Easton gets to slide!

And he didn't even mind that he was getting choked in the process!

There's just something about park swings....

Easton gets finger foods!

Easton loves his puffs, and solid foods in general, so even though he doesn't have any teeth yet, I'm slowly starting to introduce more and more finger foods.  He enjoys feeding himself, and I enjoy being able to multi-task while he's eating! :)  

Here's to bananas!

Look at those eyelashes!  Such a lucky little boy!

We miss Mimi!

We are SO happy that Daddy is home safe and sound, but we sure do miss Mimi!!! Thanks for staying with us while Daddy was away skiing!  We had such a fun and relaxing weekend with you here!

Easton is 9 months!

This means that he is only 3 months away from being 1 year old! and that means that Ella is less than 4 months away from being three YEARS old!  These are the thoughts that have been running through my head as Easton turns 9 months old!  Scary and fun and exciting all at the same time....

On Saturday he started pulling himself up to a standing position and does it quite often now!  He gets so proud of himself when he is standing.

He's such a silly little boy, ALWAYS full of smiles!

He's an explorer....he crawls ALL over the house, to the point where I have "lost" him on several occasions.  He'll be in the room with me or playing with Ella while I'm doing something and I'll go to check on him and often find him in another room or behind a chair, somewhere else just exploring.  He hasn't really gotten into stuff too much yet, he just crawls from room to room checking things out on his own.

He is so content and plays independently often.  He loves toys and is easily entertained by things.  He also loves to watch Jakey and Ella of course!

He has been ear infection free for 3 weeks now and we got a great bill of health at the doctor this morning...ears are clear!  This means he is back to his awesome sleeping habits.  He sleeps around 7pm-7am on an average day with 2 naps (9:30-11am and 1:30-3pm).  At daycare, his naps are all over the place, but at home he typically sticks to that schedule.

Nursing has been up and down like crazy for me over the past month!  With all of his ear infections he wasn't very interested in nursing a lot of the time, and it really hurt my milk supply.  So, I finally came to terms with no longer nursing, and then once I quit stressing about it, my milk seemed to come back.  So then I kept nursing, but was still contemplating stopping because I'm really not pumping much milk, but then he only nurses on the weekends and he seems totally fine and seems to be getting enough milk from me.  Then last weekend I got mastitis, and thought for sure I was done nursing.  But then we just finished another successful weekend of full time nursing, so now we'll just see what happens.  Its such an amazing thing but can also be very stressful!  So, I'm at the point that I want to keep nursing as long as I can, but if I don't make it a full year, that's OK.  So far, I have not had to give him any formula, but if I do, then it's OK.  I'm trying to stay relaxed about it and just do what I can!  So far it's working. :)  So, for the record, he's nursing just 4 times a day...7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm.

Other than getting mastitis and my stresses about breast-feeding, Easton's 9th month has been wonderful!  Still no teeth, but this weekend I started giving some soft finger foods and he did really good.  His gums are getting swolen and you can almost see the teeth in there.  They will all be popping out soon I'm sure!

From the doctor this morning, here are his 9-month stats:

weight: 19 pounds (26th percentile)

length: 29 inches (75th percentile)

head circumference: 45.1 cm (44th percentile)

Little stinker!

He was supposed to be sleeping, but was doing this instead.....

After putting Easton down for a nap, I heard him talking and moving around in his crib so I looked at the monitor and watched him as he slowly pulled himself up to a standing position for the first time ever!  He was so proud of himself as I ran in there to get some pictures.  

After that he was in such a good mood and so happy just playing in his crib!  A little while later Ella joined him, but I quickly realized that I didn't want him to think his crib was a place to PLAY!

Indicative of Ella's personality at 32 months...

Yesterday after school, Ella brought me a box of cinnamon rolls from Costco asking if she could have one.  I told her no because we would be eating dinner soon and that she could have one after dinner if she ate good.  She followed me around for a minute trying to convince me she could have one but she quickly dropped the box and the four remaining cinammon rolls fell all over the floor.  I quickly picked them up off the floor and threw them back in the box.  She started throwing a major fit...not because I wouldn't let her have a cinammon roll, and not because she dropped the box, but because when I put them back in the box, I did not put them back in a straight line!  She was screaming "a line mommy, make a line!!!"  Once I finally realized what she was talking about, I put them in a straight line against the inside edge of the box, and then put the box away and then she was perfectly content.

She always notices when things are out of place and will immediately put things back in the "correct" spot. The other night Michael had put her to bed and therefore helped her clean up her room before tucking her in.  The next morning as soon as she woke up, she was noticing that Daddy did not put things all in the right spot and was telling me "Daddy put this here, this not go here!" and she was rearranging things getting them back to the right places. 

And then this morning (after our house had been cleaned the day before) she was mad that her flashlight was on the top shelf of her bookshelf rather than the 2nd to top.  As she scrunches her forehead..."Mommy, this does not go here!". 

These are just a few of the stories that come to mind over the last several days!  This is typical Ella!  Crazy how a little girl at just 2.5 can already have such a Type A personality!!!

Like mother, like daughter

I've mentioned before how Ella likes to imitate anything and everything that I do.  Sometimes I look at her and think "Wow, she is JUST like me!".  So, it's only natural, that she nurses her baby....just like me!

No words to describe the LOVE...