She's a Jay Bird...

My Grandma Ruthie would have called Ellie a "Jay Bird," as in "She's ornery as a Jay Bird." My personal knowledge of birds is limited, but if they're anything like Ellie, I suspect they get in a lot of trouble! But let me just say that Ellie was so proud of her drawing. She kept saying "Ebow...Ebow (Rainbow). And Kate...just look at that face. She is good and quiet. She follows the rules. But she gets a real kick out of Ellie's antics.

I have to tell you that this little girl makes me crazy and she tests my limits, but I guess every home needs a little Jay Bird in it!

Beauty School Drop Out...

What do you think? Should I rule out hair stylist as a potential profession? Yeah...I thought so, too. The sad thing is that I tried so hard and sweet little Kate sat so still. She LOVED that braid and was so proud of it. Truth be told, I was proud of that sad, crooked little braid, too. We're not hard to please around here!

P.S. If anyone wants to volunteer to give me a french braiding lesson, I'm game. But be forewarned...I'm fairly pathetic in the hair styling department (in case you couldn't tell from the photo).

It's a ...

Girl! My friend Sara welcomed Ava Lynne into the world on February 1 at 2:13 a.m. Sara was convinced she was having a girl from day one...and she was right! Sweet Ava weighed 6 lbs. and was 18 inches long. She's crying in the pictures below, because we unwrapped her to take pictures of her little legs and tiny little feet. She was having no parts of it, so I snapped two quick pics, and we wrapped her up again. Welcome to the world little Ava!

I'm back....

Did you miss me? Sorry for the extended absence. I had a little issue with a potential blog stalker. Or at least I imagined a potential blog stalker (not sure if it was all in my head or if it was a serious concern...hopefully the former). But if Mr. "Looks Like an Ax Murderer" logs on again, I may have to take this show undercover, dissappointing my loyal, devoted blog fans (yes, all three of you)! Here's hoping the Ax Murderer Look-Alike has forgotten all about this little blog!

In other news...I have a million things to share, but let's start with the SNOW! Yes...we got a little snow and I'm thrilled about it. It was Ellie's first snow experience, and I'm proud to say that she loved it. She especially loved sledding and she kept saying "I go again?" Crazy girl! Kate is not a fan of sledding, and she prefers to make snow castles, lick the snow, climb on things, and basically just hang out in the fluffy white stuff. The biggest kid in the house (aka, Steve) spent two hours building a snow fort for the kids, complete with snow chairs and snow beds. Yeah...we all know who the snow fort was for. I thought he might be planning to move out there!




P.S. Did you notice that "condom hat" is no where in site? Thankfully, Steve got a new hat for Christmas! But if you need a good laugh, there's still a photo of condom hat here.

Terrible Parenting?

I had important work to do this weekend (by "important work" I mean blogging).
So I shut myself in my office.
And I shut this little girl out.
I'm a terrible parent.
But in my defense, I did feel guilty about it.
So I let her back in...after a few minutes of peaceful blogging, that is.

Tiny Shoes...

Kate started dance classes last week. Today, we bought her first pair of ballet shoes...the tiniest pair of ballet shoes we could find (size 7) and they're still too big. Have you ever seen anything so adorable? Everything about Kate's dance experience has brought back such vivid memories of my dancing days. I danced for fifteen years and my feet are still ugly from wearing those pointe shoes. I wonder if this is the start of a long love of dance for Kate... if these tiny shoes will be a reminder of her very first pirouettes. Who knows. Maybe her love of dance will be short-lived, and that's fine, too. For now, I'm thrilled to welcome these tiny little ballet shoes into my life...and I'm even more thrilled to see this tiny little dancer twirling around my kitchen!

A tale of three cheerleaders...

This is my friend Sara. Remember her?

I know...you probably didn't recognize her without the headlamp (ha!). Sara is my "oldest" friend (the one who makes fabulous chicken noodle soup). Sara's always done a good job of watching out for me. She used to bring deodorant to ballet class and cheerleading practice to share with me...because I usually forgot mine. Without her, I would have been one stinky girl! Sara and I were thick as thieves, as they say. We cheered and danced and were generally happy high schoolers.

And then in ninth grade, a new girl arrived at our high school.

A cute, perky girl with mad cheerleading skills. Let's just say that we weren't thrilled to welcome the new, perky cheerleader into our world (think Bring It On: The Blondes vs. the Brunette). But eventually (two years later) we warmed up to the Perky Cheerleader (a.k.a. Sheila) and we became quite a little threesome. Now that we're much more mature (and our mad cheerleading skills are long gone...along with our mad cheerleading bodies, but that's another story) we are best friends. See?

