Made Into the Maid

What I wouldn't give to have someone else do the chores I hate.

Vaccuuming. Dusting. Cleaning bathrooms. These dirty little jobs that are so completely necessary but take up so much of my time that I would rather be playing with my kids.
A maid for this family however, is highly unlikely. Actually, more of an absolute, positive NO. Quite honestly, I'm too cheap to shell out the money to have a stranger come in to poke around in my mess. And so, I clean.

This day was going to be different though. In talking with Eric yesterday afternoon, I asked if he reminded the sitter that the kids wouldn't be coming on Monday due to us having the day off work for President's Day. He said that she was going to have only one of the other kids and she would be more than happy to take them for the day. I think he didn't even have all of the words out of his mouth beofre I began to drool with excitement over 7 hours of uninterrupted cleaning time. Once I confirmed with Nancy that the kids were going to her house in the morning, I dumped all of my worries of getting laundry done and some other random chores and enjoyed all of Sunday playing with my kids. I even let Elaina get out her Play-Doh and play until she said she was done. Monday was going to be all mine. My work day. And Eric's. The kids would be getting plenty of attention and I was making more time for them later by having an opportunity to get some meaningful work done. A win-win situation if you ask me.

We woke with noise coming from our children rather than alarm clocks on Monday morning and didn't have an ounce of rush in us to get them out the door. Like usual. Eric dropped the kids off and brought back a delicious, warm cup of cappuccino for me to start my day. I changed my clothes and jumped right into work mode. I started upstairs in the kids' bedrooms sorting through closets and dresser drawers. Earlier in the morning, I came to the conclusion that Elaina has outgrown nearly every pair of shoes that she owns. I dug through their inventory of bigger-sized clothes to discover that we need to go shoe shopping.

My cleaning spree had begun. In fact, I spent most of my day just upstairs tackling one project after another. I'm talking about dusting, vaccuuming floors, ceiling fans and window sills. Changing sheets, 78 loads of laundry (approx.) and cleaning bathrooms. Total damage: 3 super sparkling bedrooms, 1 so-so bedroom, 1 sparkling clean bathroom and tub, 1 acceptably clean bathroom and 1 just plain ugly bathroom. All of our floors were dog- hair free for approximately .08 seconds and without kid crumbs for a record setting 3 hours.
Here's some evidence of my work. Mostly inspired as the fruit of my labor. Partly inspired by Tracy's virtual home tour, and the added benefit of my kids being able to see what their rooms looked like when they were little. (I have no idea what my kid-room ever looked like, but I know it was never anything like this.)

Check out Elaina's room. Now, didO I really have to tell you that this was Elaina's room?

And for Lincoln's room:

And finally, our hallway which isn't new, but I just really want to show off my one and only creative use of patterning paint shades.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I left out our new stained doors that I think are beautiful! Eric finished hanging the last one today! Our upstairs remodel is one room shy of being perfectly complete! We'll get there.

Okay, so who wants to come over for some dessert. That's on tomorrow's agenda!

Butterflies and Buffets

This weekend brought a relaxing visit from my parents. We didn't have a single plan other than to sit around and enjoy each other's company and play with my little curtain climbers. Well, that's not entirely true. There's hardly a time where either my mom or myself decide we better go shopping for nothing that we need. Hey, she's my mom, what can I say. (Oh, except that Elaina asks if we can go shopping now.) (Oops.)

The mall that we like the most has a great (and new) (and clean) children's play area which Elaina loves and Lincoln was able to explore for the first time. It was so nice to see both kids enjoy the same experience in the same setting in such different ways. With Lincoln being the professional crawler and stander-upper that he is, he thought he was hot stuff getting around all on his own. As for Elaina, she already knows the lay of the land and made friends like it was her job. We looked to catch glimpses of her flitting throughout the play area like a social butterfly.This mall also has the greatest Chinese Buffet restaurant ever. I've made mention before that buffets are the way to go for us to accommodate the very strict menu selections of Picky Pickerson. This restaurant offered Picky Pick pizza, garlic bread, chocolate pudding and ice cream. It's like they knew she was coming. And Little Man Lincoln ate his first full meal made up entirely of table food. No baby food fixin's for this 9 month old. He ate three types of pudding, some dough from a dinner roll and a full medley of other tantalizing soft foods. Yum! He was pretty good about raking in his own food supply by hand with intermitten spoonful helpings from myself and grandma across the table.

There's really no need to report on my 7 trips to the buffet for myself alone. Nope. Scratch that information.

Anyhow, our weekend was great, our shopping trip was fun and my parents were such a help for me to get some things caught up around the house without fully neglecting my children. Thanks for a great weekend visit Mom and Dad.

My heart goes out to thee

Here's a little sampling of Valentine's hilghlites from our house. Hoping everyone enjoyed the day with those you love!

l

Thanks to everyone who sent cards for the kids and to Aunt Kate and Uncle Greg.... WOW! What great gifts to spoil our kids! Thank you for your consideration and generosity for such cool stuff!

We enjoyed our Valentine's day by going out for dinner at our favorite local pizza shop and having a lazy-family-evening all together. I loved every minute of it!

And just because... How about that husband of mine declaring Elaina's potty time for the world to hear? And how about her whiny, quick retort declaring "I don't wanna..." Guess you could probably make that out for yourself. Things only got better once both kids got fed and certain butts made it onto the potty.

Video Games

I've been promising my parents clips of Lincoln crawling now for about as long as he's been crawling. Although our lighting is somewhat dim, here's the main attraction.

I was on the phone the other night and heard Lincoln just bubbling with cooey baby laughter that was totally infectious. As I peeked in to see what my boys were up to, I witnessed the following. I think that this was approximately Lincoln's 76th round of toss-the-tot and he was finally growing a little bit tired. But only a little.

And welcome to Saturday morning at our house. Kids still all jammied up and the big one licking the little one on the head. What more can I say?

Her father taught her how to dance.

Picture Tuesday

Well lookey here... my old friend, Blogger returned from it's little function-strike now allowing me the ability to post pictures. Sure hope that I do my own proofreading since spell check still doesn't seem to be a working part of their contract. Hmmph.

Let's see, I'm just about a week behind in pictures and have a few fun ones I've wanted to share. First up, we have my sick darling daughter on her first day of her miserable flu. I took this only to show you that this was just about all she did the entire day. Poor thing was so frail and weak that she could hardly sit up. Let me just tell you how helpless I felt as I could only have her puke bowl ready when she was. Yeah, that was a bad day.

