Laughing?

Yep.  On Saturday, during bath time, our little Ellen-door had her first laugh.  She's been so close for a few weeks and she finally let loose.  We didn't get the best ones on camera, but on this clip you can hear her get really close.  Sooooo cute.

She loves baths.  Mike got a few stills of some of her biggest smiles on Saturday, too. 

{This one's my favorite.}

{Not really smile, but still a cute face.}

Happy Happy Halloween!

Most of you have probably already seen this via facebook, but here we are at Mike's work party for Halloween:

I know, I know.  It's pretty much the same as 2 years ago, all I did was make a turtle (technically a koopa) costume for the baby.  I just knew there was no way I would get 4 new costumes finished, what with still figuring out how to mom 2 kids.  I did make Mim's hat a little easier for her to wear (she still was sick of it by the time we were making our last visits). 

I have to say, Mike's work party was pretty much the ideal audience for these costumes.  A bunch of computer guys and their kids- we didn't have to explain to anybody who we were.  Mike even won an honorable mention in the costume contest.  I'm pretty sure that if they had done it after me and the girls got there he would have won.  I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, for next year we're planning on an all new theme, so just you wait. 

Sisters

Mim loves Elle.  Here's some proof:
I also want to post this video so I don't forget how Mim says Eleanor (Ellen-door).  It's my favorite. 

At the end, when she's talking about nose honking and falling asleep, that's about a game she plays with her daddy- she honks his nose and he falls asleep, then she gives him a kiss to wake him up.  It's sweet.

And now another Eleanor post

Last post was about Mim, now it's time for another Elle one.  She's almost 2 months now (whoa!) and I need to start writing all her little cute infant things down, because I'm going to forget. 

+She is the gruntiest, squeakiest baby in the world.  Now that she's getting older, she's started throwing in more and more coos, as well.  I love it.  Recently, she's started getting close to laughing.  It's wonderful.

+She, like Mim, likes her kicking around time.  She's perfectly happy just lying on her back, looking all around, and kicking and rocking from side to side.  She loves her little baby mirror and is caring more about the things I set out for her to look at during tummy time. 

+She is a little fatty fat kid baby.  She weighs around 13 or so pounds (I weighed myself holding her, then without to figure it). 

+She loves having her diaper changed.  I don't know if it's having naked legs or the undivided attention or both, but she just smiles her little heart out. 

+She loves Mim, mostly.  She smiles while Mim plays with her, and looks around when she hears Mim's voice (like she does for me and Mike).

+The other day Eleanor heard Mim crying and she put on her big frowny/pouty face and shed a few tears for her sister (who was in time out).  It goes the other way, too, although Mim is usually just crying for attention (literally) when the baby cries.

+She started smiling socially on the early end of things, at about a month old.  Hooray!

+She's a good sleeper.  Not amazing, like Mim was, but good.  She's consistently doing one 6 hour stretch, then about 2 good stretches after that that vary in length.  Then she wakes up for an hour or so and then sleeps some more.

+She's great at sleeping in the bassinet.  I'm so glad.  It took me a long time to get Mim to nap well in the crib (versus my arms), but Eleanor seems to sleep better without me.  Nice. 

+She's strong (like Mim).  So far, neither of my babies have been cuddlers.  Eleanor could hold her head up off me even as a newborn and apparently she prefers that.  She just likes looking around, I guess. 

I think that's a pretty good sum up of my littlest.  We love her.  Now, after all that talk about what a cheerful baby she is, here's a picture of her getting grumpy while she was being my helper in the kitchen:

I wuv my famie

Mim says that pretty much every night before family prayer.  She tells us all individually, too.  "I wuv my mommy, I wuv my daddy, I wuv my Ellen-door."  It's so sweet.  She's so fun right now and is just constantly learning.  She still loves letters (I've had a long post just about that that's been in the works since before the littlest came along) and has recently been into coloring and drawing a lot more.  She draws her people with the legs and arms coming right out of their heads; I love it.  She's also become quite the sculptor.  She was introduced to Play-Dough at a play date with her cousins at Grammy's house and will play with it for over an hour by herself, even longer if someone joins in.  It's great.

If she's not coloring, playing with Play-Dough, or wanting to read books, she's usually playing dress up.  She has a few princess (pince-pass) skirts and always wants to wear church clothes.  She's been obsessed with tights lately, ever since I had her wear some a few weeks ago.  Most afternoons she's usually abandoned her first outfit and is wearing just tights with a shirt.  Oh, and a pull-up (she's not opposed to going commando, but I am very much against it, since she's still only partially potty trained).

I started this post several weeks ago and have been waiting for our printer/scanner to be hooked up again so I could scan in some of the pictures she's drawn, but today I realized I can just take pictures of her pictures.  Duh. 

{This is one she did a few weeks ago of me.  The circles around my eyes are glasses.  And I have like 8 arms.}

{A self portrait.}

{Just this last week she's started drawing letters.  She does, H, O, I, L, C, and E.}

{Chalk people on the porch.}

{My little big girl.}