Strollin' in the Sunshine

One of the blessings of Rob being on evening shift for two weeks of the month is that we get him at home during the day on those weeks. Lately whenever he decides to take Ellie out to run errands with him I like to seize the opportunity to throw Joshua in the stroller and walk walk walk! This boy was born to ride (unlike his big sister whose patience with the stroller maxed out after 20 minutes). What a bonus for a mom who loves to walk!

That is one happy camper, folks.

Imagine

When I was a kid I had quite the imagination, as most kids do. I remember that I spent a lot of time pretending I was someone else - most often, an orphan. Psychiatrists out there would probably love me as their lab rat, figuring out just why I had this romantic misconception of the life of an orphan, but whatever...an orphan I was. As we'd drive home from wherever we'd been I'd pretend that I was driving up to my BRAND NEW home for the very first time. I had my VERY own room and brand new parents and WOW. Life would be grand! When I got dressed in the morning I might be Pollyanna (my all-time favorite orphan :) putting on my BRAND NEW dress which I never had the luxury of owning before. Or I was Heidi in the mountains, with no one but my grumpy old Grandpa to love me. All the way to school I'd walk in knee deep snowbanks, pretending I had to brave my way through the mountains just to get to a country school where I would have goat's milk and cheese and bread for lunch. (I don't think Heidi actually went to a country school, but that's irrelevant). So there's a little snapshot into the warped mind of Jacki. All this to say, Ellie's starting to remind me a little of myself (uh oh.) But I find it really amusing.
For instance.
Ellie will be practicing on the potty when she'll say, "Eyee's Eddie. Hi Mommy."
And at first I'm not really listening so I absentmindedly say, "Hi, Ellie."
She'll repeat herself. "Eyee's Eddie. Hi Mommy." And then I'll understand that Ellie is now EDDIE (a character from the Little People) and then it's my job to say, "Hi Eddie. Are you all done going potty, Eddie?"
Twenty seconds later (literally) Ellie will say, "Eyee's a pwincess. Hi mommy." To which I must respond, "Hi beautiful princess!"
Twenty seconds later (literally) Ellie will say, "Eyee's Tuck. Hi Mommy" After which she'll fall down and I have to say, "Careful, Tuck'...and on it goes.
The other day Ellie spent an entire trip to Superstore and back holding an imaginary kangaroo in the palm of her hand.
Life with an imagination....not boring for a second!

Ellie doing her best 'silly face', which always ends up looking rather serious.

Chubby Monkey

Well I brought Joshua to get weighed yesterday and my eyes weren't all that surprised at the numbers...my ARMS have been feeling those numbers now for weeks. 15 pounds!! What a whopper! Elianna was 15 pounds when she was 7 months (as opposed to 3 1/2). All I can say is 1. The formula must be treating him well and 2. This boy had better be an early walker!

Nothing new at the Balfour home...just hanging out.

Both children looking very reflective before church yesterday.

I think Josh touched her with his foot.

I shall re-name my children 'Spit-Gob-On-Chin' and 'Searching-for-Treasure'.
He touched her with his foot again.

Ellie acting her usual maniacal self.

She insisted on them both laying on her very precious 'draky' (blanky) which is turning into a dull shade of gray from overuse. Today, wearing just a diaper and a dress-up hat, Ellie threw the blanky around her shoulders like a scarf, gave me a big grin and declared, "It's a bootiful day, Mommy!" I have no clue where she got that idea. The wind is so strong it could knock a person over. Ah well.

Spring has Sprung! (I hope...)

This week we have finally had a real turn in the weather and now all that's left of the Manitoba snow are a few small dirty mounds. The sun is shining. I love it. Spring is 100% my favorite season! Yesterday Ellie's eyes lit up when I opened the patio door for the first time (I don't think she remembered that opening the patio door was an option) and let her play on the deck. Yeah, there's pretty much nothing to play with on the deck right now, but that doesn't stop a two year old from having fun.

Lovin' the fresh air!

Playing with the screen door.

I threw a blanket down and told Ellie she was having a picnic.

"MMMM! That's nummy!"
Chillaxin' with her current favorite: a book on how to make puppets.

Joshua stayed in his swing with a warm sweater on and watched Ellie play:
"Where'd Ellie go?"

"OUTSIDE?!? I didn't know you could go out there!"

Yes, Joshy, there's lots of fun to be had! Bring on the sunshine!

The newest Balfour!

No, I'm not pregnant. Our newest addition is sweet, blissfully quiet, and wonderfully low-maintenance. He's a fish.

Meet Purple Balfour:That's right, folks - we are pet owners!!

