Elouise at 3 months

  

She's biting her lower lip, smiling, shaking her limbs all about, chewing on anything fleshy, and drooling. Could you tell? I love this little beauty and all her personality.  She is a doll of a lady baby.  Not only because she lets me dress her up however I like, but now that I mention it, she does tolerate my style picks really well. I can't wait to see how she dresses herself, and I hope she's as stubborn as I was (ahem, am) about it.

Back to this lady business.  I really have no idea where she is getting lady-like ideas from, certainly not me, so my only explanation is that it's springing from somewhere down deep. She crosses her ankles when she sits or lays around.  She clasps her hands together sweetly. When she has a need, she calls softly with a throaty half-moan, half-grunt, sprinkled with a delicate whine; something like the alluring hoot of an owl. She's patient with me and with Sawyer. She responds politely to elicitations for her attention with a charming smile and coy head turn.  Really, I am amazed.  Maybe she's trying to teach me some lessons.....

In other Elouise updates, she rolls easily from her tummy to her back and is working on getting from her back to her tummy. She does the pilates 100 when she wants to sit up and get in on the action, which is like, always.  When we hold her, she must be able to see everything that's going on or she launches backwards or contorts her body around until all is in her sight. Apparently, she's a blossoming busybody. Oh and she loves to be tickled.  And chew and drool all over shoulders when she's falling asleep, leaving a big wet patch behind.  We call that the mark of Elouise.

Speaking of mark, this girl is quickly making imprints in our hearts and family. I say it all the time, but it sure is wonderful to have her here.

St. Patrick's Day Rainbows

  

 

Easiest. Family. Night. Craft. Ever.

All I had to do was sketch a wobbly rainbow bursting out of clouds, set out glue, cottonballs, and crayons, then sit back and watch the twins (did anyone else notice these mirror-images?!) get creative.  Sawyer was focused on making reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally fluffy clouds, the likes of which I have always wistfully imagined myself lounging in, and Jeff figured out how to color the rainbow with as little color as possible.  These two make quite the pair.

Grandparents' Weekend, aka Louie's Blessing

To celebrate our beautiful Lou, my parents, grandparents, and brother and sister-in-law courageously and lovingly loaded into the Ruby Jewel and drove all the way from dear old Ohio to be with us for Elouise's blessing weekend.  It took way too long to get here and felt like their stay wasn't nearly long enough, but that can blamed in large part on how excited we all were to be together.  We did manage to squeeze in a dinner with all the family, including the local crowd, and Sawyer happily invaded our visitors' hotel and claimed their space as his. Thanks for making the trip, my loves!

And a special thank you to Shane, for allowing Sawyer to dump crumbs all over your bed. I loved that. Because for once, it wasn't my pillow getting all the tidbits that missed their mark.

The Belle of the Ball

I knew from the first that I wanted a very specific gown for Elouise's blessing day. It had to be off-white, long, and covered in bits of lace, but not stuffy and overdone.  Finding a dress to fit the order was not easy, and after trying out a couple different avenues of approach, we finally bought a brand new dress that was too adorable to pass up.  But....it was glaringly white.  And every time I saw it hanging in her closet it mocked me with its uber brightness and I told myself that something had to be done.

Not that I have anything against white gowns. Its just that I wanted to give her an heirloom outfit, something with ties to my wedding dress and blessing gown so I could wrap her up in meaningful reminders of love. So with the help of my faithful and careful sister Robyn, we tea-stained Elouise's dress the night before her blessing.  Then I sewed her a headband of lace from our wedding and affixed the brooch from my wedding bouquet on her dress. I had another one of those "jewel" moments, holding my treasure as I waited for her blessing and hoping she could feel every little ray of love emanating from my heart.  The details weren't so much about how she would look, but more about expressing how much I have loved her- from before she was born, how I have waited for her place in our family that I didn't even know existed until she came, and now knowing we'd never become all we could be without her. I'm happy to do anything that shows her how much I love her, because I'm so happy to have my Elouise Lauren.

And now, queue the processional orchestra! All rise for the Belle of the Ball, the Personification of Perfection, the Exquisite Miss Elouise!

   

 

And now for a few outtakes: