Pretend bunk bed for stuffed animals

Elise helped me put together a shelf today for her closet. She was very helpful handing me pieces and trying to assemble it like me. But instead of being a useful storage item she thought it was a perfect bunk bed for her stuffed monkey! The house where she's watched during the day has bunk beds in it and she's quite taken with the idea. She told me "Shh!" and pointed to her monkey (which means 'shh it's sleeping') and then carefully put it on the bunk and covered it with a blanket. It's fun to see her pretend! Here are some pictures...

Elise helping assemble the shelf

Elise putting monkey to sleep on his bunk bed

A video of her arranging monkey for bed with his blanket. If you listen carefully you can hear her tell him "shh!" since it's bedtime.

Halloween with a kangaroo

This year Elise was a kangaroo for Halloween, complete with her very own joey in her pouch. She really liked her costume, especially looking at herself in the full-length mirror. While she didn't understand everything about Halloween this year, she did finally realize that people were giving her candy and that she had a lot of it!

We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat a few days before Halloween and Elise loved following her friends around and that's where she figured out people were giving her candy. She especially loved the suckers and would hold onto one in each hand while she watched people putting more candy in her pumpkin bucket. On the morning of Halloween we went with friends to the special storytime and pumpkin carving contest at my library, which was a lot of fun. The local news was there doing a story and got some footage of Elise that they used as part of the teaser to the story...she looked very cute! On Halloween night itself Elise was too shy to walk and instead she clung to my side--James said she looked more like a koala than a kangaroo and that we picked the wrong costume!

Here are a few pictures:

Elise painted her pumpkin all by herself this year--much safer than trying to carve a pumpkin with a toddler!

Elise as a kangaroo on the floor of the library...

Kangaroos love to forage for food...

...and sometimes make big messes when they get into chocolate!

We're expecting number two!

I've finally gotten around to sharing our news on the blog...we're expecting our second baby on May 4th. We are very excited. I waited to post this until after I announced it at work, so they wouldn't hear before I chose to let them know. Elise and her new sibling will be just over 2 years apart. She has no idea what's happening yet, but she loves babies (especially their little feet and their eyes) and hopefully will adjust well when the time comes.