My little girl

Elizabeth is now 2 years and 8 months old and such a joy. She is such a happy child. She's had a bit of a transition the past two months with the arrival of Andrew. It's been hard for her to go through the "terrible twos" and have a new little brother at the same time.

Lately, Elizabeth has been really getting into make pretend. I love to listen to her talk with her stuffed animals and dolls. Her favorites (this week anyways) are her doll, Sarah Belle, and her baby doll, Baby Doll. She is so cute with her baby doll as she feeds her while mommy feeds Andrew, burps her, changes her diaper, gets her a pacifier, puts her in her bouncy chair etc. She is a good little mommy. But don't call her that. She will correct you and tell you that her name is Elizabeth, she is not mommy.

Elizabeth thrives with routine and order. I wonder where she gets that from?! :) She loves to read her books on the steps after dinner. There is a certain place for her baby, mommy, milk and water.

Andrew 2 months old

The pictures are a little late but it's hard to believe that Andrew is 2 months old already! He is such a wonderful little boy and such a joy to have in our lives. Andrew has really started to smile the last few weeks. He is a very content and happy baby. He is a good sleeper at night and usually only gets up once but loves to be awake during the day. I think it's because he eats so much during the day. We could hardly get Elizabeth to eat as a baby but Andrew is another story. Last night I fed him 10 oz before he went to bed. All boy!

Fun with Grandmom

My mom came out for three weeks to help us with Andrew and Elizabeth while I transitioned back to school. Her help was such a blessing and we had such a fun time with her. We just wish my dad was able to visit as well! Although the weather was pretty bad during her visit and Andrew and Elizabeth were sick for most of the time, we still managed to get out and do a few fun things. We visited the Mother Cabrini shrine in Golden. What a beautiful place! My mom told me how her dad used to drive the Cabrini nuns on errands all over Philadelphia back in the day.

Elizabeth loves stickers. However, she does not stick them on her own shirt but rather everyone else's. I think the only thing she likes better than stickers is Band aids. We're trying to put an end to the Band aid usage though as it's gotten a bit expensive. Every morning and evening, Elizabeth will put a Band aid on every little tiny cut or bruise on her arms, legs, hands and feet. Yesterday she had on 5 or 6. Today the Band aids are all gone so maybe we can put an end to it today!
Mom and I had a girl's afternoon out to tea at Cherokee Ranch and Castle in Sedalia. I wouldn't recommend it for guys . . . tiny food portions and little fancy tea cups. But my mom and I had a great time just chatting away with no kiddo interruptions. We miss you already mom!

My big sister

I got the idea for this picture from our friend Erin's blog. She is an amazing kiddo photographer. It took about 50 shots to get this one (which I'm disappointed that I cut off the side of Andrew's head) but I'm just thrilled that I got a half way decent shot of Andrew and Elizabeth.

This one deserves captions. Any ideas?

Jan and I have been taking massive quantities of pictures of Elizabeth since birth. She is used to the camera always being out and is starting to enjoy photography herself. Sometimes she asks if we can go take pictures in her room or of Andrew, daddy etc. She has a little Elmo camera that she uses while mommy or daddy are taking pictures. Yesterday I let Elizabeth use my camera for a few shots and she amazingly got this one of Andrew smiling. I've been trying to get a picture of him smiling for a few days now but leave it to Elizabeth! She can get her little brother smiling so easily as he is always just watching his big sister in amazement.

And then we had to let 'monkey see monkey do' take a few pictures.

Andrew 6 weeks old

Andrew was being very tolerant the other day so I decided to sieze the moment to snap a few photos.

Like Grandpop like grandson

My dad has a huge head... to the point that he can't find hats to fit him - ever. However, he does have a nice collection of custom made cowboy hats which I have the feeling Andrew will be inheriting. The little guy has a huge head. I wonder where he got that from?

These pictures are actually from December 20th when mom and dad were out visiting Andrew for the first time.

Princess Ellie

The name Princess Ellie is one that Grandma Lois and Grandpa Jan fondly call Elizabeth. Either that or the Jumping Juwawa . . . on most days, Elizabeth thinks that she is a cross between a monkey and a rabbit. She hops all over the house, hops to and from the park, hops to the car etc. Then when there is any opportunity to climb on something, she does. Elizabeth climbs on chairs, swings on the kitchen table or the stair railing, the pew at church etc. She loves the park as she can actually hop and climb on things that are meant to be hopped and climbed on.

I love this first picture. Elizabeth is sitting on her "big girl bed" which was my bed growing up. My dad got the bed from one of his infamous auction outings. The bed used to be painted white and my dad and I refinished it together when I was about 10.

Her latest "Elizabethisms"

Whenever Elizabeth is doing something she knows she is not supposed to, she says, "what is Elizabeth doing." Similar to her cousin Madeline who when she is doing something she is not supposed to says "look at me!!"

Elizabeth loves to ask what we are doing. However, she says, "what you doot?" It's absolutely precious as we hear it about 100 times a day.

Every evening, Elizabeth makes herself a cup of tea. It consists of dipping a decaf tea bag into warm tap water for about 10 seconds. She drinks her tea out of a plastic car coffee mug with a lid. Talk about entertainment. She is as happy as a clam, drinking her tea and telling mommy and daddy all about her day. Her vocab is pretty incredible. This morning (while drinking a morning cup of tea) Elizabeth heard Andrew crying in his room. She said to me, "mommy, you need to attend to Andrew right away." She somehow picked up the phrase "attend to" in the past two days. Her phrase yesterday was "get out of town."