18 Months

Time flies so quickly! Our baby is now 18 months old and is more of a toddler than a baby!

Staying busy at a school assembly: playing with a cone!

* She loves to eat chicken nuggets, yogurt, cereal, fruit snacks, and bananas. Although she doesn't like to try new foods, she is starting to add a few more things to that short list!

* She has enough hair that we can do a small pony tail on top. But it is still thin hair and fairly short, so I work hard to make sure she is wearing a girly color!

* Elizabeth knows a lot of words and is good at communicating what she wants. I don't know that others can understand her very well, but the 5 of us in the family can!

* She has started throwing mini-tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. She'll flail and cry, but my favorite is her dramatic cry: she'll sniffle! None of the boys sniffled and I think it is so cute!

* She is very friendly and social. Lately she's been crawling under the pews at church to play with the families behind us. Most of the time it is just the pew right behind us, but sometimes she goes back another pew or two!

* Elizabeth loves her Baby Einstein movies. She didn't fall in love with them as early in her life as her brothers' did, but now she really enjoys them. She will say "moomee" and go to the drawer and get them out herself.

* She LOVES bath time and would stay in the bath all night if we let her!

* (added later): At her 18-month appointment, which was a week and a half after she officially turned 18 months, she weighed exactly 20 pounds and was about 32 inches. That means she is in the 60th percentile in height, and below the charts in weight! The doctor as always said he wasn't worried since he knows our family, but then he commented that it looks like she'll be taller than her mom :)

Family Fun

Last night we had a nice, relaxing time playing together. Elizabeth got out this musical instrument set. She liked the instruments, but LOVED climbing INTO the drum!




And lest this become a blog all about Elizabeth, I remembered to take pictures of the boys, too! They were working together to make a fancy Hot Wheels track.

Great Brain Medal

This week Benjamin received his certificate and medal for completing his Cheetah Great Brain. Way to go!

Cookie Quiet Time

Poor Joshua gets very lonely in the afternoons. It is our traditional "quiet time" where he is to be in his room while Elizabeth is asleep and I am getting things done or napping (rarely!) too. This was not a problem last school year, since Benjamin was here to keep him company. They played really well together and built some amazing train tracks and Lego creations together.

Even after half of a school year, Joshua still has a hard time having quiet time by himself. Many days he'll ask me, "Mom, will you be my quiet time buddy?" Today I was thinking ahead and I talked to Joshua about having his friend Drew come over to make cookies with us. He was SOOO excited to have her come over!



Elizabeth was supposed to be napping, but she was being so good that I let her stay up while we made the dough. She was pretty content to play with the measuring cups.




Drew and Joshua took turns putting ingredients in the bowl and they worked really well together. They had a harder time figuring out the right size of dough balls to make, but we had fun anyway!




Then Drew got to go play upstairs with Joshua and be his "quiet time buddy" for a while -- what a fun afternoon!

Play Day

Elizabeth loves to climb up on the desk chair. Usually she finds the pens and markers (only damage so far is on her skin, thank goodness). Today she decided to add her own touch to our decorating:


Benjamin and Joshua built an amazing train track today. I'm not sure how I neglected to get a picture of it. Elizabeth enjoyed saying "choo choo" as she pushed a train along . . . then her playing led to the track breaking and Benjamin rushing to save it!

Good Clean Fun

Disclaimer #1: This post is going to show off what a nerd I am.

Disclaimer #2: I do NOT enjoy cleaning my house!

For Christmas this past year I asked for an Oreck Steam-It Mop. I was so excited when I opened a present from Ryan's family and learned that I was getting one!

For the past few days I've been playing with it and I AM IN LOVE!! (I'm actually cleaning on a regular basis!) It has about 8 different attachments so you can clean bathroom fixtures, carpet and furniture, windows, hard floors (of course), and grout. I haven't had the chance to try them all, but I love what I've tried.


I'm most excited about the grout. Having lived here for 3.5 years, we've never gotten the grout professionally cleaned and it is looking pretty ugly. I hope most people think we have a dark gray grout, but really it is just all the dirt that a mop hasn't picked up!

Can you tell where I cleaned? That took about 10 seconds -- awesome!

The horizontal line has been cleaned, but not the vertical. Nice!

Thanks for indulging me in my giddiness for what is really not that exciting!

A New Year . . .

A New Breakfast:


Grandma-ma gave me a Star Wars pancake set and a cool squeeze tube (for the batter) at Christmas. We got it out for a yummy New Years Day breakfast. The boys loved choosing which character they were going to eat. And I loved the ease of using the squeeze bottle!



A New View:


Elizabeth got a new car seat for Christmas. She had her first ride in it on New Years Day when we drove to Brett and Stephanie's for the family gift exchange. She has been facing backwards for 17 months . . . to say she was excited about being able to see the world would be an understatement!

on the way home with her new puppy