We're The Safety Kids!

So, this weekend was the Safety Kids Fair . . . something we've done every year since Annie was born. We have more fun than is probably warranted by the event, but we love it so much we always go Friday and Saturday. This Saturday we even got two free bike helmets, since our kids were in the first 200 kids in line.

Here's Annie on Friday, in her 'Princess' face painting.
Dressed up like a doctor working on the teddy bear patients.
The event was a good warm up for Disneyland, since we found that Annie will happily run up to costumed people and offer them big hugs and high fives.
Ellie and me just chillin' by the fire truck.
Annie on the police Harley.
Annie in the bike rodeo . . . the hygienic scrub hat under the borrowed bike helmet really completes this look!

These are now day 2 photos . . . we always go back on Saturday, despite the horrendous crowds, so that Daddy gets to be involved. Annie got her face painted again, this time as a butterfly. She's unbelievably calm and well behaved during the painting process.
Showing off her pink butterfly self.
Annie rolling around in the Gymboree tube.
Dr. Annie was called in again to work on the teddy bear patients.
Annie driving a golf cart.
Fire Chief Ellie and Daddy.

Updated Annie Pictures

So, I'm probably going a little stir crazy . . . from ear infections and fevers, we've been pretty stuck inside for the last week. Throw on top of that the stress and sleep deprivation from the sick kids, the ups and downs of my parent's house hunting/selling and the drama that just seems to plague me of late (my friend got her divorce papers, which has caused all kinds of emotions . . . plus her creepy soon-to-be-ex-husband searched her diaper bag when she left the room while he came to visit his son (for the first time in like 7 weeks) only to find out she does in fact have a cell phone (my parents got her one) and wants to know the number for it now). (I know, I know, I use far to many parentheses . . . I also over use ellipses . . . and I was once told by a college professor that I was having a love affair with the comma) and I'm just kinda drained. Don't expect anything overly amusing or relevant on my blog anytime in the next few days (not that I'm saying this is your go to place for wit in the first place, I'm just sayin' it'll be less than normal even until life slows down a little!) I'll probably just post random pictures. That's easy.

Here's Annie, still sick, but feeling so much better than before.



Her eyes are still all puffy and stuff, but at least it looks like the 'light's back on' in there!


Ellie with her new favorite binkie. I still can't believe we went two kids and didn't discover this little trick until now! It calms her down instantly . . . I now understand why babies have binkies, they are like wonder-drugs-of-calmness! I'm concocting some form of headgear type device for my next kid's binkie and by golly, he/she will learn to use one! They are amazing!

The Teenage Years Should Be Fun

I was just informed by my two year old . . .

"Mom. You're freaking me out."


Oh, and an Annie-update . . . she is now on amoxicillin for an ear infection and sinus infection, and the nurse reported a healthy 98.7 temperature (of course, that was one hour after motrin.) She seems a lot better today. More lethargic than normal, but better than yesterday. Bad news: her asthma medicine they put her on isn't performing as well as they wanted it to, so we're being bumped up to a higher dose. I've never been so grateful for flex spending accounts as when I keep getting prescriptions for different $35 inhalers!

Should've Jotted it Down . . .

So, Annie freaked me out around 2AM, by suddenly crying out for me and screaming, "I need water, Mommy! Water! Water!" I rushed in there and brought her a water bottle that she just chugged down. She was burning up, she was the hottest I've felt her all week. We'd given her motrin before she fell asleep, so I had Greg go get the Tylenol and give her some before we went back to bed. She seemed to fall right back asleep as we left the room. Then about two minutes later, she happily and loudly (and I do mean loudly, she's down the hall behind a closed door and she sounded like she was in the same room as me) started talking about going to the ballet when she is older. Just happily chatting away about the ballet. And then about how she'll go to Relief Society and Primary. And a whole bunch of other stuff that I wish I had written down while she was saying it, 'cause Greg and I were laughing about it, but now neither of us can remember much past the ballet stuff. Next time, screw the lack of sleep I'm already suffering from, I'm getting up and writing it all down while she's saying it!

And yeah, this is gross . . . but there is weird yellow crap dripping out of Annie's ear . . . I am SO glad we have her doctor's appointment today at 11AM. (We had this scheduled already, for her check up for her asthma.) She just told Aunt Star on the phone, "Ellie is asleep, but later we are going to the doctor so we can see how I am doing with my asthma medicine." Star commented, "She sounds so grown up!"

It's Getting Worse

Look at my poor kid! It breaks my heart!! She's so warm to the touch, despite being pumped full of cherry flavored children's Tylenol . . . we may be in Motrin territory now . . .




