We had a fantastic time visiting my sister and her family in Mississippi for 4th of July weekend. It was a fast trip and we wished that we could have stayed a little longer, but I think that is always the case when family is too far away. The kids fished, rode 4-wheelers, and swam at my sister's in-laws' house and then we had a great 4th celebration (a later post.) Here are some of my favorite cousin pictures:
Somehow we didn't get around to taking Elly in the wagon until the week before the 4th of July. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:
Wow...tonight I looked in my email and saw "Your 10 Month Old, Week 3" and my response was "How?" I can't believe how life with this little girl is flying by. I'll post updated pictures later, but I wanted to record a some things that I don't want to forget at 10 months.
Elly has finally started actually crawling most of the time (still not giving up the army crawl, but she's realized that she can pull herself up easier when she goes on all 4's).
Her favorite game is peek-a-boo, and she loves to cover the sides of her head or close to her eyes and just start laughing. She also loves dancing, clapping, giving high fives, this little piggy and trot a little horsie.
If I leave her in her room for a minute, she will crawl out if Logan's door is open make a BEE line for his room and its many wonders (her favorite of which are his cars and his farm animals.)
Words at 10 months: Dada, DA (now the name for Logan), Da, da, da while head bobbing(dance), Bye-Bye, Mama, A-ter (for water), Buh (for Baby) She's very into repeating everything if you just take the time to say it a few times for her. Interesting how different this was with Logan--Logan watched very intently, but then didn't say much until he could basically say the word perfectly...crazy.
She pulls up on EVERYTHING and has started clearing the end tables and coffee table very enthusiastically. She also let go this week, but just fell into the table with her stomach, so she's still not stable enough to be walking anytime soon.
She handles little or no sleep VERY well. She would prefer to have a catnap though and can be as happy as if she's slept for hours on a 20 minute nap.
She sat through a movie at the theater yesterday. She was perfectly happy and content as long as she had something in her hands--and yes, I am crazy for taking a 10 month old to a movie!
She can throw the world's largest temper tantrum and already holds a pretty mean grudge. Example: today she looked in her breakfast bowl and got mad because Logan was eating applesauce and she was still stuck on Oatmeal. So, after a little fit, I mixed some applesauce into her oatmeal. She looks into her bowl when there are two bites left and starts getting upset. I'm trying to not feed her when she's screaming or yelling because I don't want to reinforce that behavior, so I'm trying to wait patiently for any kind of silence and the best I could get was while she was catching her breath. She got the last two bites, but then proceeded to get extremely upset with me and threw a fit that lasted an hour and a half. An hour and a half--seriously? She would almost forget, then look at me and belt out all over again. I think I have my work cut out for me with this one.
Now before you think that I am starving my child let me say--this girl can E-A-T! There is no "off" on the food regulation and she screams when she is done with every meal. I'm serious, she has NO teeth, but yet eats everything and she packs the food AWAY. I know that she would eat herself sick and the only times she's not screaming about food is when you could literally roll her away from the dinner table. For some reason my children have no internal food monitoring system when they are infants. Funny that our dog doesn't either...maybe its just something about Jarrod and I.
I can't believe that I forgot to post this, but its been busy...what can I say??
A few weeks ago, Jarrod's dad turned 60, so we went to their house for the day to celebrate. Logan decided that he was finally big enough to dive off of the diving board--what a brave little boy he has become! This was Elly's first swimming experience and she had a ball. She wants to have her face in the water all of the time--which is quite a problem for the person holding her because she is constantly trying to dive out of your arms and into the water. Here are a few pictures of the day.
Well, I haven't been very good at blogging lately...mostly because we have been doing all of the things that embody summer and thus not sitting in front of the computer very often. Today, I realized that I let Father's Day pass without a little "shout out" to the best father I know. I have a wonderful step-father and he has been key in my life for over 20 years. He is caring, compassionate and just a precious, precious man whom I love and whom my children love and adore. Hopefully, I will not offend him in saying that even though he has my greatest respect...I have to say that my precious husband is the best father that I know. I could list a million reasons why--and sometime maybe I will, but most likely our two mothers are the only ones who would care enough to read that list...so here is a shorter list:
1. Everyday at 5:00, he is bombarded with Logan opening his office door asking if he can play...and most days he gets up and does. (Notice, there is no transition time, no down time, no decompression, just straight from the office to some sort of 4 year old game.)
2. He changes diapers, gives baths, reads stories and nurses hurts without so much as a sigh.
3. He takes Logan to every Tuesday Rangers game that the Rangers are in town and we're in town.
4. Building Logan into a godly, strong Christian leader is of the utmost importance to him and he goes to all lengths to be an example of that to him.
5. He helps give Logan encouragement and courage when Logan is in uncomfortable situations
6. He teaches him all of the boy things you want in a boy--to hunt, to fish, to play sports, to pray, to fix things, all about the car engine, to be a gentleman, and so on...
7. He is the best example of what a Christian husband is and how he should treat his family
8. He takes the kids to the donut shop most Saturday mornings for Daddy time
9. He is wrapped pretty tightly around sweet Elly's finger...which I'm convinced is why he was so adamant that we not have a girl. ; ) I can't even describe how my sweet 10 month old baby girl lights up when she hears her daddy's voice or sees him. Yes, the one that's supposed to be attached to me dives from my arms to get to her daddy. It is pretty priceless.
10. He loves us all and gives to us all tirelessly, fully and without grumbling or complaining. We are all better people because he loves so completely.
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