The following day, after Elaina had gotten some meds in her, she prepared a tea party with her very favorite guest, Lumberjack Linc. He seemed to be disappointed that there was no real food in any of the bowls but pretended with an open mouth anyhow. Just in case. Elaina loves her baby lumberjack brother. So, you know all of the not-so-cute-hand-me-down-clothes that you sometimes get from family or friends? Yeah, um, save some in each size. Over the course of this sickness with both kids, I did more laundry than a hotel and changed no less than 5 Lincoln outfits in a day. When the kids yak or blow out a not-so-cute-hand-me-down garment, it's just a little easier to take than the ultra-cute-froo-froo-paid-real-money-for-outfit that you bought in a real store. Just sayin'. Oh, and that's also the reason that Elaina's outfit doesn't match.

Now. Really. This next picture makes me smile, laugh and cringe all at the same time as Lincoln really seems to fit the roll of a beefy, heavy equipment operator working on a construction site. All he needs is a beat up, old John Deere hat and a thermos and he's set!

(To Lincoln: You can be anything you want to Baby. Just run it passed your mommy first, mmkay?

Finally, the price you pay for being the little brother. Big Sister made this little nest for Lincoln and really thought it would be a good place for him to take a nap. I don't know about him, but I totally would have gotten some beauty rest in that mountain of pillows and warmth. Just don't think I would have fit in quite as snuggly.

Tomorrow is half-a-dozen-video day! Ooh, I know you can't wait!

Mom's Antidote

When we woke up this morning, I peeled myself out of bed to take an inventory of the family. With all of the nast that I won't even bother to mention ONE MORE TIME, it looked like everyone was actually (dare I say?) better. I was spared from what could have been the flu and felt mostly decent.

After the kids got their naps, we loaded up and headed out for a family date. No real intentions, just some shopping and killing some time being out of the house. Just in case you know me, I can shop pretty easily, just about anywhere. We found some goods at just about every store we went to and even began to do some research shopping for 2 new car seats which we'll be moving Elaina into very soon. Lincoln is outgrowing his infant carrier at the speed of light and will have to have a new (rear-facing) seat soon enough. Our thought is to buy two new seats for Elaina with enough growing room to make them her last and Lincoln can move into her current car seats. Car seat shopping is hard. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear from you.

One of the main goals of our shopping trip tonight was to find a pair of these (in chocolate). I know, I know. Aren't they kinda ugly? Well, not terribly ugly, but so not-cute. I have found myself making no sacrifices for fashion as a mom of two and have jumped on board the ugly-footwear-train. Crocs, I big-squishy-ugly-color-love you. Does anyone else feel the same way? I know I'm not the only one. You see them everywhere. Guys, girls, kids. Everyone, including little, old me have found true love in Crocs. Back when I was a Crocs virgin, I half- heartedly ordered these (in chocolate), waiting to see why everyone loves them. Mmm, my love for them was instant. I wear them every single night (with socks) (I'm a dork) when I come home from work and every single night, I lust over the furry lined ones to keep my feet warm. And since I'm too cheap to pay almost $10 to ship them from the Crocs website, I have been scouring the web and retail stores to find them in stock. Apparently, every other big-foot size 9 woman wants these for their very own too. They have been sold out most everywhere. So, last night after an unsuccessful mall search, and over a dozen sold out websites, I found them! I really found them! Only $4 to ship them and their on their way over to make out with my tootsies! Really, I have never been so pathetic over shoes. I'll be sure to let you know when my mail-order affair arrives. Can you tell I'm just a little excited. Sure beats the heck outta the flu!

Change of plans

And yes, this week was a train wreck of ailments and could the timing of a Tastefully Simple conference be any worse?

No.

I had registered to attend a training conference for my little side job for this weekend. The training was actually being held on Friday and Saturday, but I had only intended on participating on Saturday. I was actually looking forward to it. My plan was to drive down after work on Friday and stay with my brother and S-I-L overnight to be closer to the site of the conference. By Friday afternoon, I had developed the closest thing to a migraine I have ever had. Because I felt completely nauseous, I couldn't decide if it was migraine-sick or flu- sick. Regardless, I cancelled my plans with Greg and Kate and forfeited my registration for the conference. Really, who wanted a flu-infecting machine within 10 feet of them anyhow? I forgot to mention that the other reason that Eric stayed home with the kids on Friday is because the babysitter had ironically, come down with the flu. Hmmm.

Thanks for the offer of a weekend raincheck Greg and Kate! I'll look forward to seeing you guys when we can all have some fun and not worry about gambling with the flu.

On how our week got worse.

And yes, we thought that each of the kids nearly drained their gastro systems in the past 48 hours that they could very well have been emptied by Wednesday. Nope.

We made the decision to take the kids to the sitter's house on Wednesday, assuming that they were on the mend. Nancy later reported that Lincoln was particularly fussy and that he had more than 3 blowouts and his bottom was now a burning hue of raw. Elaina, on the other hand, was greeting by her fan club of her 2-4 year old friends at the sitter's house. It was quite adorable to see that all of the kids had genuinely missed her and glad to see she wasn't sick anymore. Go ahead.... "Aaawwww!" Me too.

Wednesday evening, I thought Lincoln had had his last diaper explosion until he started again around 7:00. At one point in the evening, Elaina was crying because Mommy wasn't able to tend to her every whim, Lincoln was crying because he hurt all over, I was crying because I couldn't do much for either kid and I was fearing that Lincoln was going to end up in the emergency room if his explosive poo didn't subside. To make matters worse, Eric was bowling and the whole bitter anger issue over his little hobby was rearing it's ugly, ugly head in an evil way. I'm still hoping that his bowling "commitment" won't be an issue after this year's longest season in the history of bowling.

With my anxiety soaring and the flu virus rampant in our house, I started with some symptoms of my own. We all stayed home on Thursday, with me going to work just for a few hours in the afternoon. Eric later reported that Lincoln had been consuming fluids, both formula and minimal pedialyte and still wasn't peeing it out. My fear over his 3 days of diarrhea and potential kidney damage got the best of me and I called the pediatrician at 10 pm for her to put my mind at ease to be able to get any sleep that night. She didn't seem overly concerned because he wasn't running a fever and his disposition hadn't changed. She wanted to follow up with him in the morning.

Finally, (still with me here?) on Friday, Eric stayed home with the kids again since I have effectively depleted all of my sick time at work and he still has loads of unused hours. Upon Lincoln's appointment with the doctor, she determined that Lincoln had developed an ear infection which caused him not much interest in sucking from a bottle and indirectly led him to become somewhat lactose intolerant for the time being. She suggested having him drink from a cup which he promptly downed 2 ounces of water right in her office to Eric's surprise. Guess we never would have thought of that.

