Goldilocks

So, I keep thinking as Annie's hair gets longer, it'll lose some of its curl . . . doesn't seem to be the case though.

If you ask Annie her hair color, she'll promptly respond, "Brownish." If you push a little, insisting she's blonde, she'll begrudgingly agree, "OK, blondish-brown." Anytime someone tells her she's blonde, she will later take at least a minute or two to point out ALL the brown she finds in her hair to me. Of course, she refers to my hair as blackish-brown.

Here's just a couple cute pictures of Ellie today . . . from when she wasn't being such a stinker that I ended up calling the doctor's office and making an appointment since ONLY an ear infection of epic proportions could possibly cause my baby to act so cantankerous . . . the doctor assures me she's fine though. Possibly teething ("Is she drooling?" "Yes, for like the last five months."), and she does have a bit of a raw, sore throat. You couldn't tell from these adorable pictures though!
She looks positively "Squishy" here . . . like her cousin Nathan . . . you'd never know she just broke the 16 lb. mark (maybe it's the camera adding weight, coupled with the bulky sweater with horizontal stripes . . . I've warned her, and warned her, but she never listens to my fashion advice . . . )

These are some pictures Annie took of Ellie and I the other day. I don't know why we wasted all the money on kids toys . . . we should've just bought her a digital camera and called it good. I think she shows promise.
We're still working on 'framing' though.

Unrelated to the pictures, Annie was saying prayer tonight, and it takes a pretty good dose of self control on my part not to giggle at her sheer adorableness. She was "thankful we went to a store with books, that wasn't a library, but a book store." She talked about going to the doctor's with Ellie. She also was "thankful I am learning so much, like my phone number and area code and house number, and more talking. I thankful to be getting bigger so I can talk normal." I'm not quite sure why she sees her talking as 'abnormal' (in fact the doctor today told her how impressed he was by all of her talkativeness), but it was just so cute that she sees that as one of the things she's learning and growing in. And we're working on her zip code. She's pretty well rounded.

Phone Conversationalist

Annie on the phone with my Dad today (he didn't get a word in edge-wise . . . nor did he understand about 90% of it):
"Hi! I'm feeding my babies a binkie. Mommy's feeding Ellie pretend princess food. (She'd just given Ellie a plate and spoon, that we were informed had "pink food" on it.) I just sitting here, I just have Tamberly's binkie in her mouth and not in my hand so now I can talk to you. (It's a magnetic binkie that she got set up.) She has it in she's mouth. Now I feeding Sophia. My baby. Mom is feeding Ellie pretend food with a pretend spoon. Well, a real spoon. Pretend food. I feeding baby Sophia. She is hungry. She is so hungry, I can't even believe it." The last line made me laugh out loud.

Later while talking to Aunt Talina, she suddenly threw the phone to me and said, "Mom, you talk to her, I'm trying to feed Tamberly her binkie."

Ellie on the otherhand has spent most of the day mightily pissed off at me. FIRST, I didn't let her swallow my necklace. Then I wouldn't let her eat paper. Or newspaper. Or a book. Or a magazine. Or a candy wrapper she found under the bed. Each time I take one of these items away (sometimes by forcibly 'sweeping' her mouth), she gives me a look I imagine I will be very familiar with when she's a teenager. Then she screams. Really loudly. After about 15 episodes of this, I put her down for a nap, because I'm kind of at a loss of what to do or try, since everything I do seems to just make her madder and madder, and the only thing I can figure is that she is tired, coming down with something, or prematurely going through puberty or something.

I'm Trying to Think of Something to Write . . .

Annie says a dozen funny things a day, but I can never remember them when I sit down up to the computer! (Although, yesterday she did ask me sweetly for another potato chip by saying, "You know Mom, I would love another one of those.")

Ellie's 10 months old, so despite being irresistibly cute, doesn't really say or do that much. She actually does crawl now, like to get to stuff of interest. Mainly she seems to just crawl under my computer chair (whether I'm there or not), then try to stand up, hit her head and scream at me for letting such things happen to her. Standing up to stuff is the other 'big thing' she's into now . . . she loves to push "Fred" around. (Fred is the name of our "Winnie the Pooh" ride-on toy . . . he was nicknamed such by my sister and I when my sisters had bought it as a surprise for Annie (and were keeping it a secret from Greg too, so that someone who was actually old enough to be surprised would have an actual look of, "Wow, that's cool!" when they unveiled it), and to torture Greg by the secret we just referred to the present as "Fred" for several weeks before Annie got it. After she actually received the present, the name just stuck. But of course, Greg didn't really care about being 'out of the loop'; he's Greg, the world's most laid back person ever. Anyway, so pushing "Fred" around is a big deal right now, and walking along the couch and beds and stuff. She'll stand for a few seconds without help, but you will incur her wrath if you're the one who was cruel enough to let go of her hand.

In other Ellie news, she's hit 16 pounds now (I think . . . at least dressed she's 16 pounds.) What a chunker, right?

Annie hates to sleep. Nothing new there. (So does Ellie for that matter.) I think one of my favorite things about nursing is that I get to hold and cuddle the baby right before bed, while Greg gets to wrangle a toddler into pajamas, get her asthma medicine taken care of, teeth brushed, books read (I actually envy that part though), and get her in bed. But poor Greg has created a monster . . . despite his better judgment, Greg has gotten into the habit of going in and sitting next to Annie's bed while she falls asleep (it used to be that he'd hold her hand, but then when she fell asleep and he tried to 'disengage' she'd wake up and start the whole thing over again, so he 'weaned' her from hand holding, and now just sits by her bed until she's fast asleep.) Problem with this (besides the obvious she won't go to sleep without him there factor), is that in the middle of the night when she wakes up, she wants the same thing.

Last night, she woke up and Greg went in and sat by her (sucker). After a few attempts of her falling asleep, then waking up as soon as he tried to leave, he finally just came back to our room and I put her back in bed and let her scream. (She knows Mom means business, and that I won't go in and sit with her, so she stays in bed when I put her down. Usually. Still cries forever though.) Back in bed, she screamed at us for awhile before finally falling back asleep. During this time, Greg muttered, "Annie, just fall asleep already!" To which I responded, "You realize this is your fault . . . and that I'm going to blog about it . . . " :-)

Do the iPod Shuffle

The Rules:
1. Put your iPod (or iTunes) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You MUST write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.

