Our Growing Children

Below are some updates on the kids: Beware! Lots of Pictures too!

Eli is trying to decide what team to root for. The other day he tried on his Illini gear, but the look on his face tells me he's not so sure. All this, of course, much to Daddy's dismay.
He has also become very interested in toys, holding them, looking at them, and especially putting them in his mouth. He hangs out often under the play gym trying to get those hips to come to the other side and roll over already!
Now that Eli is 4 months he has begun eating rice cereal. How strange it must be for the little guy to have the bland stuff shoved in his mouth. He looks at me with quite a bit of surprise (not sure why, but this face reminds me of my brother!), as if to say, "Why isn't it milk Mommy?" He really does "eat" quite well though. Recently, the big sister has been very interested in helping too!

Our little E is such a smiley guy it is hard not to just fall in love with him!

On to the big sister. She never ceases to amaze us. Just tonight we were arguing over something and Anika shouted out, "Stop it! Stop it Daddy!" I'm glad she knew who's fault it was, but she was not having our raised voices. We were very proud of our little peacemaker. She has developed quite an attitude lately too. She now knows how to smile for the camera, but more importantly, how NOT to smile for the camera.

After her first experience in the pool-she was pretty stressed out about mom and dad sitting down in it and getting "all wet." She told us to use the towel to "dry off." She has now settled into the fun of it. It never fails that she decides to play daredevil and see what happens when she goes under! It freaks us out (and her temporarily), but she is learning to love the water.

She also loves to play Mommy and copy everything I do with Eli (yes, this includes feeding him sometimes). We often have her stroller full of babies and all that they come with: diapers, bottles, food, etc. just to walk down the sidewalk!

Today, on the way to church we wrote down some of our favorite words and phrases Anika uses often:
--"fick it" (fix it)
--"Mommy/Daddy help you" (Mommy/Daddy will you help me?)
--"Beune mere" (Boone, come here)
--"Baby down" (This is always said to me the minute I set foot downstairs in the morning with Eli in my arms! Usually she even picks the location where I am to set him!)
--She often says things are hot and blows on them...this includes the food she makes in her "kitchen"
--"Sit there" (always accompanied by a forceful hand pat in the location you are supposed to sit...this one gets used on Boone too!)
--She also can count to 4, knows the shapes circle, star, heart, and square, and she is starting to get colors although sometimes the whole world is just "geen."
--My favorite of all her milestones though is the fact that she can now talk about her day with me at night. We often go through all the people she interacted with and she tells me if they are "sleeping?" or "up?" I love this time because I can just see her brain at work by the expression on her face. Man, I love this little girl.