She's Taken

While the big girls have swimming, the little ones play...

...make funny faces...

...and wrestle.

Piggies

The upside of a baby mullet is super cute piggies!

On a side note, we got a flash of Ella as a teenager the other night. Greg asked her to face him while he brushed her teeth, and she replied, "But Dad, then I have to look at your face!"

Little Fish

This summer is (or will be) the Summer-Ella-Learned-to-Swim~ Come hell or high water, that girl is going to swim on her own. Her first Oregon winter caused a major setback in her swimming skills, to the point that she cried everytime she got water in her eyes and clung to us in the water like a leach. Now, after 3 sessions of swim lessons and almost daily swims this month as a family (or atleast we 3 girls), she is finally making great progress! She will jump in the water to us, swim 8 feet or so back to the wall (even once taking a breath), float on her belly, float on her back, bob up and down while blowing nose bubbles, etc. Our next hurdle will be to get her to tolerate water in her eyes. She loves her goggles. I am so glad we tried them~ they have been the perfect tool to get her over the fear, but in order for us to feel like she is "pool safe," she needs to be able to swim without them.

And Quinn, in true Quinny style, loves the water. She has no fear, jumps in, goes under water, holds her breath, blows bubbles. Not a fan of the back float, but her comfort in the water makes teaching Ella so much easier.

Portraits

3 so far has been the year of "It's my prerogative" which also translates to "I will never smile for a camera, in fact, I think I will frown or make the ugliest face I possibly can." However, I caught her in an unusually good mood the other morning and got one halfway decent picture, and another super-cute picture, except for the baby puff between her teeth. I'll take what I can get...

And, in the spirit of striking while the iron is hot, I also lucked into a couple cute ones of Quinn in her adorable little outfit from Sarah:

15 Months

Our baby is not a baby anymore. She is race-walking, talking and playing like a toddler these days. Her time is spent pacing the house with no regard to where I am (even venturing outside on her own!!! scary) looking for trouble. Her favorite activities are playing in the dog bowls, the toilet and cabinets, climbing the stairs and slide, throwing all her pacis out of the crib at 5am forcing herself awake(followed by our routine: "Ella?" Ella's sleeping. "sssssshhhhh. Daddy?" Daddy's at work. "Mammmaaaaaaaa") , swimming both in our kiddie pool and the real pool (jumping in and holding her breath! another water baby in the making), putting objects inside containers, has stopped putting everything in her mouth, more like 50%, enjoys short books, mimics Ella, sings the "oh, oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh's" of Oh My God while bouncing her head in the car, loves her bottle, plays in the toy kitchen, yells "Dadddd-dddeee" when she hears the screen door open in the kitchen and goes running to see him, even if it isn't in fact him, and on and on. I guess she has a lot of favorites!

*Mama*Dada*Ella*More*Down*Doggie*Baby*Bye*Ball*Book*No*Go*Cracker*Shoe*Juice*

*Bottle*Nana*Hello*Paci*Waffle*Gone*Blueberry*Done*Two*Water*Cheese*

Two word strings: "Ella Juice" and "Bottle Gone"

Beauty Parlor

Remember calling it beauty parlor? Such a funny name...

Ella was the stylist.

Berry Picking

Little Miss wouldn't settle for sitting on the ground, or walking around. She insisted on sitting as close as possible to the berries...and eating as many as possible.

She also insisted on dumping everything else from the wagon, excepting her water.

Sparse blueberries

The girls waiting for me to pick just one more pint of strawberries

June Catch-up

Clearly I have been slacking on the blog-writing these days. So many things to document, and just haven't sat down to do it. I'm just going to post a link to our June 2010 album on Picasa for an update, and hope to improve for July and beyond!

Photos HERE

New Pool

We were ahead of the game this year and bought a decent kiddie pool back in early May. Hasn't gotten much use yet this summer, as we've probably had 5 days of sunny weather. But, when we have used it, the kids love it. Especially Quinn. No fear craziness in the water~ kicking, splashing, sliding, bubble blowing, walking, falling, etc. Ella spends most of her time sitting on top of the slide so Quinn can't. Still working on that sharing thing...

Four Steps

Standing...

Step One...(switch camera to video)...

Step 3, Step 4, Crash