Weeks Like This

As I mentioned before (and then deleted) this week at work has been nothing but pure stress and irritation. The situation itself really isn't even worth the recap, however it did beckon me to do some soul searching and fine calculations with much consideration.

Since this blog is mostly dedicated to Elaina and Lincoln, I have tried to refrain from talking about my other job. You know, the one that takes me away from my little darlings from 8 - 5 each day. I haven't mentioned it before but I work for the county court system. I've had my same job since November, 1999. Just in case your not particularly familiar with county employment, let me share some highlights.

++ County perks = 12 paid holidays per calendar year.
++ County perks = Actually working only 7 hours with one hour paid lunch (30 min. commute, each way)
++ County perks = Awesome benefits, retirement, eligible for some retirement benefits after 10 years employment (after age 65)

-- County pains = Same as in any other job, just tack on a bonus 5 pains for the crap I dealt with this week.
-- County pains = I will never become rich working here

So back to my calculations. I took a closer look at the money that I earn verses what we pay out in child care. With the two figures spelled out in blue ink, I began to wonder why I go to work each day at all. If I stayed home and watched our kids and an additional two, I could just about break even with my current income. Suddenly my mind began to race. Excited ambivalence about being home with my kids all day, the thrill of not having to drive to work, sadness about missing my work friends, eagerness to take on a new challenge, doubt over my abilities, my kids becoming bored with me and missing Nancy, joy about leaving politics and other ignorant minutia behind me and all the while, feeling a sense of relief. A relief as in knowing that if I ever did want to leave my job, I always have a better offer waiting for me at home. The way I look at it is that working in or out of the home, I'm still going to get pooped on one way or another.

I like to have the feeling of the better offer still waiting for me at home with sweet smiles and tight hugs. I've put the idea in my back pocket for now. Just knowing that it's there is a pretty good feeling itself.

Reluctant Tumbler

It’s tumbling time again!

This evening I took Elaina to the late summer session of toddler tumbling class. She had a good experience in “tumbing” when she was enrolled back in the winter, but hasn’t been enrolled since. When Lincoln was born, I didn’t want to overwhelm myself or have a standing Tuesday night commitment, so we took the summer months off.

I knew that we had missed the first class of this session, but didn’t exactly realize that they were already into their third class already. The session is half over! The instructors were kind enough to discount the rate, proportionate to the only three classes remaining. Based on Elaina’s behavior tonight, that’s probably a good thing.

Miss Thing was so excited to go to “tumbing” as she bounced through the house, smiling and gathering her jewelry to wear. She didn’t even mind that I made her take off all of her gems before leaving the house. We arrived at class and she immediately left my side to play with some new friends. As soon as the instructors beckoned the kids to the other end of the room, I was impressed how easily Elaina followed. “This is going to be a good class,” I thought to myself with pride in my daughter’s social skills. The minute the instructors clicked on the music and asked the kids to begin floor stretches, Elaina turtled around on the mats and wandered to the back of the room to dangle herself off of the balance beam before she ran back to Mommy. After a little pep talk from mom and some encouraging words from the other moms, Elaina ran back to the class with a fresh attitude. Which lasted all of about 3 minutes before she broke from the pack once again. After 3 more times of her boomerang behavior, I took her by the hand back to the middle of the gym and sat with her just behind the class and tried to motivate her into joining in. The whole time she hid behind me, saying, “Mommy, I can’t do it.”

Part of me wanted to take her home immediately and save my baby from failure while the more perserverent side of me wanted to push her hiney onto the exercise mat and make her pay attention and put forward some effort. It’s at this point that I realized more than ever that she absolutely did need to be in a structured class afterall. Once the floor stretches ended, and the class moved onto something new, her interest peeked and I was able to take my seat in the back of the class once again.

Guess who is going to be a regular in this class from now on.

Well Traveled Babysitters

(***Note of apology: I used Eric's borrowed camera while ours is on vacation and apparently took all of the pictures with the nigh shot feature on! Too many gadgets, buttons, switches and lights for this dummy but I'm posting the gray-green pictures anyhow!)

Lucky for us, another weekend just happened to pop up when we needed it most. Even luckier yet was that my parents came to town to visit. Wahooey!

Since Eric is on the volunteer fire department and since they have a work day once each fall and since he's missed it for the past 3 years, Eric felt obligated to spend most of his day Saturday lending a hand to the maintenance of the fire department and the trucks. Since my mom and dad were visiting, we had no problem leaving him to his work while we went chasing through the town bargain shopping. No treasures were found, but it was a nice way to spend a gorgeous, crisp September Saturday. No complaints.

As we settled in at home for a late lunch from Subway, my mom held Lincoln on her lap while she ate her sub. My dad was the first to notice that with each bite that led my mom's sandwich to her mouth, Lincoln was following the path of the sub and opening his mouth like a little bird awaiting his supper. Since my mom was oblivious to his intent glare, Lincoln tried another approach. He began to reach his hand out in the direction of her sandwich. My dad began rolling in his seat from laughing so hard while my mom and I began to watch his noble attempt at getting his hands on some grub. Hysterical!

What a better indication that he just might be ready for some rice cereal. Some "real" food! I couldn't stand to see my baby starve and whipped up Lincoln's first taste of rice cereal which he loved! There was no question if he knew what to do with it once it was in his mouth, he pushed it back with his tongue, swallowed and opened up for more. He appeared as though he's been eating cereal for all of his four months. He ate most of a tablespoon of cereal before his belly told him he wanted more. NOW! Bottle time came before he even had a chance to scream. I think I'm getting good at this appeasing-my-kid thing.

Later in the evening, some friends of the firemen hosted an appreciation dinner / bonfire for all of the volunteers who had spent their day working and their dates. As for lame-O Eric and myself, we considered this a date! My mom and dad were watching the kids and we went to a grown up dinner where nobody threw their steaks on the floor, no one whined about not wanting to eat what was served and everyone ate with a fork. I didn't even have to cut up any one's food! It was a good date, indeed!

So, when our long distance babysitters come to watch the kids, let me just tell you the order of things. Pop-pop walked Elaina down to the local restaurant for ice cream sundaes after dinner (I hope), Grandma read Elaina approximately 17 bedtime stories and tucked her into bed about 3 times, and this happened to my kitchen table:

My mom had spent the intermissions of her evening folding all of Elaina and Lincoln's bigger sized fall clothes that I had pulled out and sent through the laundry. Now that's something to come home to! Thanks Mom!

Sunday brought us another gorgeous almost-fall day with lots of sunshine. We went out to a nice restaurant for lunch and stuffed ourselves until we had to be rolled out to the car. Why don't I know better? When the promotion is "endless shrimp" why don't I know that it's going to have to end after only one plate? What am I thinking? Talk about misery. ugh.