I'd like to preface this by saying I don't have an iPod. Don't mock me. I do have iTunes though, with the whole family's music. So, lots of kids songs, primary music, and Weird Al.
I had Greg sitting right here by me as I was doing this, so he can vouch this is legit, I didn't cheat or anything . . . some of them just turned out that funny.

1. If someone says “are you ok?” you say? Hokey Pokey
(That's like Ned Flanders level of cheesy, and yet it works.)

2. How would you describe yourself? Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, Air, BWV 1068, Bach
(What, you don't describe yourself in those exact words!?)

3. What do you like in a guy/girl? Tow Sawyer (Rush)
(Apparently I'm very particular . . . I only have one type of man. The Tom Sawyer type. (I've listened to a LOT of Rush since I've met Greg. It's been a new, um, experience for me. I seriously still think the main singer is a girl, except that I've now seen him in concert twice, and he looks manly-ish-enough.))

4. How do you feel today? I Only Have Eyes for You (The Flamingoes)
(Um, OK. I really don't have anything to add.)

5. What is your life’s purpose? Wakko's America
(I'm thinking of going into politics.)

6. What is your motto? Clean My Teeth (Hi-5)
(It's not the worst motto. Hygeine is important. And I think 75% of my music on here now is kids stuff.)

7. What do your friends think of you? Everything You Are
(Um, again, nothing to say.)

8. What do your parents think of you? White & Nerdy (Weird Al)
(I laughed for like three minutes on this one . . . this is when I dragged Greg over to enjoy in my blogging hilarity. This cracked me up. Although, it was admittedly embarassing to admit to having so much Weird Al on my computer that even in a randomized search of like 3,500 songs, Weird Al was bound to come up.)

9. What do you think about very often? Paperback Writer (The Beatles)
(Maybe I wanna be a writer?)

10. What is 2+2? 6 Little Ducks
(This is the next one that made me laugh out loud. Greg was also amused. Math was never my favorite subject.)

11. What do you think of your best friend? The Priesthood is Restored
(This made me giggle a little. I told Greg he really was my best friend, so it kinda worked.)

12. What is your life story? Three Blind Mice
(If I thought harder, I could come up with something clever on this one, but I have nothing.)

13. What do you want to be when you grow up? Lose Yourself (Eminem)
(I apparently don't have high hopes . . . unless it means I want to lose myself to some higher purpose? Or I want to be the next big white rapper?)

14. What do you think when you see the person you like? Don't Bring Me Down
(OK.)

15. What will you dance to at your wedding? He Died That We Might Live Again
(Um, that seems odd. Primary songs in general at a wedding would be weird . . . especially Easter/Resurrection ones.)

16. What will they play at your funeral? Hollow of Thy Hand
(That's a little more appropriate. Although, this is the 'punk' version from 'Singles Ward' or 'RM' or something.)

17. What is your hobby/interest? I Heard it Through the Grapevine
(Does this mean my biggest hobby is gossiping or facebook or internet stalking or something?)

18. What is your biggest fear? Barrell of a Gun (Depeche Mode)
(This one didn't make me laugh so much as make me go, "Um, yeah, that works." Did I ever tell y'all about the time I had a gun held up to my head in junior high? I should do that sometime. It's a great lesson in why middle schoolers should never smoke pot.) (NOT ME! Someone else was smoking pot, I just ended up on the other side of the gun. That's another post.)

19. What is your biggest secret? Rain is Falling All Around
(Shhhh, don't tell!)

20. What do you want right now? The Spirit of God
(Sure, that would be cool!)

21. What do you think of your friends? Step by Step
(What, y'all don't have "New Kids on the Block" on your iTunes?! I don't know how that applies to what I think of my friends though . . . )


I'm now kind of ashamed of my iTunes showings . . . I'm cooler than this, I promise! :-)

Oh, and I guess this is like a 'tag' type of thing . . . so, you're it!

Photo Shoot & Cody's Lacrosse Game

I have a bunch of pictures from Saturday . . . and these are all just with my camera (it'll be a week or two before we get the photos from our amazing photographer from the family portraits.)

Well, except this one, which is from last Sunday. Ellie just looked so cute before Church I had to go to take a picture.

Okay, for our family portraits that were taken at Gardner Village in the morning, I bought Ellie this adorable white dress. She looked so cute . . .

I cannot even begin to express how much I have loved the weather this last few days. We've spent more time outside this last week than in the last several months combined . . . unfortunately, both of my girls' faces kinda show it. I should've been better about sunscreen/hats while spending the whole day in the sun, but didn't really think of it. They're both a little pink. (Not horribly burned! Just pinkish!)
Anway, after the pictures we stopped by my parents house before my brother's lacrosse game. Here's Annie and I racing across their backyard.

Greg & Annie jumping on the trampoline. We'd changed Annie out of her dress at the photo shoot into this outfit (after she sat in duck poop, and spreading the mess to both Greg's and Ellie's clothes too. I'd planned for such an occurence though, bringing both girls white shirt and jeans to change into . . . which turned out great, because we did half the photo shoot with them dressed up, and the second half more casual with them running around and playing more.)

Here is a VERY determined Ellie pushing her toy. Annie is giving her stuffed animal a piggyback ride.

Around noon we all ended up at Cody's lacrosse game. It was my first ever lacrosse game. It was like soccer and hockey bred and had a unstable, violent child that liked to hit other children with sticks. I really enjoyed it.

Ellie enjoyed being on the sidelines too!

Cody looking kinda serious and mean. He's so cute.

Cody in the penalty box. We were so proud.

Ellie rubbing the cheerio's bag all over my Dad's head.

Cody again . . . frankly, I really love these pictures because my camera did such a better job than I would've thought it would have! I haven't used a lot of the 'sports' mode, especially at maximum zoom, and I was really surprised by the results.

Go Cody!

Annie cheering from the sidelines.

Photo Shoot

We had so much fun at Gardner Village this morning getting our family portraits done with an amazing photographer, Gianne Snow. I am SO excited to see everything that comes back, especially since she took like a bajillion pictures (as it should be in the age of digital cameras), and she had so many cute ideas and we tried so many different spots around the Village, and the kids were semi-cooperative. :-) (We joked she'd remember this photoshoot as the "Serious Baby and Moody Toddler", as Ellie was very stingy with the smiling (thankfully she looks gorgeous with her 'serious' face on too), and Annie was nearly bi-polar in her laughter and pouting.)

