Flashback Friday 2: Favorite Pages

Last summer, Isabelle became very attached to specific pages in some of her favorite books. She would literally find a book and open up to one page and have us read it to her over and over again. Oh, she would laugh and laugh at Mr. Brown saying "Boom" really loud. She loved the bee making cookies...I think it was really just the cookie she loved. Nothing compared to how she felt about There's a Wocket in my Pocket and the "Tellar, nellar, gellar, dellar, bellar, wellar, zellar, cellar" page. I rarely read anything else in that book. We would lay in bed (cause I was pretty much in bed 24/7 with how sick I was with the babies) and I would read it super fast to her. I would always say, "Like the..." and pause for dramatic affect for 5 or so seconds. She would hold her breath just wait to laugh. Then I would read the rest of the page...or recite it actually. She would laugh hysterically over and over and over and over...well you get the picture. It is only of my favorite memories from that apartment...

Back to the Zoo

The weather here is kind of doing a hot one day, nice another day kind of thing as it usually does in Texas. However, the past three Thursdays have been wonderful so we have found ourselves out on little play date adventures with some friends in the ward. Last week we went to the zoo. The last time we went was during the Memorial Day weekend, so it felt great to go back finally! It was actually cool enough that I had the babies and even Isabelle in jackets at the beginning. It felt so wonderful. Isabelle is at the age where she is really enjoying going places with friends. She often talks about some of the kids in her nursery class and asks to go play with them. It was fun to see them interacting as a group of friends and not so much as individuals looking at the animals from their strollers.

1: Oh, there's Jasmine again. Isabelle was showing her the cheetahs that were running around and wrestling. Belle was there too, just not in this picture. They truly are her friends. 2: A group of some of the kids hugging on the kangaroo statue. 3: Playing on a stage coach down in the Texas section. Minutes after taking this picture, Emery puked every where for the first time. I thought that some how something had spilled every where cause it was so much! 4: Isabelle hugging a painted cow that is in a play area I didn't even know existed. 5 and 6: It was so nice out and we had such well behaved kids that we even went all the way down to the petting zoo. Isabelle brushed a big hog and really enjoyed that. Big surprise, right? :)

Nine Months

Ella:

• She's a biter! She has bit Curt, Isabelle and me. Isabelle and I got it worse. She latches on and doesn't let go! You have to pull her off of you to get her to stop. It hurts bad. You can't give her opportunity to bite you, because she will. 
• She can clap.
• She dances.
• She can stand up and is getting better and better. I'll officially label the day as September 20th when she was standing because it was when she started standing for more than two seconds. When she's done standing, she usually squats down, sometimes stays squatting even, and then she'll fall forward and crawl away. 
• While standing she has shown interest in trying to move her feet and start talking steps. On the 26th, she took her first small step, and then fell down. 
• She loves to beat on things. Anything she can turn into a drum, she will. 
• She does really well with picking up food with her fingers and getting it into her mouth. Even better than Emery. 
• She is a scavenger. If there is any little teeny piece of anything on the floor, she will find it. The nastiest thing I've fished out of her mouth is a little rubber band from Isabelle's hair that she threw on the floor. The rubber band even had hair on it still. Gross!
• She's a little bully. She takes everything from Emery and likes to go up to her and hit her on top of her head repeatedly or grab her face. 
• She's turned into the alpha-baby of the two. Emery used to be. I'm not sure what happened. 
• She has six teeth. 
• She falls and hurts herself way more than Emery.
• She's starting to get tired of baby food. She definitely prefers table food.
• She totally play and wrestles with Isabelle. 
• She has started to squeal and scream. It's getting annoying...
• She's realized that she can now reach on top of tables and into the garbage can. She's a little stinker. 
• She follows everyone to the door when they leave. 
• She loves using her pointer finger. 

