It may look like Charlie's just mugging big time for the camera, but really, it's a photo of him mid-screech. This kiddo has found his voice in a big way, and he just loves the way he sounds...he practices his happy screams lots and lots. Ellie now just yells back at him...hilarious...but too loud for Momma.
No, he doesn't have any teeth...don't let the big boy snacks fool you! This little boy is on the SLOOOOW program when it comes to growing up...no scooting or crawling yet, no teeth, etc. He also has NO desire, whatsoever, to become mobile. He just whines, points at things, and expects Mommy to come and retrieve them for him. I obey, and so, we have a boy who's content to be a sweet, adorable blob. I LOVE IT!!! They grow up so quickly anyway; why rush it, right?
I caught them in this sweet moment yesterday, while I was busy cleaning up the kitchen. They really are becoming good little friends.
I decided to while away those long hours between naps and when Joe comes home from the field by baking cookies with the kiddos yesterday. Ellie LOVES baking with me; all she does the whole time is eat cookie dough...yum! She got sneaky this time, though. I swear, she sprouted in the last week or so. She was able to reach her little spoon up into the batter bowl on the coutertop and sneak extra dough. I caught her mid-act once, just as the entire bowl was about to topple onto her head. Charlie "helped" by keeping us company in the kitchen...no tears...very helpful, indeed.
Look at that cutie pie! I have so much more respect for my mother-in-law, now that I have a son of my own. There is such truth to that rumor that there's something super special between a mother and her son. This little boy ADORES me!...and I just love that. The way that my mother-in-law was able to "give up" her son to me with such grace when we married is something to be admired and to aspire to. Thank goodness Charlie's only 7 months old...I have many, many years to go before I even have to think of all of that junk!
A letter from Ellie to her readers: 
We had quite the afternoon today. Ellie woke up from her nap in a ROTTEN mood, so Mommy had to snap her out of it with a staring contest...she broke first...sobs turned into a smirk, then a full-on smile, and then I just couldn't help it any longer and broke down into fits of giggles; she soon followed...phew! Then it was off to McDonald's when Daddy got home for some drive-thru soft-serve ice cream and a trip to Target for new sports bra for the Momma. This is the second time they've gotten to ride together like this in a cart, and as you can tell from the pic, Charlie LOVES riding like a big boy! Ellie's not so thrilled at sharing her space, but she'll get over it. We ended our afternoon with a trip to the park...love the neighborhoods around here. And after all of that, we came home with two VERY hungry, tired, and crabby kiddos...no pictures of that, unfortunately=).
Apparently, my mom has had kids before...she kind of knows what she's talking about when she gives me advice. Lately, I have been DUKING it out with Ellie over her afternoon naps. Without the goi-goi, she was having a terrible time calming herself down enough to fall asleep. I kept having to go into her room to tell her to shush, to get off the furniture, to stop trying to break the bed, to put her clothes back on, etc. Mahgie gave me a great idea when I was at my lowest point: just give her a bunch of books in bed to keep her occupied; if she sleeps, great; if not, oh well, at least you got your break. So, we tried it, and this was the first day's result. Nice, mom!
Miss Eleanor woke up from her nap the other afternoon in a VERY nasty mood. Being the good parents that we are, we bribed her to come downstairs with a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chocolate chip cookie=). It worked; she came downstairs. She also dominated that cookie, as you can tell. Did it put her in a better mood, though? Nope. Oh well. Two can be just tons of fun!
Charlie woke up from his nap the other day with these angry red marks all over his brow; at first I had no idea what had happened to him. First thought: What kind of animal had shared his Pack N Play with him?! Second thought: Are we dealing with stress-induced baby hives again (in case I forgot to mention that one...yes, he had stress-induced hives upon our move down here to Orlando...sad)?! On closer inspection (and bummer, really, that this picture just doesn't do it justice), it was clear that he had perfect baby hand prints on his forehead! He'd taken a three hour nap with his head on his hands...that'll leave a mark.
I stole this idea from a good girlfriend of mine... Here are two pics for each kid at about 7 months of age. What do you think? Related a bit? 
How cute are these little smarties? Already reading novels!...Ellie's working on the classic, "Shogun," while Charlie's getting in touch with his feminine side with "Bright Lights, Big Ass" (fantastically funny book if you haven't already read it!). I took this picture with my phone this morning while we were getting ready to leave for the gym. Ellie was watching Disney channel in my bed with my book, while Charlie was just fussing away on the floor...I could not finish getting ready with the ruckus he was making...so I put him up there with Ellie, and sure enough, he was happy as a clam in no time. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of what happened over the next few minutes. Charlie slowly worked his way closer and closer to his sister, so that he ended up butt to butt with her...too cute. They're really turning out to be good pals, and I LOVE it!
Charlie got his first ride on Daddy's shoulders yesterday evening. He LOVED it! Such a big boy now. Ellie got jealous and had to have her turn, too. She's hilarious, though; anytime she gets up there on his shoulders, she immediately smothers his face and covers his eyes with her hands. 
