Blue Coat and Stockings

I would like you to notice that this is the 7th post in a row that has not contained a single picture of Ella in just her diaper.

Boom.

I'm really proud of that right now.

But maybe that's because fall is here and I am so happy to get to dress her in stockings and coats again. 

We regularly go on walks with our gigantic double stroller (that we repeatedly knock into things because it is so crazily long I can't keep track of where it ends) and Ella just sits there in her seat, thumb in her mouth, and watches the houses pass by and I soak in the silence and perfect weather and Fenton happily drools.

Sometimes we walk downtown.

Sometimes we walk to the toy store.

And when I say, "Ella, time to say goodbye to the toys, let's go-de-go (a phrase I got from her)," she is so good at waving goodbye to all the toys and getting back in her stroller and we go.

But her favorite is when we go on walks with her grocery cart and she pushes it up and down each and every street and waves hello to the kids and dogs in their yards. 

And she chases after pages of newspaper ads that go skittering down the street in the wind and then she stuffs them into open parcel compartments of mail boxes and I just laugh as I watch her because what a fantastic solution! 

Fenton gets slung to me in the baby wrap and sleeps, only waking when neighbor dogs come up and lick his little feet poking out the sides.

Something that happened yesterday:

We were at the park.

She was going down the slide over and over again (over the weekend we went to a small water park and she learned how to go down the water slide on her own and she loved it so now she's all about going down every slide she sees on her own).

And suddenly she stopped, looked at me and said, "Shake a bum!" and proceeded to shake her bum in the cutest little dance I may have ever seen, it involved some side-ways hip action and turning in a circle.

Also, if I run out to the car to grab something I'll tell her, "I'll be right back," and she says, "Yeah. Back. Bye! Soon! (as in "see you soon")" 

And after I grab whatever I needed I'll be walking back to the house and notice a little gap in the horizontal window blinds and two little eyes peeking out through the gap and realize that Ella is standing on the couch inside so that she can watch me through the blinds.

And she talks with her hands, which is way cute. 

They are always flying all over the place.

Love her.

So maybe we have no problem finishing off 2 medium pizzas all on our own

 There is a local pizza place that we absolutely love that has a special on their medium pizzas every Monday.
The special only runs for 2 hours and if you call in any later than 15 minutes into the special it will be a couple of hours before you get your pizza because they get so many orders during that time.

So we may or may not have been to this particular place 3 times in the past month just for their Monday special.

The three of us can finish off two medium pizzas-- I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of that.
But in our defense (I guess I'm opting fr being ashamed), the crust is thin!

Ella LOVES the pizza they serve there just as much as we do, as soon as she recognizes what part of town we are in she repeatedly exclaims, "Pizza!" over and over again (proof that we have been there a little too often).

They don't have much seating so we usually make a little picnic of it and the weather is absolute perfection these days so it's the most ideal Monday evening you can imagine!
Mouthwatering pizza, a grassy hill, Fenton lays in the grass and kicks his legs and flails his arms, Ella dances and runs around.
Perfection.

Ella is dancing, the back of Fenton's head is balding, and Adam is laughing.

Finn Friday

Okay, it's time to talk about the cuteness that is Fenton.

I don't talk about him on this blog nearly as much as I talk about Ella because Ella is loud and vocal and  has an opinion about things and is just funny so there's lots of stories to tell and sweet Fenton is adorable and holy cow has he stolen my heart but he doesn't do much except sit there and look adorable and be content with life, so there simply isn't much to say at his current age.

Plus, if I ever try to stop and take a picture of him, Ella suddenly has some major life crisis that needs to be attended to immediately or the world might just stop ("Annie! Annie! Annie-Mom! Annieeeeee! No! Help! No! Oh baby (her current phrase for "there's a problem here")! Oh Baby!" etc., that girl sure can throw a good tantrum over nothing).

So that pretty much means that her nap time is the only time that I can get pictures of him, but that also is the only time that I can just cuddle with him without major Ella tantrums being thrown and sometimes I just want to cuddle him instead of take pictures, so that results in not nearly as many pictures being taken of him as his cuteness deserves.

But even at this early age I can already start to tell how he is different from his sister, and it is so fun to see his personality develop.

K, first of all, I know I've said it before but I cannot get over how much he ADORES Ella. 

I mean he is only 3 months old and can do very little to show affection and yet it is glaringly obvious that he thinks Ella is the best thing EVER. 

He never takes his eyes off her, he watches her all the time with this expression that says, "She is wonderful!" 

And they are a perfect pair because Ella is the crazy energetic happy type and he is calmly happy.

He is the happiest boy!

Smiles all the time on that boy's face, but he is quiet and calm and sweet in his happiness.

And he actually pays attention to toys and tries to play with them, Ella never did that at his age.

He is perfectly content to just be left alone with his dangling toys. 