She put a preview up on her site . . .
http://giannesnowphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/johnson-family.html

I'll obviously be sharing more once we get 'em in a week or two! It was so much fun, and I'm sure we've captured so many great moments with the girls, that I don't know why I don't make the effort to do the family photos thing more often!?

So You Say . . .

At lunch, I looked at the vase of tulips on the table that Grandma Ruth had given Annie, and realizing the water was a little low, said to Annie, "When we're done eating, I think your tulips need some more water."
She looked at me, a little perplexed, "These two?" she asked while pointing at her lips. Ha!

Later, I was getting Ellie ready for a diaper change when I asked Annie, "Hey kiddo, can you get me diapers?"
She looked at me, again a little perplexed, and asked, "One or two?"
"Just one."
"Oh, you did say diapers."
She doesn't miss a thing . . . especially if that thing is something she can call Mom on!

Back on the Potty Train

So, we bought Annie some cute chocolate little bunny candy, because she informed me we needed to buy her some 'potty candy'. She's pretty excited now to use her potty and get an Easter treat for her success. So excited in fact that the kid has peed FOUR times in the past half hour. I think she has better bladder control than anyone I know! And she's well on her way to quite the sugar rush . . . we may need to rethink the rewards system . . .

She came out of her bedroom this morning on her 'cell phone'. She was just chatting away, and when I said, "Good morning baby," she held up a finger and shushed me. (It was kinda rude of me, trying to talk to her when she was so obviously on the phone.)
When she was (finally) done, she informed me she'd been talking to Iah, Doh-doo and their Mommies and Daddies. Approximately three seconds later, she suddenly ran to the top of the stairs and yelled, "Iah? Is that you? Mom, Iah's here! Yay!" I asked where Doh-doo was, and she informed me that he was at work. Of course. I keep forgetting these imaginary friends are much older than here . . . what with their cars, jobs and marriage.

I'd Pick That One Too

So, yesterday we were driving on Bangerter and saw the new Oquirrh LDS Temple. Annie likes to point it out . . . and debate whether it is gray, white, yellow or tan colored. (Depends on the light.) Upon seeing it this time, she called out, "Hey Mom, it's the temple . . . that's where you got married!"

"Actually baby, Mommy & Daddy got married in the Salt Lake temple . . . remember the pictures?"

We then went on to talk about all the people she knows who were married in the Salt Lake temple, when she suddenly asked, "Why that one? Why not this temple?"

I explained that this temple was brand new and so nobody's been married there yet . . . but that the Salt Lake temple is really, really old . . . even older than "Mommy, Grandpa and even Great Grandpa Powell!"

"Holy. Cow." she responded, completely blown away by the idea of such age. Which made me chuckle. Then a few seconds later, she mentioned the Draper Temple, the only one she's ever actually been inside of . . . it left quite the impression, she talks about it a lot, she thought it was very cool, "like a castle," and she liked all the paintings of the Savior.

Upon pondering our conversation for a minute, she suddenly added, "I get married in the Draper temple . . . Jesus lives in that one."

Miss Manners

Annie has a step stool up to the bed in our room. She was done watching "Hanny Manny" this morning, and wanted to get to it to get down and go eat breakfast.

"Mom. Move."
"Annie, say please."
"Please move."
"OK. Thank you for being polite."
"It's a magic word, you know," very matter-of-factly.
"That's right, please is a magic word."
Mildly condescendingly, "No, not please Mom. Move."

That's one I didn't know about. She's constantly teaching me new things!

Pictures of Perfectly Healthy, Non-Ill Children. Yay!

Here's some pictures we took on Monday. I was so excited that all of them were of non-snot-covered, miserable looking kids!

She looks kinda dopey here, but she doesn't look sickly . . .

Annie suddenly decided it would be so much fun to 'hold' Ellie. Ellie even agreed for awhile.

Guess which of my two girls was still enjoying the 'sister time', and which one was done . . .

Ellie's actually been crawling a little bit more the last few days. Never more than a few feet, and really only if I'm sitting there in 'range', but it's happening!

And a quick story:
During breakfast today I was trying to get Ellie to focus on the yogurt I was trying to feed her. It wasn't going so well when Annie suddenly piped in with, "Ellie, it's time to pay your attention to Mom."

Slight Miscommunication

So, I think we may have had a communication misfire at some point concerning potty training at our house. I just had the following conversation with Annie:

"Mom, are you dressed?"
"Yep, I'm ready."
Staring right at me, "So, you have pants on? And a shirt? [pause] A diaper? [uncontrollable laughter]"
"You're silly. Mommies don't wear diapers."
"I won't wear a diaper when I'm three!"
"That's right, you'll wear panties."
"I won't wear a diaper, I won't wear pull-ups, and I won't wear panties."
"No, Annie, you will wear panties."
"NO, I will be three! I will not wear panties!"
"Annie, you won't wear a diaper anymore, so that means you'll get to start wearing panties instead."
"NO! I will be three! I won't wear diapers, pull-ups or panties!"
"Sweetie, if you don't wear diapers anymore, what are you going to wear?"
"Just jeans."

So, at three it's apparently time to go commando. I hadn't realized we were trying to wean from all forms of underwear, I just thought we were trying to phase out the disposable kind!

StatCounter.com

Get ready for your crash course on StatCounter.com! If you're not at all interested in the subject of tracking blogging site info, you may want to just skip this post, it's long and boring!

I've had a lot of people email me today to ask me 'what I use to monitor my hits'/'how I found out about the downloading'/'how do I know where my hits are coming from' kinda questions. (By the way, thanks for all the emails! Even with tracking my site and seeing how many hits I get, I was completely shocked by how many people emailed me and asked for an invite . . . I'm flattered, you guys! It means a lot that there's so many of you who want to know what's going on with my family, or at least what Annie's said or done most recently.)

Anyway. I use statcounter.com. In summary, the free version (which is right in my price range) keeps track of the last 500 page loads or something like that. (I change the setting so that it doesn't include my own page hits, 'cause that would just drive up my numbers and burn through my 500 freebies too quickly. Although, my ego did like the boosted numbers when I was still being counted.) I use one or two features nearly daily, randomly use a bunch of other ones, but don't really know all of what it's capable of telling me. The stuff I use most regularly though include the following buttons:

"Recent Pageload Activity"
I check this one almost every day. In order from most recent, it tells me the date, time, location and "Host Name/Web Page/Referring Link" -- which looks like this:

Comcast Cable (55.555.555.555) Mom's Work (This is the Host Name -- and you can label the IP address if you know who it belongs to . . . about half of mine are labeled.)
hilarysrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/ (This is the webpage, it's always this . . . I guess maybe I could have multiple sites on one statcounter account or something, I just have the one site though, so this is always the same.)
travelinglisa.blogspot.com/ (This is the referring link . . . either a blog that was linked to mine, an email or facebook page that someone linked off of, or there'll be "No referring link" listed her if someone just has the site bookmarked.)

