Our little sweetie is already 12 weeks old! And, our bigger sweetie celebrates her half Bday on the 23rd. What a month.
Elise is smiling a lot, and still crying a good deal. Evenings seem to be the hardest, but she's happy as a clam in the morning. Nice to have at least one morning person in the family. :) She LOVES watching Nora play and will sit happily in my lap watching her sister dance or make up stories with her toys. She's still an enthusiastic spitter upper, but is gaining weight like a champ, so all agree it's just a laundry issue at this point. She's enjoys any one-on-one attention and is a pro at repeating certain noises, such as gurgles and goos and decending aaahhh's...so adorable. I gave up dairy, soy and eggs and switched soaps and her rash has gone away. Now we'll start slowly adding some back in one by one to find the true culprit/s. She definitely keeps me on my toes!
This past month with Elise has definitely tipped the scale of bliss v. stress much more toward bliss. Her smiles and early laughs are like a magnet...I just can't look away and want to sit all day and kiss those little rose petal lips. I'm definitely addicted.
Our Nora has continued her beautiful balance of heart melting sweetness and infuriating stubborness just like any self-respecting 2 1/2 year old. When that girl digs her heals in we have to pull out every trick in the book (pretending to be animals who
[fill in the blank with random self-care measures such as baths or brushing teeth], bribing with candy, having her toys "talk" to ask for things, and lots of counting and singing songs) to get her to do what we want. It's exhausting, but oh so rewarding when you suddenly break through the wall and see that shy smile followed by a helpful girl. Other times I just end up washing the hands of a thrashing toddler ending up with a wet and soapy bathroom. Ahhhhh.
On the heart melting sweetness side of things, she is very generous with her I love you's and randomly comes out with a "You're a good Mama/Papa" or even "You're the best Mama/Papa in. the. world". Last month Nora told Chris: "Papa, I'll always be your buddy. I'll always be your cantaloupe." Hah! She's amazingly sweet with Elise during car trips and now that Elise can look over and see Nora, it actually does help. She sings (recently coming out with this little medly: "hush a by, don't you cry, mama will buy you a bird in the treetop") and she often tells Elise "it's ok, we're here" and sometimes she's exasperated just like us - a few weeks ago she dramatically begged "Elise, would you puh-lease be quiet?! I need you to be quiet!". Too cute. And, just one more, I promise...a few weeks ago at the dinner table she was resting her head in her hand so I asked her if she was tired, she said in a dreamy breathy voice "No. I'm just thinking about the day" and proceeded to explain that she was just thinking "about dressing up". So, now we all go around the table at dinner with an I'm thinking about the day moment. A nice tradition, I think.
She cracks me up on a daily basis and gives the most adorable smile when she knows she's done something funny. The other day she asked me, "Mama, do I make you happy?" (ok, I guess that was the last one). The answer, obviously, is a resounding YES!
Nothing like some chocolate milk and a banana on a chilly day!