Emery:

• She loves watching Baby Einstein. 
• She is so super good about putting herself to sleep, taking good naps and going right back to sleep after waking up at night, which is usually around 5:30ish. 
• She's started to sleep in a little bit more. As in, a little bit later than 6:00-6:30ish. There have even been a few random mornings where she slept in till 8:00!
• She really likes juice on the few occasions we've let her have it. Ella doesn't really care for it. 
• She loves to buzz her lips.
• She is doing better at her eating techniques, but still drives us crazy with her waving hands and that she doesn't open her mouth wide enough.
• She does really well with picking up food with her fingers and getting it into her mouth. 
• She has no interest in learning to stand un-assisted. 
• She weighs 17 pounds 9.5 ounces, as of a doctor appointment on the 26th. 
• She still only has two teeth. 
• She loves to make her way into the wash room and play in there. 
• She's more content to stay where she is developmentally. 
• She loves to laugh at Isabelle. 
• Sometimes she will cling to me and hold on super tight when she is being held. It so sweet.
• She makes a really annoying grunting/whining sound. Seriously, it drives me crazy.
• She has turned into a much happier, sweeter girl lately. The older she gets, the happier she gets, and the happier I get too!
• She's totally loving her toes right now! She holds them and sometimes chews on them.

The Lion King

Last summer and into October while we were house sitting, and while I was completely miserable and sick and pregnant, Isabelle became attached to The Lion King. We would both lay in bed while I read/slept/itched/tried to keep anything down etc, etc, etc... Remember this was pre-princess stage. She LOVED Simba. She would get so excited when Simba became a lion. (You have to have a mane to be a lion.) She still loves Simba. Every time the opening song starts and as all the animals are gathering to see Simba for the first time, her eyes still get wide, she yells each type of animal name that appears, she points and gets so excited. She just lights up. When we saw that The Lion King in 3D was being shown in movie theaters for two weeks before the release of the DVD/BluRay Combo in October, we knew we had to take Isabelle! This past Saturday, my in-laws watched our sick babies while we took Isabelle to McDonald's for her chicken "buttons" and then we headed to the theater. It was all very new to her, as she hasn't ever been to one before. As soon as she saw a poster though, she got excited. We were so impressed with her and how she sat in her chair and ate her food. She talked some, but there were so many kids, she didn't really stand out. We did get her to try on her glasses for a little bit. She even figured out that they made everything pop out. That was funny to watch her discover. She did get restless in the middle. Not so much cause she was bored of the movie, but more because she rarely sits when she watches movies. She usually stands or lays down to watch them. I didn't even think about that being a problem. I was more worried about the noise...which didn't bother her. Overall, I'm glad we took her and she did excellent. I had a hard time staying awake...but still worth the money for us to go see a matinee.

1: Standing in front of the movie poster outside. She was so excited to see Simba! 2: Showing us her ticket.

3: Of course Jasmine and Belle had to go to the movies with us! She was showing Jasmine the big card board advertisement while Curt bought the tickets. 4: Her getting excited as she watched the previews.

Don't Smile

About two weeks ago now, I had my camera in hand to download some pictures at the computer and Isabelle was being really silly. I took the opportunity and told her not to smile. Of course, since she was already in a happy mood, this turned into a game. She would try to hard not to look at the camera and smile, but she was laughing so hard that the entire photo shoot turned out perfectly silly too. I am totally in love with some of the pictures. It's been since May that I have gotten a really good smiling picture out of her.

Man I love this little girl! If only she was always this cute and silly!!

