A Little about our Littlest.

A little video of my current favorite things that Adam says. I just love the way he says the word "toast" and how he gets excited about being "Grizzy Pal!"

Grizz also helpfully snapped this photo of his pal doing some chores. In his cape. As one does. He is such a crazy little loon baby.

See? Helping Poppy drive the duffy boat.

And helping himself to some hand washing. So tidy!

Vacation.

Even mommies need a break sometimes, so this past weekend, I took off for Chicago to spend some time with Becca, and to get some time away from my much beloved, loud and obnoxious family. Gigi and Grizz and Sara handled the kids on Thursday after I got on the plane, and Tim had them the rest of the weekend, with some help from Mimi and Pa. He reports that everything went well, but that on Saturday after two parties, he was really exhausted. Rearing children is exhausting, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. Meanwhile, I slept in, didn't have to make my own breakfast (one morning I ate an apple, one morning Brian went and got bagels, and Sunday morning Brian made pancakes and hash browns and coffee while Becca and I laid in bed with the cats) and we spent most of our time eating, shopping and talking smack. Oh, and on Friday night I got to sit around a chimera and drink four Miller Lites with a bunch of their Buckeye and Sconnie friends.

Sunday night I got off the plane and the kids came running, screaming to me. It was very sweet. They had been fed and bathed at Mimi and Poppy's house, so all we needed to do was snuggle while we waited for my bag, and then came home to bed time. I was pleased that they have taken me back without too much protest - I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Ellie did make me this delightful and terrifying photo of us as bunnies. Apparently the backwards writing is normal for a kid her age - she's not possessed.

Wednesday before I left, Ellie and I had quite the fun time farting through my closet.

She is my Baby Sequins forever. It was so cute how excited she was to prance around in everything - with this dress, for instance, I had to take and secure the back with a bracelet so that the straps wouldn't fall off. She also looked great in some of my shorter dresses, but the thrilling part for her was when I told her I would fix up my old prom dress for her, since I'll never wear it again (I have worn it once since prom. And I still have my winter formal dress from HS, which I will definitely wear again, believe it or not. It's just long and blue velvet, and still is the best.) So I cut the straps on my prom dress so it will be a halter neck for her, then cut the front of the skirt, leaving the back long for her "drag." And had to put a stitch in at the waist so that it doesn't gap all the way to her underpants. She is such a darling little nut. But sadly for her, I told her I might wear that sequined dress again, and refused to cut the bottom for her (even though let's be real - the only time I wore that dress was when I was at my all time lowest weight, and even then, it was so tight that I couldn't sit down in it.) But maybe I'll get a tape worm and lose those pesky thirty to forty pounds. Who knows!

Spring Break Survived!

Ellie's school had spring break last week, AND Mimi had to work for her super mean boss, so we had none of our usual activities. We managed to keep mostly busy and happy though. Ellie is going through a horrible phase where once she gets upset about something, she can't dial it back, and any efforts to calm her and get her back into enjoying life mode is like throwing gas on a fire. Namely, Wednesday we tried to go to the Discovery Science cube with Sara Jo and Whitney for bubble fest, and despite me warning her that if she couldn't behave, she would be getting hauled back out to the car and taken home, about fifteen minutes into the show she began weeping over nothing, which then escalated into weeping because she didn't get picked to go up on stage, and then weeping allllllllllllll they way out to the car. And it was a long walk. Plus weeping on the way home. I am trying to ride it out and let her know that her behavior is not acceptable, but I'm ready to slap her across the face and scream "SNAP OUT OF IT!" like Cher.

I am basically surprised that people still invite us to things, because my kids melt down like a couple of ants under a magnifying glass. Guaranteed. I can think of very few events we've attended lately that do not end with Tim and I each carrying a crying child to the car - and these are situations where the kids are not overtired or hungry. They are just explosive pains in the ass.

Fun things we've done though - Ellie has been spending a lot of time drawing, which she loves. She can write her name (both Ellie and Elizabeth) and has learned how to spell love, and draw hearts. We've also spent a lot of time in the backyard enjoying the nice weather, watching the hummingbirds hum around the feeder, riding bikes, drawing with chalk. We had a picnic at the park this weekend, which was really fun for them. We did family movie night not once but twice! And some time bothering Gigi and Grizz.

