Curls!

We tried putting curlers in Ellie's hair for the first time last night, something I remember doing myself on many-a-Saturday-night during my childhood. The result: pretty little ringlets for Sunday morning church!

Ellie was so pleased and looked so lovely. Of course, she went outside to play during "children's church" and the humidity took their tragic toll on those curly locks, but for about an hour, she had the "Merida hair" of her dreams!

Spring Sweethearts

When Ellie's school did spring portraits a couple of months ago, I took E.J. in for some sibling pictures. The photographer was an absolute gem in terms of getting all the kids to smile—I watched him for some time before our turn came, and every single kid he photographed laughed out loud. 

I'm grateful for his magical silliness, because thanks to him, I have this sweet portrait of my babies sitting on my mantle now:

I know I'm biased, but aren't they darling?!

Brown Eyes

I love this photo of E.J. peeking out while I was wearing him last night. Those sweet brown eyes...I can't resist.

I'm Here! I'm Here!

Well, would you look at that: here I made my triumphant return to blogging a month ago, and then went dark again. Ha!

I've had things I'd like to share, but I've been keeping myself quite busy with preparations for Ellie's fourth birthday party coming up this weekend. True, she won't actually be four until the end of March, but my sister is leaving again for Japan a week from tomorrow (let's not speak of it), so we decided to have Ellie's party early this year so Aunt Heather could make it. She has never been able to come to any of the kids' birthday parties because of show schedules/non-U.S.-residence, so this will be a treat!

In addition, our February fun was marred by a stomach virus that very slowly but surely made its way through our entire family, thwarting most of our fun Valentine's Day plans and proving that romance at eight-years-married-with-two-kids means cleaning the vomit out of the couch and picking up some Outback Steakhouse to-go when the sicklings are finally to bed. My Valentine is the best!

So that's where we've been. I'm excited for Ellie's party and will definitely be sharing all of that with you, as per usual, and then doing some further catch-up posts soon enough. We have lots of fun things coming up for the remainder of the spring, too! Finally, our barren January and February are coming to an end and our calendar will once again be filled with fun social engagements.

In the meantime, I'd like to just share this picture I've had in mind to post for months now. Heather snapped it while she was visiting back in November, and it has quickly become one of my favorites of me with my babies. It was just a sweet, candid, snuggly moment and I'm so happy Heather caught it for us. Given all that has been going on in our household for the last month, we've been sharing lots of cuddles like this.

Enjoy the rest of your February, friends!

Ellie Kitty

Doesn't this little kitty have the prettiest blue eyes?

Brown-Eyed Boy

I snapped this picture with my phone while E.J. and I were at the zoo together, and I just love how it shows off those sweet brown eyes of his.

Such a handsome little man! Just like his daddy.

The Best Big Sister

Somehow this photo managed to slip through the cracks in all my St. Pete visit recapping. I snapped this on the drive down our first weekend. E.J. was crying in the backseat, so Ellie reached over and held his hand. He calmed down immediately and they were laughing together moments later.

That boy sure is lucky to have such a great big sister!

Little Bird

My little Ellie bird, flying along Venice Beach.

Our Growing Beach Babe

I was looking through pictures the other day and our Mother's Day beach pictures caught my attention because Ellie just looked so grown up. I couldn't help but go back and make a little collage of Ellie pictures, all taken on Jacksonville beach since we've moved here:

Left: Ellie at the beach just after we moved here, in August 2013 (16  months old).

Middle: Ellie at the beach right before E.J. was born, in June 2014 (nearly 27 months old)

Right: Ellie at the beach this past Mother's Day, 2015 (3 years old)

Can you believe how she's changed? I still feel like we only just recently moved to Jacksonville, but as I type this Eric is at his school's graduation—the second that has taken place since he started teaching. Last Friday he attended his own "graduation," or rather, his "alumni induction" for Teach for America. Somehow, we are already at the end of Eric's two-year teaching commitment. We will have lived in Jacksonville for two years as of this summer. So, it's no wonder my baby girl has grown from a wobbly little baby into a toddler into a kid in that time. It's just funny to stop for a moment and let yourself see it happening right before your eyes.

Black & White Ellie

In sorting through pictures on my computer this week, I came across this one of Ellie again, and it is one of my new favorites so I've been meaning to share it. This was taken at Treaty Oak at the end of April.

She's growing up so fast, isn't she?

Sweet Ellie

Eric took this portrait of Ellie on the swings at our favorite park back in early March, and somehow I never got around to sharing it. It slipped my mind until I was going through my pictures to put together my "March Catch-Up" post, but I didn't want to lump it in there, because it is one of my most favorite Ellie portraits.

This is my girl, at three years old, happily swinging at her favorite playground. Isn't she perfect?

