Monday, July 14, 2014

Jayisms

In Jay's world, everything falls into one of two categories: a good idea, and not a good idea.  He uses these phrases all day long.

Example:
"Jay, it's time to go to bed."
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  That is not a good idea!"

and
Jay (stalling at bedtime): "I want juice."
Mommy: "You just brushed your teeth. You can have juice in the morning."
Jay: "No!!!  That is not a good idea!!!!"

or

"Jay, we're having pizza for dinner."
"Yes! That is a good idea!"

Ella update

Ella is almost one (less than a week away)...I know if I don't post this update now while I'm thinking about it, she'll be three before I remember.

Ella isn't walking on her own yet, but she loves walking when we hold her hands, and she cruises around the furniture.

She is still a crawling machine!  She's very fast and can get herself wherever she wants to go.

She has 8 teeth, four on the top and four on the bottom.  She appears to be getting another one right now, but I can't figure out which one.

Her hair is finally getting long enough for bows, but she won't keep them in.

Her favorite thing to eat (besides mommy milk) is French fries.  She'll eat anything we give her.  She loves fruit, especially blueberries.

She still nurses constantly, and sleeps best in mommy's arms.  Mommy and Ella sleep in the guest room most nights.  We're going to start working on getting Ella to sleep through the night in her crib so that both of us can sleep better, but Mommy will miss sleeping with Ella so so so much.

Ella prefers Mommy to anyone, but she'll jump out of my arms if her daddy reaches for her. 

Ella adores her big brother Jay, and he is starting to enjoy playing with her (and getting annoyed with her playing with her toys).

Sunday, March 23, 2014

speaking of Jay...

Jay can count to 10. He drags out 9 like niiiiiiiiiiiine, like he's anticipating something exciting, then says "ten" with gusto.

If you ask Jay who made him (God), he will answer J-A-Y!

If you ask him how old he is, his answer is "James".

Jay calls the unpopped popcorn seeds "beans".

He says, "Oh, OK!" When we explain things to him, even though we're pretty sure he doesn't actually understand.

He likes to climb on things and shout "I'm king of the world!!!"  I told him to do this once, before he was two, and six months later he says it all the time.

He adds an "n" to any word that ends with "ing".  As in: "Mommy, what you doning?"  "Where you goning?"  "Ewwa is cwyning."

Friday, February 21, 2014

Breakfast

Breakfast picnic on the front porch. Yes, our Christmas lights are still up.



Jay and Grandpa

Jay and Grandpa Tilley are great buddies! (Jay had just taken a bath and wanted to sit with Grandpa while he watched his bedtime show.)



Family

We were so blessed to have so many family members come to witness Ella's baptism!  Grandma and Grandpa Tilley came all the way from North Carolina!
All of us!

Ella and Great-Grandma Adi

Ella and all four of her grandparents!

Four Generations! Great-Grandma Adi, Grandma Linda, Daddy, and Ella.

Three Generations: Grandma Tilley, Mommy, and Ella

family!

Witherow granddaughters...

...plus Jay

with Grandma Linda, who made Ella's beautiful baptismal gown

Ella's Baptism

On Sunday, February 16, Ella was baptized at our church, Redeemer Presbyterian.  She wore a beautiful gown made just for her by Grandma Linda.  Ella is God's covenant child!



















Sitter!

Ella can sit up on her own! She's been getting closer over the last couple of weeks, but for the last day or two, she's been able to sit for at least 15 minutes without falling!  Big girl!

Weewa no more

Jay no longer calls Ella "Weewa".  She is now "Ewwa".  Today, Jay was helping me with the dishes while Ella was playing on the floor nearby, and he said "Hi, We...Ewwa"!  Then a few seconds later: "I wuh wu, Ewwa!"  (translation: I love you, Ella!"


