Potty Pooper

This week has turned out to be HUGE for our little family!

After yesterday's huge milestone,

we thought we were good for a while,

but Piper proved us wrong.

Our big girl pooped in the potty this morning!

Hooray!

This may be a premature celebration,

as she may not do this again for another month,

but we are so proud all the same!

xo

xo

Making sure she had everything she needed
for what we both anticipated to be a very long wait.
But it wasn't at all.

Very proud of herself for being such a big girl!
As soon as the deed was done
she excitedly announced her success
and asked for a jellybean! :-)

Waaa... I want to poop in the potty too!

Rice Rice Baby

Today was a big day in the Lynch household!

Our little pork chop is one day closer 

to being able to eat a pork chop of her very own.

Elliotte had her first taste of rice cereal today.

She is a thinker

and likes to process things that are happening around her

before she responds.

And that's exactly what she did today.

She watched me make the cereal.

She watched the spoon coming towards her.

She watched me put it in her mouth.

Then she thought for a little while.

Then she stuck out her tongue, 

pushing the cereal back out.

I pushed it back in...

and voila!

Little one decided that she liked it!

She ate the whole bowl!

It was a very opposite reaction from Piper's first solids,

where she had such little interest 

that we ended up giving up and waiting for a few more weeks before trying her again.

Piper STILL doesn't have a lot of interest in food.

She's not a picky eater,

just has little interest in chowing down.

I believe that Elliotte may be our little eater!

xo

xo

Little One sees it coming...

... and starts the thinking process while the spoon is still in her mouth!

After deciding that cereal is awesome,
she opened her mouth right away for the food!

Pretty happy to be big enough for cereal now!

Piper is very proud of her little sister.
Here she is showing us that Elliotte is "this big".

And showing us that she loves her little sister
"this much"!

Goody Two Shoes

I mentioned a couple of days ago

that I bought two "new" (aka second-hand) pairs of shoes for Elliotte.

Just by fluke,

one of the pairs is very similar to a pair that I recently bought for Piper,

which she absolutely refused to put on. 

Until yesterday.

When I showed her that her new sandals matched Elliotte's.

Apparently this makes them worth wearing.

Kids!

xo

xo

Both girls admiring their new white sandals with colorful flowers on them!

Elliotte REALLY liks hers!

Piper showing off hers with her new dress that was sent to her
all the way from Australia!
(Thank you Brendan, Susan, Arlo and Flinn!)

Elliotte's second new pair of shoes,
which Mommy is in LOVE with!

Soon Miss E will have these little shoes worn out from running around!

Tomatoes for Two

When "Nayson" came to visit, 

his grandma gave him two tomato plants

to give to Piper and Elliotte.

He was very pleased with himself.

I was horrified.

The poor little guy had no idea

that he was bringing these beautiful plants to their doom!

I do NOT have a green thumb,

so this was going to be a challenge.

Piper and I have been trying our best to take 

extra good care of our plants.

I water them before I feed my kids in the morning

(great parenting I know)

and I hide them in the corner of the patio when it's windy.

Piper likes to water them 

FREQUENTLY

when she's outside playing with her water table,

but best of all,

she talks to them and sings to them often.

We are determined to make these things grow!!!!

Today we decided to transplant them into bigger and nicer 'homes'

with some new soil.

I even bought fancy self-watering pots to help these poor plants out.

I thought Piper would be all over this,

but she was disgusted by the dirt. 

lol.

She wanted no part of touching it,

so I was on my own until they needed to be watered. 

After I took so much care transplanting them

and Piper carefully watered them,

I brought Elliotte outside 

so that I could get a photo of each of my girls with their plants. 

We took this photo about 2 seconds before Elliotte's little hand clamped down on one

and we could't get her to let go.

Mark and I were trying everything to get her fingers open,

while Piper watched completely fascinated.

Needless to say,

the plant on the right is now sporting a few less leaves. 

(Blushing!)

Fingers crossed that we will be picking some ripe tomatoes soon!

xo

xo

Tiny tomato growers!
(Elliotte was a little too eager to pick hers!)

Five months - Five months

Holy smokes.

I cannot believe that our baby girl

is five months old already. 

That's almost half a year!

How is that even possible?

Where are the logistics in how time speeds up

once you have children?

Did we do anything fun to celebrate Elliotte's milestone?

Not so much.

Their mother attempted to run another 5 km race this morning,

but it didn't go as well as last month.

I do have a few valid excuses though!