And there you have it. Our nasty week of ill. We made it through and we're all over the hump of feeling better. I didn't even mention how after cleaing up kid puke and poop for 2 days, Keegan decided to unload some of his stomach gunk for me to clean up too. What a family I have. I can always count on everyone pitching in. Or throwing up. Whatever the case may be. Yep, I'm a lucky girl.

Hit

You may want to grab your can of Lysol before proceeding to read any further.

Go ahead, I'll wait. This is gonna be a little gross too.

It's possible that all of the germs and nast that have plagued our house for the past two days could potentially leak out over my computer monitor to yours and it's better to be safe than sorry.

So, about this nast and infestation of germs... The kids' babysitter, Nancy, called me at work on Monday morning to tell me that Elaina had thrown up. She thought maybe it was a random and isolated incident and don't worry, she just wanted me to know. Thirty minutes pass and another call, another throw up. This time I turn in my sick slip to leave work to pick up my sick baby and my Lincoln. I walk in to find Elaina sleeping soundly in Nancy's arms and dressed in her 4th outift of the day because she had soiled the previous three.

We barely make it in the door at our house and Elaina is puking again. I made her a nest in her little bed in the living room which will be her refuge for the day. From noon on, Elaina proceeds to throw up everything that goes in her. We had no luck with water, pedailite or even Sprite. Worried about dehydration before it's too late, I call the pediatricians office to see what else they can offer. It turns out that they were just as concerned and called in a suppositry to the pharmacy. The suppository was to suppress her nausea and allow her then to be able to keep water and food down to be absorbed. The timing was great as Eric was able to pick it up on his way home from work and prevented me from packing up the kids, including the thrower-upper and driving to the drug store.

Within 2 hours of her medication (which she was surprisingly good about allowing) she began to drink and keep down a water- pedialite mixture and was beginning to actually sit up for longer than 3 minutes. At no point did she run a fever and we put potty training on the side much of the day (since she was practically a limp noodle already) to get a good wet-diaper count. Even in her sickness, her eyes perked up when let her know that she was going to get to eat a popsicle for dinner tonight. It was to be the second popsicle of the day and this one, she managed to keep down.

As for me, I started to get a splitting headache about the middle of the day and my trusty, old Alleve was barely making a dent in the pain. I prepared dinner for Eric and myself and had to let him enjoy it without me since I had no appetite and no choice, but to lie down. Eric took his shift with the kids for the next two hours and got both kids tucked into bed. I peeled myself out of bed and just as I sat down to catch up on some blogs, I hear Lincoln upstairs begin to scream and cry. He had just gotten sick all over himself. Eric got him into the bathtub while I changed his bedding and thought myself to be so smart to have registered for 2 crib mattress pad covers back when Elaina was born.

Over the next hour, Lincoln got sick 3 more times. Eric made me aware that his stomach was turning and he wasn't feeling good. And I wondered what far-off island paradise I could catch a plane to at midnight. Oh, here's the best part I forgot to mention. Eric was actually scheduled to teach a training class for work tonight and wasn't expected to be home until after 10:00. It got cancelled. Can you believe the luck? The timing? Thank God for small, in this case, big favors! I told Eric that if I was home alone with both of these vomit machines, I mean, children, I would have beat him for not being there to help. He would have had to pick me off the floor first, but I would have beat him nonetheless.

Much of the night was a blur as I bounced from one crying, sick child's room to the next and finally ended with Lincoln and I waking up together on the sofa downstairs. Eric woke next to Elaina in her bed next to her latest throw-up. And then we both called off work.

So here we are. Today. The very long end of a very long today. Elaina was able to take in fluids and began to eat just before noon. Everything stayed down. (2 suppositories later, mind you) Lincoln got his vomiting out of the way last night and saved his diarrhea for today. Approximately 5 rounds. And both kids began to feel better. My poor sick husband drug himself from bed mid- afternoon and helped as much as he could despite feeling like he'd been run over by a truck. As for me, I realized that I was the only one who had gotten the flu shot and stayed immune to the plague. Last season, Lincoln had croup and colds and snot too much to throw in another shot and Eric hardly ever gets sick and I guess that I just put too much faith in Elaina just being lucky not to get it that I never drug her in for a shot either. At the start of flu season, 2008, I think it's safe to say that we'll be making it a family affair to go get our flu shots together! This sucked!

(And by the way, my spell check isn't working either and I'm not even able to load any pictures now. Sounds like the my computer is infected. Hope everyone else is staying healthy!)

Cutie Crawler

It's happened.

Lincoln-Dinkin-Do is a full fledged crawler!

Since last Thursday when Lincoln made his first crawling attempt, exactly one week passed until he got the full motion of his crawl this past Thursday evening. Oh, and can I just tell you how cute it is to see him go? I don't know what it is or how to explain it but I marvel at him crawling. Maybe it's because it's a whole new segment in his life. Another "first" that he has achieved and a milestone in his development. Or maybe it's because he is so stinkin' cute getting around on his hands and knees while he lifts his chin upward to flash those big blue eyes and rosey cheeks. My boy.

Being that one whole week has also passed since Lincoln burned his finger, I just wanted to report that the blistered skin has since peeled off and the bright red, raw, exposed skin has finally toned down with some healthier tone and color. His fingertip, near his cuticle is still a little scabbed and tender, but on the whole, I'm pleased that it has healed so nicely and without infection.

Can you even believe that there is even one more grand slam update on my little Lincoln? How about 2 new teeth? Oh. My. Cute. Much of Thursday (his first crawling night) he was fussy, clingy and irritated. I noticed immediately upon coming home from work because he was so much out of his norm. He looked a little more slobbery and upset and I knew right away to look for some new teeth. Imagine my surprise when I felt and saw one little crown of his top right tooth and a trace amount the pearly dot which is about to make way through his gums providing his top left tooth. Needless to say, Lincoln's next two days pretty much consisted of Tylenol, teething tablets and much rest to keep the crankies at bay.

