Here's some stuff from May

Mim did gymnastics for a few months again this year. She loved it.
These are all from their exhibition that was at the end of May.

{She got pretty good at waiting for her turn; which is pretty much the most awesome thing you can ask for out of a 3-year old gymnastics class.}

{They would put the arms up and say ta-da before and after everything. This was pre-vault.}

 

 

 

{Oh dear.}

Hmmmmm. It won't upload the videos I have of all the events. I'll work on it later. First, I want to get to the rest of the May stuff.
Here are some pictures just from around the house:

 She loves setting the table (her stool or the piano bench) and having "pick-a-picks," especially with Mike.

{The chickens. They're giant now. It's Buffy, Pansy, Duchess, Leeroy Jenkins, and Lucille. }

{My cat is tolerant.}

{She insisted on sleeping with ALL her bears on her bed for about a month.}

{She still loves to color, especially with markers. LOVES it.}

 Gross. There's food in her mouth. But there's also teeth! She got those back in May, and now just in the last few days her top 2 have come through.

For Memorial Day, we went to Kangaroo Zoo with some friends. We had almost the whole place to ourselves, which I hadn't expected.

{I have quite a few pictures like this. Blurry and off-center- classic bounce house.}

Mim and Eleanor love to take baths together. So much. When Eleanor doesn't need a bath, they still play like this. It's really sweet.

Other stuff for May:
Eleanor started talking a bit. She knew "mama" and "dada" and "kitty." She's added on to her vocabulary now, but I'll post about it later. I need to get a video of her talking with that sweet little voice.

Easter!

I'm still trying to finish up Mim's 3 year old interview, so in the meantime, in non-chronological order, here's how we celebrated Easter.

On Saturday there was an Easter breakfast at my parents' house followed by an egg hunt, I missed the breakfast because I was teaching, but Mike and the girls made it. I was impressed with him- it was his first time getting the girls out of the house in the morning all by himself. Way to go, Mike!

I got there in time for the egg hunt, which was pretty good. Mim, Will, and Ari were all very excited and took off after all the "hidden" eggs. Mim was not above swooping in and grabbing one that had already been spotted by her cousin, much to Will's consternation.

After all the eggs were found we headed home to get ready for Mim's birthday party and our own Easter Egg hunt. We'll skip that for now- on to Sunday!

This was the first year that I did Easter baskets. Eleanor got baby food (I make most of it myself, but I like having some on hand for when we're out and about) and a ball, Mim got socks, flips flops (not to be worn together), and some bath stuff (she used ALL the bath paints in one hour-long bath a few days later). Nothing too crazy. I can't believe how overboard some people go with Easter baskets- it gets turned into another Christmas, present-wise. Yikes and no thank you.

That being said, I did splurge a little on some Easter dresses. I had plans to make some, but then saw the most adorable little pink dress at Costco- I impulse bought it for Mim, then decided to justify it, it would be her Easter dress. I found one a week later at Target for Elle- not too matchy-matchy, but similar.

{No smiles from Eleanor- she DID NOT like sitting on the grass.}

{This one's my favorite}

I hope you had a great Easter, too!

Oh dear

{Love the little foot poking out of her jammies}

This little stinker has been pulling up for about 4 weeks now. While it's fun to watch her hit all these milestones and grow up, I have to admit that this stage just isn't my favorite. There's too many bonked heads for me to really love it. Ahwell. She's pretty good at balancing, at least.

She loves her daddy

Beautiful

My lovely sister-in-law, Debbie, booked a session for my girls at Camera Shy, a photography place here in Lehi. We went Monday, and my lovely cousin who works there was our photographer. She did an excellent job; I couldn't be more pleased. I can't count how many times Mike has come into the living room and said, "You're looking at them again?" YEP. Seriously, I think I've gone through them all at least a dozen times.

