Riding around

Willem giving Ellie a ride on the tricycle.

Birthday Surprise

Willem has an incredibly kind spirit. When we told him that Gigi and Chelsea's birthdays were coming up, he immediately set to planning their cake. Of course, it was going to need sprinkles. Then we told him we were having a surprise party and talked about what that meant. He kept the secret and had fun making party decorations.

After adding sprinkles to the delicious cake Kiki made, he helped in the all important, blowing out of the candles.

Ellie Time

Ellie has become our Linus as she is quite attached to her blanket. She plays in her crib for a long time in the morning, happy as can be as long as she has her blanket in hand. She'd love to take it everywhere but for now the blankie lives at the house. She has also inspired her brother, as he is now super attached to his blankets and must have them whenever Ellie has hers.

Ellie's been a big helper as we have been helping getting a couple of homes ready to rent out. She especially enjoyed our trip to the nursery. (yes, no shoes, I am still getting used to putting shoes on her everyday)

Ellie, the monkey, finds the funniest positions to get into. One evening, she loved swinging like this.

Ellie has the Weiss sense of humor already and loves playing games with us, especially her Dad. She'll pretend like she's going to feed him something and then pull it away at the last minute.

And grin:)

Ellie at 14 months!

Swim Time

We love swimming as a family and are making up for being gone this Summer! We've been swimming at Paw Paw's house and at friends houses regularly and Willem has become a little fish.

He's gotten very good at floating on his back and loves the independence his water wings provide. We are all prunes by the time he is ready to get out.

Swim class

At William's Birthday party, Willem loved being able to keep up with Reese using his water wings and jumped into the pull over and over again without Mom's help.

Ellie loves the water as well but in shorter bouts than her brother for now. She mostly likes hanging out on the steps, walking around the pool and watching her brother.

Willem

We've been working on taking the Montessori approach at home and have been reorganizing our kitchen and living room to make it more inspiring while encouraging independence. Willem always helps with dinner but mostly the measuring and pouring (and tasting), but now he's cutting and peeling veggies as well. He is most excited about being able to use sharp knives and scissors now.

Willem is in a phase where he needs his naps but has so many other things he'd rather do. Most days he still naps but other days he spends that time re-decorating his room with hangers, baby wipes and bedding as he works to make his room "clean and beautiful". On post-call days, Willem and Jason have been napping together. So cute!!

Willem and Oom Rik have been working on decorating these trains for weeks now and they have been the birthday gift that just keeps on giving. Willem's train has at least 10 layers of paint and he just keeps re-designing it and enjoys every moment of the experience.

Willem and the giant watermelon

Fresh out of the garden, Willem and Paw Paw's supersized watermelon.

Playing

Playing in the backyard

Halloween preview

Shower time

Lily's Baptism Weekend

We went over to LA Labor Day Weekend for Lily's Baptism. It was a whirlwind trip but we were able to spend time with family which was nice. Jason flew in Saturday post call and woke to the Weiss side of the family gathering for a delicious Indonesian meal. Ellie really took to Nicholas and was in his lap much of the night.

Willem on the otherhand became best friends with Jenna and was absolutely silly with her.

The kids loved being with the family. It was really neat to see Willem especially because he now remembers everyone and has a history with them so he was really anticipating getting to see his Tante Linda and so forth.

We were incredibly honored to be asked to be Lily's Godparents and enjoyed being part of her big day.

Ellie is ready to start her piano lessons:) She spends a lot of time on our keyboard at home with Grandma and gets excited when she sees a piano.

Willem loved playing with Thomas and Esthercita.

Ellie's 1st Swim Lesson + Shots at Doctor, What was Mom thinking?

Ellie had her one year check up today and I swear that she remembered the doctors office. As soon as we went to the exam room she freaked out. She seemed to know that shots were coming and was not happy. She kept pointing to the door, I felt pretty bad as her torturer. The good news is she's healthy and weighing in at 21.9 lbs and 31.7 inches tall. Not many pictures as we were playing a lot of games during this hour long appt.

That afternoon Ellie had her 1st swim lesson--great planning on Mom's part:) We were lucky because Grandma, Tia Julie and Jason ended up getting off in time to be there as well. Jason volunteered to take the class with Ellie today and they had a great time. Ellie wasn't thrilled at times but she would just make her voice heard, not really crying. But there were lots of smiles as well. She seemed to be intrigued by the other babies in the class.

Willem acted as though he'd been taking classes all Summer. He was giddy being back in lessons. He was making silly faces and playing around while waiting for his turn. Absolutely joyful.

The playground at Hubbard was a hit with Ellie. She was climbing in there with the big kids and going down the slide by herself. She is truly a toddler now!