It's that last one that tells me if something comes off of a google search or something. There is also a "Recent Keyword Activity" button that lists all hits that resulted from a search engine. It will also tell you exactly what the search was.

The next button I use is the "Download Activity". This one tells you, in order from most recent, any thing that was downloaded. I think this also just includes when people click on the photo to make it bigger. There's a little 'magnifying glass' icon next to each of these that will pull up the 'Visior Analysis.' This will tell you what website (if any) the user came from, the IP address, the city and state (or country) where the user is, and how many visits the user made to the site (in the last 500 though, since I'm cheap and it's free.)
If I use the "Download" button (versus the 'Download Activity' one), it lists all downloads from most frequently downloaded on down . . . which was surprising to me that a whole THIRTY people further checked out the flyer for my parent's house . . . which, by the way, is still for sale. There is an offer on it though, but it is contingent, so there's still a chance for you if you want it . . . :-) This was a distant second most popular download with 13 people downloading it.

If I'm really bored, I might look into "Recent Visitor Activity." Which'll tell me useful stuff like Jessi uses Comcast, usually exits the site from the comment page (thanks for the comments Jess!) and has contributed 255 hits to my total count (this feature seems to hold onto more info than just the 500 free pageloads info, 'cause it goes back forever.) This is WAY more detailed than I'd normally ever look into. Really, I just like to see where my the overall number of people coming in, and making sure it seems familiar . . . like most of the hits coming from West Jordan or Salt Lake or something, or linking from other blogs I read. And if there was a google search that snuck in (despite my site SUPPOSEDLY being unsearchable), it tells me exactly what the search was.

StatCounter'll also tell you all kinds of random stuff like what browser your readers are on, what size screen they're looking at your site on, you can search for usage by a specific IP address, and I find the map super fun. This is where I'm most bummed about the limited storage the site has, since I'd LOVE to see a map of all the hits that the site gets, not just the most recent. It's been fun to reach out to other Moms, distant relatives, old neighbors and friends of friends from across the globe.


Anyway. That conclude the lengthy tutorial for the day. :-) Hope it answered some of the questions I got!

Freaking Out -- Going Private

OK, I'm really stressing out about blogging right now. In the past few days, I've gotten several random hits from extremely random places where I don't know anybody (Africa, India, the Middle East and New York (well, New York is less random, but I still don't know anyone there.)) And they're downloading pictures of Annie.

Despite being unsearchable by Google, I'm somehow getting a bunch of searches off of Google Images or something. I don't know, I'm not sure how these searches are coming through, or what they're even searching for, but I've had several searches all pop up on the same images of Annie, so it seems like someone is 'passing the link on' or something. (But the link is a google image search, so I'm just confused.)

So, I'm going private tomorrow. I love updating people on what the girls are up to, and all the fun things Annie says and does, so please, if you're at all interested in staying in the loop, email me at hilarysrandomthoughts@gmail.com and I will happily send on an invite.

I feel violated. My own fault really, I'm the one who's put the stories and pictures of my family out there. I've censored, kept our last name and locale out of there. "Been web-safe." I don't post 'inappropriate' pictures of my kids. And yet I now feel vulnerable. And guilty that someone out there, who I don't know, has pictures of my kids. It makes me a little sick to my stomach.

Edited to add: I use statcounter.com for monitoring my traffic.

I Spy With My Little Eye

Annie loves to play "I Spy" on any and all car trips. Tonight, while driving to Sunday Dinner at Greg's parents house was no exception. After several rounds of all of us taking turns "spying" something for the others to find, Annie decided it was my turn to 'spy' again, announcing, "OK Mom, I Spy with YOUR little eye . . . "

Which led me to point out the Draper Temple, way up on the mountain. Upon finding it, Annie enthusiastically shouted, "I 'member! I went to the Draper Temple!" After reflecting for a few seconds she added, "Yeah, Jesus lives there . . . "

Being pretty tired after a long week (or month) of illnesses, I tried reclining my seat back in the car a little to see if I could catch a quick nap, then worried I might be encroaching on Annie's space, said, "Annie, did I squish your feet back there?"
A little voice whimpered from the back seat sadly, "Yeah."
"Sorry baby," sitting my seat back up quickly," I didn't mean to!"
A few seconds later, a happy voice demanded, "Mom! Squish my feet again! Squish them!"
I spent the rest of the drive listening to, "Squish my feet Mom!! Squish them again!"

Bit of a Break in the Action

Last night, after a solid week (or two or three) of sickly kids and cleaning up vomit, it was really nice to get away for a few hours. My sister and I went to a girls night thing, with Olive Garden, eyebrow waxing, facials and all that. (Thanks Jocelyn!) It was so great to just get out and not be worried about when the next sneak attack of puke was gonna get me.

And fortunately, there hasn't been any more throwing up (of course, that makes sense, since the girls don't throw up on Daddy's watch), and Ellie's been in like the world's cutest mood (a big chunk of that was at 11PM last night, where she was up and giggling and playing for almost an hour . . . but it was so good to see her so happy, Greg and I just let her sit in bed and play with us for awhile.) I didn't wake up a single time last night to coughing either. We may actually be a relatively healthy family as of this morning!!

When Annie woke up (way too early, at 7AM . . . daylight savings time bought me a week or so of them sleeping in 'til after 8, but they've apparently caught on now), she beamed when she saw me, "You're home Mommy! You were not home when I went to bed last night!"
"Yep, I'm home."
"Ellie cried last night, 'cause you were gone . . . um, I cried a lit bit too. Actually, I cried a lot a bit."

You have GOT TO be Freaking Kidding Me!!!!

So, Annie seems to be feeling much better. (Although whenever she hears me on the phone telling anyone she's doing well, she yells out from the background, "I STILL SICK!") She even went outside and played for awhile.

But, of course, it ain't over. I was just finishing feeding Ellie, when she turned and looked at me, then proceeded to throw up repeatedly ALL over the blankets and bedding I've washed THREE times this week. Now the baby is throwing up!? When is this going to end?

