Kallie turned 2!!!

 Eliana's cousin Kallie turns two tomorrow, but we were able to celebrate her birthday over the weekend!

Eliana was initally not so sure about this saucer swing, but Kyle and Rachel got her to giggling!

Eliana LOVES slides.  Even though the steps are far apart, she climbed up the steps and was ready to slide.  Before, Kallie always wanted help up.  But she figured if her cousin is a climber, she could try it too!  Hopefully Eliana's lack of fear when it comes to heights won't totally rub off on Kallie. 

 

The paparatzzi, aka Kallie's Grandma Jan and Rachel :)

I'm so glad that Kallie liked her cake this year!  She wasn't too fond of it last year.  The chocolate chips in the cake were very yummy!!!

Kallie has learned to pose and say, "Cheese!"  It was quite cute!

Aimee has such a way with cupcakes!  You can check out her blog here.

 

Kallie has become a pro at opening gifts.  It is amazing how much little ones grow in a year.  Last year she wasn't too excited to open all of her gifts.  This year she did it at lighting speed!  

 It is hard living two hours away from a lot of our family.  Troy and Kyle ran some errands a couple hours after the party.  It was such a treat for me to see Kallie and Aimee and for Kyle to have some brother time.

Kallie is holding a toy dog that Eliana thought was hysterical.  Both girls laughed and laughed as the dog rolled around on the table and fell off the table.  Awe, such sweet memories!

Thankful for Pumpkins

Growing up I hated pumpkin pie.  Why have pumpkin when you can have berry pie?  Some time in the last few years I've tried pumpkin again and found I like it!  Although, truth be told.  I'll take a berry pie over pumpkin any day:)

My friend Michele shared with me two great tips.  One, pick up pumpkins at the 99 Cent Store!  Second, cooking them doesn't have to be a big deal.  Cut the pumpkin in half.  You can scoop out the seeds then or after the cooking.  Place them face down on a pan and cook at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours.  It is okay for the skin to bubble and brown.  Let the pumpkin cool.  Scoop out the flesh and let is sit in a strainer.  Push the water out with hand or spoon.  Let it set for several hours to get the water out.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins were delicious!!!  You can check out the recipe here.  I recently bought wheat flour.  I used half white flour and half wheat flour for this recipe.  I didn't have cloves, so I used more cinnamon.   I shared them with my family over the weekend, and they enjoyed them!

Pumpkin Pancakes 

 Again, I didn't have any white flour.  Since I haven't made them with the white flour I can't compare, but I LOVED these.  Kyle's early morning response to the first bite was, "These rock!"  That means they are really good since he normally doesn't talk in the morning.  You can find the recipe here.  As with the muffin recipe, I replaced the cloves with cinnamon.  I don't care for ginger, so I didn't add that.  These are really filling pancakes.  Next time I might make them a little smaller.  

Happy Halloween

Any guesses as to who got Eliana her Halloween costume???

Fall Fun

My favorite part of fall is coming soon!  I LOVE when the leaves change colors, especially when they turn red!!!

Eliana watched this butterfly flutter by.  She's been having me read Flutter Fly! a lot lately.  Thanks GramE for the book!!!

Some weeds just look cool to me.  I wouldn't want to rub up against it, but Eliana and I inspected this one for a little while.

 I have know idea why this fungus turned yellow and orange, but isn't it pretty!  It gives me hope that soon more leaves will be turning colors.

It is hard to tell it is late October when we still dress like this.  I don't really mind though since it is currently in the 70s.  That is nice outdoor weather!!!

Yikes!  I'm grateful for zoom!  This spider is bigger than a half dollar.  I spotted him on the way to get the mail a few days ago.  I double checked today, and he is still there!  Eliana's favorite part of walking to get the mail is checking a few windows for cats.  She knows which ones to wait by and call out, "Cat, cat, cat!"

Remember all of that noise I was mentioning a few posts ago?  I wasn't kidding!  This is Eliana before dinner. She is rather loud from about 4:30 to dinner near 5.  She hasn't matured in any form of quietly, patiently waiting for food.  

I tried a new homemade pizza crust recipe.  I liked it better than the boxed one I used a few weeks back.  Most kids wouldn't refuse to eat pizza, but Eliana wasn't thrilled.  Thankfully, Kyle told me that he loved it!  That helped since we'd endured quite the scream fest from Eliana during dinner.  I have to remind myself that this is a phase.  I've been getting pretty creative this week about helping Eliana to eat.  I put strawberries in her oatmeal, and that worked out pretty well.  She wanted some of my sandwich rather than finishing her food (including peas), so I put a pea in my sandwich and gave her that bite.  I wouldn't like peas in my sandwich, but it worked time and time again for her.  Tonight we had a yummy black bean and sausage soup.  Eliana wasn't interested until I cut up bananas and put it on top of hers.  Then amazingly both banana and beans went into her belly.  Eliana just had the soup ingredients minus the broth.  She hasn't mastered how to use a spoon. Would I like bananas in my soup?  No way, but it is working to get Eliana to eat.  

