Our Top Ten Attempts

It was an ambitious undertaking: 

Try and get some cute pictures of the kids, in their Easter Sunday outfits . . . before Church.

We took nearly 70 pictures in the five minutes we had this morning.

And this is what we ended up with. :-)

 

Meet My Sister . . .

Annie and Ellie are currently playing in the bathtub.  I swear they are at their most creative and imaginative in the tub -- they can play for hours, making up stories and scenarios that are endless.  They often make up whole new identities and relationships and activities. 

I just walked in to check on them, upon hearing their squeals of laughter and vigorous splashing.  They both turned and smiled at me when I came in.  "Mom, this is my sister Fajita," Annie points at Ellie, then adds excitedly, "It's her name and her favorite food!"

Then she turned back to Ellie and said, "Come on Fajita . . . it's time to go to Relief Society . . . "

Shhh! The Easter Bunny is Coming . . .

I've mentioned this before, but at our house, the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday morning.  It's just how we have it worked out with him.  So tonight, at bedtime, we were telling the girls the good news, that they'd be waking up to Easter eggs and presents in the morning.  Greg then explained, "The Easter Bunny is really skittish though -- he needs it to be quiet to come."  I added, "You know how if you're around a squirrel, and you move around or make lots of noise, it'll run away . . . well, you guys need to be very quiet and go to sleep . . . "  We were pretty sure we'd officially put the fear of the Bunny into them, and they might put up less of a fight tonight and go to sleep without talking, singing, fighting, whining, crying and laughing for hours on end.
"So you guys need to go to sleep . . . " Greg reminds them as we finish up our bedtime routing.
"OK," Ellie agrees.

Annie suddenly turns to her sister and says, in all seriousness, "Ellie. Do not snore."


Ha!

Get Back to Work!

Greg and my parents started working on assembling our awesome new swing set at 7AM this morning.  My parents finally left at 5PM and Greg's still out there working hard.  And we're about half way done.  I now understand why people pay several hundred dollars to get these things assembled!  It's intense.

Photo courtesy of Costco -- the same nice folks who sold it to us in the first place.

Anyway, Greg came in for a few minutes just a while ago, to bring a cold and crying Ellie back inside to me.  (I've been in and out all day, but with it being colder than we'd hoped, I couldn't keep Isaac outside all day.)  After getting Ellie calmed down, Greg stood back up and said, "I need to get back to work . . . "
Ellie asks, incredulous, "Still?!"
Greg laughs and adds, "Yeah, there's still a lot to do Ellie!"
To which Ellie responds, "Well, then get back out there already!" as she points to the back door.

With A Little Help From My Friends . . .

Ellie wanted to see the fish today while we were running errands -- so Annie helpfully 'hoisted' her up to get a better view.

I Want Your Love . . . Blah, Blah, Blah . . .

This is such horrible quality, and it's hard to understand, and it's not nearly loud enough . . . it almost wasn't worth posting -- until I realized Annie sings the line, "I want your love, blah, blah, blah . . ."  (It's at the end).

Easter Eggs & A Happy Baby

The girls are quickly getting sold on this whole 'Easter egg hunt/lots of candy' deal. Annie had not one, but two different Easter egg hunts yesterday.  The one in the afternoon was at a neighbors house, and the girls had the best time!

I was pretty proud of them both, since after quickly filling their own baskets with 10 eggs or so each, they helpfully ran around and made sure all the 'little kids' had enough eggs, and even offered up some of their own to the 'less fortunate.'  

Here's Ellie showing one of the 'babies' where an egg was -- the little girl is 19 months old, so there's almost a year and a half between the two, but Ellie wasn't that much bigger. Which means she loses some street cred when she's trying to tell the 'little' kids what to do. :-) (Ellie was so sweet and mature about it all -- usually -- at nearly three years old, she'd go back and forth between offering up eggs to littler kids, and then nearly taking the head off anyone who dared reach into her basket or get too close to an egg she'd 'claimed').

And my grumpy, grumpy baby was actually happy and smiling for pictures.  It's the first cute, cheerful pictures we've gotten from the poor sick kid in awhile.  (Notice though, even in his happiness, he's rubbing his poor ears).

Jackie O and the Village

I was blow drying my hair the other day, at the same time Ellie was getting out of the bathtub.  On a whim, we took a round brush and the blow dryer to her wet curls.

And then I called her "Jackie O" for the rest of the day.

Catching bugs, now that the weather is good.

Annie mugged for the camera too . . . 

