Wow. School starting back + spending every second with my babies = bye bye blog. :P

Since Tuesday will be Cooper's first day of preschool, and I am hoping (surely!) I will post all about that soon, I am making this post all about Miss Ella K!  She is so funny!  She is so sweet and loving, but then she can get mad in a second - sometimes for absolutely no reason at all.  If she is whiny or just grouchy in general, she is either hungry or tired.  Even though she likes to pitch fits, run away and hide her face when you don't do something she wants, or as fast as she thinks you should, she is usually such a sweetie!  She gives kisses and hugs all the time, would walk across hot coals just to be near her brother, and can melt you with her precious smile.

She still points and grunts, and talks a lot of gibberish, but she will surprise you by saying a word you never would have thought she knew.  So far she can consistently say: mama, dada, bubba (brother), Nana, Pop, Papaw, Mimi (Grammy), Mamaw (for Mamaw and Grandma), Anna, Unc (Uncle Will), dog, ball, up, shoes, nose, toes, mouf (mouth), bow, bye bye, no (of course haha), nuk-nuk (milk - she used to say nak for snack and after 100 million times of us saying "milk?" she now says nuk-nuk :P), nak (snack), duce (juice which she doesn't even drink, hers is water, but since Cooper's is juice I guess she just assumes hers is too haha), tookie (cookie), mm-hm and uh-huh (for yes and no), duck, moo (cow), neigh neigh (horse), bock bock (chicken), baa baa (sheep), book, uh-oh, baby, hello (sounds like ha-wo), and night night.

If you spend five minutes with her you will think I am telling tales, but she really does use all of those words consistently at home.  Around people she doesn't see often she is very quiet, and she still, even at home, will point and grunt for things she wants.  She uses words a lot when she's looking at books.  She will also say next to nothing one day and you'll think she's lost all of those words, then she'll talk all day long the next day.  Her talking is very different from Cooper's was, but as our pediatrician says, not many children talk like Cooper.  He also said he would be pleased if she had 10 words at 18 months.  Now that she does have so many words, and I can see how much she understands, I am pretty relaxed about her talking.  I'm pretty sure she just can't get a word in with Cooper, Chris and me around all the time!

She can point to the following body parts: nose, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, bow (not a body part but it does go along with hair), fingers, hands, arm, leg, foot, toes, and belly.  She has no clue where her neck, back, chin, cheek, knee, or bottom are, but hey she's only 16 months old.  ;)

She has recently decided that she loves to read, and will bring books to you constantly to read saying, "book book".  She loves anything that plays music and will dance to any music at all, even if it's just Cooper singing to her (which by the way may be the sweetest thing I've seen in my life).  She loves to carry around her "baby", sort of throwing it over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.  She will carry around a phone and say, "Ha-wo.  Gibber gibber gibber.  Bye bye."  She loves ride-on toys, her little farm animals, and whatever toy Cooper happens to be playing with at the time.  She still sleeps with her taggie blankie and lambie at night.  She lives lives lives for shoes!  She loves to wear shoes, even in the house, and will throw a fit if you try to take them off.  She will spend several minutes picking out just the ones she wants from her shoe drawer (it's the bottom drawer so she can see and pull out whichever pair(s) she wants).  I think she will definitely be a shoe lover when she grows up!

Such a sweetie...

Going back to work after a great summer off with my babies is always kind of sad.  I'm excited about a new school year, and glad to see all of my friends from work, but it's sad not to get to be with Cooper and Ella all day, every day.  I know that I am blessed to have summers off with them.  I'm not complaining about having a job.  I am so lucky that Mom and Glenda keep the kids for us, but I can't help but be a little blue when it comes time to leave them every day and head off to work.  And I'm not the only one who's having to adjust.  Cooper loves to be with Mom and Glenda, but he can be a little sad sometimes too about me having to go to work.  Here are some of the sweet (but heart wrenching) things he's said lately...

"I'll miss you when you're at work Mom, but I'll always hold you in my heart."

"I meant to tell you a long time ago, back when I was a baby, that I didn't want you to go to work.  I wanted you to stay home with me."

"I miss all those days.  Those days when you were able to be home with me all the time."

Then tonight when I was tucking him in, he said, "Mom, guess who I love?  She's as pretty as can be, and the best mother in the whole wide world.  It's you!"  Then he said, "I love Daddy too.  No matter how many boo boos he has, I will always love him because he's a great dad."  (Chris had some cuts on his hands from something he did at work today, and Cooper had helped him put on a band aid right before bedtime.)

He is just the sweetest, most loving, most precious little boy in the world.  I am so proud to be his mommy!

Coop's first Panthers game...

Last night Chris took Cooper to his first Panthers game, and I'm not sure who was more excited!  Chris has been waiting for this day since Cooper was born.  Cooper wanted to eat as soon as they got there, and they did a little shopping.  After half time, Chris had taken Cooper to the bathroom, and a lady came up to them and offered them her club level seats.  So they got to enjoy the second half of the game in style!  They had a great time.  Cooper said his favorite part of the game was the cheerleaders (of course haha).  On the way home Cooper told Chris that he wanted to be a football player when he grew up and play in the stadium where they had just been.  And then Chris's head exploded.  :)

Getting ready to go!

Modeling his new Cam Newton jersey and Panther hat.

Showing off the jersey he insisted they get for Ella.  :)

Go Panthers!

Can't believe Chris actually asked somebody to take their picture.

"Sure, I come here all the time."  In the club level.

It's that time of year again...

I can't believe this was my last full week off with my babies!  Workdays start Thursday.  Even though it's always exciting starting a new year, and even though it's nice to go out to lunch and catch up with everybody during workdays, it is so so so so sad to think about not getting to spend all day every day with my little man and my sweet girl.  :(

I won't get to watch them reading together after breakfast...

Or clap for her when she rides her horse...

Or smile at the look of concentration on his face while he plays his Leapster...

Or be a little afraid of the look on her face when she wants me to stop taking her picture and help her put the coins in that toy...

Or see how happy she is while she plays with her teat set...

Or do long drawn out art projects with my big boy...

BUT I'll still get to see these sleepy bed heads every morning...

and these sweet faces every afternoon...

and be thankful that I've had all summer to enjoy being with them!

My new favorite picture of Ella...

How sweet is she?  Love those big eyes and wispy hair.  :)

And check out those tan lines!

Brotherly love???

Cooper loves to get in Ella's crib and wrestle snuggle with her in the mornings.  As you can see from the above picture, sometimes she is less than thrilled with this idea.

But sometimes she likes it.  :)

Tell me this is not the cutest thing you've ever seen!

I was cleaning out old pictures on the computer and came across this one.  Cooper was 21 months old.  Jami took this at Hunter's 1st birthday party.  Love this picture of him!

And just so you know I really do exist, a picture of us together on the same day...