Lame catch up post

We've been under the weather, sharing colds and sore throats. And Rob had a touch of pink eye last week but thankfully he somehow kept that to himself!

This big girl is eating real food at almost every meal. I give her baby food just to deplete our stash, but she prefers feeding herself and gags and chokes a lot less. I'll be glad when she's not overstuffing her mouth with pieces of food, but I know that stage will probably last a while since Robbie and Ellie still do it on occasion!

She's enjoyed sweet potato, baked beans, grapes, melon, bread and jelly, pasta, green beans, carrots, peas, peaches, pears, chunky applesauce, and multi grain cheerios.

And speaking of eating, I can't decide if it's a phase or if she will just be my messy child, but Ellie can make the biggest messes with any meal I give to her. It's endearing until I have to clean her (and the table and the floor) up afterwards. After ravioli and sauce for dinner the other night, there was nothing left to do but put her in the sink and let her play for a while as I made Rob's dinner. You can see we were out of paper towel, so that wasn't an option for clean-up! She thought the sink bath was awesome, and I couldn't believe she fit. We will be doing this again.

Robbie is learning how to play with Maddie - meaning, we teach him that it's fun to build towers for her with the idea that we WANT her to knock them over! He's such a good big brother. He goes right along with us, building adorable little cities and then patiently waiting for baby-godzilla to cruise by and destroy what we've built.

My mom comes by on Fridays to help me with laundry (or anything!), and this past Friday my dad came too. The kids were beside themselves! They brought animal cookies for their afternoon snack, played, and my mom did all my folding and ironing while I nursed a cup of her vegetable soup for my sore throat. Then it started snowing, so I got to shovel the driveway for Rob before he got home. Doesn't family make everything better?

Sweet Maddie gives us kisses now. The open-mouth baby kind! Robbie is of course the recipient since she's in love with him.

One of the women Rob works with (but not in his office) sends the kids the sweetest gifts in the mail. She sent the kids these aprons and matching spatulas as well as everything to make pancakes as a housewarming gift.

It was big hit and Ellie thinks she's my permanent assistant in the kitchen anytime I'm cooking.

(She likes to combine looks and has her police woman hat on.)

I let her help me make muffins and she was in her glory.

Robbie wanted in on the action! Ellie sweetly offered him a turn mixing and be still my heart, I caught this little moment.

Getting creative with a babe who didn't want to wait as I got ready one morning but only wanted to be held.

(Don't worry, I my hand was just out of the shot making sure she wouldn't fall.)

I love this little profile.

Enjoying the last of the boxes in our bedroom before I finished them off.

Maddie is getting brave and pulling herself up. Which means she is also getting herself into some funny sticky situations. I see the look that says "Help, mom!" a lot now. I love it.

I also realize that at this point, I have probably waited too long to take pictures and do a post about Maddie as a 10 month old. Sad!