Ellie 8 Months

Ellie, 

I can't believe that we are already at 8 months! These past 8 months have flown by and I am wishing that time would just slow down a little bit. Before I know it, we will be celebrating your first birthday!

I keep thinking that you'll be cutting your first tooth any day because you have all the teething symptoms but still no teeth in sight. Your hair has also been growing more and I am loving it! I am counting down the days to when you have enough hair for me to clip back! It't really filling in and you no longer have your bald spot on the back of your head. You were rocking a baby mullet there for a while. 

You have started to say "mama" and it is absolutely melting my heart. When I go to get you out of your crib in the morning you get so excited and say "mama mama" over and over. I love it.

You are sitting up on your own now! You still topple over occasionally but now that you can sit up on your own it has made it so much easier for you to play with you brother. Sam is absolutely loving playing with you and always asks is you can some in his room so you two can play with his toys. It is so sweet to watch you two together. 

You have started eating real table food and are loving it! You think baby food is for the birds and have officially started eating whatever we are eating. 

You will probably be crawling here soon. You get onto all fours and rock back and fourth but eventually get frustrated and give up. It won't be long before you are crawling all over the house. I don't know if I am ready for that!

You are currently wearing 6-12 months clothing at size 3 diapers. 

You have made our lives so much sweeter, Ellie! We could not imagine life without you!

Love, 

Mom and Dad

Ellie 7 Months

Ellie Girl, 

Your little personality seems to be bursting at the seams these days. I truly love every stage, but this age has been so fun with you! You are rolling all over the place. If there is somewhere you want to be, you roll yourself on over and get what you want. You are so close to sitting up but haven't quite figured that one out yet. 

You absolutely love your brother. You are so patient with him as he can be a little rough with you sometimes. You grin ear to ear when you see him. I have loved watching your relationship with him blossom. He adores you and is always asking to hold you, feed you, etc. You will always have such a great older brother. 

You still aren't a big fan of baby food. You love bananas but that is just about it. You are still nursing so we have just relied on that as your main source of food. Hopefully one of these days we'll have a breakthrough and you won't spit your food everywhere!

You LOVE to be held. I am not kidding, if you aren't sleeping you prefer to be held by mom. If I try to put you down so I can get something done, it usually results in lots of tears so you're usually just glued to my hip all day long. But I am not complaining :) 

You have started to let out some pretty good belly laughs. I remember you brother laughing a lot more, and you seem to be more selective with your laughs. You definitely make us work to get a laugh out of you! But when you do laugh, it is oh so worth it. You seem to laugh the most when we sing funny songs or when we dance with you. 

We have been on a good schedule with you. You are a great sleeper and I pray that it stays that way! You sleep through the night and take two naps during the day. Your afternoon nap is currently at the same time as your brothers nap which has been so great. You both wake up so happy! I can hear you talking to yourself in your crib when you wake up and when I walk into your room you greet me with the biggest smile and start flapping your arms and kicking your legs with excitement. It is seriously the cutest thing ever. Sam usually wakes up around the same time and you two are so happy to see each other after your naps. I cherish those moments with the both of you. 

You are currently wearing mostly 6-12 month clothing and size three diapers. I feel like you are losing some of your chub because you have been moving around a lot more. But those cheeks of yours are still going strong. I hope those never go away!

We love you, Ellie!

Sam - 2.5 Years

Sam, 

I don't even know where to begin. Technically, you are a bit older than 2.5 right now. You'll be 3 in just over a month and I am in compete denial. You truly are at my absolute favorite age right now. I want to bottle you up and keep you, as you are right now, forever. I don't know that I can even adequately express the love that I have for you but I will try my hardest. It brings my such a great amount of joy to watch you grow and also heartbreak at the same time. Not heartbreak in a bad way, but as your mom, every emotion I experience with you I feel so deeply that it hurts. I am trying live in the moment and enjoy every moment with you because the time is passing so quickly. Just know that there isn't a thing on this planet that I would not do for you. 

