Storms, birthmarks, and sleepovers

Some of the neighborhood kids and their painted faces!
(I wanted to buy some crafts for them to do when it's too hot to play outside, or when they need some structure. Face paint crayons were a huge hit!!)

Our 5 baby bunnies, right behind our pool.

Ellie is not always brave around animals, but she's doing so much better!

Ava is not timid around ANY animal!

9 MONTHS OLD!

Ava has discovered the Cozy Coupe.
She always tends to play with things that Ellie didn't play with much! :-)

Ellie spent the night for the first time ever at a friends house the other night. They are our neighbors and there are 5 kids (all older than Ellie, but I don't think she understands that - she thinks she is as big as them) and they are really well behaved kids. Our kids spend tons of time together, so the next night, we switched and they all (except for the boy) spent the night with us. They had fun and were surprisingly good!

We had a major storm the other night and decided to take some pictures. The pictures don't do it justice, though. We had a threat of a tornado, but there wasn't one in the area. The sky was crazy, though!

I didn't think either of my girls had birthmarks...but they both do. We kept thinking that Ellie had a bruise on her back - it was really faint, but I'm convinced it's a birthmark because it never went away. I didn't notice it until recently, but probably because it was so faint. I think Ava's is on the back of her leg on her calf, but it's really faint, too.

9 months

Ava turned 9 months old yesterday! She also took 5 steps without holding on to anything and she cut a tooth! She had a big day! She also knows how to clap her hands now and she signs more and all done. She waves to people, says hi, mama, dada, and bye bye. I love hearing her say mama, especially since Ellie didn't call me mama until she was 13 months old...she also didn't walk until then. It's so fun to see how different they are!

walkin'

Ava is getting so good at walking! She has recently been standing on her own and she can even bend down to get something without holding on to anything, then she can stand back up on her own. She won't take a step on her own, though - without either holding one finger of ours (which is new because she before had to have both hands) or she has just now figured out how to use a push toy. It's hillarious! Ellie didn't walk until she was 13 months old...Ava will be 9 months Saturday and although she's not walking on her own yet, she's awfully close! Ellie loves to help her by helping her stand, then letting Ava hold her fingers and walking with her. We are so blessed that they enjoy each other so much already!

Stay-at-home Mom

The girls at a birthday party for a little girl I do therapy with

Our new sign -
we had to have some way to let the neighbors know whether it was okay for Ellie to play or not and it seems to be working well so far. It also helps Ellie know when it's okay to play and when we need to do other things.
(I tend to not get much done when the neighborhood kids are over here, although they are very well behaved kids and we are blessed for Ellie to have such great friends to play with !)


Now for my real reason for this post:

So, my friend Emily posted something on her blog that I've been thinking a lot about lately. She talked about being a stay-at-home Mom and what she teaches her kids. I want to know if any of you have suggestions to share with me. I feel like I wasn't a good stay-at-home Mom to Ellie because I was so used to working full time that I didn't know how to transition to staying home full time. Now that I work 2 days a week, I'm struggling to juggle staying at home and working, although I am home most of the time with my girls. So, here's what I want from you, my readers. :-) Send me ideas that you have. Things you do on a daily basis with your kids, ways you teach them, how you teach them to love God, your daily schedule, crafts...whatever you do with your kids and any advice you might have. I think having 2 kids made me think even more about what I'm teaching them, so I've tried to be much better about keeping the house clean lately and we started a chore chart for Ellie, including allowance (thanks to another friend, Amber, who has a little boy very close to Ellie's age - she started it with her little boy and gave me the idea). Anyway, can't wait to hear from you!

Otter Ball

We somehow managed to get free tickets to an Otter's game tonight and it was so nice to get out of the house and do something different as a family! We all had a great time, even if none of us really care much for baseball. We got to sit with one of my newest friends, but we laugh and say we're long lost friends because we feel like we've known each other for years! Janet is great and she and I have the same job, plus we both like to do crafty sewing projects! The girls loved being outside and they enjoyed the balloons the clown made them, although those balloons didn't last long. Jeff was trying to explain the game to Ellie and she was surprisingly attentive and of course, Ava's tongue is out of her mouth - isn't it always? :-)

busy busy

Ellie loves to do crafty stuff - especially now that we figured out how to use her sewing machine that my parents gave her for Christmas?!? better late than never!

My latest project - a sling. We both love it. Ava is too big to ride in it like a newborn, but she fell asleep while we were walking, so she obviously still likes riding that way.

The sling is a great way to carry Ava on my hip and still have my hands free. She likes it...until we're talking past an animal or something that she wants to touch
- then she wants to get down. :-)

PRECIOUS!!
This was at my mom's house. Ava kept picking flowers.
She can stand on her own, stoop down and stand back up, and she has even taken a step on her own, but she's still really timid...which is fine with me -she's not even 9 months old yet!!

Ellie's favorite place to be - outside at her Nonee's!

Recital weekend

Ellie headed to VBS

Ava's funny faces...this one was at KinderMusik

Playin' the drums with Daddy at the children's museum

another VBS picture - the last day

dance recital pictures

Daddy's girls

headed to the big dance recital

kissy faces

dancing through life - Friday, June 13, 2008

Ava's walking wings
(she loves to walk holding our fingers, but it's not great developmentally for them to learn to walk that way. I found these "walking wings" and it's much easier for me and her!)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Update

Ellie's KinderMusik class

Happy girls!

Memorial Day weekend at Patti's with Nick and Amber

campin' cousins

Ava's KinderMusik class

Memorial Day weekend with my parents

headed to VBS

such a sick little girl!

neighborhood drink line-up

Ava was sick in this picture, but paper makes everything better in her world!
(especially when I just turn her loose and let her go crazy with it!)

The girls have both been so sick this week! It started with Ava having a fever and snowballed into high fevers with both girls, both had Hand Foot and Mouth disease, Ava had an ear infection, and Ellie had pneumonia. Good grief! 3 doctor visits, some antibiotics, bottles of ibuprophen and tylenol, and lots of rest later, and they are much better. Poor Jeff has it now, though. I think I'm probably immune to it because it's pretty rare in adults, but he's out of town (which makes it even worse) and has a fever and blisters on his throat and in his mouth. Maybe he'll be better tomorrow.

Daddy

So, Daddy is out of town and boy, do we miss him! Ellie said, I really want Daddy to come home one day. (He's only been gone one day so far!!) You don't realize what you've got until it's gone...like the help I get from Daddy around the house and with the girls. This time away will be good for us because we'll all realize again how much we need and love each other.