Two tiny Atkinsons

Once again when I was taking Eliza's monthly pictures, Isaiah insisted on getting in the action.  Lately he loves to show how he's bigger than her.  They often have crawling races and Zay gets so excited when he wins (which is every time because Eliza doesn't crawl yet).   He also will come running to me in the other room, breathing hard like he barely escaped, "Eliza try to get me, mommy!" 

The cool part in this picture is that you can see his front teeth are starting to come back down.  Phew!

Oh, and the reason for the post title is that when I mentioned to Zay the other day that his name was Isaiah Atkinson, he was very upset.  "Me not at-y-son.  Me Zay-a."  And again this morning when I called Eliza "Liza Mae" he said "Gaga not Mae.  Gaga Gaga."  Just wait until he finds out he has FOUR names!

Refashioning

So I went to a clothing swap a couple weeks ago.  It was mostly kids' clothing, but I found this cute cotton shirt for me.  I was disappointed when I got it home to see that it has a tear in it, so I couldn't wear it after all.

So I thought back to all those cute websites I see where moms who should be too busy to brush their hair somehow manage to "refashion" old things into new things and I decided to give it a go. And so, with no pattern in hand, I took a stab at turning my torn shirt into a cute little shirt for cute little Eliza.

As you can see, it did in fact turn out to be a pretty cute little shirt.  Sadly, it was a little too little for Eliza.  I made her tough it out for the evening so I could admire my handiwork, and then sent it along to our littler neighbor Rocky to enjoy.  (I am an, well, uh, whatever you call an Indian Giver these days now that I'm sure that term is politically incorrect.  I've successfully switched from telling kids to sit "Indian style" to "criss cross" or "cross-legged" but I haven't yet heard the new term for Indian Givers.  It seems Native American Givers would be just as bad.  Anyway, I am one of those, so I told Carolyn (Rocky's mom) that if I ever have another girl I want to borrow this shirt back when she's tiny so I can admire my work some more).

She's related to her photo-hating father.

Another cute shot of Liza.

Zay wanted to take a photo of me & Eliza, so I let him give it a try.  He got one and a half of us at least!

"Grrrr...I-ZAY-uuuuuuhhhh, what are you doing!?!" --Mom

"Me reading, Mommy."  --Isaiah

Our cute girl

No exciting post here, just a cute picture of our smiley girl!

Holey Bread

This is for those of you who read my previous post about how my loaves of bread never turn out quite right--I wanted to present photgraphic evidence lest you think I was just being humble (which I rarely am). 

The Beach

While my niece Elise was visiting we convinced Jerel to join us for a day trip to the beach.  Here he is heading down to the water with Isaiah and Eliza.  When mom's too tired to haul them around, dad always steps in to help them have fun.

Here's Eliza in her cute little sun tent.  You don't really need sun protection in rainy Oregon, but it's always windy at the coast and this works great to protect her a bit.  She is (usually) so content to sit and watch her brother play.

Isn't he cute?  I made him this sunhat last year and sadly for him it still fits.  I guess next year I ought to buy (or make) him one that's a bit more boyish.

My oldest niece Elise came and stayed with us for a week.  What a handy helper she was with the kids!  She even tolerated sharing a room with Eliza, who has a habit of not sleeping through the night.  It was fun to have her here!

A few random pictures

I decided to stop eating sugar for the month of August and that included cutting out as many white flour items as I could.  We have some whole wheat flour Jerel's dad ground for us so Zay and I have been making bread about once a week.  Zay loves to make his own tiny loaf, which he kneads, shapes, and places in the tiny bread pan.  My loaves keep falling and having other problems; Zay's always turn out perfectly!

Isaiah loves loves loves trains, so we took the light rail to the zoo last month.  He thought it was pretty fun riding a train--I think mostly because he could stand up rather than be strapped in a carseat.

Here's Zay with a giraffe.  Our friend Emma has a family zoo pass that allows one guest to come.  Since Zay & Emma & Eliza are all still free, we use the pass for me.  Heidi & I are in the primary presidency together so we always have lots to chat about.

 I know this isn't a fine example of my limited photography skills, but I really like this picture.  It captures one of the first times when Zay & Liza were actually "playing" together.  Zay likes to show Liza how to crawl and roll and such.  He also tattles on her already "GaGa not listening."  As if I don't already know that...He also growls at her if she doesn't cooperate with him, which I am ashamed to admit is something he learned from me.  I didn't want to be one of those moms who yells all the time.  Instead I'm a growler.  Not really any better.

And here's sweet Eliza.  She's getting so big lately!  I definitely prefer older babies to the newborn stage, so for me she's getting to be more and more fun.  She laughs & giggles, is super ticklish, and even likes to cuddle sometimes.