Just so this whole post isn't all about my favorite boy in the whole world, I'll give you a little update on Elaina's potty training. It stinks. Potty training in general stinks and having an otherwise bright, communicative daughter relapse when she was doing so great, stinks even more. That alone is the most frustrating by far. She's been wearing pull-ups throughout the day and I know our sitter is a great motivator to get her to take potty breaks. She can do do both "duties" in her throne and we've been going strong on reinforcement and the calendar/sticker reward method. When she has an accident, Eric and I express our disappointment (only briefly, not dwelling) and move on reminding her that she can do it and it's easy and she must try harder next time to keep her pull-up dry. So now what? We make her sit on the potty often and even when she says she doesn't want to, she still has success. But today, she even dropped a load in her pull-up 15 minutes after Eric tried to get her in the bathroom. I'm trying to let her do this at her own pace, but I'm beginning to wonder if her "pace" will get more lax and careless if we're not doing something we should be doing. Any suggestions?

*Oh yeah, and we have the little girl potty books about Prudence and Hannah and the stickers and the reward destination and the pep talks and... what am I missing?

What are we missing?

Birthday Wishes

I do believe this says it all.

Happy Birthday Grandma W!

Hope it was a great one!

Toddler Idol!

So what if she's only 2 1/2?

Just maybe, she doesn't happen to have the posh style and stage etiquette of every other toddler singer.

Elaina's latest audition for our home performance of "Toddler Idol" makes me laugh, roll my eyes and squeeze her to pieces because she is all mine.

Check out her classy performance.

Yes, my Darling Angel claimed her stinker as her own! 'Atta girl! I wonder what Simon would say about that?

And just because he's cute...Lincoln's burned finger is considerably better. When he woke yesterday morning, his blister was larger than life and truly looked deformed. It looked like I taped a giant cotton ball on the end of it as that is how swollen it had become. Over the course of today while playing at the babysitter's house, his blister finally broke and drained and is looking true to size yet, with a very visible burn scab on the front.

And just because this has become so rare in our house as of late, I just need to report that Elaina and I had the very most enjoyable bedtime routine tonight. Eric was attending his weekly fire meeting, Lincoln (unfortunately) had bonked his head on his dresser (run of bad luck for my baby) and had since gone to sleep and Elaina and I got some quiet mother-daughter time. I think that we've been successful in making her sleep out her cranky/spoiled/badness that had occurred after the grandparent weekend and she's back on track. Finally. Tonight we read books, we had girl talk and we said our prayers together. All of this without a single "I want / I don't want / No Mommy" attitude. We were both due for finding that lovable, easy- going, little sweetheart again. I missed her smiles and her joy while she was PMS'ing.

Did someone say WEEKEND!!

Amazing. I worked a whole 3 day week last week and it seemed to last forever. Monday being MLK day and a paid holiday (wooHoo!) and Thursday staying home due to a doctor's appointment for myself and a multitude of other reasons. I justified my sick day by my doctor appointment being smack in the middle of the morning at 10:30, me not having an ounce of free time to feel like I'm able to keep my head above water in the land of mess which I call home, not having much work to do at work and most of all, having suffering through the entire month of January with a cold. Oh yeah, I woke up new year's morning with a sore throat, sinus junk and coughing and it's been with me ever since. I wanted to believe that it was on it's way out of me, but just really wanted a doctor to confirm that since that's what I've been telling myself for 2 weeks already. My lovely doctor fixed me up with some antibiotics and a codeine cough medicine which will not only suppress my cough but prevent my husband from killing me as I lie in bed for nearly an hour coughing and twisting before I can finally fall asleep. Thank you codeine!

So, one of these days I know that I will kick this cough and snot once and for all and I'll quit going through a box of tissue per week and my co-workers won't have to hear me cough, hack and blow for much longer. Still crossing my fingers.

In the meantime, I'm pretending to feel well because most often, I just don't have any choice. My kids have been healthy and that's really most important. I'm finally able to post some footage of Lincoln's crawling attempt and how he's been able to cover every corner of the room by his butt-dance-roll-over-moves. Although he did crawl a mere 2 knee lengths on Thursday, there has been no crawling to report since.

Now tell me, am I the only one who longs to have a girls' day out with a bunch of close friends and we talk about it and plan it and yet, it never happens? Well on Saturday five of my girlfriends and myself loaded up in my Yukon, pleaded with my dear husband to strap the turtle cap on top and hit the road for the Ikea store in Pittsburgh. We really did it! We had been talking about going since November and our plans finally came to fruition. Yeah, we looked like a bunch of dorks with a giant turtle cap on top the truck, but for 6 women shoppers in Ikea followed by the mall, it was so necessary! Pittsburgh is about 90 minutes away and the closest Ikea to us. Most of us, including myself, have never been there and I was blown away by the shopping experience. I was mostly seeking out some organization for my den, specifically this little, old computer desk which I need to clear off to talk to all of you every now and then. Ikea came through for me! I'd love to post a picture, but even after 3 hours of cleaning, sorting and organizing, it's still not exactly finished, but very, very close and I'm in love with my Ikea storage that made it happen.

Following this awesome shopping showcase, otherwise known as I-luvva, we hit the mall. Since having kids, I hardly enjoy shopping for clothes for me anymore. Don't get me wrong, I can shop at the drop of a hat for practically any occasion, but buying for Elaina and Lincoln is my favorite of all. My best finds were at The Children's Place. I totally loaded up on the Monster Sale of clearance items. Did I mention that I love it when stores have a sale and it actually is a "sale?" Way to go TCP!

That brings me to today. Eric and I were going to go out to the mall (as if I didn't get my fix from yesterday), some other stores and dinner and quite possibly, some play land area for Elaina to burn off some energy. We made a second round in The Children's Place (I'm telling you, the deals were that good) and then off to Panera for dinner. I had just brought back Lincoln's jarred baby food from the microwave as Lincoln's was sitting happily in his highchair and when I turned around to reach for a spoon, Lincoln reached into the very hot jar of very hot baby food and burned his fingers. I wasn't planning on serving him this very, overly heated food until it was much cooler except he had a different plan for now. O dear God did he ever scream! And proceeded to scream. I wiped his hand clean of the hot food and jumped up for some ice in a mini cup which only caused him to scream some more. After doing everything we could think of to calm him and fix him, we loaded up our barely eaten meals and headed for home. The smartest thing we did was to prepare a bottle before we left to see if that would comfort him and that's the only thing that gave us breaks of silence for the whole 30 minute drive home. Once we were home, we were able to better assess his burn since our lighting was better and some time had passed. His ring finger had completely blistered within this same amount of time. Some blistering occurred on the top and side of his middle finger but not even close in comparison to the other. Here's a sad picture of baby Lincoln's first injury. And check out the finger cozy that I made to still allow him to suck his thumb. I smothered his fingers with burn cream, yet didn't want it to get in his eyes or mouth while he was sucking his thumb and so this was my only solution. And he only sucks the thumb on this hand.

