Eating and visiting

Elizabeth has started eating just a little bit of solid food. When the pediatrician told me it was OK to start with solids, I told her, "No way, not yet, I'm too busy already!" But I figure Elizabeth trying to grab any food on my plate if I hold her in my lap is a pretty good indication that she's ready to eat! I don't think I would have thought to commemorate this event of Elizabeth trying her very first solid food, but luckily James was around and snapped this picture. Two days later my mom stopped by and gave Elizabeth her third meal of solid foods, and I didn't get that picture unfortunately.




She really liked the sweet potato for the most part. She wanted more and more!



She did have one funny face, though! Haha!

Speaking of trying new foods... Of course, Vanessa is reluctant to try new foods, and she's even been hesitant about trying ice cream. She has had it before, but many months ago, and she's forgotten what it tasted like. Poor thing, to be born in a household where the mommy doesn't eat ice cream, so it's not around much! But she got to have ice cream on Nana's birthday, and boy was she excited about it!

This picture shows how in awe Elizabeth is of the whole eating process. Well, or she could be admiring her daddy. It's so nice how much Elizabeth clearly loves her daddy. Tonight I was holding Elizabeth as James was walking back and forth settling in from work. Every time he walked by, Elizabeth started bouncing and waving her arms about and putting on her best cute smile!

Here's that cute smile I was talking about! This was taken on Nana's birthday. We really enjoyed seeing Nana on her birthday. Cake and ice cream are nice, but Nana is what the girls really love! I think both girls missed their Grampa, though, who was home sick.

Elizabeth has been sitting up on her own for a few seconds by herself, and sitting up really well in a semi-supported place like this high chair. Elizabeth is also showing off that she can enjoy some freedom from clothing from time to time like her big sister!

By the way, Vanessa is getting much better about getting dressed now that she can pretty much put her clothes on by herself. She just didn't want mommy to do it. I see how it is...

Vanessa especially likes getting dressed when it means matching her daddy! Vanessa doesn't say "Touchdown!" yet, but I don't think it will be long. She does like to play with the football.

We were so lucky to have a visit from my friends Sara and Lee and their daughter Aryana. What's that you're holding, Aryana? Did you get a hold of your parents' camera? Aryana seems to have a knack with electronics!

It was very sweet to see our daughters playing together. Here Vanessa tries to comfort Aryana when she was crying (of course, Aryana was crying because Vanessa knocked her down in the first place...)

Aryana is so pleasant, and doesn't really seem to have too much stranger anxiety at all. Nana happened to stop by when Sara and Lee were here. When Aryana wandered off to another room and Nana brought her back, Aryana seemed quite happy to be picked up!

Here's my friend Sara holding Elizabeth. It's pretty neat that Aryana is about halfway between Vanessa and Elizabeth's ages. It will be interesting to see how all three girls interact the next time we get together!

Vanessa and Aryana had a fun time playing in our family room. I'm excited to have gotten a picture of both Sara(h)'s with their toddlers!

Brian and Joanna stopped by with their dog Kyra. Vanessa absolutely adores Kyra, and everyone enjoyed hanging out with Brian and Joanna, even Elizabeth. Elizabeth has had trouble with being held by people she wasn't very used to, but that's getting much better lately. She seemed to really like Joanna and her uncle Brian!

Here are Elizabeth and Joanna. Aww... so sweet!

Vanessa's behavior has been a bit "puzzling" lately. Here she is in her Winnie the Pooh shirt, Pooh doll, and Pooh puzzle the first time she put the puzzle together entirely by herself (I was in the other room and not even helping out verbally!).

A few days later, Vanessa had put together all three puzzles we had on hand, and we've just bought some more! It's so nice for her to have an activity to do all by herself, especially in the morning when I'm trying to get everyone ready for the day. Elizabeth meanwhile is having a grand time in her bouncer.

Vanessa has started more and more to be able to draw something that she can identify. Here is a self-portrait. It has blue eyes, and peach nose, and a pink mouth! She's also getting pretty good at drawing balloons (roundish scribbles with strings).

Do you see what Vanessa has done in this picture? Organized her marker caps in rainbow order! Notice that brown and black are not present in this picture -- she handed them to me because they didn't belong in the rainbow. In fact, she pretty much refuses to draw with brown or black anymore.

Elizabeth has started to be able to support herself standing for a few moments if she is leaning against an object, most often this piano. That was Vanessa's favorite early standing tool too.

Elizabeth takes time out from her concert to give a smile to the audience (me)!

Sometimes when I'm getting ready in the morning, I plop Elizabeth in the baby bath with a toy. Elizabeth prefers to be sitting or standing most of the time, so she enjoys the support that her bath provides. After nearly 5 months of being a parent of two girls, I feel like I've actually established a working morning routine!

And what a wonderful pair of girls they are!

4 month appointment

Elizabeth had her four month appointment this week. She is doing great, 14 pounds 13 ounces, and 24 1/2 inches long. That's 75th percentile in weight, and 55th percentile in height. She's also doing just fine developmentally -- rolling over, doing a great job supporting herself on her tummy, and paying attention to little things (and trying to eat them, but I'm not that was on the checklist!).

I realized I forgot to post this picture from a little over a month ago. I actually caught a smile! Elizabeth has been laughing every day lately. She is in a really fun stage!

Daddy and his girls! Daddy has been watching two at once a little more often lately, as I've been trying to squeeze in a little more school work and a run once a week. Fun, yes, easy, no, right Daddy?

Vanessa decided to spend some time making connections between her two wooden puzzles. She's been focusing a lot on letters and spelling lately. She practices spelling her name, my name, and Elizabeth's name every day. Below is an excerpt from a word document where she actually did a pretty good job typing her name and part of Elizabeth's (although there were plenty of other times when she added a few extra s's to Vanessa, etc.).

She's also discovered the rainbow order to colors. She's been rather frustrated by general disregard to the correct rainbow order in her books and on her toys. Today she surprised me by finding six identical plain beige sticks and pretending that they were the colors of the rainbow. She told me that they were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. (We haven't talked about indigo yet, and boy is she going to be mad with whoever tries to tell her that there's another color to the rainbow.)

Here's Vanessa, dressed and ready to go to school. Such a big girl!

Here's Vanessa, as she told me, ready to go to work. (Oh, dear.)

Here's Vanessa in her pajamas, reading a book to her friend Dean. I made the mistake of trying to put Vanessa to bed at her usual bedtime when we had friends over, but no wonder she couldn't sleep through us having fun! Next time I know to just let her stay up! In general, though, bedtime is still going pretty well. Today, she actually took a nap in her bed, which she hadn't done for the past 8 months or so!