Tiny Family Band.

Ellie on piano and vocals

Adam on drums

Recent Videos

Please enjoy Adam refusing to pick up his hands, and drooling like a fountain. He is cutting his fourth tooth, the second fang. Vampire baby! The poor little guy is up in the middle of the night again, and his gum is pretty swollen and tender - I tried to run my finger on it to help it break through, and he started crying. But he's generally in good spirits. Right now he eats two little portions of pureed food for dinner (usually a green vegetable and an orange vegetable) and now that his grip is better we've started offering him things he can hold and feed himself - a penne noodle, a sugar snap pea, and this morning a strip of pancake. He's quickly figuring it out.

Thursday we went to Target after preschool and while we were wandering the aisles, I offered to get Ellie a rainbow whisk of her very own, and a new pink spatula. Her excitement was so sweet and overwhelming that I nearly started crying. Best six bucks I've ever spent. Then the second she woke up from her nap, she wanted to bake something, so I got out a little cookbook of cookies, and she picked snowballs. So here we are, working in the kitchen.

Friday afternoon we took a nap at Gigi and Grizz's house. Rather, we were SUPPOSED to. At 4:30 I went to go get Ellie so we could go to the Fashion Island Christmas tree lighting. She'd been quiet in her room for over two hours, but when I walked in, she announced "I SCREWED AROUND!" and when I asked her if she'd slept, she said no... and then burst into tears. I was expecting the evening to be a total mess, but she was actually great. She enjoyed the tree lighting and then did a good job of sitting nicely at dinner with Jake and Dawn (I think it helped that we were at the Yardhouse - it's already loud, and we were seated in a booth by the kitchen) and then after eating, we let her go back to the Christmas tree where they were playing Christmas tunes. It was a very fun evening.

Of course, then we got home late and weren't able to do bath time before bed. Ellie slept in until 8:30 the next morning... but Adam made me pay with three over night wake ups.

An Evening in Suburbia.

Village.

So, my parents went to the Midwest for various sporting events and family times, AND DID NOT EVEN INVITE ME. They are essentially huge jerks, no ifs ands or buts. Plus Tim had evening engagements three out of the last four nights, leaving me to deal with the feeding, bathing and bedding of two small children (which is usually the craziest part of the day, and most exhausting.) It makes me realize that I am not meant to homestead, or home school. I do best when I have a second set of hands around, and another adult who will listen to my ramblings.

The fortunate thing is that we've had lots of company these past few days and nights. Friday night one of my girlfriends came for dinner and helped me get everyone off to dreamland, and then when Tim got home she and I went out for drinks and dessert. Saturday Mimi and Pa came over for supper and a long fabulous dance party, and then we went out for Golden Spoon (or as Ellie calls it, the Ice Cream Store.) Monday morning Pari and Mila came over, which thrilled Ellie beyond words. It is so sweet and funny to see her with Mila, because Ellie is allllll over her. It's like she's never seen a seven month old baby before. She actually said (in front of her brother, no less!) that Mila was her favorite baby. I also love it because Mila reminds me of Ellie on many levels (not only because she's wearing Ellie's old clothes.) I wonder what it will be like when Mila is three and Ellie is six, and if they'll get along, or if they will hammerhead at each other. Pari and I manage to be friends despite each being impossible pains in the asses, so I remain hopeful. Then Monday night we went to the mall to return some pants, eat a smoothie and play in the play ground area. Do I know how to entertain, or what?

Yesterday Mimi and Ellie had their morning of fun together and then my friend Lauren came down to spend the day. She was so sweet to go with our flow and just hang out. We had to go check on the cats and water the plants and Ellie begged to wear her bathing suit, and since it was so nice out, she ran around and got squirted with the hose while I watered. Nothing better than spraying your kid straight in the face. Today after our walk she went to Mommy's Nail Salon and we had our nails done (matching polish, naturally) and then had lunch with the ladies. We're keeping busy, it's true, but the nicest part is when we can facetime with Gigi and Sara for a minute or two.

iPhone Photos.

Just a collection of recent snaps:

And yet, he can't crawl.

He constantly tries to change the volume. This is when he's not trying to eat a computer charging cord, or find a plastic bag to stuff in his mouth. He is basically like a terrible pet rabbit.

Speaking of the devil!

Perhaps enjoying the park a bit too much

Ellie and Clare having a dance party

Riding the swan at Granny Janny's

She asked me to draw kitty whiskers on her for a birthday party today

And then the face painter there made her into a purple bunny and undid all of my fine, fine work.

AND THERE WAS A BOUNCE HOUSE OMG!

Same Diff.

