Evidence of Playing in Bed

Mikaela had these on her fingers when she woke up this morning. We caught her red-handed last night, but I guess we missed these :) Yesterday morning I woke to find the stool in front of the potty and the lid up which let me know she'd been to the potty by herself in the middle of the night!!! But then I also found the other stool in front of the kitchen door (usually so she can look out of the window). And I found the curtain in the living room slightly pulled back telling me she'd been looking out the window. Eric and I went to a movie Sunday night, and Grandma A and Pops stayed with MJ and Elijah. Mikaela thought Grandma and Pops were sleeping in our bed and was looking for us outside to see if we were back yet :)

Swingin'

1st Hair Cut

Little man got his first hair cut this past weekend! His front comb-over part was getting really long and was usually in his eyes--it was starting to drive me nuts :) As you can see from a couple of the pictures, he wasn't exactly still for me. So, needless to say, it's not the greatest cut (his moving is a great excuse for me anyway, since I really don't know what I'm doing :) ), but it'll have to work. The ultimate goal was accomplished--you can now see his eyes :)

Mother's Day

Here are some pictures of Mikaela with the "Moms." We had a nice and peaceful Mother's Day :) Eric and Mikaela went to Wal-Mart for me on Saturday evening. Sunday morning, I walked into the dining room to find some roses sitting in a vase on the table. When Mikaela saw them she said, "Daddy saw at Wa-Mar!"

We're so blessed to have these wonderful moms in our lives and are glad we got to spend some time with ya'll on (and around) Mother's Day :)

Visiting

This past weekend, we went to a graduation party for a couple of the graduating seniors in our church and then headed out to Hearne to visit my parents. It was kind of short, but it's been a while since we've seen them. Mikaela and Elijah had a blast (we had fun too :) )!Hopefully next time will come sooner and will last a little longer--sorry if we didn't get to see you--we'll try to get to see more people next time! :) Here are some pictures--yes, I did my best to dwindle them down, but I'm kind of camera-happy these days :)

Throwing Letters

Elijah loves his letters already--or maybe not :)

Noises

Elijah loves to make all kinds of noises and loves to try to mimic you. Some of the things he does we can't even do--it's kind of funny. I'm pretty sure I've heard him call me mama a few times, and I think he's told me, "Da du" (all done) a few times when he's done on the potty. I thought I was making things up at first, but he's done both quite a few times, and the look he has on his face is one of him really talking to me--kinda weird! :) Here he is blowing his lips :)

Pushing the Firetruck

Little man is not yet walking on his own, but he will move his feet to push the firetruck around :)

10 Months!

This little piece of cuteness turned 10 months yesterday! He is now pulling up all over EVERYTHING!! He'll also walk if I hold his hands or put him behind a couple of his toys that are on wheels. He also likes to push this box around the dining room :) He crawls over things like the little step stool in the kitchen. He is so so cute--even Mikaela tells me, "He so coot, aww." :)

And, yes, he's really starting to need a little trim, but I just know it's going to make him look like a big boy, and I'm not quite ready for that. We'll see how long that lasts though b/c it's really starting to annoy me :)

"Cooking Eggs"

I left the kitchen for about two minutes yesterday and came back to MJ telling me, "I cooking eggs, Mommy!" She decided she should go ahead and add the eggs to my cake mix, shell and all :) One day we'll get around to teaching her how to crack them--but good thing she didn't know how b/c I only needed one of them in the mix :)

Love...What?!

I'm so NOT feeling any love for these little critters!! Why were they given the name love bugs? Ok...maybe I can see why--but that's besides the point. These little bugs are SOOOO ANNOYING!! Can I scream?! You walk outside and get covered with them in a matter of seconds (and anything you choose to take outside with you)--they're everywhere. I can't even open my windows b/c they squeeze their tiny little double bodies through the screen...or around or something. The point being they end up in the house...lots of them! AUUUGGGGGHHH!! Go AWAY!! And Mikaela was having a blast this morning obliterating the little creatures with a spanking stick on our windowsill...ewww!

High Five!

Most times when I am putting a new diaper on Elijah after having pottied him, I'll tell him to give me high five if he actually did something for me on the potty. I'd hold up his hand and clap it to mine, and he would laugh and think it was such fun. Well, the other day he started fussing/screaming as if to get my attention, and I noticed he was holding his hand up like he was wanting me to give him a high five! Surely not, I thought. But he knows! I've tested him time and again, and he really does know!

