Cocoa in a Tea Pot

Elaina got a sweet little tea set from Mr. Dan for her birthday. She loves having little tea parties, and sometimes we get to have hot cocoa for a special treat. One morning last week, Chloë was at school and Norah was napping, and we had such an occasion.

Second Birthday

I made pancake pops for Elaina's birthday breakfast. The girls both thought they were pretty awesome, and wanted to know why I don't just make pancakes like that all the time.

For dinner that night, we went out for Mexican food, because that's where the birthday girl's pregnant mama wanted to go. Elaina had seen the big sombrero and heard the birthday song a few times during past visits, so I asked if she wanted to wear the special hat and hear the special song.  She insisted that she did, and I was really impressed with how well she handled all the attention.


A few days later we had a little party, with family and friends in attendance. She was excited to show off how old she was, and even did pretty well opening all of her presents in front of everyone.

When I asked Elaina earlier that week what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, the only thing she requested was that it be purple. So purple it was. By means of a buttercream frosting that I gradually dyed darker and darker as I piped it on to the cake. These sorts of projects always take twice as long as I think they will. But she had a purple ombre cake for her birthday, and it even tasted alright.

Two Years Old

Elaina is 2 now!  I've been sifting through photos and videos from the last few months, picking out the best ones, and smiling at every one of them.  She is smart, creative, affectionate, helpful, ambitious, stubborn, sneaky, and hilarious. She is my snuggly little firecracker, and I am so thankful God saw fit to bless us with her life.

I know kids are constantly growing up and maturing, but it seems like Elaina has really hit a new stride in the last couple of months.  Her vocabulary is full and well rounded, and she has no trouble letting us know exactly what she needs-or thinks, or wants, or enjoys, or imagines, or thinks maybe should happen someday.  Last week I put Elaina to bed, and about 60 seconds later, she came running out of her room, pretending to gasp for air, as if she'd just run a mile. "The bad guys are coming!" she exclaimed dramatically. Then, just to clarify, "...just for pretend."  She is constantly joining her sister in whatever make-believe scenario they've come up with for the moment.  There are lots of mommy and daughter scenarios (I'll answer to her calls for "mommy!" just to have her explain, "no, pretend mommy"), sometimes husband and wife, and even master and pet.  Elaina makes a very good doggy, sitting, and staying, and obediently eating her treat.  It's hilarious. 

Her actual human nature, on the other hand, is very much human, and very much that of a two-year-old.  She has been testing the waters on what she can get away with, and how stubborn and independent she can be.  Sometimes I am amazed at things she finds to be stubborn about.  We know stubbornness is something to be shepherded, and not crushed, and so we are trying to figure out how best to do that... and what sorts of things are appropriate for a two-year-old to be stubborn about.

She can be very kind and gentle and affectionate when she wants to.  I was in bed reading a couple of weeks ago, when the girls came to give me hugs and kisses before going to bed. Elaina kissed my tummy, and then leaned over it and said, "I want to snuggle Baby Sister." She snuggled up close, resting the side of her head on my belly. Then she looked up at me, somewhat confused, and slowly  said "I hear something." I told her it was the baby singing, then laughed and told her it was really just my tummy making funny sounds.

Bryan usually puts the girls to bed in the evenings, and one night, he did so after they had a nice little snack.  After being all tucked in, Elaina sat up and said, "Oh wait!  I was hungry!  I was not going to bed."  She pulled her blankets off and stood up in her bed. "No, honey, is IS time for bed; you just ate," Bryan explained. "Oh.  Right." Elaina said, as she laid back down and pulled her blankets up. "Of COURSE."

A couple of days before her birthday, we removed one of the sides from her crib, and turned it into a toddler bed.  She loves it. She transitioned well, staying in bed most of the time, and hasn't rolled out of bed at all.

