Open for Business.

We hosted our first official back yard party yesterday (I like to call it the Backyardyparty.) A bunch of my mom friends came over to hunt for Easter eggs. They apparently did it last year too, on the day that Adam was born (his birthday was originally supposed to be my baby sprinkle, but they changed it to an egg hunt when I had to tell them that I would be unable to attend my own party.) So this year, I offered to host!

It was really nice - each mom brought over a dozen eggs for the kids, and after everyone arrived and got settled, we dumped the eggs in the yard and set the kids loose. They ranged in age from three and a half to freshly two, so they're not very competitive yet, and they sort of bumbled around the yard like puppies, sometimes completely oblivious to an egg that was sitting right at their feet. They all had a good time, and there was no pushing or shoving or egg stealing, which was nice. I've heard a lot about how crazy things can get when communities and churches do egg hunts, so it was nice to do something low key. Ellie was happy to open one egg, eat a package of fruit snacks and then head back into the house to get her friends to play airplane with her (they drag bags around the house and then go sit on the bed in Adam's room, pretending it's the airplane that's taking them to either Chicago or Lake Tahoe.) Adam had two other little baby friends to play with on a blanket, and he was also happy to crawl around and get into things, like usual. The only sad moment was when he was sitting in front of the slider, and one of the other kids kept asking him to look out, and then finally yelled "LOOK OUT" and Adam burst into tears and laid face down on the concrete. His little feelers get hurt so easily, and he does not appear to have the Miller hollering gene (when we first got married and got in a fight, I started yelling, as I prone to do, and Tim was so sad because he thought I was going to divorce him. I JUST LIKE TO YELL, OKAY! IT HELPS ME HEAR MYSELF BETTER! [I know, I know, add it to the long list of self improvements that I'm working on.])

So the yard did well for egg hunting, and the table was great for the mom guests (and one dad, who beat a pretty hasty retreat to Starbucks after we started talking about childbirth - there's two new baby brothers who will be joining the group in the next three months, one who should be here in three weeks or less!) I'm so glad we went with eight chairs and the extra huge table - it seated everyone perfectly. The one downside Tim and I noticed when we had dinner outside earlier in the week was that you have to get up to pass the condiments if there's a small group. Perhaps we will hire a manservant to deal with this problem. Ellie and I made snowball cookies in the morning, and I also put together some avocado dip, and a baked brie.

NAILED IT

Overall, a good time was had by all. Until six, when the kids started getting tired, hungry and overall ornery. Why is it that all departures seem to involve tears? Just the way of our small folk, I suppose.

The whole crew, post hunt

Throw your hands in the air, if you're a true player

Hey, DOWN IN FRONT. And get a hair cut, you damn hippie.

Domestic Bliss.

It has been a much better week this week, on many fronts. The kids are sleeping better and napping better, Hello Kitty hasn't gotten peed on as much, and the whining has been dialed back quite a bit. Part of it is probably that Ellie is waking up from her nap 30-60 minutes before Adam, and so she and I have that time to snuggle, read and play Play Doh. It makes a huge difference, and helps us all feel better. That's been probably the hardest thing about having two kids, is balancing their needs against my abilities. With Adam on the verge of walking, and out of sync on nap times, he's been out of sorts, but the past few days we've been in a better rhythm, so more time for my sweet little Miss.

Today after our walk and lunch we made some cookies for the Easter Egg Hunt we're hosting this afternoon. She is such a good little baker - she loves scooping and leveling the flour. Last night at dinner time she was thrilled to help me set the table, and she's good about cleaning up and clearing her place. My other favorite thing lately is hearing her sing along to songs in the car, songs other than Miss Elena songs or those damn songs from Frozen. She has been loving the songs from Adam's baby slide show, and it's funny to hear what she thinks the words to Feist's 1-2-3-4 are.

I also have been loving seeing the two of them together. She's been riding on Adam's little construction car and he practices walking by pushing her along. They wrassle while I fold laundry, they play blocks together, and any time they can play piano or family band, they're both playing along. So cute! On our walks, we go through a little tunnel and this week Adam has started getting in on the fun of hooting to hear his own echo. Today when he'd hoot, Ellie would echo him, and it made me laugh when I was so tired and sweaty and ready to lay down and die (seriously, this heat can go be elsewhere.)

