Craft time

William still kind of sets his own schedule, but the one part I have figured out is the early morning nap.  Very predictably, William gets tired about an hour after he wakes up.  He will go down for a nap so easy at that time, which has become a special time for Eliana and me.  Most mornings we do some sort of craft.  "Craft" being a loose term meaning anything from gluing paper to making and playing with playdough.  Basically anything we can do on the kitchen table.  Here are some of our activities:

Making Oobleck
Mix two parts cornstarch with one part water, plus a few drops of food coloring.  This was so fun!  Oobleck is a solid that turns into a liquid when you touch it.  Eliana and I were both fascinated.  It cleaned up really easily with water, which is always a plus with craft time.  We also watched this youtube video to prepare up for our experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U

Shaving Cream
I let Eliana "paint" with shaving cream.  We just put some on a piece of paper, and Eliana swirled it all around.  One neat thing was tracing letters in the shaving cream, and then erasing it with a swipe of the hand.  This was pretty controlled at first, just on paper.  However, I left the room for a couple of minutes to check on William, and I returned to find Eliana like this!  Shaving cream was a little sticky and slightly harder to clean up, but Eliana really loved it!

Playdough
I found a really easy recipe for making our own playdough that resulted in super smooth and soft dough.  
In a bowl, mix together:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tarter
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Then add up to 1.5 cups of boiling water (with a few drops of food coloring if desired).  Stir until forms a sticky ball.  Allow to cool, then knead the ball of dough on the table until all the stickiness is gone.  If needed, add some extra flour to get the right consistency. 

Eliana did a great job stirring this mixture.  The best part was that if she spilled any of the dry ingredients, it didn't matter because we could just scoop them back in the bowl.  Between making and playing with the playdough, this kept her occupied for at least an hour, which is really impressive!

No Bake Brownies
Eliana was my assistant when I made no bake brownies.  I let her lick the spoon when we were done.  (By the way, she discovered that she likes chocolate now...)

All the time now Eliana asks to do a craft.  It is nice to have a bit of structured play included in our day.  And now a few bonus pictures of our handsome guy --

On a picnic, Eliana wanted a little cuddle time with her brother.

A little bit of tummy time, with some great head control!

Love him

Zoo

One Tuesday, my mom's group met at the Columbus Zoo with all the kids.  We have really expanded the past few months!  When I first started hanging out with Angela and Holly, it was the three of us with our three kids.  Now we are five moms with ten kids and one on the way.  At the zoo, we had four moms and 9 kids because I had picked up Theo since Angela just had her baby Cora.  I can tell you this, I am not ready for three kids yet!  How do you not loose one?!

This is how we roll: Eliana and Theo in the double stroller and William in the Ergo.  This went really well at first until Eliana decided that she MUST sit in whichever seat Theo was currently in.  

 We went to the new Heart of Africa exhibit at the zoo.  I had not been there yet, so I was excited to see it.

I tried to get all the older kids to line up for a picture.  Haha, yeah right

The best we can do.  Theo didn't want to be in the picture, so Eliana tried to pull him in

Adele, Eliana, Amelia, Leo, Claire, and Theo checking out a bear.

This was really cool!  They had an airplane as part of the lion exhibit, like a plane that crashed in the savanna.  The kids loved it!  and the lions were sitting right on the wing outside the windows!

Sitting in the cockpit (more excited about the steering wheel than the lions)

Leo, Amelia, and Eliana in line to feed the giraffes. 

She got to feed "salad" to the giraffe.  The first two tries, Eliana got scared and threw the lettuce on the ground.  Finally she was able to hold the leaf long enough for the giraffe to lick it out!  Great finish to our visit!

The Pool

My brother and sister in law recently moved to a new apartment.  While I am sad that they moved farther away from us, I am pretty excited that their new apartment complex has a very nice pool!  When we went to check out their new place, we of course had to check out the pool too.  The only downside was that the pool was three feet deep at the shallowest.  Eliana seemed to have no clue that if she stepped off of the steps, the water would be over her head and she would drown!  Maybe it was a little nicer than I thought when she was scared of water...