Today is also her half birthday! We are half way through the terrible twos!!! Here are some things about Isabelle right now:

• She loves her drinks. Especially chocolate milk.
• She loves to wrestle Ella.
• She LOVES is obsessed with anything Disney princess. Curt recently bought her toothpaste that had princesses on the packaging. It will sufficeth to say that she's very attached and has to brush her teeth at least twice at every brushing.
• She loves her stool and cannot be in the kitchen or in the bathroom without getting it and standing on it. She also hates when the babies even touch it because "It's mine!"
• Everything is her's. We are working on sharing better and teaching her that nothing is her's but actually it is ours.
• She loves to dance. She is always wanting her daddy to dance with her. She tries to have Levi and the babies dance with her too, but most of the time that ends in crying. 
• During her tantrums, she has started to make a mess and throw things. Not fun!
• She loves NutriGrain bars and calls them "bark." She has been known to eat five in one day before. 
• She can put her shoes on by herself.
• She likes to help clean. When she spill something, she will attempt to clean it up. She loves to dust and clean with wipes. 
• She loves blankets and if she's hurt or tired she'll ask for one. 
• She wants the babies to play with her, as in be older and play with her. She's struggling to know their limits. 
• She still loves to color, but almost all the time it's on a blank sheet of paper. 
• She loves to sing!!! She knows a lot of pieces to Disney and church songs. 
• Speaking of church, she loves "nurserys" as she calls it. We went to a baby blessing at the beginning of the month and left after Sacrament meeting. She was so sad to not go to nurserys. We love that she loves it so much! She learns so much there and loves her leaders!
• She loves doing projects. She gets so excited when I ask her if she wants to do a project. 
• She loves Dora the Explorer and animated movies. 
• She loves the color purple. She wants everything purple. Including her food. Her second favorite is blue and the same goes for the food. Too bad there aren't many blue and purple foods.
• She loves to go on adventures. We sing the Cat in the Hat "Go go go go...on an adventure" song when ever we are getting ready to go out. 
• She still plays pretend and talks to someone that isn't really there. Not quite as much as she used to. 
• I think that the Disney princesses are actually real to Isabelle. Seriously. She talks about them as real people. When playing with them, she acts as if they are real and have to go step by step down the stairs just like her. 
• Bed time is the worst time for her. We try to never let her have a nap because then she never goes to bed at night. I often say that if she doesn't have a nap, then my days are horrible and if she does have a nap, then my nights are miserable. So true!
• She still doesn't sleep through the night or in her bed.
• She loves shoes.
• She hates getting dressed. Sometimes it takes both Curt and I to wrestle clothes on the child. Princess shirts and her "party" dress are usually the only acceptable clothes to her. She absolutely will not wear shorts. It has to be skirts and dresses. I need to make leggings for her for the winter because I don't think I'll get a single pair of pants on the girl.
• She loves to help in the kitchen.
• She follows me around all day. I can't go anywhere without her stopping what she's doing and following me. 
• Hitting and pushing are her favorite means of being hurtful. She will often get something that can be used as a weapon and come at us and say, "I hit you!" It's just so lovely. 
• When she is cute, she is so lovable and fun and great to be around. When she is not, she tests every ounce of patience I have and drives me bonkers. Being her mom is soooo hard, but man I love her!

Sick Sick Sick

My poor Emery. Man, if anyone is going to get sick in our family, it's going to be her! Today is day four of her throwing almost everything up. She hasn't thrown up PediaLite or water yet, but those are the only exceptions. Everything else she struggles with. If she has anything outside of the BRAT diet, she for sure will throw it up. I think she went 24 hours of me giving her nothing but PediaLite. She still got her hands on some of Ella's cheerios and immediately threw those up. I'm not really sure what to do. She's done better with formula for the past day and a half. However, we still have to be really careful about how much we give her. If it's too much or too fast, she won't be able to keep it down. She does get lethargic sometimes, but mostly when she's already tired. 

Ella started throwing up Saturday evening. She had a rough 12 hours, but seems to be good now. We are still being a little careful with her too. She seems fine for the most part now and hasn't thrown up since the middle of the night. She writhed around a lot last night and I had to hold her for her to sleep for about two hours in the middle of the night, but thankfully, she seems to be past the worst part. Emery...well, even once she starts to seem better, she always gets worse again. The poor baby. 