Way back in January, we were eating dinner together, and Elaina was, as usual, wearing a long sleeved shirt.  "Roll up my sleeves. Will you roll up my sleeves?" Elaina said, in her whiniest voice.  "You need to stop fussing, and take a bite, and then you may ask politely for help," I said. Elaina, chewed and swallowed a bite of dinner, and then looked at me.  "Did you want to ask me something?" I asked.  She paused, and then in her sweetest voice asked "can we watch a movie, maybe?"

She loves wearing dish towels like capes.  She loves it when we wrap her up in a blanket, and hold her "like a baby," meaning in our arms the way we would hold a newborn.  And the strange kid has developed a special attachment to the pair of toy plastic kitchen knives we have.  Sometimes she even takes them to bed.
 

As you can tell, both the girls like to sing.  In fact, they like music of all sorts.  I don't actually play music in the house that often, but they always make up for the silence with their own singing. 

Sometimes Elaina's bossiness surfaces and she makes it clear that she wants me to sing with them.  "Sing it LOUD, Mama!"

(Notice their location for their pretend tea party.  For some reason, 3/4 of the way up the stairs is their favorite stop to have a little picnic.)

There is always dancing.  Even when we're at someone else's house.


She and Aaron have a lot of fun together.  Even at Costco.

She's just a silly little Ham Bone, we call her sometimes.  It couldn't possibly be hereditary.


Chloë is a very tidy eater, not wanting food to get on her hands or face.  Elaina, on the other hand, thought bean dip would be perfect for hair conditioner and a facial.   

Elaina, like her big sister, is somewhat accident prone.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Aren't all kids?  But she is a runner, and often times her feet move faster that the rest of her body, and she just splats forward.  There is usually a great cry of dismay, more for being offended that her feet failed her, than that of actual pain. Sometimes she makes sure to lay there for a few seconds, being offended at the floor, or her feet, or whatever it was that caused her to fall.  And then she hops up and is on her merry way.  What a character.

But sometimes I am amazed at how much harm she manages to escape.  A few weeks ago, I was watching two extra kids. The 1-year-old, two 2-year-olds and 3-year-old were all downstairs, watching a movie while I was cleaning my kitchen after a busy weekend. There was a crashing sound, but y'know, kids are pretty creative with hauling buckets of toys around, and sending them flying off the couch or wherever. I listened for a moment, and everything was quiet, so I wasn't too concerned.

The one-year-old, just being potty trained, came upstairs, and I took the opportunity to sit her on the toilet for a couple of minutes. Chloë came upstairs, and I asked her what the crashing sound was. "Oh, there's some broken glass," she said calmly. Everything was so calm, I wasn't sure if she knew what she was saying. "Like, glass that got broken?" I asked. "Yeah..." she replied casually.

As I neared the bottom of the basement stairs, I saw our huge 3x4 ft picture leaning against the wall. Next to it, Elaina was sitting, surrounded by a hundred shards of glass, happily loading the smaller pieces into a little plastic bowl. She had 20 or so pieces neatly in the bowl, the longer shards hanging over the edge. "Elaina, NO! What are you doing?!" I moved quickly and smoothly, being careful not to grab anything too suddenly. I turned her hands over, expecting them to be covered in blood. Nothing. Chloë practically ran through the pile of glass. The one-year-old was coming down the stairs. The other two-year-old was a couple of feet away, interested in the new pile of stuff that was apparently for playing with. "Kids, no, stop!" I almost yelled. I picked up Elaina, brushing glass shards off her clothes. I got everyone upstairs and closed the door. 

I considered calling Bryan, but everything was fine. No one was hurt. I just had a big mess to clean up. I put a show on my laptop, and instructed everyone to watch it while I went back downstairs. The glass was crazy. Some of the shards were a half inch wide and a foot long. How was there no blood?? How was everyone alive??? I carefully picked up all the pieces. There were thousands of microshards everywhere. The stuffed cat covered in shards went to the trash. I vacuumed the same small area for at least 10 minutes. I guess that picture wasn't framed with plexiglass after all.

