Sitting Around

I tried to take some pictures of Ivy this afternoon but they are a bit fuzzy.  Perhaps it's time to clean the sticky fingerprints off my camera lens.  P.S. Developers of the blu ray discs did not do enough testing around how sticky toddler hands could affect viewing--one sticky print can halt the whole movie!

Ivy has some poofy hair today!

Noelle hates to be left out of anything.  "Hi Ivvvvy!"

A week or so ago Noelle wanted to sit on her potty seat (with clothes on, she doesn't like actually using it).  She has decided the Bumbo (what Ivy is in) is a potty too (it's just a seat really).  What else would she have done but request an impromptu potty seat picnic with her sister?  What a goof :)

Sweet Noelle

Today Noelle and I were playing after nap time (but still during Ivy's nap) on our bed.  We were just chatting mostly, so I thought I'd pull out the camera for fun so you can see what Noelle is like when she's calm (despite what grandparents see via webcam, she is calm some of the time).  She is a cutie.  

I think her molars are finally settling in so we are getting this version of Noelle more often (thank you!!!).  She is such a sweetie when she wants to be.  Her spunky side still gets plenty of light--don't worry.

Also, notice anything about this?  Heh!

I noticed that two pictures I took were really similar, so I entered the 21st century and made a gif.

P.S. Grandma Karen, Noelle wants to know if she can get a little hair cut at Christmas.  We were chatting about that a bit on the video you may have noticed.  She saw her Dad get one the other day and has been talking about it a lot.  We told her Grandma Karen sometimes cuts hair.

Read On

The other day on our way to pick up some dinner Noelle was saying something in the car that we couldn't figure out.  Well later that night she was giggling to herself in bed and Corey realized she was saying "read on!".  


Why was "read on" so funny?  Well, she's recently become a fan of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, Two... Anyway, in the second one the shell says "read on" and apparently she just thought about it later on and thought it was hysterical.  Here is a little clip of her over the monitor:

First Laughs

This past week Ivy has started laughing, which we love!  

Luckily we had the camera nearby so we caught the tail end of her laughs.  Also I spliced a clip of Noelle saying "goo Ivy", which she does a lot and sometimes Ivy "goos" back.  I love when they interact.

As Corey was leaving for work today he was giving Noelle and Ivy a hug and a kiss and saying "I love you", and then Noelle went to Ivy and said "I wuv you sister, Ivy".  Awww.

Faces

Noelle loves the "face" game.  The other day she found the camera and wanted to take pictures.  Can you spot happy face, surprised face, sad face, sleepy face, silly face, and angry face?

Life

I was on a roll blogging for a tiny bit.  I figured out I could blog with Noelle on my lap or letting her explore around the office.  Noelle has rediscovered how cool the computer is and now wants to use it for her own purposes--watching home videos, playing toddler games, or just clicking random buttons to see what they do.  If you try to use the mouse she'll flick your hand away.  She knows what she wants, and you messing with the computer is not it.

Anyway, while they are both down for a few seconds I thought I'd write down some things about the girls.  Better than nothing right?

Ivy is still the sweetest baby I've ever met.  She is so patient with everyone.  She has discovered her hands and loves to eat them.  Unfortunately she hasn't quite figured out how to not gag herself while eating her hand and often gives us a messy show (sorry people behind me at church last week).  She is extremely happy first thing in the morning.  She's all smiles and happy sounds when you get her up.  She still loves snuggling with anyone around and prefers to sleep in someone's arms when she can get away with it.  She's growing so quick, she's already fitting in her 6 month clothes.

Noelle is full of energy.  All.  The.  Time.  This girly wears us out but we love her to pieces.  Her vocabulary is constantly growing and we love hearing new things she says.  Lately she likes comparing herself to her favorite movie characters.  While prancing around the yard she will say, "Running a Dash!" I'm running so fast like Dash (from the Incredibles), or "Brushing Hair a Punzel" Your brushing my pretty hair like Rapunzel (from Tangled), and things like that.  Despite us having a video of her counting to ten she doesn't really anymore. She gets too excited about it and skips numbers "1,2,3,6,7,8, a 10".  We're working on it.  