Another sweet moment - yesterday morning everyone was awake, and when I came back from the bathroom they'd climbed in bed with Tim. Ellie announced loudly "DADDY IS THE DADDY LION AND YOU'RE THE MOMMY LION AND ADAM AND I ARE YOUR BABY LIONS!" and then we all curled up and roared at each other. Then when we're out and about (usually in stores) she will run a few yards away from me and pretend to be the baby lion who is looking for her mommy, and I say "where is my baby lion?" and she runs back and we hug. It's very sweet.

How can you not love this kid?

Chore Helpers.

I got out the vacuum, they got out their brooms

I moved the tent into the hallway to clean Ellie's room, they got out their instruments to serenade me

I flipped the recliner to get the crumbs underneath, they did... whatever they did here.

Thanks kids, you are such good little helpertons!

Grandpa Charlie.

We've had a very nice time having Grandpa Charlie and Dorothy around for the past week, even if having all of the basketball loving Sconnies around didn't keep the Badgers from losing their game in the final seconds. Grandpa and Dorothy brought Ellie a new bag of rocks for her rock collection, which she was very excited by (kid loves her some rocks - it's a family sickness) and overall, she was very taken with her great grandpa (and sort of hand her mind blown when I explained that Grandpa Charlie was MY Grizz.) She loved listening to him play harmonica, and was very interested in showing him all of the towers she built.

But of course, no can do-sies when we tried to take a nice picture tonight.

Adam continues to be SO CLOSE to walking, though has disappointed us all by not taking his first step when Grandpa could see it. He'll probably start walking at 8am tomorrow. He's started standing on his own more and more in the past few days, and will even do things with his hands while standing, and maintain his balance.

He's a funny little dude.

Meanwhile, Ellie has seemingly turned into a twelve year old over night. First of all, she loves to pretend that she's five. And she's got herself an imaginary friend, a sister named Elena. They go on the airplane together, sometimes with Adam, sometimes without, to go visit her cousin friend Olivia (who also sometimes lives in my stomach? And who I need to go to the hospital and birth?) Her imagination is out of this world, and she is so, so smart. She's taken to pointing out all of the numbers and letters she sees, especially street addresses and the words "Hello Kitty." Today after preschool we went over to Starbucks to have a little treat - some scones (or stones, as she calls them) and an iced coffee for me. After she scarfed her stone, she asked for some water and I asked her if she wanted to go order one, and she said okay, and said she could do it herself. So she went over to the counter, and asked the barrista for a water and spelled her name for him, nice as you please (he was very sweet to her.) Today at the park she climbed all over some equipment, following in the footsteps of a bigger girl who had befriended her, and she tried out using the girl's scooter. She's getting so big, so fast, and turning into a real kid. Last night she and Tim dueted on "Love is an Open Door" in the car, and it was about the cutest thing ever.

Backyard Completed!

This has already been an incredibly productive weekend! We went on a really nice family walk, and went on what Ellie calls "the adventure trail," where we saw a couple of families of mallards with their new ducklings, and the two random orange koi/carp/carrot fish. When we got home, Adam went down for a nap, Ellie got babysat by her friend Elmo, and Tim and I did some yard work in anticipation of our new table being delivered! And because, as promised, we are doing our very best to keep up with yard maintenance. I don't relish being the worst looking house on the block. Though also, I am not very motivated to scrape weeds out of sidewalk cracks when I walk outside and find that someone has let their dog poop on my driveway. Still, today I was the master of all weeds, with my angry hands and my bottle of Round Up. And Tim was the master of the mower.

The table looks great! I am so glad we went with the largest one they have, because we have lots of entertaining to do this coming summer.

It fits nicely under the cover and doesn't take up too much room - there's still a good bit of space for Ellie and friends to drive their trikes back and forth, and it fits all eight chairs well. As you can see, we did keep the little blue patio set as an alternate seating area. And because it's such cute furniture, even if we only use it a couple times a year for pictures of the kids.

