Elin Kate: Nine Months

     I can't believe that Elin is already nine months old.  These precious months have just flown by, but all the same they have been wonderful.  This month, Elin got her first tooth, signed her first word, and said her first word.  She signed "more" for delicious sweet potato puffs.  It is super cute how she does it too. She turns her palms up, kinda waves at herself, and then brings her hands together while saying, "ma."  Her first word is undeniably "mama" and thus far it is an endearing "mama" and not a demanding one.  Ha! Don't feel too bad for Keith, Jake's second word was "dada" after "ball" of course.  He didn't call my name until he was like 18 months old!  So I'm obviously enjoying the sweet, "mama"(s) I get from "E."
     Elin is also standing for a few seconds without holding on to anything & following us through the house; especially Jake. She also LOVES her baths and near throws a fit to get in the tub when Jake is taking his bath or when it is time for her to get out of hers.

     Keith and I also traveled to Knoxville, TN this month as our family will be relocating there at the beginning of the new year.  Elin got to tag along as we looked for a home.  She did great & actually seemed to really enjoy having a little extra attention!  Let me just add, we are very excited for this adventure the Lord has placed before us; but we would appreciate lots of prayer as we did not find a house and this move is NO simple task.

We hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Eight Months

Little "E" turned 8 months last week! What a big girl she is!  This month was full of adventure for Elin.  In ten minutes flat she can stand at the dishwasher & empty the silverware, get into a magazine basket (literally) in the living room, & make it to the utility room to be found chewing on one of Loa's collars!  Yikes, she's fast!  We took a family vacation to Sea World & she got to meet a third set of great grandparents, Gigi & Big Papa! She loves to yell, I mean sing at the top of her lungs, dance to any music, & she always has a quick smile (especially for daddy and brother).  Elin, I hope you always have an easy, quick smile. We love you baby girl! 

Seaworld

We love you Gigi & Big Papa!

Happy Pumpkin Day!

So do I have two cute pumpkins or what?  Around here, we are not  big fans of Halloween but I'm all about fall and if our kids want to dress up in a fun, un-scarey costume, & eat candy at our church festival until their bellies can take no more, fine by me!  So a few weeks ago, Jake and I were discussing costumes & he decided on superman.  So we did purchase a superman costume and he wore the tail off of it last week... ya know "rescuing princesses" & such!  So I was gonna have him wear it today to takes some pics w/ the sweet ballerina below & to the fall festival at Trinity.  After asking him at least 3 times to put his costume on, he says "mommy, I want to be just Jake."  What?? no superman?  I gave him several opportunities to change his mind & he was consistent, "just Jake!"  Keith even asked him before we headed up to the church just to make sure, explaining to him that all the other kids would have costumes.  Again, "Dad, I'm gonna be just Jake."  So whatever fine by me,  we love "just Jake."  So here are a couple of pics of  "just Jake" & the little ballerina Elin. 

Seven Sweet Months

Elin is 7 months old today & I can hardly believe it!  She is sitting and crawling so well & jabbering away. She's got lots of "da das" and "ka kas" with lots of squeals in between.  This one is gonna be independent, I do believe.  She figured out her sippy cup the first day, of course thinks she can feed herself, & rarely cuddles... we definitely savor those sweet moments when she gives in though.

