The one with and without the Smiles

Eleanor had school pictures this past week. She also participated in the retakes because the first set did not go well. Here's hoping our next set of family pics go better than these.

Other things Eleanor does better than pictures:
What does a frog say: she then sticks her tongue out back and forth with the appropriate noises!

Shusshing baby Grady or being a mother Hen: when he's fussy or crying as well as ensuring that he has blankets because that's what unhappy babies need: a good shhhhh, a blanket, and a paci jammed into their mouth. Daycare has also reported her being helpful there. She puts blankets on babies, tried to cuddle them, and has been checking the diapers of her colleagues. We've asked daycare for a discount since she appears to be taking on work duties.

Anatomy lesson: She's getting pretty good at knowing the parts of her body. We were told that at 2 years old, she should know 5. We've got way more than that... ears, eyes, mouth, nose, teeth, chin, hair, hands, toes, feet, and belly. Grandpa Perry asked if she was going to belly up to the table and she had no problems showing him hers. We are also working on elbow but that one is tricky.

Not to leave Grady out... he's working on a big milestone that maybe his sister should review... smiling! It reminds me of a pot that just starts to boil. He will start slow there's a little bit of build up to the bubble and then you'll get two or three in a row, sometimes one bigger than the next. Eleanor was stingy with her smiles to me... she would give them to others no problem so it makes me feel a bit special that he's pretty free with them to me.

The weekend was a bit slow and relaxed... for a couple reasons. Matt was crazy busy at work with the finalization of the runway project and reopening everything up and then being short staffed he worked a shift to cover the gap, leaving him tired on Saturday. We relaxed, played, napped where we could, but don't think we didn't get anything accomplished. We made 21 pints of applesauce for the kids and also 10 pints of stewed tomatoes - courtesy of Grandma for the produce. We were so busy with that and each other I realized afterwards I didn't even get a picture.

best meal: Matt grilled salmon, which was good but leftover salmon cream cheese omelets is always wonderful

MJR feeding GRR: Oh my gosh, you are the slowest eater ever. Why can't you be like your sister?
ALR thinking back to the previous conversation with EER
             ALR: what do you have
             ALR: that's not yours 
             ALR: put that down
             ALR: who do you think you are
             ALR: I said put it down
             ALR: that's mine
             ALR: give that back
             ALR: where is your father
             ALR: Get out of there
             ALR: AHHHHHH!
             ALR: go find your dad
ALR to MJR: I'm okay that he's not like his sister. Could you imagine two of them right now?