorite snack: stir a spoonful of pb into a bowl of vanilla yogurt- add a chopped apple or a crushed graham cracker.  Yep.  Deeeeelish.

* Emily is almost officially out of her 0-3 month clothes.  She still seems tiny to me, but she's obviously not that tiny...

* Elyse is totally and completely addicted to cornbread & grapes.  I can get her to eat just about ANYTHING if there's a grape or a piece of cornbread waiting for her.  It's SO so so so great.

* Elyse loves to drag a blanket around the house lately.  She also loves to say "cuddle" and actually does cuddle with me if I'm on the couch.  I love it.

* I'm starting to wonder when Elyse will automatically say "thank you."  I've only been prompting her for a few months, but I'm starting to wonder when she'll pick it up on her own.  Hmm...  I must say, that will be nice.

* Emily's awake more these days.  I really like that.  I think she's awake between 50 min and 1 hour between feedings.  I get kind of sad when she goes down for a nap!  I do love hearing Elyse say, "Emmie take nap; bye bye, Emmie!"

* We have a silly book called "Baby Face" - I think I actually got it at a grocery store (lame), but pictures in the book describe facial expressions, and one of them is called "yummy face."  The baby in the picture has nasty sauce smeared all over his face.  What is that?  There is no expression called "yummy."  Plus, I'm not a fan of that word.  Sure enough, Elyse had spaghetti all over her face the other day... You guessed it! "Mommy?  YUMMY face."  Guess I should start previewing books before I pay even a buck for them :)  

* I made the most ridiculously delicious minestrone soup the other night.  Yummy face!  J/k... :)

* I love my husband.  He's seriously so nice to me.  From making coffee to other random thoughtful gestures, he makes me thankful every day that we got married.

Four Months Old!

Wow.  I seriously need to come up with more creative titles to these posts.  Emily Mae almost missed getting a special post today because Mommy almost went to bed without remembering to post this!  But, how can I neglect these important milestones and still sleep well???  We have lovingly nicknamed Em our little piglet these days.  Partly because she's suffered from 3 colds this summer (yuk), but also because she's got that natural newborn stuffiness you hear about in the "What To Expect" books :)  Yes, I'm admitting that I actually took her to the doctor to find out why in the world she still sounded stuffy weeks after a cold.  I'm sure the doctor was really impressed with my keen maternal senses.  She's also our little piglet because she seems quite tiny (though she was almost 13 pounds a couple of weeks ago) and loves to raise her eyebrows in the most genuine look of innocence and curiosity that I've ever seen.  Okay, that might not have much to do with piglet, but she kind of looks like piglet, too :)  Emily enjoys playing on her tummy, which is fun, but she still doesn't notice very many toys.  Perhaps that's because she's too busy following her big sister with her eyes?  Elyse is her primary source of entertainment!  She loves to give Elyse big smiles and even "talks" to her.  Not only is Emily's jabbering incredibly loud at times, but she's so expressive with her inflections :)  She is starting to do some 12 hour stretches at night, so Mommy is LOVING that!  She loves Mommy, Daddy, Elyse and long walks in her double stroller.  Here are my new (or repeat, since not that much has changed...) fun's and not-so-fun's for this month:

fun's:

* having her wake up happy in the morning
* watching her wiggle her little eyebrows
* She is almost constantly fidgeting with her hands and fingers!  I have no idea why, but she always seems so busy :)
* smiles, smiles, smiles
* she is interacting with us all so much more, but she especially interacts with Elyse
* hearing the girls "work it out" in their room at night :)  Sometimes I just have to sit here on the couch and laugh as they try to talk over each other!  I know it's only the beginning...
* This should probably be in the next category, but I believe I'm sensing a fake cry??

not-so-fun's:

* still dealing with weekly blowouts.  Seriously.  When will this end?
* Emily still jumps a mile when Elyse gets up in her face and laughs or yells...
* The poochy lip is killin' me!!
* She's getting less flexible when she misses a nap & she's not falling asleep as much in random locations...
* She's outgrowing all of her cute baby stuff, and I think I might need to do some shopping for her winter wardrobe!

Emily Mae, you can quit getting big anytime now!  STOP!  We love you to pieces and can't imagine what our family was like without you!

A couple of funnies...

While it's on my brain, I thought I'd type out a few of the funny things that Elyse has done lately...

* The other day, Elyse was digging in my clean laundry basket and discovered a pair of my shorts.  She likes to identify laundry, so she immediately said, "Daddy shorts."  I responded by saying, "No, those are Mommy's shorts."  She said, "Daddy shorts" a few times and finally left and went to check with Daddy since I apparently wasn't giving her the right answers.  She holds the shorts up to Jordan and says, "Daddy shorts."  Jordan responded just like I did.  After a few more go-a-rounds, Elyse stood up and yelled, "DADDY SHORTS!!!!" at the top of her lungs :)  For a 20 month old, that's one stubborn response!  We then had a short discussion about arguing that went totally over her head.

* We were at a friend's house Saturday night, and they have a dog named Riley.  Elyse really like Riley and enjoyed playing with her for a few minutes.  A couple of days later, we had some new friends over to the house, and their little girl is named Rylee.  I told Elyse that her little friend had arrived, and she laughed and said, "Riley, woof woof!"  She barked at her a few more times before she eventually forgot.  :)

* Elyse was playing with her doll house, and she held up one of the little beds and asked, "Whazzat?"  I responded it was a bed.  She repeated, "Bed.  Nana bed."  This girl is obsessed with banana bread!!!