We are busy with our little blessings around here. Ellie is still completely hilarious and there is just never a dull moment around her. Yesterday, she prayed aloud that God would help Mommy not spank her :) She has recently added her name to our couch and some drawings to our wood floor in hot pink sharpie. I also found her looking at herself in the mirror and practicing defiance, saying in different tones and volumes "I will not, I WILL not, I will NOT." Ellie is a great big sister. She is always looking out for Mason and making sure she is okay. She will ask me several times a day if Mason is allowed to eat something or play with something, etc. She is also very loving. Almost every night, she gets out of bed just for another kiss and hug and constantly hugging or touching or kissing one member of our family or another :) She has started a bit of a shy phase but I think its more a ploy she uses to get out of doing something she doesn't want to do. She is becoming brave in other moments. This week, she called her Daddy at work and when his secretary picked up, she said "Everett please." She also walked right up to the hostess at Little Tokyo and asked "Is it our turn yet?" She loves sweets like her mama and nonchalantly tried to work them in at odd times. Like "My tummy hurts. I think I need a cookie to make it feel better." Or when I ask her what she wants for breakfast, she'll reply "Um.. I'll just have some ice cream." She thinks I might not notice if she says it casually :) She loves pink and purple and everything princess and hello kitty. She loves to sing and is working on a few songs from high school musical thanks to a fancy microphone her Aunt Christy gave her :) She has a few funny words she says like "yogrit" (yogurt), "bloomer trees" (trees in bloom), "getting busy" (getting dizzy). Ellie loves to tell Everett and me how she is going to grow up and turn 5, then 10, then 20 while we say "no, no, no." She is getting so big - we are trying to soak up every moment as we watch her learn and grow.
Mason is still just a smiley sweetheart but she does bite. She inherits this honestly - Didi was a biter and she still shows her fangs now and then :) Mason started crawling about 8.5 months and pulling up at 9.5 months. She'll cruise a little but she still loves to crawl. She loves to clap. She can wave and say "bye, bye." She thinks Ellie is HILARIOUS (we do too :) She LOVES her bath and grins and laughs the whole time. She is getting to be a little more of a handful as she gets older. She threw my sunglasses off the train today at the zoo and she loves to take things out of anything. She'll empty a drawer, a purse, a cabinet. She also loves shoes - all types, all sizes but she has teeny, tiny feet (almost two sizes smaller than her age). We say she's almost 1 going on 3 because she already tries to skip several stages to do whatever Ellie's doing (hold her own ice cream cone, drink out of a big girl sippy cup, eat artichoke, etc) We're just so thankful for her and trying to enjoy her babyness every day :) Even Ellie tells her not to grow up and says to her "you're just precious."
More pics and less words below :)
