All About E2!

In two days my little baby will be one year old. Whoa!

In celebration of this, and the fact that she survived life with E1 so far, here's a run down of facts about this amazing little girl:

-She has two teeth, FINALLY!
- She weighs about 19 pounds. Scratch that, weighed in at a whopping 17.5 pounds today. Where does all that food go??
- She took her first steps on 12/12 and has repeated the feat a few times, though she still much prefers to crawl or push the grocery cart
- She can say a myriad of words: dada, mama, yiya (E1), ba-ba (Simba... or any other animal we think),  and uh-oh which is hands down her favorite
- Her favorite food is cheese, though it's probably best to just leave it as she likes to eat. EVERYTHING
- While she lights up when mommy or daddy come into the room, the one who can really make her smile is E1. I am so so thankful for their relationship and pray they will care for and be friends with each other always.
- She loves looking at the Christmas tree. E1 often goads her into pulling ornaments off so that she can re-hang them. I foresee many interesting predicaments these two will get themselves into and E2's line will be "but sissy made me do it!"

 Happy Birthday sweet Elora!!

Required for a 2 Year Old

The talk of our house right now revolves around Sunday. Not church, not celebrating the Gator's win the previous night (I hope!), but a very big day.. Eliaya turns 2! Last year at this time, I was in a pinterest-induced-craze. You know what I'm talking about. It was nuts. And E1 had no idea what was going on. This year, there's a much more subdued craze and I'm not sure who's more excited: me or Eliaya. Any lull in conversation is quickly filled with "yiya party day now?". Word to the wise... when a two year old asks a questions, answer quickly. Silence is their cue to ask again... louder. I asked E1 what she wants to do for her birthday and she told me "balloons... CAKE". Her eyes glossed over, I'm pretty sure her earliest memory if from her 1st bday when we gave her the smash cake, she knew exactly what to do.... she's been in love ever since.


We're (semi)full-force potty training and are thereby keeping M&Ms in business. Ever a Reed, Eliaya absolutely refuses to be in the bathroom without a book. Have no fear... I've already written than one down in her baby book!

One of the best gifts Eliaya has been given is her sister. I can already see the Lord using Elora to grow E1's

ability to sympathize and be compassionate, as well as to begin the lifelong battle vs selfishness. E1 gets frustrated and I can see it on her face... the anger builds up and eventually feels she has to hit something. We have started sitting her down with us to open the Bible and talk about anger, kindness and considering others as more important than ourselves (Phil 2:3). I pray that moments, even now, will serve to soften her heart towards the Lord.

*side note, and a bit of a soapbox*
 We work with Eliaya, and ourselves, to memorize Scripture. I realize this is not a "cool" thing to do right now, but friends it is SO IMPORTANT. Jesus said if we love Him we will obey Him. How can we obey

Elora 3 months

what we don't know? And it's one thing to read the Word and say, "oh yeah, I should do _____ to obey God". But when temptation comes and you're in a situation where it's not easy to obey, how will you know what to do? Memorizing the Word is not a way to upgrade your mansion in heaven, by saying God's truth over and over and over and over it grinds a new pathway in your mind so that when faced with a situation in which you used to not obey the Lord, the roadwork is now set for you to follow the Holy Spirit and do what He says and not follow old patterns. With Easter coming up I've heard a lot of people mention the passage in Romans 10:14-15 in regards to missionaries sharing Jesus with foreign lands. Mommas... this is especially for us: this passage means us to! We have been sent to teach the Word to our children. How will they believe and trust the Lord if we don't show and tell them how? and how can we tell them what we don't know?

whew... okay, back to what a 2 year old needs. I get these "your baby is __ old now" emails that tell me what the girls should be doing / playing with /etc. Those companies must make some serious money off advertising. If you're not careful you'll be convinced you need 5 different toys for each day, no repeats, a foreign language tutor (or educator of some type) by the time they're 2, have organized educational play dates and a prophylactic cycle of antibiotics to ward off the play-group-snuffles. Crazy!! Don't buy the lie (or the product they're selling). Buy minimally, if you discover a need borrow something and see if it truly fills the need. Eliaya is happier playing in the spice drawer, with a playground ball, or chasing the dogs than anything else. My resolution, or at least goal for this week, is to not make things more complicated. Life with 2 under 2 is crazy, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

Okay, glancing back over this, I realize my thoughts aren't all that cohesive.... can you tell the Gator's are playing? But stay tuned... pictures from the big party will be coming soon!

Turning 2!

turning 1