BYM Family Picnic

Michael was at his boy's hunting weekend, so I decided to take the girls to the picnic that my mom's group hosts each year.  There isn't much to it, but there was a face painter and balloon "artist", food...I had signed up, not actually talking to any friends to see if we'd even know anyone, but ended up having a number of friends there.  I was very proud of Addy, she waited FOREVER for the face painter.  Not even sure I would have been that patient.  Also good to have friend there so that they could hang out with Addy in line while I chased Ella around.  Ella was not so patient!

Here was the end result of a long time in line.  It was actually a bit fancier than it looks in this pic, it had faded a bit by the time I took the pic (in case you are thinking to yourself - they waited in line for this?!  Because that is a legit question.)

Once Addy was off and running, playing with her friend Brooke on the playground, Ella spent some time in the swing.  This kid could swing for days I think.  She LOVES it!

Butterfly Museum

Addy had been requesting to go to the Butterfly Museum for weeks and it is quite tricky to figure out a good time to go, with her in school 5 days a week.  Even on the short days, she gets home and then we have lunch and Ella naps, then it just seems tricky to get back out in the afternoon.  Not sure why though.  But thanks to a slew of Jewish holidays this month and the school being closed, a couple of Fridays ago we actually made it to the museum.  I was too chicken to take both kids alone, so I recruited Dad to go with me.  A fun time was had by all.  The butterflies were super active, we'd never seen them flying around so much and Addy actually wanted to spend a decent amount of time in the butterfly part.  Usually it feels like we zoom through it. 

Here are the pics to commemorate the trip...

 Addy couldn't wait to climb into the honeycomb.  Ella, not real sure about it.

 Granddad and Ella checkin' out the bugs.

 I asked Addy if she wanted to turn her bed into a caterpillar bed since she looks so comfy here.  She wasn't real excited about that idea.

Really Ella?

Yes, that is my baby kneeling on the dining room table.  I know it was maybe not the best to snap a pic when she was clearly doing something she shouldn't be, but for the sake of the blog I had to do it!  Addy was totally not a climber, and I always felt sorry for my friends that would talk about their kids climbing onto everything.  And now I am that mom telling the stories about my climber.

She has been climbing from the couch to the end table for a while, we'll look over and she is standing straight up on the end table.  Then tonight she grabbed the stool (which was purchased to help Addy reach things, not for Ella) and hopped up on the chair and proceeded to climb onto the dining room table.  This was actually the 2nd time I caught her up there. Then after dinner she used her chair at the table in the family room and was crawling onto that table before we knew it.  Ugh!

Ella the Bike Rider

 Ella is having a blast riding the tricycle these days.  She doesn't really put her feet on the pedals yet, still not quite tall enough (although close!) but she loves to ride around the neighborhood.  And by ride I mean that she likes to sit on it and be pushed around the neighborhood.  Not sure which is her favorite at the moment, the tricycle might be giving the wagon a run for its money! 

Remembering Rain

When it finally rained a few weeks ago, it was quite exciting.  Sadly, at one point it thundered and Addison asked "what is that noise?"  Not sure if she was just being a 4 year old, or if it had really been that long since she'd heard thunder and she forgot what it sounded like! 

Anyway, took a pic of the girls watching it rain to commemorate the event. 

I Love This Kid

This picture was taken at 9:00 this morning.  Still sound asleep! 

I love the big kid just as much, but she woke up at 7:45.  Fortunately she is content watching TV shows while I continue to snooze on the couch!

Fun with Swanns

The Swann family that is!  Had a great time hanging out and catching up last Sunday afternoon.  It was funny to see the boys vs. girls.  And I think that Tyler really needs a little sister!  He did a great job watching over Ella.  There was no chance of getting a good pic of all 4 kids looking at the camera and smiling, but here is what I got. 

 Kiddie dinnertime!  I think that Tyler is helping feed Ella her mac 'n cheese. 

 This is a cute one! 

End of the night, tired kids vegging out on the couch watching TV. 

Small Garden Success

Not having rain for months on end this summer has taken its toll on the garden.  Keeping fingers crossed for some rain and maybe more garden success this fall!  We did end up with an edible carrot the other day though.  The expert gardener I am planted too many carrot seeds, too close together, so we've mainly had skinny, scrappy carrots because they had no where to grow.  Addy thoroughly enjoyed this one for dinner the other day

Photo Day

First Aggie game of the season, new Aggie skirts for the girls = photo day!

