18 months of Junie Lou!

My sweet nugget is a whole year and a half! I absolutely adore the person she is becoming - she’s nothing like Ellie and she’s not a lot like me. It’s fascinating to watch. She’s quiet and observes. She’s fierce and doesn’t hold back with her opinions. She’s SO stubborn. She’s not overly snuggly by when she does, oh man does she snuggle. She lights up our family in such a special way and I am so lucky to be her mama. 

Over a year hiatus...

But going to try to start up again! 

No point in going backwards (other than a couple of June-related posts) so will start with today - mama’s birthday eve!! The girls and i took to the zoo for a beautiful fun morning. 

Painting!

We decided to risk painting for the first time and why didn't I try this sooner?! A full HOUR of a happy, contained, quiet girl, happily doing her art. So fun!

First solo swim class videos

Swim class changes

In preparation for baby #2, we had to make some adjustments to swim class. After having a baby you can't get in the pool for I believe 6 weeks, which would have made swim class with E tough, but also, I will now be bringing a newborn with us and can't exactly let her hang alone! 

Thankfully our swim school has a sort of in between class for kids who aren't yet 3 (the age required to go into a group class without a parent swimming with them), but are old enough to handle the pool without their parent in a 2 kid class. We searched for awhile but finally found a time slot that worked great with our schedule and so today, Ellie swam by herself for the first time! 

Our last class together was certainly bittersweet but just as parenting always is, those mixed emotions really kicked in! The nostalgia and sadness I felt last week getting out of the pool for the last time with her (we've been in swim class together for 21 of her 28 months of life!) were quickly replaced today by total pride and joy - she was AMAZING! 

I walked her over to her lane, and without so much as a wave goodbye she jumped right in to her new teacher and never looked back. She listened, followed directions, was amazing with back floats, and was even diving for rings off the bottom! 

I love that my girl loves the water so much and I am so insanely proud of her!!

(First few photos below are of our last class together...the bottom photo is right before she went in for her first solo class!)

We bought a house!

Holy cow the home stretch of this second pregnancy has been pretty crazy because we just closed on a new house! We put in the offer back in March, quickly got our house on the market, and thankfully it sold in 2 days. We signed our papers yesterday and got the keys today - we're homeowners! Again! We are thrilled and feel so lucky to be starting this next chapter in a beautiful new home. Awesome features include 5 bedrooms (one of which will be a dedicated playroom - woohoo!), 3 bathrooms, and a totally open concept kitchen/living space. We still have a neighborhood park which just so happens to be right behind our house. (After our final walkthrough last week we tested it out and Ellie gave it two thumbs up :)
We can't wait to create more amazing family memories for many (comfortable) years to come!

Signing our lives away!

We told Ellie if she wanted to live there she should probably sign her name, too. She did, as seen here, then proudly handed me her paper and said, "ELLIE!"

Zoo Date with Zachy and Lolo

We hit up Ellie's fave place once again, this time with friends Zachy and Lolo :) Obviously, darling photos ensued. And just in case you were curious this girl loves a carousel more than just about anything on earth.