Ice cream?

Tonight, Ellie put her sippy cup in her yogurt pot, turned it over and decided that it was an ice cream cone. I did my best to convince her that she was right -- maybe it will buy me a little time before she starts begging for the real thing. ;-)

Saturday

What a nice day! It was finally warm enough to get out of the house, which was a huge relief because cabin fever had definitely set in. So this morning we went for a walk around the neighborhood and for the first time, both kids were in the wagon!

Charlie's first layer...a hat from Nana, the sweater Nana knitted, the Santa socks from Meme and Shiny Grandpa, and Ellie's old leg-warmers. I think it's possible that he will not share my love of hand-me-downs.

Before the walk:
After the walk:

After naps, we headed back outside for some sidewalk chalk fun. I put Charlie is Ellie's old stroller so I could draw with Ellie and Ellie was not impressed. She decided that it was fine once she turned it into a double stroller.

Charlie is really into blowing raspberries these days, but as soon as I turned the camera on, he stopped...of course. Oh well. It's still a cute video of him smiling away.

Superman

I live with Superman. Actually, I'm married to him; I guess that makes me Mrs. Superman, but without any super powers. I don't know where he hides his cape, perhaps under that scarf he's always wearing, but I know he must have one. In the last two weeks, Damian has taken care of me while I was sick twice...and once he was sick himself. First, we both had a stomach bug last week and even though he felt absolutely rotten himself, he kept me fed (when that became an option), hydrated, and as well-rested as possible. He got up with the kids, went to work, picked up Gatorade, apple sauce, etc., and brought it to me in bed. And then this week when I almost died from mastitis (okay, I may not have been near death, but it felt like I was), Damian rushed out to the pharmacy, got Ellie fed and in bed (with the help of Jay, who I called in for reinforcement because the doctor wanted me to go to the ER), got up with the kids, got Ellie to school, came home early, brought me dinner in bed, etc., etc., etc. I am so, so lucky to have such a sweet, caring husband! I don't know how he manages such a demanding business and such a demanding (and lately sickly) wife, but I'm so glad he does. I've never felt so loved as when he put a trashcan next to my bed for me to be sick in and put a bathmat by the toilet to protect my knees -- that's love!. Thank you, Superman. xoxo

The 6 month/2 year check-ups

This morning, Ellie and Charlie both had their well visits. Both kiddos are doing well and are in great health. Charlie has some fluid and redness in one ear, but given his ear-to-ear smile, the doctor was convinced that he's not suffering and the ear doesn't need to be treated. So now the stats...

Charlie weighs 18 lbs., 2 oz., putting him in the 58th percentile (Ellie weighed 20 lbs., 1 oz. and was in the 95th+ percentile); he is 27.25 inches long and in the 76th percentile (Ellie was also exactly 27.25 inches long, but according to that doctor's chart, she was in the 95th percentile); and his head is in the 92nd percentile. So basically he's a lovable little bobble-head doll.

Ellie weighs 31.8 lbs. and is 92nd percentile; she's 37.5 inches tall and in the 99th percentile (really, she's off the charts...by quite a bit); and her head is in the 98th percentile. Not surprising to anyone.

We are so very blessed to have two beautiful, sweet, healthy, happy kiddos!

Sneaky!

Lately, Ellie has started telling me to "stay there" before she goes off to do something naughty. This morning, we were sitting at her little table in the kitchen when she got up, said "Stay there, Mommy. Stay there." and went around the corner and started playing in Gracie's water dish. I had a hard time not laughing as I dragged her out of the bowl and reminded her that we don't play in Gracie's water. So should I be worried that at 2 years old, she's capable of thinking "hhm...I really want to take this xylophone mallet and splash it in Gracie's water but Mom will never go for it. I need to distract her so I can get a head start. She's always saying 'stay there, Ellie. Stay there' when we're in a busy parking lot or something. I'll try that."

Counting

With the help of Mickey Mouse, Ellie has learned to count to 10. It's so sweet listening to her count. We had a couple of hiccups along the way when she thought that "okay, time-out" came after 3, and for some reason, she thought "l, m, n, o, p" came after 8, but now she's got it down! She still occasionally thinks that 6 is a color ("Ellie, what color is this?" "Blue!" "No." "Red!" "No." "Six!"), but that's another issue.

My little juvenile delinquent

So it turns out that it's not just the walls that inspire Ellie's creativity.

Children's chairs do...

throw pillows do...
floor tiles do...
books do...

even baby dolls do...

"Why don't you just put the crayons away?!" you must be thinking. Uhm, I have. I swear! I have searched the house and put away every crayon I can find. I've even subjected Ellie to random strip searches, but still I find her hunched over a book or crouched by an innocent home furnishing, scribbling away! She's like a squirrel preparing for a long, cold winter, storing away a crayon here, another one there. It's sort of like living with an alcoholic who hides mini-bottles --there just seems to be an endless supply hidden throughout the house. Hhm...I wonder if they have crayon-sniffing dogs at the police department? If so, I would like to borrow one for the day!

For Meme

After seeing the video of Damian hula-hooping on the Wii, Meme thought it would be really funny to see someone playing the game where you have to flap your arms to make a bird fly. Is this what you had in mind, Meme? ;-)

But he's just a baby!