Ellie on the otherhand is like, "Why are we all just layin' around watching the Disney channel all day!? Let's play people!!" Who knew my kid with the ear infection would be the happy one today!?


(Edited to add: just two hours after our last tylenol dose, Annie's fever is 101.5 under her arm, and she's complaining about her head hurting really bad. These were the exact same symptoms my friend Rach had before she started throwing up for 24 hours straight . . . )

I Hope It Doesn't Get Any Worse

Annie went to the park yesterday with Greg when he got home from work last night. Despite it being like 50 degrees outside, and her wearing multiple layers, she came home complaining about being cold. She then cuddled under a blanket with Greg on the couch and watched a movie. And was still cold. At dinner she refused to eat more than a few bites, and looking back I was realizing she had eaten next to nothing all day. And now she was saying she was cold, and was 'sore' and her forehead was hot. Poor kid. Fortunately, she has not started throwing up yet (as many of our friends have been this week!), but I'm worried it's just getting started. At least Ellie's about over this ear infection and her amoxicillin-fueled diaper rash is under control.

But still, if I were you, I'd steer clear of our house though . . . I have a feeling things are going to get worse before they get better . . .

(She's still in her footie pajamas this morning, but just asked me to go get her pillow and blanket so she can get warm. Poor thing.)

World Through Annie's Eyes

Annie's become kind of obsessed with taking pictures. All by herself. Here's a sampling of her latest work from this weekend.
















On our way home from the zoo on Saturday, we were singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the car, and apparently I sang it wrong, because Annie adamently corrected, "Mom! Even. Though. The. Sound. Of It. Is. Something Quite. Atrocious." My bad. We then sang the next line, and at the end I asked Annie, "Do you know what 'Precocious' means?" I loosely explained that it meant someone sounds smart. Annie lit up and exclaimed, "I smart!" in a complete 'hey! this song is about me! kinda moment.' Well, she does have precocious down pat!

Also on the drive home from the zoo, Annie started to ask us which animals like drinking water, just like she does. We named pretty much every single animal we'd seen at the zoo, or that you'd find on a farm, and she was just fascinated that all of these animals liked to drink water as much as she did! Greg and I (the competitive people we are) had kinda turned it into a bit of a game/race, naming animals back and forth to see who could go the longest without repeating one. Although the game ended when Greg said, "A cow," and Annie interrupted and said, "No Daddy! Cows drink milk, not water!" We explained that cows make milk, but they drink water. And that only baby cows drank milk. I told her, "Annie, animal babies drink milk that they get from their Mommy's, just like Ellie does." Annie though about it for a second then said, "That makes sense." I know that'll lose something in translation, but her delivery of that line was about the funniest thing I've heard her say in awhile. Although really, I still don't think she really believes us that cows aren't big milk drinkers.

It's Like I'm Twelve All Over Again . . .

Remember those adolescent days of learning to shave your legs? (Raxor burn and nicks and all that.) Yeah, I haven't progressed much. Mainly because of the abnormal lack of leg hair I have 99% of the time. Feel free to send me hate mail or throw tomatoes at my house, but despite my being mammalian and all, I grow a surprising lack of leg hair. Like almost none. My Mom (who claims to shave her legs at least once a day . . . which means there are days where she does it twice) has threatened to disown me if I bring this up again. Good thing she doesn't read my blog. So, I tend to shave my legs like three or four times a year, and that's really only 'cause I feel like I'm supposed to or something.

This morning I had that 'urge' again . . . like, hey, it's a Saturday morning, and I'm sitting here putting lotion on my legs and wouldn't it be cool to go ahead and run a razor over them like a normal person! So, I rummaged through Greg's bathroom drawer and grabbed a random razor (this was my big mistake, I should've gone for his nice one!) I hopped up on my bathroom counter, and filled the sink up with some water, and very similiarly to when I was 12 and like what I've seen on shaving gel commercials, I took the razor and started running it up my leg in random stipes. I don't really care much where I shave on my legs, I don't follow a 'pattern' or anything, since it doesn't really matter being that I'm a hairless freak and all. I noticed when I was all done that I had a little patch of redness, and a little spec of blood I had to wipe up, but all in all, it seemed to be an uneventful leg shaving routine.

Then my legs started to burn.

At first it just felt uncomfortable as my socks rubbed up against my skin, a slight tingle. Then the feeling intensified. We were out and about for most of the day, but all I could think of half the time was how badly my legs hurt. Pretty soon it was like someone was taking sandpaper and roughing up open skin. The pain was intense. More than 12 hours later they still hurt so bad that I've been finding topical products with lidocaine in them to try and dull the sting. As soon as we were home for the day I checked out my legs, only to find them horrifically maimed . . . so, of course I took pictures, to share with all of you my not-so-secret shame that I cannot properly shave my legs at the ripe old age of 29. Sad, but true.