After everything was clean, I checked all the kids again. Triple checked Elaina's hands. Everyone was fine. I almost couldn't believe it. I felt like I should have won some sort of Worst Mother and Babysitter Award. And yet, God is so merciful.  And I can't believe I don't have any gray hairs yet.

Elaina also loves technology.  Meaning, my iPhone and the iPad, of course.  She easily maneuvers between games and movies, and sometimes like to use the camera to take some sweet selfies.

And of course, as all little sisters do, she wants to do whatever Chloë is doing.  It's pretty sweet, as long as you aren't the older sister being constantly pestered.  She loves counting, and singing the ABCs, and drawing, and trying to do puzzles.  Although she is easily frustrated at her lack of instant perfection, and will moan "I can't DO IT," if something is taking her longer than a second to accomplish.  But at the same time, she is stubborn, and longs to do things without out help. "I can DO IT," she will say, almost arguing with our offer to help her with something.

She loves playing Hide and Seek with anyone who will play with her. 


And she loves being tickled. We also play "timber" and "buh BOOM bah" on our bed, which both girls thoroughly enjoy.


It seems like she's learning new things every day.  We started working on memorizing Bible verses a couple of months ago, and she took right to it.

The sweet girl had a Well Child doctor's appointment yesterday.  Chloë just had one last week, so I thought Elaina would do pretty well, having watched how brave and cheerful Chloë was. I encouraged her to be brave, and told her if she could be strong and courageous, we would go get ice cream when we were all done. The nurse weighed her, and measured her, and then I let her sit on the exam table all by herself, because I thought she was enjoying the independence of being such a big girl.  She sat patiently and stoically while we waited for the doctor to come in, and we even practiced sticking our tongues out and saying "ah."  After the doctor came in, he very kindly said hi and made a little conversation to both the girls.  Then he and I began discussing Elaina's health.  I glanced up after a minute, and she had the saddest little look on her face.  "Oh honey, are you kind of scared sitting there all by yourself?" She nodded, and the sad look got sadder, and she started choking back tears.  It was so sad. I jumped up and held her, but then of course it was time for her brief exam; the otoscope for her ears, eyes and mouth, and the stethoscope for her lungs and heart.  And I think by then she was just in such a sad state of mind, that she had a hard time transitioning out of it.  I held her, and the doctor asked if we should do the otoscope or the stethoscope first.  She chose the stethoscope, and bravely choked back tears while he listened to her heart and lungs.  Poor kiddo.  I know it's a very strange and vulnerable thing to have strangers invade your personal space, but it was obvious that she was just trying so hard to be tough.  So after that was over, the nurse came in to give her shots, and of course then she lost it.  And then Chloë did, too.  She hates seeing her sister cry.  So I had two sobbing children on my hands.  We eventually pulled it together, and went straight to Baskin Robins, but the tears kept resurfacing.  What a rough experience. 

She is such a joy and delight.  We sure do love our little Lainey Pants.

Oh, and just for fun, here's what Chloë was up to at this age.

Sixteen Months Old

Elaina's biggest accomplishment this month is lots of fancy new teeth.  Sadly, that means the poor child has been constantly teething for over a month now.  Sometimes she'll tell me she's "uhng-gee," and then whimper when I offer her food that isn't soft, because she knows it will hurt to chew.  She's also had some sort of mild stomach bug for a week now, so her appetite is pretty lousy.  We've gotten creative with finding things she will eat.  Like applesauce in a cup with a straw.

She likes her carbs.  She usually wants breakfast immediately upon waking, saying "Uhng-gee! Uhng-gee! Chee-yohs, poon, mihk!"  She talks a lot now, especially about food.

I'm always amazed at what she tries to immitate.  Anything that she sees us do, it seems.  She likes to smell my coffee, sigh, and say "hot."  And she likes the dipping process.  Especially if it's chips and salsa.


She tries to use eating utensils, but bless her heart, she's not very good at it.

