March

 Let us in!!! Ellie and Lewis race up the stairs to find the gate closed. We always leave the gate open, so Ellie was surprised to find she couldn't get in as usual...

 Our first swim lesson was last Friday, and Eliana did pretty well. She was a bit clingy, and basically just hugged me the whole time, but the swim instructor said she did well for her first time. She was curious, and seemed to looking around trying to figure out what was going on. The water was a bit too cool, and Ellie also had a tough week still missing her morning nursing, so had been pretty clingy all week anyway. So, hoping the swimming lesson today goes a bit better. We are not as clingy this week, and we got a swim suit made out of wetsuit material to keep us warm.

 The one day I drive to Buggy Fit, Ellie falls asleep in the stroller. So, I hung out here at the park, and let her sleep. They have started a new Buggy Fit class on Fridays, and so I decided to go even though it slightly overlapped with Ellie's nap. This was the same day as Ellie's first swim lesson, and she also hadn't taken a good morning nap, so she finally relented, and got some zzzzzs...

 Swing time! We have been going to the park a lot recently in the late afternoon, and Ellie has been enjoying swinging and going down the slide. The late afternoon seemed to be a rough time last week with the weaning, so this was a good opportunity to distract us, and get some fresh air:)

 Ellie wanted to check out the ground at the park...

 Well, hello...

 We took our first trip to the library yesterday for singing time. It is a 30 minute singing time for babies/toddlers. Ellie seemed to have fun looking at the other babies, and she did enjoy when we sang Row Row Row Your Boat. We are still trying to find a more musical group with instruments to go to that will fit into our schedule, but this was pretty fun. Here I am holding my library card and my first DVD rental!

 Ellie and Lewis chilling.

 Eliana is enjoying walking her dog and Dino even more lately. She has even taken a few steps towards me without collapsing, and has let me walk her around with my hands holding hers. She has also been free standing more, and stood for about 5 seconds this week!

 Big girl is doing a MUCH better job drinking! I guess she finally realized she was thirsty since she is only nursing once a day now. Dad and I are very proud of her!

 Catch me if you can!

 Eliana and Lewis decided they wanted to climb the wooden stairs, and then Ellie showed Lewis her room. Lewis had fun exploring a new room.

 Oh, how I LOVE the bathroom lately. I love to prance around the toilet, and I figured out how to reach the sliver thing (flush) and can push it, though not hard enough to make it flush. This is just the coolest thing!

 The other thing I love to do is come over here to the computer where I talk to people on skype, and then look at Mama meaning, let's call someone. Sometimes Mom has to tell me that people are sleeping, and we have to wait until later to call them.

 Back to play group, and this cool whale see-saw. Still fun...

 So, Eliana is trying to reach out for toys lately that other babies are playing with. She gets very upset when I tell her that toy isn't ours to take, and has just started screaming crying lately when she can't have it. Yikes!

 Ellie continues to take a liking to the babies lately...

 First trip to the library. After the singing was over, we played in this children's area for a while. Ellie found this miniature couch, perfect since she is loving to climb and stand on the couch lately.

 There was also a box of books next to the couch, and boy was it fun to take out all the books!

 A grandmother there with her daughter and babies was nice enough to take our picture:)

Uh oh, more books...Mom soon decided we needed to go after she was chasing me down the aisles, and having to put all the books back I was tearing down. So we decided to get our library card before heading home. I got my very own card!!

Happenings with me lately:

Eliana is continuing to talk more and more. She calls her juice "joos," bottle (mom's water bottle) is "ba ba," bowl is "bo," giraffe is "j," banana is "bah bah," cup is "ka," purse (little coin purse from Grandma) is "pu pu," and her Paddington Bear is "paaa." She also tries to make a meow sound when we read her book with the cats. I had been meowing when reading that page to her, and she used to look at me like, "what are you doing?" When I read the line the other day in the book, she tried to make the meow sound. John has been really playing with her during her bath time with her animals, and makes animal noises with the various animals, and she has now started trying to make a moo sound when he holds up the cow.

The other thing Ellie is finally doing (and looks like it is here to stay) is feeding herself!!! One day this week she fed herself 3 bites of strawberry from my lap, and so the next day I tried putting her banana on her tray, and she actually started feeding herself! We have tried over and over, so I am not sure what finally made her decide to do it. She has fed herself mango and bites of cheese as well. Mom and Dad are so proud. She now claps after she takes a bite, and expects you to clap too since I was doing this when she first started feeding herself:)  We still only have the four teeth, and the top ones still aren't even in all the way! Geez, when are we gonna get our teeth?:)