He's going for more of the fine motor skills while Ella is perfecting the gross motor skills.

(a little side note: brown couches with yellow curtains... what do you think? Bad combination?)

And I think he is more cuddly than Ella (which I love, because I desperately want at least one cuddly baby!).

When I sleep-trained Ella she did best when I just did her nighttime routine and then put her in bed and left.

Even now, she can't calm down until after we have left the room.

Fenton, on the other hand, gets very distressed when I leave.

He likes to be held and sung to before being put down to bed, he sleeps much better after having cuddle time first.

He adores his raining hearts mobile.

And hates loud noises.

Both Adam and Ella have kind of loud voices, so if he is sitting too close to them when they are talking and laughing loudly at each other (because they find each other hilarious) his bottom lip will start to tremble.

And he laughed for the first time the day after he turned 3 months, he laughed at me imitating his noises-- baby laughs are the best.

I love when he talks to me.

He only talks when I am paying complete attention to him, which usually only occurs when Ella is in bed.

And then he kicks his legs and grins and flaps his arms and coos at me.

He sleeps 12 hours a night, waking only once to eat and sometimes I don't have the energy to put him back in his room after he eats so he stays in bed with us the rest of the night and when he wakes up in the morning he just lays there, with his eyes wide open and flails his arms and that's usually what wakes me up in the morning, his little hand repeatedly smacking my face.

I kind of love it.

I love his milk smell.

And how he collects lint between his toes.

And how his head rocks back when he smiles.

And the shy smile he gets when I watch him eat.

In fact, he won't eat if he notices me watching him, he gets too shy, it's insanely cute.

And I love how he holds so tightly to my hair or clothes as I hold him.

And he is a chunker child.

I get told all the time, "Whoa, he's big for 3 months."

I love his cheeks, I could kiss them all day!

I just adore him.

Pumpkin Patch

Fenton is determined to not open his eyes in this sunlight.

^ She dropped her fruit snack and the world just about ended.

We made sure to charge our camera battery the night before we wen to the pumpkin patch but, of course, we forgot the camera at home.

Luckily we had Adam's phone, so we still got pictures.

We accidently arrived at the pumpkin patch at a time when everyone could get in for free and ride the rides for free, which was a happy surprise.

Ella was a little bit in love with the pumpkin patch.

There were goats to be pet and trampolines to be jumped on and tractors to ride and slides and hay rides and train rides and pretty much a toddler's dream.

Fenton spent the entire time trying to keep eyes averted in as opposite direction from the sun as humanly possible.

His cheeks aided him in the endeavor by being so enormous they pretty much just pull his head straight down toward the ground, so that was useful.

And Ella had so much fun playing at the pretend kitchen that we have decided we need to try and get her a kitchen for Christmas, because let's be honest, that's what I've wanted to get her since before she turned one and she's finally given me an excuse.

I have one in mind, I'm just trying to decide if it's a realistic option or not.

Anyway, the conclusion is that the pumpkin patch was a real hit.

Raspberries

Her Grammy Jones taught her to put the raspberries on her fingers like that and now she always does it whenever she eats "awe-barries"

I love:

When she goes up to Fenton and starts talking to him in a little high-pitched voice ("Oh! Feen (Finn)! Oh! Toes! Mouff (mouth)! Oh! Hid (head)!) and he breaks into an enormous gummy grin (because he crazily adores her) and she goes, "Oh! Sm-eye-o (smile)! Sm-eye-o!"
And I say, "Do it again, Ella, make him smile."
And she says, "K," and gets all close to him again, putting herself nose-to-nose with him and says in that sing-song voice, "Sm-eye-o? Yeah? Sm-eye-o?"
And he breaks into a grin again and she gets all happy and proud of him and I just sit there trying to soak in every single moment of it and to lock it up in one of those memory jars in my head so that I can remember this absolutely perfect moment for the rest of forever.

And how she is always bopping him in the head with her hard-plastic-headed doll who always wants to give Fenton a kiss, apparently, but can't seem to do it gently.

When I ask her a question like, "Do you like raspberries?"

And she says, "Yes! I do!"

And the other night when she wanted us to sing a certain song but she didn't know what it was called so she was working so hard to think of any word she knew within her very limited vocabulary to try and tell us which song it was, she said, "Nigh nigh" because it's a song that Adam sings to her at bedtime a lot, but there are a few songs we sing at bedtime so she gave us a couple of other clues and finally we figured it out and she was so happy!

And how when Fenton is crying in bed because he is having a hard time soothing himself to sleep and I go in there and just silently lay my hand on his belly and his little body calms down with that touch and he slows down his sobbing and just calmly lays there and soaks in that touch as if knowing that his mom is by his side makes all the difference and is enough to make him feel calm.

To know that my touch makes him feel at peace, I love that!