 I had to bribe Addy to come outside and take pictures, but this one makes it all worth it! 

 Miss Ella will not stand still!  

 Michael and his girls watching the game.

Last year I started a family photo day tradition, with the goal being to take a family photo each month.  And apparently I remembered to do it for a few months at the end of 2010 and then in 2011 completely forgot about it.   So here is the 1st official one for 2011 - let the funny family pics begin. 

 This was supposed to be a family pic, but the timer went off before Michael made it to the couch.  I had no idea there was a teddy bear sitting on me through all of these. 

For the Memory Book

And for the record book - it was hot the summer of 2011.  End of August, 5:00 in the afternoon it was 104 degrees.  AND this thermometer is in the shade!

Queso

Our whole family is fan of queso, it is pretty much all Addy wants when we go eat Mexican (which is pretty much weekly).  But Ella is getting into it - in a BIG way.  She has to dip her own chips now.  And not only was she dipping chips, but also chicken and her fingers.  If she had been closer, she would have been taking handfulls of the stuff.  These aren't the best pics since they were taken on a phone, but they show the madness that was our dinner table tonight. 

Big girl dipping her own chips!

"See my cheesy fingers" (and face and shirt!)

15 Months

Drama Queen!  There is no other way to describe Ella at the doctor (and yes, she is about to turn 16 months, but I didn't factor in back to school physicals when I called to make her doc apt, so we had to wait a few weeks to see the doc).  The screaming began the second the nurse tried to measure her head circumference.  That is right, no shots in sight, nothing pokey at all.  Might as well have been getting a shot though.  Here are her stats, although height and head size is a bit iffy since she was flailing...

• Height: 30 inches, according to doc she was 79th percentile, although taking it with a grain of salt
• Weight: 23lb 10.4 oz which is 50th percentile - more confident in this measurement since she was sitting on the scale and did stop moving for a second
•  Head size: 19 inches which is apparently 95th percentile

All were pretty consistent with past visits.  All else checked out great.  And there were 2 shots at the end of the visit - legitimate screaming situations.  Needless to say, we didn't dilly-dally around, got out ASAP.  Back again in 3 months - oh joy! 

Last Beach Weekend of the Summer

Sure, it still may be 100 degrees when we get back down there in a month or so, but this past weekend was technically our last time to go down to the beach in the summer months.  Now the hunting and birthday party madness kicks in, so it will be a while before we can get down again.  But a great end to the summer.  I am so proud of us for sticking to the every other weekend gig.  And the theme for this weekend was no work, only play.  So lots of beach time, pool time, just hanging out on the deck time.

 Cute sisters, playing somewhat nicely in the pool.

 Our furry beach bum.

 We did a lot of shell collecting this trip.  

Ella drinking from the hose.  This was a super fun activity.

Cutie!

More hole digging.  And again, cute sisters playing somewhat nicely, for the second.  Ella doesn't always do exactly what Addy wants these days.  Ella has quite a mind of her own in fact.  The new thing I hear a lot these days is "Ella hurt my feelings".  I think that statement was made shortly after this pic was taken when Ella grabbed the sand and started throwing it back in the hole. 

First Day of Pre-K

Our little girls is in pre-k and I can't believe this time next year I'm going to be posting a first day of K picture!  Addy is loving pre-k.  It is amazing how organized and structured things get once you hit pre-k at Bertha Alyce.  We are officially 5 days a week.  On Mondays and Fridays she is only there from 9-12 though.  The time she is there is pretty action packed, I think.  Each week she has gym, music, movement, and Hebrew twice a week.  Plus all the classroom activities. 

We kind of have homework, although not really.  But I feel like it is prepping us parents for the real world next year - a couple of days a week she has to take various things.  This week the theme is "all about me" and today she had to take a bag with 3 things that are special to her.  The 3 things she took were TOTALLY random, but when I suggested other options her response was "it is my project mom".  Every Friday is show-in-tell, which is fun.  So, not real homework, but I have to pay attention to the schedule and actually remember to make sure that what she needs is in her backpack. 

I can't really get her to tell me more about her day than what is on the sheet that they send home.  Today for example, the conversation in the car went something like this...
Me:  How was your day?
Addy:  GREAT!
Me:  What was your favorite thing about the day?
Addy:  CARPOOL! 