Clumsy Ella

My poor baby Ella has seemed to inherit a clumsy gene. While she's getting stronger and stronger and even passing Emery up on the milestones, she sure does hurt herself a lot more than Emery. She has bit her tongue three times now. One time was so bad that it was coming out of the corners of her mouth. She had made both the under side and the top bleed. There was blood in her drool after an hour nap too. It broke my heart. At least the white scab didn't seem to bother her too much. She did struggle to eat for about six hours after wards though.

Sleeping Conditions

Ugh, if you hang out with me regularly, you'll hear me complain about Isabelle and how hard it is to get her to sleep every night. Extremely hard! When Isabelle was a baby, we were never able to get her to cry herself to sleep. Well, on the few occasions that we tried. She never fell asleep, and would just cry and cry. Being new parents, we couldn't bring ourselves to stick it out. We convinced ourselves that it just didn't work for her. Worst.parenting.mistake.ever! Here we are 2 1/2 (!) years later and the child still can't put herself to sleep. A lot of the times Curt and I go to bed when we've had enough fighting and realize the only way to get her to sleep is if we all go to bed and turn out all the lights in the house. Yes, one night all three of us went to sleep at 8:30 out of desperation because the only way she would go to sleep is if we went to bed too and since it took so long to get her to sleep, we fell asleep too. It's all sorts of horrible! Anyways, one night recently she wanted to sleep on her Dora couch. Which isn't unusual. More nights than not, she sleeps on this little couch on the floor by our bed on Curt's side since the pack n play is on my side (life is fun here!). The unusual part is that she wanted her couch on the linoleum under the computer desk in our dinning room.

Of course she didn't end up sleeping there. As soon as we turned out the lights and went to our room she started crying and ended up on the floor in our room as always. It sure was a strange request though, and I couldn't pass up the picture opportunity.

Flashback Friday 1:Noah's Ark

I can remember specific times and specific pictures over the last three years that I wish I had blogged about. Recently when discussing this with some friends, they suggested I start doing a "Flashback Friday" to blog about long gone events.

Without further ado...these pictures are from last September. Isabelle was in a phase that she loved animals. She couldn't get enough of them. She knew all the sounds and made the cutest elephant sounds. She loved this Little People Noah's Ark set. She played with it all the time. One night while Curt and I weren't really paying close attention to her, she lined all the animals up, within their pairs. When we saw this, we couldn't help but laugh and be so proud of her at the same time. She still loves to line things up...

Emery's First Hair Cut

Emery had her first hair cut, complements of my sister Heather. It's been a long time coming. Every time there has been an opportunity though, we haven't had a camera around. Emery did pretty well. We put her in our little high chair that we keep at my parent's house. As long has the puffs kept coming, she was okay with it. However, at the end, when she was done eating, she didn't want Heather touching her hair anymore. So, there are a few super long hairs back there.

Right after Emery had her first hair cut, Heather gave her son, Levi, his first hair cut. They are just over six months apart...

Goodbye to a Friend

Recently a friend from my ward decided to up and move away from us. Okay...so that's not exactly how it went, but I'm super sad about it! I am definitely going to miss her! Some of the girls she was closest to get together and had a little good bye party for her. Oh yeah, and we all have our babies at the same time too. (I have no clue what Ella is doing in this picture!)

Isabelle will miss her son. While Isabelle has been friends with him for a while now, it hasn't been until recently that they have started playing together. 

This past week we spent an afternoon with them for a little play date. While there were definite moments that Isabelle didn't want to share and moments that I felt so bad since Isabelle took advantage of his patience, they loved playing together.

He even taught her how to play a little T-ball. Of course Isabelle didn't want to take turns at all, but I persevered and it turned into a game. I was so proud of her for learning that taking turns can be fun. Isabelle did pretty well at it too. I was quite impressed. Of course, he rocked at it and smashed the ball with every swing. :)

We are going to miss you guys!!!

Priceless

To me, this picture is priceless. It was priceless two years ago when my dad took it.