In non-maiming myself news . . . how freaking cute are my kids in the matching sweaters I got online from Children's Place?! Ellie has the matching hat, which makes her ensemble all the more adorable!

Nine Months Already!?

Ellie is nine months old today. To celebrate we went to the doctor's for a check up and came home from said appointment with a prescription for Amoxicillin, 'cause it turns out the poor kid had an ear infection.
How did I miss that!? With Annie, my Mom-fu was strong, I knew that kid had an ear infection as soon as they started to turn pink inside . . . with Ellie I'm clueless! (Of course, with Annie, there was a new ear infection about every 2 weeks, so it didn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure things out. But I did have a knack at catching them before she was symptomatic.)

But, other than the raging infection going on, my nine month old is perfectly healthy (and our new pediatrician doesn't seem at all freaked out by her teeny tinyness, so I'm relieved.) She's gaining well, is babbly, happy, active, cute as a freaking button and the doctor was completely smitten with her . . . and people who gush over my babies are like my bestest friends, so me and this new doctor are tight.

Here's how things checked out:
Age: 9 months
Weight: 15 lbs. 7 oz. (4th percentile, which is up!)
Height: 23.38 in. (15th percentile)
Head Cir.: 17.1 in. (79th percentile . . . he he he, how my kids don't look like bobble heads with 4% weight and 80% heads is beyond me!)
Hair: none
Teeth: no where in sight
Eye Color: cool!

I know it's a dumb question, but it was actually on my mental list of things to ask the pediatrician . . . "What color are her eyes?!" I was hoping that someone who's looked at as many kids' eyes as a pediatrician could settle our eye color debate once and for all. I cannot describe Ellie's eye color (except in Costco, where they are so freakishly cool in their gunmetal-ness that I want to get family photos done in there!) Everywhere else though they are somewhere between blue/green/hazel/brown/gray. The doctor was doing her exam, and as she shined the light into Ellie's eyes, I was getting ready to ask my question when the doctor suddenly said, "Wow, those are cool! I've never seen a color like this!" "Exactly," I enthusiastically agreed, "so what color would you say it is?" She thought for a second, "Um . . . kinda blue/green/hazel, with a little brown and gray." "Well, that was no help!" After much discussion, she settled on, "Cool. They're just cool looking . . . if anyone asks what color they are, just tell them they're cool." That'll have to do . . . and unlike blue-green-hazel-brown-gray, 'cool' will actually fit on her drivers license when she gets one! I don't know if that's an option though . . .

Shhhh! We're Hiding . . .

Annie built her and Ellie and all the stuffed animals a fort (well, this one was really just a blanket she covered them all with, but she called it a fort, so who am I to argue?) Ellie thought this was the single funniest thing her sister has ever done, and I constantly stressed that Annie was going to suffocate or, in the least, squish her little sister. So a good time was had by all.



This picture was my favorite, they are both laughing so hard right here.

And here was Annie sporting many of my various purses and a small cooler. You can't tell in this picture, but there's like three around her neck that are hanging in back . . . I was pretty convinced she was going to strangle herself. Turns out I worry unnecessarily about all the ways Annie's gonna kill the two of them . . .

Cookie Cutters Cut

Annie got her first professional haircut the other day (her last hair cut was just me chopping off chunks of blonde curls that had been too wrapped up in bristles to free the brush without actual cutting) . . . and was a perfect angel the whole time! It was like she likes to get her snarls combed out while being spritzed with water from a spray bottle! Who knew?! She's always acted like I was trying to kill her when I've done the same exact thing!


She was a big fan of the pink car she sat in . . . and the waiting area's slide . . . it almost made me wish we hadn't had an appointment!

Celebrity

Check out my friend Rachel and her cute little boy on KSL Channel 5 News!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

And my parents house that is for sale is featured in the (pitch dark) background. :-)


Oh, and completely unrelated . . . I love clearance. I mean, anyone who knows me knows this already. I love getting something way ridiculously cheaper than it should've been. Which is why I'm still a little giddy about going to JC Penney's last night and buying $117.96 worth of stuff for $5.28. Boo yah. $50 leather gloves on for $0.97. Super cute necklaces regularly priced $18.00 for even less! So much fun . . . then to top it off, on our way home we hit Albertson's where my favorite 'pouch tuna' was on sale for less than it normally is, and I had $1.50 off off three coupons. I'm a woman of simple pleasures. :-)

Know Anyone Lookin' to Move?

