Growing up...

Eliana always likes new clothes - and she just got some! Nai-Nai sent her a fancy new dress, and she has new boots! She has been asking for boots for quite awhile, and we finally let her pick some out. There were plain brown ones (which Emily tried to point her towards) but she was very sure she wanted "the pink ones with zippers, Mommy". So...here they are!

Eliana has recently discovered the fun of making cookies, and asks to make them almost everyday. (we don't make them everyday, though) She especially likes to stir.

Here, we are making sugar cookies. She is very good at rolling out the dough -- and practices in the bathtub, singing "row, row, row the dough" -- and is not so adept at using cookie cutters effectively.

If you look at the shapes, there is a majority of dinosaurs. Eliana loves dinosaurs, for some reason. We have a set of dinosaur cookie cutters, which she wanted to use -no interest in the butterfly, flower, heart, or teddy bear shapes. And then the frosting! The only trick here is getting her to just frost the cookies, rather than frost her finger and eat it.
This one was a brontosaurus, before she bit its head off...

Continuing in her love of all things Karina's... here is Eliana eating her orange while sitting in the baby swing.
For all of Eliana's growing up, she still really needs to take a nap in the afternoon, or she just can't quite function by early evening. She is starting to resist naps, though. Here is the result: Dinnertime....but Eliana will NOT get up!

In this one, Ellie fell asleep sitting on the sofa reading. Doesn't look very comfortable!

In this one, Eliana fell asleep in the car, and couldn't even be woken up to take her coat off. (She has her pajamas on -- her favorite clothes. On days we don't have any plans, we sometimes let her wear jammies all day).

Karina is also growing up! She loves to sit at the table, and eats her "meals" with us now. She has two teeth on the bottom (which are very hard to get a picture of) and is starting to eat crackers and cheerios. You'll notice Karina is also wearing pajamas in this picture...and every picture you ever see of her. Because of her substantial tummy and thighs, it is very hard to find pants that don't squeeze her, if they even fit over her bottom. Also, due to her very stout legs, socks will NOT stay on her feet (they slide off), but her ankles are too chubby for shoes to go around. As a result, the only clothes that really fit her, and keep her warm are footie one-piece jammies. We periodically get asked if we ever put "real" clothes on her...

Karina is finally getting the hang of eating baby cereal and fruit and veggie mush. We didn't have much luck for a long time, she would only take a few bites, and was always grabbing the spoon and making a huge mess. We finally thought of warming the food up - and voila, she eats it no problem! (Our excuse for not doing this sooner is that Ellie never cared, she would and still does, eat food straight out of the fridge or freezer.) In the video you can see her eating, like a normal cooperative baby!

Karina still can't roll or scoot or anything, but she likes to contort her body around in funny ways. Her new thing is to flop over when we are holding her. Maybe seeing the world sideways for a change is more fun?
And, she can sit up! She is very very steady now, and can happily sit and play with (chew on) toys for half an hour or more! Yeah! Here she is holding her white rat, which Eliana is convinced is a hamster. "It's a hamster Daddy!"