Dinner Al Fresco

Our new patio set has arrived (well, the chairs at least. The table is on order, but they gave us a loaner to get us through.) We made beef taco bowls for St. Patricks Day. I don't know if you know this, but it's a traditional Irish favorite. At our house. Where people of Irish descent live.

We are really, really happy with it all. While I was inside putting together dinner, Tim was out grilling, Ellie was riding her trike up and down the length of the concrete and Adam was exploring the Cozy Coupe.

This is his new "big smile" face, which I absolutely love. He's a doll.

Here it is, close up (he's in the middle of destroying an entire taquito. When he wants, he's the best eater I've seen.)

And here are my two new most favorite pictures of Ellie:

She's big enough now that after an initial push, she can keep herself pumping and swinging. I am astonished every day at how quickly she's grown, and how much she can do for herself.

Like picking out the right accessories for her pajamas, so that she will not look foolish on our morning run.

Yard Work!

Yesterday Ricardo came with a truck full of plants and mulch, and helped in his quest to nurse our yard back to health. He put in grass seed a few weeks ago, and with all of the rain we had, they managed to hang on and sprout! There are still a few little patches that are working on improving, but they will hopefully come back to life, and we can reseed in the fall.

In the meanwhile, he planted a row of succulents along our back wall, leaving some spaces for the crepe myrtle trees we want to have planted. In the front, succulents under the windows, fresh mulch, and some existing plants moved and replanted for better coverage.

Grass babies in the front yard

Farewell scraggle plants, hello new friends!

And here's along the back

This morning Ellie went to the beach with Gigi, and so after Adam napped, Tim and I went to look at patio furniture. The time has come! On Mimi's recommendation we went to a little family owned place in Yorba Linda (where the owners talked about their 13 kids and 8 grand kids. So the place is small and family owned, but not a small family. YIPES.) It was a good, quick shopping trip. The chairs we liked best were a style that was being moved out, so we got a good deal and ended up getting eight chairs total (four rockers, four regular) and a large, non-glass topped table. I think it's really going to look nice, and they'll be able to deliver this week. I'm hoping with the later sunsets, we can have Adam's birthday dinner outside next week (NEXT WEEK. Excuse me while I go and ugly cry.)

I don't mean to belabor the point about the neighbor's trees, but I do very much miss them. I am excited about the trees we're going to put in - I know they'll be little and need years to grow, and it's only four trees, not a forest, but I think it's going to look really nice, and make me happy to see them from the kitchen window. I was looking through pictures to try to find a good one of what our yard looked like when we moved in, and while the great green back yard makes my heart pitter patter with a bit of sadness, it's funny to see how the rest of the house has changed.

We bought our house because it had good bones and was a place we could see starting and raising a family. We knew we'd redo the kitchen at some point, but didn't buy the house as something that we were immediately going to gut and repair and renovate in each room, but yet, when I look at the photos from our listing, every room in this house has changed in some way. Little things like paint and carpet and ceiling fans and lighting make a big difference, even if I don't automatically think of them when I think of "projects we've undertaken." And of course, I do love the kitchen. Almost every day when I walk in there and see the pretty wood cabinets, or use my new appliances, or wipe down the iridescent blue counter tops that are so ME, I feel glad about the make over. Even though we're not done, I feel the same way about the back yard. The patio cover is a life saver on so many levels - our living room is now livable, and we can sit outside and play with the kids. I have been loving sitting out there while Ellie pedals her trike back and forth, or gasses up her cozy coupe. She can let herself out of the sliding doors now, and I feel safe letting her play back there since the new side gates are too high for her to open. I can't wait to see how it's going to be this summer with our new furniture out back and Adam toddling around and both of them splashing in the water table and the wading pool. Though it's taken more money and work than I like to add up and contemplate, it has been wonderful watching this house become our home. And of course, more than the physical renovations, there's the family remodel as we've grown from a couple of DINKS to parents of a couple of wonderful, spirited, funny, sweethearted kids. We are so, so lucky.

Farewell, littlest Melonhead

The flight to Chicago got canceled yesterday, so we got one more lovely day with our little Miss Olivia, her parents and her Gigi. It was so nice! This morning on our walk, Ellie all of a sudden got very sad and said "I don't want Olivia to go!" and then cheered herself with the thought that we could go on a plane and visit her in Chicago.

In the meanwhile, everyone else got another day at the beach (on our walk today, Ellie also pointed out that "Gigi went to the beach with her friends, but not with me") and we had one more night of fun. We went on a trail walk, where Lisa rocked the Ergo for the first time, and rocked Olivia to sleep:

This is in contrast to Monday morning, when Olivia walked the trail near my house

Adam has been really funny with her - he's obviously intrigued, but shows his love by trying to flap his arms in her face, or chew on her feet. In a few months though, they should be good.

Last night we gave the little miss a nice kitchen hand towel and sat her up in the Bumbo, or as John aptly called it "the rubber sit up thing." We also put mom's old rattle between her toes, because that's what we do to babies in this family, apparently. She did a much better job than Ellie did, back in the day.