But she doesn't seem to mind the mess.

She does pretty well with textures like refried beans, but it's still quite the mess when she's done.  When she's all done with her meal, we have her ask politely to be excused. 


Any time we pull a shirt or sweater over her head, we give her a little warning count to three.  I think it helps her anticipate what is happening, and reminds her that we aren't just trying to torture her.  In the last couple of months she sometimes counts with us, but last week she started counting any time she sees anyone else getting dressed.  It's usually "two, tee, TWO, TEE!"  Very helpful and encouraging.

Elaina has shown a surprising amount of interest in the toilet.  She sees her big sister use it, and I guess she figured out what's going on.  After her bath a few weeks ago, she made it clear that she wanted to sit on the potty.  Bryan and I thought it was silly, but went ahead and let her sit on the thing.  Well weren't we surprised when we heard the sound of liquid hitting liquid.  A fluke, maybe, we thought.  But she has requested to use the toilet occasionally in the last couple of weeks, and never disappoints us.  I'm not quite sure what to think.  Maybe it'll help later when we decide to start potty training.  Or maybe she'll be confused and not know what to do.  I suppose time will tell.

It seems that her mommy instincts kicked into high gear this month.  She loves to carry baby dolls or stuffed animals around the house, and certainly prefers to sleep with one or two tucked under her arm.  She's so sweet and gentle.

I like to snuggle with my baby while she snuggles her baby.

She also loves baby Miriam.  Or "Baby Myeh-myum," as she affectionately calls her new friend. 


She loves going to the little park up the street.  The swings are always the favorite for both of the girls. 

The poor kid had quite the scare a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of those horrifying moments where your stomach feels like it just drops onto the floor.  I was in the basement starting a load of laundry.  The girls were playing upstairs, and I don't worry about the stairs, because I know they are both very capable of using them.  I suddenly heard the awful sound of something heavy thumping down the stairs, and looked out of the laundry room just in time to Chloë somersault down the last few stairs, and her tricycle landed right on top of her. I rushed over, and realized Elaina was sitting halfway up the staircase.  She and Chloë were both crying, but I couldn't find any broken bones, blood, or even a bruise.  Later that evening, I realized she had just a little bit of a shiner.  I was afraid it would turn into an awful black eye, but it was totally gone the next day.  I explained to Chloë very thoroughly the danger of wheels and staircases, and she was eager to chime in.  I don't think it was an intentional trip down the stairs with the tricycle, but hopefully she won't have that thing anywhere near stairs ever again.

Her favorite new activity is drawing.  Well, scribbling I guess.  She likes seeing the color appear on the paper with her strokes of a colored pencil.

It's fun to see the similarities and differences to Chloë when she was this age.

Sweaters

My sweet Aunt Betsy sent me these beautiful little matching sweaters a few months ago.  Her daughters Erin and Meghan wore them when they were little, and now my girls get to wear them.  They fit perfectly now, and I finally remembered to get a few pictures of my girls wearing them. 

I'm always surprised how hard it is to get two little people to look at the camera at the same time, while smiling nicely.  We got a lot of shots like this.  One child, perfect.  The other, not so much.

And then of course the good pictures are blurry.

This one is pretty good.  Chloë decided to go for some fake laughing, which looks surprisingly real.

Elaina thought it was funny.

Hand gesturing is always a must.

My girls.  Elaina, 15 months old, and Chloë, 2 and 11/12.

15 Months Old

Sometimes I'm surprised when Elaina says or does something that I have not taught her.  I guess she has learned lots of things from her big sister. She uses new words almost daily, it seems.  Trying to decipher what words she's picked up can be quite the challenge.  Daddy, Thirsty, and sometimes Chloë, all sound extremely similar.

She likes games.  When I put her on the changing table to change her diaper, she says "boop! boop!" It actually doesn't mean what you might think.  Somehow we invented a little game much like tickling.  I poke her round tummy and say "boop!" And then she giggles. We do it a dozen or so times before getting to her diaper.  Her giggle is the best.