While I appreciate the enthusiasm about carpool - I don't have to go into the school and I can pick her up in the carpool lane at 12:00 on Mondays and Fridays - can't say this is the answer I am looking for.  Fortunately they do a good job of capturing the highlights of the day on the sheet they send home, so I have a clue and can ask some leading questions.  Still doesn't get me too much further than this though! 

Adios Elida

It has been a number of month's now, but our housekeeper Elida broke up with us after four and a half years.  I say broke up because the way we found out was somewhat of a dear john letter.  Just a note she left at the house one day saying it would be her last day, the drive was too far now, gas prices too high...pretty sure it was a ploy to get more money, but I would have preferred she just ask for more money.  Instead of calling and begging her to come back with an offer of more money (this was my first instinct!) I decided that we could clean the house ourselves!  Sure, I hadn't cleaned a tub in four and a half years, but I actually kind of liked cleaning back in the day.  And thought that it would be good to get Addy involved in the process and show that I was capable of cleaning.  Note that the four and a half year tenure coincided with Addison's birth, so the only time she'd seen me clean was before parties - if it was a week that Elida hadn't already come! 

It hasn't been terrible, but I think we all miss the feeling of coming home to a clean house after work/school every other Thursday.  My cleaning schedule is more of a rolling schedule!  Turns out a new vacuum added some excitement back into the chore.  With the carpet being installed at the beach, I used that as an excuse to donate our vacuum to the beach house and get a new one.  The Shark, it is purple and we all love it! 

So Adios Elida, Hola Shark!  For now at least.  Still a good chance that the excitement of saving money, and a new vacuum will wear off sooner than later and we'll find someone new.  For now Addy is a fan of helping with the cleaning and it has even inspired her to clean her room more frequently.  Again, for now at least!

Pump-It-Up

Addy is in quite a predicament -- she can't decide where she wants to have her birthday party.  I know it isn't going to be at the house, but there are a few options she keeps jumping between.  One of the options is Pump It Up so we went to play on Monday.  I had hoped to find a friend for Addy to play around with, but schedules didn't work out so Addy, Ella and I went.  Addy calls this the "big" Pump It Up, it is more geared towards older kids.  So, there wasn't much for Ella but a fun time was still had by all. 

 Addy at the top of the slide at the end of the obstacle course.  I tried to do the obstacle course with Ella but it was pretty much impossible for me to make it up the last big climb, so we backtracked.  Addy could just zip on up no problem!

 This was a very standard view of Ella.  Wide open spaces, running too fast and down she goes.  Fortunately she did a great job catching herself and we didn't leave with carpet burn on her face.

 Ella went down the big slide with me once, but this turned out to be more her style.  It is just the wedge to climb up to get into the obstacle course, but it was perfect for a 1 year old to slide down.  And it didn't require mom to climb to the top of a tall slide, holding a heavy kid, and doing her best to not fall down on the kid climbing up behind her!

Ella's Words

Ella has started saying so many new words - seems like it is just all of a sudden too!  It was just dog for a while and the list has gotten much longer.  Here are the ones I can remember.  Just typing them really doesn't do it much justice, it is adorable to hear them come out of her mouth.  Now, someone on the street may not realize she is saying some of these, but the girls spend a few days with the grandparents this week and I think that they were even able to recognize a number of Ella's new words. 

* dog - still the most frequently spoken word
* duck
* Adda - a.k.a. Addy, this is my favorite.  You can ask Ella what her sissy's name is and she responds with "Adda".  I am not sure Addy was a fan at first, her response at one point was, "My name is ADDY".  But even big sister is on boards with the cuteness at this point!
* Dada - this week she was even pointing at pictures of Michael at Grandma and Grandpa's and saying "dada"
* apple
* ball
* toda - now, this one is on the list based on feedback from her teacher.  Toda is thank you in Hebrew.  Ella's current teacher speaks a lot of Hebrew in class and she raves about how Ella says "toda" after they change her diaper.  Can't say she uses it a lot a home, especially not after diaper changes, but Zvia claims she says it all the time, so it is on the list!
* bubble - this one showed up over the weekend when we were at the beach and she grabbed a bubble wand and started saying "bubble" non-stop
* hi
* bye-bye - this is my all time favorite and I ask her to say it repeatedly because it is so stinkin' cute.