While in the bathroom, cleaning up a puked covered baby and Mommy, I caught a glimpse out the bathroom window of my two year old, playing out side on the swing set BY HERSELF.

When did she learn to get out the back door?!?!

Sigh. I'm tired.

My Little Art Critic

Annie and I were painting on a giant piece of cardboard (courtesy of our brand new freezer). Annie happily painted me a series of A's, H's and S's ("Look Mom, a big A, a huge H and a giant S!") I did a lovely landscape of flowers and a sun and a bird.
"Mommy, that is kinda boring," she said while inspecting my picture.
"What do you mean, look at my pretty bird I made?"
"Um, yeah. It looks more like a bat."

Yeah, well kid, your circle looks more like an oval, and yet I say nothing. :-)

Sicker Still

Last night was horrific. Annie was up almost all night coughing (finally settling down to sleep around 3:45AM). She whimpered, cried, whined, moaned and murmured all night as she coughed relentlessly. Her fever was a degree or two over 100 for most of the night, but it finally went down around 3AM. I think my least favorite part of the night was deciding which of my two sick children got the humidifier. Annie won that one, 'cause Ellie really is on the mend.

We had Annie at InstaCare as soon as she woke up. Good news is that it's not asthma at all (bad side of that is the asthma meds don't work at all to help with the cough). Bad news is it's just a nasty virus they can't do much about. The doctor did prescribe her a cough medicine with codeine in it. He said it's not often he prescribes it to a child so young, but she was just SO miserable and tired. I was cautioned repeatedly to dose correctly, even being asked not once, not twice, BUT THREE TIMES if I've ever used a syringe to dose medicine for my children. Um, yeah. About 12 million times.

Then I got to the pharmacy, where I thought they were gonna require a signature in blood for me to walk that medicine out of the store. I had the pharmacist and BOTH tech people there, staring at me, I think judging whether or not I was some drug seeking fiend. Then they decided (probably due to the nonstop hacking on Annie's part), that it was probably legit that she'd been prescribed the medicine. Then I was cautioned AGAIN on the vital importance of using correct dosing, and was SHOWN how to use a medicine syringe. The pharmacist (who was rocking one very cool Hawaiian shirt) told me he won't usually even let this medicine out of the pharmacy for a two year old. But, she's closing in on three years old, and was pathetic enough looking that he allowed it. Then he cautioned me to make sure she didn't, like, stop breathing while on it. And, of course, again made sure I knew how to dose correctly and could use a medicine syringe. "Not that I'm trying to freak you out," he added at the end.

I know that cough medicine with codeine is pretty verboten nowadays for young children (I think the reason we were even prescribed it was our doctor was fairly old), I'm thinking (going out on a limb here) there's been some dosing issues that have caused problems in the past. So, now I'm mildly anxious about her taking the possibly-stops-breathing-don't-dare-give-her-an-extra-drop medicine, but I can actually remember my younger siblings taking this same thing whenever they got bad coughs. And they're still alive. And probably slept better than Annie has in awhile, so I'm going for it. Although, someone may need to show me how to use this newfangled medicine syringe.

Sickly Kids

Future's so bright . . .

That picture was so cute, I just had to throw it in first.

Anyway. So, Annie was throwing up again today. I was holding her, cuddled up on my chest when she started puking. I caught it all in my shirt, which served well as a make shift puke bowl during this latest round of upheavals. I threw the shirt away. It just wasn't worth cleaning.

Ellie's still a snot dripping, coughing, bundle of low grade fever.

It's like it's Never. Going. To. End.

Here's some pictures of the madness though.

Greg was putting together some of our new furniture, and as soon as Annie saw the tool box, she ran in immediately to get her own tool belt and put on her "work boots", just like Daddy.

Here she is taking a break to put on a fresh coat of lip gloss.

This is the night before, when Annie was decked out in sunglasses and taking her inhaler.

Annie 'posing' for a picture.

This is a completely disgusting picture of Ellie.
She is absolutely covered in snot. (I promise, I had wiped her nose for the millionth time like thirty seconds before this picture.) The reason I grabbed the camera instead of a tissue, is when she turned and looked at me, the snot was formed into two giant bubbles, roughly the size of raquetballs. Unfortunately, I missed the picture. Fortunately, I proved to be the kinda parent who grabs the camera and gets the memorable picture before helping their kid out.
Don't judge me, you had to have seen those snot bubbles! :-)

This is just Ellie looking adorable with her Daddy.

Oh, and I have a few additions to Annie's "I-Did-It-All-By-Myself" Photography Library:

Bargain Shopping

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good deal. A little too much. Greg teases me that I'll save us so much money we'll end up in the poor house. (I have a habit of buying a lot of stuff at 75-90% off . . . more stuff than we need, it's just SUCH a fantastic deal!)

Anyway, I was looking on RC Willey's website the other day, because with our tax return, one of my splurges was a new freezer for our garage, so I can buy other great deals (like 40 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $60, that won't fit in our kitchen refrigerator/freezer). I found a fantastic deal on their site, a freezer for $429 that was $599 everywhere else I looked online. I was fairly pleased. Then, for fun, I started looking at their clearance section. Oh my gosh people, if you haven't looked at their online clearance, go their NOW! Right now!! (OK, you can finish reading this first, but then go!) Amazing! Really, REALLY great, high quality furniture pieces, for HUGE savings.

Our tall, thin dresser looks kinda funny on the big wall of our bedroom. I've thought about buying a new piece of furniture, but I wanted something nice, and we don't have that kinda money so recently after buying a new house. Then I saw this:

Regularly $1799.00. As much as $2499 on other websites.

Clearance price at RC Willey: $199.99. I am not kidding. It was the last one and they'd sold out of most of the other pieces in the set, so they were clearancing this piece out at nearly 90% off. It was still in the box and everything. We picked it up yesterday. (It comes in two pieces, a top and a bottom . . . one piece weighs almost 300lbs! The other piece wasn't much less. It's solid.) It makes me giddy just thinking about it. (Oh, and since our current headboard is a dark cherry color, I also got a new Oak headboard (admittedly a simple one, but it matches well and is pretty) on clearance for $29.99 too.)

But if you're REALLY looking for a great deal, they have dozens of different mirrors on clearance. These are like the mirrors that attach onto a dresser or vanity, but they have a ton that never sold (since I'm assuming not everyone who buys a dresser buys the $500 mirror that goes with it.) I bought this one (it is FAR more beautiful in person than this picture lets on). List price: $500. RC Willey's price: $399.99.