Then today, we headed out to Gardner Village to enjoy the semi-good weather and let the kids run around a little.   And, we were especially excited because our dear friend, Quinn, is now off 'medical house arrest' and can be around other kids -- meaning that my kids got to meet her face to face for the first time.  (They've been watching videos and checking out pictures since she was born almost 11 months ago.)  (Oh, and if you want to contribute to Quinn's March of Dimes Team, check it out here.  Did I mention that Quinn was a mere fifteen ounces at birth, and could pretty well be the poster child for the amazing work and research done via March of Dimes?! Twenty five days left before the walk -- which also happens to be Quinn's first birthday!)  So, my kids chased ducks and jumped in puddles, Jessi and I talked, and the babies took it all in and wanted to be allowed to chew on everything in the doll store.  Quinn even napped in her Mama's arms -- something I was a bit jealous of, since Isaac will never sleep in mine.  :-)  Can I just tell you how excited I am for Spring and the ever-increasing weather -- I could spend every morning this way!

Cuddle Bug

Annie is my snuggly kid -- she'll curl up in my arms and just let me hold her as she wiggles deeper into my lap and lets out a little sigh of contentment.  I love it.  After hurting her ankle yesterday, she cuddled up to me after we got her bandaged up, and I rocked her back and forth while she calmed down.  Then I rubbed her back -- until she told me that as much as she likes me to rub her back, she thinks she prefers the rocking. (Ellie thinks that being held and cuddled is a fate worse than death -- she's trying to move, how dare we try and hold her still!) :-)  The other day, I'd just gotten Isaac down for a nap after an afternoon of 104 degree fevers (and a 101 degree fever for me), and I decided to lay down for a bit.  Ellie had gone four days without a nap now (someone's trying to drop the nap for good -- I'm not too happy about it), and she was grumpy.  So I tried to coax her into lying down for a bit with me.  "Come on, Ellie . . . come cuddle with Mommy and watch Elmo," I said from the bed.  "No, that okay," she said, then walked to the top of the stairs and yelled at the top of her little lungs, "ANNIE! Get up here right now!"  She goes stomping down the stairs, as I call after her, "It's okay Ellie, Annie doesn't have to come up . . ."  I hear Ellie angrily yell at Annie again, "Go upstairs now . . . Mom wants to cuddle with someone!"  

I told Annie she didn't need to come up, she could keep coloring.  But she did come up after a bit, and she did cuddle with me.

Ellie never did come up to cuddle.  Nor did she nap that day.  That girl just has too much to do!  :-)

Where I'm Convinced That My Other Child Will Become a Tagger or a Tattoo Artist

I already wrote about Annie's budding artistic career.  

I touched on Ellie's own special form of self expression.  

I thought I'd provide some examples of Ellie's masterpieces:

The vast majority of Ellie's toys look fairly similar.  Most bearing her "E L L I E" mark.

(That's Greg and the girls in the background doing their nightly story time routine -- how freaking cute are my girls and my husband?!)

Poor Kid part 2

Isaac slept horribly last night, slept in hours later than normal (only waking up when I snuck in to make sure he was still breathing), then took a FOUR HOUR nap and awoke with 104 degree temperature.  I'm feeling just horrible for him, as he snuggles up against my chest with his feverish little self and drifts in and out of sleep while drenching us both in baby sweat. 
His temp is down to 101 now and he's down for the night.  (Of course, last night that meant he woke up at 7:30PM, then again at 9:30PM, and he stayed up 'til 11PM, then again at 12:30AM, 2:30AM, 3:15AM, 4:30AM, 5:45AM, 6:30AM then he slept 'til nearly 9AM.)
And apparently he shared whatever bug he has, 'cause I'm around 101 degrees now too.  'Cause the only thing funner than taking care of sick baby while sleep deprived, is taking care of a sick baby while sleep deprived and ill. 

Poor kid!

