A Favorite Outfit and Dying Some Eggs

Before we go any further, we first need to talk about this outfit.

This is Ella's current favorite outfit.

"Fair shirt" (flower shirt), "skut" (skirt), and "panna" shoes.

She asks to wear this every single day.

She sleeps with those shoes on and sometimes I find that she has also slept with the shirt and skirt snuggled next to her in bed.

A little bit bizarre?

I know.

But also kind of hilariously adorable.

Adam will hide parts of this outfit in places that she can't find them (like his shorts pocket) so that he can dress her in something else besides these three articles of clothing.

I think she likes the skirt and shirt because they are silky.

And the panda shoes because they have cute faces on them.

Anyway, expect to see at least one of these articles of clothing in every single outfit she wears for the next couple of months.

Okay, moving on.

St. Patricks Day I kind of totally spaced.

We were at the library on the 17th of March and Ella raced over to the crayons and coloring pages table like she usually does (she thinks the library is for coloring pages, not books) and the coloring page for that day said "Happy St. Patricks Day!"

Dang it.

I glanced at myself and my kids to see if we were wearing any sort of shade of green.

Nope.

(That's the one color that there is no trace of in Ella's very colorful favorite outfit).

Fail.

I was planning on making some sort of green food that day or just something small to make it fun.

But it just didn't happen.

So we decided to get an early start on Easter so that I wouldn't space it for that holiday.

And since Easter is kind of a way more important holiday than St. Patricks Day (I mean we are celebrating the fact that we have been eternally saved and have a chance of being with our families forever, so it's kind of a big a deal) I definitely wanted to make sure we took better care of this holiday.

So we started with decorating Easter eggs and E really loved it.

 

No, I did not ask her to pose like that with the egg perfectly placed in her little hands, why on earth would you even think that?

It was definitely a hit and now my counters and table are slightly neon pink after getting dye spilled on them so that was a bonus as well.

This is happening over here

And I'm really not okay with it happening.

I was totally shocked when today he started pulling himself up on things and I was racking my brain, did Ella start pulling herself up when she was this young? 

I just didn't expect for it to happen yet!

I thought I still had time to cherish his little rolly baby self.

But oh my goodness, the little smile that spread across his face when he eventually got up on his feet, so stinkin' proud of himself.

It's amazing that babies know that they can progress, that they try to do new things and reach new heights (literally) that they've never even tried before.

How do they know that they are capable of more than just endlessly rolling on the ground?

It's so exciting to see them grow and discover new abilities but it's so sad to realize that the few precious months of them being a baby are disappearing and will never come back.

Fenton, stay little forever!

I want to cuddle you in my arms and nuzzle under your neck and smother your round cheeks with kisses for forever and if you keep growing up then I eventually won't be allowed to do that anymore and I just can't stand that thought!

Just some little clips of everyday life

I am so grateful for video recorders so that I can forever remember what these kiddos were like at different stages.

Fenton is pure sweetness.

And Ella has me laughing so much throughout the day.

I just adore them.

The Roundest of Round Men

Oh the sweetness of this small man.

His current nicknames include:

 Small Man
Sweet Man

Fenton Friend

Mr. Finn

Round Man

Baby Son

Snot-nosed-wonder (when he is sick, which, if you recall, is approximately all the time)

Ella calls him those things too, because she hears us calling him that and it's hilarious.

There's nothing like your 2-year-old exclaiming, "Fenton Friend!" and "Little Man!"

Something he does that is hilarious:

whenever a blanket is thrown over his face he startles, it kind of takes his breath away, which is cute but the funny part about it is that he purposefully does it to himself!

He'll grab a blanket and pull it over his face and gasps as it settles over his face, he leaves it there for a second and kind of takes quick little breaths and flails his arms and then he'll reach up and take the blanket off and hugely grin like it was crazily fun and then he'll do it again and again!

It's like a little adrenaline rush! 

And it's funny that when I put him to sleep at night the first thing he does is grab his blanket and pull it over his face, it helps him feel calm I guess because he'll be crying but the second I put the blanket on him he will grab it and cover his face and stop mid-cry as soon as it's over his face.

He's kind of in love with food.

Except his mom started feeding him crackers WAY too early.

Ella handed him the first cracker he ever had and it was in the car so I had no free hands to pull it from his grasp, but he ate it so well that I decided to feed him crackers regularly (he has 7 teeth after all).

Well his tummy wasn't to happy about that and it let me know it for 2+ weeks but I didn't make the connection that it was because of the gluten he was consuming until after several weeks passed by.

I could not understand why my calm, always-content baby was so fussy all of a sudden and so unhappy all the time, oh it was miserable for everyone!

And then, thanks to a series of events, I realized it was because of all those crackers I was feeding him, so I cut those out of his diet and he's been a happier baby ever since, thank heavens!

But seriously, though, eating is his favorite past-time.

He is an explorer, he loves discovering his toys and rolling all over the floor in hopes of finding a new treasure to stuff into his mouth.

Oh the things I find in his mouth!

Today we were running errands and I realized that he was chewing on something, I did the mouth scoop (I can't even tell you how many times I do that in a day) to find a strand of our rug at home in his mouth that he had just been storing in his cheek and sucking on for a good two hours.

I am scared out of my mind about some of the things that Ella leaves laying around on the floor for him to pick up, like pennies, paper clips, rings and other frightening things that I still have no idea where they came from.

These under-the-covers photos were inspired by this post on this rather lovely blog.

I seriously cannot get over how much they adore each other.

It's like one of the biggest joys in my life right now is watching the two of them interact. 

I got her up from a nap today and she heard Fenton cooing downstairs and she hollered, "Don't worry, Fenton! We're coming!"