To Isabelle one day, this one will probably be priceless too. I know, it too, is priceless to me.

These pictures are even more priceless to me today than they were two years ago, for they will never be replicated.

Tracing the Letter O

A week or so ago, I came across some cute alphabet tracing on Pinterest that I printed out for her. I started with the letter O since it is one of her favorites. Plus it looks like a circle and she can draw those. I showed her how to trace the letter and away she went. Just like that. She was so proud of herself. I think it was more because she could draw a circle that she did so well, but we are going to start working on her letters, with identifying them, tracing and eventually drawing them. 

After she traced the O page, she worked on the C page. They turned out more like an O, but the way she says caterpillar, it so stinking cute. :)

Day 70

Yesterday we broke the record for most 100+ degree heat in one year. The record was 69 and was set in 1980. Today is even supposed to reach over 100, so it will be day 71. At least we got a record as a consolation prize for having to suffer through this many days and the ridiculous heat that has been so horrible! Hopefully today will be it though. Tomorrow is supposed to stay in the 90s and then we actually have rain in the forecast!!! Here's to hoping..and praying for that matter.

Utah: Day Eight

I have to admit, by the time Friday, day eight of our trip came around, we were pooped. We had been going and going, endured early mornings and late nights. It was worth it and we had lots of fun, but we had been burning the candle at both ends for sure. One of the reasons we go to Utah when we go is because the Clark's always have their reunion the weekend following Independence Day. On this day, our plans pretty much consisted of doing laundry, helping to get the food ready for the reunion that started that evening, getting ready to go camping and making our way up to Wellsville (near Logan) to attend the reunion. Not much compared to how much we did every day for the seven days before...

1 and 2: Isabelle fell asleep on the couch next to me and on the box of crackers. Yes, we moved the box after we took these pictures so that she would be more comfortable. 3 and 4: At the reunion. They had a little picnic table for the little grand kids and great grand kids. Yes, there are grand kids and great grand kids the same age. My youngest cousin is a day older than Isabelle, and Isabelle is the forth great-grand child... Anyways, we had home made Cafe Rio and it was delicious!! Isabelle at tons...which is way abnormal! 5 and 6: Hanging out in camping chairs during the games and presentations at the reunion. Isabelle was given an old Barbie by my best friend the day before. She loved, and still does love, it! 

Utah: Day Seven

Ugh...I'm such a slacker. I should be happy with the amount of blogging I do, but it just never seems to be enough. I am always wishing I were more on top of it. Then again, sometimes I wonder if my priorities are sometimes skewed a little bit and documenting memories gets in the way of actually making memories. Hmmm... Anyways, back to Utah posts. At least today. They are so much work...

On our seventh day in Utah, Curt and I spent the day with our girls away from my family. It was our earliest morning and we drove from Morgan down to Provo. I have to admit, driving into Utah county, down University Parkway and into Provo made me a little ill. All those emotions came back to the surface. Of course there were so many good times at BYU, but there were so many bad times too. Oh I'm so glad it's over and life has moved on. Unfortunately, we still have many years of school ahead of us, so we can't quite escape the student life, but at least it isn't me in school anymore and at least we don't live on/by campus. 

Amazingly enough we found parking in the Wilkinson visitor parking. I was surprised... 

1 and 2: Isabelle found the lockers in the student center and had to play with the combinations for a while. 3: When Curt found the Indian statue on campus, he pointed out the statue of Kokoum (from the movie Pocahontas) to Isabelle. Immediately Isabelle was so excited and talked about rock Kokoum for the rest of our time on campus. She had to keep telling us that rock Kokoum was in trouble and that he was hurt. 5 - 8: I wanted to take them up to the balcony of the Marriage and Family building, but apparently there isn't direct elevator access. At least from where we tried and I don't know the building well enough to figure it out. 

