hey guys

Our favorite new thing that Ethan says, hands down.

eloise cooing at daddy

days of summer

We have had a fun couple of weeks enjoying the cooler (90s instead of 100s) weather here in the Lou. A few photos of some of our summer fun:

Enjoying some time at City Garden.

 Ethan and his friend Halle while at Turtle Park (which turned out to be a sort of bust. After checking out the drinking fountain we headed to the playground instead!)

 Eloise and her sweet cousin Ella. The ladies are both sporting leapord here.

 Just look at my sweet niece!

 

And sweet Eloise doing what she loves most---standing!

 We have had fun at the park...

The splash pad...

And Eloise has been working on her tummy time!

Finally, we went to a birthday party this weekend for the kids' friends Noah and London. When it was time to pray to bless the food, Ethan folded his hands the entire time and when the prayer was finished shouted "ANEN!" (His version of AMEN!) Amen indeed!

little lady warrior

Pete and I have absolutely loved the name Eloise for several years now. When we first became pregnant with Ethan, Eloise was the girl name we had picked out and it has been in our arsenal ever since. Once we found out that our sweet baby #2 was a girl, there was no question that Eloise was her name.

The funny thing is that when I looked up what her name meant a few years ago, I learned it meant "warrior." Now I am a bit partial to names, and what they mean, especially for my kids - and so this made me slightly  pause to wonder if I really wanted my daughter's name to mean something so masculine and tough. We named our son Ethan Matthew (firm and steadfast; gift of God) and "warrior" didn't seem to fit with this theme.

But, we loved the name so let it go, and once our sweet girl was born --- Eloise Joy was her name. What we've come to find in the first few months of her life is that she really is our little warrior. Her birth was fast and fierce - I was in labor for just about 2 hours and only pushed for 5 minutes. She has a loud cry and lets us know what she wants and when she's not happy.

And, she's a fighter. Especially with sleep. She will fight going to sleep right up until her sweet eyes close. The other day I was rocking her to sleep and, as she often does, she would start to slumber off and startle and start crying again. She kept pushing against me and was so restless. And I started praying for her, that God would help her to rest. And I realized in that moment as I continued to rock her as she fought both me and sleep, that it was such a picture of how God takes care of His children. God knows so much more than we do what is best for us. And we want to fight Him because we think we know what's better. Just as Eloise was fighting going to sleep, I knew that what she needed most was to rest and so I continued to rock her. 

Our little warrior is the most precious daughter I could have ever asked for. I pray that her fighting spirit would be for God's glory and that she would not fight against Him. That she would submit to His love and grace and find rest in knowing that her Father loves her. That He sent His only Son Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice for her sins. That the battle has already been won and His grace is offered freely - she doesn't have to fight to earn it.

She is our darling baby girl and our little lady warrior. Life has not been the same since she's been born and we wouldn't have it any other way!

"hold her"

During the last few weeks Ethan has been learning how to hold Eloise. He asks to "hold her" and jumps up on the couch. Sometimes he'll hold her for a minute or two, other times he pushes her away right when we are setting her on his lap. Nonetheless, he's fairly gentle and is learning how to be her big brother!

the two year old in a three year old's body

We finally had Ethan's 2 year check up last week! We pushed it off a couple of months since things were a bit crazy around his birthday with the arrival of sweet Eloise.

Ethan continues to be off the charts in both height and weight, no surprise. He is 39.5 inches tall and 38 pounds. He is the height of an average 3 year old and weight of an average 3 1/2 year old. The boy is big!!!

Ethan is having such a language burst right now. Ever since his first sentence a few weeks ago he has been talking non stop and saying all sorts of sentences and combining new phrases. "Daddy go sit." "Eloise diaper." "Change diaper." "Go potty." "Vi Vi at the park." "Purple yellow block." And he still says his old faithful phrases of bye bye this and yay that. Tonight when I told him Eloise was downstairs he shouted "Yay downstairs!"

He has also very much been into "kithes" (kisses) lately. He loves to give Eloise kisses on her head and kisses to both mommy and daddy just randomly with a sweet smile.

And, of course, he's also testing a lot of boundaries right now and having some pretty major tantrums. The boy has got some lungs!

He still has so much energy - he runs laps back and forth around the house, absolutely loves running full steam ahead into Pete and is figuring out how to climb on to everything. He is curious and exuberant and we love him so very much!

eloise at 2 months

Our sweet girl turned 2 months old a little over a week ago! We had her 2 month check up last week and learned that she is 24 3/4 inches tall (off the charts) and 11 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile). The little lady is long and lean! She still fits into some size 3 month onesies but we are just starting to move her into the 3-6 month size and size 1 diapers are still fitting okay.

At 2 months Eloise is definitely spending more time awake. She is really cooing and gurgling these days and loves to show us her sweet big smile. Her favorite position is still definitely standing while we hold her up. Her legs are so strong!

She is still a bit fussy but we think that her fussiness may have peaked around 7-8 weeks as she seems to maybe be crying a bit less, although she still has her moments/days so it's hard to say. I am also experimenting with eliminating dairy from my diet to see if she has a dairy sensitivity that is causing her to have some tummy pain/gas/spit up. Sometimes when she cries she seems to be in pain, arching and straightening her legs and so I'm trying to see if there is something I'm eating that is giving her trouble.

Right now Eloise is a short napper, just like her brother was at this age. Unless she's in the car and moving she typically will only sleep for about 30 minutes at a time and so she naps about 5-6 times per day. I might also add that she is not a big fan of her carseat unless she is moving and asleep. She is still nursing quite a bit - somewhere between 8-10 (sometimes more) times per day but she seems to be starting to have some regularity and eats about every 2 hours or so. She typically goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until 4am (sometimes 5am) - so her night time sleep is going great!

We sure love our sweet, sweet girl. It's so fun to see how much she is growing and discovering the world each and every day.

Here is her 2 month photo shoot!