Ellie girl

a picture of Mommy and Tate by Ellie. heh...

Watching her cousin Carter dominate at his wrestling match.

Ellie girl in motion

fun with totes

Ellie thought it would be fun if Tate sat in one of her toy totes. I'm not sure Tate was convinced of the "fun." :)

almost a sitter

Getting a little tired of holding this head up... So proud!

Daddy Cheering Tate on

6 months!

The many faces of Tate

Reading together

I put Tate on the couch next to Ellie so that I could grab a drink.  She was looking at her newest princess book and was telling Tate all about them.  He seems pretty interested, eh?  I think he was trying to figure out how to chew on them.  :)

an adventure in picture taking...

Trying to get these two to look at the camera and smile is quite the adventure.  Here we have Ellie making her favorite Britney Spears face while Tate is looking for an escape route.



Ellie told me that Tate is too heavy for her to lift...as she was trying to lift him.  Tate looks like his eyes are going to pop out cause she's probably squeezing him a little too hard after just eating. 



Smiles from Tate.....Ellie kept saying "he's falling over! Why won't he just stay?!" 

Smiles from Tate.  Ellie and her blinking.  She blinks a lot. She's almost as bad as her dad when it comes to blinking in pictures.

Cheeeeeeeeese

Success

My favorite picture of these two.  No one is blinking, squeezing, or leaning.  :)

Tate

Tate's been growing like a weed.  He goes in on the 17th for his 6 month check up, and I'm curious to see how much this guy weighs.  When I'm trying to lug him somewhere in his carseat, I'm pretty sure he weighs like 50 pounds. 

One of Tate's favorite new activities is to chew.  On Everything and Anything.  Your shirt while you're holding him, your hands, you hair, his shirt, his hands, any toy he can get in his mouth, Ellie's bubby (much to her horror).  We still haven't seen a tooth pop up yet, but I'm guessing it'll be soon.  At least that's what I keep telling myself...

Tate loves to watch people in action.  His favorite subject to study:  Ellie girl.  I am hoping he isn't filing away all of her tricks to try someday...

We went to the Mall of America at the end of February so Ellie could use a wrist band her Grandpa Pete and Grandma Diane gave her at Nickelodeon Universe.  Tate got to ride in the stroller like a big boy for the very first time.  He loved being able to see everyone and everything. 

Happily waiting for Ellie to get off her 20th ride on the carousel.

We've been trying to get Tate excited about sitting up.  At first he seems pretty happy to do it, but eventually it turns into

a little leaning forward....and then...

a complete attempt to bail out. 

Tate loves to jump.  Love isn't even a strong enough word to describe this kid's obsession with the Jumparoo.  He'll stare at it.  He'll roll toward it.  If you walk within three feet of it when you're hold him, he'll start jumping in your arms.  He's going to have strong legs if he keeps up his daily regimen of jumping constantly.  :)

Favorite picture.  This is usually what I get to look at when he's in the Jumper.  Mommy's little owl.  Ellie was the same way.

Tasty treat

Silly faces

Ellie wanted to make silly faces and take our pictures.  This one made her laugh so hard, I thought she was going to pass out.  Lately she's been making this silly face; my guess is she saw it at daycare and has now embraced it as her own.  Each time we would get ready to take a picture, her silly face was the same, but if I did the same silly face, she would tell me I already did it and that I had to find a new one. 

I am in awe of how grown up she has become lately.  She knows all of her letters and writes many of them.  This girl loves her some books and going to the library is the highlight of her week.  She browses the shelves, looking for just the right book.  She'll carefully place it in our library bag and continue looking.  Once she has made all of her selections, she likes to play a computer game.  She told her her favorite part of the library is the self check-outs.  I love going to the library just to watch her in action. 

Ellie typically isn't a super snuggly kid, but lately she's been giving tons of hugs and kisses.  Her favorite person?  One guess....Tate-bear.  That little guy gets slathered in smooches and squeezes from his big sister.  He doesn't seem to mind one tiny bit.  I hope that never changes.

We adore Ellie girl.  We've been working teaching her that her full name is Ellie Jo Rohde.  The first time I asked her what her entire name was, her reply was "Ellie girl."  Heh.  For a few days she insisted that her name was "Ellie Gurl Rohde."  She is a little firecracker that loves to play and tease her daddy.  Each day she says something that makes me laugh as I'm trying to fall asleep, going over the events of the day in my mind.  Life is definately not boring with this little one around. 

Ellie



Ellie Jo loves to brush her teeth.  The only problem with this is that she doesn't want to actually *brush* her teeth, she just wants to lick the princess toothpaste off.  :)



Don't mind her band-aid, she had a little run in with the counter at Grandma and Grandpa Rohde's house.  Minor injury, major drama. 

Gotta get every last smidge of toothpaste off!

Ellie likes to dress up as a Princess.  There have been many trips to Target and other various places with her dressed like this.  I think it's hilarious; Matt does not. 



Ellie is slowly warming up to having her pictures taken again.  Every once in awhile she'll say "Mommy, you can take my picture now too!" 



She was in a very silly mood this day.  I think I got about 20 shots of her actually smiling. 

This little pixie makes me laugh daily. 



Ta-da!