The Times They are A-Changing

ALERT: TWO HUGE CHANGES IN MY LIFE

1. Elise is potty-trained! 

She is not perfect, but pretty close. It took 4 introductions over the past year, but she decided she wanted to do it. Just randomly requested to wear underwear a month ago. And we went cold-turkey. All underwear, all the time. Nothing extra at night. She's had a few accidents, but overall Lou is doing great. I am so proud of her. She seems so grown up now.

 2. Camille is bottle-trained!

This is the bigger change for me. I no longer have to plan my entire life around nursing. Camille seems to be loving it as well. Something just clicked with her and she decided she did like bottles. She holds them herself and everything. I just have to remember to bring bottles/formula with me when we leave the house. By the time Millie hits 7 months she should be completely done nursing.

If only my kids could start making all their own meals. 

Attitude of Gratitude

Nielson family gratitude list:

-family

-Elise & Mom

-Jesus

-home

-Sadie & Camille

-cousins

-treats

-Joseph Smith

-Moroni

-airplanes

-healthy bodies

-Nana & Papa

-Mimi & Paco

-trees

-books

-coloring

-mini-vans

-Camille

-school

-Earth

-friends

-Holy Ghost

-temple

-jobs

-dancing

-BYU

-food

-bedroom

-heart

Daniel and I came up with a few of these, but Sadie and Elise did the majority of them. We started by making the turkey and Sadie decided she should write what we are all thankful for on the feathers. Then we added the tree when Sadie wanted to add more items. Sadie was really focused on our bodies and wanted to list basically every body part, while Elise primarily suggested things related to either nature or religion.

One huge thing we missed: our babysitter, Amber. We are lucky to have found her. She keeps our girls happy and healthy while we are at work. She is Camille's second favorite person (I am #1 of course :) ). She is an incredible artist. The girls spend hours each afternoon coloring/painting/crafting with her.  

November so far

November has been fun.

Kangaroo Zoo

Look at that square face

So squishable

Gymnastics

Tea party (super enthusiastic about it)

First snow

Hot chocolate play dates

Tickle Monster

These girls love when their dad becomes a tickle monster. They usually get so worked up that they end up laughing hysterically before he even touches them. 

A True John

I gave Camille her first non-rice cereal/pureed fruit/vegetable and she is in love. Graham cracker love. Her Papa John will be thrilled. Graham cracker love is a true John trait. 

 She started out holding it herself but then got upset after the initial taste when she kept missing her mouth. I agreed to help her hold it and she got a death grip on my fingers to make sure the cracker was kept as close as possible. 

Most of the soggy cracker ended up smashed into her bib, but that graham taste was heaven. 

We've Only Just Begun

Another basketball season is here. The girls got ready hours before the game last Saturday so we had a little photo shoot. And Camille was my best photography subject. 

 

GO COUGARS!

Bring on the crazy travel schedule, the late night game film and the hours of waiting around in the Marriott Center. We are ready.

Frozen Halloween

Halloween was a fun day. There was so much anticipation leading up to it. 

Friday morning we attended Sadie's school costume parade. It was fun. I have no memory of ever wearing costumes to elementary school, I know we didn't have any kind of a costume parade.

Camille was fussy and I was trying to console her and take pictures, so all of them are blurry.

We quickly ate when I got home from work and then got the girls ready. Elise did not want her hair in a tight ponytail under her wig, so she opted for pigtails, which were very visible. 

Camille's Olaf costume consisted of an all white outfit with black construction paper buttons.

And, of course, Sadie, along with 75% of little girls, was Elsa.

 Trick-or-treating with young kids is just plain fun. It is. They love it and their excitement is contagious. It's also really fun to walk around the neighborhood and see all the neighbors and friends dressed up. We ran into our neighbors from down the street (also with 3 girls- 2 of whom were dressed up as Elsa) and we ended up walking with them much of the time.

Elsa's everywhere!

On Saturday morning Sadie asked me about what holiday comes in November. We talked a little about Thanksgiving and she said she doesn't remember ever celebrating it. I guess a good savory meal really doesn't stick in a kid's mind. She decided to just skip that and start counting down to Christmas. 

6 Months

Camille Christine had her first ever half birthday. Six months! That went fast. 

She is as lovable as ever, although she has had a real fussy week since getting all her 6 month immunizations (plus the flu shot). She was fairly sick for 3 days after, but I think we are on the up and up. 

Her biggest fan may be Sadie. Who am I kidding? Her biggest fan is me. I have never been so obsessed with one of my babies. But Sadie is a close second. The photo below was taken by Sadie and one below that is a common occurrence. Sadie has been reading up a storm and Camille is a very captive audience, although Sadie gets frustrated when Mills rolls away. 

She sleeps 12 hours a night, although she might wake up earlier and we don't know because she doesn't cry- just plays in her crib until we hear her talking or I look at the video monitor. She is back to sleeping on her back and she loves to snuggle/wrestle with her blanket. She takes 3 naps a day.

Millie is eating rice cereal/baby food at least 3 times a day and nursing 4 to 6 times. She still won't take a bottle! Rice cereal is Camille's favorite. She kicks her legs and gets so excited when she knows it's coming.Camille continues to develop the signature Nielson square face, which I thought meant she was gaining good weight, but at her 6 month appointment Millie was in the 90th percentile for height and 22nd for weight. Not even 15 pounds yet. Once she stops nursing she will get up to a more normal weight. 

Mills enjoys grabbing/yelling at her feet, as well as clasping her hands and yelling at them.

It seems like Camille may start crawling soon. She extends her arms straight, in kind of a half push-up, and she scoots herself backwards, but that could last for months. We are also working on sitting up all alone.

 

A few adorable outtakes

And here is the squishy girl in her official 6 month pic

Papa John's Visit

My dad came out for my cousin's wedding last weekend. We all loved it, even if Camille cried every time he tried to hold her for the first day or so. We dragged Papa to several restaurants, the park, a random strangers house to try out a jungle jumparoo, Hee Haw farms, the wedding reception and church. Not to mention that the girls woke up sinfully early each morning to race down to the basement and wake Papa up. He brought them a new ABC train puzzle, which got assembled approximately 5,000 times. They also forced him into Pandora dance parties at least twice a day.

Park Trip

An adorable game of frankenstein/monster/vampire chase

Camille's first time in a swing

Hee Haw Farms

Do those face holes look kind of small for kids? And what is with the hole right above the ground? Is the kid supposed to lay on the ground to stick his face through? Oh wait, yeah, this was a bean bag toss. I laughed for 10 minutes straight when we realized.

I passed on the petting zoo area, but Elise actually pet the baby goat several times.

Couldn't skip the pony ride, even if it cost extra this year.

Corn maze

The girls tried about every possible position to go down the slide.

A terrible hay ride

Sadie had a huge meltdown and Elise added a mini meltdown when it was time to go home. I always love when my parents get to be reminded why they enjoy being grandparents.

Wedding Reception

We really should rent Sadie out for receptions. The second the music started she was out there tearing it up with people she never met, along with some of my cousins' kids.

Sadie got to participate in a conga line for the first time. Important rite of passage there. I think my first conga line wasn't until Shira Hahn's bat mitzvah in 7th grade.

Sadie insisted on a picture as Papa was carrying his suitcase out the door.