You are my little sidekick, my favorite cuddle partner, and my biggest helper. You are strong-willed, kind, considerate, and hysterical. You are always making me laugh with the things you say. I am amazed daily at how smart you are. You are a sponge and remember things that I don't even remember telling you. You pick up on everything and are constantly asking questions and connecting the dots on how things around you work. Believe me when I say, you NEVER stop talking. From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep at night, you talk and talk and talk…and talk. I love it! We chat all day long. I really savor the one on one time that I get with you while your sister is napping. I love that we can have conversations now. You are one smart cookie. I can't believe everything you know! You know your ABC's like the back of your hand and love to read signs while we are driving and tell me each of the letters in the words that you can see. You know all your shapes (you pointed to a stop sign the other say and told me it was an octagon!?) and can count higher than I can remember. You have several of your favorite books memorized (your current favorite is "Dragons Love Tacos") and love to read to your little sister. You love to talk about animals and tell me what noises each of them make and what types of foods they eat. 
You are the most happy-go-lucky kid and have taught me to slow down and appreciate all the small things in life. When we are out site playing and you can hear birds you always stop to find the bird, then look up at the bird and yell "thank you! thank you bird for singing to us!". You are truly the sweetest little boy.

Sam nothing has brought me more joy and more pride as a parent than watching you take on the role of big brother. I could not ask for a better big brother for Ellie than you. That girl adores you! And you adore her! And I adore the two of you together! I can always count on you to entertain and play with her when I need to get ready for the day. Hearing you two giggle at each other in the next room is absolutely my favorite! You are the first to run to her room when you hear that she has woken up from her nap. You give her the sweetest kisses and always make sure she has a toy to play with while you are playing with her. She is right on the brink of crawling and whenever you see that she is trying to crawl, you get down right beside her and start cheering her on. You sing her songs and read her books, which she loves! She lights up when she see's you. I hope that you two will always remain the best of friends. 

I had the sweetest experience with you the other day that I never ever want to forget. I was putting Ellie down for her nap and when I walked out of her room I saw that you were laying in the middle of your room staring up at the ceiling. I laid down next to you and asked you what you were thinking about. You told me that you were thinking about Jesus. You went on to tell me how much you loved him. You talked about how he has "a belly, and hands and feed, and  fingernails and toenails" and how he wears a towel (I'm guessing you were referring to the robes Christ wears in most pictures). You said that he makes you so happy and that He loves us so much and that he gives the best hugs. By this point I had tears in my eyes. I just kept listening to you go on and on about how much you loves Jesus and how He loves us and He wants us to be happy. I was so proud of you in that moment. I never want to forget a single detail of that conversation. You love nursery and you love going to church. Each night we say our prayers with you and you say some of the cutest things. For the most part, we just have you repeat after us but every now and again you'll throw something in of your own and it's adorable. You are the first one to say (more like shout) amen during prayers at church. 

Your best buddies right now are you cousins Cooper and Charlie. You love them more than anything and you three have so much fun together. I love that you have two cousins your same age! When you were younger and couldn't say "Cooper", you called him "Pooker" and even though you can say Cooper now, you still call him Pooker and I secretly hope you never stop. You love any sport that involves a ball. Baasktball, baseball, football and soccer are your favorites. I am convinced that if we just got you a ton of sports balls for your birthday, Christmas, etc. you would be totally content. Your dad just got a new long board for Fathers day and you are obsessed! Dad takes you on rides each night and you are in heaven. I love watching you two together. Speaking of, there isn't anyone in this world that you idolize more than your dad. You look up to him to much and it is the sweetest thing to witness. You and your dad are two peas in a pod! Dad seriously can't wait until you get just a little bit older and he can really start playing baseball with you. He can't wait to teach you everything he knows! I have a feeling that you'll take to it just like your dad did. 

