Hollywood hair and a NEW video!

Elsa's hair is pretty long, but the stuff on the sides grows in slower so it's never all one length. It's always in her face. She fights us when we try to put ponytails and barrettes in, and when we do, her hair is so fine they fall out anyway. On Saturday we went to her preferred salon, Great Clips. Elsa sat perfectly still as the stylist snipped away. Here's the before and after.

Before:

After:

Lookout, Suri Cruise!

On Tuesday we took a trip to St. Paul to see my friend Sarah. We watched some historic events unfold on TV, had lunch at Cafe Latte, then went to a neat baby and kids store. Here is Lila with Sarah, sitting happily in some borrowed store merchandise.


If pressed, Elsa will run up to her sister and say "hi" or "boo", and Lila cracks up. She only does it for Elsa - she just loves watching her and getting attention from her. I finally have it on video for the adoring hordes. Besides her laughing, you can see how squirmy Lila is.



In other not-so-new news, Lila is an eating machine. If she sees you eating, she needs to eat some kind of solid food, too. She can eat 5 crackers in a row, down a 4 oz bottle, and eat veggies and rice all in a single sitting. And still, she wakes up 4 hours into the night wanting to eat more. The kid is a chow hound.

Elsa loves to play pretend, and has all kinds of imaginary friends. She sings and makes up words and takes care of her hippo all day. Just today, she informed me that Hippo said his first word. Meanwhile, Elsa has been picking up new phrases. My favorite from last week: "Mom, that's not cool!"

Playdates and baby fat

Elmo ended up being a no-go. School was closed because of extreme temperatures on both days we could've gone. Figures. Oh well, we'll have to try for next year. We still managed to have a great day. In the morning we visited with Grandma R., and in the afternoon Elsa's friend Cael came over for a playdate. Elsa played with bubble wrap while Cael rocked out on the drums. After, we went to the Village Inn for lunch. It was a fun day after all.



Last week I was busy making stuffed shells, when Tim suddenly appeared at my side.

T: Did you put all the cheese in those shells yet?

J: (without looking up) Yep.

T: Were you going to add cottage cheese, too?

J: (still not looking) Why would I...

T: Because I've got some right here!




Baby fat! Baby fat! I love me some baby fat.

Another photo, trying to fly out of Tim's arms. She's a wild one.


Elsa saw this and said,"Minnie! Minnie not bite Elsa's Barney DVD, Minnie!"


She mostly talks to Lila when she's scolding her, but lately she's been offering her some toys, too. Just today she said,"Elsa fed her a Cheerio!" I looked, and sure enough, Lila was choking down a Cheerio. (I'll have to get video of that - it's funny how one piece of cereal can be such a big production).
I've been trying to bring the two together and get Elsa interested in her sister, and proud to be a big sister. It started like this:"Look Lila, Elsa's eating French Toast. You can't eat yummy stuff like that yet."
Now all day it's like,"Should we tell Lila that Elsa's drinking milk? Should we tell Lila that Elsa's runnin' around? Should we tell Lila that Elsa's on the potty?"
I suppose translator is better than mediator. I know that'll be next!

The model baby and the elusive toddler

Looking back at photos from this weekend, it seems I only have one of Elsa that's usable. The rest are all of Lila, looking so cute I can hardly decide which one to post. So, here we go:

Lila eating one of her first crackers. They still mostly end up on her pajamas in regurgitated form.


Butterball in her beloved Jumperoo, flashing her biggest smile. You can totally see the double dimp on her left (your right) cheek.


Elsa running from me as I try to get a photo of her in her new snow pants.


I got her! The magic of the outdoors. I banged on the window and waved and she actually stood there smiling for about 10 seconds.



Whenever I feed Lila, she reaches for the spoon. Tonight I let her hold it and she was diggin it.


Tomorrow we have school, which we always look forward to. Thursday we go to 'Elmo Live!' with ECFE. More to come on that...

Lila is 6 months old, lookalikes

Hello! I'm Lila June and I can sit up!


After about a minute, I topple over.


That's right, our little baby is 6 months old already. She eats baby food, rice cereal, and tries so hard (without success) to feed herself Cheerios. It's good practice, though. We went to the doctor today for her checkup. Here are her 6 month stats:

Weight: 16 lbs, 2oz. = 51%
Height: 27.4 inches = 94%
Head circ: 17 inches = 71% (Aww, our little melon head!)

To compare: Elsa was 15 lbs, and also 27 inches. Her head was smaller, though.

Lila chillin' down the basement with the Firebirds.


Here are some more ever-popular lookalike photos.
Lookalike #1:
Lila at 6 months.


Elsa at 5 months.


Lookalike #2:
Lila at 6 months.


Elsa at 7 months old.


The kids sitting together, watching some TV.


I looked for more pictures of Elsa, but I don't have any new ones. She's still running from me whenever she sees the camera. What's new with Elsa? Well, she can suddenly tell the difference between her Left and Right. She likes to rhyme and make up words and play pretend. Her favorite toy is still her hippo, named Hippo. If you ask her its full name, she says,"Hippopotamus!" We got her another hippo at Kohl's but the original is still her fav. We asked her it's name and she said,"Sippi". At the time she was looking at her sippy cup, so I said,"Are you sure? What's Sippi's full name?" She looked at me like it was obvious, then said,"Mississippi!" She likes watching DVD's, but only has the attention span for about 1/2 hour. Her current interests include princesses and mermaids, Thomas the Train, and Barney. Potty training is still going well, but I hesitate to say she's potty trained. Last time I said she was, and then she totally regressed. But, i'd say it's been almost a month that she's been in Big Girl underwear, with maybe 1 accident per day if any. Not too shabby. These kids are growing so fast!

Christmas and New Years 2008

This year we had about 5 days of planned activities in a row. Here's Elsa at Grandma and Grandpa R's house playing with one of her favorite "gifts" - an empty box and wrapping paper.


Then she decides to eat it!


She was so tired. Her bedtime is normally 7 pm, but she went to bed closer to 10 pm during our holiday get-togethers. With her very "two" behavior lately, I expected the worst, but she did really great. She even stuck with the potty training. I suspect that 15+ people clapping for her was good incentive.

Elsa at my parents house on Christmas morning. This was before any cookies or sweets - she's just high on Christmas excitement. Remember those days?


Things got a little wild that day. Family came over around 1:00 pm and I expected we'd all leave by 6 at the latest. Nope - more like 10 pm. My cousin Becky was in town from France with her husband Yucca. It was great to see everyone!

Lila with my aunt Connie.


The cousins: Kelly, me, Becky, and my sis Jenny.


Lila being a sweet squeezable baby!


The guys with the shot ski. Shane, Tim, Yucca, Dad.


Cousins with the shot ski.


Lila in the "Teeter Babe" bouncer, circa 1950's. No straps, no safety gear. No fuss, no muss! Our kids are 3rd generation Teeter Babe babes.


A couple days later we hung out with my other side of the family, and I'm kicking myself because I completely forgot to take pictures! They would've been great with all the little cousins running around.

We stayed in for New Years Eve, but went out the next night.
Tim and I on New Years Day at Elsie's in Northeast. Wow, am I shrinking?