So, these are the words I can figure out and that she uses at the appropriate times, repeatedly.  Little girl is quite the chatty cathy and is talking all the time, not always sure what she is saying though.

Notice a key word that is missing?  Yep, she doesn't call me mama or really anything.  She can say mama, I've heard her say it, but she wasn't referring to me.  She doesn't point at pictures of me and say "mama"...one day soon hopefully! 

Visit from Granny!

Such a great beach weekend last weekend - and we never actually made it to the water!  The best treat of the weekend was a visit from Granny on Saturday.  It was so much fun to just hang out and relax on the porch and catch up.  I can't believe it had been since Ella's birthday in April since we'd seen each other.  Where did the summer go?!  She got to see the girls in their element down at the beach house.  We set up the pool on the porch and they splashed around.  Ella has grown so much over the summer, seems like in the past 2 weeks really, but she was getting in and out of the pool by herself no problem.  She has especially grown since Granny saw her on her birthday!  During Granny's visit we even had a yummy pizza lunch from the newly found, #1 rated restaurant (according to our family at least) on Crystal Beach. 

I forgot to get a pic while Ella was still up, but here is a cute one of Granny and Addy on the porch.  Granny - you need to come down next time we are there so we can be sure to get a pic with Ella!!

In the past I was always worried about having enough to entertain the girls (and even Addy when she was an only) but have since learned my lesson - we leave a minimal number of toys down there, but the girls always find a way to entertain themselves, usually with no toys involved.  At the beach, a favorite activity is playing on the beds.  Jumping is not allowed, but they both just romp around on the beds and have a blast.  Obviously we have beds here at home, but there is something special about the ones at the beach I guess.  Now that Ella is bigger, wrestling on the beds is a new fun activity.  Here are the girls in their matching pjs, wresting on the bed

And this picture is just funny, so I have to include.  Sunday morning we were busy getting ready to leave, Michael was finishing up projects and our goal was to keep Ella awake until it was time to get in the car.  She was just sitting on the floor quietly for a while when I looked over and was afraid she was about to fall over, her eyes were 1/2 open and she was swaying a bit.  I put her on the couch and not 2 seconds after she laid down this was the scene

Dead asleep and she stayed that way until we put her in the car.  We usually judge the success of a beach weekend by how quickly the girls fall asleep on the way home.  I think that both girls were asleep by the time we turned off 87 after this past weekend!

Not So Sneaky Sneak

Ella is OBSESSED with mac 'n cheese.  She was done with her dinner and for some reason Addy hadn't finished her mac, so Ella climbed up on Addy's seat and helped herself.  2 seconds after this pic was taken she attempted to shove a handful of mac in her mouth, without taking her pacifier out.  Paci quickly came out and she chowed down. 

Kitties

4th of July weekend we discovered a momma cat and 5 kittens in the storage closet under the beach house.  4th of July weekend, a momma cat and 5 kittens moved in with Dad and Mary on Braeburn Dr!  One might initially think it was Mary's idea because she has had cats in the recent past, but no, it was softy Lee who insisted that the cats come home with them.  Where was this guy when I wanted pets growing up?! Addy and Ella have enjoyed visiting the kitties over the past few weeks and I finally remembered to take my camera the other day.

Addy is a fan of the kitties.  Although not so much when they started to crawl on her and their nails got stuck in her shirt!

This kitty isn't so crazy, she (or he) loves belly rubs!

I think that Ella takes after Michael in many ways, and not being a huge fan of cats may be another one to add to the list.  She was quite fascinated at first and still is to some extent, but now when we go she has much more fun climbing in and out of this box.  And doesn't always seems so excited when the cats jump in too.  She kind of looks at them like they are invading her space.  

Kitten claws - ouch!  

Ella does like to pet them a little.  I think that one reason she may be less excited about the cats is because all she hears is us saying "gentle" when she is around them.  She is gentle for a toddler I guess.

And one may ask, "what are they going to do with a momma cat and 5 kittens?" Well, there are free kittens available, but rumor is that momma may take up permanent residence.  It is ironic that I am the one that is now lecturing Dad about how the last thing he needs is a pet at this point, when every other week he is off globe trotting again!  I seem to recall getting the same lecture at different points when I wanted a pet and it was not the opportune time.  Guess that means I am getting old if I'm doing the lecturing now!