Elaina and I said our prayers at bedtime and asked God to heal our baby's fingers and make him well. Elaina also thanked God for her sippy cup tonight and her (fairly new) decorative mirror. Thank you God, indeed!

Now What?

And so after more than over a week of not posting a single new entry, where oh where do even begin?

This could turn ugly folks, hang on. Mybe get some coffee to stay awake if you plan on staying.

Let's just start off with some random pictures from last week shall we?

On your feet Steelers fans!

Check out the spread on this defense!I didn't happen to mention that we enjoyed a family date night a few weekends back and got Lincoln's 8 month picture taken. The slack-mom that I've become, I didn't get him in at 6 months because he had croup and/ or a cold for most of the month, followed with Eric being gone for hunting season in November, Thanksgiving and ending with Christmas. Our busiest months by far. And so, that's how we end up with 8 month pics. I'm thinking the next professional portrait session will be with both kids for Easter and rounding out with Lincoln's 1 year old pictures in May. Boy, I've come a long way from the conformed-do-things-on-schedule-mom that I once was with an only child. I have since forgiven my mom for slacking on professional pictures of me alone. (She'll be the first to tell you that I wouldn't smile unless my big brother was in the picture with me. I'll tell Lincoln the same.)

About this photo session. I was diligent to consider nap times of both kids and fine tuned an exact bath time for Lincoln so that his face wouldn't be blotchy or dry and even ironed his clothes. And what does my little Pipsqueak do for me in return?Scratches. Claw marks on both sides of his forehead. AND, I just trimmed his little fingernails the night before. Seriously. This kid can grow fingernails overnight and they can still make a mighty scratch from below his fingertips. Stinker. Luckily, this was before his bath in which most of the redness calmed down to be much less visible with some warm, soapy water and A&D ointment. Who knew those butt creams were so useful?

Moving on, just this past weekend I headed out to visit my parents and Eric's parents by myself and the kids. Eric decided that since it was a long, 3 day weekend, (thanks MLK!) he was going to stay home and work on some projects around the house. It actually worked out well since I had scheduled a Tastefully Simple party to do for a friend and we still had Christmas presents to take home since we ran out of room in our truck last time.

It's such a luxury to visit my parents house. What with free babysitting a 1 on 1 ratio, wonderful dinners served to me, early bedtimes and the opportunity to go back to bed after I pass my early riser children off to my mom? Beautiful. Well..... parts of my sleeping plan were foiled when we arrived at nearly 10:00 Friday night and within a 5 minute window, Elaina went from being sound asleep in the car to wide awake and bouncing up and down while playing with her Pop-Pop. Oh dear God. Did you hear me say 10:00 at night? This is the child who goes to bed no later 9:00 if I can help it. 8:00 on a good night. But 10:00! Playing!

Knowing this is never a good sign, I couldn't even imagine how I was about to tame this wild banshee from her grandparent high. And then there was Lincoln. Long story short, Lincoln was overly tired and couldn't put himself to sleep after his 2 hour evening nap and stayed up (mostly) fussing and restless until almost 2 a.m. And since we all shared a room, Elaina couldn't fall asleep and I had already exhausted my mom until 1:00 and was on my own. Two overly tired children, one exhausted grandma and a mommy who was about to spit fire from her ears. This wasn't even close to what I had signed up for.

The next morning Elaina and Lincoln woke at their regular 7:00 hour and were rearing to go again. Think about that: 5 hours of sleep + a 2.5 year old + full attention of her grandparents= disaster. I really couldn't believe how well she lasted and for how long. She really didn't have that bad of a day, especially after she got her nap.

Lincoln usually does pretty good wherever he goes so the previous night must have been a fluke. Here he is keeping warm with his Pop-Pop, watching the fire burn in the fireplace.On Sunday, I actually got the most sleep. Not only did I sleep in, I stayed in bed to cuddle with Lincoln for his morning nap. Don't I just love that little sweet cuddle- kid of mine!! We actually did make it out of the house to visit Grandma and Grandpa W. for the evening. Their cousin Evan had waited for 2 days to play with "Ewaina" and was anxious to see her. I'd say they're both a couple of potheads.

(Note to God: Please don't ever let my corny puns ever come back to haunt me. Thank you. Amen.)

We all enjoyed a nice evening of visiting and lounging about followed by yet another delicious home cooked meal served to me (yay!) and my kids were actually well behaved. My lovely in-laws were kind enough to watch my kids as I headed out to my favorite store nearby, one of which we don't have around my home (at all) so that I could stock up on their sale on baby food and leisurely browse the sale racks. And here is the fast-forward version of how my 20 minute shopping trip took me over an hour. Begin: Score 5 cases of baby food cheap. See more sales and can't resist. Call M-I-L who states "kids are good, take your time." Shout hooray and run through the store in my frugal glory. Gather a cart full of items and convince myself it's time to leave. Bid a fond farewell to O Favorite Store of Mine. Upon exiting, dig for my keys in order to lessen my time wasted outside in 10 degree weather. Cannot find keys. Call OnStar to at least take advantage of one service that their giant annual fee sets me back. Quickly learn that next time I call OnStar, I will lie telling them that a child or pet is locked in my car so they can open my doors a little quicker. Unload my stockpile into my now unlocked vehicle and begin looking for my keys within. No luck. I ransack my purse to find that the lining in the outer purse pocket has torn and my keys were buried deep within the lining. I stop to get gas in 10 degree weather since my five cases of baby food netted me a gas rebate of over $6 at their gas station. Finally arrive at my in-laws house feeling foolish and guilty that I had been gone for so long. Find everyone content, happy and I feel bad about feeling so frazzled. Realize that I'm the only one who's a mess.

We drove home peacefully on Monday while both kids slept away their hyperactivity almost the whole way. Elaina woke for the final 20 minute stretch and we listened to one of her kid's CD's. After she bounced herself along happily through a song, once it was over she proclaimed, "Mommy? That song made no sense." I thought I was going to bust up laughing. Her timing and sincerity were priceless.

We were all happy to see Daddy, but realized that the timing of our trip was of very poor planning as Eric was scheduled to leave out of town for work the next day. From Tuesday through Thursday, Eric was gone and my two darling children were more than a handful. Actually, Lincoln tends to remain pretty constant, but Elaina? Oooh, Girl! I don't even know what to say. She has been bad. No, she has been BAD. Just refer here. The girl does really great with consistency and keeping on a schedule. That's the way it is and always has been. We're just asking to unleash her wrath if she doesn't get enough sleep. Enough said. It's Thursday night and we're just about finished un-programming the spoiled brat out of her. Tomorrow will be better.