Although our meal was good, our 2 year old was not. She wasn't the worst I have ever seen, but by no means good. During dinner, we kept reminding Elaina that she needed to use her quiet voice because we were indoors. The child had a cry fest while whimpering, "I wanna be loud. I wanna be loud Mommy." We all made it through dinner without anyone getting too loud or too whiny or having to leave the table, but the drive home was a whole different story. We witnessed the meltdown power of a strapped in toddler for 30 minutes. As I recall, the demand was "I wanna get outta my seat. I wanna get outta my seat. I wanna get outta my seat. I wanna get outta my seat." Over and over and over.... Crying and crying. The child was a lunatic! For 30 minutes. This is the evidence of a too-late-of- night and a too-early- morning and a too- little-nap. Recipe for disaster. As I was pulling her "outta her seat" when we got home, I told her how much Mommy disliked her behavior and her whining and that Mommy wasn't happy with her for acting like that. Immediately, the tears shut down and in her very calm-non whine voice, she says, "Okay Mommy."

Oh dear Lord, what am I going to do with this girl?

Should've Set a Better Example

Apparently, I’m in a little bit of a funk lately. You could even say I’m in complain-mode-overdrive.

So here it is, let me just lay down the cold, hard facts of my latest gripe.

It’s all about the laundry. I’d like to get my hands on the very first person who decided that their cotton blend shirt would appear to look better if without wrinkles. The very first person who heated a metal object on the stove, hovered over a stool and worked like a dog to smooth out every stinkin’ last fold and wrinkle as a result of drying on the clothes line. And that same person paraded around to their friends showing of their crisp, smooth shirt as a masterpiece of their grueling effort. Why would someone do this? And so was the beginning of peer pressure. Thanks alot ancestors, four score and seven years ago.

Is it possible for you to handle a little more? How about the person who decided that placing your clothes neatly in the most tiny, individual drawers was the very best idea? What kind of standard was that? Just imagine if some genius carpenter would have constructed a bookshelf of sorts with a door on front, lending the user the convenience to stuff their clothes onto shelves and nobody would see them! Brilliant you say? Absolutely! Dresser drawers, be damned. And even a step further, a standard for every bedroom would be a whole wall of shelving exclusively for storage; sweaters, jeans, wrinkly pants, wrinkly shirts and unfolded underwear!

Who’s with me on this one?

You may not have guessed that I spent nearly my whole evening doing laundry. Oh yes. I. Did.

Lincoln at 4 Months

Here's your first look at Mr. Handsome!

I get to pick up my final prints that I ordered this Friday. It seems as though I'll have an entire weekend ahead of me at that point to get them in the mail to some very important Grandma's and Grandpa's! Aunts and Uncles better check their mailboxes too!

Whine; Party of Three

Whiner #1: Me
I may as well get used to it. Again.
Bowling season has officially commenced and Eric is a bowler. Since this is like Eric’s 10th year, you’d think I may just decide to accept this as fact. That every Wednesday evening for 30 weeks I will be a single mom. Then again, the nagging, resentful and selfish side of me wants to nag him to quit every minute that leads up to bowling night since he’s already put in his DECADE. And let’s not overlook the fact that he just happens to have 2 kids at home now. That’s entirely a different scenario from when he first signed up. And while I’m on my rant, one very important point not to overlook is that Eric also attends his weekly fire meeting every Tuesday evening. He is a little bit more lenient on attendance for those, but still. Husband gone 2 evenings a week; wife gone zero. Okay. Rant over. Now my children.

Whiner #2: Elaina, scheduled to whine from 6-7:00 p.m.
So, Eric leaves for bowling at 6:00. And mind you, it’s not like I have ever felt “put out” to watch my own children, but tonight was different. From the beginning, Elaina was desperately tired and acting out by whining and breaking down into full blown drama queen-mode. Nothing made her happy, if I even thought the word “NO” she held her hands over her eyes and began to fake cry and whimper, thinking she would get her own way. Unfortunately for her, Mommy wasn’t in the mood to play her game tonight. I exercised every bit of my patience tonight as I resisted her tears for nearly an hour.

Whiner #3: Lincoln, taking his turn on the whine shift from 7-8:00 p.m.
And then there is Lincoln. Baby Lincoln is always such a good boy that there is rarely ever an instance that I have anything but positive to report on my little love. And wouldn’t you know it, tonight was different for him too. I’m guessing that Elaina’s temperament was a little bit contagious. Most nights I can count on Lincoln taking a nap in his swing for at least an hour or two, most times overlapping the same time I am putting Elaina to bed. Not tonight! Lincoln woke from his ONLY 20 MINUTE NAP and began to cry. Umm, did I say cry? I mean wail. Like someone was pulling out his toenails out. One at a time. And since he rarely cries, I do find it alarming and immediately begin to wonder what in the world could be wrong with my Little Sweetums. Trying to soothe him and ultimately feeding him early took the better part of an hour.

Let the Party Begin!! The Whine is flowing!!
Going into the third hour of our evening, just when I think I may finally have a handle on my cranky kiddos, Elaina starts with her Oscar-worthy performance of fake crying over going to bed, Lincoln begins to belt out a few cries of discontent because he can't put himself to sleep and I want to wrap a pillow around my head to cover their noise while I pound my head into the wall. Both kids are crying at the same time!

So here, mother's of multiples are faced with a crossroads of sorts. I can choose either to let myself give into being overwhelmed with this crappy evening and cry too, or I can step it up and take command. If you know me personally, you'll know how bossy I can be and know that I opted for path #2. It's time to take charge! I popped a fussy Lincoln into his swing, which he put himself to sleep within 2 minutes and hauled the drama queen off to her bedroom. Her very last request was for Mommy to lay down with her. Considering the night I had, I just so happened to oblige her last request. We snuggled down, cozy and tight in her bed about 8:50 and the house was quiet at last. Everyone was content and there was peace in the land. Just then, I heard Eric come home from bowling to a quiet, peaceful home full of FAKERS!!

Laundry day

Do you know what I like? I like yellow sleepers. Yellow baby shirts. And yellow bibs.

Wanna know why?

They hide nasty formula spit-up. Makes spot-treating laundry a whole lot simpler.

Now if I can only convince myself to think for a moment that I would be okay with Lincoln dressed in yellow all day, every day.

Can't see it happening.

Baby Boyfriend

Aahhh, my boyfriend. My sweet, little boyfriend. Anyone care to hear about my little guy?

His name just happens to be Lincoln, or Winkin’-Dinkin-Do, if you care to be technical about it. My baby boy. I still find myself in awe that this lovable little guy is a part of our family. Somebody pinch me. I am just in love with him.

There is nothing like holding my baby boy in my arms. I can’t get enough of the way his little chub-chub body melts against mine like he was born knowing how to give hugs. The way he snuggles his head against me when he sits upright on my lap. How his eyes lock onto my smiling face and he knows to smile back because he knows how much I adore him. And there’s really nothing that can compare to him falling asleep in my arms while we’re holding hands. This boy really has a good, tight grip too. Even since he was only weeks old, he would grab onto my fingers, arms or my shirt and cling on, showing his might.

Last night we shared one of “those” moments. Those special, quiet times that you share with your baby that wipe out every bit of stress from your day and make you feel like there is no one else in the world except for the two of you at that moment. It was right after Eric fed him his bottle and there he lay, wide awake. Usually the little stinker barely finishes his bedtime bottle because he has fallen asleep. Not last night. He drank, I hugged on him and he wanted to stay awake to watch t.v. with his dad. I surely didn’t mind to take him to his room to rock him to sleep. I watched as his eyes grew sleepy and smiled when he yawned and repeatedly smacked his little pout lips. Oh the sweetness. I think I even got a cavity from soaking in all of his “sweet.”

