Ellie!

Lena has been acting very much like a little mom of late. She chases Jimmy around with his bottle trying to give it to him. She gives him hugs and kisses and is constantly trying to stick his binky in his mouth. :) She also likes to give other babies their binkies when she sees them. My mom mentioned that it might be a good time to get her a baby doll. I mentioned this to Randy and he was reluctant about the idea... he says that baby dolls freak him out with the hard plastic arms and pillow bodies and the way their eyes shut when they lay down, and how most of the time, one of the eyes is stuck closed. I tried to convince him that not ALL baby dolls were like that. :) Well, I was kind of impatient for her to have something anyway and didn't want to go to the store so I adopted her little teddy bear as her new "baby". I made a little diaper for her and put a bow on her ear and named her "Ellie" (a nickname for her middle name). I got one of the newborn blankets that were too small for Lena by week two and also one of her old little bottles and a newborn binky. Lena fell in LOVE with Ellie. She helped me wrap her up and would hold her tight in her arms and swing back and forth to rock her (she still does now). She also made sure to feed Ellie her bottle and now she even makes a little slurping sound when she holds the bottle up to her. :) She did get a little frustrated about the binky not going into her mouth and for some reason didn't want the diaper on her... maybe she hates having a diaper on herself and wouldn't want to put her Ellie through that. :P I really have no idea why.

The experience of seeing Lena take something and care and love for it so much was heartwarming to me. It's so amazing that she already holds that caring, mothering personality. I'm so proud of the little girl she is becoming. A lot of times she'll do something to imitate me (clean up a mess on the floor with a wet one, throw things in the garbage and sweep the floor) and it impresses me so much. :) I like to say that the reason she is so great is because I'm an awesome super mom, but really, she is like that on her own... I just get to sit on the front row and just watch the awesomeness happen.

Lena rocking AND feeding Ellie at the same time. It's not an easy task!

Lena not multi-tasking as much and feeding her while she lays on her lap. :)

The diaper I made for Ellie that Lena is constantly trying to rip off... she squeals in frustration when she can't get it off. :P