She's also started the repeat button when talking to Corey and I.  "Daddy. Daddy. DADDY!" What Noelle? "Eatin a chip".  "Mommy. Mommy. MOMMY!" What's up Noelle? "Noelle eatin a chip"... things like that.  She likes to keep us informed.


She's still doing really well with her big bed, although lately we have to put her to bed more than once.  The other night she was knocking on her door and so we opened it to find her dressed up in a hat and a wand and who knows what else.  Sometimes we'll hear her over the monitor reading herself books or playing with toys.  It's pretty cute.


Noelle has also started singing.  I use the term singing loosely, but she will yell the words to some songs she likes if she is feeling in the mood.  She knows a lot of words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Rock-a-By Baby", and a few others.  It's hard not to laugh when she's singing along to her bedtime song.  It's extremely cute.  We are going to try to get it on video sometime.

I better leave my notes there.  Noelle was never really asleep but sounds like she is done playing in her room.  My few moments of quiet are over for now :)

Garbage

Note to self:  a wad of gum does pretty well covering a large hole in a garbage disposal so you don't have old faithful sprouting every time you turn on the sink.

Earlier this week I noticed the floor under the sink was a little wet.  Weird.  Then later when the dishwasher was running a flood was coming out the door.  As the unit was basically rotting away and really didn't work anyway we ordered a new one (the home owners covering cost, of course) and tonight Corey installed it.  

Do you like the preview our blue cabinets?  I took the doors off the upper levels to tone down the blue... Someday I will have the house clean enough to take photos of to show you around.

Joey

So at our last place I use to tease Corey that we kind of had a cat (you see, a few cats took to napping in our yard)...well the egg is on my face now.  We kind of have a cat.  It showed up Sunday evening whilst we were watching War Horse (therefore jokingly we dubbed it "Joey" after the horse).  But then Monday morning, War Cat was still there.  Always on our little back patio, occasionally meowing at our door.  

Short story long, it hasn't left.  We chased it off a few times earlier in the week, but it just comes back.  It was so persistent we even talked to the owners of the house..."Uh, did you used to have a cat?" Nope.


After a week of telling Noelle, "Noelle don't touch the cat!" she no longer listens to me and pets it anyway.  Things I've heard Noelle say this week:  "mo-ning joey!", "whered he go?", "here is" ("there he is" in Noelle speak), "i wuv you cat", "stay heres cat-y"...

We keep hoping it will go somewhere else and find lots of birds and things to eat (it's a really skinny little thing), but after a week it doesn't appear to be leaving.  We were avoiding feeding it so it wouldn't have a reason to stay, but it appears it's more stubborn than my heart strings and I fed it a little something today.  It seems nice--it lets Noelle pet it and will rub against your legs sometime.  We are okay with it being around but don't really want a cat (but don't want it to starve to death either)...


How long can a cat reside at your address before you can't claim it's not your cat?  


Anyone want a cat?

Backside

Let me explain.  Noelle is doing really well expanding her vocabulary, but sometimes gets mixed up.  Sometimes she mixes up outside and backyard...getting backside.  It's cute.  Here's a glimpse of our backyard from our little covered patio.  In the back corner is our bamboo garden.  We love our backyard!  It has grass!  And no cacti!  We spend hours out there.  Noelle's favorite activity so far is spray bottle.  She sprays the grass and bricks and anything she can find.

Here's a face that we get when we tell her something she doesn't feel like doing.  "Hey Noelle smile for the camera!"

There's the smile!  And yes, those are dirt prints on her face.

Luckily she warmed up to me snapping photos, how darling is this?

Comparison

I thought it would be fun to get Ivy on the same blanket Noelle was on for her blessing.  Lesa was kind enough to take pictures for me, this is my favorite!  I love her signature curl and smile.

On this past Sunday we realized Ivy would be almost exactly the age Noelle was for her blessing.  So out came the white dress and pink blanket for a photo shoot before church.  Here is the side by side comparison:

Noelle may or may not have had a cow during Ivy's photo shoot so we made sure she got some camera time too.  She's got attitude these days.  I think I have a small glimpse of what it's like to raise a teenager now.

Look at those two mug for the camera.

Don't mess with Ivy.  She's got ninja moves.