Refrigerator

I cleaned out the fridge today -- as in took out every shelf and scrubbed them down. Jay knew what I was doing, but I know he's too little to know empty flattery...tonight, when Jay was putting away his milk cup, he said, "Oh, so pwetty! So pretty fridge, Mommy!"  Love my boy!!!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Cuddles

Mommy has gotten a lot of sweet Ella cuddles lately.  It is sad that our little lady has been sick, but being sick has made it that for around two weeks, she could only sleep in Mommy's arms.  So Mommy and Ella have been sleeping in the guest bedroom, with Ella snuggled up right next to Mommy's face.  I'm so glad she's feeling better, and know it's best for her to sleep in her own bed (every time she moved a muscle, I would wake up, which is good because it means I knew I wouldn't suffocate her since I was sleeping so lightly, but it also means I basically didn't sleep for two weeks).  But still, sleeping with my precious daughter in my arms has been one of the highlights of my life.  For a few nights, Jay was sick and needed to sleep with us, too, so I had my babies on each arm.  I didn't sleep a wink and can't remember being happier.

Ella in January

Sweet Ella.  She is our joy!  She is six months and it is so crazy to think how quickly her first half year has gone by!  Both Aunt Sarah and Aunt Hannah wished her a happy half-birthday!  She has been sick -- Jay is too, his first time to really be sick at 28 months, but poor Ella only made it to six months.  Thank goodness it was just a bad cold for both of them; no tummy sicknesses for the Witherow kids yet! 

Ella is almost sitting up on her own.  She is rolling over every time we put her on her back.  Used to, we could put her on her back to let her kick and exercise, but now, within a second of being on her back she has flipped to her tummy.  She's only happy on her tummy for a few seconds, then she's mad, but she gets even madder when we flip her back to her back.  She's a little happier to stay on her back if she has a toy to play with.

Ella loves toys -- loves putting them in her mouth!  Everything goes in her mouth these days, so we're having to be very careful with Jay's toys.  He is so good about sharing with her, and it is hard to tell him not to, because we want him to share with her when she's older and not in so much danger of choking on his toys!

Ella is definitely teething, but her first tooth has yet to make an appearance...soon, though!

Sweet girl is definitely a second child -- Mommy doesn't have nearly as much to photo-document her life as she did with Jay!  But hopefully I can add some photos to this post soon. 

We love our Ella Girl so much! 

Jayisms for January

Jay calls Ella "Wee-wa".  Whenever he sees her, he says, "Hi, Wee-Wa!" in a very sing-songy voice, like HI wee WA.  I hope I can capture it on video; it's so cute.

Sometimes if Ella is crying and I can't go to her (like if I'm in the shower), I can ask Jay to talk to Ella and help her to be happy, and he can almost always get her to stop crying.  Then he runs back to me and reports, "Mommy, I talk Weewa!"

We were at the park last week, and I told Jay it was time to go home.  He announced to the other family playing "I go home and cook!"  He loves to "help cook"!  Anytime I'm in the kitchen, he wants me to get out his step stool so he can help.  I'm trying to find things he can do without burning or cutting himself.  We're working on cracking eggs.  He's good at the tapping part, but then he just wants to squeeze the egg instead of opening it up.

Matt really wants to see the sequel to the movie "300".  When I told him it looked too violent for me and I didn't want to see it with him, he said "Maybe that will be a movie for Daddy and Papa to see."  A little voice piped up and added "And Jay."

Jay started saying his name around Christmas.  I never knew it would thrill my heart so much to hear my child's voice speak the name we chose for him.  I love hearing him say his name.  (He used to call himself "baby".)

"Not yet" is one of Jay's current favorite phrases, and he always uses it correctly. One day last week, I thought Maggie might have fleas again, so I asked Matt to check her tummy. Then Jay wanted Matt to check his tummy.  Then Matt told Jay to check his (Matt's) tummy and asked "does Daddy have bugs on his tummy?"  Jay said "not yet!"

Jay says "yes" now, instead of "please".  For the longest time, if I asked him if he wanted something, he would enthusiastically say "Please!!"  Now he says "yes" or "yes, please".  I love hearing his language develop, but I miss the "please" phase a little.

Jay still says "I woo woo" for "I love you".  I will definitely miss hearing that, but will love hearing him say "love".