August

Eli and Henry

We babysat for my friend Sarah, so she and her husband could celebrate her birthday! Eli and Henrey had fun together, but Emrey and Emma, had a blast!

And, as usual...things got carried away...

Eli is loving finger foods and has not passed up anything I've placed in front of him....yet.

Emrey loves reading to Eli...although he's usually more interested in trying to eat the book, rather than look at it!

Eli is definitely on the move. Just this week, (his 9 month birthday) he actually made it up this step for the first time! He's been working on it for a couple weeks now! He is fast! Yesterday, I got him set up in Emrey's room with some toys and came back a few minutes later and he was nowhere to be found? I looked under the bed...not there, in the closet, not there...he had made his way into the bathroom and was trying to pull himself up on the tub!

Speaking of the tub...Eli LOVES it, even if he's usually tired by the time I get him in there and even though it means getting lots of water dumped over his head by his big sister

"up and down"...what you see, is usually the first thing Emrey asks
Ellis to do when he comes home from work! He usually asks her "okay, how many times do you want to go "up and down"? And she usually says, "how bout two, cause I'm two"! But, when we ask her how many gummy treats she wants, she says "how bout three, because I'm going to be three"! She's learning....

The "cousins", as Emrey likes to call them, came for a weekend back in July. Aunt Kath and I went out to do some dress shopping for the wedding and we came home to this set up in the living room! Ellis was being creative, babysitting 4 kids in 100 degree weather!

Em, Eli, Luke and Drew

So, we found out that all the older kids go back to school this week...that is after I got everyone ready to head over to the neighborhood pool and it was CLOSED! So...after some minor meltdowns, by Emrey and myself, we came home and busted out the baby pool for the first time this summer ! We're definitely going to have to get creative for the next month or so, until it starts cooling off!


The highlight of Emrey's last two weeks has definitely been her rides with Rowan and Ms. Lindsay. Lindsay has so sweetly called twice now and offered to take Emrey on what she calls a "chariot ride". She takes them to the park and Emrey has such a blast! It has also been REALLY nice for me to get some housework done and generally get organized for the day (get dressed, brush my teeth :)

Emrey starts school (MDO) next week and she is really excited! I'm excited for her and I think she'll enjoy it even more this year! And...I'm so happy for her, because Rowan will be in her class again.

Eli's sleepng!

Well, it's official, 8 months after being born, Eli is finally sleeping through the night! After our trip to NH (where he started waking up twice a night ugh!) we came home and I decided we would let him cry it out a bit. At first he still woke up at 12 and we let him cry, so he stopped that pretty quickly, but he continued to wake up looking for milk at 4:30 and I obliged, since he usually goes down between seven and eight, that's a pretty good stretch! But, the last week or so, he's been sleeping all the way until six and even seven some mornings! I wake up a bit confused, wondering if something is wrong, go check on him and then gladly head back to bed for any little bit of sleep I can get!

On another subject, he is starting to eat little finger foods, like cheese and pees and anything he can get in his mouth! He tried yogurt for the first time this week and....LOVED it!

Now Emrey....that is another story! She is sporadic with her naps! Most days she looks completely eghsausted and even says "mom, I'm not tired" at some point between one and two pm. I usually make her go into her bedroom and not sleep, but "rest" as she likes to say, "mom, I don't have to go to sleep like Eli right?"....So, I tell her I just want her to stay in bed and rest. Fifty percent of the time, she's out like a light, within ten minutes...the other days, she fights it like crazy and can stay in her bed, singing, talking, playing with her stuffed animals for up to two hours! When we reach four pm, that's my cutoff. If she falls asleep at that point, the rest of the night is shot and she'll be up until midnight! So...when she doesn't sleep, it makes for a very long afternoon, because she is usually REALLY tired and whiny and emotional.... kind of like her mom when she doesn't get her sleep! But on the positive side, it's early to bed, usually by 7pm! So, I can get to sleep early too, or do things like post on the blogg!

Summer in New Hampshire 2011

Pappo and the future generation!

Eli found out he LOVES pretzels, just as much as Pappo, he would cry when we would take them away!

story time with Nanna and the cousins

TROUBLE!!

