Happy Birthday Ellis!

My sweet baby Ellis.  Daddy and I love you more than you could possibly ever know.  It has been our blessing to watch you grow this year.  There has not been a day that you have not made us smile.  You are funny, sweet and mischivious and you fill our hearts up with love.  You are a beautiful little mess and we wouldn't trade you for the world.  We love you!

And, guess who took 5 steps on Monday!  

Happy Birthday sweet Ellis!

These kids are into EVERYTHING!

Sweet baby Ellis is only an official baby for a few more days.  She will switch to 'toddler' on September 18.  Today she switched to a big girl carseat.  I am slowly getting rid of all the 'baby' stuff.  Am I sad?  Nope.  Not yet.  I keep waiting for it.  But I just FINALLY had two nights of 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Babies are exhausting.  Good luck to all yall who just keep popping them out.  I'm busy enough with these two.

She gets cuter with age

If you were to ask Ellis what her favorite thing to do is (and if she could talk) she would certainly say that she loves to play in the dishwasher.  I made certain she can get in and out safely... she hit her head twice on the door and then learned not to go that way... so I let her play in there while I load and unload.

She is NOT allowed to stand though

Leyton is back in soccer.  She moved up to the beginner class sans Mommy.  She was a handful for the coaches.  In this picture, instead of kicking the ball to the blue cone, she ran to the blue cone, took off the blue jersey, put it on, and ran around.

She had fun though and it was fun to watch

Just when I thought I had made a HUGE mistake having them so close together, the girls are finally starting to entertain each other.  Here Leyton is dressing Ellis in different hats.

And giving her a sweet kiss

Silly kids

I was quickly running out of time for her 11 month photo shoot, so I just grabbed the sticker and camera one night before our walk

It was too sunny, so we had bad shadows and squinty eyes

CRAZY HAIR!

She had a fit because Ellis got to wear a sticker.  She cried until she tackled her sister and got the sticker.

Eating what I hope is grass.  This kid puts everything in her mouth. And the other day I caught her licking the potty.  Ugh.

Leyton grabbed the sticker from Ellis' hand, stuck it to her hair, and ran away

Ellis can stand for 30+ seconds now and she walks very well when holding onto something.  But she has yet to take a step on her own.

still standing..

Doing an air squat...

And stand back up... skills!

Ellis loves to eat.  Especially chicken.  We put bananas, sweet potato, cheese and chicken on her tray and she ate ALL the chicken first.  Amazing.  I gave her this snack cup to see if she could figure it out.  She shook all the snacks out and then ate the Cheerios off the floor.  Genius.

Love my silly girls!

Ellis is 10+ months!

My baby is 10 months going on about 18 months.  She has 2 new front, top teeth and working on more.  She can crawl FAST, pull-up, let go and stand by herself, cruise, climb, wave and recently she stood from all fours without holding on to anything!  She puts all her new skills to good use -she terrorizes her sister, climbs onto the dishwasher, pulls things off of shelves and puts everything in her mouth (she is especially fond of the potty and shoes).  Be all that as it may, she is still my 'easiest' kid.

I am reading a book a friend recommended called Personality Plus for Parents. I am trying to determine if Leyton's demands, mischievousness, and strong will are a product of her age or her personality.  I am sure it is a bit of both, but that girl is a handful.  She always has a very clear idea of what she would like to be doing, and you either go along with it or you deal with -at best an attitude and at worst a full-on kick-and-scream fest.  Leyton is very smart, pointing out places she's been as few as one time.  And she is in constant negotiations with those around her to try and get her way.  "One more minute," "one more bite," and "one more time" are common phrases.  She is also getting better with her sister.  If she's in a good mood, they play together nicely, which is HEAVEN.  When she's not in a good mood, she sits in time-out a lot.

After her 10 month trial period, we decided to keep her.  And get her a crib.  And her own room!

She loves it!  And thanks Grammy and Papa for the growth chart and letters.

Sooo roomy

Until recently we thought we might be moving soon.  But we found out we will be here at least a couple more years.  So we added a raised garden to the side yard.  We planted a few things, even though it's really late.  We may get a few cherry tomatoes, since it doesn't get hot here until August and September.

By no means a skinny baby, Ellis is beginning to grow into her baby fluff.

Though it kept the sun out of her eyes, she did not want to wear this hat

Had to take a few with the 10 month sticker on.

My new favorite!  'You been farmin' long?'

Strike a Pose

I don't know what I'm going to do with this one.

She wanted her picture taken and this is how she posed.

This was during one of our many daily dress-up sessions.

UGH!

Finally I told her to smile.  Note the sparkly skirt she added on top of the pretty dress she insisted on wearing that day... not the mention the shoes...  all purple, her fav color  

These kids crack me up.