22 months and a very busy week.

Well, I went through and organized all of these, and blogger still didn't upload them in order! I just must be missing something.

This week was a busy one! Last weekend we had some time just to ourselves with nothing planned, which was nice. Elena played "horsey" with Daddy, then wanted to be the horsey for her baby. Cute. Baby dolls do almost everything she does now-one of my favorites has to be that she shows them things and has them touch them-like reading books. She also does a really adorable thing where she tells them goodbye and then comes back and says "missed you!". We videoed it the other night, and she did it 12 times in a row.

She is a very serious draw-er for a 22 month old. She uses a pen and writes "letters" and will tell you what they are. She will do this for numerous minutes at a time. Here, she's very seriously writing on Gigi and Grandad's birthday cards.

She brought me the camera, got Harriet, and said "picture". She wouldn't smile, but she did sort of pose. She's standing very close so she can get to the camera to look at it quickly.

Last Friday we had nothing planned to do and it was raining, so we rented videos and let her choose for the first time. She chose Babe. This was her "seat" for part of the movie. The rest of it she was between us eating popcorn!

Out of order-these are from the Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. My grandparents, aunt DeAnn and her husband David, uncle Steve, and our usual crew were all in town this year, which was fun. Leni had a good time having undivided attention for several days. She loves to dress up-these were some galoshes Mimi had in the dress up tent. (And, her Thanksgiving dress)

We had a birthday party for Gigi and Grandad's birthdays at Avery and Nathan's house. We didn't tell Elena that Cami was going to be there, just in case it didn't work out, but she was SO glad to see her!

Doing "head, shoulders, knees and toes".

Our small group had a shower for us last night, which was really nice! It was fun to celebrate Maeve coming. We had chili and Magpies cupcakes-yum! Elena helped open presents, and drug people to try to tell the kitties under the bed to "num-oh", which is "come on". It didn't work.

From Thanksgiving-with uncle Steve.

Playing downstairs with uncle David. All the big boys around the house were favorites this week.

Playing downstairs with Gigi and Deedee

Being sweet with her baby

Tonight everyone came over for dinner on their way back from our cousin Chelsea's wedding. (We didn't make it, seeing how a 22 month old and wedding don't go well together, plus the whole 8 month pregnant part). Here she's being sweet with Grandad.

David was playing guitar and she was dancing with her baby and polar bear.

Gigi was telling her she was a baby, and she loved it. She asked to be the baby twice, and has since asked me and Chris to hold her like a baby, cover her with a blanket, and has gotten out a few of Maeve's toys for herself to play with.

Magpies cupcakes and the really pretty table from the shower.

She REALLY wanted Kaori to sit in her lap. Kaori, who is almost as big as she is. Kaori was a good sport, and she's been looking at the pictures and saying her name tonight. She can't say her own name, but she says "Kaori" and "Emmy" for Emily. The L's are tricky for her.

Just one other quick story-

I took her to the nursery Sunday during church, and was getting juice for a couple of the kids who were out before I left. I saw her kneel down and tell a little girl who's new and kind of shy "hey", then ask if she wanted to "num-on" and slide, and told her the names of some of the other kids. It didn't work-the little girl didn't come play, but I was really touched by how she realized the little girl wasn't playing and tried to include her. This is definitely her daddy in her, but it's really sweet to see her little spirit coming out when it's unprompted. She is our sweetest girl!