A Little Bit Of Everyday

Ok, so some catch up. The past week or two, Winston first.
Little man loves to babble, smiles at everyone, but especially Eleanor, Clayton and myself. He lights up when he hears one of us speaking or catches our eye. He recently met the little hottie in the mirror and thinks that kid is hilarious. He's beginning to drool more and more and loves to shove one or both of his fists into his mouth, sometimes along with his binkie or a bottle. He also recently discovered his feet and will hold onto both feet and kind of just rock around. It's pretty cute.

Most impressively may be that he can roll over from front to back and from back to front. He is a mover! If Clayton has an early morning he sleeps downstairs and I let Winston sleep in bed with me. However, Winston wont rest until he has wiggled his way right next to me, so I play leap-frog all night trying to make sure I don't squish him. He loves to be held and I am starting to figure out when his crying means "I'm tired." (My crying always means I'm tired. Ha ha.) Once he gets to that point a quick two minute rocking and he is out. He is a very "chill" baby and we love him to pieces.

Here he is after a bath

All ready for church lying on the sweet quilt Ruth Seedall made us. Funny story, he received three of this shirt he's wearing at his baby shower. We kept two in two sizes and passed one on to our sweet neighbor Bennett. P.S. Notice his tiny leather church shoes? Baby shoes kill me. One day Clayton was holding him and Winston started this "game" where he would stare intensely at Clayton, slowly leaning forward more and more, staring all the time, until he would finally wobble over and have to lean back to start again. Clayton called me in to get a picture.

This is another shot from that game. Miss Eleanor!
What a sweetheart she is. She has been so freaking funny lately. One of her newest tricks is pretending to whistle. She puts one of her fingers in her mouth and says "Woo-oooo-wooot!" in her highest voice. Makes me laugh every time. She loves to play outside with the neighbor kids but mainly ends up doing her own thing, rather than interacting much. She plays with others better indoors.

One not-so-great thing she does lately is tipping over the 9 month old baby girl who just moved into the Phillip's old spot. Little Abby is an early walker and Eleanor seems to have a problem with it. I think she just doesn't think she should be walking yet, as anytime she sees Abby toddling around she tries to knock her down. She doesn't do it forcibly, but she will just casually go up behind her and push her over. She does it kind of discreetly, as much as a two year old can, like by using one finger or pretending to kiss her head but just using her head to tip Abby's balance. I feel awful that she singles her out so much and do my best to prevent it. I threaten time-out and she stops, says her "sorry" but give her 10 minutes and she is at it again. Then she actually gets time out. Luckily Abby is pretty tough and her mother, Elisa, is super forgiving. From this Eleanor has learned another new trick. Saying "It was acdent, mommy." (It was an accident.) She has learned that accidents don't get you put in time out. Boy are we in trouble. Luckily, she doesn't quite realize that I'm on to her.

Another funny thing she does now is that if she does something wrong and I start to use my "parenting voice" she will tell me, "Oh! Don wuhwy, mommy. Is ok, mommy. It wiw be awight, mommy." (Don't worry, it's ok, it will be alright.) She says these in different combinations all the time. If she is really in trouble she will also offer you an imaginary cupcake from her little cupped hand. That one kills me. Her imaginary play has taken off lately and she offers me pretend things all day long, but the cupcake as peace offering is just beyond funny. Where does she learn this? I know I have an unhealthy love of baked goods, but seriously!

She knows her colors, but when you ask her what color something is she answers, "Um, his name is yewhoa." (His name is yellow.) She also knows her shapes, is much better at her alphabet (doesn't skip letters, but still adds a few syllables to "l-m-n-o", and can count to 20, but 12-20 are often a remix of sorts.

Covered in dirt from our piles outside. Ugh, but I love that she is such a little kid.

From head to toe!

Everyone passed out with dad. Awwww. Eleanor never falls asleep in cars or weird places, so it is either a real treat or a real worry when she konks out anywhere other than her crib.

Trying to wear Clayton's backpack. With a law book or two it only weighs about 68 pounds.

Did you know a good week or two of my life was spent sewing Angry Birds and Pigs for a friend's son's birthday? A friend volunteered to make them for her and asked for my help. So of course I got bossy and ended up making all of these but one. They turned out pretty cute, but I was so done with hand sewing little eyebrows onto petulant poultry.

