My Greatest Blessings

Yesterday I'm spent Mother's Day home from church with a sick little Eliza. I barely got to sit down to eat dinner because she was so upset and walked to go on a walk. And yet there is nothing I would rather be doing. I love my girls and I feel so blessed to be a mom. Here's some of what the two cuties are up to theses days...

Eliza grows up so much every day. She's strong willed just like Hazel and it shows through in how she plays. Currently she is obsessed with the chicken leg and ice cream cone from the play food. Why those two? I have no idea. But she loves them and wants to carry them everywhere. If they drop or get misplaced she says things like "Drop it my i-ceeam!" or "My chick-ee my chick-ee!" She loves them!

One chicken for each hand!

Eliza and I have a fun game right now. She will say "no" then just smile at me. I say "yes" and she answer back with a longer, louder "no!". We go back and forth. Sometime she throws in a "noooooooooooooooo!" After a while we switch to nodding, then to sign, then back to talking. Haha I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior but it is so stinking sweet!

Rockin' it! (with the ice cream of course)

Tonight I caught Eliza standing on the decorative cut-out at the end of her crib, gripping with her toes and not holding on. To add to the stunt she signed "monkey" and said "oo-oo-ah-ah!" I told Michael we seriously need to start looking for a bunk bed so we can move her out of the crib. Climbing is not her only night craziness, she has taken to stripping off her pajamas and often her diaper. One night she had me in tears of laughter when I walked in to find she had taken off her pants and diaper then put on the tutu from her teddy bear. Such a cute little stinker!

Then there's Hazel. Lately everything in our house turns in to a game of mommy and baby. Often she will be the mommy. At first I was the grandma and Eliza the baby but I refused to play this way:) So now I'm the big sister. She walks around all day calling me "honey". She cooks us soup (water in a cup), kisses boo-boos and puts the baby to sleep (aka puts Eliza in a laundry basket and covers her with a blanket). When she mommy to me and Eliza she's playing mommy in some form - the monkey mommy, the mermaid mommy, mommy to Rafi, etc.

Modeling for grandpa. 

A few weeks ago her Sunbeams teacher came up to me after church to tell me about what she said during the lesson. They were learning about animals and how Heavenly Father made animals to help give us food. She was asking them things like "Where do eggs come from? Right chickens! And where does milk come from? Cows that's right. Does anyone know where hamburgers come from?" At this point Hazel blurted out "In-n-Out!" Of course she made her daddy so proud with that one!

My favorite Hazel sayings lately include: "Primary was awful today!" (she didn't get to sit next to her friend Thomas - such a sad day), "I'm going to learn to wear pants today. (Five minutes later) See I did it, I wore pants!"

"See I did it!"

I love these girls! What a wonderful gift it is to be a mother. It's hard and exhausting and tons of work. But it's such a wonderful gift!