And the first fat lip of the year goes to....

Lena!

My poor baby girl fell on the sidewalk this evening.  We were all out enjoying the beautiful weather!  Daddy was taking down Christmas lights and Mommy and the kids were picking up sticks in the yard.  Lena was so excited to help out!  The only problem was that since her hands were full of sticks, she didn't catch herself when she tripped.  Instead she landed flat on her face!  She scraped up her cute little nose, cut the inside of her lip on her teeth, and somehow pinched her lip, which resulted in a blood blister.  Ouch!  Mommy cleaned her up and she rebounded quickly.  We were back outside picking up sticks in no time!

Here's another view of her owies.  Hopefully her lip won't stay puffy for too long!  But hey, check out those eyelashes!  :)

A Little About Lena

I took Miss Lena in to get weighed on Monday.  Great news!  At six days before turning 21 months, she is up to 19 lbs 14 oz!  She gained 10 ounces in the last month.  She's still nowhere near the charts, but she's finally putting on a little more weight.  No surprise, that girl can eat!  When she's hungry, she is HUNGRY!  We're not sure how she packs it all in her teeny tiny body, but she makes it happen.  Typically she does also have just about as much food in her hair, on her clothes, on the floor surrounding her chair and painted on the table as she consumes.  Let's just say, Lena loves food!

Speaking of Lena's hair, it is growing, growing, growing!  And it's so beautiful!  I wanted it to stay a dark brunette, but it's gotten super light, and I love it!  She's still sporting a bit of a mullet, but I refuse to cut it.  The front will eventually catch up with the back.  I will not cut bangs!  So for now, we just pop a ponytail on top and call her ADORABLE!  :) 

(For some reason, I can't seem to get a picture of Lena with her pony top to upload, so just imagine how unbelievably cute she looks...)

She is also a little talking machine!  She definitely talks more than Eli did at this age.  She will copy just about anything you say, so she is constantly learning new words.  At 18 months I wrote down every word I heard her say, which was 50+, so I have no idea how many words she can say now!  Some of my favorites include "teetoo" (thank you), "pop...weasel", "Mommy" and "Daddy" (of course), Bubba (our nickname for her brother), "EeeeeIiiii" (Eli!), "ummy ummy" (yummy yummy), "ucky" (yucky), and her own name, which sounds more like LehNuh or NahNuh, but we know what she means.  :)  She also loves to sing, jibber jabbering and randomly throwing out words she knows.  She's my star and I'm her biggest fan!

Conversation With My Boy

I have decided to take this opportunity, while my noisemakers are miraculously playing by themselves in their rooms, to share a sweet little conversation that I had with Eli this afternoon while snuggling together on the couch.  It went like this:

Me:  Did you know that you're a miracle?
Eli:  Yeah
Me:  Did you know that you're awesome?
Eli:  Yeah
Me:  And cool?
Eli:  Yeah
Me:  And smart?
Eli:  Yeah
Me:  And....
Eli:  Naughty!

At least he's honest!  :-)  And he sure does make me giggle!

Twenty & Forty-Two

TWENTY:  The number of months my beautiful little princess has had me wrapped around her little finger.  

On Sunday, Miss Lena Marie turned 20 months old.  I meant to write something when she turned 18 months, but that day came and went...  19 months did the same.  So here we are.  I can't believe that in only 4 more months I will have a two year old!  She is such a joy to have as my daughter.  Being a daughter is great.  Having a daughter is amazing! 

Sunday also marked the day of her newest accomplishment, which Mommy is SO happy about:  Giving up her beloved paci!  I tried to take it away a couple months ago, but gave in the second night when I couldn't stand listening to her cry for her "paaaaaciiiiii" for more than a minute or two.  I decided to wait a while longer to dump the paci, until I felt like she could understand and be part of the decision.  Normally as soon as we put her down for nap or bedtime she is looking for and asking for her paci, but this Sunday she didn't ask, so I didn't offer.  I figured it was a fluke thing, but sure enough, nap time on Monday, she went to sleep without it again.  After a couple days of successful sleeping sans paci, she and I together threw her pacis in the garbage and said "bye bye!"  :)   

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FORTY-TWO:  The number of months my crazy, wild, sweet BIG boy has blessed me with the joy of being his Mommy.

Yep, Eli is 3 1/2 today!  WOW!  I am so proud to be his mother, watching him grow and change every day.  Some days I wish I could go back in time, just for a few minutes, to hold my tiny newborn baby boy.  He reminds me to savor every day, it won't happen again!

Today was definitely one of those days.  He had his very first dentist appointment.  Being the shy, apprehensive young fellow that he is, I was super worried about how it would go.  I figured he would have a meltdown, as is his usual reaction to anything new and out of the ordinary.  I had originally thought that it would be best to have him watch me get my cleaning done, then I would be with him while he got his done.  After suggestions from the ladies at the office and some thought, I decided to let them take him back by himself.  They took me back first and got started, then brought him back shortly, to a station near mine.  His back was to me, so he couldn't see me, but I could peak over at him.  He did SO well.  When they first leaned the chair back, he started crying and asking for me, but VERY quickly got over it and let them examine, polish and even floss between his pearly whites.  I'll admit it, I was SHOCKED at how well he did.  I was so proud of him, and so was he! 

ABC minus LN

:-)  Eli recently started singing the alphabet!

Why I Named Him Eli

I've always joked that I named my son 'Eli' so that learning to write his name would be an easy task.  It's all straight lines and a dot.  Only three letters.  Short and simple.  I guess I was only half joking, it really was something I thought about before we chose his name.  Well, last Friday, I gave him a lesson on writing his name.  I've showed him before, but never really sat with him and explained how to write the letters and helped him do it himself.  He seemed to catch on quick at the time, but I figured he would forget as soon as we walked away from the pencil and paper.  I don't recall how it started, but at bath time tonight he started writing his name in the air with his finger.  Could he really remember what I taught him four days ago??  When he was all clean and dry, I got the camera out and asked him to write his name on paper.  I stood there watching in awe as he formed each squiggly letter, complete with a "spot" for the i.  My son, at 3 years 2 1/2 months, can write his own name with no help!  I'm SO proud!

*Hopefully I will be able to add the video we took soon.  The file was huge, so I need to figure out how to make it smaller!

The inspiration...

So, there was something that happened the other day that really got me motivated to start this blog.  It was so funny, I just had to share....

My silly son was playing with his little plastic animals and had separated out all the animals that live in water.  Of course, he thought that he needed to play with them in water, so I put a couple inches of water in the bathroom sink and let him have at it.  I continued to go about my business out in the kitchen, until I heard "Mommy, me in the water!"  This is what I found when I came to check things out.  He had stripped down to his bare buns and climbed right on in!  All I could do was laugh!