A Case of the Body Snatchers?

I've been busy lately and haven't been blogging....and I'm not the only one who has been busy....

It seems as if Ella's personality was recently abducted.  She went to bed on Thursday, completely normal.  I am convinced overnight though that a body-snatcher took the sweet, angelic personality, always laid back and easy to manage, and left her shell with a new personality.  Chronologically:

• Friday @ sitters-during naptime, tore down some curtains, took down a white board & erased it, and put on A LOT of makeup, ruining at least one eye shadow
• Saturday @ home: While I was feeding Eli, Ella put on my 14-hour lipstick (like a clown!) and painted her nails over her St. Patty's Day green nail polish.  
• Punishment-spanking, and removal of all nail polish.  The latter seemed to be the most upsetting to her as she screamed, "NOOOOO!!!!!  IT'S FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!"
• Sunday @ Aunt Kristin's: Good almost the whole day, except for while we were visiting.  Example: when we left, Reagan tried hugging her and saying, "Thanks for coming over" while Ella stiff armed her yelling, "YOU'RE WELCOME!" and running out the back door.  Huh?
• Monday @ home: #1- Ella eats 2 Cadberry Cream Eggs (MY FAVORITE!) for breakfast without permission #2-Ella gets into my makeup again
• Tuesday-Good day, but it took 2 hours to get her to go to sleep.  At one point, she got up to go to the bathroom & somehow, her panties got flushed down the toilet.  When I asked where they were, she said, "I told you they were wet!" and she keeps pointing to the toilet, then adds, "and now they're in the basement...."

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!  Seriously?  What happened to my angel baby?  She was so good and so easy!  It seems as if overnight, everything has changed.  In any case, I would have loved to take pictures of any of these things.  However, I CANNOT encourage further misbehavior by acting like any of this is cute.  I'm sure one day (a long, long way from today) that I will find all of this to be funny.  However, right now, it's maddening!

Here are some other pics of the kids though:

This boy sure does love to eat....yet somehow he's in the bottom 10% of his weight class. Go figure!

Fun in the Tub--Eli LOVES bathing with Ella.  He loves it even more now that he's not in a seat.  He's such a big kid!

This was at the dentist (before).  She took it like a champ though and didn't cry once.  She was enormously proud of her x-ray too. :)

Baptism & Ballet

I am so proud to say we had Eli baptized on 2/25.  Although I know it's not Eli making the choice for himself (obviously), it's a big deal to me.  To us, getting up in front of hundreds of people and promising to raise our kids in the faith is a big deal and it means a lot.  I'm not sure why I start to tear up at baby baptisms, but it happened again.  I can't even imagine if I tear up at this, at us saying we promise to raise our kids a certain way, how I will feel if/when my kids do make that decision on their own.  Sorry you two, but prepare for your mom to be a tearful mess....

Nick and I were standing up front, so we couldn't see how adorable Eli was.  Apparently he was super cute and made everyone "oh" and "ah" over him. :)  Pastor Mike Schreiner is the one here baptizing Eli.

Ella has been hard at work lately getting ready for her recital in May.  The picture above is her costume that she will wear.  The other day, Aunt Kristin got to go and watch the girls in their ballet class (I am SO jealous!).  I will be taking a day off work soon so I can go and see my girl. :)  Here are a few of the highlights of the ballet class.

Look at that little sassafras attitude!

Here's a better picture of her smiling.  She got to be the class leader!

The girls practice leaps (Jeté) over a teddy bear.

Although Ella's kick may not be the highest, her "Grand" Battement is praised for form. :D

In other news, I felt like I had to write this adorable moment down so I wouldn't forget it.  Ella got down off a kitchen chair the other day and hurt her booty.  She was crying, and rubbing it, and for some inexplicable reason, blaming poor Scout.  I came in and asked, "What's the matter?  Why are you crying?"  She said, "I hurt my booty....."  Since a mother's kiss can heal all injuries, I kissed my hand, patted her bottom, and assured her that it would all be okay.  She looked at me and said, "Nooooo, here, I'll do this (pulled down her pants revealing all butt-cheek) and you kiss it!!!!"  Sorry babe.  Nope....not gonna happen.  Too cute though.  I laughed and laughed until she was laughing too.

Also, Eli had his 9 month check up yesterday.  He weighs 18 lbs, 5 oz. (10%--are you kidding me?  He's a chunky monkey!).  He is also still not crawling; he seems mostly happy wherever he is and doesn't care to move.  We've been instructed to put him on the ground by himself for AN HOUR 3 TIMES/DAY!!!  Are you kidding?  Apparently, he's strong enough to do it, but doesn't want to.  We tried last night.  1.) He hated it and cried most of the time.  2.) He stayed in the seated position and didn't attempt moving at all.  I remember this happening with Ella too.  She was also a late crawler.  I remember being concerned that she seemed content to be right where she was all the time.  I was worried about her lacking ambition and what if she didn't want to go anywhere in life?  Now look, all of my fears were put at ease, and I'm sure Eli will be the same way.  Even when we lay him down and encourage him to crawl with toys, pacifiers or fun gadgets in front of him, he rolls on his back and just smiles at us.  If I leave, he usually will stay on his stomach, and keep his head up for awhile....until he puts his face into the carpet and cries.  Really....I ask you, how can I possibly let this go on for an hour?  Grrr, Eli, just please start crawling so the dr will get off my case. :)

Okay, this has quickly turned into a novel, and I should be writing a paper instead of blogging.  (I will in fact be graduating soon and REALLY NEED to get this done!!!)  Kiss, kiss!