Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Business of Eggs and Family

Wednesday: The Dying of the Eggs




My egg cozy. 

(can't tell we're related...)

Every picture of the three of us looks like this. We apparently felt very intense about the egg-dying experience. 


****
Sunday: Easter Egg Hunt and General Good Time






Apparently 10 month old boys have more interest in grass than dyed eggs. 








After the egg hunt the boys moved the party into the sandbox.

Elliot dove face first into the sand...and thought it was hilarious until I had to dig sand out of his mouth, nose and ears.



This might be one of my favorite pictures ever of Elliot.


Landyn ran up and down the stairs to my parents' balcony looking for Robin, his toy Batman's sidekick. "WAAAAAAABIN, WHERE ARRRREE YOU?? YOR MUH BEST FWEND! IT'S ME, BATMAN!"
It's hard to capture the adorable way he talks, but you get the idea.



A friend of my brother brought her two girls, Brooklyn (left) and Hailey, over to join the fun. The lipgloss I gave them was a big hit. I think by the end of the visit Brooklyn's entire face sparkled.


All four kids playing together. Hailey put her arm around Elliot so he wouldn't fall.


Brooklyn flying like Superman.

And then we headed home. Easter 2011: Success!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Here's What's Up or "One Seriously Long Week"

It feels like way too much has happened to play that dreaded game of catch up I've been wanting to start, but here are a few recent highlights:

*Julie's visit was much too short, as always. It involved lots of catching up, me cutting her hair (after much begging), discussions on how to convince your friends you were actually future you visiting them in the past (reveal key Harry Potter plot points before the books come out, duh!) and lots of cute pictures. This one is my favorite:


* Elliot recently had his 9 month checkup. He now weighs in at just under 22 lbs, measures 30" long from head to toe and is right where he should be developmentally. He is crawling at unstoppable speeds, pulling up and then attempting to climb on top of just about everything, and standing alone for a few second at a time.
He has moved on from basic sounds of "Da Da" "Ma Ma" etc to his own little alien language of sounds that keeps me laughing all day long. One of his favorite things to do is crawl in the kitchen and watch our cat, Tiger Lily, through the slider while he repeats "Hi Kitty" after I say it.

* Elliot and I recently had a play date with Stephanie and her two adorable kids, my mom and my nephew Landyn. We headed over to the toddler park and played ourselves out! I love that the weather is warming up and get excited about all the fun park adventures to come.









* Monday the 18th was our 2 year wedding anniversary. Josh and I had planned to go away for the weekend to the coast but Elliot and I were both not feeling great so we stayed home instead. We did, however, wake up Monday morning together because Josh called in to work and then had a delicious breakfast (banana chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and bacon...yum!) at Mimi's.



(I really like these lights and was trying to be sneaky and not get in trouble for taking a picture of them)


* Elliot was still feeling awful by Wednesday so I took him to the doctor. He had a slight ear infection in both ears, plus we believe he is teething. This past week+ has been a long one and I'm definitely glad we are on the downhill side of things. Because I have been exhausted and Elliot has been so clingy I have achieved very little. Luckily he is just about 100% better, but look at this pitiful sick face:



* Easter pictures coming soon.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Visitor!

My friend, Julie, is in town! The last time she was here, Elliot was only a few days old.



It will be fun for her to see how much he's grown!!
Updates soon on unicorn and Harry Potter filled conversation as well as possible lunch at Visalia's best kept vegetarian/vegan secret.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

My Thursday

First and third Thursdays mean MOPS group meets again!

The agenda alternates between speakers and crafts. Today was craft day and, as usual, it was a cute one. Everyone was given a choice between a cream, brown or red painted board and a decal that said "Create" or "Doodles & Drawings" and three metal clips. You could also add flowers and buttons if desired.
Most people put their flowers up by the decal; I chose to add mine to the clips.

Now I just have to decide where to hang it.

Oh, remember these?

Sold! For $20!
This was actually an offer made, not my price. Apparently I am "a crafty mommy who makes quality items with precise, tight stitches."
Paraphrased, of course.

This gave me the extra cash to buy some new clothes for Elliot, as he is still growing like a weed and his rainy weather clothes all fit him about 2" too short.

And that was my Thursday!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Here's what's up

* I have a love/hate relationship with my mornings since Josh started working at Cigna. He leaves our bed much too early, usually with me whining for him to quit his job and stay home and snuggle with me forever. I know, what a supportive wife, right? This is usually mumbled while I'm half awake, so by the time I have gone back to sleep Josh comes in with Elliot and lays him in the bed next to me. Most of the time Elliot quickly returns to sleep and we snuggle in bed for another half an hour. Why get up early when you can snuggle your chubby little boy under warm covers? Yes, the theme here is snuggling. Around 6:30 Josh comes back in to the room to kiss me goodbye...more whining commences and we have another round of "We don't need money to live, stay home!"

When I finally make it out of bed with the child, I am in full "I love mornings" mode. I give him his bottle, which he finishes in about 5 seconds, grab a hot cup of coffee and leave him to his devices while I enjoy a little time on the computer. I check on him over my shoulder every so often and usually catch a scene like this:


The love is usually inspired by the fact that I am close to 2 years of not working. This glorious period may end very soon since bills continue to pour in with a $1000 price tag on them, so for now I am going to love every moment of it.

* I am obsessed with this peanut butter:


I have always been a big fan of peanut butter, but this is truly White Chocolate Wonderful. I bought this second jar so I could make a batch of peanut butter cookies for our Monday night Bible study group. The first jar never made it's way on to anything...I ate the entire thing by the spoonful over a few days. Actually, I may have had a few bites with banana until I felt the banana was impeding the delicious flavor of the White Chocolate Wonderful itself.

* Joshua and I both had our cars serviced on Monday. On the upside, Josh took a vacation day so we would be able to get both cars done at once. On the downside, our Focus required new tires ($$$) and the Fusion required a new battery, battery connector and air filter along with the oil change (more $$$).
I am watching our lovely tax return that was supposed to pay off our credit card go very quickly towards a whole bunch of other things. Life refuses to take these lemons and make me a glass of refreshing lemonade. It just keep squirting the lemon juice in my eyes.

* Elliot is finally crawling!! I briefly mentioned this in my last blog but I feel it needs some more attention. After 9 whole months of refusing to do anything other than work on his "Downward Facing Dog" and various other yoga moves, he finally is CRAWLING. I somehow think my excitement over his mobility will be short lived. 



* We had to wait till Tuesday to pick up the Fusion from Exeter. Once we got the carseat transferred back to the Fusion, we decided another round of Frosty King's delicious seasoned fries was in order. I prompted Josh to call some friends of ours, Jason and Katey, to see what was up and how their son, Nolan, is doing. Apparently every Tuesday Exeter has a small farmer's market which was happening just around the corner from where we were eating. Katey sells handmade soaps at a booth there, so Jason met up with us when he got off work and we all walked to her booth and played catch up for awhile. Usually I am a total crab about unplanned nights like that, but it was a lot of fun to run in to people and see how they have been doing. 






Plus, I love babies. So, bonus!

I am going to attempt to try out my sewing machine today. I may decide I have no energy to leave the house and play around with my crocheting instead. We will see.