We held hands, I stroked his soft arm, his eyes fluttered as he tried to hold my gaze and he drifted off to sleep. My boy. Love. Love. Love! I slowly moved us from the glider to put him to bed and URP. My little loverboy yacked spit-up right down my shirt. That’s my boy. Stinkin’ little Lincoln. Moment is over.

On a side note, I did take Lincoln to have his 4 month pictures taken on Sunday just like I had intended. It seems as though we just never made it for 3 month pics. Since he had just woke from a car-nap, the photographer and I really had to work on getting some smiles out of him this day. Most of his pictures turned out nicely and will be ready for pickup next week. Really, how many ways can you pose a 4 month old?

Got Milk?

It's not very often anymore that I actually find time to read a grown-up magazine or even a book these days, yet I happened to come across an article in this magazine about switching your toddler to regular milk after age 2. With this in mind, I began to think about all of the milk fat that whole milk contains and began to wonder if this could be the reason that Elaina has such a little appetite. She does love milk and water just the same and we give her very little juice. So why does she never have much of an appetite for anything other than Cheetos and donut holes? (Not that she gets these every day, but she would like to.)

From this point, I decided to switch her from drinking whole milk to our regular 2% to see if her appetite would increase. Do you know what? Picky Pickerson is more hungry!! Hooray for my hungry girl! Now let's not get overly excited, she's not to the point that she's actually trying new foods, but she's actually eating all of her favorite food on her plate and asking for more. We still keep offering her new foods, which she politely declines with, "NoSankYou Mommy."

So the experiment is working! Elaina wakes up hungry in the morning and she's hungry at dinnertime too. I am thrilled! As if this isn't good enough already, the icing on the cake is that I no longer have to buy 2 different gallons of milk since the price of milk has almost doubled in the past 6 months! That's happy news all around!

The Two-Too Party

It's really all about being two. Elaina is two. Cousin Colin is two. Many of my blog friends' kids are two. And now, Elaina's friend, " Ahh-Wee" is two.

Happy Birthday Ali !

(Ali is the daughter of one of my friend's and Elaina's playground and tumbling class buddy.)

Lucky for us, we made it on the invitation list to be guests at Ali's 2nd birthday party this evening. For the past couple days, I had been talking to Elaina to let her know that Ali was going to be two and we were going to her party. I kept telling Elaina that Ali is going to have a party and open presents and have cake and friends and we're going to Ali's house and that Ali was turning two. Every time, I was met with Elaina's same reply, "I two too!" Oh yes, you Clever Little Bug, you are soo two! The next thing that stuck in her mind was cake. She never lets the word cake slip out of some one's mouth without having them pay it forward.

Ali's party was mostly family, few of which we knew. We were fortunate, however, that Ali's whole family made us feel welcome and her grandma's even shared plenty of hugs with Lincoln while Mommy and Daddy ate dinner. Speaking of dinner... holy smokes alive! We enjoyed our very first southern-style shrimp boil. Whoa, let me just tell you that it was incredible! Wait, unless the word "fantastic" holds more meaning than "incredible"-- it was to die for! Shrimp, sausage, red potatoes, corn on the cob, carrots, artichokes and whole lemons, all seasoned and poured onto a slab of a makeshift table which everyone wallered around and ate with their hands. Basically, a whole mess of good!

So the party wasn't all about eating, although it easily could have been, Ali had a really nice birthday party. There were about 4 other little girls there and I was barely able to catch a glimpse of Elaina as she bounced from the little pink piano in Ali's room to the outside playhouse with some trampoline jumping and tricycle riding thrown in the middle- just for good measure. Elaina had such a great time that she tried to run all around the house and the yard to play with every single toy just one last time before we left. Those two year- olds sure know how to party!

Please NOT

another project.


So, do you want to know what's been going on at our house lately?
Here's a hint...

See this deck?

Now, it's all gone.

Once we got our stamped concrete work done on our patio last year, (right of this picture) we realized just how raggedy and ruined our deck looked next to it. The torn off plank was Eric's handiwork before I begged him to borrow a camera to document our "before" picture.

Eric spent most of last week tearing out all of the old, rotted wood and making way for our new deck area to be constructed and poured in the next couple of weeks. We're having the pattern stamped to match our patio (since they connect) and we're even going as far to have a fire pit laid in the middle of our yard. I'm still crossing my fingers that it looks as good in our yard as it does in my head at this point.

Since my handyman husband is always tackling one project after another, he's been assisting the concrete layer almost every evening to defray the final cost of this latest endeavor. Eric has always been good about lending himself to labor in a little sweat-equity type arrangement. So now you'll know how Eric will be spending his evenings in the next couple weeks!

I'm too embarrassed to even list the number of projects Eric has lined up for himself, and his wife's list too. I just keep reminding myself that once one is finished, we'll never have to do it again! I just wish I could see the finish line at this point. On something!

Visual Drought

I am just about losing touch with myself over not having a camera.

In fact, it just plain old stinks.

Since I haven't had the capability of posting pictures for too long already, how about if I share with you pictures from Elaina's latest photo session. These were taken just a few weeks after she officially turned 2.

And just for fun, let's see if I am able to keep my tentative plan of taking Lincoln to get his picture taken this Sunday. Since he is only going to be 4 months old already!

As for getting some of these pics in the mail to our family, well, you obviously know how my track record has panned out so far with actually ordering and attempting delivering pictures of my children. Guess you might want to pull for me to get Lincoln's pictures done soon and then I can just mail Elaina, Lincoln (4 months) and birth announcements at the same time.

Ooohh, I just realized how ridiculously lazy I sounded. Ouch.

Just remember to check your mailbox from time to time and one day you may be surprised!

I may surprise myself.

My Love

Here's something you may not have known about me. I tell Elaina and Lincoln "I Love You" about 7,00 times a day. It's true. There's not a second in their lives that I ever want them to doubt or think twice about how much their Mommy or Daddy love them or forget those spoken words.

Tonight was really no different. I was getting Elaina ready for bed and telling her that I loved her. At that moment, I began to question if, at two years old, does she really know what that term means? Seriously, I tell her all of the time, she hears us talk about love and I know she reciprocates the words back to us, but does she really know what love is?

Let me share our special moment with you: (Grab the tissue.)

Mommy: Elaina, do you know that Mommy loves you?

Elaina: Yes Mommy! (Swinging her arms around my neck.)

M: Do you know what love is?

E: Yes Mommy! (Now climbing me.)

M: Love is special, warm hugs that you can feel in your heart and makes you feel good all over. (Squeezing her in a tight hug)

E: Oh Mommy!

M: Love is also kisses on your face and your neck and tickles too! (Demonstrating same)

E: (Squealing with laughter)

M: Love is also when Mommy smiles at you because you make Mommy so happy.

Elaina and Mommy hugging at this point.