We spent some time in the Eyring Science Center. I had a few classes in there, but I went to church there for a year. They have several little displays of applied science in little stations around the lobby of the building. I thought Isabelle would enjoy looking at the rocks and seeing the skeleton of some prehistoric animal. (I remember it being a dinosaur, but it isn't. Did they get a new one?)

9: Isabelle checking out all the cool rocks. 10: That have a big pendulum there that swings because of the earth's orbit/gravity/something like that. I don't remember. There is a lot of stuff at the bottom of the bowl and where ever it is swinging over, tells you something like the date I think? I don't know. I can't remember and I didn't re-learn while I was there... 11: This station had different metals you could lift each one of them to see their weights compared. She loved this one. She kept going back and trying to lift the hard ones and when she couldn't she would go back to the lighter ones and be proud for being able to lift them. 12: She was so excited to see the pendulum swinging. 13: Trying to lift the really heavy metals. 14: Lifting the lighter metals. 15: Putting her hands in the big gloves to play with the magnetic slivers of metal or rock... See, I've waited too long to blog. I'm already struggling to remember... 16: She was so adorable and pretended to read the information plaques. She did "read" them though and made up words for what she thought it was saying. 

After the Eyring Science Center, we walked around some more. I of course took them into the Brimhall Building. There were literal days that I was there in that building from the time the doors were unlocked until security would find us 30 minutes after the building was closed and kick us out. Yep, I lived on the edge and broke the rules...once. :) We also peeked our heads in the newsroom. I wrote for the campus newspaper for a semester. Yes...that horrible semester that I hate to think about. It was definitely the worst four months of my entire life. It was a little hard to look in that room. Afterwards we went back to the car because the girls were hot and grouchy and we were hot and didn't want to carry them since it was so hot. 

17: I would NEVER consider going to Provo without going to get a hot dog from J Dawgs just south of campus. It, more than anything else, is why we spent a day in Provo. Seriously. They are amazing. Even after hearing about them for the past 3 1/2 years, Curt agreed that they totally lived up to his expectations of amazingness that I made them out to be. Ahh....if only they would come to us in Texas. Oh wait, they kind of did. I cannot even tell you how giddy I was when they told me I could BUY the special sauce they put on them. Giddy. As in I was jumping around in my seat, maybe even had tears in my eyes from smiling so much, giddy. I think I may have scared Curt. That or made him love me just a little bit more. :) Oh if only I had had this sauce when I was pregnant! I was always craving these hot dogs during the twin's pregnancy. Now...does anyone in the area know where they sell Polish dogs? I can't find them. I think a trip to Central Market is the next place we'll have to try. 18: After lunch, we went to Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. Remember how Utah has super super swollen rivers on the verge of flooding? Well, because of that, the falls had more water flowing over them than they ever did while I was in Utah. It made for a very pretty sight. 19: The falls flow into a little pool that people play in and then there is a bridge that we are standing on in this family picture. On the other side of the bridge is about a foot of more pool and then the Provo River. It was so high and so fast, it made me super nervous to even have the kids restrained around it. I have issues with always thinking the worst is going to happen and all I could think about is how there would be no saving Isabelle if she fell in the river. Ugh... Anyways, this family picture is my new favorite. Amazingly, all of our kids are looking towards the camera. No matter how many times we try, our kids never cooperate (surprise surprise) when taking family pictures. The fact that some stranger volunteered to take a picture and that he only took one (not 30 like we usually have to take to get one some what decent one) is rather amazing! I love it!! 20: I didn't feel comfortable stepping down from the bridge to the pool of water with both babies, so the girls and I hung out on the bridge, sitting with my feet in the water while Curt took Isabelle to play in the waterfall. She loved walking across the log and practiced that several times till she was able to do it. She loved it there! She was convinced it was the waterfall from a Dora and Diego show she watches on a DVD we have. As soon as we pulled up in front of the waterfall she exclaimed, "A jaguar waterfall! Daddy, a jaguar waterfall!" She was so excited to be there and kept talking about the jaguar waterfall the whole time we were there. 21: She loved playing with the sticks and throwing rocks in the water. 22: Before we had the family picture taken, I took a picture of Curt with Isabelle. 23: She water was freezing! SO super super super cold. Probably 40 degrees cold. Even though it was so cold it hurt your feet, she loved it! She didn't complain or want to be carried. She would just walk right through it and want to do it again! Curt on the other hand, eventually had to put a stop to it because it was hurting so bad. 24: Curt took a picture of the girls and me. After this is when a stranger volunteered to take one of us all together. I'm so glad I took them to see this waterfall! It was so fun to take her there!

