Christmas in July

Jessica doesn't worry about waiting until November or December to celebrate Christmas; we've been watching "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus" and "Frosty the Snowman" all summer long. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me the other day when Jessica was pulling her Christmas dress (the one we bought after last Christmas, for this coming Christmas) out of her closet and trying to get it on. She didn't have any trouble convincing me to let her wear it when she told me she wanted me to take some pictures of her. And here they are:

(You'll probably be seeing more pictures of her in this dress, in about five months when it really is Christmas.)

Elyse at Six Months

On Monday, Elyse turned six months old! Here are some pictures I took of her to commemorate her half-year mark:

And finally, a picture with her Daddy:

(It took Mommy off-camera several tries to get that smile out of her!)

Cousin Naomi

While we were in Minnesota last week visiting Anna's family, we went to Molly and David and Naomi's house so I could do a photo shoot with Naomi. Naomi has a beautiful smile and was very cooperative; here are five of the pictures from that afternoon:

Identity

One of the many interesting things about life with Jessica is that I never know exactly who she will be, or who I will be, from day to day--or hour to hour, for that matter. For example, our early morning conversation might go something like this:

Daddy: Are you ready for some breakfast, sweetheart?
Jessica: Yes, Peter Pan.
Daddy: Okay, Wendy. Do you want some grits?
Jessica: I'm Tinkerbell.
Daddy: Oh, okay. Do you want some grits, Tinkerbell?

By mid-morning snack, I might learn that now I am Santa Claus, but it's up to me to figure out whether Jessica is Mrs. Claus or Rudolph. If she's Belle, I'm always the Beast. If she's Dora, I'm inevitably Diego.

And when she's Snow White...sometimes I'm Dopey. It's something I've come to accept.

Rice Cereal

Elyse has been showing a lot of interest in "big people" foods lately--reaching for our pizza, attempting to grab spoons, trying to get her mouth to the straws on our cups--so we decided it was time to start her out on solid foods. Here are some pictures from her first, very successful feeding of rice cereal:

(It was Jessica's idea to put the headband on her. Elyse put up with it because she was so excited about her rice cereal.)