1. I'm fighting a cold along with a bad cough.

2. I was woken at midnight when Daddy came home from work.

3. I was woken at 4 am when Piper's new molar was giving her grief.

4. I was woken at 6:30 when Elliotte was hungry.

5. After all of that, I made it to the race on time,

but pulled my groin muscle somewhere between kilometer 2 and 3. UGH!

So, no. 

It was not a pretty run this time around. 

Oh well.

Perhaps next time.

Elliotte did get two new pairs of pretty shoes today though!

Second-hand 'new', 

but adorable all the same.

And Piper got a Happy Meal...

so overall,

everyone went to bed content tonight.

Now it's my turn.

Good night!

xo

xo

Little Miss Piper when she was five months old.

And now her little sister at 5 months old.
I can't believe how much bigger Elliotte is,
but they do look similar!

Who do you think she is looking at here?

I'll bet most of you would have guessed wrong and said Piper!
Elliotte loves Blue and he loves to lick her toes.
But watch out Blue!
Elliotte's little hands have a death grip
and you do NOT want her to grab your fur!

The Roll Over

The days are flying by in the Lynch household,

as our girls are very busy growing up.

We now hear Piper exclaim,

"I can do it all by myself"

multiple times a day.

We love that she's becoming so independent,

but boy can she ever be stubborn about it.

I wonder where she gets that?

(Avoiding eye contact here!)

Little Miss Elliotte is an equally determined independence seeker.

She amazes us everyday with the new 'tricks' that she is learning.

Just last week it seemed as if she was just realizing that she had hands.

Now grasping an object and sticking it into her mouth

is easy peasy!

Watching these two grow is so much fun!

And they say that it just gets better and better.

How is that even possible?

xo

xo

Our big girl is excited for Arts and Crafts time now.
Here is the octopus that she made using pipe cleaners and my colander.

And a bed that she made for Boots using an old tissue box.

Elliotte looks a little surprised here.
I wonder why???

It's because this is how I laid her down on her mat.
I'm not sure who was more shocked that she rolled over onto her belly already,
me or her!!!!
She has been able to do the belly to back roll since she was about 6 or 7 weeks old,
but this is the hard one.
We're so proud of you baby girl!!!!!

Jumping Green Thumb

With little Miss Elliotte growing so quickly,

she is getting into trouble more quickly.

She now fully understands that she has hands,

where they are and what they can do.

It makes things more interesting, 

that's for sure!!

For example,

you can imagine how well things go

when Elliotte's little hands grab onto Piper's lovely hair

and won't let go.

(She has a death grip!!)

Yeah.

Those are good times.

I'm sure it will get more interesting in years to come

when they are pulling each other's hair on purpose,

but for now I'll settle for a random innocent meltdown!

To keep Elliotte entertained,

she rotates between the bumbo chair,

the bouncy chair, the tummy time mat, the swing and the jumperoo.

If she is in the bumbo,

Piper will ask me to take her out so that she can have a turn.

If she is in the bouncy chair,

Piper will ask me to take her out so that Boots can have a turn.

If she is on the tummy time mat,

Piper will ask me to move her over so that she can lie next to her.

If she is in the swing,

Piper will ask me to take her out just to make me mad.

(It's here that Elliotte likes to nap and Piper likes to wake her.)

If she is in the jumperoo,

Piper will JUMP all around her!

THIS is my favorite by far!

Just be sure to have the jumperoo 

located somewhere out of reaching distance of anything.

Last night I caught Elliotte trying to eat a house plant.

She didn't get a love of plants from me.

She must have inherited her little green thumb 

from her Nanny Lynch!

xo

xo

The face I usually get when I first place her in here.

The face I get once she realizes what she can do! 

Spinning toys, flashing lights and music...
yet all she wants is the silly plant behind her. 

And the last shot before I drop the camera and run
as I realize she's trying to eat the plant!!!!
(Shocker, hey! Little pork chop!!)

Big sister showing Little sister how to use the toys.

And with the absence of a video,
here are a few action jump shots.

She doesn't do anything half-assed!

And I think we can all agree that jumping is a lot of fun!!!

Two for Two

I'm sending Piper out to buy a lottery ticket first thing tomorrow morning!

So far my two year old has entered two contests...

and WON two contests!!

Okay, 

so to be fair, 

I think everyone who entered the coloring contest at Home Hardware won.

But it still counts as a win, right?!?!

The Napkin Man contest is much more of a triumph! 

If you go onto the CBC Kids' Facebook page and view all of the entries,

you will see that they have received well over 1500 entries.

And since they only show a handful of the entries once a week,

we know that not everyone was chosen.

