A LONG Update

I'm soo behind on posting, so this post has A LOT of pictures (and I'm not even including our trip to Florida!). We've had a busy month, and I'll try to catch up on all that I can remember. I decided to stop watching Sam and Noah (I've had Sam since he was 2 1/2 months old), since it was just getting to be too much, so first up are a few pictures of the last few times I had the boys in June. Elle and Sam are still such good buddies and get really excited to see each other, and they definitely feed off each other and have more energy when they're around each other. Here's Elle being goofy as always!



Sam borrowing Elle's hat:


Playing at the water table:


Elle's new favorite activity, playing doctor--She's not too fond of being the patient, but she loves to pretend she's the doctor and especially to give shots! She loves the episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where Daisy is a pretend doctor and will sing the song to me, while she's giving me a "check-up" (i.e. "Does your knee hurt? Does your ear hurt? Then what's the matter?"). The other day, Elle fell and scraped her knee while we were taking a walk, and to help calm her down, Kyle said he would clean it up and put a bandaid on it when we got home. I told her that daddy would make it all feel better because he's a doctor. She replied, "Daddy, you're not a doctor; you're a boy!"


At the beginning of June, Kyle had his residency graduation (I'm still waiting for pictures, since I was a bad wife and forgot my camera! I was soo proud of Kyle--out of 7 awards total, he recieved 4 of them, including the award for Outstanding Resident of the Year.), so his mom and dad both came up for the ceremony. Kyle's mom even watched the girls on her birthday, so we could go to a graduation party that evening--thanks Mimi! We did have a little birthday celebration for her the next day, and Elle, of course, loved it. She's been all about birthdays for many months now and sings the birthday song to me at least a few times a week. She loves to pretend to make a cake, sing me "Happy Birthday", tell me to blow the candles out, cheer for me, cut the cake, and then have me eat it. It's a very elaborate process, and she gets really upset if you try to eat the cake before she cuts it! Anyway, the girls really enjoyed seeing Mimi and Grandpa Deano (Elle thinks he's just about the funniest person she's ever met!).




Elle's best buddy, Coral, moved away at the end of June, so we had a going-away party for her and her parents. It's only been a few weeks, but Elle asks about Coral a lot. They really were the best of friends, and I know Elle misses her, especially when we have weekly playgroups. It was sad to see her first friend leave!




My mom, grandma, and sister also came to visit at the end of June (Kyle was out-of-town at a board review course). Elle loved all the extra attention! She danced with Nana, played "wind storm" with Aunt Kaitlin, and stole jewlery from "my grandma", as she calls her. Nana even took Elle to have her nails painted at the salon and now she's hooked! As soon as her nail polish starts to come off, she will tell me that I NEED to paint them for her. She's certainly going to be a girly-girl!









These are a few random pictures from playing outside, visiting the zoo, craft-time, Lauren showing off her standing skills, the girls just being silly, and picnic time at the park. Lauren has been crawling since she was 8 1/2 months and is now into everything! She will pullup on anything she can and cruise and she's crawling fast. She already tries to reach things on Elle's highchair and even started opening cabinet doors. I'm definitely going to have to babyproof more, since Elle was never like this. Even when Elle was almost a year old, I could put her on her activity table to cruise and she would stay there--clearly, Lauren's a lot more ambitious! Elle's always been a big people person, so as long as she was being held and a part of the conversation, she was content. But, Lauren just wants to get down and explore her environment, even in places she can't do that. It's so fun to see how different these two little girls are!















And finally, here are a few shots from the 4th of July. It was a rainy day, so we didn't do much. Elle's still scared of fireworks and was even terrified of the sparklers I bought to do at home, so this was not her favorite holiday, but she sure looked cute in her red, white, and blue and as always loved to "match" Lauren. Well, there's a little update, and I'll add some videos when I get them on youtube.