Facing Your Fears

Keira has been afraid of the vacuum for most of her life. When she was a baby she didn't really mind it but as she got a little older she would scream bloody murder every time I vacuumed. I finally figured out it was best to vacuum when Rick was home because one of us could hold her, which would keep her semi-calm and the other could vacuum (the quicker, the better). We kept trying to explain that it couldn't hurt her, it was just loud, mom and dad were controlling it, nothing soothed her. It probably doesn't help that our dog is terrified of it also, and runs around the house and jumping all over the furniture while you vacuum.

Lately Keira has been getting better. She will usually just run in her room and bury herself in her bed while someone vacuums which is quite the improvement. I also let her put it away in the closet and this has helped. Today, I said I was going to vacuum and she asked if she could help. So I got it all set up and turned it on and she immediately bolted for her room. I kept asking if she still wanted to help but she wouldn't come out. I finally finished and was cleaning out the canister when she comes running out crying. We finally figured out that she wanted to help vacuum and was upset that I was putting it away. So I turned it on again and she bolted for the couch. I told her she needed to come help or else it was going away. She nervously climbed off the couch and took over. She vacuumed the whole hallway by herself and then helped put it away. She was so proud of herself and we are so proud of her!

By the way, Elaina is completely the opposite. She crawls (or now walks) up to the vacuum and smacks it and yells at it or tries to climb on and ride it. That girl is a daredevil.

Wiggly Girls

Here are some cute pictures of my girls together today. They are really trying to learn how to play together. Whenever I hear fighting or crying I will come in to talk to them and Keira will start shouting "Share! Share!" because she knows I am going to probably say something about needing to share. If she knows that is the answer why does she insist on ripping everything out of Elaina's hands? Children!

Need I say more about these two. I wish they would sit still so I could take pictures together! My mom is always complaining that she has no pictures of the two of them but who can get two little girls to sit still for one minute for a picture?

Here is comparison pictures again. They are about the same age in these pictures. Keira is a bit older but I couldn't find a good head shot of the exact same age. The top is Keira and the bottom is Elaina. They still look so much a like. I can't believe it. I was thinking that Elaina was starting to look a little different than Keira but now I am not so sure. They are too cute. I love my girls!

Elaina Loves to Eat

Or maybe it is "Elaina loves to eat at her grandma's house?" Eating must be dangerous because she decided she needed to wear her sister's bike helmet while she was eating yesterday. Too cute. The girls spend the night at my mom's Sunday so Rick and I could go to a friends wedding. They love to spend the night. They get baths (they would both live in the bath tub if I let them) and yummy breakfasts and they love to play with all of the cool toys that Grandma Marcia has.

We finally have pictures of Elaina enjoying her birthday muffin. I gave it to her in a whole piece but she figured out how to make it bite size quickly. This girl loves to eat and easily eats at least twice as much as her sister in a day. Must be going through a growth spurt or something.

Awesome News

Rick got the job! Yay, we are so excited. He has a long commute, 2 hours each way, but right now it is really worth it to us. We are hoping if things work out that maybe we can move up north in a year or two. We really want to be in the Puyallup area anyway, so this helps us reach that goal. Thanks to everyone for their prayers, words of encouragement, help with babysitting, or overall moral support during this fun period of our lives. Now if you live in the area just give me a week or so and I might be calling on you. I have a lot of catching up to do! No more Walmart!

Birthday Fun

We had Elaina's birthday party at my Mom and Dad's house on Saturday. We had hamburgers for dinner that my Dad cooked on the grill and had some cheesecake and ice cream for the adults and blueberry muffins for the birthday girl. Rick's camera died right before we got pictures of Elaina eating her muffin so my mom took those pictures so I guess those will be coming soon.

I am not really sure who was more excited about the presents, Keira or Elaina. As you can see from the first picture, it is a hard life when it is someone else's birthday and everyone keeps yelling at you for taking things away from her that look too fun. Elaina got this really cool, noisy sesame street toy from Grandma Inman and Keira and Elaina have been fighting over it ever since. Elaina also got some little kid crayons and Keira got one out of the package and snuck it to her during breakfast yesterday. Elaina had eaten part of it and drawn all over her high chair tray before we knew what had happened. Keira is such a good sister to make sure that Elaina gets to play with all of her new toys! Good thing crayon is easy to get off of most hard surfaces... I have lots of practice.

Overall it was a fun day and we are so excited to see what comes next in our little Elaina's life. As you can see, walking is next on her agenda.