I mean... right? Please note: Ellie is wearing that skirt today. She's still the very cutest.

But back to the yard. Here is a photo of Ricardo's handiwork, putting in the succulents and the crepe myrtle trees.

I think it looks great! And yes, there has been a lot of new growth on the neighbor's trees, but I wouldn't put it past them to raze them back to bare stumps at any point, hence why we planted some trees of our own.

So, TA DA! This is what we'll be working with for the near future. I'm really happy with how it's all turned out. The patio cover has made a huge difference in keeping our house cool, and provides such a nice seating area. We have eaten outside a ton since the chairs arrived. I like that we kept the grass for the kids to play in, but there's enough concrete for bike riding and chalking and playing around. At some point we may do the whole fire pit/built in grill area, but for now, I think what we've done is perfect for our needs and concerns. Tearing down the old cover over the kitchen has also been great - we don't miss it at all, and it makes the side yard look so much bigger and brighter. Our lemon tree and peach tree are starting to blossom a little, so hopefully we'll have some fresh fruit this summer!

The other new addition to our house is this:

It's not pretty, but hopefully it'll keep me from repeating "Adam, that is not for babies" fifteen times a day for the next few months. He just can't help it. He loves electronics so!

Week in the Life.

It's been sort of a crazy one! My saving grace with having two kids is that they usually take an afternoon nap at the same time, and I get a few minutes of quiet time to myself. Not this week! It feels like one of them is constantly awake, and no one is in a good mood (because they're overtired!) Ellie has been especially mouthy and rude. People say "oh, wait until she's a teenager," but frankly, I would love for her to just tell me she hates me and slam her door, or ignore me for her friends for a few hours. A three year old is all of the attitude, none of the avoiding. She is right on my tail at all times.

Wednesday I attempted to be a nice mom, and since no one was napping, take them to the Spectrum, which is a big outdoor mall with a nice carousel. Plus it has a Target, and I needed to return a hideous bathing suit. So we did our return and walk over to the carousel... to find that it's closed for repairs. Ellie's reaction was like I had just burned the place down in front of her, using her favorite stuffed animals as kindling. The saving grace was that Tim was at a boozy work afternoon at the Dave and Busters next door, so he brought us in to the dwindling party, and Ellie ate some chicken fingers. And on the way out we stopped at a store that only sells rhinestone items and she got a new Hello Kitty "jewelry-o."

Also, here is what she looks like, walking through a mall:

And here she is with her Gigi and Grizz! Doing safe things, with people who don't have bad backs.

Today we had a couple of our friends over and the girls did some good playing outside together. There was some minor screamage over the trike, and the kids picked all of the little ground cover flowers on the side of the house, but the thing that they enjoyed the most was a long piece of ivy that I yanked out of the Indian Hawthorne. The three girls each grabbed part of it and ran back and forth for about fifteen minutes, playing a minor game of crack the whip, while Adam played with the leaves that got stripped. Who doesn't love that sort of free entertainment?

This is also good free entertainment. The hour before bed time, always a crazy show around our house.

Tuesdays with Mimi

First off, I think a blog post got lost in the shuffle - I made a slide show for Adam's birthday with pictures from his first year, but I don't think it posted on the night of his birthday. If you have 15 minutes, you can scroll down and check it out.

I swear, I thought Adam was going to take his first steps today. We were about to take this picture

And he was standing next to the couch, and suddenly let go and stared at me for a long second, as if he was going to come and get the camera. And then he sat down on his duff.

He is so funny. I feel like in addition to walking, he's just weeks away from really starting to use his words. He has said mamamama a few times, clearly directed at me, and when he sees the cats he will either just flat out SCREAM at them, or he will make K and T noises (for kitty.) Another crazy cat baby being raised at our house.

Meanwhile, Ellie has been astounding me lately. She can now count all the way to forty (aka, thirty ten, which follows twenty ten and actual twenty) and is big on recognizing and calling out letters. Soon I won't be able to spell things over her head. Like C-A-N-D-Y, which is always delicious to eat when she's not looking.