 Isaac is having such a rough time lately (and by lately, I mean since early February!)  The poor thing was up last night (a lot) with a fever and his ever-present-congestion-that'll-never-go-away-ever.  A lot of times when my kids are fighting off something (like an ear infection) that causes a fever, it'll spike at night and be gone all day.  Not this time.  He was just a little bundle of overheated baby most of the day.  He took a long two hour morning nap, woke up for less than an hour, then went back down for another two hour nap.  That does not happen with my kids.  That didn't happen when he was oxygen deprived and in the hospital.  My kids almost never sleep more when sick. I felt awful for him.  In the afternoon, the fever came down for a bit and he was active and fun for awhile -- including crawling all over the place, and up and over his Daddy, where he came crashing down on the hard floor and/or Dad's steel toed boots, and the poor kid now has a giant goose egg going from his temple to behind his ear.  These pictures don't do it justice -- it is nasty.  I'm feeling so bad for him -- plus I have an extra dose of motherly guilt on this one.  See, we found out last week that he had an ear infection.  But, in all my reading and studying, I've come across a lot of information about the over-prescription of antibiotics, and how most ear infections will take care of themselves.  My kids have such a hard time on antibiotics, and I hated to put him through that again.  Plus, this seemed to be a fairly mild set of double ear infections, in that he wasn't complaining too much.  So, we did our research, talked to a local wellness chiropractor, and started liquid herbs, essential oils, garlic oil for his ears, extra sunshine (when the weather cooperated) and a ton of vitamin rich food (I mean, even under normal circumstances, the kid consumes breast milk and veggies and fruit -- he's already on like the world's most healthy diet).  Then we waited.  Yesterday I noticed he was kinda tugging on his ears still, and I told Greg, "I'm not sure this is working . . . what if it's not getting better and I just don't know . . . "  Then last night he woke up with fevers, and I was the first one in line at the pharmacy to get his prescription for amoxicilian filled early this morning.  I feel horrible that he could've already been over this, and instead it got so much worse and he has to feel so miserable . . . there is total Mommy guilt coursing through my veins when his feverish little self crawls up onto my chest and falls asleep.  Poor baby.

The thing on his head is a 'Fever Bug' -- a supposed one time use thermometer that'll show you how bad the fever is.  It never showed over 99 degrees, even when our other thermometer was saying 101.6.  I don't think we'll be using the 'Bugs' again . . . other than the girls to play with.  Oh well, I got them on clearance :-)

Then just one from yesterday -- when he was healthy and happy.

Where I'm Again Convinced One of My Children is a Prodigy . . .

I know I'm like genetically programmed to think my children are geniuses and all . . . but is it just me, or does Annie color pretty darn well for a four year old?

Annie can spend hours coloring -- these are just some pictures from yesterday and today that she's been working on.  (Taken with my crappy non-smart-phone camera . . . the idea of getting out the nice camera, taking all the pictures, downloading the pictures and then resizing large files down in Photoshop all seemed like a bit much, and I was feeling lazy.)

Ellie on the other hand -- her coloring seems to mainly take place on furniture, Mom's books, anything the library lent us, things we've borrowed from people, and walls. 

Isaac just wants to eat crayons. 

While Running Errands

Today on our way to the library, we passed a garbage truck THEN a fire truck and THEN a school bus.  All in a row.
Annie squealed and said, "I think that was possibly the COOLEST thing we've ever seen!"

So Cute That You Almost Don't Notice the White Socks with Black Suit Pants (D'oh!)

Nine Month Well Child Appointment (Well, Relatively Well . . .)

Isaac had his nine month appointment.
28% on weight -- 19 lbs. 3 ounces.  This is about what Annie was at a year old.  And Ellie was 17 lbs at a year.
61% on height -- still fairly tall.
91% on head circumference.  The doctor's comment, "Wow!  He has a big head!"  But she did add, "He doesn't really look like it though."

Everything checked out well, he's crawling and mobile and eating well and babbling and in a rear facing carseat, so apparently we're all good.

Except for the DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS.  Seriously, y'all.  Double-freaking-ear-infections.  At the well child check up.  But, of course.  How could I have expected anything less after the winter we've had? :-)

Look Who is Nine Months Old . . .

Wow, time flies!

  

It's like I just had this kid . . . and here is he crawling all over the place, standing up to pretty much everything, and trying to eat trash (or anything else he gets his slobber-covered little hands on).

  

I imagine he'll grow up to be an electrical engineer or something -- he is obsessed with cords and outlets.  We have to keep the vacuum pretty much hidden or he'll be there chewing on the cord any chance he gets.

He LOVES Pat-a-cake and other clapping songs.  Well, he loves for me to sing them.  The other day, in my trying to encourage him to clap himself, I sang the song without actually clapping myself.  He seemed a bit perturbed, and then grabbed each of my hands with his and pushed my hands together.  He may not clap, but he will make Mom clap if she forgets.

He still thinks Mom is the most amazingly funny and cool person in the world -- and everyone else is an obstacle that lies between him and his mother.  He will actually grin and crane his head around to follow his Daddy around the room -- and he'll reach for Dad.  Then once Dad has held him for approximately two and a half seconds, he's throwing himself recklessly back in Mom's general direction.

Annie loves to carry him (awkwardly) around the house.  He doesn't seem to really mind -- although it gives me a mini-heart-attack every time I see it.  He's a little wary of Ellie soon.  And rightfully so -- she's pretty sure he's to blame for anything wrong in her world, and she always seems to want whatever it is he's holding.

Ellie making Isaac cry.  Again.

"Look Mom, I can fly!"

Just some random Ellie pictures from today.

 

 You can tell it's spring once the 'fleet' is out in the front yard . . .