Pics from DC and 4th of July

I am backing up a little bit to our trip to see my brother, Bo, and family in Washington, DC in June. Ellie had alot of fun playing with Brinson and Maggie hung out and watched most of the time! Brinson did a lot of loving on Maggie, which is good since he is about to have a baby sister. We also visited Arlington National Cemetary. My great-great uncle, George Grant, is buried there so we found his tombstone. He is buried near boxer, Joe Louis.
My younger brother, Andrew, came to visit over the 4th of July weekend. Ellie refers to him as "Ah Ah", which is the sound a monkey makes. We went to the river, East Laporte, and swam and played around. On Sat. we went to the festivities on Main St. and then that afternoon we headed to our church, where I was in charge of the 4th of July festivities. I was busy making sure everything went as planned, but we all had a wonderful time and the fireworks were fantastic as usual.

Maggie loves to climb!

This is a video of Maggie climbing into a stroller yesterday. She is spiderwoman! Good thing we were near her the first time she did it! She is so different from Ellie it is amazing. She loves to climb up the stairs now, too! And she can be up them in no time! We used to sit Ellie on the bottom step before the landing and have her practice standing up and taking steps to us. SO we tried this with Maggie. She sits on that step for a second, looks at us, turns around, and starts climbing! We have to watch this one like a hawk.

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Hotty Toddy!

I am a proud mama! Ellie has learned all the words to the G-rated version of the Ole Miss cheer, "Hotty Toddy". She was so cute doing the cheer with the pom poms. The words to the G-rated cheer are "Hotty Toddy gosh almighty who the "heck" are we. Flim flam, bim bam Ole Miss "yes mam".
She is quite the little girl these days and is so amazing. She has her daddy's memory and can sing a song after only hearing it one time. I asked her the other day if she was going to be a dcotor and she said, "No. Maggie, doctor. Ellie, climber. I climb hills!" Another funny story is that we tell her when she is naked that she is "naked as a jay bird" an old saying that both Grant and I heard growing up. SO the other day she was naked and I told her to put some clothes on. She looked at me and said, "I wanna be jay bird". :)
Maggie is slithering everywhere. She is now pulling up on everything and standing on her own for several seconds. She is trying to walk so she can keep up with her big sister. She is into everything and we have to keep an eye on her at all times!

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Maggie's Baptism- June 14, 2009

Maggie was baptized on June 14 at our church, Longs Chapel United Methodist Church. Our wonderful pastor, Rev. Chuck Wilson, along with our associate minister, Alan Mears, performed the baptism. It was so sweet. Maggie did great! When Pastor Chuck took her she started to grab his microphone off his shirt. She grabs everything! The cutest was when they put the water on her head she sneezed. Pastor Chuck walked her up and down the aisles and sang, "Jesus Loves the Little Children" to her and then had the congregation sing along as well. It was a wonderful celebration and blessing. Our Sunday School leaders also stood up front with us. We had many friends there as well as family for the celebration. We went to Lake Junaluska afterwards for pictures, but Maggie was zonked! We still got some good pictures.
The dress Maggie wore is the same one Ellie wore when she was baptized last year. It was made for and worn by Grant's sister, Maigan, and also worn by his cousin, Allyson. It is a beautiful dress and very special that both girls have gotten to wear it.

Ellie's 2nd Birthday Party!

We had Ellie's 2nd birthday party on June 13th. It was a princess celebration! She wore her special outfit and thanks to my mom, Lynndy, Ellie had a party fit for a princess. She made a castle for Ellie and turned our garage into a fairy land. We had several neighbors come and some friends as well as many of our family members. I believe everyone had a great time. Ellie really enjoyed opening her presents! Maggie even snuck some cake when we were not looking! It was a grand day and we were all very tired after all of teh festivities!

Ellie's 2nd Birthday! June 6, 2009

We had a wonderful day celebrating Ellie's 2nd birthday! We left Waynesville around 8:30 am and headed to Knoxville to go to the zoo. Grant's parents, DeeDee and RonRon, met us there. Ellie had a blast looking at all of the animals. She kept wanting to pet all of them! We were looking at the snakes and she said, "Ellie pet them". She really loved the red pandas. I am pretty sure her favorite part of the day was the carousel. She rode it 5 times in a row and we had to drag her away from it! Maggie did a lot of sleeping during the day, but was a trooper.

Probably the most historic part of the zoo trip was the giving up of the pacie. We explained to Ellie at 2 she is now a big girl and does not need a pacie. She only was sleeping with it, but it was time to part ways. That morning Grant talked with her about it and that she was going to give it to one of the animals because their babies needed it now. Ellie chose the giraffes. She has been using this green pacie for about the last four months. When it was time she let daddy "throw" it to the giraffes! We were very proud. We knew night time might be rough. Well, when it was time to go to bed, without flinching, Ellie looks at Grant and says, "orange pacie"! We about died! She had not seen nor used this pacie in four months yet this child was thinking as she threw her green pacie to the giraffes, "You suckers. I have an orange pacie at home so sure I'll give this one to these giraffes"! We did not give it to her, though, and she has done very well.

After the zoo we came home and Ellie put on her special shirt and tutu a friend of mine made. It was for her party, which was a week later, but we went ahead and let her wear it on her birthday. We also went and got birthday ice cream. Gotta have ice cream on your birthday! It was a wonderful day and we are so blessed. We cannot believe our baby is 2, but she is so fun and we are loving every minute of it, even the tantrums :)!

Ellie and Maggie: Two very different babies

When you have two babies so close together and of the same sex I think people have a tendency to say how much they look alike, etc. So I thought I would write a post about my two very different baby girls because it is amazing that I can already tell that they are going to be so different from each other, but of course great in their own unique ways!
To start with you can compare the pics above. That is Ellie on the left at roughly 6 months and on the right is Maggie at roughly 6 months. To me they look very different! Ellie has dark eyes, while Maggie is holding on to those blue eyes! Their face shape is different as are their eyes and nose. Ellie was about an inch taller than Maggie at their 6 month appt. and about a pound heavier as well.
Personalities: Ellie has always been our serious, observant child since she was a newborn. It took a lot to make her smile. She takes everything in and is cautious around new people. Ellie was a wonderful sleeper as a baby and easy to get on a schedule. She never really cooed or babbled much as a baby. She hated being on her stomach and would roll right to her back. She skipped the crawling phase and went straight to walking. She was very content just sitting and playing. She was not much of a "grabber". She learns things very fast and walked early, got her teeth early, and is now potty trained. As I said, she is our observant child and may not preform in front of people, but she is taking everything in. When she gets home she can repeat everything that happened in a class, etc. Oh, and she is still a full fledged daddy's girl. No one can even compare.
Maggie, on the other hand, has been smiling and laughing since she was a few weeks old. She "talks" all the time and makes all sorts of sounds. She loves to roll over on her stomach and play and then roll some more all over the floor. I am pretty sure Maggie will be a crawler, which Ellie did not do either. Maggie is also a grabber. If it is within a foot of her reach she will somehow maneuver to get it. She turned all the way around in her bumbo one day and to pick up a hammer! We have to keep anything she is not supposed to have very far from her so she does not get it! She is not as content as Ellie was, but she is still very patient when we have to rush Ellie to the potty or get Ellie's food, etc. Maggie loves to give hugs and cuddle. She does not, however, like to sleep! We say she is a grazer with eating and a cat napper with sleeping. Grant and I both think she is going to be our outgoing, personality plus child.
It is just so fun to see how their little personalities develop and how different they already are. I am sure there are more things we have noticed, but these are just a few. I mainly wanted to write this so that I would have record of it and remember!