Just to See You Smile

Check out the most beautiful smile of the world!

I think it is safe to say our world currently revolves around doing things to make the babes smile.  You should see us standing over her changing table making goofy noises and faces.  She even makes little cooing noises sometimes, which I believe to be precursors to a laugh or even a squeal of delight!  Our favorite game right now is sticking our tongue out.  I will do it to her, she looks at me with her signature quizzical eyebrow raise, then will study it and carefully move her mouth around and finally...pop her little tongue out too!  Which of course causes me to smile and dole out copious amounts of praise which in turn makes her smile.  Then the whole process starts again.  Good times :).

I was hoping to keep the blog updated more often, but it turns out having a baby is totally a time sucker.  And when we finally get into the groove of things a bit my sister comes home for a visit and the Olympics start!  Speaking of which, I believe I hear some women's synchronized diving calling my name.  So I guess this is all I have time to write about for now.  I will leave you with a few shots of what we have been up to lately.  Happy Olympics everyone!

 Being a Communist dictator

 Playing so hard we fall asleep

 Keeping it cool

 Loving Mommy

 Snuggling up next to Daddy

And, as always, being a little diva.

Rollin' with My Homies

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rolling baby on our hands!

May I present to you, the rolling stylings of Ms. Elliot Noelle:

I realize our actions border on Toddlers-in-tiaras-esque, but we just want her to be the roller we always wanted to be.  Just kidding.  No babies were harmed in the making of this video.

I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!

Girlfriend is 3 weeks old today!  And so far I find her to be quite lovable :).  There are hundreds of things I love about her, with more to add to the list each day.  But, for the sake of maintaining my readers, I have whittled it down to a top 10 list, in no particular order.  I will include pictures of each lovable action if I can find them.  

Reminder: I am a first-time mommy.  If these are things all babies do, just smile and nod and let me believe my baby is exceptional.

1. On some days, if the mood hits right, I can convince her to cuddle with me on the couch.  We stay there for hours and it is heaven.

2. She almost always sneezes in twos.  It has gotten to the point that when she sneezes we just wait for the other one to follow.  (Not pictured - it is really hard to capture a sneeze, plus, how would we show two?!)

3. Her default position is to have her legs crossed at the ankles, like a true lady.  This was also her default position in the womb.

4. She sucks her thumb, but instead of closing the rest of her fingers while sucking she just leaves them all up and touches her face.  Related to this, when she gets over-stimulated or stressed out she spreads her fingers wide and touches her face.  It is heartbreakingly adorable.

5. She is not bothered by dogs.  She took to Toast right away and has made multiple furry friends since her arrival.

6. Even though she can be difficult to take when she cries, her little wailing face is so cute that sometimes I can't help but laugh out loud.  

7. She is a very curious little girl.  When she can fight back the urge to sleep or eat or cry, she is always taking in her surroundings.

8.  She folds her hands, as if in prayer.  Sometimes they are perfectly laced up and sometimes there is an extra finger where it shouldn't be, but either way it appears that she is thanking God for her food :).

9.  She is a frantic eater.  She attacks her food like a shark in chummy waters.  At the hospital the nurse even commented on how crazy she gets when going in for the goods.  (We are breastfeeding, so for obvious reason, this is not pictured!)

10.  She is a great sport, putting up with all kinds of new parent nonsense.  Sometimes her facial expression says, "someone save me from these two fools!"

Ok, I guess that is all I will talk about.  As I was writing this I kept thinking of more and more things that we love about the babes.  But I think you get the idea.  We love her.  Everything she does is adorable.  Best. Baby. Ever.