Vacation

Last weekend Craig and I took the kids to go see my mom and her husband John at their house. This was the first time we've gone anywhere this summer and so we tried to live it up as much as possible as it may well be the only summer vacation we get. Well, at least Craig did. I was excited though, as was my mom, because I think that the kids are really going to enjoy going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bardeen as they get older. The second Chloe stepped in the door she was comfortable and happy and completely herself, which she rarely does outside of our house. The first night we just had dinner outside in the backyard and decided that we would take a quick evening dip in their lap-pool in the backyard before bedtime with Chloe. This was the first time Chloe had really been in a pool since last summer and much to our dismay, she hated it. She screamed in terror when we were in the pool with her and when we were out and tried to slowly coax her back in, she would just say "NO!" and walk away as quickly as she could. We thought maybe she was just tired, so we put her to bed and thought to try it again the next morning. We spent the rest of the night visiting (my brother Addison was there for the night too, so it was good to catch up with him) and then we watched a movie downstairs on their big projector- John set up a sweet little theatre down there with leather couches and cupholders and everything. Craig was excited about that. The next morning I went to the store to get breakfast with my mom while Craig hung out in the backyard playing with Chloe and Linus slept in.


After breakfast we all took a walk down to Washington park, which is a few blocks from their house. There was a neat little playground there near the lake and Chloe had a ball with Daddy playing on it.

After the park, it was time for another attempt at the pool. We all got ready and came outside to enjoy the sun. Linus came out for a little bit too to play with Grandma and Grandpa.
I just bought this swimming suit for her near the beginning of the summer- I should have known better- good thing I bought the bigger size instead of the smaller one because she was a bit snug in this one. She was still dang cute in it. :-)
Obviously the second attempt at getting her in the pool was no better than the first. She just really did not enjoy it, so we let her just play around the pool a bit before she ate lunch and then went down for a nice LONG nap- all that pool time sure wore her out.
After we put Chloe down, Craig decided to try and see how many different ways he could jump on all the pool toys in the pool. His favorite game was to attempt to land on them without flipping over. Here he is doing a belly flop on the inner tube.

It was so nice to be out in the sun and playing with the kids and was a much welcomed break for Mommy and Daddy, even if it was only for a night. We already planned the next time we'll come down before school starts for the both of us and are eagerly looking forward to it.

The Joys of Parenting

Big news in the Ellingson family!

First of all, Chloe is FINALLY starting to talk! It is the cutest darn thing you'll ever hear (yes, I'm partial, I know). So far we can adequately understand a few things such as "Gackie" (Cookie), "Hoo-wassat?" (What's that?), "Shoo-shoo" (shoes), and "NO!" (too bad that one has to be the most distinct...). She's getting much better at mimicking words as well and loves to go around our room and point at things while I tell her what they are, and then she attempts to repeat me. She babbles like crazy now, especially in the car, except she has to do it at the top of her lungs so Craig and I can barely get a conversation in sometimes. And she just understands a lot more so I can tell her something and she knows what I'm asking (whether or not she does it is another matter altogether...). It's crazy how fast it happens, and I'm sure in another couple of weeks she'll be that much better at it.

Secondly, Craig caught this on camera the other day:

That's right, boys and girls, we officially have another smiling baby in the house. He's so cute when he does it because he's usually cooing a lot right before, which Chloe didn't really do until she was about 6 months old. And we weighed him the other day and he's about 14lbs already! I couldn't believe it- he's definetly a little chunker, just like his sister. That's okay, though, we like chunky babies.

Also just had to add this photo- Chloe LOVES to give Linus kisses, even full on the mouth kisses like this one. She won't go to bed unless she can give him a kiss, which is adorable. We still have to remind her that she's not old enough to burp him (she seems to think that smacking him on the face will help), but at least that's the worst of it so far. I go to bed every night thinking I'm the luckiest mom in the world to have such great kids!