Now it's just back to life as normal. A fun Tuesday with Mimi, a nice long run this morning, lunch with the ladies, and as much napping as I can force upon them. I also forced the kids to come outside and have their picture taken in front of our bee-laden Indian Hawthorne bush.

I mean seriously, what am I supposed to do with this kid?

And how is it possible that this handsome little mister is nearly one?

Happy Birthday Gigi!

We had lunch at Gigi's house today, and so started the day with a brief (freezing) swim. Ellie was so happy though, it's hard to tell her no. It was so lovely to just sit outside with everyone and eat and relax and chit chat. We had to come home to work on nap time (for everyone except Tim) and then it was back to Gigi's house for cocktails and appetizers, now in the front yard. Watching hummingbirds, riding big wheels, and just general having a good time.

Per Gigi's request, I had made her an angel food cake with an orange whipped cream frosting. I borked up the frosting and it looked terrible, but Gigi and Lisa report that it tastes like their 1960s memories, so at least it wasn't a total failure. We ordered pizza for dinner (YUM) and then of course, CAKE AND ICE CREAM

And who doesn't love a sexy man on their cake?

Even more important, who doesn't love a good dance party? We always love a dance party.

It's been such a fun weekend with the cousins, and Juan and Renee.

Ellie continues to be deeply in love with Olivia

And we're all having a good time. Not a bad looking group!

Sing Song.

Ellie is big into singing lately. I had made a video of her singing along to Frozen, but those jerks at Disney took it off youtube because of copyright. Don't they know I'm a stock holder!?!? Suffice to say, she has learned all the words to all the songs, and wants to listen to them all the time. I mean, it's a good sound trac, and good songs, but I am TIRED of them. There's not that many, and there's two of them she doesn't like, so we can usually listen to the whole soundtrack in the time it takes to drive the seven miles between our house and my parents. NO FANKS. I am done.

She has also learned a new song, from Grizz. This morning as I was in my room, getting dressed, minding my own business, I learned a little muppet voice start singing "I see London, I see France, I see mommy's underpants!" Then as I pulled my jeans on, she asked "where'd your undies go?" I told her they were under my pants now, and her clever response was "yeah, that's where they stink." THANKS GRIZZ.

Today she wanted some pigtail braids. So cute!

There's Something About Olivia!

Gigi and Grizz's house has turned into one big par-tay with the recent arrival of Juan and Renee, Great Lisa, and Kate, Jimi and BABY OLIVIA, all in town for Gigi's upcoming birthday (John arrives tonight.) It has been really fun to see all of the little cousins together, and to see what wonderful sweet parents Kate and Jimi are.

Ellie and Adam are pretty enthralled with their little friend. Ellie is big on kissing her and wanting to hold her. Adam is big on... trying to poke her in the face, or climb into Kate's lap while Kate is trying to feed, burp, or comfort the screaming ham sandwich. Adam is also trying to teach her how to be a person - today he started crying, then she started crying. He took a big poop, so she pooped too. TWINSIES!

Check out the 2013 cousins, giving each other the eye.

And here's just all the girls. Since girls rule, and boys drool.

Fine Adam, you can hop in. JUST THIS ONCE.

Hot Date.

It's been a long couple of weeks around here. Tim has had a big milestone at work and so has been putting in a lot of extra hours. The really nice thing about his job is that he's able to come home, have dinner, help me get the kids bathed and bedded down and then go back to work for another couple of hours. It means I miss out on our evenings together, but I have an extra set of hands during what I find to be the most stressful time of the day (the last hour before bed, lord help me!) And the kids don't really know that there dad is busier than usual, so there is slightly less screaming around here. Because some days, there is A LOT of screaming. The other day Ellie sat and bawled and whined when I wouldn't give her the spoon that I was actively using to feed her brother. And Adam has developed this ear piercing shriek that makes me want to abandon him on a hillside rather than help him with whatever his problem is (usually that I am holding him down and not letting him crawl around half neekid after a diaper change.)

I AM A MONSTER. That is my new refrain, especially when Ellie asks me accusatory questions, like "why didn't you bring my Hello Kitty socks?" Because I am a monster.

Today though, we got to ditch our lovely offspring with Mimi and Pa and go on a much, much needed date. Liquor was drank. Food was consumed. And we talked about how much we adored our human children, because that's what happens when we have a little space.

As you can see, Adam had a lovely afternoon.

I'm sure part of the craziness is the fact that it's been raining off and on for the past few days, and we're used to doing a lot of outdoors activities. On Friday while Adam was napping Ellie begged to go outside, so even though it was chilly, I let her put on her bathing suit and head out into the back yard. She splashed in some puddles, and did some excellent worm rescuing.

She has been so funny. The other day in the car, she started talking to me about tarantulas, and I asked her what she knew about tarantulas. She told me that they are spiders, and they have tiny hairs all over their bodies. Then she asked "where do spiders poop?" and I said they poop in their cages. NO. She corrected me that they have little pillows, and they poop on their pillows. The things that come out of her zany brain constantly amaze me.