The teething growth spurt continues in our house - for the past few weeks it seems like I've been up at least once a night with at least one kid, and usually the cats come in to bother me too. The good news is that when Adam wakes up hungry, he eats for about ten minutes, snuggles for a minute or two, and then within seconds of me laying him back in his crib, he will flip over and stick his rump in the air and go back to sleep (aka: assume the "up butt" position.) Meanwhile, I am pretty good at going back to sleep myself, for which I am thankful. I shuffle back across the hall, get into bed and pull the covers over my head (aka: the "angry bear in a cave" position) and fall back to sleep.

It's just so different than with Ellie - she had a similar growth spurt at this age, and we would be up with her for HOURS trying to soothe her back to sleep. She stopped sleeping in her crib at eight months because she wouldn't stay asleep when we moved her into it, so we just started letting her sleep in the queen sized bed. Meanwhile, Adam will stay awake for our entire morning walk, just waiting to be laid down in his crib when we return. The fresh air does us all good though, even if I'd rather he close his eyes. At least he's stopped crying on walks. The same cannot be said for Ellie - my favorite is when she starts crying for me and when I stop to ask her what's wrong, she says "I'm just going to relax in my stroller now." Thanks for telling me! I especially appreciate that you made a big stink while I was in the middle of pushing uphill! Also funny abotu sleep - the other morning I heard him chattering in his crib, and we listened to him for about ten minutes, as Tim and I were snuggled up with a very cuddly three year old (she likes to climb in with us around 7am and put her freezing cold feet on my stomach.) When I got up and went to get Adam, I found that he had peed through his diaper and his whole crib was wet. Yet was he crying? Not at all. Just happy to be awake and see us.

This morning while Adam was playing on the floor I noticed that he is cutting a THIRD tooth. The funny thing is, he's cutting the exact same one that Ellie got - an upper fang. He's got both bottom front teeth, and now this little fang poking through. I feel like it's coming sooner than it did with Ellie, though I can't remember too terribly well. I just know she had only three teeth at her first birthday, and her first birthday was the first time that I really caught her tooth on camera.

What a little cupcake she was.

Adam is soooo close to crawling. If only he'd pick up his hands, he'd be unstoppable. But he continues to mostly roll around and do the electric worm. He has no problem getting where he wants to go around the house. Meanwhile, at this age, Ellie could barely roll over, but she was sure good at sitting up. I think because she had a chubbier backside to balance on. He's got the same size melon, but teeny butt and thin thighs.

Meanwhile, I am amazed at how big Ellie is. Size wise and maturity wise. She is so independent now, and can do so much for herself. She's all about picking out her own clothes, and is starting to get herself dressed. She can go potty by herself, complete with hand washing and drying. She likes to open the fridge, and though she can't reach the yogurts, once I hand one down to her, she can select and grab a spoon, get herself into her chair, open the yogurt and start eating, and when she's done she puts her spoon in the sink and her yogurt in the recyling. She loves to help empty the dishwasher and do laundry, and has started helping me sort lights and darks, and will take her own clothes back to her room, where her task is putting away all her socks and undies. She is such a sweet little mama to all of her bunnies and babies, and loves loving on her brother and the cats. Thor has been snuggling with us in the morning, and it just makes her life. It's so fun to see what goes on in her little head, and hear the crazy things she comes up with. Her joy and wildness is infectious.

The Family That Laughs Together.

My ab hurt from laughing tonight, thanks to dinner at Grizz and Gigi's house. Ellie was absolutely on a roll.

First during biscuit making time with Grizz, instead of putting the biscuits on the pan, she kept stuffing glops into her mouth. And then what she didn't eat, she'd try to put back on the plate. Thanks for the germs, kid! During dinner Grizz made a joke about how at the upcoming Packer game, look for Sara streaking naked on the field. We all laughed and let it go, and then a half hour later Ellie turned to Sara and said "I'm going to see you running naked on the field!" Sara feigned offense, denied she'd be streaking and tried to blame Grizz, which only got Ellie's gears grinding harder, as she continued to repeat that Sara was going to run NAKED across the field. We were all dying laughing.

Then she followed up with a session of the family band. It is so cute to watch her wander around the room, assigning instruments, screaming at Grizz that it's not time to sing yet and he isn't supposed to sing, only her. Then after a few rounds of "You Are My Sunshine" she went around and made everyone trade instruments. Grizz started making a joke about how everyone likes him best and no one likes Gigi and Ellie burst into tears. When we asked her what was wrong, she sniffled "Grizz was using his rude words." She and Grizz are a loud, lovely duo of craziness. The company and the delicious comfort food made day light savings seem not quite so dark.