Monday, February 28, 2011

Updates!

Last time I wrote that Ella was being introduced to solids and she wasn’t that “into” them….well just as I thought, her taste buds woke up and she is loving all of her baby food! I must say she doesn’t seem too fond of green peas though as she will start to gag on those! I also gave her some of these…

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She just LOVES these Mum Mums! The other night after she finished one, she decided to rub her hands through her little bit of hair though. Let’s just say that once they dry, they become extremely hard and even more challenging to get out of a baby’s hair!!!

She is waiting patiently with her toys for her dinner!

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The week after Ella turned 6 months, Grammy and I took her to get her ears pierced on Feb. 21st. We went to Merle Norman at Friendly Center where we took both Taylor and Caroline when they were 6 months old too. Actually the same two ladies have now pierced all three girls’ ears. They are wonderful and I highly recommend them to anyone! As for Ella, she did great too. She only cried for a few seconds and then was fine. She went right back to smiling and laughing like normal and looks just precious with her tiny earrings.

I also finally changed out Taylor and Caroline’s earrings too. My sister informed me that Taylor definitely needed some new bigger ones since you could barely tell she had her ears pierced. I must agree that my sister was right and the newer bigger earrings look much better in the older girls’ ears!

So I TRIED to get a picture of Ella and her new earrings but she wouldn’t sit still! She would move her face in the direction of the camera and I couldn’t get her earrings in the picture! Of course, when you want them to look at the camera they WON’T!!! With the help of Caroline as entertainment, I was able to catch her ears in the tub.

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Last month, Taylor had her first meeting as a Girl Scout Daisy! Ms. Alicia and Ms. Lori started Troop 1937! Alicia’s triplets go to school with Taylor at Village Kids and Ms. Lori is actually a teacher at VK. All of the kids at VK have developed a strong bond with one another and it is going to be sad to see them separate next year when they go off to Kindergarten. Alicia had this great idea to start up a Daisy troop to keep some of the girls in contact with one another while also starting a great program for them! Taylor has been so excited about the meetings and the fun activities that they have been doing over the last month. We even got to sell Girl Scout cookies too! I was absolutely amazed at how easily those expensive little boxes sell!!! The troop had their first meeting on Feb. 12th, so we were a little late on getting started on selling (Other troops had sold in January and picked up their cookies in Feb.) Taylor did a great job though and sold 70 boxes!! After we got the cookie sheets, Taylor begged all night Saturday and Sunday morning to go selling. After church Taylor and I went to a few neighbors to see if they were interested in any cookies. I am sure it is hard to turn down an adorable little four year old; but Taylor did great as she sold to everyone at least 2 or more boxes!! She also could not wait to go and get her uniform- or as she liked to call it, her “costume”! We went the following week to the Girl Scout store to get her apron, pins and various badges. So far the girls have earned the center part of the Daisy patch and one petal. They are all so excited about all the fun activities that Ms. Alicia and Ms. Lori plan every other Saturday morning. I thought it was so sweet when the other day Ella was fussing and I heard Taylor start singing the little Girl Scout song to Ella…I immediately recognized it, “Make new Friends but keep the Old, One is Silver and the other Gold…”

Daisy Troop 1937 making/watering their new garden of Daisy’s!

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Yummy treat THANKS to Ms. Alicia!

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As for our sweet Caroline…she is POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!! She is doing so well and we are very proud of her. Daycare had told us one day last month that they decided not to put a pull up on Caroline that day. She did great her first day and only had one accident. We had been putting her on the potty at home but not actually “potty training” though. I didn’t want to push it at all and figured she would let us know when she was ready. I think it did help seeing Taylor going all the time. She wants to do just about everything that Taylor does too. She really has done a great job with it as we have only had a few hiccups here and there over the past month. I hope it continues to go smoothly as having ONE in diapers is WONDERFUL and much better on the wallet of course!

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(OK so the picture above of Caroline just makes me laugh! We have had some really nice Spring like days. The other afternoon, we were off to jump on the trampoline and it was about 75 degrees! Caroline insisted that she wear her winter gloves!?! Oh AND she picked out that fabulous outfit!! :-)

Caroline is always making me laugh with the little things she says and does (well really all three of the girls do!), but her newest and sweetest thing is coming up to me and saying, “I Love you Bunches and Bunches!”….seriously melts my heart each and every time.

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Saturday, February 5, 2011

Yummy!!

A couple of weeks ago we decided to start Ella on some solids. She had just turned 5 months old and her teachers at Village Kids thought she was ready. Me; well I am in no rush :-) Ella is the youngest in her class though and most of the other little ones are eating a few times a day. She must have been getting jealous of her friends at school! We started out with cereal and she seemed to do OK. I think she preferred to grab the spoon and just chew on it instead!

We have been gradually introducing all of her veggies and fruits. So far, doesn’t seem like she has a favorite one yet!?! I can barely get her to take in three or four bites before she starts gagging and spitting up. I am not sure what it is, but we will keep trying. I believe Caroline was the same way when we first started her on solids and I don’t think it lasted long! Soon she was lovin’ some good baby food!

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Taylor decided to take some pictures afterwards. I thought she did pretty well with these…

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Tickle MONSTER

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

SISTERS

Taylor and Caroline are wonderful big sisters!  Ella is one lucky girl as she has two older sisters who just dote on her.  Ella thinks Taylor is absolutely hilarious!  I am going to try to get video of it soon to post, but Taylor can talk or act silly in front of Ella and she will just laugh.  It is the sweetest thing ever!!

The girls are also a big help for me too.

Just this morning, we had to get Ella’s bottle ready and put her down in her swing.  She really was not feeling the swing at the moment and started a little pitiful cry.  I asked the girls to go and talk with Ella.  As soon as they went over there, Ella stopped crying and started to smile at her two sisters.  I think she is really going to look up to Taylor and Caroline.

Taylor loves to hold Ella.  I have to be careful though because Taylor is now into picking Ella up and walking with her?!  Oh no, that makes me nervous so that is off limits unless I am walking with them :-)   I try to encourage the girls to hold Ella while they are sitting in a nice secure place!

This morning as I was getting ready, Ella was sitting in the papasan chair and Caroline decided she was going to “read” to Ella.  She went and got her bear counting book.  She did a good job and was actually even pointing to some numbers and saying the correct ones.  Caroline was doing so well with the counting.  She got up to eleven and then she said “Forty” as the next one?!  We are still working on it!

It was just precious though to watch her read and try to show Ella the pictures in the book.  I think they are all going to have a special bond.

Right now, Rob usually takes Taylor and Caroline to school and I drop off Ella.  I am usually still getting myself ready when they are leaving.  Caroline comes up to me and Ella too before they leave to give kisses and hugs, then she ends by telling me and Ella to have fun with our friends today!  Makes me laugh and smile every time!

I just LOVE these girls.

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Ok so normally I don’t let Ella just hang out in her bathtub but it is easy to put her there when I am giving Taylor and Caroline a bath!  I thought she looked too cute not take come pics!

Ella thought her sisters were so funny!  She just enjoys watching them all the time. (they are pretty entertaining!)

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