New Skill - Sitting alone

Emeree sat up all by herself today for over a minute without falling over!! And she's a multi-tasker too. She can make her tradmark "stink face" at the same time.
She can also stick out her tounge and play with her feet while sitting alone. . .

She can also bite the ear off a stuffed lamb - not really angel-like traits.

Ethan wanted to sit with her - she gave him a big ole' slobbery kiss.

. . . then they fell over.

Here's a picture of Ethan sitting alone when he was 5 months - he beat Emeree by a month with that skill.

She loves sitting in Ethan's high chair to eat. But she's wondering "What is up with these nasty carrots?" I know she gets her dislike of carrots from me - thanks Dad :)

Stink Face and Beanie Boy

. . . that post title sounds like 2 weird superhero names. :)

Emeree started making a "stink face" this week and she sniffs really loud and fast about 6 times while she makes the face, then she goes back to smiling. Not sure what started this. But it's hard to catch on camera since she does it randomly. I had to just sit there and wait for it. But it's a cute stink face.Ethan found one of my beanies in the laundry basket and said "hat" and wanted me to put it on him. He hated hats as a baby and up until recently. But after I put it on him, he pulled it down and started laughing and then kept it down while he walked around - looking down through the tiny slit below his eyes.

He pretty much kept it on all day - here he is eating cheerios and watching t.v. with it covering one eye.
And here he is the next day - eating a pop tart with the kitchen tongs. He wouldn't pick it up with his hands since the fudge filling got on his fingers. And he wouldn't use a fork, so I tried the tongs. Worked great. And he cried when I tried to take it off so we could go to the dentist. So on it stayed - most of that day too. He hasn't found it yet today.

How are you today sir?

. . . very well I thank you . . .

"sir" is short for "serena" in case you didn't know :)

Well, my morning sucked - Ethan bit Emeree's hand, leaving deep teeth marks. She was in her walker next to me while I loaded the dishwasher and I didn't see him do it, but after she erupted in tears, I checked her to see what was wrong and I saw the teeth marks. He didn't mean to hurt her; he stood worried next to her while I checked her to see what was wrong. So hopefully since he was worried about her, this teaches him that biting hurts.

He's only bit once before - he bit my butt. That "hurt like a mother" like Michael would say. He just ran up to me and hugged the back of my legs (or so I thought he was) and then he bit - hard. I didn't cry, so I don't think he understood that biting hurts at that incident.

Needless to say, there was a 2 minute timeout this morning (since he's 2 years old - a minute for each year) followed by a cute "sorry" spoken by Ethan and a kiss to Emeree's hand where he bit.

So I wasn't too optimistic about the rest of my day, but they both took a 3 hour nap AT THE SAME TIME today. That's never happened before. Emeree usually just naps for maybe an hour. So I enjoyed some quiet time today! And now I'm ready to endure the next hour before Michael gets home and I have an assistant (who cooks the dinner too)

This week we . . .

found our feet . . .learned to paint like mommy (but without paint) . . .

started saying individual letters and numbers (knows "O" "G" and "I" when mommy holds up the foam letter and can say most of the rest by repeating) . . .

also . . .

Ethan - learned how to kick in the tub which soaked mommy - making it more fun to do again.

Emeree - started baby food and decided she doesn't like sweet potatoes. Interestingly, that was Ethan's favorite one as a baby.

a few pics

Happy in her walker Blowing on dandelions

Ethan reading with Emeree

Ethan didn't really enjoy his first haircut :)

These are my favorite pj's for Emeree . . . love the butt flap :)

She kept reaching for my spoon, so I let her play with it for a while

I have the BEST husband!

He came home with a present for me yesterday! NEW MOON!!

Money has been tight with all the house repairs, so I was just waiting for my turn for this movie at the library. I never even saw it in the theaters, so that shows my dedication to not spending money on unnecessary things. Checking it out from the library is free . . . but I was #278 in line on the "hold" list.

