Painting

I let Katie finger paint the other day. This is how she painted:


It was actually pretty interesting to see her progress with painting. I first put dabs of color on the newspaper, and told her to use her fingers to paint on the paper. This picture looked very neat, and I think I did a lot of it:

Then, we introduced a sponge, and she would draw a picture, then smear the paint around with the sponge until it looked like a water color:

Then, I basically said, "Go for it!" and she went all out. She put her fingers in the containers, and brought out huge gobs of paint that she then smeared all over the paper, and the newspaper underneath.The containers are now useless as pristine colors, but I think she really had fun with it. It was really fun to watch her.
This is what she painted:

Then, after clean-up, she took a nap, and decided that she needed to paint again. "No, not right now. We already did that this morning". The next day, she asked again, and again, and again. It took her about 3-4 days to quit asking. I guess if I was a better mom I'd let her do it more often, but I'm thinking outside in the summer time is a better time for that.

For this picture, I kept asking her to "grab her toes", and "where are your toes?". She was pretty good about getting them when I asked her too. Also, if you look close at her ears, you'll see we pierced her ears too! On Jan 22nd, we were up in Orem eating dinner with Ryan's parents, and since we were close to the mall, we decided that night would be the best time to do it. We prepped Katie for a while first, and it was awful to see Elayna cry when I held her head. Well, and you know, when they actually pierced her ears. But they are so cute, and they don't seem to bother her at all.


One night, Katie was crying for us to come lay down with her, and she kept saying, "Mooommmmmmy, Daaadddddy, Mooommmmmy! Daadddddy!" and then we heard, "Sooommmeboodddy!" I had to laugh at that.

Katie has the cutest expression. I will go lay down by her, or give her a hug, or she will be looking at Elayna with this look of complete love on her face. It melts my heart each time I see it.

When singing Old McDonald, I sing the song, and Katie fills in the blank with an animal of her choice. This is what happened the other day:
Me-"Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on the farm he had a...."
Katie-" ....DRAGON...!!"
Me-"What? a Dragon??" Okay. "With a ROAR here, and a ROAR there, here a ROAR, there a ROAR, everywhere a ROOOOAAARRR." She thinks it is hilarious!

I just remembered: When I used to burp Elayna, she would have her little arms folded on top of my shoulder, and she would just rest her head on her arms. It was so cute!

Ryan and I were talking about how we wanted to visit the Draper Temple Open House. We asked Katie if she wanted to go see the temple and she excitedly said yes! Later that week, I told Katie that Ryan and I were going to go attend the temple. Which means we will be doing sacred ordinances. She said, "It is open now?" "Can I go?" I replied that it was something just Mom and Dad can do, and she responded with "when I am 5, I will go to the temple, and Elayna, when she is 5 she can go too!" I explained she wouldn't be able to attend the temple until she was 12, but it is cute she is excited to see the temple.

Elayna eats carrots, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and yellow squash baby food now. She loves to drink out of her sippy cup. She is also obviously very interested in all our food.

Elayna turned 6 months on Feb 7th. She has found her toes and her hands, and entertains herself with them, for a moment anyways. She has also been sitting up this week. After we prop her up, of course.


They are both growing up so fast! :(