Here are some of my favorites:

{She loves her dolly}

{Mike got her that balloon when they were out on Saturday- it's a cute story.}

{Love those ambiguous eyes. What color are they?}

{She's so smiley and happy in almost every picture that it was kind of extra exciting to see this one.}

{She loves that thumb.}

There are even more that I would put up, but I'm trying to have some self-discipline.

So, the story about the balloon- Mike took Mim grocery shopping on Saturday and while they were at the store, the employee who was helping Mike (taking him all around and getting the things on the list) gave Mim a balloon. After the store, they went to Arctic Circle and Mim slipped and fell on the back to the car. She let go of her balloon and as she was watching it get farther and farther away, she asked Mike if everybody could lift her up higher so she could get it. She was listing all her friends and family; Mike's pretty sure she was envisioning everybody stacking up and lifting her way up. He told her that that wouldn't work (don't worry, he let her down easy), but they could get a new balloon. They went to Pioneer Party and she picked a pink flower one and she just loves it. That's why it's in some of the pictures- she didn't want to leave it home and I was ok with it because I thought it might make a cute little prop.

More on Mim:
She's getting so smart! She came up to me the other day and told me that T-O-Y spells "toy." She figured it out because of Toy Story, her current favorite movie trilogy. She calls the first one the "carey" (scary) one, but still requests it as much as the other 2. Now that I think about it, those are the only movies she requests. The other things that she wants to watch are all tv shows. Her favorites of those: Word World, Sesame Street, Curious George, and Blues Clues.

She can spell her name. Mostly. About half the time she skips the "r." She can mostly write her name, too (again, it's that darn "r" giving her trouble). So yeah, she still loves letters.

Mim is also starting to get sassy, which is not super exciting for me. It's mostly just tiring. We're working on it, but it still sometimes turns from being naughty and rebellious into a full on freaking out-screaming-crying tantrum. Uhg. At least for the most part she's pretty well behaved and obedient. Lately, we've been talking about how doing _________ makes us feel ___________, and it's helped a lot, especially with bedtime. It's kind of fun talking with her about emotions (and kind of crazy that she's grown up enough to be able to do it).

She loves coloring and playdough and and going to the park, which we managed even in February, thanks to the mildest winter EVER. She loves "helping" and gets upset if she doesn't get to. At my parents' house yesterday, she started bawling because she couldn't come outside and help me move the car.

What else? Oh, she calls heels "up and down shoes," only it sounds like "uppa down shoes" when she says it. She gets all her meal names mixed up- she told me she needed some "nunch" after I woke up this morning. Yesterday while I was getting dinner ready she told me she was going to "help me cook befast." She says "like" instead of "with." Sometimes they're pretty interchangeable, as in, "Mama, play like me!" Other times, not so much. "Mama, we having beans like rice?"

She's a big girl now, potty-wise. I'm sure glad that's over. Kidding! I know now that it doesn't really ever end (at least that's how it feels), but now we're in the only very occasional accidents territory, which is not so bad.

She's started singing more. She didn't hardly ever do it until a few weeks ago (despite my encouragement), and now she's singing along with anything, even making up her own songs. My favorite composition of hers had to do with not wanting to go to bed, needing to go potty, and loving everybody. Her messages are really universal.

As for Eleanor...

She's still just delightful. Easy, happy, contented little soul. She's army crawling all around these days. To be honest, I thought she'd be really crawling by now, because she's been able to get on her hands and knees for over a month. I'm not complaining, though. She can take her time.

She's also been able to push up to sitting from lying on her side for a few weeks. She doesn't sit for very long, though. As soon as she's up, she sees something she wants out of arm's reach and she gets herself back on her tummy to get it.

I started solids with her sooner than I wanted to. My plan was to wait until 5 1/2 months, but she started napping really terribly and wanting to nurse all the time right after she turned 5 months, so we started then and it solved the problem. She loves eating and just goes nuts for carrots.   

So that's us right now. Life is good.