An update (Lauren at 8 months--Elle at 2.5)

I'm a little behind on posting, so I wanted to get a few things written down about the girls while I still remember! Elle's been saying so many cute things recently and she's been repeating EVERYTHING, which is really making me watch what I say even more closely! The funny thing is she won't repeat things immediately after they're said; she will wait a few days and try (key word here is "try") to use them in the correct context--so much fun to witness! One day a few weeks ago, I had a pretty frustrating day. Kyle was working; Lauren was being fussy; and Elle was being 2! So, at some point, after Kyle got home, I told him that I was really having a bad day. Well, a few days later, I was in line at the post office, trying to keep Elle from wandering off, and she looked up at me with the biggest smile and said, "Mommy, I'm having a bad day!" The lady behind us thought it was pretty funny, and I couldn't help but laugh because she thought she was being clever, but she clearly had no idea what that meant! Other things she's said recently:

"Mommy, I'm freaking out here!" while helping clean up her toys,

"You're being crazy!" said to one of her baby dolls

"Mommy, I really need to see my friends NOW," after being sick for a couple of days and not getting to see them (she is really a social butterfly--One other story...we were at the park recently, and Elle started following around a group of older girls, since she didn't have any friends with her, and since I'm not always enough of a playmate for her anymore. She would go up to the girls and say, "Come on guys, let's go on the slide together!" and they just kept ignoring her. It was really sad to watch my little girl get rejected (although I know this will happen again in her life, so I better get used to it!), but I understood them not wanting to play with her, since she's obviously younger. However, it didn't seem to faze Elle as she kept trying over and over. After a little while, we started to play one Elle's new favorite games: pretend ice cream shop, and as soon as the older girls heard us playing, they asked to join in. The huge smile on Elle's face was priceless! She was so excited to make some new friends, and I guess her persistence paid off!

Elle still loves to be the boss and I usually end up with more dress-up items on me (and those little heels are hard to walk in!) when we play pretend princess. She is also still a big drama queen and the life of the party. We went to Kyle's softball game last week, and Elle had a blast cheering him on, screaming, "Good job, Daddy!" over and over. She saw him slide into 2nd base on one of the first plays and decided to try sliding herself. So, she would throw the ball, run, and slide., then get up and say, "Yay! I did it! Good job!" Kyle said he could hear her cheering all the way in the outfield and when he looked at the stands, more people were watching her than the game.

Lauren still seems to have a mellower temperament than Elle, although she seems to have a little separation anxiety now and will cry if someone else holds her while she can see me in the room. She's been lunging forward and rocking on her hands and knees for a while now, but has yet to take off crawling. Her preferred method of moving right now is by scooting on her back, although that's usually only when she gets mad. She's been trying out some more syllables, but still prefers to say, "dadadada" and often gets really loud with her "talking" (I think she's just trying to steal a little of the spotlight from her sister!). She's such a sweet, happy baby and she does a lot of little things that remind me of Elle. She stares at strangers, or anyone really, until they'll look at her and then gives them the biggest smiles. Lauren loves to watch her sister run around and act crazy and I can't wait until they can really play together. Lauren's constantly getting comments from strangers that she's, "such a happy baby," and I think that's certainly true!

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks:

Elle's rainstick:

Sweet baby Lauren:

Princess Elle:

Playing dress-up (Elle's starting to have her own fashion sense, and I usually have to give her a few options to choose from or she refuses to wear what I pick. This particular day, she was adamant about wearing her butterfly halloween costume, but I told her I couldn't buckle her in the carseat with the wings on, so we compromised on this butterfly skirt. However, she just HAD to wear a belt with it, as you can see in the picture below, so that wasn't part of the dress-up; that's what she wore out all day!):

Trying on daddy's hat:

Eating dinner (Lauren's a much better eater than Elle so far):