Elin Kate: Six Months

Elin turned 6 months old on the 27th of August, & we went to her well visit yesterday.  She weighed 15.1 pounds and was 26.25 inches long. I missed the percentiles, but she is a little on the smaller side.  Our children seem to start out that way, but the Jake man was in the 95th for both height and weight at his last visit.  I'm sure Elin will follow suit!  To sum up Elin, I would use the words "quiet observer." She has a very soft voice even when she cries. Most of her days seem to be monopolized by watching Jake run circles around her.  She most of the time has a somewhat  inquisitive look about her, but when she does smile, her smile is wide, straight across, and her upper lip disappears in the cutest way.  Her smile is pretty contagious.  Another funny thing about her is that she has recently just started really laughing.... it has taken her about 2 months to get a good giggle down.  In the past when we would attempt to get her to laugh it almost sounded like it was painful and she would get the hiccups immediately, so we really kinda stopped trying to elicit a laugh even though we wanted to hear it so badly.  As you can see below, she has lost all the very dark brown hair that she was born w/ and now has a light brownish blondish color. I really didn't know if that would happen as it was so very dark at birth.  She can roll both ways, can sit w/ us guarding her, and almost go from quadra-ped to  sitting. The day after her 6 month b-day, she took her first attempts at crawling and now she can get around w/ a cross b/w an army and regular crawl.   She loves to read books w/ Jake and, like most babies, loves music...especially daddy's guitar.  Elin also goes crazy for toes, she is infatuated w/ Mommy's bright pink toes.  It's funny nothing else gets quite the response as my toes.  She also spits w/ the best of 'em, loves blowing raspberries.  Elin also studies her hands in that precious way that babies do, where they are almost waving at themselves; trying to figure out just what those things called fingers do. She is getting big so fast & we are loving every moment w/ our sweet sister Elin.  We are grateful for our precious gift & can't wait to see the personality that God has placed in her to make her uniquely ELIN.

David, the Shepherd Boy

So today, Jake was in the backyard playing w/ Loa when he came in the back door & asked, "Mom did David's father (w/ a Star Wars type, "father") give him food in a bag for his sheep?  I said, "Jake, sheep eat grass.  The food you are thinking of is the food his dad told him to take to his brothers."  Jake responded w/, "Well I'm gonna put some grass in my basket for my sheep," as he pointed w/ his plastic golf club to our dog Loa.  Loa by the way, was leashed to an exercise stroller, laying in the grass.  I'm certain she was loving this reenactment.   I probably looked at him puzzled b/c next he says, "Loa is King David's sheep...he ONLY has ONE sheep."  Then he goes back outside and puts some grass in his bucket and attempts to feed the sheep...AKA Loa.  Again, she looks thrilled.  A few minutes later he comes back through the house, and after going into Elin's room he comes back through where I am and he has a bright green headband on his head.  I said "Why are you wearing Elin's headband Jake?" He says, I'm David the shepherd boy"  (Enough said) and he goes back out.  I followed him outside, thinking I need a picture of this.  As I get my camera out to take a few pics of him in his green headband and his leashed sheep, he kinda poses and starts swinging his golf club in a circle around his head saying,"this is my stone mom!  I fight off the bears w/ it!" (Think he meant "sling" obviously) I love that he is excited about the Bible stories we are reading, but I never thought we would get quite this reenactment & neither did our oh so tolerating dog Loa.

So, not the greatest picture, but isn't it funny that Loa is yawing.. as if she has pretty much had enough! Hehe!!

YEAH! Daddy's Home!

Let's just say that last week was a bit on the long side!  Keith was in Milwaukee for 4 days for work and it felt a little more like 4 weeks.  I'm sure Jake was counting down not just the days but the minutes until Daddy got home.  We made him a card w/ Jake's well used phrase "Yeah! Daddy's home" and made him some chocolate chip cookies for a midnight snack when he got home on Friday night.  Jake pleaded to wait up, so I thought, "sure, he'll never make it." So we made a pallet in the living room floor and waited.  Believe it or not, Jake lasted until 11:30 pm before he crashed out ( I might be the worst mom ever... who lets their 3 year old stay up that late?).  Keith tried to wake him up for cookies when he got home at midnight, but let's just say he wasn't interested.  Anyway, needless to say we were all happy that Keith was home.

Sacked Out

Elin naps hard.  She typically does nap in her bed... I promise; however recently she absolutely just crashed out during some floor playtime.  Take a look at this oh so sweet baby girl.

ELIN KATE ROTAN

So I am not promising to blog, but there are some of you that haven't gotten to see or meet our little Miss Elin.  So... here she is!  In this picture she was almost 3 months old.  She is such a laid back, smiley little one!  Such a blessing she is!