Eliana loves to play outside.  We got some good outside time in yesterday.  I brought her ball with me.  I stood on a little hill and let the ball roll down the hill to her.  She thought that was fabulous.  She'd then go get the ball and bring it part way up the hill to me.  Eventually, she got brave and climbed up the hill.  The first time was okay because she took tiny steps to get back down.  The second time wasn't so good because she tried to take regular steps which made her go fast and scared her.  So, she stopped, cried, and tried to get to me.  I'm so thankful that she is learning so many new things.  I'm so grateful that a ball rolling down a hill brings her such pleasure.

Eliana knows where her nose, head, ears, and belly are.  She's also figured out where her toes and mouth are, but that isn't part of the video.

Eliana is 16 Months Old!!!

First and foremost, I want to share that Eliana's lunch time with me was delightful!  Awe, what a difference compared to last night's dinner!!!  She gladly ate her apple slices, bread, and lunch meat.  She willingly drank her milk.  She then went down for her nap without a problem. 

We've been busy this month, so let me catch you up on Eliana's 15th month.

Eliana loves spotting cats!  She thinks they are hilarious!

 One of the blessings of living in an apartment is that when the refrigerator breaks, someone else pays to get it replaced.  We needed a container quickly to move the food into while the new one was being plugged in.  Kyle dumped Eliana's book box so that we could use the tub.  She didn't mind a bit and planted herself among her treasures.  I realized yesterday that Eliana knows how to hold books right side up.  There was a season where she just chewed on them.  Then she'd look at the pictures, but it didn't matter if they were upside down.  Now for the most part, if she opens a book upside down, she'll fix it!  I'm amazed at what my wee one knows how to do.  We spend a lot of time reading together.  It is really one of the few times she sits still any more.  She loves to be read to, and I LOVE that about her.  She has her favorite books.  There are a couple that I don't even have to read the words anymore, but simply looking at the pictures lets me know what I need to say.

Eliana loves to do as we do, so putting on her dad's splint made perfect sense to her.  Kyle and Eliana wore beanies for one of the few cool days in October.  It is pleasantly in the 70s this week.  

Thanks Katherine for the jean jacket!

I love this picture.  It encompasses so much of Eliana's personality.  One, she is off exploring about on her own.  Two, I'm close behind making sure she is okay.  Three, she doesn't always walk with her hands up, but it cracks me up when she does!  Four, it reminds me of the Peanuts Gang.

 

Eliana loves to go down the slide.  She also enjoys trying to climb up the slide too!

Faith, Zoe, Eliana, and I enjoyed going to the zoo together!  They were looking at the elephant exhibit in the above pictures.

 Check out the camel's eye lashes!  Awe, and a flamingo for GramE!

 I wish I could say that Eliana was delightful for our pumpkin patch excursion, but that would be a lie.  She cried most of the 40 minute drive there.  Eliana was difficult with Kyle during part of the story time.  She cried for most of the time I carried her through Timothy the rabbit's neighborhood.  She screamed like her life depended on it for most of the 40 minutes we drove home.  On the flip side, she learned to draw in the dirt with a stick, and she has been practicing since then when we go on walks.  I'll be making pumpkin something soon with the pumpkin we got.  Also, our friend captured some of the few happy moments Eliana had on his camera.  You can compare how big she has gotten by looking at the post from last time we were at the Hillcrest Pumpkin Patch.  I remember that she cried the way there last time too.  I think the difference was that she was okay while there for the most part.

Don't you just love the bows on her socks?  Eliana loves to walk, explore, and discover new things.

She loved to show me the pine cone leftovers from a squirrel she found.  Pine cones are some of her favorite things to find as we walk.  

Eliana is learning where things go.  We can tell her to put her shoes away, and she will take them and put them in her desk drawer with her other shoes.  She can do it all by herself without us having to follow and make sure.  She figured out that leaves are connected to trees.  So notice the yellow leaf?  In her mind, it isn't where it is supposed to go.

 So she took it to a near by bush to put it back!  HA!  I love our little girl!!!

Below are pictures from last October.  

 She has grown so much in a year.  My how time flies.  Last year at this time she woke up multiple times in the night to be fed.  She loved to be rocked to sleep.  She didn't know how to roll, crawl, or walk.  She was so little.  She took multiple naps.  She didn't have teeth yet, nor had she had anything other than mommy milk.  Each phase has it's blessings, and I'm trying to focus on them before the change.  And when things are rough, I remember that they too are a phase.