Eliana loved it when Uncle Michael made a big splash!

Aunt Melissa helping shoot Uncle Michael with the water squirter

Eliana's turn!

Helping her swim

This beach bum didn't go swimming, but he did look mighty cute in his turtle hat

First Day of Preschool

Today was Eliana's first day of preschool at Overbrook Preschool.  She is in the two year old class just one day a week.  She is going with her good friend Adele, so I know she is going to love it.  The girls held hands all the way into the classroom.  So cute!  Today was basically a get to know you session.  Preschool only lasted an hour, and all the moms stayed to help the kiddos get used to the new class.  Eliana of course did great.  I'm not too worried about her at preschool since she has been going to daycare for so long.  The hardest part is just drop off.  She ALWAYS cries when I leave.  Usually she has to be peeled off of me and held until I make it out the door.  But within 30 seconds, she is fine and having fun.  She just cries long enough to activate my mommy guilt.  I know she is going to have a lot of fun, especially with her best friend there.  Plus, it gives William and me a morning to spend together, which I am really looking forward to!

By the way, here is a picture from Eliana's last day of daycare.  They had an ice cream party (not just for Eliana, but for all of the kids who were "graduating") and gave Eliana a Dr. Seuss book.  She had a blast!  William and I got to come too, but I ate all of William's ice cream.

2 Months Old

A whole two months have gone by already!  Our great big boy is continuing to grow.  He weighed in at 13lbs 14.5oz (80th percentile) today at his two month checkup.  He grew just a little taller too, now up to 23.5 in long (70th percentile).  Boy, was William showing off for Dr. Ferguson.  He was smiling and cooing his whole appointment.  Even when he got his two month shots, he cried for just a second, and then smiled when I picked him up.  David and I call him "Handsome Man" all the time, and now Eliana has even picked up on that.  Pretty much we have been blessed with the best son ever.  Seriously, check him out.  How could you not agree?

2 months old

 

This kid loves his thumb!

 Cute Eliana story for the day:
Eliana frequently says "You're the best mommy in the whole world!" to me.  I promise, I did not teach her to say that.  It must just be true.  So anyway, Eliana says that to me, and I often reply, "You're the best Ana in the whole world."  And of course, Eliana asks "Why?"
"Because you are a sweet heart and I love you very much," I reply.
"I'm not a sweet heart.  You want to know why?  Because I have Jesus in my heart," she says.  (This girl is amazing!)

Indy Trip some more

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went to Indy for a while to visit family and friends since David was working so hard.  I spent Sunday with David's family where Eliana had a blast playing with her uncles and aunt, the dog and cats, and her grandparents.  She got to go to the playground, and she spent quite a bit of time commanding Mindy (the dog) around.  William basically slept and ate the whole time, so I guess that means he enjoyed it too!

Monday morning I took the kids to visit my grandma, their great-grandma, which was really nice.  Then that afternoon, my parents took us to the Indiana State Fair. 

Eliana was not sleeping well on the trip, so she was really tired.  She wanted to be carried everywhere we went.  She would fuss and cry about doing anything, until she realized it was fun, and then she would cry when it was time to move on.  One of her favorite activities was feeding the goats even though one goat bit her.  She topped off the trip to the fair by peeing her pants and then throwing up.  Fun times!

On Tuesday, I visited with my friend Deanna and her two kids.  Her son Leo is 6 months older than Eliana, and her daughter Silvia is 9 months younger, so they all got along and played together really well.  William basically just slept, as per his usual.

The temperature was in the upper 60s that morning.  What's wrong with Indiana.  Don't you know it is August?  I didn't know I needed to pack a coat and pants!

Picking flowers

Our last day we visited with my friends Stephanie N and her new daughter Eliza, and Stephanie M and her two kids.  It was so great getting to meet Eliza, who is a week younger than William (although she is a petite little girl so William looked like he could crush her).  I forgot my camera, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of all that baby cuteness.  After such a long visit, my kids were exhausted, so I had a very pleasant drive home Wednesday afternoon with two sleeping babies in the back of the van.  I am so glad I got to take this little trip while I was on maternity leave.