Mr. Chomp

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a tooth! E.J.'s first tooth officially popped through his gums a little over a week ago, at 9.5 months old. Ellie was eight months old when she got her first teeth (she did two at once, at the same time she started crawling, on literally the very day that we FLEW ON A PLANE TO MOVE TO FLORIDA, because she likes to really keep things interesting) so E.J. was a bit slower on the uptake here, but that's quite alright with me. Ever since I noticed the tell-tale little sore on his gum I have been mourning the impending loss of his precious, gummy, trademark E.J. grin.

Sadly, you won't find said grin in this post, because not only is that pesky tooth making his adorable gumminess a thing of the past, but the only way I could grab a good picture of it thus far is to snap it while he's crying. So I give you a very sad baby who is actually much less offended by this tooth than it seems.

His mother, on the other hand, will just be over here crying about how fast he's growing up. Don't mind me.

Pretty Pianist

My sweet ballerina princess Ellie at the piano at my dad's house last month:

My Brown-Eyed Boy

He has the sweetest little face.

From E.J. With Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

My littlest Valentine decided to handle the spreading of love and cheer this holiday:

Meanwhile, I'm just over here pretending that we're not really barreling on through all his first holidays at a far-too-rapid-for-my-taste pace.

Hope you all are having a love-filled day!

Sweet Little Face

We attempted some solid foods this week with E.J., and I must say...it has not been going particularly well. This is a kid who will put just about anything in his mouth—I mean, he will go back for second and third helpings of Daddy's running shoes, if we let him—but heaven forbid you try to give him some pureed sweet potato on a spoon. He'll clamp that little mouth shut and that sweet potato can just go right back where it came from, thank you very much.

But, although the solid-food-eating has not been successful, the photography has been. In fact, I managed to snap another one of my favorite E.J. pictures to date the other morning, while he was still smiling sweetly at me and not yet flinging mushy vegetables all over my dining room. Just look at this little guy:

He sure does have the face of a little angel, doesn't he?

Mama Kissing Santa Claus!

Eric captured this precious moment for E.J. and me at the St. Augustine Christmas Parade yesterday, and it immediately became one of my most favorite pictures of me with my baby boy.

How can you resist that face?

E.J.'s Eyes

Since he was born, I have been saying that E.J. has "dark" eyes. I have been hesitant to assign a color to them because they have seemed to change day-to-day, or even moment-to-moment as the light changes. They certainly were never baby blue like his sister's, though sometimes they looked like maybe there was a hint of deep blue in there. Sometimes I see flecks of green, sometimes they look grey, and lately I've been seeing more and more of his father's handsome brown in those sweet baby eyes.

We feel fairly confident that ultimately, he'll end up with brown eyes like his daddy, but in the meantime, I have been trying desperately to capture those eyes as they are now accurately in a photograph. This one is the closest I've come so far.

Handsome little fellow, isn't he?

Ellie Couture

One of our great sources of smiles these days is watching Ellie dress herself up. For the most part, we're pretty willing to indulge her fashion choices, even on days when we leave the house, because, why not? Unless I have something specific she needs to wear or something she's chosen is too impractical, why not let the girl have some say in her outfits?

The result, of course, is a little girl who looks so very TODDLER so much of the time. The best results come during playtime. This one is far and away my reigning favorite:

She's a patriotic superhero Cinderella fairy in a leather jacket. Obviously.

We've been having so much fun documenting Ellie's fashion choices that I couldn't help but start a little fashion blog for her. It's an ongoing work in progress, and who knows how long I'll keep it going because the absolute last thing I need in my life right now is a new project, but hey, let's just see. I just love Ellie's creativity and imagination and I love the way it's reflected in her clothes right now. I love that she's young and innocent enough to still be fearless and just wear whatever makes her feel happy. May she keep that mindset her whole life!

If you'd like to see more of Ellie's style, check it out: Ellie Couture. Enjoy!

My Fuzzy Little Guy

Shout-out to all the other toddler moms who know what the title of this blog post is quoting!

My struggles with Ellie's hair have been well-documented. She was one bald little baby for a very long time, and I was forced to put barrettes and bows on hold for months upon months in favor of headbands, to the extent she would allow it. I dealt with regular comments about my cute little "boy," despite the very clearly girly clothes she was wearing. Now her hair is finally growing in, so much so that she probably needs a trim to even things up, but I can't bring myself to cut it, because DUDE. We waited two and a half years for this hair! I may not cut it until she sits on it.

I always joked that it would be just my luck to have a baldy daughter, but my son would have enough hair for a barrette straight out of the womb. Then E.J. was born and hey, guess what? TRUE STORY.

E.J.'s hair has thinned a little since birth, and I suppose in the grand scheme of hair it's a bit sparse, but he still has lots more than his sister did at this age. But that's not even the awesome part about what's atop his sweet little head. The awesome part is that it is the softest, fuzziest stuff AND IT STICKS STRAIGHT UP.

Honestly. Would you get a load of that fuzz?!?! I can hardly stand it. And not only does it look adorable, it is so soft that I have totally busted my husband for rubbing his face in the baby's hair. I don't judge, because I get it. It's just so soft and fluffy. How do you resist?

I sure do love that fuzzy little guy (and his formerly bald sister, too)!