My price: $9.99. There were tons of mirrors like this for $9.99, some even $5.99, ranging in regular price of $199-$899.)
This mirror is a solid, nice piece of furniture. It's huge and weighs almost 70 lbs. Greg's already figuring out how to rig something to safely mount it on the wall. (I had no need for one on a dresser, nor would it match our current dresser, but I figured $9.99 was worth seeing if we could put it up on the wall, and if not, it was going in the playroom, as a dress up mirror, just anchored to the wall but sitting on the floor.) Seriously you guys, it is probably the prettiest mirror I've ever bought! I'm still a little bargain-buzzed.

If you are in any need of a king size bed frame, or a mirror, or pretty armoires, or nightstands. You should go check it out!

Oh, my personal favorite clearance item (still $1000 at 50% off though) . . . had to be the Pirates of the Caribbean bed . . .

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!!

Seriously? Seriously!?

Ellie's fever is back. She's coughing, crying and wheezing. I put her down for a nap, that only lasted about 15 minutes . . . which meant she woke up almost perfectly timed with when Annie started to THROW UP all over the computer chair, desk and floor. For like 3 or 4 minutes. Non-stop. Once she finally finished puking, I scooped her up, held her until she stopped crying and then got her into the bath tub.

Then, while I was carpet shampooing, and letting Ellie scream at the top of her lungs just hoping she'd fall back asleep (she didn't), Annie was in the bathtub and emptied a full bottle of shampoo AND conditioner into the tub with her. The good stuff.

Sigh.

I think my bedroom still smells like puke. Any suggestions?

If it's Not One, It's the Other (Or Both)

So, I was up half the night with a coughing, hacking, wheezing, sniveling kid. Not Ellie though. Annie seems to have caught it. And with her asthma, the cough is like 1000 times more exaggerated than even poor Ellie's cough has been. Annie kept waking up after horrendous coughing fits and just screaming for Mom and Dad. Then when one of us would go in, she kept asking (between sobs) for a "Bwah, bwah, bwah, bwah." Sometimes while pointing at something she desperately wanted, but that I couldn't see (like, as in it didn't exist, nothing was on the middle of the blank wall she was sobbing and reaching for.) Being that this is my (highly) verbal child, I kept checking for a fever to make sure she wasn't delirious or something. It was so weird, and I still have no idea what she was asking for or looking at. Kinda freaked me out. She is completely coherent this morning though, so I'm forcing myself to assume we're just dealing with a bad cough and bug, and not some form of neurological damage (shouldn't have watched "House" before bed.)

Annie was making me laugh at breakfast this morning. She just talked the entire breakfast to Ellie. Like non-stop flow of one-sided big sisterly conversation. It held explanations for the world around them, advice on handling various situations, and amusing anticdotes about favorite cartoon characters. At one point, while they were happily playing, I took the opportunity to go use the little girls' room, and I heard Ellie start to fuss and Annie enthusiastically reassure her, "It's OK Ellie. Mommy just had to, um, go take care of something." Then after a few seconds, like once she decided it was socially appropriate or something, she added, "Ellie, Mommy just had to go pee. She'll be back soon, it's OK. It doesn't take that long."

This also reminded me of last week when we were at WalMart and Annie happily applauded and loudly exclaimed, "Good job Mommy! You peed! You are such a big girl now! Ellie, Mommy peed! Good job Mommy!" She was so proud. I was slightly mortified. People give you very amused looks when you walk out of a WalMart bathroom stall after your two year old has congratulated your bladder control.

You think all of this potty enthusiasm would translate into some potty training success. But no luck. I'm thinking of attempting it again right before Kindergarten . . .

Everything's Coming Up Roses

Annie had been coloring happy for a few minutes, when she suddenly rushed up to me and exclaimed, "Look Mommy! A rose! I can draw a rose!"


Seriously, that's about as good a rose as I could draw. The child's a prodigy. A two year old rose drawing prodigy, I tell ya.

(Sorry for the funky colors . . . it was drawn on an oddly bright pink paper anyway, with a light blue pen . . . and then add in my obviously weak photography skills, and I had to PhotoShop the heck out of it to up the contrast enough for the drawing to be seen.)

To the Doctors, Again!

Good news is that Greg's neck problem ended up being a strained/pulled/tweaked/severely pissed off muscle and nothing more. So, he's still sore, but it's not meningitis or something more serious, so I'm relieved about that.

Ellie on the other hand cost me another co-pay today. Good thing I love these kids so much. Ellie's chest is still retracting, but not severely. Her oxygen is down a little from last Friday's InstaCare appointment, but within the acceptable range. Her fever is under control with Motrin. Her cough is getting worse. ("Definitely an RSV cough," her doctor commented.) Her wheezing is the main issue now though . . . so we tried a nebulizer treatment at the doctor's office, but it had almost zero effect. Which was disappointing. But, hopefully we're on the tail end of this (although we were warned it may get a little worse before it gets better.) And, of course, we should continue to use the bulb suction, saline drops and a humidifier. I think in my two daughter's short lives I've spent approximately $48,000 (give or take) in co-pays to be told the same sage humidifier advice again and again. Not that I was expecting anything different this time. Sometimes it's just worth the money to have them rule out anything more serious, and to validate my feelings of, "Wow, this kid sure seems sick."

In Annie's Words Part Deux

I've done this before with Annie, asking her questions about her Mommy . . . and I thought I'd try it again and see how things changed.

How old is your mom?
I don't know hold old are you.

How tall is your mom?
[Silently points at the top of my head for several seconds, then finally answers] That tall. When I stand up I just a little tall.

What is your mom's favorite thing to do?
Play a game. Do something else. Do you like to play games with me?

What does your mom do when you're not around?
Go to the store. Go to bed.

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
I don't know. Famous means "Where is your Mommy?!" (Wow, that's profound. And I'm sure somewhere Jayden & Sean Preston Federline are all, "Word, Annie!")

What is your mom really good at?
Cleaning up. No, not cleaning up. Getting clothes for you. And cleaning up.

What is your mom not so good at?
I don't know.

What does your mom do for her job?
Email. Do graphics work.

What is your mom's favorite food?
All of she's food. [Then she commands] Mommy, type lots of letters.
Um, broccoli, chicken. I like chicken too! I like chicken or broccoli.

