Eila explores Aylen

I try hard to leave my work at school and family at home, but sometimes necessity dictates that my two worlds collide.  Last weekend I drug Adam and Eila into school to work on some projector issues.  While Adam worked his magic, Eila and I explored the classroom.

Singing her first song in front of the risers.

How about a document camera close-up of my daughter’s vocal chords?

Is this really the best place for me to learn to crawl?

A baby on a baby...grand that is!

Not photographed were Eila’s exploration with baby maracas, Japanese jingle bells, and a tambourine.  She was pretty musical in all areas.

Our afternoon of work behind us, it was time to unwind with some dinner and delicious pizza.  As Eila dives into the 6 month world of solid foods we have a new endless source of entertainment during meal times.  While she still won’t take anything off of a spoon - she’s happy to munch on whatever pieces of big people food we can safely offer.  She may not get much nutrition - but she’s sure having fun!

Cucumber

Zucchini 

Banana

Lettuce 

Cinnamon Magic Pop

New wheels!

I gave it a valiant effort.  When we became pregnant last year one of the first things that Adam wanted to do was start looking for a car to replace my sweet little Sapphyr.  I was adamant (read: stubborn) that I didn’t want a new car.  For one, my old car Sapphyr was an extremely generous gift from my favorite mother-in-law and a constant reminder of how lucky I was to marry into such a generous family.  For two, Sapphyr has been an amazing zoom zoom car that is tons of fun to drive and still, twelve years later, turns heads with her cute tail lights and spinning steering wheel daisy.

The perfect get-away car!  How could we readily part with such wonderful memories?

Everyone advised that a two door car would be a bad idea with a new babe - but I insisted that not everything in our life needed to change with Eila’s arrival.

I was wrong.  There it is - in black and white - go ahead and push print, Adam.

It took just six months of contortionistic baby seat/stroller antics to change my mind.  That, combined with Sapphyr’s breaking of the #1 rule...she woke the baby!  While her Turbo spoiler gives her plenty of pick-up, it is also quite noisy and more than once woke Eila up just as we’d lulled her to sleep.  Deal breaker!

Allow me to introduce Miss Periwinkle the Prius...Peri for short.

100% Mom-Mobile.  Next stop: Mini-Van  

An Arizona transplant - we waited for several days for Peri to make her way North.  We are thankful that her previous owners took good care of her and that her sellers were reasonable in their price expectations.  

This is what Eila thought of car shopping.

Though I feel good about the transaction overall - it’s never easy to write a check QUITE that large.

We celebrated the arrival of our newest family member with a fancy dinner out with our newest six month old!  Doc says she’s supposed to be eating big people food now, but she has pretty much zero interest in all of the homemade purees we’ve made in preparation of her momentous move to solids.  Thus - an introduction of day-old Jimmy John’s bread!

Naturally, our little munchkin is going to be a carb-oholic like her parents.

Now that I actually have a car with hauling capacity, you may wonder how we get all of our precious cargo into the house.  Another new transportation addition to the Wilhoit household is tons of fun for babies, pups, and groceries alike.  

Easier than the stroller!

P.S.  We waited months and searched super hard for one of these collapsible wagons.  We finally gave up and ordered one online.  Within a week our Costco started selling them and I saw a nearly identical one in Target.  Once again, we’re unwitting trendsetters.  

As summer draws near and with so many new wheels in our lives the Jr Wilhoits will definitely be on the move.  Everyone who wants to is welcome to join us!

Lost

To my very dearest sister and her handsome hubby - a belated Happy Anniversary! 

Somehow our congratulatory phone call to you got lost in baby world.  Please know that we love you and are so grateful our babes have such wonderful aunts and uncles.  You’re the best!

Happy Mother’s Day

It’s been a wonderful day.  It’s been a day of fun, food, faith, and a bit of reflection about how differently one views Mother’s Day when it’s your first one with a babe in arms.  One conclusion is for certain - I LOVE being Eila’s mom.

Eila was over-eager in her desires to start celebrating.  Having recently started sleeping through the night fairly well, she decided the party should start earlier this morning - like 4:00 am early.  This wouldn’t have been too awful - but she refused to go back to bed - until about twenty minutes before we needed to get her up to get ready for church.  Munchkin.  We spent the rest of the morning at church.  Adam came along to help with Eila while I played the flute for Sacrament meeting - as usual Eila added her own dulcet melody to the music.

All ruffles and binky for a mother daughter selfie in honor of NomiAnn.  Note the tired eyes - this was just moments before nap time.

After some snacks and a snooze, we took both our girls out to a great doggie park for some fun in the sun.  The weather this weekend was gorgeous and it’s always nice to get outside and enjoy.

Usually no farther from us than leash length, Zoe was surprisingly energetic in her explorations.  Note the faint dog dot in the distance.  

Having enjoyed our time in Steilacoom, we returned to our lovely home for some cuddle time.  This was DDD - Daddy Daughter and Dog.  They were pretty cute.

And for your weekly dose of video cuteness - I present “sisterly love.”

Lest you fear I was left out - I assure you Adam helped Zoe and Eila pick out a great Mother’s Day gift.

Ladies love their bling!

To all moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters and friends, thank you for teaching me how to be this little cutie’s mom.  We certainly don’t have it all figured out, but we’re having fun figuring it out together.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

Water Walks

While we often wish that we lived closer to aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents - there are days that we remember WHY we live where we do.  Puyallup is wonderfully close to Tacoma and when the weather cooperates it’s only a matter of time before we make our way out to the Ruston Way Waterfront.  

We packed up our Sunday salad and took both our girls for a gorgeous waterfront walk turned picnic. The sky was so clear that we could even glimpse Mount Baker from across the water.

Enjoying the view and the eats (it’s a good thing the salad was full of lots of fruit and veggies ‘cause we forgot the dressing  in the fridge).  

Having eaten our fill of leafy greens and a few Tim Tams, it made sense to work off a few bites with some playtime in the park.

Daddy daughter adoration

And now the action shot...Tacoma-style. (RE-visit...on my macbook and I-Phone this swinging video plays in “slo-mo” - but apparently that doesn’t carry over online - so it’s just a super quick swinging clip.  It’s far more hilarious slow - where Eila’s face clearly says ‘Sup? - I own this park.’)

Back on our own turf - Eila’s introduction to new foods continues (much to her chagrin).  Mmmm...grapefruit!

Daddy Daughter Duo

Eila’s becoming more and more like her papa each day.

Those who live and love Sir Adam are quite familiar with his adorably quirky self-soothing habits of lip sucking and hair twirling.  These are, apparently, hereditary traits.

Daddy demonstrates how it’s done - and tries to coerce Eila into giving him a head rub.

Now THIS is what you should do...complete with the subconscious lip suck.

Adam is so proud of his contagious habits that he just had to memorialize the twirl in video.  For those a bit more squeamish- I promise you all you see in this video is a baby in her happy place twirling all five of her twirlable hairs.

And...here’s the bottom lip suck!

It’s a good thing I think they’re both pretty cute - ‘cause I’m definitely surrounded!