No, I will not make any more Angry Birds.

Let's just look at this little guy one more time. Our little MSU fan!

Lansing Lugnuts!

In early September we had the opportunity to attend a Lugnuts game with our friends Chad, Marissa & Corban. They are such a fun family and I've mentioned before how I have such a crush on their little Corban. He's kinda dreamy. It was so fun to take E on this kind of outing, and Winston did surprisingly well.

Family portrait!

Take two. Note Winston's baseball hat? Yeah, so it stayed on for all of two minutes, but cute!

Daddy and E.

Toddler heart-throb waving to his fans.

Sweet E.

Us again.

Chad, Marissa, C and baby girl just few weeks away at this point! I'm so behind at blogging, that she is now here!

Cute kids after the game.

Cute and happy.

At the end of the game they had an incredible fireworks display. Winston was actually able to sleep through it and I was in heaven watching Eleanor. She was so excited, it was her first time seeing real fireworks. We've only ever done the ground kind for her, and these were set off in the actual ballpark. So they were big and close. E kept turning around to yell at me "Look mommy! Look! You see this? Whoooaaah! Is so big!", laughing the entire time. I pretty much wanted to say the same things to her. It was an all around perfect evening.

Babies On A Hotel Bed*

*Sung to the tune of "Brothers On A Hotel Bed" by Death Cab for Cutie.

On our recent trip up north, Eleanor used Winston's pack and play for her bed, Clayton got one bed and Winston and I got another. One night Winston fell asleep and looked just like a picture we took of Eleanor on her first trip. So I took another picture.

This is the shot of Eleanor in San Diego at 2 months old.

And Winston at 3 months old in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Ok, so maybe they weren't that close, but I love that victory pose that babies do when they sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep like that? Ridiculously painful.

The blog post of Eleanor's first vacation is here. She was about a month and a half younger than Winston, but man was she chubbier! I forgot she got so rolly-poly so fast! Winston is doing great in his height and weight percentages, but gee whiz! Eleanor had the sweetest little (ha) thighs!

More to come soon! Like the actual trip post!

Hair First! Other stuff, like everything, later.

I am SO SO SO behind! I promise to try and catch up in the next week or two. Blogging is so hard when there is Pinterest to be pinning on! So, I need to catch up on the general adorableness of two little kiddos, Jenni's freaking fun-tastic visit and our recent trip up north to the UP.

BUT!

In the meantime, I need to post today's event. No, not taking the car back into the shop because the part they just replaced last Thursday broke, and made me think the car was about to explode, although that did happen today. (Replaced the part for free under warranty. Phew!)

No. Today I got a haircut! If you know me, you understand this is a big deal. I get "real" haircuts anywhere from 6 months to 3 years apart. I'm a bit of a DIYer in all aspects of my life, including trims. Here is a before shot taken last week in the hotel in St. Ignace. Isn't Win just the cutest? But focus on my hair people! This is about meeeeee. And, this is about as good as it gets for my hair. Which isn't saying much.

This is my long hair looking as "Victoria Secret Model" as I could get it.

Here is a shot of me at Lake Superior. (Sad self portrait, more on that later when I actually post about this trip.) This is about what my hair looked like from day to day.
Not horrible, but not great.

And here it is looking it's worst. Frizzy, lots of wave, but no product (Or makeup, egads!) to make it smooth. Basically all around ew-ness. This was this how it looks air dried after a shower if I brush it out.

And here it is now! SHORT! I love it! I'm a bit worried that until I lose more baby weight, my head will look like a marble on a bouncy ball. But I need to remember that long hair wasn't exactly making me look skinny.

Here's a side view of me lovingly reading Eleanor a book. Ok, so we were playing with the self timer and I was trying to get a side shot to show the length in back that also didn't make me look like a Pelican. (Think giant chin melding into my neck. Actually don't.)

A gal in my ward cut it and she gave me exactly what I wanted. Jodie Evans, if you're interested and if you are ever in mid-Michigan needing some hair help. She's a wizard. I will post more in a few weeks so you can see how I'm doing once I have to style it myself. Fingers crossed for low maintenance.

P.S. I am lamp-lit and totally wearing makeup, good makeup, like even lipstick, in the after pictures. Never trust the internets.