Yesterday, I let Charlie chew on my finger and discovered a sharp little tooth poking through his bottom gums! I was so completely shocked! Sure, he has a runny nose, he drools like crazy, and he's had a few fussy spells, but he's just a teeny, tiny little baby! WAY too young to have a tooth...right? I know the first teeth normally show up between 4 and 6 months, so he's actually not too young to have a tooth, but it sure seems like he is. It's definitely harder for me to accept that he's growing up than it was for me with Ellie. With her, I was just so excited for every new phase/stage, and with Charlie, I'm acutely aware of the fact that his might be the last toothy grin to greet me every morning...well at least until Damian losses his teeth, but he's not much of a morning person, so even then, I don't think I'll see his gummy smile every morning. So slow down, little Charlie.

Well, technically...

I never told her NOT to color on the walls!

Tonight, while I was getting dinner ready, Ellie had a burst of creativity...and the wall paid the price.

Explaining the beauty in her work:

Baron Isaiah Adams

Baron Isaiah made his debut late on Friday night and he is SO cute! Weighing in at an impressive 9 lbs., 13 oz., he actually makes Jackson seem like he was a small(ish) baby. Unfortunately, one of Baron's lungs was slightly collapsed and now he's jaundice, so he's in the NICU, but he's doing really well and Hillary has the most incredible outlook -- she's staying so positive and just thrilled that Baron is here and sure to make a full recovery.

When Hillary went into labor (well, actually, more than 12 hours after going into labor, but when she finally went to the hospital), we kept Jackson and Ellie had a great time having a sleep-over with her best buddy. They completely wore us out and convinced us that two kiddos are enough, but we loved having Jackson here -- he's just such a sweet, sweet boy. We didn't take many pictures since we were busy herding kids, but here a few to prove that Jax was here.

Jackson playing the recorder:

SO happy to be playing with Jax:

My guys

Charlie is just loving Damian these days! They're so sweet together.

Damian took these great pictures of Charlie. It's amazing to me that he (Charlie, not Damian) is sitting in this "big" chair already!

You don't see that everyday!

We witnessed a very unusual event -- a serious snowstorm in Dallas! I'm not sure how much snow we got in the end, but it was enough to break branches (unfortunately, mostly from the tree that previously covered up our bathroom window -- so much for privacy) and seriously bend/dent our arbor. Given how many people were without power for days, we certainly can't complain.

Bluck!

After a brief break, we're giving Charlie solids again. He likes prunes and oatmeal, I don't think he cares for sweet potatoes.

As much as I really want him to be a good eater like Ellie was/is, it's kind of fun to see the funny faces -- Ellie always acted like she had been eating solids her whole life and never had much of a reaction (other than "give me more, give me more!") to any new baby food, which was awesome, but not very entertaining.

Valentine's Day party

Today, I went up to Ellie's school to help with her Valentine's Day party. "Party" is actually a huge overstatement -- basically, the kids just got to play all day, rather than doing their normal grueling academic work. ;-)

It was fun to watch Ellie interact with the other kids. And, as always, she was very happy to be at school!
At one point, two of the other girls started fighting and Ellie walked over and just watched them. It was interesting watching her trying to process what was going on -- she eventually lost interest and left them to it.

Ellie's class, minus one one little girl and one little boy. Although they wouldn't look at the camera, the kids were pretty excited about having their pictures taken -- they all climbed in my lap and wanted to see the preview on the back of the camera.

Ellie and Laura:

Charlie liked all of the action...and the fact that kids kept walking by, dropping toys into his carseat.

Ellie's teacher, Mrs. DeBord:

I have no idea what she was doing in this picture, but her expression cracks me up!

Snow day

What an exciting day for Ellie! We woke up to a thick blanket of snow and Ellie just couldn't wait to get out in it. She could hardly sit still long enough to eat breakfast -- she kept pointing out the window and screaming "SNOWFLAKES!" With a few minutes to spare before school, I let Ellie check it out...and she loved it until she wiped out, leaving an Ellie-shaped clearing in the slush. She was so pitiful with slush dripping off of her face, but she recovered pretty quickly and even enjoyed watching her teachers having a snowball fight at school.

Daddy came home early when the roads started getting icy and he and Ellie went out for Round 2 in the snow. Here they are preparing for their adventure -- Daddy had big plans to go sledding on the Rubbermaid lid, but they couldn't find enough of a hill. I don't think Ellie cared -- she was in heaven playing with Daddy!

Better get used to it

As I've mentioned, Charlie loves his big sister! He loves watching her play; he loves listening to her chatter away; he even loves being cuddled by her. He does NOT, however, like being kissed by her.

Baking with Ellie

I had such a fun first with Ellie today. We made cookies (sweetened with bananas this time)! Ellie enjoyed dumping things into the bowl and loved turning on the mixer. It was a bit challenging to keep her out of the batter, but giving her the spoon that we used with the peanut butter seemed to help. And she did a great job cutting out the cookies -- hearts for her Valentine's Day party at school.

This was an especially significant first for me because it made me remember an afternoon when Ellie was just a few weeks old -- I was walking laps around the driveway (as I did almost every afternoon), bouncing a screaming Ellie, trying not to cry myself (mostly because I know the neighbors were tired of hearing it), and praying that Damian would come home and soothe Ellie (as it seemed he was the only person that she would stop crying for). I had totally run out of soothing things to say to Ellie, but was still hopeful that talking to her would help (singing was out of the question since I was so tired that the only song I could think of was "jingle bells" and in my sleep deprived state, I thought it made me a bad mother to sing "jingle bells" in February). I remember looking at her -- her eyes squeezed shut, her face purple from screaming -- and saying out loud "someday you're going to like me and want to spend time with me and then we'll do fun things like make cookies." I don't think it made her feel any better, but it helped me. I just never would have guessed that "someday" would arrive so quickly!