8 Months

The eighth month was ROUGH! Croup, Ear infection and the budding of two front teeth made for sleepless nights, a little temperamental and short (if any) naps. But, our happy girl is back now and oh, how we missed her! 

Maya is back to laughing out loud (unprovoked), exploring, pulling herself up, eating whatever she can get her hands on and crawling through whatever Elliana is working on. 

Maya hardly stays still anymore and is always on the move. Not officially crawling yet, as the belly doesn't leave the ground, but she gets up on all fours, rocks and then just inch worms her way across the room with the body strength unlike any I have seen in an infant.

I love Maya's overall happiness. She is perhaps the most laid back baby I have ever seen and I love her sense of curiosity and wonder.

Tea Party with the Girls

A few weeks ago, we embraced a warm fall day, ignored the stuffy noses and congestion plaguing the girls and hosted our very own outdoor tea party. It was...everything I ever imagined it to be.

Elliana and Maya enjoyed our tea party too. We hugged, we toasted, we poured pretend tea to stuffed bears and princesses. We even dined on cookies (in spite of the approaching dinner time). 

 I will never forget the belly laughs the girls shared, the photos I snapped and the memories we made.
I hope to enjoy more warm tea parties with my lovely ladies!

Letter Party Friday

Even a migraine can't stop our letter party fun that we had planned
for this afternoon. To emphasize letter recognition, planning and
learning, Elliana and I decided to pick a letter each week (different
than what she is learning in preschool) and run with it.

This week we chose letter "A".

Grocery Fun

Grocery shopping with children can be overwhelming, stressful and
sometimes costly. But today... It was AWESOME!!

Maya is old enough to sit up and play in the car cart. Elliana, who
usually is quickly bored in the car cart, loved having her sister next
to her and explained each aisle, pointed out special treats and
pretended she was a mommy, Maya was daddy and the groceries was a car
full of kids.

We were quick, non stressed and our bill was relatively cheap! Long
after the groceries were put away, I'm still smiling at our grocery
fun. Love you sweet girls!!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun and busy day we had! We began with Elliana waking at 6:15 asking if it was Halloween yet. Given I have the philosophy that it's not a new day until I'm awake for the day, I muttered that in a few hours it would be Halloween, and stumbled back to bed. The distraction lasted only 20-30 minutes and we were up for the day, and it was officially Halloween! 

Elliana quickly put on her costume to wear to school, wig and all. Elli was thrilled about all the details! To make it a bit more special, I made her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a pumpkin shape, drew a jack-o-lantern face on her cup of peaches and just happened to catch a glimpse of Elliana holding her long "magic" hair up to Maya and sing her healing song to make Maya feel better (who has been suffering Croup and an ear infection, not to mention serious lack of sleep), while I finished packing her lunch. 

 Nana came down to allow me to go to Elliana's first school party! What a special treat to watch my girlie girl bowl with a pumpkin, shuck corn, make a craft and eat her with hat cookie with a grin ear to ear. 

Showing off her witch hat cookie before devouring it

removed every kernel from that ear of corn!

Class picture! 

Rapunzel and I at her school party

Nana cuddled up with the girls waiting for trick or treat time!

Daddy and I took Rapunzel trick or treating while the grandparents stayed home to pass out candy. We didn't stay out long as it was bitter cold. Maya (our magic flower which matched Rapunzel's costume) was too sick to join us on our adventure so she stayed home. We made the most of the few streets nearest our house and Elliana just kept smiling, laughing and running from house to house. At one point, Elliana said, "This halloween is not like last year. The weather is not as good as it was last year. Let's order it to be like the weather last year, okay?" Oh, how I love this little girl's thinking!

Grabbing "one" piece of candy per bucket. 

Big girl trick or treating by herself as we waited at the street. She even thanked the buckets when no one was there to distribute candy!

And because Maya was too sick to join us for trick or treating, we played dress up again yesterday to get a few photos of the girls for Maya's first Halloween. She was a trooper and even smiled for a few photos between the pain. 

LOVE these little girls!

Prettiest flower I've ever seen!