He has also already figured out how to sit himself down after pulling up on something. To me this is quite an accomplishment b/c Mikaela took FOREVER to figure that one out :) In fact, he's figured it out so well that this morning I was trying to coax him into walking the couch with a spoon that he wanted. He tried moving his feet a couple of times but couldn't quite figure out how to maneuver them. "Oh yeah," he thought, "I don't have to walk. I'll just get down, crawl a little bit and pull myself back up at the spot where the spoon is." Smart boy :)

Oh No!!

This utterly scrumptious, squeezable, huggable, kissable, eatable, drooley Mr. Gummy...

CUT HIS FIRST TOOTH TODAY!!

(that's kind of sad for me!)

Huh??

Ok--here's another one where I have absolutely no idea as to what my little darling is saying! The context is this: it's usually said after I've been getting on to her or Elijah. She'll tell me, "No gurfey me!" or "No gurfey him!" Sometimes it even sounds like "gurfeet." Whatever it is, it doesn't usually sound very nice, and sometimes she even gets disciplined for the attitude that comes along with it, but I really don't know what she's saying! Any ideas?

Confused?

So, what has Mikaela been learning of late? Well, she can count to 20 in English, German and Spanish (most of the time--I've noticed a couple of setbacks--we're really working on the "th" sound--kinda hard not to get the "f" sound out instead, so she'd skip 13 and continue on her merry way; but now she's starting to make a conscious effort to say thhhirteen, which is causing her to skip 14 and 15 :) ), while making a one-to-one relationship as we count things all over the house. She also recognizes the digits 0-9. So I've been avoiding the, "How old are you?" question b/c I know she doesn't really understand much of the concept of time yet. But I gave in the other day b/c she came into the bathroom and was attempting to hold up two fingers, saying, "Two!" (which was really 5). So, of course, I was correcting her and trying to show her how to hold up two fingers, and I thought while we were on the number 2, we might as well see if she knew how old she was. Well, two fingers can be kind of tricky to hold up for a two-year-old, so Mikaela decides she'll just hold up one finger from each hand. Can't argue there :) But she went back to trying to hold up two fingers on one hand. There was lots of, "Stop!", "Go away!", "No!" and so on (screaming at the fingers that refused to stay down :) ) until she finally got it. Needless to say, she doesn't know whether she's two, or five or any other number that's currently in her vocabulary :)

We are also pronouncing out longer words--still with only short vowels but tacking on sounds like "sh," "ck," and more recently "ch," and "th." And we are getting more and more familiar with the ever so important sight words "the" and "and." Slow and steady :)

And this last week, we learned the parts of the body in Spanish. She pretty much know them all when I ask her to tell me where a certain part is--we haven't gone the other way around yet. Maybe we'll tack on the German body parts this week--we'll see :)

Sunday Morning Pics

Up, Up, &...Away...Soon Anyway

Well, my little man is starting to feel comfortable pulling up on things now! Last night was the first time he met me standing in his bed, but I couldn't take a picture until he did it again today (it was bedtime last night--couldn't go getting him all riled up :) ). Of course, he has to reach up a little higher on the bed than when pulling up on a box or the dishwasher door, so there is much fuss when he can't get himself back down :)

Cracking Himself Up

I'm not really sure what he thought was so funny, but little man was totally cracking himself up (he gets that gift from his daddy) :) He was actually there for a little while, but the card in my camera was too full to capture much--I had to delete a video so I could capture this--it was totally worth it! Baby/toddler laughter is oh so wonderful :)

Helping

Well, MJ saw me folding clothes today and wanted to "help." So I started handing her the handtowels one at a time. She was so proud of herself and did a pretty good job with the washcloths, but the others were more rolled then they were folded :) I was good and left them that way (except for the ones she ended up playing with before they got put up :) ). I even let her put them up for me in the kitchen. Yes, it drives this very organized mama crazy, but if I just don't look real close I become more appreciative of her help. I'm sure one day she's going to be a great "folder" :) And it doesn't make me cringe the way it does when she dumps the ENTIRE bag or bucket of toys on the floor :)

Curtains

Whoo hoo!! After almost 2 years of living here, we finally have curtains in our dining room! We really wanted these cool classic pleated Roman shades, but opted for the much cheaper blackout panels :) They work and look really cute, especially since we found this really cool rooster valance (not as cheap as the panels but totally worth it :) ). And I have to brag on my husband again. He went through getting the valance put up and asked me if I liked it and thought it was ok. I told him I thought it looked good. Then after a few minutes of gazing at it I decided we put the valance too far out to the sides. So I cautiously asked him if he wouldn't mind doing something--(he jokingly said not if it had anything to do with the curtains :) ) taking the valance down and redoing it :) He didn't even complain--not that he's really a complainer to begin with. And it looked sooo much better the second time around :) Now if we just figure out a way to rearrange so we can get our filing cabinet and treadmill out of the dining room! I think those may both be stuck there :)