What do you and your mom do together?
Clean up. Like clean up toys

How are you and your mom the same?
I'm not taller and I'm two and you're not and you're taller. I have kinda brownish hair and you have kinda black brownish hair.

How are you and your mom different?
You are taller and I am little.

How do you know your mom loves you?
I don't know.

What can you tell me about your Daddy?
He just sits. (He's been sick and in bed all day.) Maybe he likes to make breakfast when he feels sick.

What do you and Daddy like to do together?
Play in my room.

What is Ellie like?
She's likes to sleep. Sometimes she likes to sleep not. Maybe she likes to watch you clean downstairs.

What is something mom always says to you?
Easel Weasel. They kinda rhyme. (Um, OK. I have no idea where this comes from.)

What makes mom happy?
If I laugh.

What makes mom sad?
If I yell at you, then I will go in time out.

What does your mom do to make you laugh?
If I laugh it will make you laugh.

What was your mom like as a child?
Liked to play a game and all your sisters play a game with you. You say, "Bang it! Beer it up!" That when your other sister grow up, then they will play an Annie game! "Bang it or Beer it up!" "Bang it!! Beer it up!!!"

What makes you proud of your mom?
I don't know. I want to watch "Little People" video.

If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Do you like Oscar? Um, Dora, Elmo, Sponge Bob, Barney. Maybe Dora, and I like Dora. Dora, or Diego. Diego I like more.

Annie kinda just kept talking once we were through the questions. Here's the transcript of her ramblings:
When we go to California, we should go to Dizzleyland. And when we go to California, we should have a baby boy! If we have a baby boy, I will be happy, if we have a baby boy, I will be really happy. When we go to California, why not see all the bad guys? (Disney villians.) When we have a baby boy in California, he will be scared of the bad guys.

[Trying on baby clothes on her baby doll.] It fits you! It almost fit you Tamberly! It's almost big for you, but you can wear it when you get big! Let me try a shirt on. We need a pair of scissors. Does this bug you or no? Tamberly is almost big. When people get bigger, they can wear little people clothes. Mommy, try pants on with her shirts. Oh look at her shirt Mommy, she's almost dressed. We should have a baby boy. Elmo is four. We are almost having a baby boy. Mommy, I want you to put on Tamberly's pants on. Because I am holding Tamberly, but if I sit her down, then it will be easier. But if you do it, it will be more easier. And snap her shirt, 'cause it is a onesie. Now put on the pants. We have lots of baby boy shirts. Yeah, for the next boy. Yay, I did it! Do they go together, or not? Say, "Look at my baby!" Fly baby, fly! I carry you so fly! Fly baby! Which room can I fly in, Mommy's room, Annie's room, or Ellie's room? Fly! Super baby! You are heavy! Catch her Mommy! Catch her!! Now fly her back to me! Now I'll fly her back to you! Tamberly wants her Mommy. No! I don't like that Tamberly! Tamberly trying to get you Mommy. Let's put "Little People" video on Mom . . . maybe I put it on last night. It is on the computer. You hold her Mommy, I want to watch "Little People." With Tamberly. (She doesn't need feedback during any of this, it's pretty much a one-sided conversation!)

(This kid is going to be sorely disappointed when we come home from California with no little brother in tow.)

InstaCare x2

So, we ended up at the InstaCare at 8:00AM this morning, with both Ellie AND Greg as patients. I don't know which one was freaking me out more. Greg couldn't move his head in either direction, and his entire neck and back of his head hurts, in a whole extruciating pain kinda way. Which had me worried about meningitis (note to self: don't google potentially life threatening illnesses a half hour before the InstaCare is actually open.) Ellie on the otherhand seems to be able to move her head just fine . . . as she screams relentlessly and throws her head from side to side in angry cries. She was running a fever last night, and has a horrible cough. And was keeping me additionally freaked out by taking rapid, shallow breaths. So, with most of the family still not fully changed out of our pajamas, we headed off to InstaCare as soon as it opened. Ellie, it turns out, has another ear infection (or the first one never cleared up . . . either way, it's on to the hard core antibiotics), as well as a horrible cough that the doctor identified as, "sounding exactly like RSV." Fortunately, her lungs sound clear and her oxygen levels are good, so it hopefully won't get worse, but may possibly be the "beginnings of RSV." So, I have that to watch out for. That and the warning that if Greg shows ANY flu-like symptoms or starts to feel feverish, to head out immediately to the ER. Not trying to stress me out or anything.

Edited to add pictures of my little sickly family (for those of you who don't know Ellie well, the kid is NOT a cuddler . . . neither of our kids would ever really just snuggle up with us unless they're sick. That's how you know it's serious. Unfortunately, Ellie seems to be in the 'getting sicker before getting better' phase of things . . . Greg seems to be showing some improvement though, what with the shot of muscle relaxers and all, so that's good news at least!):

Annie is obviously feeling well, at least.

In the Village . . .

Annie walking around earlier, belting out her own version of a favorite "Lion King" song . . .

"In the village, the Gardner Village, the Lion sleeps tonight! In the village, the Gardner Village . . ."

(For those who may not realize, I do a lot of freelance graphic design while the kids nap/scream/are ignored and denied access to the computer to play pbskids.org . . . my freelance work is a sore spot with Annie. Because of my opportunity to do graphics for a few of the cute shops out at Gardner Village (Posh Frippery, Sassy Babies, Kamille's, Purse-onality), the girls and I end up over there fairly often. We walk around, feed the ducks, pet the ponies, go to the doll store, split a cookie and all around enjoy ourselves. As much as I like doing graphics for realtors and bathtub refinishers, there's something I really love about working out at Gardner Village!)


Had to add one more Annie story for the day . . . while we were driving Annie and I had the following conversation:
"Annie, who's the coolest person you know?" I asked.
"Annie," she responded quickly. "And Cody."
"And Mom . . . " I added, hopefully.
"Oh no, Cody is way cooler-er than Mommy!"
Good to know where I stand.

A Whole Lotta Effort . . .

Here's Ellie's latest attempts at crawling. She kinda gets it now, she crawls, but she hasn't figured out how to make it worth the effort! She gets down and crawls a few feet here and there, but hasn't yet really figured out that this is a useful skill that will get her places.

Anyway, the reason I put this on here is partly the crawling, but partly Annie in the background. She was counting along with the timer on the camera, and I loved when she got caught up on 15. Anyway, enjoy!

