Fun with my Favorite Gals!

Thanks for buying me this hat, Tuts! Give me a couple of years and it will fit!

Dada, Tuts, and Wheeze at the Duke Gardens.

Wheeze: "No more pictures. I want to take a nap. We're getting Thai after this, right?"

Grandma Duke serving Eloise's every desire. She did this pretty much all day everyday. 

Tuts came all the way from Salt Lake mostly for this. Sanitary? Who cares. That's some good pork. Plus, the conversation is always memorable and everyone there calls you shoog.

DJ Jazzy Wheeze in the Hizz-ouse. 

We're soooo cute.

A few weeks ago, my wonderful mother-in-law came and hung out with us throughout the week. After, we picked up my mom. It's been a wild, fun time here in Greenvull. It's nice to have family around (even only for a short time). I think our plan worked to perfection--seeing Eloise has caused them to want to come out here as often as they can.

Eloise with both Grandmas

Eloise lucked out and had both of her grandmas visit over the last two weeks. We have lots of pictures of our adventures, which I think Dylan is working on a post about, but for now, here are a couple pictures of the three of them together. Both moms were here for a couple overlapping hours.

Half-Birthday Cake

For Eloise's half birthday, I wanted to make her a cake. In my family, us December birthday kids also got half birthday stuff in June, since December is always crazy with Christmas. I love the idea, and it's just a fun way to break up the year. I wanted to do a fun shape or something, but just took too much on for the day, and we ended up doing her cake the next day, instead, and I opted for something simpler. I went back and forth from a ladybug to Minnie Mouse to a flower. Minnie seemed easier, though, so I just cut out two silhouettes of the mouse ears and bow, and then did each separately on the frosting. Red sprinkles and black frosting, and voila, baby girl cake!

Anticipating it...

Excitement! And Daddy making silly faces in the background

"WHOA..."

And...it went on the floor. Quick sliding hands!

"Can I lick it, Dad?"

"Never you mind, I'll just squish it instead."

"Squish it to smithereens!"

Eloise Jayden: 6 Months Old

Eloise turned 6 months old on May 2nd, and even though she almost slept through the daylight, we still managed to squeeze these in on her actual half birthday (more pics of her and her cake in the next post).
Eloise stats:
-15 lb 10 oz -25 1/4 inches
-Head in 90th percentile (a true Duke/Cannon noggin!)
-Rolling over (and over and over)
-Sitting up (mostly) on her own, when she wants to
-Trying DESPERATELY to crawl
-Still wants to stand up whenever she's being held
-Wearing size 2 diapers, 6-month clothing, and size 1 shoes
-LOVES food. Will eat tons of it. Her repertoire: sweet potatoes, apples, pears, bananas, squash, carrots, peaches, mixed vegetables, and is FINALLY starting to like rice/oatmeal cereal when we feed it to her in the morning. Still doesn't like food I make, but we'll try again soon. We finally started putting her in her Ikea high chair, and I think she loves it. Anything that makes her feel more grown-up :)
-Starting 'snacking' - puffs and yogurt melts. She is SO excited to be fed 'real food' and have us feed her tiny nibbles of whatever we're eating. But, she's definitely a little beggar and gets quite the whiny grumble when we aren't meeting her pace. I love that she loves to eat and try new things.
-We worked on sippy cups a little, but then Eloise managed to master my Camelbak water bottle out of nowhere, and so we got her her own little one and she would suck on that thing all day if she could.
-Loves pulling my hair still. Of course. My face and hair are her own personal toys, it seems.
-Loves her new jumperoo. Well, until she realizes it's just a trick so we can get something done, and then she wants to be held. But she has mastered hitting the lion, which responds with "yellow lion - ROAR!" over and over again.
-Just this week, we started working on sleep training during the day (no need at night - she still sleeps like a champ for about 12 hours a night). She still screams herself to sleep, but then she actually will stay asleep for a good hour or more at a time. If you've never had a stubborn child like Eloise, you just don't know, but to us, this is A MIRACLE. I mean, it is shocking every time, and I almost cry out of joy when she's quiet and peaceful in her crib, and I can shower or read or work on a craft or clean up or do laundry...the list is endless, but it feels good to get some of it done now! Thank you thank you thank you, sleep training. Breaks your heart, but worth it.
-Her personality is developing more and more, and it's so fun to see her learning and growing, and to see what makes her laugh. It's never the same two days in a row, but I will do just about anything to hear that belly laugh or her giggle.
We are just completely smitten with our little girl, and I am so grateful that she's mine and I'm hers.

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!