If you're still reading, congratulations! Here is the biggest news of all: Lincoln crawled tonight! He really did! It was just a mere 2 creeps, but it counts! As it is, he is all over the place by twisting, pivoting and rolling and my guess is that he'll be a full blown, official crawler by the middle of next week. Oh, and did I mention that his second tooth has officially made it's debut? It's his second bottom tooth and he remains as cute as ever!

There you have it. An update! Hope to talk to you again real soon and we won't have to deal with this run-on jumble again.

Thankyouverymuch.

Those there children of mine...

It seems to me that it's been a little while since I've posted updates on what's new in Elaina and Lincoln's world lately. So, no time like the present...

Elaina likes to play "pretend" all of the time. Did I say all of the time? I mean all of the time. Any time I ask her not to do something, she says "Okay Mommy, juss peetend." Like that's going to get her off the hook from doing something that she is told. I love her vivid imagination and her creativity but seriously, we have to draw the line about when it comes to listening to what she is told for real. Any suggestions on how to handle that one?

Another favorite game of Elaina's is right up Peetend Alley. You can often find Elaina sitting at the dinner table or in the bathtub (or anywhere) shouting out new roles for every member of the family. It goes something like this:

Elaina: I da Mommy, you be da Baby, Daddy be da Grandma and Lincoln be da Kitty. Okay Honey? You a good girl Honey. Mommy, I mean Baby, juss peetend.

Wanna stop over some time to visit? There's a pretty good chance that you too, could be selected to be the doggy sometime or even the big sister. WhooHoo!

While I'm a little behind on putting this down, Elaina has mastered singing her alphabet and knows her colors and is even working very diligently on potty training. The first time I mentioned potty "train," she asked where the train was and if we could get on it. Do you think someone may have watched Polar Express one too many times? On Sunday I put together a calendar, which we're using for nothing more than square boxes to fill and every time Elaina "goes" in the potty, she gets a tiny, shiny, glittery sticker to stick in a box of her choosing and when her squares are all filled up (30 of them) we're going to "Chuckeecheezez." You know the place. We're a little bit slow going at this whole process, but our babysitter is totally on board with helping her out and Elaina just needs the incentive and motivation to want to do it all of the time. My master plan is a 3 day weekend (coming in February) with no plans and not leaving the house and go into full force potty training boot camp. The way I see it is that we're easing into the big finale over a gradual period of time before getting all out serious. For three days. Wouldn't it be nice if she is finished with diapers before that even? Can't see it just yet.

And how about that little Lincoln of ours? I really think my little guy gets more handsome by the day. He's growing more hair fuzz, which is almost a distinguishable color similar to Elaina's. As of late, he's been working on growing a second tooth for his single bottom-tooth friend. Side by side, his smile is so cute! At just 8 months, he's not crawling yet but he loves to stand and hold onto everything and he scoots across the floor pretty much anywhere he wants to go. He's been in the crawl position several times now and I can see his desperation to get a toy just out of his grasp and he fusses and turtles everywhere on the floor in attempt to attain his prize. It's just a matter of time before he really sees what he's capable of and decides to take off crawling.

Other than that, Lincoln has been (Thank GOD) healthy; no more croup, no pink eyes, no random crud. He's been happy and despite his constant running nose which accompanies his new teeth, he's been content and smiley. He loves story time and loves to hear his Mommy sing silly made up songs, (he doesn't quite differentiate the good from the bad yet) and his mommy and daddy know all of his tickle spots which evoke giant belly laughs from our little guy.

However busy our life seems to be right now and how fast our days go by, we seem to be keeping up and sharing as much happiness and laughter with our kids as we can possibly consume. And we're loving every minute. (Even if I have to be the doggy and the kitty is crying and the grandma isn't home and the "mommy" is being a slight bit bossy, I'll take it!)

How Christmas Ruined My Kid

Does anyone remember being two years old? Doesn't it seem like being two is a crucial year in development? And how did age 2 become known and criticized as the "terrible two's?"

Anyone?

Well let me just tell you about my two year old. Elaina has been going through what you might call a "rough patch" as of late. On January 2, just two short weeks ago, she turned 2 1/2. Up until this point, and before Christmas, she had been just about as good as gold. Yeah, there have been times that she's needed some stern reminders of how things are done properly, remembering who is in charge and what good behavior is all about. So what I'm saying is that yes we really did hit the jackpot in adopting and we have been unbelievably blessed with such an awesome daughter. Okay, I said it. It's true.

For this awesome daughter that we have waited our lifetime for, we pretty much want to give her the world. Our happiness is a direct result of seeing Elaina (and now Lincoln too) happy and fulfilled. Most often, we choose to indulge her with little things and try to make each and every day special. Let me be the first one to tell you that we don't want to raise a spoiled brat and we're not living beyond our means to give her a pony if she would ask on a whim. I'm talking about a little girl's request to read this book instead of that book. And sitting in Daddy's seat at breakfast time if Daddy isn't there. Occasionally, asking for a snack before dinner. Regular kid-requests right? Easy. Would you really want to say no to this?

So there we were. Everyone happy. Indulging, smiling, appreciating and easy. And then Christmas came. Let's take a look at how we really spent our Christmas.

4 straight days of opening presents, eating cookies and candy everywhere we go, new toys and noises everywhere she looked, staying up hours after our usual bedtime, different cousins to play with each and every day and hoards of doting grandparents and adults accommodating her every whim. For 4 days straight.

Ah yes, Elaina was living the good life. Weren't we all? And then, we came home. Christmas was over, no more presents, back to our same old routine. Just then, something must have clicked on in Elaina's brain telling her that her same 'ol, same 'ol wasn't nearly as much fun as Christmastime. Within a week after Christmas, we began to see more of a temper from our otherwise calm little angel. Oh, and then we had some dispute of who made the rules around our house. With more frequency after that, there was the meltdown saga of my child acting like she had lost her ever-loving mind when she was told "no." Oh dear God! How did this all happen? One word: Christmas.

That's all I've got. It had to have been the spoils of Christmas ruining my child before my very eyes. And all the while, I was absorbed in the whole "magic of Christmas" facade. Hmmph! The magic was that my darling girl was turning into a spoiled brat.

