more pictures

on our entertainment center, we opened the bottom portion for elliot's toys. she loves to crawl in and pull things out one by one. she also loves anything paper so she can destroy it. while getting ready for bed the other night, she took to pulling out a cosmopolitan magazine. it was a very interesting choice of a "bed time story"! the others are after she ransacked my pear and decided she wanted to eat it more than i did, and using her awesome new baby sigg bottle.

tootsle toodle

here's a few more of the tootsle. her first ride in a swing at the park. the other, i put her in her crib while i was doing dishes and she fell asleep face planted into her bumper. too cute!

new photos

here are some new photos of miss elliot

nicknames

in my family, nobody is ever called their actual names; my brother's name is arthur, but he's called buddy, or budrick sackington, or sack. my mom, is not even just mom, but migmama. me, I'm leighB, leighberschmidt, schmitty, mama, goose. mike is goose, father, stinky. so it comes as no surprise to anyone that elliot has a million and a half nicknames. i was just sitting here thinking about how many names she does in fact have, and it's kind of insane. so here's a list of at least what i can think of right now:
ellliot smelliot
stinker
stinky
mama
mama toots
toots
tootsie
noodle
stinky sue
nooner
noonie
baby elliot
pigger
pot belly
beller
beeper
cutie
super cutie
cuter
boots
bootsie
nugget
noodle nugget
chubber
lady
little
monkey
booger face
chubba wubba
hobbit
buddah
buddah beller

i'm sure there are more, but i realized that it's pretty insane how many things we actually call her other than elliot. and i love it.

creepy crawler

here's the little lady doing a crawl. yay for mobility! though, my gosh, it does make doing anything so much more difficult for me; i peel my eyes away for a second before she's into something that she shouldn't be. we love this little lady so much :o)

and some cutie photos, too.

enjoying some delicious avocado and banana

and being silly with crazy hairs.

our little lady

could this cupcake be any cuter?

little nugget tries to crawl

here's the little cutie trying to do some crawling this evening. she's getting so close, but hasn't quite pieced it all together yet!

le cupcake

I really, really, really want to own a cupcake shoppe, and I think I would love for it to be named le cupcake- l for leigh and e for elliot :o) But I wanted my cupcakes to be used for some bigger purpose, and I really couldn’t piece together how I was going to do that. We had a ministry meeting at church today and we barely scratched the surface of things that we needed to be talking about, but it was good, just to see what ministries are happening at the church and how what we are doing as a church is lining up with our vision as New Life. There are certainly things that we are doing well, for example making community happen and connecting people together. But I still feel like we are not doing much to get outside of our four walls. We have opened up Tuesday night dinner’s to take place only the 2nd and 4th Tuesday’s of the month to give some room for service opportunities to take place the other two Tuesday’s, so I’m curious to see where that takes us. At the meeting, Jordan was talking about how he works at the Ivy in the events department and invited people to come over and hang out with him and the other residents. As I mentioned, I have really been wanting to do more service (outside the church), and have been advocating it for some time, but haven’t really felt like I knew what I should be doing, and just simply haven’t really put much effort into thinking about it other than waiting for action to be taken by someone else. If you want something to get done, do it yourself, right? So today, I asked Jordan to send me a list of all of the residents that he works with and when their birthday’s are so that I can make them cupcakes and deliver them to each person on his or her birthday with Elliot. This way, I can bake and we don’t have to be the only one’s to eat the deliciousness, I can be out doing something in the community and bringing a little smile for birthdays since I love birthday’s so much as it is! It will also be something to help keep me occupied during the day when I’m feeling bored- Jordan says that there are about 10 birthday’s a month (whew!). Also, for our Wonderful Wednesday’s playgroup, we are raising money this month to support New Mom’s, Inc., a local organization that seeks to serve and empower young and single mothers. I asked Shayna if she thought it would be a good idea to bake some sweet treats for the moms and tots (if their parents allow, of course), to be able to purchase some baked goodies, and the funds collected will be used to purchase supplies for New Moms. I’m really excited about this endeavor, and feel like this is just right for getting me mobilized with my baking! Can’t wait until Tuesday to start baking away! Here’s to the beginning of le cupcake!

Oops, here's that photo

Goodbye Facebook, Hello Blog!

Hello friends and family,

I have decided to get rid of my Facebook account as of Monday. It has become somewhat of an idol over the past few years, and I don't want it to take up all of my free time anymore. I still want to stay connected with friends and family on a regular basis, so I thought a blog would be a fun way to do that.

Things are going well for the Borge Trio. Mike is still teaching full time at Austin, though it appears this will be his last year there- by choice; and is taking two classes for his Masters this semester at UIC. He will be getting his degree next June, and is considering pursuing his Doctorate to become an Administrator.

Elliot is already almost 7 months old! She has four teeth- two on bottom and two on top. She looks super cutie, and is changing so much every day! She is also starting to crawl a little bit. It resembles something like a seal walk, as it is a little bit more of a reach and pull than a crawl, but she's getting close. At her 6 month check up she weighed in at 16lbs 7oz, exactly the 50th percentile. For height she is smack in the middle of the 25th and 50th and her noggin is just above the 50th. I think it means she is going to be a genius.

As for myself, I am also doing well. Having a bit of a battle between wanting to be at home with Elliot and feeling the need for a little bit more adult interaction on a daily basis. I have also taken a huge interest in baking and cooking lately. It seems to be a bit of an escape for me while Elliot naps! I'm keeping busy with being a coordinator for Tuesday Night Dinner's at our church in Lincoln Park, helping with a mom's group on Wednesday mornings, being part of a kickboxing Bible study on Wednesday nights, MOPS (moms of preschoolers) two Thursday's a month, and a married group on Thursday nights. I have been blessed to find the best group of friends a lady could ask for, and really enjoy spending time with and living life alongside of.

That's about all for now. Here's a cute picture of Elliot and her betrothed, Anderson :o)