Safety first

Sorry to return to the basket-helmet thing. But today Ella took it a bit further and got on her "bike" to ride to work after getting her knock-knock from Nora and me. She put it on her head, completely covering her eyes, and attempted to ride around the front room. After a few minutes of trying to do this, slowly, bumping into things, she took off her basket. "Mommy, I can't beeeee." You can't see? I asked. "No, I can't beeeeeeeve." You can't breathe? "Yeah."

Growing pains

So I mentioned we have been short on sleep lately and some of it is due to Nora's teeth. I took this photo last night with the intention of blogging to my friends who are in their pre-children years, that they should be thankful for the simple gift of being able to decide when to sleep and wake up for themselves. I just can't believe I had years and years of that without understanding how great it was. But then last night, everyone slept all night, so hallelujah, I lost my steam for that post. Anyway, here is a sweet picture of Paul who has lulled Nora back to sleep again when she woke up way past her bedtime.

But related to the whole teeth thing, everybody pray for poor little Nora's fingers. If you know Nora very well, you know she pretty much always looks like this:

I think the percentage of her life where her fingers are in her mouth is higher than 50. She always sucks them. And with all this teething, she must be sucking harder, because she has developed blisters on both her middle fingertips that are bleeding now. But she still won't stop! I am trying hand sanitizer to make them taste yucky, but it just feels mean, and it doesn't actually seem to work. So today we tried this on for size:

Nora gave it about a C-. It was ok. But not the same. I am going to keep trying to convince her of how great a paci is though (at the same time I'm trying to convince Ella it's not great at all--we'll see how that goes).

Knock-knock

Eeeek! Sorry guys, it got to be way too long again. I have several excuses, 1. I am so tired. Sleep has not been that regular of a thing the last few weeks. Teeth and thunder are two of the culprits. 2. My thoughts have been consumed with a project I'm working on, which I will share more about later. (That is, when my thoughts are not just chased away altogether by the constant stimuli of adorable girls crawling around, needing love, food, water, and potty, and generally tearing things apart.) 3. Um, I forget. Did I mention I'm tired?

Anyhoo. I took some cute photos this morning that document one sweet phase of our daily life these days in a roundabout way. Every morning, when Paul leaves for work on his bike, he gives hugs and kisses to us all, and also offers his helmet to Ella for her to "knock-knock" on. She loves it. This morning she put a basket on her head and requested that I knock-knock, because she was leaving for work. Then she wanted me to put one on too, so she could knock-knock on mine. It was a little scary, we are still (STILL) working on "gentle." Also, a bike helmet is more protective for your noggin than a basket. But it was pretty cute too, so I went along with it.

Nora thought this was all pretty funny. She is starting to show her sense of humor. When I laughed at her chewing on a sock this morning, she repeated it about five times in a row, giggling after each time she'd take it out of her mouth.

She was willing to try the basket helmet too. I kept Ella from knock-knocking her though.

As far as Ella is concerned, a basket is the "It" headpiece of the moment. What can I say? She wears it well.

Twofer

Hi again! We're still here and ok and everything, don't worry! I just kinda forgot to blog lately. I'd say, "We've been really busy," but I think probably you will get less tired of hearing that if I just encourage you to assume, and know, that we are always incredibly busy these days. If we ever get bored, I will tell you explicitly. Otherwise just assume that my two little toddlers are keeping me VERY BUSY.

But anyway, here are two little videos to show you some of what we've been up to these days. First of all, a couple weeks ago, we went to Asheville. It was really fun, and low key, but the important thing in my mind was that it gave us a little confidence that it is possible, and even enjoyable to take our two babies on a little weekend trip. Maybe we'll do that again sometime soon! Here is Nora crawling in some luscious grass and Ella trying to figure out how to get a manhole open at the NC botanical gardens.

I find this next little clip pretty funny, and fairly representative of the little two year old 'tude we are dealing with these days. What a little personality Ella is developing! Sweet, sassy and silly all mixed in together. I do want to tell you that all the "I'm pretty!" stuff at the beginning is not her bragging. I figured out that when I tell her to say cheese for a picture, she gives a big CHEEEEEESE face that is more like a fishie face than a smile. But if I tell her to say "I'm pretty!" she gives me a sort of flattered and shy smile. Works like a charm normally. Here ya go!