(yes...my shirt is tucked into my pants in that photo. Lovely, huh?). Anyway...Sara is about to have a baby any minute (just in case you couldn't tell from the pictures...hehehehe!) and since we can't do any of our old cheerleading moves (for fear of hurting that precious baby, of course...not because we can barely bend over and touch our toes these days) Sheila and I decided to have a little informal luncheon to welcome Baby #2. We know that baby showers aren't typical for Baby #2, but we wanted to celebrate this little bambino (and have an excuse to eat cake). Speaking of the cake...there was a little mishap. See?
Somebody (and I'm not naming names here....ED ED ED) put his elbow on the cake box and smashed it. But we looked past the crumpled exterior to the delicious, carb-filled inside.

There was mingling and scrapbook viewing and eating...

There was some laughter and a few discussions about exactly what kind of bambino is in that belly (odds are being placed on a teenie, tiny girl in there).
And hence...Sara got a few pink, girly items - just in case!

Ellie met a new friend and was thrilled to have big girls to play with.

And we decided that we could rub this little girl's fluffy head all day long. Isn't she the cutest???

Kate was thrilled when Shawn arrived. It's not easy to find common interests between a three-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, but they did it!

And as I was going through all of the party photos, I noticed a theme. The perky girl with mad cheerleading skills is also a hard worker. In every photo, she's cutting cake or making punch or serving food. And me? Well...there are a lot of photos of me doing this:

My pappy didn't nickname me "Motor Mouth" for nothing!

I'm so happy that in the middle of our crazy, busy lives, we could take a minute to slow down, celebrate, and eat cake! I'm even happier that three old school cheerleaders formed a friendship that is still going strong today. I love you, girls, and Sara...I can't wait to meet that little one! If it's a girl, we'll have to start practicing our toe touches and hirkies so we can teach her someday (but let's not allow Sheila to teach her the chicken move, okay)?

Postpartum Brain Loss

When I gave birth to the girls, I think I lost my brain. Seriously - Lost. My. Brain. I was in that hazy fog that seems to follow a new mother for the first three months or so. I call it Postpartum Brain Loss – not to be confused with Postpartum Depression (which I believe I had a touch of as well, but that’s for another post).

During the Postpartum Brain Loss stage, women can do all kinds of ridiculous, stupid, airheaded things. I think I did more than my fair share. And so…in honor of my friend Gretchen, who just had her first baby two months ago and my friend Sara, who is about to have her second baby in three weeks, I think we should share our embarrassing, ridiculous, airheaded stories. In the name of sisterhood. And camaraderie. And full disclosure. Let me be the first to share:

When Kate was three weeks old, I had to take her on our first outing alone – to a dress fitting for a wedding that I was going to be in two weeks later. I was so nervous and I backed the car out of the garage and directly into Steve’s truck. He swears that he told me to watch out for his truck before I got in the car, but I don’t believe him.

And…for the granddaddy of them all: When Ellie was about two months old, I took her on her first shopping trip to Pier One. Together, we found an awesome deal: three mirrored votive holders for $5. I put Ellie and the votives in the cart and pushed them out to the car. I parked the cart next to my car and I was focused very intently on putting the mirrored votives into the back of my car without breaking them. When I looked up, I saw a woman pushing a cart toward me, and she said “I think this is yours.” I looked down and saw a tiny baby inside that cart…my tiny baby. I guess the cart rolled away while I was loading my votives. I still can’t believe Ellie was rolling across the parking lot in a shopping cart. But at least the mirrored votives were safe. Ughhh…that is the epitome of Postpartum Brain Loss. I guess God really does watch over little children and fools. That day in the Pier One parking lot He watched over one of each!

So feel free to ‘fess up. In the name of sisterhood. And camaraderie. And full disclosure. I can’t be the only one who suffers from Postpartum Brain Loss, right???

Two...

Ellie is two...which she reminds me of often by saying "I twooooooo" in her high squeaky voice with puckered little lips. My baby is two and now, I am offically the mother of toddlers instead of infants. Who knows how that happened so quickly, but I just hope I learned something along the way...this little girl is going to keep me on my toes! My sweet Ellie has a mind of her own... my "Wild Child." She is loud and courageous and assertive. She climbs and jumps and runs. She stands on her head a lot and she seems to have no fear. Ellie does things that Kate wouldn't even dream of doing. She colors on the tile floors in the Kitchen. She eats Play Dough. She stands on the rocking chair and tries to make it rock as fast as she can. She climbs up the tallest slide at the park. She slides across the coffee table on her belly. She screams at deafening levels in the car. Steve thinks she may be an Opera singer someday. I think she may burst my eardrums.