Problem with Solids

Ellie is eating more and more solid foods every day. It's exciting to watch her eat more and more, become more like a kid and less like a baby every day. But, there's a part of me that just wishes that my babies just nursed until they are old enough to just eat. It's the mix of the two forms of feeding that kinda stresses me out. For now it feels like solids are this costly, time consuming, messy experiment. I still end up nursing about as often, for about as long, plus I now have to schedule in a few time-intensive high chair visits a day. And clean ups.

Our biggest issue though has to be the colorful spit up. Everywhere. Bright orange or pea green regurgitation that gets on clothes, the floor, the blankets. Not only does it create a lot of laundry (and carpet scrubbing), but it creates complicated, icky laundry! Stuff that has to be 'Shouted' and double checked before it gets thrown in the dryer (which often gets forgotten, so it also adds cute little now-orange-spotted sleepers to the landfill about once a week.)

And no matter how well I thought I cleaned up these colorful upheavals, I keep spotting more and more reemerging colorful stains all over my bedroom floor. When I'm done having kids, we are SO getting new carpet. (Wait, strike that. When we've potty trained the last one. Then we're getting new carpet!)

Must Be Something in the Air . . .

Both of my little girls have been little stinkers this weekend. Annie's stems completely from a lack of sleep. We had dinner over at a neighbors house on Friday night, and had fun playing games until late, letting Annie stay up and play with their three year old daughter. Meaning our two year old wasn't in bed 'til almost 11PM. We all had so much fun though, that it was well worth it. Even the next two days, when she was grumpy and unreasonable in only a way a tired two year old can be!

On Sunday, Annie had to be taken out of Sacrament Meeting, not once, but twice, for acting up and freaking out. Twice! Maybe for a lot of two year olds, this wouldn't be a big deal. But for as long as I can remember (once we passed the infant stage), we have never had to take Annie out of Sacrament Meeting. Not once. So to have multiple foyer-time-outs was unprecedented. But before I completely lost it with her, she would do something adorably cute, like when she sat there with paper and crayons and made a long line of 'peaks and valley' kinda writing (almost like looking at an EKG readout), and said, "Look Mom! I spelled Mommy! M-O-M-M-Y! That's you!" She's been trying so hard to write letters, but her two year old coordination makes a lot of them impossible still . . . she's getting there though. And has found that she can now consistently write an 'H'. Which is cool for me, because she'll draw a picture and then write a big 'H' next to it and bring it to me and say, "Look Mom! An "H", for Hilary! This one is for you! H!" We'd bought Annie a 50 cent package of clearance Dora Valentine's Cards and stickers to play with. The other day she ran to me with about 6 or 7 of the Dora Cards she'd just finished coloring on, and turned one over to proudly show me the large 'H' that fills the 'To: and From:' portion of the card. "These are for you Mommy! H is for Hilary!" Never have I been so happy to have my name start with 'H'. I mean, 'G' is way trickier! I'm gonna be getting these little love notes long before Greg is reaping her writing rewards!

Annie gets frustrated that she can't write all the letters she wants to though. She'll scribble all over a page, and then show me all the letters she accidentally created . . . often 'M', 'W', 'S', 'T', 'I', 'A', and 'X'. We actually bought her a workbook that has the letters to trace, and while tracing she's been able to do every letter up to 'F' so far (that's as far as we've gotten in the workbook), but as soon as she's done all the dotted line examples, she's lost. I can't believe how quickly she's getting this though. I can't wait 'til her fine motor skills more closely match up with the things she wants to draw! For now though, she's getting frustrated, often asking me to color in something or write a word for her, that she won't even attempt, because she says, "I non't know how," or "You do it, I can't." The other day we were doing little mazes, preschool level
draw a line from start to finish' kinda things you'd see in a "Highlights" magazine. She'd done several, remarkably well, when she suddenly decided this game was out of her league. I just kept encouraging her to just try it, and of course, she refused. That's when we call Grandma, who tells Annie, "Can you try it? Then if you can't do it, Mom can help you," to which Annie of course instantly tries and succeeds (or at least attempts it, which I consider a success!)

Ellie, in the meantime, would go to nobody but Mommy all weekend, basically freaking out like someone was sawing off a limb with a dull knife if anyone dared reach for her. Good times. She just seemed easily overwhelmed this weekend . . . when around just my sister Star, she would actually go to her for awhile without many problems, but as soon as more people showed up, Ellie freaked out and had to have Mom again.

After Ellie's initial 'Crawl Fest 2009' we got so excited about yesterday, she's pretty much wigged out anytime we've set her down on the floor again. I guess I may have a few more days to finish baby proofing our floors (like finding all of the bobby pins Annie randomly yanks out of her hair and drops on the floor) before she gives mobility another go.

I'm hoping now that we're through the amoxicillan for Ellie, and through the weekend of whacked schedules for both of them, that things will settle back to normal and we can go back to my normal only-mildly-high-maintenance-and-high-strung little girls!

Oh, and speaking of amoxicillan, Annie this morning, after I informed Ellie that she had just taken her last dose, exclaimed, "Holy cow Ellie! You take lots of medicines! For ten days! TEN days!! Good job."

Who's a Big Girl?

So, Ellie seems to have finally decided that maybe, just maybe, it's time to start getting around under her own power. She's started crawling today. Like actual, real, productive movement, kinda crawling. She's been going backwards for weeks, and I think it was last Sunday at Greg's parents house that she even went a foot or two forward, but by and large she's showed no real interest in trying any harder than that. (Although, I did leave the room for a minute the other day, only to race back when I heard her screaming and find her UNDER my bed. She had backed herself completely under it, until her entire body, including her poor little sideways head, was stuck between the bed and the floor. She laid off all attempts at crawling for a few days after that. I have found out one thing about my girls, they do not handle defeat/embarrassment well. When Annie was a little older than a year, if was not 100% sure she could say a word, she would mutter it to herself quietly for a week or so, until one day she'd blurt it out, like, "Look what I can say!" She just had to know she could do it first.)

Today though, when we had some nice family-only time, where the four of us were playing around in our frontroom, and Ellie suddenly decided to just go for it, and crawled with actual purpose for several feet. And here I was thinking she'd never crawl. :-)

It still ain't fast, and it still ain't pretty . . . but it's happening, and I'm sure any day now she'll be completely under foot and I'll be muttering, "Why did I ever want you to be able to crawl!?"