Wordless Wednesdays: Look Who Can Write Her Name!!

Homemade Play Dough!

Delilah and I love to make homemade play dough.  It's super easy and, to be honest, I can not stand the smell of commercial Play-Doh.  So we whip up some dough, add a scent (like vanilla or peppermint extract), add some food color, and Delilah is entertained for hours.  Literally.  She can play completely by herself with play dough for over an hour at a time.  Helps when I need to cram some reading in for graduate school!

I decided to take some pics of our endeavor one day.  Here they are:

 (Note:  the stove was NOT on yet when she was doing this!)

 Adding the food coloring

 Mix it up well!

 Delilah decided Noelle needed to get in on the action.  I love how Noelle is looking at me like, "Umm...this doesn't seem entirely safe...you got this, right Mom?"

You'll get to join in soon, Noelle!!

11 Months Old!

I am a few days late, but our Ellie Bug is now 11 months old!  I was going to put her in a cute outfit for the pictures, but she's just so darn cute when she's naked!

Love how this pic shows that she is clearly done with the paparazzi! :)

Sweet bug, you are pulling up and cruising like a champ, but have yet to take those first solo steps. You are into EVERYTHING. If there is a drawer or a door to be opened, you are there. You can already climb up two rungs on the ladder to Delilah's bed, so we will need to do something about that soon.

Turns out I was completely wrong about you being a picky eater. You just hated baby food. Now that you are eating real food, you like almost anything. The first time you had spaghetti, you just looked at me with a betrayed look on your face, as if to say, "Why have you been holding out on me, Mom? This stuff is delicious!"
In addition to 'dada', you now say 'mama'. Just this morning I walked into the living room and you started crawling super fast to me, repeating "mama, mama, mama" the whole way; it was absolutely adorable.
You love to watch Delilah dance. Actually, you love to watch Delilah do anything. And she loves having you watch her, so it's a win-win situation all around. Whenever we have dance parties with Delilah, you pull up to standing, and then sort of rock your legs; I know you want to be dancing, too!

Whenever anyone says "Soooo big!", you raise your arms over your head, and whenever anyone says "Pattycake" you start clapping your hands.

You sleep from about 8pm to 7am, take an hour nap around 10am and a 2 hour nap around 2pm. You've been sleeping a lot more lately, so I think maybe you are growing? You have 4 teeth in random places in your mouth, and I can feel that more are on their way.

You play independently extremely well, which is great, except sometimes it makes your dad and I feel guilty b/c we think maybe we aren't giving you enough attention.

Delilah likes to drag you around by one arm like a rag doll. And for some reason you love it.
You have the sunniest disposition and if we knew they would all be like you, we would have a dozen kids.

Happy 11 Months, Noelle!

Delilah-isms

Our camera battery is completely dead and we need to buy a new one, so here is another verbal post.

These are some things that Delilah either says on a regular basis, or has said once and I want to record. :)
-Chris works at Mt. Sinai Hospital and Red always says that Daddy is at the "hostable".
-When she gets in trouble, she has to go to "thinking time."  When she is protesting, she says, "I don't want to go to Finking Time!!!"
-Yesterday, she walked up to me with a face full of colored blotches.  I asked her if she had been playing with her markers.  She said, "No, Mommy.  I was playing with YOUR markers."  What?  I don't have markers.  Took me almost a full minute to realize that she had been in my makeup bag. :)  So sad the camera was dead and I couldn't take a pic!
-About an hour after being put to bed recently, she wandered into the living room.  I looked at her with what I thought was a withering glance and she just smiled and said in her adorable voice, "It's okay, Mommy. You like when I come out; I'm your buddy."
-She always wants to know if Noelle's diaper is full of 'poop' or 'peep'.  I don't know why she adds the second 'p' to 'pee'.
-She knows that we take being scared very seriously, so she says she's scared any time she is trying to get out of something.  "Oh, Mommy, I can't eat that vegetable.  It's too scary!!!"
-Every morning when Chris leaves for work, she shuts the door behind him. Then she waits approximately 2 seconds before flinging open the door, chasing him down the hall, screaming, "Daddy!  Wait for me!"  He squats down and she runs head-on into his arms.  As she runs back to me, she turns her head and tosses back, "Good-bye, Daddy!  I LOVE you!!!"  Then she looks at me, smiles her sweet smile, and says, "He loves it when I say that."
Yes, he does, Delilah; yes, he does.

33 May Be My Lucky Number

Today is my 33rd birthday and I feel so blessed it's ridiculous.  I am beyond happy with my husband, my girls, my city, even the building I live in.  The mothers in this building have taken me in and we have formed such a special group.  We had drinks on the roof at 6:30pm today, and we all showed up: some with kids, some without, but all were there with wine to celebrate my special day. 
I also feel blessed in my personal journey.  I alluded to some news recently, and I am finally ready to share it.  I am currently attending New York Theological Seminary, in the process of obtaining my Masters' of Divinity.  I was hesitant to share because I had basically been accepted but they were still waiting on one letter of recommendation...I didn't want to jinx anything by announcing too soon.  But I have officially started class and I couldn't be more excited.  I will be honest:  I don't know exactly what God is calling me to do.  But I know that I have been called to seminary and that God will reveal more when He is good and ready.
I still miss my mom more than anything in the world.  But other than that, my life is full of more joy than I ever thought possible.  I hope I treat this joy with the respect it deserves, and that I am a conduit for joy in other people's lives.  I am grateful for the day I was born.

First Word!!

No pictures because this is an auditory post.  Noelle said her first word!!  All four of us were at the park and when Chris suddenly came into view Noelle shouted, "DADA!!!", and smiled the biggest smile in the world.  She has been saying dada, and mama, and baba, and all those other baby words for awhile but this was the first time she clearly associated something with what she was saying.  After she said it, I made a big fuss, and Chris looked up at me with tears in his eyes...he was clearly elated not only that 'Dada' was her first word, but that there was a witness to let him know he wasn't imagining things. 
Oh, sweet Ellie Bug, we know you have so much to say.  And Delilah is INTENT on making sure your next word is her name.  :)

Sister Love

Just a few pics of Red and Yellow together. They really are so very cute together. Delilah often shepherds Noelle into her room, then closes the door on me and says, "It's time for just me and Noelle, Mommy"...and I hear nothing but giggles for the next ten minutes. I know there will come a time when they fight, but if they can remain this close even 80% of the time, then I think theirs will be a very special bond indeed.

Oh, my sweet girls.  May you always find joy and solace in each other.