That means that Piper legitimately won. 

Hahaha. 

This is so darn cute!

What a lucky kid.

We're packing our bags and heading to Vegas baby!!!

I guess for us it would be more appropriate to say,

"We're packing the diaper bag and heading to Vegas WITH a baby!"

Whatever works!

Ha.

If you would like to see Piper's drawing of Napkin Man on TV,

I will post a copy of the email that I received from CBC Kids

that has the information included. 

Hi there,

The time has come, and your child's Napkin Man Napkin is about to appear on Kids' CBC!

Be sure to watch Kids' CBC:

Friday, July 25th, before The Adventures of Napkin Man at approximately 9:28 a.m.

***We are unable to make copies of your personal announcement so be sure to set your VCR/PVR and record it so you can watch it whenever you want!***

Have a fantastic day!
Kids' CBC

xo

xo

Our little good luck charm being silly and wearing her sunhat. 

And being even sillier when she decided to put it on her baby sister.

Another silly goose in the making!

Just a reminder of Piper's Napkin Man drawing...

... and another example of her coloring skills.
I'm not exactly sure what to say about this one.
I look at it and think demons.
My friends suggested that Hansel may have some special 'herbs' in that bag
that are making his eyes bloodshot. lol

Post-Piper's Princess Parlor

This is a follow-up post to the one I posted yesterday.

After Piper finished styling her little sister's hair,

I tried to get a photo of the two of them together.

Easier said than done.

xo

xo

In order to get this semi-great photo of my two princesses...

... I had to deal with a whole lot of THIS first.
And yes. She's only wearing one sock.
I have no idea why.

Piper's Princess Parlor

Elliotte is four months old

and I'm already having to brush her hair away from her eyes. 

I decided to try to put a little clip in it to keep it tidy.

It looked super cute,

but I realized that the back of her hair was sticking straight up.

(That's what happens when you spend half the day sleeping!)

I figured a little spa treatment might be in order for the little one

and enlisted the help of her big sister.

A little water and some serious styling later,

she looked quite glamorous..

Elliotte thought so anyway!

xo

xo

Our little Alfalfa.

Piper is very serious about this whole idea!
I can already see a future of Piper french-braiding Elliotte's hair!

Looks like little one is enjoying herself!

What do you think of my new do??
(I picture her saying this in a very grand voice
and then tipping over in giggles!)

Giddy Up Aunt Kiss-ta

Piper love Fisher Price Little People,

which I love because they were my favorite things to play with as a little girl!

She has lovingly named most of the ones that she has,

and will correct you if you happen to call one by the wrong name.

Not surprisingly,

the little one with the brown curly hair is called "Aunt Kissta".

Well Aunt Kissta,

I hope you still like horseback riding

because Piper took you for a ride this week!!

xo

xo

Giddy-up Aunt Kissta!
Needless to say, as soon as Piper rocked Butterscotch,
Aunt Kissta took quite a tumble! 

Elliotte is the only one that is allowed to play with toys at the supper table,
since she's not allowed to eat yet.
Either playing was exhausting,
or our dinner conversation was incredibly dull!
At least Sophie was getting some love!

A Whole New Level of Stinky Feet

Guess who found her toes last week?!?!?!

Exciting right?

Sort of.

It is adorable to see a baby play with his/her toes.

And I really was excited to watch Elliotte find hers...

until I changed the next poo diaper.

Elliotte is a squirmy baby 

who likes to kick.

A lot.

So during a diaper change,

if you're not quick enough,

she will kick her feet into her poop.

And since she now likes to play with her toes

you have to be twice as quick!

Well I wasn't with that first diaper change after the toe discovery.

No. I. Wasn't.

I opened up the diaper while holding onto her feet.

I reached for a wipe.

She kicked one foot free.

That foot goes into the poop.

I grab for the poop covered foot.

The other foot gets free.

You know where it went.

I grab for the second foot.

So does Elliotte.

Now we have two poop covered feet and one poop covered hand.

I drop both poop covered feet to grab for the poop covered hand 

in a desperate attempt to prevent a poop covered mouth!

That was my ONLY success.

There was poop everywhere,

but not in her mouth.

Thank.God!

xo

xo

I love to play with my toes!!

Don't believe my mom when she says I caused a poop disaster!
A face this cute would never do something like that!

Piper has become a fan of the kids show "Napkin Man".
They're having a contest where you send in your own drawing of Napkin Man
and you can win a cape.

Let's hope Piper wins!!

Here's what he really looks like.
I think Piper captured him pretty well in her drawing! ;-)