But the truth is that Ellie's spunky, outgoing personality is what I love most about her. It's hard not to notice her -with her beautiful red hair and striking blue eyes (and loud, boisterous personality). I should have known that Ellie would be a wild one with a mind of her own. She surprised us all by her very existance. After all of our struggles to conceive Kate, Steve and I decided not to use birth control after Kate was born and to hope for a miracle. When Kate was a year old and there was no "miracle" in sight, we made an appointment with our fertility specialist to plan for Baby #2. Just hours before that appointment, I found out I was already pregnant. I know that we often talk about Kate as our "miracle baby" because we tried to have her for so long and because the doctors were starting to give up hope on us. But Ellie is every bit the miracle, because she came into existence without medicine and doctors and ultrasounds. She just "happened" to two people who didn't think it was possible, and that is most definitely a miracle.

I love so many things about Ellie. I love the way she clings to me like a monkey and wraps her harms and legs around me and won't let go. I love the way she wants me to swaddle her stuffed animals before she goes to bed. I love her tiny little voice and the fact that she calls me "Mama." I love the way she scrunches her nose and makes funny faces. I love the gap between her two front teeth and her outtie belly button that sticks out even farther when she's crying. I love the way she tries to keep up with Kate and the way she sings and the way she dances with the crazy legs. And even on days when she's making me crazy and she's sitting in time out, I love when she says, "I sorry, mama."

My sweet girl, my Ellie Belly - I love you so very, very much. You bring joy and laughter and energy into our lives (along with a few gray hairs and a burst eardrum). Happy 2nd Birthday - may you always be full of spunk, full of joy.

The other day, I heard Ellie saying "I flying, I flying." She was laying across her shopping cart with her feet in the air, while it rolled across the floor.

30 Crazy Days...

Now that the tree is down and the decorations are packed away, I have a minute to think back over the last month. Do you ever wonder why we try to shove a million and one things into the 30 days leading up to Christmas? It's crazy and it's stressful, but it's also so much fun - a month of wonderful traditions and a time to make lasting memories. Here's what I want to remember about this Christmas:

• Steve and Kate made a gingerbread house together. He was very intent on building and decorating it perfectly and Kate just wanted to eat it. That's why the windows aren't outlined with icing...there wasn't any left when Kate was done with it!
  
• Ellie's favorite ornament was the baby in the bassinett. At least three times a day she had to kiss the baby and say "Hi Baby" and wave her little hands. So cute!


• My favorite ornament is a little time capsule that holds a rolled up scroll inside. The first year we celebrated Christmas in our tiny townhouse, Steve and I wrote lots of fun things on that scroll like news headlines, presents we got that year, favorite movies, our goals for the year. The funniest thing in there is that we wrote about the high gas prices that year...$1.89. Wouldn't we love to have that now?


• We lost two ornaments this year - a snow globe with Kate's name on it that was flung across the kitchen floor (many tears followed that incident) and the Rockettes (which Kate called the cheerleaders), who somehow got beheaded. Poor things. But their legs still looked good and isn't that what Rockettes are all about?!?


• Kate secretly rearranged the nativity scene so that all the animals were huddled around the Baby Jesus, practically licking his little head. I organized it several times, only to find it rearranged again. Finally, I made peace with Kate's version of the first Christmas.


• We did the Jesse Tree for the first time. Kate loved it, but I'm not sure she understood all of it. Mostly, she just wanted to touch all the ornaments and hang them on the special tree in her room.


• Steve and I went to his work Christmas party for the first time in two years. We danced like crazy people.
  
• We met our friends Lori and Wayne to see a Christmas show and lights at an amusement park. We drank three gallons of hot chocolate and we danced and sang loudly through the park.
  
• The girls' favorite tradition was the advent calendar with the chocolate inside. Little Ellie had chocolate smeared all over her face by 8 a.m. every morning.


• Ellie would walk around the house and say Hi to every Santa, like they were real people hanging out at our house. She'd casually wave and say "Hi Santa" as she pushed her baby stroller by the Big Man in the red suit.


• Every night, Steve sang Christmas carols with the girls. They learned so many and sang them all the time. Kate's favorites were "Up on the Housetop" and "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas." He also read them "Twas the Night Before Christmas" every night and Kate memorized a lot of it.
  
• Kate was in a little play at her daycare. She was a dancing doll. She had a little stage fright at first, but she was so adorable!
  
• Kate wanted a Tinkerbell doll and Ellie had no clue what she wanted for Christmas (or that she could even ask for anything).


• We took the girls to see Santa on Christmas Eve. They got their picture taken and when he asked Kate what she wanted, she told him she wanted The Princess and the Frog. Hello??? What happened to the Tinkerbell doll?
  
• The girls were really excited to celebrate Jesus's birthday. During breakfast on Christmas morning, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I'm so glad they understood what we were celebrating!


• The magic of the season found its way into our home.