You love to FaceTime with Grandma and Papa is Fresno. When we FaceTime you want to hold the phone and go around the entire house showing them all your cool things with the phone. You know you way around an iPhone better than I do (seriously). The other day I caught you using Siri to send Grandpa text messages. It was crazy! I don' t know how I feel about this so we've been on a little technology cleanse. 

It's summer time and we have been taking full advantage of being outdoors. You are starting to get those cute tan lines and I just can't take it! We have been going to the splash pad almost daily and you love it! You love the park, too! Anything outside, and you are all in. You love to go outside with me and water the plants while Ellie takes her morning nap. I let you do all the watering and you are so meticulous about getting every last plant and bush. We got a trampoline this summer and you would stay on that thing all day long if you could.

You are totally potty trained and it is such a relief! We started in February (just before you were 2.5) and the first day was pretty rough but after that you seemed to pick it up fairly quickly. It took about two and a half weeks and you were good to go. I kept you in pull ups at night but one night I forgot to put them on and you woke up dry anyways. So, from the point forward, it was all underwear all the time! We still have occasional accidents but the whole potty training experience has gone relatively smooth. I am so proud of you! 

Now that you aren't wearing a diaper your pants just seem to slide right off your bum. You are one skinny boy!
One of your favorite places to go right now is the temple. We will usually head up to the temple for FHE and let you roam around the temple grounds and then sit and hang out on the lawn. You love it and are always asking if the temple is open and if we can go. It is the sweetest. 
Sam, we love you more than I ever thought possible. You are our pride and joy. There are definitely long days where I am counting down the minutes until bed time, and even on those days, your dad and I find ourselves missing you as soon as we put you to sleep and scrolling through pictures and videos of you on our phones. I hope you always know just how much you are loved. 

-Mom and Dad

Ellie 6 Months

Ellie, 

I am in complete denial that you are already 6 months old! How can that be? We just brought you home YESTERDAY! Your personality has completely blossomed this past month! You are truly just the absolute sweetest baby girl. You smile all the time but you're very selective on who you will laugh for. You have the funniest laugh I have ever heard. We have been waiting for a full-on belly laugh but you haven't given it to us yet. I think this funny laugh/grunt you've got going on is as good as it's gonna get. 
You still favor mom and I secretly love it. I love that you need your mom and even though it means that I am basically holding you on my hip all hours of the day, I don't mind one bit. You will go to others for a few minutes but you always have your eyes on me. Speaking of, you haven't been a fan of a swing or bouncer or bumbo or basically anything that will give mom a bit of a break. But, you are now loving you jumperoo! It has been so nice to have something that you love when I need to get something done real quick. 
You had your first taste of baby cereal and baby food this month. At first, I thought you liked it but it must has been a fluke because you wanted nothing to do with it for the following couple of weeks. I tried everything but you would just let the food sit on your tongue until it fell out. And then we tried bananas…and you LOVED them! So, in an effort to give you some variety, I've slowly been mixing in other fruits and veggies into you bananas and it seems to be working. Fingers crossed that over time you eventually branch out to other foods. You are still exclusively breastfed and won't take a bottle (or a binky). But, again, I don't mind at all. I love getting that one on one time with you. 
You are rolling everywhere recently. You haven't quite learned how to sit up yet but you're getting there. I know it won't be long before you are crawling all over the place. 
You still love your brother and Sam absolutely adores you. There is nothing that makes my heart happier than watching the relationship between you and your brother grow. I prayed daily when I was pregnant with you that you two would love each other and watch out for each other and be the best of friends. And I never dreamed that he would love you as much as he already does. You are the first thing he asks for when he wakes up, he gets frustrated with me when I don't feed you fast enough when you're hungry, he constantly begs me to put you in his room so you two can play with his toys together, and he is the first to start singing to you when you start to get fussy in the car. You two are so lucky to have each other. 
You have been the absolute perfect addition to our family, Ellie girl, and I could not imagine life without you. I hope you always know just how much we love and adore you.