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.}

Blessed baby

Eleanor's blessing was on Sunday.  It was a lovely day and Mike gave her a lovely blessing.  He told me after that he kept getting distracted while he was blessing her because she kept looking at him and smiling.  Awwww.  That's my pleasant baby, though.  She's a happy little chubby thing, although I've been consistently failing at getting a picture of one of her big smiles. 

Mike's family has quite the collection of blessing heirlooms, too many for any single baby to wear at once, so Ellie Belly and I had a little photo shoot on Sunday morning.

{CHEEKS.}

The heirlooms:
The christening gown was worn by Karen (she brought over a picture on Monday of her wearing it as a baby) when she was christened and by Mike and all his siblings when they were blessed.  Mim wore it, too.
The blankets that are the backdrop- one was made by Karen's grandmother, the other by Hugh's mother (Monica- where we got Eleanor's middle name).
There were two sweaters- one made by Karen's grandmother, another made by Hugh's mom.
Two sets of booties- one pair that Nanny made for Mim, one pair that was made by Karen's grandmother.
The bonnet- made by Karen while she was teaching a French hand sewing class (fancy, right?).  I was delighted when she showed it to me because I had wanted to make a bonnet to go with the dress, but it didn't happen.  I love how old fashioned and sweet they are. 

After sacrament meeting, we went to my parents' for a little light lunch. Thanks again, wonderful family, for making it happen!  The kids all played outside and most people that wanted a turn with the baby got one (or maybe not- all I know is that someone else was holding her every time I looked around).

These two have been being little friends the last few months and it's super cute:

The littlest with her handsome daddy (I switched her into my blessing dress at the luncheon):

She looks worried, but my dad's only burping her.

 

It was a wonderful wrap up to an excellent week.  Speaking of excellent weeks, this was probably Mim's favorite ever.

Excellent week for Mim= On Wednesday, Mim got to go to the Jr. High preschool as the guest of her cousin, Maddie.  We walk past an elementary school on our walks and Mim calls all the kids there her friends and tells me every time we pass that when she's a very big girl, she'll go to school with all her friends.  She's really excited about school.

After the preschool we had a playdate with Ari and Will at Grandma's house.  On Thursday Gramma and Lexi came by with dinner and then Nana came by with all the heirlooms.  Somebody else visited too, and now I can't remember.  Then on Friday, Kaid and Granpa were over here doing sprinkler stuff and Gramma was here for a little bit.  On Saturday a whole bunch of family was over, helping put in our sprinklers.  So really, Sunday was just the grand finale to what I'm sure was Mim's greatest week ever.  

{Playing dress up with Maren on Saturday- Mike says this is the cutest picture that's ever been taken}

Excellent week for me= Getting sprinklers in!!  Rather, Kaid and assorted family getting our sprinklers in!!  Kaid was the foreman at our house again and he did an awesome job- it was all finished in 2 days.  And we have a big ol' yard.  It was great to have so much family over, and then to get to see them all the next day at Elle's blessing, too.  We have the best family ever.  And now, thanks to them, the girls and I get to have grassy shade next summer!

The quickest blog I've ever blogged.

Mim has these little bendable people figurines that are actually meant to hold office supplies (they have magnets on the ends of their hands) and she loves them.  There's a black one, which she says is daddy, a blue one, which she says is me, and a pink one (guess who the pink one is).  The other night she had them in the tub and Mike told me what she was having them say.  The daddy was saying he had to go to work and the mommy and Miriam ones were saying, no, no, no, don't go.  Then the daddy would come home and they were all happy.  I love it.