M: Elaina, can you tell me what love is?

E: Cows!

Seriously, what's not to love about this girl?
(And cows. I guess.)

Labor Day Getaway!

Well, it's finally here. A three day weekend. A small miracle for an hourly employee. Labor Day couldn't have come too soon. Three days of R and R.

Not.

Rest and relaxation? For who? Not us! We have visiting to do!

Saturday afternoon we got on the road, heading for Eric's grandma's house in West Virginia. It seems as though we've made it somewhat of a tradition to go there for the three day Labor Day weekend to spend time with Eric's grandma and enjoy the annual Sternwheel Regatta Festival held at the state capital on the river walk.

Unfortunately for us, we didn't happen to be in very forward motion come Saturday morning and didn't leave the house especially early. By the time we had driven our three hours to get there, it was already close to dinner time and we had wasted almost a whole day. Lucky for us, in true Southern hospitality, grandma had dinner on the table waiting for us.

Sunday brought us gorgeous, hot weather for a planned cook out with much of the family coming by for a big dinner. We spent the day visiting and overeating while Elaina played with her 2nd cousin and Lincoln was passed around for his share of hugs. After dinner, I took Elaina for a walk down the lane to see the resident horses and cows belonging to the neighbor. It seems as though every horse is her friend and asked to take one home. Good luck sweet- talking your Daddy into that one!

Once all of the family began to head their separate ways, we started to get ourselves ready to go the Regatta downtown. Although we are accustom to taking both of our kids pretty much everywhere we go, Eric's grandma and aunt kindly offered to keep Lincoln at home and take exceptional care of him. Since it was getting later in the evening and we were going to attempt to stay late enough for the fireworks at 10, we happily accepted their offer and headed out as a family of three. The evening's events included a performance by the Gin Blossoms, plenty of fair food and kiddie rides galore. Not to mention crowds that could suffocate an elephant and wall to wall teenagers with their pregnant bellies and two kids in tow. (Sorry, this isn't just a West Virginia thing, I saw the very same instances at our local fair without even looking very hard.) We had made the decision to leave the stroller in the car since we had packed the double stroller and therefore, we took turns carrying Elaina much of the time we were there. Being perched up on her daddy's shoulders or on her mommy's hip, she hardly minded as long as one of us remembered to share our ice cream with her and not miss any rides along the way. Judging from the crowds, I was actually happy and grateful that we did decide to leave Lincoln in a nice, clean, quiet home and that we didn't even attempt a double stroller through the chaos of the crowds.

We ended up with plenty of time to take in the sights, sample the junk food and let Elaina fish in the makeshift fish pond, pull a duck from the duck pond and ride several rides on her own. And for all of that, she even won herself 2 valuable prizes to take home. A 5 inch stuffed turtle and a glitter baton that has already lost it's streamers. The real excitement came as the first firecracker lit up the clear night sky. Directly over the Kanawha River they entertained the crowd with the most spectacular fireworks display I have ever seen. We were so excited to see Elaina's reaction to the sparkling night sky and the pounding and crackling of colors that cascaded endlessly over the river. And after about 5 minutes of Eric and myself "Oohing" and "Aahing" over the intense light show, Elaina cuddled up onto my shoulder and said, "Mommy, I tired. I take a nap." Oh my sweet child. Whatever in the world am I going to do with you?

*Note to self for Regatta 2008: DO NOT park in the parking deck unless you have a spare 35 minutes that you would like to spend sweating in the car, listening to other cars honking their horns non-stop in an echoing dungeon of doom.

Family Affair

It's that time of year again... our local county fair!

Yee-Haw!

And, once again, I volunteered to work a shift at our court information booth. (Good brownie points for work. Know what I'm sayin'?) And when I sign up to work with 2 of my friends, hanging out behind our booth taking a tally of the number of mullets, fanny packs and men who appear to be 13 months pregnant, it hardly seems like a chore to spend three hours of my time there.

When my shift ended at 7 p.m. Eric was waiting to meet me with both of the kids in tow. Yet another fun-filled family night, hanging out at the fair! And again, how you go wrong with fair food, which you already know my affection for greasy, fried, overpriced junk food. Mmmm...

This year at the fair, Elaina was big enough to ride most of the kiddie rides all by herself. I thought that she was going to pull her arm out of socket as she was pointing so hard at each and every ride, saying over and over, "I wanna ride, I wanna ride, I wanna ride 'dat one," She could hardly finish her sentence, stating what she wanted to ride before she spotted another just as tempting. Yes, Elaina, there isn't a ride here that you don't want to ride. I get it!

Elaina learned a big lesson in patience tonight as she had to wait in line, and then wait for the kids to exit the ride before she could get on. Excruciating for a 2 year old to just sit idle when there are rides to be ridden! Talk about no fun! The better part about going to the fair on a Thursday evening is that the lines for the kiddie rides weren't really that long, In fact, some of the ride operator's were just sitting around waiting for customers. Plenty of times I walked up to the gate and asked if they didn't mind running it just for one rider. Elaina had some of the rides all to herself!

Surprisingly, we were able to inch Elaina away from all of the lights and noise of the kiddie ride area and move onto the animal barns. At this point, it was getting much later in the evening and the crowds were minimal. In fact, plenty of the animals were already asleep in their pens. As we walked down the aisle of the big barn, Elaina peered into the pig pens and said night-night to each and every pig. Eric heard her echoing through the barn and decided to have a little fun with his girl. Instead of saying night-night to the piggies, he had Elaina shouting, " Night-Night Bacon-bacon! Night-night Sausage-sausage!" Although she enjoyed this just as well, she had no idea how hysterical she sounded to everyone else. Good influence, Daddy.

Since we were having such a terrific time, and no one was yelling, screaming or fussing, we ended up leaving at closing time. 10:00. Well past Elaina's typical bedtime and long after we usually have Lincoln snug in bed too, we finally headed for home.

We had such a great evening and can't wait until next year when Elaina will be three and can teach her little brother how to sweet talk the piggies before bedtime!

Torn

Lincoln is almost 4 months old.

I have mother guilt.

I need help.

Here's my confession:

I never had birth announcements made for our little precious.

There. I said it. Guilt. Hate guilt.

When he was, oh let's say 2 months, I was waiting for the perfect, sweet opportunity to snap the most beautiful photo ever and send it to dozens of our family and friends. I found myself waiting around for some peace and quiet with Lincoln all to myself. Well, when you have two kids, those moments generally happen along about 10:00 p.m., in which photo shoots don't necessarily occur to my tired mind. And then there was Elaina's second birthday which crept up on me sooner than I thought possible. And when I had just finally had it with my own procrastination and was determined to make "thee photo" happen, Lincoln had come down with his burning fever which landed him in the hospital. And that's not going to make for very many happy-boy-faces.

I could go on and on with excuse after excuse about being busy, yet it still doesn't excuse the fact that I have severe mom guilt and my baby is only getting older by the day. And still no birth announcements done. Never mind that my camera has been recalled and there is no hope for "thee photo" to be taken in the next 2-3 weeks. I'm thinking of using an older photo and pretending like I had them done a long time ago. Like they just probably took that long to get mailed back to me.

