these two crack me up!
claire showing off her special smile.
ellie giving us her natalie morales smile.
both doing it and being goofers.
a little more normal.
sweet, similar lookin’, goofin’ seestors.
I love seeing these pictures all together so just scan through them. witnessing them grin at each other is great. they also make each other giggle often.
I {heart} seestor love.
with darkness setting in earlier and earlier we are starting bath time right after dinner. it is usually a much longer activity in winter and with 3 growing kids the tub is getting a bit small, however, none of the kids notice. they have a blast and the floor in the bathroom is usually soaked each night. charlie serves the girls starfish soup and they eat it up (ie: drink A LOT of bath water – ewww).
ellie trying to sneak into claire and charlie’s area.
satisfied with sitting a row back. they love to stir their cups with their toothbrushes and dump water out over and over. somehow it never gets old.
ok – she had enough. ellie was trying to wrestle charlie back. they were having fun. check out her muscles!
more and more ellie and claire are having their own little conversations with their babble language. often claire answers ellie with a “noooo” – not surprising since she gives that answer to me 90% of the time.
the other night we watched them have a discussion over the fan and they were carrying on for awhile. I love observing them. It is incredible to watch the way they look at each other and “chat”.
here they are discussing something. claire is on the bench.
a few nights ago at dinner we were sitting around and eating when ellie started crying pretty hard. I thought she bit down on her spoon wrong. As I was consoling her I asked her if she bit her spoon, but she was still crying and sad so she didn’t respond. that is when claire started moaning and sort of whimpering and holding her cheek. I said “claire, do you feel bad for ellie?”. she continued to moan and then kept grabbing her cheek. I mentioned ellie’s tongue or lip, but claire continued to pat her cheek. I looked at bill and said do you think she is telling me that ellie bit her cheek? I looked in ellie’s mouth and sure enough she had bitten her cheek. it is so sweet to see them care about each other. they really do get worked up when the other is truly hurting (not if they don’t want to share something). such a special relationship these two will have.
claire’s happy smile because she is coloring (ie: eating the crayons).
charlie had been playing with duplos on the table and when he was finished claire climbed up and had a blast playing by herself.
when I asked her if she wanted to get down she gave me her most used answer… “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO”. this is her “no” face.
ellie – watching her sister. her poor hair had all fallen out during nap.
claire loves to put duplos together and make a tall tower. every time she connects one she stands up and gets excited.
YEAH!
back at it with sister watching.
I love how determined and focused she is!
ellie – pointing out that a bus or big vehicle must have just driven by!
I will admit I am not that into halloween. when laura was in town we went to target and let charlie pick out his costume (ie: I basically showed him lightning mcqueen and encouraged that versus anything with a stick/gun). so when we got home he put his on and I busted out his old giraffe costume and a flower hand-me-down costume I had. bam – costumes done! then everyone ran around and it was hysterical!
lightning must have stubbed his toe. ouch!
claire had the giraffe costume on first.
then she started to throw tantrums. apparently she wanted to be the flower.
loved watching her run around in this costume!
daddy time. ellie was in the flower now.
then ellie got switched into the giraffe and instantly started climbing and pushing stuff. so cute.
a couple of weeks ago the girls turned 18 months (september 23rd) – WOW! I feel like I should be writing about how easy the girls have gotten and how much they have changed, but honestly I can’t even think straight. they are so BUSY and FUN! the one thing that I was hoping would really pick up by this month is their verbal communication. they have completely understood what I have been saying for awhile. ellie has really picked up some words the past couple weeks. she will attempt to repeat almost anything and is probably saying 15-20 words. claire prefers to communicate by grunts. it is hysterical! she will do a little “humphf” for a yes and shake her head side to side for a no. she does say a few things when she wants to “yes, no, mama, dada, bubba, nana, dog, etc”, but doesn’t really like to attempt other words. she often just gives a “da”. claire can definitely let me know when she doesn’t like something though. I had purchased the most adorable brown boots and after wearing them twice she REFUSES to put them on. they must hit too close to her knee, but she literally pitches a fit when I try to put them on so I returned them. guess she hasn’t learned that sometimes fashion is worth some discomfort.
we successfully completed the gymnastics class and even improved over the course of 4 weeks. yesterday was their last class and they waited patiently (without me touching them!) on the yellow foam pad for the first circuit instructions and waited for their stamps at the end. the 2 other waiting stations they had to be held by me (but to their credit – they were standing, which is much harder to "get”), but for the most part I was proud that they were able to sit with the other kids (who were all 3 yrs old!) and listen. progress. I will definitely not be signing up for their next session. perhaps in spring.
Claire LOVES to color – I mean really LOVES to color. the problem is she just can’t resist eating a crayon now and then, but is just so happy when she has crayons and paper in front of her I have to let her do it. here are some pictures.
ellie and claire heading outside in their puffer vests.
ellie.
claire.
both girls continue to adore their big brother. charlie was laying on the couch here and ellie and claire decided to lay with him.
claire wanted charlie to read this to her. how sweet is this?!?
they care about each other! it was so sweet last night – claire was really upset and bill was in their room with her. ellie was with me and laura in the living room and she kept running back and forth between me and the door to their room. when she would get to me she was say “mama!” and point towards their room – like HELP her! when bill finally came out she RAN over to the door instantly to see if claire was ok. made my heart swell!
a favorite activity. pushing each other in their doll strollers. claire is pushing ellie.
claire has a new special smile. after seeing how much attention ellie gets when she does her natalie morales smile she made her own up. one extra squinty eye and one medium squinty eye. love it.
more of claire’s smile.
ellie and claire are getting really into babies. it is so sweet. they want to wrap them up, feed them, push them, lay them down. here is ellie putting two babies in her stroller.
rocking her baby back and forth.
feeding her baby.
this is fuzzy, but shows how I spend a lot of my time. two girls fighting for my legs. I am definitely looking forward to more words so they can hopefully communicate their frustrations.
with one of their most favorite people in the world – bubba. they LOVE having her stay at our house and spending special time with her.
LOVE these girls and feel so blessed to be their mom.
