This face...

Ellie is such a ham! Lately she's been making a silly face where she throws her head back, and smiles this really cheesy grin. To make it even funnier, she usually accompanies it with some sort of growling or snorting sound. If she does it while she's running around, she usually throws her head back so far that it causes her to lose her balance and fall over. I love this face...seeing it everyday is one of the most fun things about being a momma!

"This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Sister Lovin'...

I feel very blessed that Mason and Ellie, despite their nearly 4 year age difference, are very close and love playing together. In fact, because he is much older, he takes great pride in protecting her and helping her with things. But don't get me wrong--big brother shows her no "baby mercy". He often plays with her like she's a fellow 4 year old boy, and surprisingly she is so very tolerant of his roughhousing...how could she not be...it's all she's known since the day she entered into our family! Lately, Mason loves to call her into his room, and then jump out and scare her when she arrives. Then he'll run into another room, she'll follow him, and he'll repeat the scares. Don't ask me why, but she finds this game most entertaining, and he gets her laughing so hard that she can barely stand up straight. There is no sweeter sound than hearing them giggle and squeal as they play together!

In Our House...

Yardwork is a family affair!

The Incident...

Something happened in our house today--something so gross that I can only refer to it as the incident. First, let me preface this story by saying that Ellie has recently taken a liking to our potties. If left unattended, even momentarily, I will find her in her bathroom "loving on" the potty. Of course, I promptly shoo her away, but not without first fussing at her in my most grossed-out voice, which she in turn finds hilarious (and of course follow that up with the washing of her hands.) Once all that is taken care of, she will then head straight for the other bathroom as quickly as her little legs can get her there. Luckily, since I'm on to her at this point, I can catch her before she makes it to her alternate potty destination. To make sure that she doesn't get into any additional toilet mischief, I've been keeping the toilet lids down, and the bathroom doors closed. That being said, today Ellie saw her chance to make her escape into the bathroom when she noticed that Mason went in to take care of some 'business'. While washing his hands he left the door open and the potty lid up...and oh yeah, he also forgot to flush...you can see where this is going. A few moments later I heard my mischievous little Ellie in the bathroom with him, and ran in as fast as I could. But I was too late. I found her with one arm in the unflushed toilet water (number 1 only--thankfully). But then I noticed her chewing on something. She then spit out of her mouth what appeared to be a small piece of toilet paper. Not toilet paper from the roll, mind you, but toilet paper out of the toilet! And the reason she was reaching back in was to get more! I have no words to describe the utter horror that I felt. Even now, just thinking about it gives me the shivers. But Mason sure thought the whole ordeal was extremely comical and laughed about the incident for the rest of the day!

Oh, For A Thousand Nights To Sleep...

As any mom would say, I think my children are the greatest! They are both full of cuddles and spunk, perfect in every way...except for a small area called sleep, that is. As a baby, Mason was a terrible sleeper. It took a battery-powered swing (and a pack of batteries a week) to get him to nap at all. And forget about sleeping through the night! I turned to friends, pediatricians, and even literature for help. After reading, and failing at several infant-sleep books, I concluded that they were written for cookie-cutter babies...a mold in which my child didn't fit. For the remainder of Mason's first year, I opted for the 'grin and bear it' method of getting up to comfort him throughout the night. Until finally one night, two weeks before his first birthday, he slept through the night! It was nothing I did...he was just finally ready to do it! And he has been a fantastic sleeper ever since! ....Fast forward four years later: When I became pregnant with Ellie, friends and family assured me that this one would be a great sleeper. Because after all, no second child is the same as the first, right? This theory couldn't be more wrong, by the way. Ellie is much like her brother in so many ways, which I absolutely love, because everything I adore about Mason is multiplied in her--their personality, their willfulness, their spunkiness (they even rolled, crawled, and walked at the same time). But unfortunately she also mimics his distaste for sleeping through the night during infancy. At 10 months, I'm still getting up with Ellie about every 3 hours per night. But the one thing I wasn't going to do this time was read any of those sleep-help books...no sir, not me, not this time. But a few weeks ago, in a moment of crazed sleep deprivation, I caved. I read this particular book in less than two days! (What can I say...I was hopeful and ready to get started on my road to slumbering bliss!) I followed the techniques just as they were written, but once again, sleep did not improve. I even went as far as to email the author with my situation in hopes of some personal advice. I have yet to hear back from her. And I am not hopeful that I will. :) So again, I'm back to grinning and bearing it. But in reality, I know that it's all in the way I look at it. While these midnight meetings have been some of the most exhausting moments, they have also been some of the most precious moments of my baby girl's first year. Because as crazy as it might sound, just as it was when Mason was a baby, there is something that I cherish about holding my sweet baby close to me during the night--something really special about being together when the whole house is quiet and dark, and everyone else is asleep, and it's just the two of us--and finding joy in the fact that I get to be the one from whom she desires comfort. As I remind myself in my tiredness, these moments are fleeting. I'm confident that she too will become a great sleeper, in her own time. And in the meantime, I will enjoy every second of nighttime togetherness with her...as I simultaneously look forward to sleeping through the night again!!

(I always like to add pictures relating to my posts. However, since I couldn't find any of her sleeping, these are just random shots of her not sleeping.) :)

This Is What Happens...

This is what happens when I sit down for a moment to eat some cereal for breakfast. This is what happens when I hear my daughter begin to rummage through the pantry around the corner and I choose to let her be, because after all, she does this a lot, as she likes to play with the boxes that are sitting on the pantry floor. This is what happens when I allow the pantry goodies to occupy her for a couple of minutes so that I can enjoy my cereal. And this is what happens when I decide to check on her because things suddenly get eerily quiet...

Dump Truck Drivin'...

Now here's a game they both can enjoy...

Mason even gets a push from Ellie!

This game of hauling each other around in the dump truck entertained them both for a long time! Mason was so amazed that Ellie was "strong" enough to push him, that he couldn't stop laughing (I guess that's the magic of wheels!) Ellie likes to play this game solo as well. The down side--every time she hits a wall, she has a mini meltdown because she can't get the truck turned back around to go the other way!