Easter 2012

We had a great Easter last week, just spending time with our little family and continuing traditions. I have all these ideas in my head for holidays and elaborate things to do or traditions to star, but I think a lot of that will have to wait until Eloise is a little older and more independent. 'Cause right now, I just plain don't have the time to do holidays the way I want to. I think traditions, especially ones centering around special times of the year, are really important to build family unity and create a sense of self and an atmosphere of love and togetherness in a home.
This year, we did Easter baskets for each other (and hid them in our house, per Dylan's family tradition), I made a big ham and potato Easter dinner, we dyed Easter eggs (and forgot to hide them for a hunt, but there's always next year), and ate WAY too much candy. Oh, and took some impromptu family pictures c/o my self-timer in our backyard. We kept the Easter bunny and egg-dying and candy stuff on Easter Saturday, and church and dinner and together time on Sunday. It was a great weekend spent together.

Dylan got her this outfit last year, when we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl in my tummy. When Dylan gave it to me (as part of my Easter basket), he said it was the most gender-neutral one at Target...pink polka-dotted bunnies and fuzzy bunny bums don't a gender-neutral outfit make, but I appreciate his attempt (yellow is supposedly gender-neutral, they say).

With her Easter basket!

ATTACKING her Easter basket

Yeah, we did it. We put ears on her. And she looked like a bald Easter elf.

Favorite part of her basket - this squishy frog. Which she has already licked to death, which is sad because she loved that thing and could be entertained by it for a long time.

Dying eggs while Eloise slept (an Easter miracle, that she took a nap while one or both of us weren't in the room)

Finished product!

I made these funfetti cupcakes, with homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting, and dyed coconut for the grass. Yummmm

Picture time!!! Unfortunately, her outfit had been much cuter at church, but she shed layers throughout the morning. Picture this dress, with white tights and white patent leather shoes, and a white sweater over her bare shoulders.

Haven't had a family picture taken in a couple months...thank you back stairs and the self-timer

Dylan took a BUNCH of pictures of the two of us, which is nice to have, and nice to see the way she looks at me in some of these. Reaffirms that we're doing a good job of showing her how loved she is.

I love kissing her squishy cheeks :)

Mmmm...LOVE this

Imitating her constant little tongue-sticking-out

My other favorite

Her reward for picture-taking? CARROTS!

Eloise Jayden: 5 Months Old

Our girl turned 5 months old...2 weeks ago now. Eh, better late than never. She wasn't in the BEST mood this day, and wouldn't look at the camera, but was totally focused on her daddy smiling at her behind me or next to me or above me. She loves him, a lot. Anyway, we cannot believe that she's almost 6 months old, and is growing up so fast, and changing every day.

She has such a feisty personality, and loves to express herself (LOUDLY). It seems like every week lately she's figured out a new sound - raspberries, 'th' sounds, shrieking, screaming, whining, etc. It's fun to hear her discover new sounds, but those raspberries she was blowing every 15 seconds kind of got old. Glad she has a whole arsenal of sounds to keep variety in our days now :)

She also keeps adding new foods to her loves: sweet potatoes, squash, apples, bananas, pears, carrots, working on peas and beans. And she still will have nothing to do with any variety of infant cereal. And adamantly refuses any homemade baby food, much to my disappointment - I had these grand plans of making her all these yummy foods, but after several attempts and changing the texture and flavor and consistency, it's still a no-go. Boo.

She is also still chunking up quite nicely, and has become quite the monkey when we hold her (climbing all over us), so I call her my chunk-a-monk.
Other nicknames that might stick around: Wheezy, the Wheeze, LoLo, Peanut, Baby Girl, LoLoBean, Peanut Butta Eloise, Elo, Miss Lo, and Elo-wheezy. Yeah, she might be confused about her name...but she does definitely know Eloise, and turns her head when anyone says it. Smarty-pants.
Enjoy all these pictures of her holding her toes - her new best friends.

Eating "Real" Food

A couple weeks ago, we got the go-ahead from our pediatrician to start Eloise in 'real' food. Here are the first attempts:

Eloise: This is the moment I've been waiting for my whole life.
Julie: She has no idea what is about to happen.

Such a beautiful (and for a short time clean) baby!

No, Eloise, your bib is not the food!

Eloise, what did I say about your bib!?!?

Ok, fine, Eloise, you win. Go ahead and eat your bib.

I told you, you wouldn't like your bib!

Better luck, next time, Mom and Dad.
(Eloise's reaction to flinging food in her own face when we gave in and let her hold her spoon)

...So, we gave up after two weeks of unsuccessful attempts, and went back to it a week or two later. This time? She LOVES it. Favorites: sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce, bananas. And the verdict on baby cereal? LOATHES it. Won't touch it with a ten-foot pole. Unless we greatly dilute it with sweet potatoes. She also dislikes peas and green beans (but we're working on it).

Church Outfit

Two Sundays ago, Eloise showed up to church in this stylish outfit, and all the ladies were so impressed with how cute she looked that I just HAD to take a picture later to document it. Oh, and I may have picked it out for her myself and wanted to show that my baby may be more stylish than me, but it's just because she has the clothing options to be more stylish - she still gets it from me.

Excited face #1 - full body excitement

Excited face #2 - REALLY excited

Excited face #3 - most common (with fingers in mouth)

Excited face #4 - "Wow!!"

Have I said before that I have been waiting for this day since day numero uno? When she would LOVE playing with her feet? Well, I have, and it's arrived, and I cherish every second she's playing with her toes. Her 5-month photos I took this week are great proof of this - she held on to them the entire photo shoot