It's official, my parents are selling their house (to move closer to their beautiful granddaughters, and who can blame them!?) So, if you know anyone who's looking for one heck of a deal . . . it's totally overbuilt and gorgeous and updated, and the yard is incredible, and they're selling it for less than it's worth . . .

My Pretty Girls

So, you'll have to click on the picture to really see the small pictures any better, but I put together a little 'compare and contrast' collage of the girls when I realized I had pictures of both of them in this same outfit.

The big differences I notice:
• Ellie has some rosy, rosy cheeks.
• Annie's smile/expressions were more about what her upper lip was doing, Ellie's smiles are all in her bottom lip, often cocked to one side. :-)
• Ellie's even more bald than Annie was at this age, which is saying something. Annie's hair was just starting to flip in back at this age. It'll be interesting to see when Ellie's hair gets any longer if she'll show pre-curls too!
• Ellie has a narrower chin, with a tiny little cleft (just like her Daddy).
• Annie's nose is adorably pointed up and is rounder than Ellie's pretty slimmer nose.
• Annie's eyes were significantly darker at this point. We still have no idea what color to say Ellie's eyes are . . . green, hazel, gunmetal, light brown . . . it all depends on the day.
• Different shaped heads . . . but nearly the same exact ears.


And a little Annie story -

Uncle David taught Annie the following exchange:
"What is Aunt Talina," he asks.
"A genius." She responds.
"Why is Talina a genius?"
"Because she married Uncle David."

Annie's shortened this a bit now, answering, "A genius, 'cause she married Uncle David," without further prompting.

The other day, Uncle David was having a random conversation with Annie when he asked, "What is Elmo?" (I think looking for the answer "a monster," but I'm not sure.)
"A genius," she automatically responded.
David chuckled, "Yeah, why is Elmo a genius?"
She paused for a split second as she realized how far off track this conversation was, then spit out, "'Cause he married Cookie Monster!" Oddest couple on Sesame Street!

Supercalif . . . yada, yada, yada . . ..

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
We have no idea where Annie learned this song, but last week she just started running around singing it. She was, of course, not wanting to sing it on camera, but I kinda tricked her into it . . .

Standin' Tall and a New Haircut for Mommy

Ellie's now had a couple instances of standing completely unsupported now. These are usually immediately followed with the most priceless, "HOLY CRAP!" face I've ever seen, then diving in the direction of Mommy. She's getting awfully close to crawling too. She gets up on her hands and knees, bounces around a little, sometimes makes some backwards progress, then throws herself face first into the carpet and screams at the cruelty of her mother who's evilly trying to get her to crawl. She will stand up against stuff and even walk around it a little, but she is such a chicken. :-) She won't pull up to something unless she's holding someone's hand. This is so different from Annie, who at a month younger would pull up on anything she could get her hands on. I'd come into a room to find her standing up, leaning onto a small stuffed animal or ball for support, basically with her head resting back on the floor. It's so interesting to see how differently they develop. Much like Annie though, Ellie could stand for hours up to the activity table . . . I don't think we have a single other toy that's gotten so much use!




Yesterday, I got a haircut. I went shorter than I've been in years, but it was time. I've lost so much hair after these two babies, that the stylist was pointing out various bald spots I have hidden by the little hair that hasn't fallen out! (OK, I actually have a lot of hair left. Fortunately, I started out with incredibly thick hair, so I had some to lose, but I've lost some serious bald patches. Which, as we all know, is like ridiculously attractive in a woman.)

The big reasons for going so much shorter were:

1. It's quicker to style and blow dry when it's shorter. A good cut is a big part of this too.
2. I had to cut it short enough that I could no longer lazily pull it back into my horrific nubbin'-ponytail (see the last picture.)
3. The stylist said I needed to go shorter than I'd planned to even how some of my funky regrowth from hair-loss-2006 (after Annie was born.)


It's a really good cut, it styles easily (only taking me like 5-10 minutes to do this morning!) and although I think I look like a freak when it's wet and I'm like an unsexy poor man's version of Jamie Lee Curtis when she slicks her short hair back with water in "True Lies." Seriously, it looks bad wet and unstyled. I like it done though, which is motivating to get going and get ready in the morning!



This is one of the few pictures I've allowed while my hair has been pulled back. It's much more hideous from the back, where I have this ugly 1/2" ponytail wrapped up in a big ol' scrunchy. It's like the epitome of a Mom letting herself go. :-) It also shows off my new growth . . . which at this point is actually like a half inch mane all across my forehead. And somehow my husband still finds me attractive! Sucker.