Right away, you have to know how much that pains me to think of Elaina as a brat, but seriously, the behavior that has been rearing it's ugly head over the past (almost) three weeks, has been hard to deal with. Before Christmas we enjoyed giving and accommodating because she was so appreciative and she could accept a compromise. After Christmas, every toy throughout our house was labeled "mines." As if her greed wasn't bad enough, she was using an incorrect plural. Not the time or place for a grammar lesson. Hello! Not letting her get her way was met with a complete and utter meltdown, tantrum, fit-fest.

The worst part is that Eric isn't always around in the evening and most nightly meltdowns were directed solely at mean, old, Mommy here. Immediately, she would go into her "I want Daddy!I want Daddy!I want Daddy!" mode. The nights that Eric was around to witness Dr. Jeckyl's child, he provided great reinforcement and we presented together as a team. That was so important and once Elaina became sane again, we would make up and move on. The biggest problem is that when I get home from work, I already have a limited number of hours with her and Lincoln in the evening and a portion of them are reserved for making dinner, bathing some children every other night, reading books and going about our standard bedtime routine. Throw in a temper- tantrum-meltdown and my whole night instantly sucked.

Now, have you noticed that the majority of my story is in past tense? Well, thankfully we seem to be over the mood swings and bringing our little diva back down to earth. It's true that last week, Elaina got a no-diaper-spanking on her bottom (to which Grandma H. was very concerned and HELLO, you gave me spankings too!) and today we dealt with a 2 minute time out today for not accepting that the snack she was requesting (30 minutes before dinner) and throwing her snack trap-approved- snack across the floor was not going to be tolerated. Basically, Elaina is having to re-learn that she doesn't always get her way and that sometimes she will be told no and that the world doesn't always revolve around her. It's been a challenging and difficult road for all of us and I'm thankful that we seem to be heading in the right direction at this point.

Grueling, I tell you. Whoever said this parenting business would be easy?

Yeah, nobody. That's who.

Mom Anthem!

Okay people, strap on your seatbelts. You are going to absolutely L O V E this clip!

Tell me how amazing this mom is! I hope that this just makes your day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

This mom ROCKS!

Picture Gallery Tuesday

Since I'm a little short on time tonight (and imagination) I've compiled some recent pictures that have slipped by but that I absolutely love.

Here is the first picture I've taken in 2008. Since it appears as though Lincoln has the upper hand with his sister, maybe this is a prediction of how things will be changing this year as he gets older.
Okay, so what you are about to see is a set of pot holders. Regular, old, snowman pot holders.

When you are 2 years old and you have unlimited imagination, these same old pot holders can easily become something else.

After gearing up with safety approved, protective pot holders on her feet, Elaina began to talk about "spunchin cups." Silly old mom that I am, I had no idea where she was going with spunchin cups until she began to climb the wall, saying she was going to rescue the birds. (Have I mentioned that Elaina has an awesome imagination?) I realized that she was talking about suction cups and was most likely referring to an episode of Go Diego, Go! Duh.

I also realized that since Elaina and Lincoln have recently begun taking baths together, I haven't gotten any cutie nekked pictures of them together. They really enjoy being together and Elaina asks for Lincoln to take a bath with her.

She really does love her baby brother.

And how could you resist this?

Like most of Ohio, Monday night was all about the Buckeyes. Lincoln on the other hand, just wanted someone to get him a bottle.

Who do you think this could be? So maybe that is where my sweet 2 year old has been hiding. On Sunday, Eric took Elaina to his favorite outdoor store, Cabella's, in West Virginia. I can only think that it's just a matter of time until he will have Elaina out in the woods hunting with him. And I know that Elaina will go with him gladly.

Whatever am I going to do with them?

What seems like a year

Can someone explain how ten days can pass so quickly? Really? Ten days is the amount of time I've been away from this dear, sweet blog of mine. Trust me, I've surely missed it and missed my reader friends too. (That's all you folks.) And now that ten days have passed, where do I begin to recount what's been going on in our lives? The most general news is that everyone is healthy, happy and here. How's that? I can't say that we've really been doing anything special that has taken up so much of my time. More than anything, I just have been using all of time to regroup after Christmas, put away and maintain. By letting myself forgo my commitment of blogging, I have actually gotten a lot of things done around here. Imagine that? I hate to feel pressure of being overwhelmed anytime, let alone the additional stress of post- holiday clean-up. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a little anal about structure and organization? Just a little. Anyhow... I was glad to get all of our Christmas pictures loaded up here and accounted for. That was important to me since it was Lincoln's first Christmas and our first Christmas together as a family of four. I forgot to mention that on our drive home on Christmas day we began to explain to Elaina that after (that day) Christmas was going to be over. She piped up quickly by saying, "Mommy and Daddy, I had a wonderful time!" I guess that I couldn't have said it better myself. Moving on to New Year's eve, some loser county employees (my hand in the air) had to go into work. I know, I know... we have a lot of paid holidays but seriously, couldn't they consider a little shut-down break for Christmas eve and New Year's eve? I really can't complain too loudly since we were sent home (with pay) at noon. That's a great way to lift my spirit for the upcoming new year! For New Year's eve, we have started somewhat of a tradition of hosting a little gathering of friends to a party at our house. Since having two kids to look after and having to work the same day, we decided to scale back our gathering to only 2 other couples with their kids. It turns out that neither group of friends were able to make it at the last minute (4 day old baby= no sleep; back from out of state trip=cranky toddler= good excuses) so Eric and I rented a movie and cuddled on the couch. Like a date night of our own. It was beautiful. As it turns out, it was possibly a good thing that we were solo because Elaina was a bear to put to bed, Lincoln woke up demanding a bottle at 5:30 (2 hours early) and I woke up with a cold (again). So there you go. And Happy New Year to You! Now, let's talk about new year's resolutions. Last year, I tried to commit myself to a new monthly resolution for the purpose of personal growth. While it was probably a good idea and I really could have benefited from a little "personal growth" that was centered around somewhere other than my hips, I faltered. One month faded into the next too quickly and only five months into the year, Lincoln joined our family and my monthly resolution became just about keeping my head above water and not coming unglued at any point along the way. For 2008, I think I am going to be a little more realistic and focus on a few key areas that I need to work on consistency. Constantly, consistent. Get it? Things like saying bedtime prayers with Elaina. Consistency. Including Lincoln while reading bedtime stories with Elaina. Consistency. I have a few other random things thrown in the mix that I am going to try to improve upon also. One of those things was to try to get to bed before midnight each night. As of January 1, Eric already helped me blow that one. I made every effort to hustle to get myself to bed early and since Eric had already beat me there, he happened to be watching Letterman and the guest just happened to be George Clooney. (Oh there's not a single thing wrong with that man! Wow!) (Or Eric, for that matter. Hi Honey!) So of course, I watched all of Clooney, on Letterman, way past my bedtime. Oh, how I sacrifice. Since my intention isn't to put people to sleep reading my blog tonight, (oh and lookey there, it's past midnight already) I'm going to have to save some more recent stories for some other night. One will definitely touch on the subject of how Elaina got her first real, no-diaper-on-the-butt-spanking the other night. Also, headed your way will be lot and lots of new photos, sure to slow your computer down right away. Saving the worst news for last is that I've decided that I really need to put blogging on do-when-I-can list. I really have tried to make blogging a priority part of my day. I feel that it is extremely important as I try to do my best record keeping for my kids as I recount our days together. At this point, I am resigning myself to the fact that I just need to do what it takes to keep my head above water and keep everyone happy. (And get some sleep.) With Lincoln growing up so fast, his needs are changing rapidly. I do what I can to commit every ounce of my energy and time into my kids and I never want to feel that I'm slighting either kid because Mommy wanted to go write about them instead of play with them. Or, Mommy has to do the housework now while I plop you in front of the TV so I can blog later. It's all about trying to balance out my juggling act here. Some days are easier than others, some days just aren't. One constant that I can always stay true to is that my kids will always come first and I wouldn't ever want it any other way.