We spent most days down at the beach or on Pappo's boat! We were blessed with great weather almost the entire time we were there!

Emrey really loved swimming on her own this year and these little swimmers made that possible! Betsy told me about them...and they have worked great! I was amazed how she would hop right into the water, even when it was pretty cold! She LOVED to swim and be in the water and asked me if we could go to the lake for the first few days we were home in Texas.

All that sun and sand called for nightly baths!

My mom found a baby picture of me in the bath (around 8 months old) while we were there, and the similarity to Eli is uncanny! I will try to scan it and post!

We took the boat over to Ames farm for breakfast one morning and the girls had a blast!

Walks to Shibley's for ice cream became an almost nightly occurance, hence the reason all my shorts are a little tight!

Hanging out by the lake

We made a trip to Natick to visit Grandma McLeod! She was in good spirits and very happy to hold her two new great grandchildren! We wish we could be closer so we could visit her more often!

We did make it down to the swan boats on a very hot day! I will always remember the pooping incident in the Boston Public Gardens!

Yes, Ellis was there, although we don't have many pictures to show for it! He came for a week and stayed through the fourth of July. I was able to pump enough milk for Eli, so that Ellis and I could get away for a night. We planned to stay at a friends house in York Maine, but ended up at a bed and breakfast instead :) I think we'll remember that trip for a while! We woke up around 9 to the sound of crashing waves! A nice break from the 6 am wake up to little voices asking for juice and breakfast! (apologies for the blurry pictures, all we had was the i-phone)

Cape Nedduck Lighthouse

Over the course of the month that we were there Eli got much better at sitting and began doing the army crawl by the time we got home. He also thought he needed to be getting up at night (sometimes twice a night). I was hesitant to let him cry because I didn't want to wake Emrey up, so he also got a few extra feedings in and I think probably gained a pound or two. One pair of pants (size 12 months) had fit him when we arrived and I couldn't even get them to zip up when we left! So, since we've been home, I was determined to get him back to sleeping through the night! After a couple nights of crying, we're back to a 7:30/8pm - 5 night, which I can do!

Emrey did amazing at potty training while we were there, despite my fears of regression due to travel. She even went several times on the plane rides to and from! It helped that Anna was also trying to get it down and everyone was eager to jump in and help in any way they could. They seemed to do "competitive potty training" and as soon as one said they needed to go, the other was right there wanting to go as well :) Emrey's love for song and music was apparent this trip, and several people commented on how much she loves to sing. My mom taught her "God Bless America" and Emrey sang this as well as "Oh My Darling" almost constantly! She also liked to substitute her own words to "Oh My Darling".

Last but not least, we got to celebrate the newest (soon to be) addition to our family, Kieth Taylor! Kieth proposed to Sarah shortly before we went to NH, so we were able to congratulate and celebrate with them! And...Betsy and I were able to go dress shopping with Sarah as well as help her in starting to dream about all the big plans! Emrey and Anna were invited to be flower princesses at the wedding! We can't wait to go back and celebrate with them in December!

Eli at 6 months

I think we've got it...

Potty training that is....About two weeks ago, Emrey woke up one day requesting to go "pee pee on the potty". We humored her and let her go. Since then, she has only wanted to use the potty and wear big girl pants. It is like night and day from when we tried to do this back in October before Eli arrived. She is totally self motivated (well treats do help) and will tell us when she needs to go and run, run, run into the bathroom. She can even pull her pants up and down on her own now, which she is VERY proud of, since she likes to doing everything "all by herself". We will travel to Boston this next week, so we'll see if she can transfer her potty skills while traveling and in a new house! I have faith in her, but I'm nervous to say that I have bought my last box of diapers for Emrey. I sure hope it's true!! We'll keep you updated! Here she is playing with a doll of hers. We got her a new story Bible that we read at night and she loves the story of baby Moses. She likes to pretend this is baby Moses, putting him in the basket and rocking him.

And here's Eli trying his first "baby mumm" corn rusks...loved them

Eli, trying to stay cool at the park!