Bonus: Ellie is learning to toss around the frisbee. This video makes me laugh SO hard. Because as Ellie says, I am the mean old mommy.

And here is Adam, being a goofball.

My Little Lady.

She is a nut. An absolute nut. She has been talking for months about how she's going to learn to skateboard, and Friday when we were over at Gigi's the neighbor kids were out riding bikes and scooters, so first Ellie began riding her big wheel like a bat out of hell, undies exposed for all to see. Then Zach (the dad) was on his skateboard, and when Ellie expressed interest, he let her borrow one of their beginner boards. So now at Gigi's, this is happening:

Not pictured: all of the crying and whining that goes along with Ellie learning a new thing.

This is from this morning - she made me a picture of my two beautiful children:

Looks just like them.

She had a great time at Easter dinner with her cousins. The three of them ran around like absolute nuts, and pretty much only stopped to eat cupcakes. The best part is Ellie was the last one to the table, and walked by the girls with their cupcake faces and said "you are a mess."

Takes one to know one.

Fine, You Can Stay.

This morning after a run and a shower, I got dressed and walked out into the living room to see what horrors my children had wrought in my absence. They were just quietly watching television, which was nice of them. Even nicer, Adam immediately ran up to me, grabbed me and said "mommy beautiful!"

In Recent News

Let me see. Friday I took Ellie to the strawberry patch on a field trip with her class. It was pretty great! We started with a tractor ride around Tanaka Farms, to learn about their history and what they plant and at each stop we got to try some of the produce. Onion, carrots, celery, bok choy and a few others. Then to the strawberry fields! They gave each kid a container and told them that they could fill it up, and then eat more if they wanted. I was STARVING at that point, so shoved a million strawberries into my maw. I was seriously waiting for one of the workers to spray me with a pesticide, thinking that I was an invasive species.

Ellie with her school bestie Paige

Adam stayed with Gigi and Grizz, which was really nice. He's come with me on the last two field trips and it's made it hard to pay attention to Ellie or the other kids and parents. This time, just me and my girl. And a couple of her classmates who seem unusually enamored with me.

Saturday we went to Marco's birthday party, where there was a bounce house, lots of delicious cupcakes, and to Ellie's joy and sorrow, a pinata. She was so mad that she wasn't the one who actually busted it open. But then again, it wouldn't be a fun social gathering without Ellie having a totally needless, overdramatic melt down. I might as well leave her in a dog crate in the yard for how much she seems to enjoy parties specifically designed to delight small children.

Saturday after nap time, I went to the hardware store and got a new plastic pool for our summer season, and it was a hit! We had friends come over and just enjoyed sitting out in the back yard, watching the kids play, drinking beers and having dinner.

On Sunday after our family walk, we went out to Yorba Linda and left the kids with Mimi and Poppy so that Tim and I could go have a much needed date. We actually ended up seeing our friends Ed and Erlynne, who are getting married next January, and having their union officiated by Tim and me. I know, bad choice, but hopefully we can do right by them. So I made them tell us the story of how they met and fell in love while we sat and had some snacks and drinks.

Yesterday we had another busy, fun one. The morning was pretty quiet because Mimi had to work, so I hung out around the house until we were all a little nuts, then took a good run. Sara also had to work, so Adam had to come with me to ballet. It ended up working out pretty well - Ellie went to ballet, and after some initial sobbing about wanting to stay with his sister, Adam consented to go to the park with me for most of the hour. He was so cute, running all over, and really enjoying the "wed side" (red slide.) And trying to escape to freedom.

Funny how he can look so big and so little all at the same time.

Then once again, we did something that was supposed to be fun for the kids but ended with a needless meltdown. Nicole hosted a nice dinner and an Easter egg hunt at her house, which we headed to after ballet. Ellie had lots of snacks, all of her friends and egg hunt fun, and of course, ended up a total sobbing mess midway through. Watching the kids egg hunt is so funny - I figured now that they're all three and four, they'd do better at finding the eggs. Nope. It's like watching a bunch of blind monkeys screech and bounce around the yard, not seeing the eggs "hidden" in plain sight, right in front of them. And then the thrill of opening everything up. Because I am a pig, I ate almost all of the candy I bought last week, intending to use for eggs. Ooops! Looks like the Easter Bunny has more shopping to do before this weekend.