Tell me, is it too late to send birth announcements?

Don't even get me started on when I'll be able to get him to the portrait studio to have his 3 month pictures done. Aaack!

Help. Me.

Performance Appraisal

Notice how I haven't posted any more about potty training?

That would be because Elaina could really care less about the issue as a whole. Of course we talk all about putting her pee-pee in the potty and telling somebody when she feels like she has to go, blah, blah, blah. Still, nothing.

So tonight when she told me, "I go potty, Mommy. In 'dis bafroom," I complied without hesitation. As she was sitting on the potty, I was talking to her in a calming voice and subtly encouraging her to go. Elaina then pat me on the back and said, "Is okay Mommy. You're a good girl."

Melt. Melt. Melt. I don't know which I wanted to do more: laugh or squeeze her into itsy bitsy pieces. God she is a sweet girl!

Thanks Elaina! I needed that!

Sometimes I Think I'm Smart

Yep, it's true! Sometimes I come up with rather intelligent ideas to make my life and living just a little bit easier. Of course I'm not claiming any originality on this idea and it's far from brilliant.


However, while I was changing Lincoln's clothes and peeling off a too-tight-sleeper-which-accidentally-crept-back-into-his-drawer, I had a little spark of smart to keep his too-small clothes from making their way back into rotation. Are you ready for this? I turned them inside out! When they come out of the laundry, inside out, I know it's time to retire them for good.

Oh yeah! Genius! Inside out! In my genius abilities, I do find time to laugh at myself over the fact that it's taken all of 2 years to establish this new system.

Go ahead and use it, this tip is on me!

Good Eater

Now, by the title "Good Eater" who would you guess I am referring to?

Would you guess:
(A) Me, since I enjoy a giant bowl of ice cream about 4 times per week
(B) Keegan, our dog, since I just bought him 70 pounds of dog food (stocking up)
(C) Picky-Pickerson, a.k.a.: Elaina, the non-eater

Well, in case you went out on a limb and guessed Elaina, you are right! Just in case you guessed me or Keegan, you get extra points as well, since neither of us are even slightly under nourished.

Tonight it was Elaina who I am happy to report had a fairly decent dinner. Eric was out working and so it was just me and my girl at the dinner table. The first shocker of the evening was when she told me that she was hungry. The child is never hungry, except for junk food and snacks. She even told me she wanted "awfuls." "Awfuls" are waffles in Elaina-speak. So, waffles for dinner. Okay! She helped me put the frozen waffle into the toaster slot (okay, okay, I'll begin making homemade waffles again when I don't have a 3 month old who is going to begin fussing to eat in 30 minutes!) and we were cooking. The water works began to pour and her bottom lip about hit the table in discontent when I put strawberry jelly ON the waffle, rather than on the bear's head on her little pictured plate. DRAMA! QUEEN! She pushed her plate away, refusing even one bite. At that point, I was trying to gage where this little tiff was headed. I could have easily lost my temper and took her straight to bed without any dinner. And believe me, I was envisioning it in my head. But instead, I took charge and changed my tone (read: yelled) at her explaining that her waffle was the only thing she was going to get tonight and it was going to taste exactly the same. And then I ignored her. Somewhere, a spark of magic happened. Right in my kitchen. She said she would try it! Did you hear the angels singing? Are those harps in the background? My daughter is trying something she had her mind set on that she wouldn't want to eat. In fact, hold onto your seats; she ate 2 (TWO) whole waffles, with a side of peanut butter, strawberry jelly and even asked for some syrup for dippy. And a 1/4 of a banana.

Bear in mind, this is still the girl who won't eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or any combination of them on bread.

Brat.

Three Musketeers

Let me just start by saying that I am in awe of what a great weekend I enjoyed with my two kids. Yep, just the three of us!

I stayed up on Friday night until almost 2 a.m. to finish some of the miscellaneous mom-chores around the house (i.e. 6 loads of laundry) and felt quite accomplished by the time my head finally hit the pillow. As if on schedule, both little munchkins woke at the ripe, old hour of 7 (!) the next morning. Like any good mom, I fed Lincoln his bottle, brought up a sippy of milk and snack trap of dried cereal for Elaina and we all vegged out in bed, watching cartoons for the next 2 hours. Nevermind the fact that I missed several of the shows as I couldn't see through my eyelids. Now that's the way I like to start off my mornings!

Since there's no keeping a busy-body-2 year old still for too long, I peeled myself out of bed and even decided to run some errands with both kids in tow. Again, amazingly, they were easy. No crying, no whining, no fussing and no fits! E-Z! That must have been the key to wearing Elaina out just enough that she settled in bed for her overdue nap time and slept for 3 hours. OMG! I really can't express how thrilling that was. I was tempted to wake her up until the more sensible, practical mother in me snapped me back into realty and I realized that if she was sleeping that much, her body must just need it. The anal, worrisome half of me began to question if she ever be able to fall asleep that same night. (She did!)

And so, remember my big, long, troublesome list of doom? I tackled it head on while sleeping beauty was accounted for. In between each load of laundry or with the completion of each task, I gave myself a 10 minute-ish play break with Lincoln. He enjoyed some tummy time, bouncing and wiggling as we cooed at each other and smiled. If only I had a camera, I could show you just how good he is getting at his big smiles. They are completely contagious!

Sunday morning was almost as leisurely, with the exception of even less sleep on my part the night before. Elaina and I made our favorite cinnamon rolls, (the child has been known to eat three before!) and called Daddy on the phone. Since our church doesn't have a daycare, I didn't even make an effort to think I was hauling two kids there all alone and try to juggle their contentment. While it would have been noble, I feel that most of the message is lost when you're trying to pay some attention to one in an infant carrier while making sure the mobile one isn't coloring on hymnals or crawling atop or underneath pews. Our Sunday was a little more low key. And trust me, I'm always thanking the Lord for that!

Eric arrived home from the race around 3 p.m. and no sooner, ushered me off to the stores to make some returns and buy dog food. Since we live almost 30 miles away from the shopping mecca of the county, going to the out to the stores is quite an event. Unlike my brother and SIL, who live literally 5 minutes away from the best shopping ever, we have a drive. In my opinion, that was good planning on Eric's part to keep my distance from the shopping. I would never come home from work on time and we would have probably run out of money about 3 years ago. So, for my afternoon, I ran errands all alone and savored what was left of my weekend!

A good one by far!

First Things First

First of all, let me just say that I'm having one of "those kind of weeks" that I feel behind on everything. My house is in shambles and my "to-do list" has now become the "must-do-before-I-lose-my-mind-list." Oh yeah, and the list is about as long as my arm. Single spaced.

So here I sit with my neglected friend, Keyboard and my better known friend, Bowl 'O Ice Cream. I have come to believe that ice cream always seems to make my world a little bit better. Mmmm...