Michael knew I wanted it but wouldn't buy it myself. I LOVE my husband.

And yes, I'm a Twilight Fan. But I didn't jump on the "bandwagon" late in the game like a lot of people. I found the book at the Deseret Book Store and loved it when the 1st one was out new and the rest weren't even written/finished yet. So I think it's okay to be a fan when I've been one from the release of Book #1. And I don't like to read, so the fact that I read these books in a span of a couple days says a lot for me. And I've liked Vampire books since highschool - I don't remember the series, but it was a female vampire and one of the books was purple :)

I stayed up past 1 am to watch it cause Emeree wouldn't go to sleep. And it was by far her worst night since she was born - but totally worth no sleep to be able to finally watch the movie I've been dying to see since November.

Cute Girl and Skinny Boy

Here's Emeree on Sunday . . . She was smiling really cute for Michael, but when I grabbed the camera, she just slightly smiled. He started sticking his tongue out at her last week and she copies him now and smiles really big for him too. But it's a different story when she sees me. :(And I think Ethan is either losing weight or just growing taller and slimming down more because this is what his pants are doing today . . .

They keep sagging down below his bottom - they're 18 month size and he's been wearing this pair of pants for at least 6 months now and they never fell off him like this before.
He keeps hiding between our new bathroom cabinets (that are on our ever growing list of things to fix/finish in this house).

Ethan's B-day party

Ethan turned 2 on Saturday! We had family over to celebrate. We had a hectic morning before the party. We got our new kitchen cabinets in a few days before and we were trying to get them all installed before the party. And by "we," I mean "Michael". He's been working on demo-ing the old kitchen, moving plumbing and electricity since we wanted to swap sides of the kitchen for the oven/microwave and the sink/dishwasher. He got all the cabinets in by party time, but no counter tops or sink. It looked presentable enough for the party with the time crunch we had.


He got a lot of fun gifts - including a Tonka dump truck. He also got stuff from Cars and Curious George.

It took him a while to figure out how to blow out candles. I had to blow on the side of his face to get him to blow out the candle. He just sat there and stared at them for a little while.

As I was going through the camera to find pictures to post, here's what I found. . .

Apparently Allen was just as excited about the dump truck as Ethan was.

And there were about half a dozen more of Allen poses. I guess that's what happens when no one is paying attention to Michael and Allen.

Bed Head

I went to bed with wet hair cause I was too tired to blow dry it. And when I woke up, I had a bump in my hair that was sticking up about 2-3 inches from the top of my head. I think it's the best "bed head" I've ever had. And no matter what I tried (besides taking another shower), I can't get it to lay flat.

So obviously I didn't leave the house today. Michael hasn't even seen it cause he left for work before I got up (I normally try to get up with him in the mornings, but Emeree didn't sleep well last night, so I was up every couple hours).

Even though I had bad bed head, I don't think it will ever come close to my sis-in-law Kari's bed head. She has the best bed head ever. Every time they spend the night here or we are at their house, she wakes up with crazy hair. But she evidently has better luck taming it the next day than I do.

Last Week's Fun

Last week, I brought out the play-doh . . . Ethan was very, very serious with it. But it kept him entertained for over an hour while he was figuring out all the tool things.

This one made "sprinkles." It was tricky for Ethan to work on his own, but he still tries. It chops it all up and pushes it out in little star shapes.

I bought this bebe pod when Ethan was a baby and he did the same thing at first . . . leaned to one side. And they both drool/spit up a lot while in it so I have to keep a blanket under the chair so it doesn't soak the carpet. It's rated for 3 months and up, but neither of them seemed ready to sit straight up that early. I think she's used to the angle of the carseat or bouncer and isn't used to sitting straight up yet.

It also has a tray attachment where they could eat from (I used this as a "high chair" in the beginning with Ethan) and it has a toy that snaps in. Ethan loves to spin it while Emeree is looking surprised the whole time he does it.