A friend of mine works at the pet store and she decided to surprise Ellie with a fish. Ellie was totally pumped! She saw him in there and exclaimed, "It's a FISHY! He's CUUUUUTE!" She named him Purple and we've put him in the bathroom so that 1. She can't stick her gooey little hands in the bowl and accidentally kill him when we're not looking and 2. It keeps potty time exciting. I can get Purple to say anything I want like, "Oh, Purple says he really wants to see a poop today," or "Purple wants you to stay on the potty for just another minute so he doesn't get lonely." (Is that called manipulation? :) Anyhow, it's kind of fun. This is Ellie's first real 'responsibility'. She has to feed Purple before she gets breakfast...which she loves doing, of course. We're not really pet people so it'll be interesting to see how long we can keep this little guy alive. We'll give it our best shot. Welcome to the family, Purple!

Tired...

Today's a particularly tired sort of day. Elianna, who's been a world-class sleeper for ages now has suddenly begun resisting her naps as well as having some bizarre night wake-ups. Last night, for instance, she went to bed without a peep, then suddenly woke up at 11pm and was up until 12. She was crying and yelling if she was in her crib, happy if she was rocking on my lap, and talking a blue-streak when I attempted to bring her to bed with me (and wacking me in the face with her blanky :). Finally we decided to see if she really did need 'a dwink of juice' and after she chugged a whole sippy cup of water she fell fast asleep. I'm assuming this sleep stuff goes with the toddler territory and am also assuming it will eventually pass. But add that to Joshua's usual 4am feed and well, today is a particularly tired sort of day. But it could be much worse. So to cheer myself up, I'm posting some positivity. Here's a few of my latest favorite sibling moments. I'm savoring every one of these moments while the love relationship lasts!"Help, Ma, I can't breathe!"

I hadn't quite gotten to giving Joshua his bottle when Ellie swooped in and decided to do it herself. She kept pulling it out of his mouth but he didn't care in the least...he was far too thrilled with the fact that his sister was feeding him!

Never too busy to say "Cheese!"

My all-time favorite. Josh is in his glory.

A "bum change".

Apparently Ellie's doll "Regan" has some diaper rash issues. I was wondering why Ellie had been so quiet!

3 Months

Joshua turned 3 months this week! My head is spinning, it went so fast. Part of me is a bit grieved that I already remember very little of these months (it's allll a blur! Thank Jesus for photographs), part of me is a bit relieved that the 'worst' (most chaotic time) is over. The usual motherhood ambiguity. Joshua is thriving on formula. He has rolls I never thought possible on the offspring of a Balfour! He loves to gurgle, smile, and stare cross-eyed at his hands for long periods of time. He is a dream baby to take care of...unless you cross him. If his bottle is late or he's got a stuck burp or you don't get him in bed PRONTO when he's tired - WATCH OUT! He's got a temper! Toddler-hood could get interesting! Joshua - we love you to bits and can't imagine life without you!!

My Favorite Age

I remember when Ellie was four months old I said to Rob, "This is totally by far Ellie's best age yet. I love Ellie at this age!" And I was secretly a little worried that I wouldn't love any other age quite as much as I loved four months. But I said the same thing at 5 months, then 6 and so far, every month has been my favorite. Month 25 is no exception. Life just isn't boring for a second. The adventure starts first thing every morning. Join me, if you will.

Usually the first sound I hear over the monitor is not a happy one. It sounds something like this: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's ELLIE'S!!!" I have no idea who it is, exactly, that's upsetting Ellie so, but from experience it's pretty safe to guess that one of her stuffed animals happened to touch her sock. Or her pinky finger. So I go to her door, take a deep breath, and in the cheerfullest voice I can muster (refusing to join Ellie in Grumpsville) I say, "Hiiii Ellie!" and she JUMPS up in her crib and yells, "Sweeeeeeeeeeet dreams, Mama!" And I say, "You had sweet dreams?" And she nods real big and says, "YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!" and for the time being whatever grieved her so is a distant shadow and it's time to have fun. The other morning when I went in it seemed as though Ellie had actually had a real dream. She was so excited she was stuttering: "Ah Ellie ah dream, Mama! Monkeys wash ah window! Monkeys swimming! Monkeys ebreebere! (everywhere)"

Well, later at lunchtime I prayed for our meal. I've read recently that the best way to teach your toddler about what prayer really is to make the prayer short and about something they really care about. So I prayed, "Jesus, thank you for our yummy salami and for fun playing with toys! Amen!". And then Ellie folded her hands and decided to pray too. "Jesus, iss monkeys EBREEBERE! Jesus, iss monkeys...iss worms. Amen!" HA! I wonder which monkeys and worms out there felt Ellie's prayers??

No. I really like 24 1/2 months.

You show a child this age their new pretty panties and they end up like this:

A child this age decides the beige carpet is 'sand' and suddenly

they're in a swimsuit for the morning:

A child this age decides it's raining and this becomes their attire for the day:

And this is just in the last week.

This is definitely my favorite month of Ellie's life so far.
I wonder what next month will be like?