This past week has been filled with many "firsts" for my family. Nothing terribly monumental or significant to report like Lincoln figuring Chinese arithmatic or Elaina eating an entire plate of food, but other random things that are still worth the mention. To kick off our week, on Sunday night we switched Lincoln's formula back to milk-based. It was only 2 months ago that he was seeming to have so many issues with being gassy, uncomfortable and most of all, screaming throughout every feeding. When he would arch his back and scream with pain, we were convinced that it had to be an issue with his formula. Our pediatrician recommended that we try lactose-free formula and see if he presented with the same behavior. That seemed to be the magic that we needed and he drank his bottles with pleasure. Much the same way as me and Bowl 'O Ice Cream. What a relief.

This past weekend he gradually began to demonstrate the same symptoms of discomfort when it came to feeding time. Sunday evening he had a 30 minute crying fit while trying to drink his bottle, that would make you believe that someone was severing his limbs with a dull knife. Absolutely heartbreaking cries that nearly broke me in two. I had to pass him off to Eric to see if he had any better luck. After 30 minutes of this torture (for all of us) I finally ran to the kitchen, preparing a bottle of the free Enfamil (milk-based) formula that the company sends to new arrivals. Either he had just worn himself out from all of his yelling or he actually realized the difference and drank it with ease. Let's hear a big 'ol "Amen" for that!

This has been the first full week that he's been back on milk-based formula and not a single problem since. And just a lucky perk from Lincoln's frugal mom; I'm saving $2 a can!

Moving on, this is also the first time I have had to get both kids ready in the morning and out the door for work all by myself. Eric left very early Thursday morning for the NASCAR race in Bristol, TN. He'll be gone until Sunday, giving me 2 work day mornings to handle by myself. I know this sounds a little bit petty, but Eric is such an enormous help with both kids and we work well together. Seeing as though it is already Friday night, I'm happy to report that I made the best of my 6 a.m. mornings and got the three of us fed and ready and out the door, right on schedule.

This week was also the first time that Elaina's drama queen attitude lasted longer than a day and reached an all time high. Monday through Wednesday, she woke up sleepy and grumpy and early, refusing to go back to sleep. Our mornings included her refusing to eat breakfast, fighting to get dressed, yelling while I did her hair and lots of little diva things that just don't fly in our household. Each afternoon, she came home from Nancy's house and claimed she was tired so that she could lay down with her binkies. Plenty of times she was so tired that we allowed her about a 30 minute nap in the middle of the evening, just to get through the remaining hours before bedtime. I'm pretty much convinced that her 2 year molars are still working their way through and it's a side affect of growing also. Oh, but her behavior! Sheesh! A little less bad would work for me! As luck would have it, Thursday and Friday, I got my good girl back. Sweet!

And my final "first" to report is that I finally made time to really tear into my laundry piles. The first time in 2 weeks, I washed, dried, bleached, folded and put away about 6 loads of laundry. It would be easy not to mention that I still have about 3 more loads that I could run through, but whose gonna tell on me if I don't?

Little Things from my Little Love

3 long forehead wrinkles, arching when he dreams

running my fingers over his soft little fuzzy head

reminding myself daily that he'll nver again be this tiny

the impromptu smiles and grunts he makes while he's sleeping

the opportunity to fall in love and change our lives for the better once again

the way his big grey eyes study my face

how he settles down so quickly once he's soothed

the way he prefers to have his head hang over my elbow when he cuddles in my arms

my lips kiss his forehead and his nose touches my chin

bobbing head when he breathes

laying chest to chest, his cratching little fingers against my skin

remain in fetal position after postion change

baby breath

God I love my baby boy.

I'm a Cool Mom!

Here's a fun story for your amusement-

Like every other morning, during our morning rush out of the house to get the kids to the sitter's house, Elaina stops to pick a little blue flower to take to Nancy. Honestly, I can't believe that there is even a flower there day after day since Elaina picks them all. So, this morning was no different. Elaina picks her flower to take to Nancy, we pull in her driveway and Elaina is poking around her carseat looking for her flower. I find it and show it to her, stating that her flower is "Right HERE" and "Let's go." Elaina seems oblivious to this new development and continues to poke around, wasting time and ignoring me in her seat. I finally raise my voice and announce with a little more authority, "Elaina! Let's go! Your flower is here- we have to go!"

At this point, I am unbuckling her from her carseat belt and digging for her arms buried in the seat cushion. As I pick her up from her seat, in a perplexed tone, Elaina says to me, "OkayOkay Mommy, JustChillOut." Plain as day. My daughter told me to "Chill out."

I asked her, "Did you just tell Mommy to chill out?"

Not knowing if this was the right answer, she buried her head into my shoulder and softly said, "Yes."

I had to turn her around and put her feet on the ground as I began to laugh to myself in disbelief. Oh, she wasn't in trouble. It was too funny to even respond to her in any way.

One might be lead to believe that some parent may advise Elaina to "chill out" occasionally when she strikes up her fragile drama queen attitude. Hmm... is that possible?

Calling all Recalls!

Seriously! Is this the summer of recalls or what?

It's only been three days and I am already experiencing withdrawal. My camera has been recalled. ( Insert the pout face and wrinkled brow of frustration.)

Didn't it all start when they recalled coney sauce in July for fear that it may have contained botulism? Oh yeah, that would have been the very same coney sauce we offered our guests at Elaina's 2nd birthday party that my mom became ill over. And while I'm thinking about it, there were the Veggie Booty chips (salmonella), Thomas the Train toys (lead paint) and then green beans (more botulism) and then Mattel with every-single-Dora -action- figure- known- to- exist and even certain models of Ford trucks. Seriously!

And I'm suffering over my missing camera, forfeiting pictures of my little sweetness children, changing by the day and no one can even offer me a stinkin' coney dog!

Apparently America is selling out our safety to the lowest bidder or the most careless workers.

I'll step down from my soapbox now. Thank you.

We'll have pictures again one day. And then, all will be right in my world. And I'll be content with only ketchup and mustard on my hot dog.

I. Just. Want. My. Camera. BACK.

The Grandparent Adventure

Just how many grandparents can you visit in one weekend?

The answer: 6

Given the fact that Elaina and Lincoln have a grand total of 8 grandparents / great-grandparents, I'd say we covered a lot of ground on our weekend trip to my parents' house and his parents' house.

The reason for the visit was sparked by Eric's grandma coming up from West Virginia to stay with his parents for the week. While she was there, Eric's other grandma came over for the day and we all headed to Eric's brother and sister-in-law's house for a cookout.

Follow all of that? Just in case you're counting, that makes a party of three grandma's and a grandpa all in one place! It was the first time that either great-grandma had ever met Lincoln and they were both surprised at how much Elaina has grown up and changed since they saw her last. Needless to say, they were a lot of hugs being doled out to each of our munchkins.

Just like every other family gathering, we ate loads of great food and enjoyed visiting long past the wee ones bedtimes. While we were there, Elaina enjoyed jumping on the trampoline, riding her cousin Evan's new battery powered 4 wheeler and swinging on the swingset. With entertainment like that, who would ever want to go home?

Surprisingly; Elaina. Apparently, she had worn herself out by all of her recreation and was begging to go to bed by 9:30. The bed we were headed to was at my mom and dad's house. ( Make that grandparent set # 6.) By the time we arrived at grandma and pop-pop's house, she had gotten her second wind and was thrilled to chase around with pop-pop and talk to grandma. Unbelievable. The child who begged for bedtime only an hour earlier, was made to go to bed about 4 times before her daddy finally got her tucked in.