Happy New Year Everyone! Wishing each one of you a great year ahead!

Christmas Day

The final round of Christmas took place at my parents' house. Greg, Kate and Colin had beat us there as they arrived on time, only to have to wait on us to show up 30 minutes later. Colin stopped whatever it was he was doing and the cousins wrapped their arms around each other like an old boyfriend and girlfriend couple. Oh they are so cute!

Very quickly, we jumped right into the gift unwrapping. Here Colin and Elaina are racing to see what they got.
How about Lincoln's very own elves trying to simultaneously trying to free up two new toys for him to play with. Elaina was happy to offer her gift-opening services to anyone who wasn't unwrapping fast enough. See: Pop-Pop.

Once things settled down and only the strong remained standing (or sitting), my Mom, Kate, Lincoln and myself gathered together for some girl talk. Most of the talk was about what a blessing little Lincoln has been into our family and how lucky we are to have the families that we share.

Our blessing of 2007. We now have everything we have always wanted.

Christmas Morning

I'm realizing that the tradition of Christmas is even more difficult to explain to a two-year old while still trying to capture the magic of the season when everywhere we go, she's getting to open presents. A little over-indulged maybe? No, that's not it.

Since it wouldn't be like Christmas morning without presents under the tree, we held a few back that came especially from Santa.

Lincoln taking in the tastes and smells of Christmas wondering what Santa could have brought for him.
No way.... it's a FOOTBALL!
My little drummer boy!

The price every little brother has to pay when big sis gets a pretend doctor kit for Christmas. Elaina is "feeding" Lincoln medicine.
"You mean to tell me that we get to do this again?"

*** AND YES, Elaina did receive her pink gun from Santa. See Lincoln's hand resting atop it? She liked it, but didn't give us an over-the-top reaction that we may have expected since that's all she's talked about wanting for almost 2 months!

Christmas Eve

Coming from a family who has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas day with opening gifts and the like, I married into not only a great family, but a family whose long standing tradition is to celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. Following an afternoon of overeating with a house full of relatives, the immediate family began their Christmas unwrapping ceremony later in the evening. Just to share some of the kids' favorite gifts, we first have Lincoln here who totally scored with a new puppy that sings and counts to him. He love, love, loves his new puppy friend.
Brace yourselves for a limited, holiday performance of the nutcracker. Guest starring Elaina in the pink tutu. With this kind of "dancing" she really is limited. But over the top cute, so what?

Did you overhear someone say something about a girl who has everything? Elaina? No. Oh wait. A pink scooter? Ooooh, now she is a little closer to having almost everything.

Courtesy of Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ben. Mommy and Daddy had nothing to do with this. Elaina could barely speak as she was so enthralled by her new scooter. God I wish that it was manufactured without a horn!

And finally, Elaina and Lincoln's bathroom is heading in a new direction of decor beginning with monogrammed PBK towels. So spoiled. So good!
And yet another day in the life of the professional gift getters. What a great Christmas with family!

What I want for Christmas

Much of this day we spent lazing around my parents house while everyone took naps in front of the fireplace and the freezing wind gusted outside like a tornado. I spent my day packing our truck to head to Eric's mom and dad's house for the second leg of our Christmas tour.

Check out Lincoln getting ready for his visit to Grandma and Grandpa W.'s house. Eric's parents just happen to live approximately 5 minutes away from the mall and my mind was still on overdrive about getting a 2007 Christmas picture of both of my kids with Santa Claus. As you may recall, Elaina wasn't particularly a fan of his when she had seen him last.

So what if it was only 2 days before Christmas? So what if the mall may be jam packed with last minute shoppers? So what if the wind chill outside felt like 30 below zero? And so what if there was a line to Santa's mall throne 27 snot-nosed, crumb covered, whiney kids deep? I wanted to go. See how it wasn't even about the kids anymore? I wanted Elaina to experience Santa. I wanted to prop my kids on some strange impostor-Santa's lap for 3 minutes so I could fork over $20 for two sheets of the same pose. I wanted to capture memories of Lincoln's first Christmas while his sister was evident in the same room. This is Christmas for Glory's Sake!!

And so, I did my homework with Elaina. We discussed what Santa looked like, paying close attention to every color and structure detail. I told her that Santa is the one who brings toys and hands out candy canes. And several times, I made mention that there would be no toys for her if Santa didn't know what she wanted him to bring. Here's how our homework panned out for us:

I realize that Elaina appears to look somewhat hesitant in this picture, but since I was only allowed ONE PICTURE (which was made very clear by Santa's minimum wage "helper's") this is what I got. When we arrived at the mall, I was surprised and pleased to find that it wasn't especially busy. In fact, when we arrived at Santa's throne, he wasn't there, nor did we find a line of any sort. Santa was on a potty break. Elaina got to watch him as he arrived a quick minute later and positioned himself in his seat. I let her down from my arms with some encouraging words and off she went to see Santa on her very own! Yay!! Yay! I got my wish! She did great and without hesitation!

Once I went to help her down (she could have sat there for an hour perhaps) she looked up at Santa and very earnestly said, "Can I have a gun now?" Whooooaaaa, okay, it seems as though in my preparation with her, I apparently didn't make it very clear that Santa would be coming two nights later. And the child still wants her pink gun. Hmmm..... I wonder if the elves make pink guns these days?