It's official...

Mitchell is crawling! He's been 'commando/inchworm' crawling for several months now, but on Friday he REALLY figured out the CRAWL. It's adorable- he's so proud of himself and LOVES the new-found freedom...although Mommy has to figure this all out, too. Man, I'll have to dust off the baby gate and really be on my toes again around the house. It'll be fun, though. =)

I love the determination on his face in this one...


His favorite destination these days is the bottom 'platform' of the kitchen table. I love this look of, "Hey, check me out...I'm so cool. I crawl now."


It's where he keeps going (and falling off...but that's how it goes, right!?)

I'm so pleased with myself...and my sisters love it, too!

"Shopping" trips this week

Afternoons are tough in our household some days...it's when Mitchell sleeps well, but the girls want to be awake and playing. It's when I'd like to be prepping dinner, but can't get 2 minutes of 'focused' time to marinade chicken and chop lettuce. It's also when I'd love to just be SILLY with my precious girls because I KNOW these days won't last forever and I'll always treasure this stage in life. It's also tricky when Adam is out of town and it's raining for the 7th DAY.IN.A.ROW. Really? Yes...Not constant thunderstorms and rain, but just enough that everything outside is soggy, grumpy, and 100% humidity. yay.
So, there was one day this week (Monday? Tuesday?...I really have no idea?...), I had the ironing board out. No, really, I did! Ainsley asked "What dat, Mommy?" Shhh, kid! don't tell people how mommy RUNS up the stairs to pull clothes out of the dryer AS THE buzzer sounds just so she won't EVER have to actually iron something! but it's true.
Anyway, Elise thought the ironing board looked like checkout lane at the grocery store, so we went with that. I made "Scavenger Hunt/Grocery lists" for she and Ainsley and they went shopping in the playroom, had to put everything in their cart/stroller/bag, check it off on their list, Elise had to "sound out" some of the words, an then bring it to me as the cashier. We'd run it over the scanner, make the "BEEP" sound, bag it in our reusable bags, and then put everything back in it's home in the playroom. I loved it. We had fun, didn't make too much of a mess, got to be a little creative, etc...it was cute. =)

Special note: Ainsley came over TWICE to the checkout line with a toy cell phone to her ear. She was "talking" to daddy once, a friend the other time...HA! Not like she ever sees me on the phone...whatever. Here's Ainsley on the phone:


Enjoy. She's so focused. Adorable.
She's so precious.

mimi's visit...

My (Erica's) mom was here earlier this month visiting and we had SO much fun! It was relaxing, joyful, and just GREAT to have her around. The kids played in the sprinklers, we planted tons of flowers/plants in the front yard, we went to the zoo, etc...here are a few quick pictures.
The first two are of a cool overlook spot of our wonderful city. Ainsley is such a little....uh...firecracker! You never know what she'll do. Really...love that face, though!



One afternoon was rainy and we decided to let Elise try her "gaming system"...which is actually hilarious b/c it's a pretty old LeapFrog system that someone gave us over a year ago. We've only gotten it out and hooked it up about 3x b/c we just don't care about that stuff. This was the first time we had it out in about 6 months and, for the first time ever, Elise was actually doing well at it! (Her uncle Kelly would be so proud. =) You can tell that Mimi doesn't quite "get it" though...

Precious PIcture of the MONTH

Elise (aka "Mini Mommy") has been asking for over a year now when she could help out and give Mitchell a bottle. We kept saying, "When he's about zero and a half..." At 6 months old, we still hadn't tried giving him a bottle, and Elise had started begging. She just has the sweetest heart and soooo wants to be a little mommy to him. In the car the other day she told me, "One Day when I grow up and I'm a mommy, I'm going have lots of babies and it'll be so fun! And I'll be tall like you, Mommy. Like when I'm 10."
Ok, so she doesn't totally get it. =)
At 8 months old, we finally started trying to give him a bottle and, YAY for everyone, after a week or two, HE LOVES IT! Mommy has some freedom and Elise FINALLY gets to feed him. This was a picture from last week sometime when she gave him the first bottle. She kept telling me to leave the room so he wouldn't look at me the whole time...adorable. But I was so IN LOVE with watching her with him that I had to stick around and take a few pics.

Oh, the Horror!!!!!

5:37 am... Elise wakes me up SCREAMING. Not just a whiny, pitiful "mom-my", but a WAILING, SCREECHING, Terrified-sounding, "MMMMOOOOOOOMMMMYYYY"...so, I pull the earplug out, bolt out of bed, and move quickly down the hall to check on her. (assuming a horrible nightmare, accidental bed wetting, high fever, etc...).
As I open her door and walk in, she's sitting up in bed, knees tucked under her arms, and she's holding onto her feet.
"MY TOES ARE ALL WRINKLY"....she cries...
?
I try not to laugh out loud (unsuccessfully, really), give her a hug, and cuddle for about 5 seconds while she falls back asleep. She wasn't even awake! I'm sure she'll have no recollection of it in the morning.

Bummer is that the sun was already up a little and the adrenaline rush woke ME up fully , so I didn't get to fall totally back asleep...oh well, that's what the Espresso maker is for.

**Disclaimer...I'm not being whiny! I'm laughing about this. Our kids are GREAT SLEEPERS in general and, at 8:22 am on a Saturday, ALL THREE are still totally zonked out asleep. =) *****

In the creek

A few weeks ago, I (Erica) was out of town for a quick trip to my beautiful sister-in-law's baby shower and Adam kept the girls for the weekend. They went to a birthday party on Saturday afternoon at a local park and had a GREAT time! The invitation had read, "maybe wear water shoes and bring a towel b/c we'll have a water balloon game and may get messy"...that mom had no idea how much my girls would LOVE playing in the water. They actually had, as part of the party, a game to try to catch minnows in the creek. That's cute and fun. Elise, who LOVES playing in water, getting messy, etc...jumped right in and was having a blast. Ainsley, who doesn't really enjoy getting wet, dirty, messy, or being in a 'new' situations, surprised us all! Their smiles in these pictures explain how much fun they had, but you can't see how LONG they were there. I guess the party was 3pm-4:30, but Adam and the girls were in that creek until almost 6pm!!! Hilarious. I think they took a break from the water for bday cake, but they totally ditched the party-girl and did their own thing the rest of the time...hahahaha....Adam said Elise was adorable and was helping to "teach" Ainsley about the water, bugs, fish, etc...
.

Moody, much?

This was Elise one day last week...and 'that' face is exactly as grumpy as it looks...amazing, eh? She was fighting a little bit of a cold and was just a little whiny, cuddly, cough-y, etc...I secretly enjoyed some b/c she was calm and cuddly all day! I was trying to get a picture of all three kids together and she gave me THAT stare and mumbled something about, "Are you DONE taking pictures yet today?!"... I couldn't decide if I should laugh or punish her for the attitude. I laughed first and then told her to 'watch it'. =) yep, can't wait until she's 13...