What a great day of visiting!

P.S. Note: Great Grandma and Great Grandpa in Florida- we miss you too and wish that you were within a quick three hour drive away too! Love you! You would have made our weekend complete!

Biographies of the Wee Ones

The Big Sister

Name: Elaina Rose

Alias: LuluBelle, Sweetsie Sue, BabyDoll, Angel

Age: 25 months

Height: 33.5 inches (30 percentile)

Weight: 27 pounds (50 percentile)

Likes: Little brother, "Winkin," binkies at bedtime, books, dancing, swinging at the playground

Dislikes: Healthy food, nutritious food, new foods

Talents: somersaults, sliding, counting to 15, impressive vocabulary, flair for the dramatic

Favorite Toy: viewmaster that Aunt Jan and Uncle Stan sent her for her birthday (otherwise referred to as her "ninnoc-cooyers"

Things she would like you to know: recently had first sighting of new bottom row tooth broken through and bump of another one almost ready to show; Elaina went pee-pee on the potty on Monday night and received 2 M&M's and excitedly did the potty dance with Mommy

The Little Brother

Name: Lincoln Todd

Alias: Sweetie, Love, BabyBoy

Age: 3 months

Height: 24 inches (50 percentile)

Weight: 15.9 pounds (75 percentile)

Likes: holding onto his mommy/daddy/blanket, hanging his head off the bend of mommy's elbow so that she looks like she doesn't know how to hold a baby, smiling, cooing and discovering an almost-giggle in his throat

Dislikes: being hungry or sitting in a soiled diaper

Talents: recently began sleeping through the night like a champ! Consistently drinks 6 ounces at every feeding. Beginning to stand on his strong legs and supports his head very well.

Favorite toy: loves his swing and loves to have something to hold onto

Things he would like you to know: Did I mention him sleeping through the night? He has recently found his thumb and has become a thumb-sucker with the rest of his fingers pressed to the side of his nose.

Weekend Co-Op

It's the time of year once again for our little town's festival weekend. This is the same little festival event that Eric volunteers the majority of his time helping with the fire department food stand and I assist my friends on the same operating committee of which I abandoned almost one year ago.

Since Eric and I do put in several hours throughout the weekend, my parents are always gracious enough to come and take charge of our household operation for the time we are away. It was a pleasant sight coming home from work on Friday evening to have my mom welcome me at the door with Lincoln in her arms and an excited Elaina running in behind her.

While Eric was gone the majority of Friday evening putting in his hours at the park, my mom and dad took the kids to the festival as I scurried around and set up an entire garage sale for the next morning. All in one night. Yes, it can be done. And, well, I might add. Grammy and Pop-Pop reported that Elaina shook her bootie to the music at the bandstand while Lincoln stayed awake, soaking in compliments and attention well past both of their bedtimes.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why our town cannot hold successful garage sales. Saturday morning was a huge disappointment as far as profitable sales. Yes, I got rid of more than I started with and came out ahead with a couple extra dollars in my pocket, but not even close to the traffic of what could be expected. Since I can't shrink my kids to fit their old clothes and I've already run the circuit of selling to resale shops, I priced all of my items dirt cheap to clear my tables. Aside from kid clothes, I had an entire table full of housewares, decorations and even a lawnmower off to the side. No takers! Pooey! I did sell one of my old Coach handbags which was actually easier to part with than I had expected. Woo... now I'm rich.

I had a commitment to volunteering on Saturday afternoon while I let my mom and dad continue to run the show back at home. Afterward, we all headed down to the festival and enjoyed some good junk food and company of our neighbors throughout the town. Every year, I'm reminded how nice it is to live in a small town where we're fortunate enough to have met lots and lots of great and genuine people that we call our friends. When Sunday morning finally rolled around, Elaina was thrilled to still have her Grammy and Pop-Pop with her one more day. We had been telling her that this was the day of the parade and that if she was good and ate all of her lunch, she would get to watch the parade. Around 9 in the morning, Elaina was no where to be found. I searched all of the downstairs until I heard her little voice coming from up above. Elaina had pulled a little stool in front of our spare bedroom window and was perched there waiting for the parade to begin. Little did she know, the parade wouldn't be starting for five more hours and she was facing the wrong side of the house. Poor child.

My second and final commitment of the weekend was to help out with the parade. My job was to help register everyone in attendance and usher them from the field to kick off the parade. Essentially, I got to see all of the parade, only in slow motion. I managed to catch the last 5 minutes of the parade with Elaina and my folks and snap some cutie pics in the meantime. Check out this awesome sign that our neighbors made for Elaina to hold for the parade!Practicing her parade wave with Grandma and Pop-Pop.This is how Lincoln enjoyed his very first parade. Even Elaina's friend, Ali, was able to stop by for a visit, a playground invitation and a share in Elaina's parade candy. Yum!

While I do love my mom and dad plenty, I resorted to sheer bribery in pitching my case to them for one last favor. Since we had all been so busy running around all weekend, I didn't feel like I had hardly any time to spend with them before they intended to leave on Sunday afternoon. I hit below the belt when I offered to take my mom shopping and promised my dad dinner at a great BBQ restaurant if they would stay just one more night. Hooray! They accepted!

We enjoyed our Sunday evening together doing some shopping and eating a great dinner. Even though it wasn't the BBQ that I had boasted, we all enjoyed our Chinese buffet just the same. Better yet, my mom and I got some great buys and finally had some time to visit with one another.

Although we had a very busy weekend, it was one of the best. Thank you mom and dad for running the show in our absence and hugging and squeezing our kids to pieces. Lincoln got to know your voices and your warmth and Elaina was just crazy about having you at her house. A great time by far!

3 Months Old!

It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing a stringy, little 6.6 pound baby Lincoln home from the hospital. Desperate to find clothing small enough to fit his tiny hiney.

Three months ago, our world was turned upside down. In the best way possible. We got to meet our son. A son! For us! Pure joy! To share with us the rest of our lives.

So quietly content that we had to remind ourselves that he was there. Learning his personality, falling love and pinching ourselves that this is indeed, reality. We are no longer without our missing Linc in our lives. He completes us.

The Spread

Let me just say one more time: yesterday was pure misery.

Ugh. I don't remember feeling that sick in a long time. So guess what? Elaina yacked all over herself 10 minutes before we were ready to leave for the babysitter's house this morning. The sad part is that I'm not totally surprised.

Since Eric had already left for work I cleaned her up, called off work, called the babysitter and called Daddy. Elaina proceeded to get sick a few more times before the noon hour, but after a nice long nap, she was happy as a clam. Actually, she was spinning around and flying like an "aiy-pain" and then the next minute, she was busy bzzz-bzz'ing around like a "bummel-bee." Cute.

The only good thing to come of a sick child are the first signs to indicate that they are feeling much better. She's already there!

Here We Go Visiting!

