Marshmallows and GQ Poses

Eli loves his Lucky Charms in the morning. Lately he has realized the marshmellows are the good part. So he eats them first. Check it out... Also, he calls them "Dada Cereal." Total is "Mama Cereal".


Here's my little lamb in some new (too big) clothes. I love the new panda line at Gymboree! She loves to chew on anything right now, and Mr. Potato Head has been a front runner lately.

These are some of Eli's new church clothes (and his new shoes which cost entirely too much, but I love them!) Doesn't he look GQ here? Haha.

And now a smile! (Oh and he's holding puppets, which he has been obsessed with for one week now. These photos were from last Sunday--I have just been too busy to put any up. He carries those puppets everywhere and insists people wear them.)

Second Set of Christmas Photos

Here's our second set of Christmas photos. I think they came out really cute.

My mom says they just look "faded" but I like the vintage look.

I liked this shot, but Eli had a cheese smile and Dora looks grumpy!

I love this one!

Here's the one I wanted for the Christmas shot.

Here's the one Whit wanted. Whit won. :-) Notice the street sign...

Dora is currently in between sizes. I can't really snap her 6-12 month onesies, but the pants in 12-18 are enormous and the shirts are pretty big. Basing on what size Eli was at her age, and dropped down one size because she was a girl so I hoped she wasn't as big of a porker, I assumed she would be 12-18 months. Sadly, I overestimated a bit. Her dress and coat are a bit large.

I think she looks kind of cute, swimming in her little Christmas dress and coat!

Christmas Photo Shoot

My friend Annie from church is a wonderful photographer. She did our Christmas photo shoot this year. (Not that we had one in prior years, but this year we did!)

I think the photos were great. In fact, I am so happy with them I am just posting them all on my blog, in two installments! :-) (I only got 28 of 100 or so proofs, so you don't have THAT many to look at.)

I have a lot of trouble capturing good shots of Eli but she did great, I think!

Incidentally, I only have 3 pounds to go until I have lost down to my goal weight. :-) ALMOST THERE!




Eli and his dad have been doing this new thing--Eli climbs up his dad step by step and then stands on his shoulders. It's pretty funny, but Eli is always asking me to do it. I do NOT do that.

Train Clothes

Most of you who know me are aware that I am a little (okay a lot) loyal to Gymboree. My kids don't really wear anything from any other stores.

Eli usually doesn't care much what he wears. We go there a lot but he has never expressed an opinion on the clothes in the store. Well, last time he went, he was obsessed with the new line they had. Trains. I waited (of course) until it went 40% off, and I got him several things. Here he is from yesterday, proudly wearing his choo choo train clothes. I love them too!

Of course, not long after he put the new clothes on, we had an accident and he spilled milk all over them. Just before that took place, here he is with a chocolate milk moustache. It's actually more of a moustache and goatee. Cute!

Here he is (just minutes later) in new clothes. I went to take a shot of Dora (who just got a whole batch of new bows that are larger for her bigger 8 month old head) and Eli had to run and jump in the photo, too. You can't really see what they are holding. Dora has one of Dad's stethoscopes and Eli has Emma's scarves. She is using them to learn to juggle. Eli already knows how. He throws them all in the air at the same time and yells with glee! (Then says "Me juggle.")

Playing Well

Alright, I will admit I am hideously biased, but isn't my daughter the cutest thing ever!? I thought I would update everyone on Eli (and by extension, Dora.) Isadora LOVES her brother. She adores him. He has not been quite so consistently fond of her.

Lately I have been really working with him on the propaganda. Your middle name is Jesse. You are named after my best friend, my brother Jesse. He loved me an awful lot; I loved him a lot, too. We would have done anything for each other. YOU should do anything for your sister Isadora, who loves YOU a lot, just like I loved my brother. You should love her, too. And so on.

Usually when Eli gets upset with her (for being near his toys, or sometimes just attracting attention), he shows it pushing her. We have also been working on repeating, never never push the baby. Never never push the baby. Never never NEVER push the baby. This morning, before Dora was even awake, he looked at me and said, "Eli never push baby."

That's right, kiddo, never push the baby. He has been really nice to her a lot, bringing her toys, giving her kisses. Here are some photos of Dora, and also at the bottom, some of him joining IN with Dora on the photo shoot (and kissing her) instead of getting mad and pushing her over. We are making progress!!

You can see her top teeth in this one:

She's looking at Eli here. She loves that kid.

He came to sit by her when he saw me taking her photo.

He runs up to her laughing a lot now, and really gets in her face, to get her to laugh too. It's really cute, but hard to catch on camera.

Here's the kiss.

My happy (now extremely squirmy and active) little bean!

I thought it fitting her shirt says "Little Sister." She is moving into 12-18 months now, though it's still pretty darn big on her.

Progress

I just wanted to give myself a quick pat on the back. I bought two pair of 3/4 jeans at Aeropostale last night--because they fit! Wahoo! I only have 6 more pounds to go! Weight Watchers is working--slow and steady wins the race.

Bridget

Middletown Hummelstown Railroad

Yesterday, on Halloween, Whit called in some favors to get off work early and go with me and the kids to the take a ride on the Middletown Hummelstown Railroad pumpkin patch express. We had a fun time (until we left, at which point Eli kind of lost it. This is pretty common for him--we get punished for doing something nice. We are hoping he outgrows this phase soon.)

Here's Eli on the train. He was so excited and kept saying "choo choo". On a side note, it was 70 degrees yesterday! WOW!



Whit, as always, was a Super Dad. Here is our Pumpkin patch admittance ticket.

Several people stopped to tell Dora she really WAS so cute it was scary.

Here we are trying to get a shot of both kiddies.

Eli staked out several pumpkins as his own!

We attempted a few times to get both kids and a parent. Shortly after this it started to rain, though, so that halted our attempts.

I liked this front display the best.

I was trying to get just Dora but Eli saw and wanted in on the action.

We had a great time on the train. Hope you all had a great Halloween, too.

(On the way home, we were trying to get Eli to wash his hands with a wipe. This is what he did with it instead.)