After the waterfall we left Provo. We headed up to the Draper Temple. Once upon a time, I'd visited all the Utah temples, but now I'm behind again. Even after this trip, I'm still behind. Since showing Isabelle the Salt Lake Temple was a huge disappointment, I was hoping her reaction to the Draper Temple would be better. See, whenever we show her pictures of temples, she loves it and always knows it's a temple. I thought that when she saw them in real life, she would be so excited. Yeah...no. She didn't care at all when we showed her the SL Temple...I was so disappointed. The Draper Temple was better. She didn't really care when we got there, but then when she started exploring, she was more and more excited. 

25: The Draper Temple. 26: Ella and me. Isabelle wanted Ella to wear her flower... 27: Ella and me some more. Ella loved it there. It felt soooo good out. A big rain cloud was blowing in and it wasn't hot anymore like it was in Provo. 28: Isabelle ended up loving it there. She gave the temple several hugs. 29: There were flowers every where and Isabelle loved it! We were bad and let her pick a few... It made her so happy! 30: Another picture of the temple. I take tons of pictures of details and the overall temple when ever we go. 31: Isabelle showing us her flower that she later gave to Ella to wear. 32: Isabelle ran in between the columns and played peek-a-boo with me and the camera. She had a blast and she was so adorable! A temple worker even came out just do comment on how cute she is. We definitely think so too...

We ended up leaving after it started to rain. Ahhh....rain. Utah seems to be hogging it all and we don't even remember what a storm cloud looks like here in Texas. Maybe they'll send some our way. We need it so desperately!

After the temple we went to Ikea and then we met up with my best friend from college, Kelsie. We hadn't seen each other for three years. We visited with each other for about two hours. It was so nice! Overall, it was a wonderful day and so much more relaxing than the previous few days. 

Ella's Milestones

Our poor little Ella baby's milestones have been sorely neglected this past month on the blog...

On August 13th, Ella started crawling. I have to admit, while both babies have been able to get around for months now, having both of them crawl towards me is still a little bit overwhelming. They've both gotten really fast and have perfected the crawl totally and completely.

 Both girls are pulling up totally and completely. Ella still hurts herself a ton. She seems to always catch her face on whatever it is that she's climbing up. She's bit her tongue a couple of times. One really bad one where blood was oozing out of her mouth. Even an hour and a half later, there was still blood in her drool. Poor baby. She's had several bruises all over her face.

 Ella finally cut her forth tooth. It took forever. It seems to have stalled after one corner came through. The gums over the tooth just kept on getting lower and lower. At one point the gum was visibly bruised and at another their was a small blood blister that was just over the gums that the tooth was trying to push through. It's been a very long week and a half for Ella. We are very glad that its over. Now if all the symptoms would go away. She is still suffering from the extreme runny nose and therefore the cough. Emery's been just as bad with the symptoms, but no teeth have appeared for her.

Here's Ella's updated teeth chart. 

On a more somber note... We found out today that Curt's grandparents lost their home in the Bastrop fires near Austin. To them: our thoughts and prayers are with you right now! 

September!

Oh September, I've been longing for you (not as much as I've been longing for October...but still). I'm so glad you're here. A new month, new formula allotments on WIC (hallelujah!!!), the hope of cooler weather... We're looking at the start of a new month as a start of new family goals and a little bit of a fresh start. Hopefully.

September, please be good to me!