She also likes to point to and name parts of her body.  Noooo! Mow! Ah-eee! and maybe my favorite, toe-tee, toe-tee, toe-tee, which of course is toesies, toesies, toesies.  Her daddy taught her to put her hands on her cheeks and push them forward and say "I'm chubby!"  Hilarious.  She also likes peek-a-boo, although sometimes her hands don't quite cover her eyes. One hand on an eyebrow, and the other on her forehead, and the game is just as fun.

She loves to say hi to people and animals.  We have lots of cats and dogs in our neighborhood, and every time she sees one, she get excited and says, "hi dog hi dog, woo woo woo!" or "cat! hi cat! Moww, moww!"


She is our very own little watch dog when it comes to bugs.  At our house, April means that the carpenter ants start showing up everywhere.  The poor kid has been bitten a couple of times, and the chompers on those things can draw blood!  So any time she sees anything that she thinks could even possibly be something belonging to the insect species, she yells "bug! BUG!" Sometimes she ends up yelling at a piece of lint, or even the dark spots in the wood grain of our floor.  We might start using the term "crying bug" instead of "crying wolf," since we never know when she actually needs rescuing.

I finally realized that her adorable mullet would work really well for pigtails.  So I tried them.  And I was right.

Waiting for Daddy to get home.

This is how excited she gets when her daddy does get home:


We've had our normal crazy weather lately.  In the last week, we've seen everything from 70 degrees and sunny, to freezing hail and snow.  We went outside a few days ago and played in the backyard even though it was chilly.

She wasn't very fond of the frigid breeze, but she does love to swing.

This was the first time one of my children fell asleep in her highchair.  It may be due to the fact that we weaned her of her binkie last month!  I snipped off the very tip of it, and every day would cut off a tiny bit more, until there wasn't much left.  Then we were just done with it.  The first few days without it were a little rough, and she kept asking for her "bean-tee," but now she is sleeping like a champ. I'm glad we decided to get rid of it now.  We waited much longer with Chloë, and I think it actually developed some poor sleeping habits on her part.

The girls helping me with some Spring cleaning.

 Elaina likes to snuggle and hug things.  Even her sippy cup.  She was patting it while saying "oh bay-bee, oh bay-bee."  When she isn't sleeping or snuggling her sippy cup, she usually eats pretty well.  Her favorite foods are cheerios and soy milk, PB&J, and fresh bread.  In the last few weeks, we've started giving her food with tiny amounts of dairy, and she has been doing well.  I tried giving her a small bowl of yogurt, and that didn't go well.  We'll try that again in a few months.  But for now, she's not totally dairy-free anymore, which is a blessing.

After playing in the dirt, Elaina had some pretzels for a snack. No, they were not chocolate covered pretzels.  Yes, I believe that ingesting a little dirt is good for children.

She is walking everywhere!

It has been three weeks since she's used crawling for mobility.  My little baby isn't a baby anymore.  She's a toddler.  I'm still trying to adjust.  I don't have a baby and a toddler anymore.  I have a toddler and big kid.

Speaking of which, it is such a joy watching their relationship develop.  They are very kind to each other, and both will say "thank you" when the other shares.  Chloë just loves her little sister sooo much, that sometimes her affection is too much for Elaina to handle.  She then lets out a little warning squeal, and I tell Chloë to give her sister some space.  It's such a good "problem" to have.  They play little games together, often involving tickling.  If Elaina wakes up before Chloë does, she gets really excited when she finally hears footsteps. "Low-ee! Low-ee!" she says excitedly, and there are lots of hugs and kisses.

Her teeth are still coming in in all sorts of weird order.  Her two upper molars and two lateral incisors have broken through, but still no signs of those four middle teeth.

With her left lateral incisor dangling in the corner of her mouth, I think she looks like a cartoon character when she smiles.

Here's what Chloë was up to when she was this age.