One might assume that while I was off work for 2 months on maternity leave and Eric joining me on paternity leave for 6 weeks of the same time, we may have been able to steal away a weekend to visit with family and friends.

I'm afraid that wasn't the case.

Nope, we sat home and stared at our wonderful boy, played with our little girl and stayed busy every single day without fail. Unfortunately, we just kind of ran out of time to cross everything off of our to-do-list in such a short period of time. So, do you want to know what we do about that now?

We have super-duper-extra-busy weekends all at once! Grand!

For so long, we had planned on going to visit my brother, sister-in-law and Colin. And just for a bonus in our weekend, I really had the best intentions on joining up with Kate's friend Heather and sweetie-blog-star-son, Wesley. Elaina has been a longtime fan of her cousin Colin and Wesley via their blog pictures and videos. As luck would have it, our best laid plans caught a snag early on and made seeing Wesley impossible. (Heather, I'd like to request a rain check for a trip to COSI to get the three little munchkins together before we have to pay adult admission for them!)

So, let me tell you how much we enjoyed our weekend otherwise. Eric and I got on the road especially early on Saturday to be able to take full advantage of the time we had available. Colin welcomed Elaina with a gentle hug while Aunt Kate was busy squeezing all kinds of love and hugs onto her little nephew, Lincoln. We headed out to one of Colin's favorite parks, known simply as the "Bunny Park." Why do they call it the Bunny Park? Quite simply because it has three 2o foot bunnies dancing in a circle atop a giant hill. Aahhh... the bunny park. Better than bunnies, it has jumping water. Elaina had a ball playing in the water and catching it in her buckets. With the temperature stretching into the 90's, it was a welcome relief to get splashed by the cool spurts of water.

After the kids had their fill of drenching for the day, we decided that it was time to head back to the house for some dry clothes, naps and bottle time for Lincoln. While I was tempted to bring Lincoln a little closer to the fountains for the water to splash on his feet, I decided he was more than comfortable just hanging out in the shade of his stroller with his dad.

After naps and warm goodbyes, we were headed off to our next destination. Another set of abandoned friends that we had been desperately trying to arrange a weekend visit with.

Eric has been great friends with Duane since college and we've been close with him and his wife, Jayna, ever since. They have 3 gorgeous little ladies at home ages 4 to 11. When we first arrived, Elaina made her way right down to the basement play area without any prompting or encouragement other than being told that her "friends" were waiting down there to play with her. Just for the record, Elaina hasn't seen these girls since last year when she was about 15 months old. From the minute they connected, the four of them played together like they had known each other for the past 10 years!

We had a great time visiting and enjoyed watching Elaina interact and play so nicely with girls almost 3 times her age.

I'm not particularly sure which dice I played to have such bad luck this weekend, but on Sunday morning, I woke up with flu symptoms. Sheer misery. The kind of misery that lets you heave a little and then leave a little if you get my drift. And at our friends house. Seriously embarrassing. I have to admit that just the little, tiny part of me that was still rational and conscious was a little bit glad that we woke up to rain on Sunday morning and ruined our plans for hanging out by the pool. Without exaggeration, I could barely walk, speak or sit up. I'm telling you: MI-SER-Y!!

By 2:00, Eric managed to load up all of our loot, gather the kids and his decrepit wife and get us on the road for home. While I felt barely human, I did not get sick and didn't even have to reach for my barf bag once. Sometimes it's the little things that you have to find joy in.

Posting Note...

To my loyal readers, this week has been a blur and my blog may reflect the same. I seem to have posted a few entries out of order so scroll back to see where exactly you left off. I may have slipped one in while you weren't looking. Just for fun.

Presenting:

Elaina's "hos-cosch" rug!

Check out this doll house bookcase! Generic $300 Pottery Barn? NOPE! Custom designed by Mommy and handcrafted with by Pop-Pop H. for Elaina's 2nd birthday! He gave this house a home!

Can you spot the big girl in her big bed?

The Big Girl Bedroom!

By popular demand, here are some pictures of Elaina's new bedroom. I still have some finishing touches to make and hesitated to post an unfinished product. I'm happy with how it's turned out so far and am anxious to see it come all together. Her room is missing the dresser mirror, a picture above another dresser and some block letters that spell out her name over one of her closets.

The one stand out faux pas is that her bed is pulled away from the wall. It seems as though I cracked the bottom of her headboard when I helped to pull it out when my friend came over to paint her walls. Eric still needs to bolt the split together and no one would ever know. Except that I just told everyone.

Gypsy in the Making

Elaina has been getting little self into a little bad habit as of late.

She has become a Hoarder.

Like her mom, she likes to have her "stuff" and likes to have it handy. If this means that she has to stand at the bottom of the steps crying because she can't haul her plastic shopping cart full of crap to the top of the stairs, she will. And then, wiping away the tears, she'll try once again to get that little cart to roll up the steps.

Little did she know, being a 2 year- old hoarder can also get you into trouble. It seems as though none of us have slept through the night yet this week. And Lincoln is not to blame. Of course he is waking up for his usual early morning hungry time around 4-5 a.m. but his big sister has been getting up between 5-6 a.m. For no reason. We're talking about the typical 7 a.m. wake-up girl. Before I went on maternity leave, we could almost turn off our alarm clocks and rely solely on her to wake us when 7 a.m. rolled around. Those were the good old days.

For the past couple early mornings and middle of the nights, Elaina has wanted to hoard all of her toys into bed with her. When she first moved into her big girl bed, Buddy the teddy bear and PinkBear, the beanie baby were all that she needed to make her happy. She has since moved on. Her bedtime posse now includes: 2 baby dolls, See 'N Say, Frog the flashlight, Barbie radio, Tupperware apple which the binkies stay in during the day, no less than 6 books, 2 baskets, plastic toy car keys, plastic sand shovel, Lilly the Leapfrog and at least 3 teddy bears. And don't dare forget the 2 binkies; one for each hand.

This is all of the crap that she loaded onto our bed when she greeted us in our bed at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It took this child THREE trips to haul all of this loot from her bedroom to ours. God forbid she be content with only one bear and a cuddly hug from mom or dad. NOPE. Our king sized bed was loaded and cramped with little girl loot and barely enough room for the little girl.

And then there was Wednesday night. Wednesday night she tried a new spin on her old trick. Mommy and Daddy both tucked Elaina in before bed while Daddy made it very clear to stay in her bed when she woke in the morning and play with her toys in her room. Apparently, Elaina didn't quite differentiate still being awake with sleeping and then waking. This is what I walked in on:

I cleaned off her bed not only once this night, but three times! After I took this picture, she woke up around 3 a.m. and started over. We heard her shut her door and Eric headed in to put her back to bed. Five minutes later, we heard her talking book begin to play. Daddy took care of her once again. This time he turned off her nightlight so that she couldn't see to play with her toys in the dark. So we thought. At 3:30, her book begins to play again and it was Mommy's turn. I cleaned off her bed while she stood aghast, crying pitiful tears. Mommy was there to stay. I joined her, sleeping in her bed, putting an end to her bedtime party. Sorry toys!

Loveable

Did I mention how much Elaina loves her little brother?

Did I mention how much I love my kids?