For the first five weeks or so that we were here in Orlando, Ellie was AWFUL to her sweet Daddy. It was really upsetting, actually. Our theory is that she was a bit bitter with him for being gone all day at the field for work. Really, who knows, though. Joe also decided that he wasn't really being firm enough with her...he totally let her walk all over him...felt he wasn't demanding that she treat him nicely and with respect. Anyway, over the past two weeks, he's really toughened up a bit on her, and she's totally responded so positively! Hello, Super Nanny, we took your advice, and you ROCK! Look at how well they're getting along now. She went from refusing to hug him or say hello to him to snuggling with him ALL the time! I love being the favorite parent, but I love this WAY more.
An hour after leaving the goi-gois in the mail box, we took her back outside and had her open it up again. Inside, in exchange for the pacifiers, the fairy left her a Disney princesses magic wand .....aaaaaaah!...things are looking up...maybe it was worth it, after all! She even yelled up to the start in the sky, "Thank you, Goi-Goi Fairy!" Too cute.
Sad, sad. So, here's where Ellie really had to let her precious goi-gois go. Joe documented the whole process with the camera. We started off by pointing out the brightest star in the sky and telling her that it was the fairy's home. She thought that was kind of neat, but really kind of scary, too. She was holding onto me so tightly all the way to the mail box. I told her to raise the flag on the box, so the Goi-Goi Fairy would know that she had a package to pick up...and then I asked her to put her goi-goi envelope inside. She did it no problem at first, but then when she had to close the mail box door on them, reality totally set in...as you can see from the pictures, that was super duper sad! Poor baby. 
"Dun-Dun-Dun"...that's my way of writing a soundtrack to this blog entry...imminent doom for poor Miss Eleanor B. So, the "Goi-Goi Fairy" came to visit the Borchard House two nights ago. As you all must know, the "Goi-Goi Fairy" is that beautiful Tinker-Bell-esque winged beauty, who comes to every child's house one day to take the pacifiers away and bring them to all of the babies in the world who need them. In exchange for the "goi-gois" (Ellie's word for pacifier), the fairy leaves a little present behind as reward for such "big girl" behavior. 
My dearest Charlotte friend, Denise Pettus, sent Ellie a pretty sweet present in the mail yesterday...a cast-off flower girl dress from her sister's wedding. Does that girl feel like a pretty, pretty princess, or what?! She is so attached to the thing that I thought about letting her take her afternoon nap in it the day it arrived, but Ellie and I both thought better of it after we laid her in her bed and the scratchy tulle ended up bunched up around her face. Not so cozy for nap time. Perfect for all other occasions, though, according to my daughter!=)
Ellie helped me "clean up" after making some delicious chocolate chocolate chip cookies the other day. She got to lick TWO spoons of cookie dough...YUM! She was in heaven, marching around the living room with her chocolate spoons and chocolate face. She kept telling me how "delicious" her "dough cookie" was. Too fun.
I needed some time to myself this afternoon while Ellie was sleeping and Charlie was awake, so I opened up Ellie's bag of play jewelry for him to go through. When she's awake, there's no chance she'll let Charlie even get close to that bag of goodies! Anyway, as you can see from the photos, he had a ball.
Ellie got to wear her Mommy's old dress the other day. Talk about the ultimate hand-me-down! I actually remember wearing this dress; Anna had a matching one. So fun to see it now on my little girl. She felt quite beautiful in it, herself=). That kid always thinks she's lookin' pretty good, though. Her new thing is to beg to look in the mirror now. You should see her preen like a proud little peacock every time! Self-confidence is not going to be a problem with this child.
My little girl LOVES those water parks that spit water at you. She goes NUTS for that kind of thing. Anyway, at the very end of the day, we took her to "Ariel's Grotto," a play area that did just that. She had a ball; ended up soaking wet, of course. Had to finish up her day at Disney with only bloomers and a t-shirt on. 
This was just my favorite moment of the day. This was the last ride we did, the Merry-go-Round, and it was the only one Ellie wasn't nervous for. She LOVED that I rode a horse alongside her this time. Doesn't that face just say it all? I was feeling guilty for paying the $80 for admission until I uploaded this photo and saw the joy on E's face. Totally worth it.
This is our little crew in line at Small World. Ugh, look at how dirty and bedragled those women look! Disney'll do that to you.
Obviously, one person can't do Disney alone with two small children. I'd never even think about attempting. Anyway, we worked it by having Anna basically in charge of Ellie all day long and me in charge of Charlie. Poor Anna!...talk about hard work. Ellie was on her BEST behavior all day long, amazingly, but still, she's a lot of work...and really heavy, too! Noni got her workout for the day in, for sure. Ellie loved riding every ride with Noni; they were the cutest together on Pirates (Ellie was FRIGHTENED and rode the entire way with her head buried in Anna's armpit)!
