2 Stomach Flus & 4 Molars Later...

Elsie hasn't been eating well over the last couple of weeks. I thought it was because she had a terrible cold. Until she woke up hacking and puking last Saturday (2/26) night. At first we were hoping it was because she had so much mucous draining down the back of her throat (from her cold), which made her gag. So, we snuggled back in to go to sleep and 20 minutes later same thing. She continued to puke throughout the night, and was in terrible shape the following day (as were we). Understandably. Monday I was getting pretty frustrated with her whining, because she should be all better now - right? Right. She has had 2 days to recover from her flu. In one of her few good moods she was laughing, and I caught a glimpse of her teeth. Only to discover her bottom 2, two-year-old molars had come in, all the way, sometime in the last week. That couldn't have been comfortable. So, I rummage around in her mouth and find that not only have her bottom molars come in, but her top two-year-old molars are just starting to poke through as well. Ugh. More whining on her part. More patience on mine (and Tylenol, of course). Things seemed to be looking up.... Until her father came down with the same (if not worse) flu. Here she is comforting him on the couch, watching sports. Since feeling better, Elsie has made it known that there is now a new Sheriff in town. Little does she know I am the Warden, which I am pretty sure trumps the Sheriff.

My turn!

Elsie has started asking to hold Sam more and more. It is always in the middle of when I am feeding him. The first time it happened I didn't believe she really wanted to. So, I told her to wait until he was done eating, then I would let her hold him. She said, "K", and went and sat on the couch. He finished eating and I was getting up to make some breakfast (sure Elsie had completely forgotten), when she shouts, "My turn!" Surprised, I took Sam over to her and she LOVED it. She asks all the time. And of course, it's the cutest thing ever.

Not advisable

I know. This is not a good idea. BUT, just after I finished unloading the dryer and turned to put the clothes from the washer in the dryer, she climbed right in like she owned that thing. So, I snapped a quick picture (which turned out pretty adorable), and told her to never do it again.

Buckling

Elsie learned how to buckle things. I remember when Elsie was around nine months old and my sister came to Colorado for a visit with her two-year-old daughter, Ivy. Ivy had just learned how to buckle things. It was so frustrating. Every time I would go to put Elsie in her bouncer, her swing, or her car seat, I would settle Elsie in and reach for the buckles, only to find that they were already buckled. At first it was funny. Ha ha. Ivy is so cute. That is so cute that she goes around and buckles everything. After the 5th time of this happening it was getting less funny. By the end of the first day I was so frustrated that every time I put Elsie ANYWHERE I would then have to pick her back up, put her somewhere, unbuckle the damn thing, then put Elsie back in, and buckle her up (I know, this is a really long sentence); that I was having to make a SERIOUS effort not to swear out loud, at Ivy, in my frustration. So, now Elsie is buckling everything she can get her little mits on. Sam's bouncer, his swing, his car seat.... Damnitall. Awe. So proud of herself. And so am I, I guess. Another stage of development complete. Sigh...good for you sweetie.

The Park

We went to the park by our house a couple of weeks ago. Elsie loved it. She played on every inch of that place, despite the cold temperature and blowing wind. We tried bundling her (and us) up as much as possible, but it was obvious we left far too early. We haven't been able to go again since. It took bribes of cookies and candy at home to get her to follow us. Poor thing is so over winter. Here's Sam in the snugly. He did pretty good during the walk over, but once the sun dipped below the horizon he got pretty fussy. So I turned him around and he snuggled right in for a nap. We had such a good time, and can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can make this part of every day.

Updates

I have a very talented friend that made me the hat Elsie is wearing in this picture. While I was packing up our winter gear to go to Rexburg for Christmas I turned around to see that Elsie had rifled through it, and had put on this hat. She loved it, and wouldn't take it off for the rest of the morning. This last week I brought out the Bumbo for Sam to start sitting in. He is doing pretty well in it, for a 3 month old. Elsie loves sitting next to him and playing. She also loves it when Sam is not in the Bumbo. She will jam her chubby little legs into the Bumbo and sit in it to color, watch T.V., eat dinner, etc. In the picture below she put it on the couch to watch T.V., but put it on backwards. Instead of turning the Bumbo the right direction she chose to sit in it backwards, and turn her head to catch one of her favorite shows, "Timmy Time". Here's a recent pic of 'lil Sam and his 'Archibald Afro'. Looks like it's coming in even better than Elsie's did! Elsie is showing more and more interest in being potty trained. We decided it would be a good idea to move her from her crib into a regular bed before we start the (dreaded) potty training. I am hoping that this way she will feel like she can get up and use the bathroom at her leisure during the night. In order to make the bed transition more fun for her, we purchased some super cute new sheets and bedding. She LOVES them and is now spending more time in her room playing than ever. I should have done this a long time ago! This weekend we watched my brother's kids for him while he and his wife had a new little baby. Here's the super cute new addition to their family. She's a doll. Here is the happy family!

Stuck

When I am in the kitchen cooking or doing dishes Elsie likes to play between the space between our fridge and the wall. It is just the right size for her (or used to be) to play with her magnets. Today when unloading the dishwasher I heard her grunt a few times, then shout "STUCK!" I went over to see if it was another false alarm (she likes to cry "wolf" a lot) and found that she was, indeed, stuck. Her shoulders have gotten a little too broad for her to sit like this now. I took a couple of snap-shots, then helped her get out. She wasn't too pleased to see me grab the camera before helping her get out....

Yeah Sun!

The sun finally came out on a day that wasn't -15 degrees outside. We donned our coats, hats and gloves and hit the street. It was so fun to get outside. Poor Elsie (and I) have been cooped up in our place since moving here due to tiny babies, extreme weather or crappy fog. We had a great time exploring our neighborhood, and hope it doesn't take another 2 months for the sun and warmth to come together in a wonderful day again. Here's the little squeaker just delighted to be outside. Here she is dressing up the fire hydrant. It was fun to watch her, watch her shadow. She splashed around in the puddle you see ahead of her, but I wasn't fast enough to catch it on camera. Here are me and Sam sporting Elsie's hat after she took it off. What a great day!

Tummy Time

Samuel having some tummy-time. He is actually pretty good about it. I just have to keep Elsie from throwing too many blocks on him.

Bruiser

Anytime Tyler or I go out the door Elsie gets excited and will stand right in front of it with her shoes in her hands and say "Go Go Go!" It is very cute. We tell her every time not to stand so close to the door. Usually we are pretty good about opening the door slowly and she has only been knocked (relatively gently) in the head a few times. UNTIL the other day... I was in such a good mood, despite my kids both being sick. I went running out to take the garbage out and came running back in (it was chilly and I didn't have my coat on). Upon reaching the door I slammed it open (it wasn't closed all the way) and saw my sweet, sick daughters legs go flying up in the air, heard her slam onto the ground, and saw her shoes flying out of both hands. She immediately started crying (understandably) and had a big, blue goose-egg on her forehead. The shots aren't the best, but you can kind of see it on the right-side of the picture. These shots were taken within minutes of the incident, so they are not the best... Too much flash, but look at those beautiful blue eyes. Gladly, this is the worse it looked. It has healed up quite nicely, so I won't be able to post any better shots of it getting yellow and green. Bummer.