Monday, March 29, 2010

Happy Birthday Emerson

Our little cousin Emerson, who's not so little anymore, is turning TWO today. So, the girls decided it would be nice to video a serenade for her - nothing to crazy, just the traditional "Happy Birthday" song.

Other than Paige sounding like Frankenstein, and having a lot of trouble with her hat, it turned out pretty good.

Hope you have a wonderful day Miss Emerson, and we'll see you this weekend!


Sunday, March 28, 2010

this...

This picture, this scene, these two little girls...this is what I need to remember when the going gets tough. I need to remember this during a total meltdown. Or, in the morning when it's RUSH, RUSH, RUSH. Or when they are fighting over a piece of paper. Or when they cannot remember their manners at the dinner table.

These moments of total calmness, quiet, and sister-bonding are so amazing. And getting to watch it is better than almost anything.

Friday, March 26, 2010

so apparently...

when you are seven, hanging out with one of your very good friends, chatting, and swinging on swings in a very non-traditional way, is the coolest thing to do. (while wearing a BRIGHT YELLOW over-sized Nikon rubber band on your head as a headband)


and when you are two, and the little sister, the coolest thing is to hang out in your big sister's bedroom and play with her stuff while she's outside doing her thing.

it's just an observation I had earlier today....

Thursday, March 25, 2010

today...

is my 37th birthday. So far, it's been pretty great. I have already received lots of cool and awesome gifts from family and friends - including Tigers OPENING DAY tickets!!! So very excited about that. Eric even got me a Tigers hoodie so we can be all cute and Tigery together.

We are leaving to go out to dinner in a little bit. Maybe I will have some more pictures tomorrow...

I love birthdays!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

new to us...

I volunteered at the Mom to Mom sale at Emily's school this past weekend. I was only in charge of checking people into the big ticket room on Friday night, and helping people out in the big ticket room the day of the sale. A very small part - but man oh man, I was EXHAUSTED. The ladies who run the sale deserve a vacation. Really.

Anyway, I wasn't really able to do any shopping, BUT, I did pick up a pair of rain boots for Miss Paige. I also got her a small, white rocking chair and two dresses.

Let's just say, those boots were on her feet within seconds of my arrival.



I'll share pictures of the rocking chair later.

For those who don't know - a Mom to Mom sale is like a big garage sale specifically for items related to babies and kids. The big ticket room is where all the large items are sold...highchairs, pack and plays, swings, strollers, large toys...etc...The sale is a fundraiser for the school. We sell tables for $23, and sell the big ticket items for the table renters for $1 a piece, and admission to the sale is $1 per person. It's the largest fundraiser for the school. It's a wonderful thing for everyone.

And speaking of new things...congratulations go out to the Marcikic's who welcomed a new baby boy to their beautiful family this past Friday. We can't wait to meet you Baby Grant!!

Friday, March 19, 2010

How to embarass your kids 101

Emily's parent-teacher conference was yesterday afternoon. Eric and I both went, thanks to my Mom for watching the girls.

While we were waiting for her teacher, we perused Emily's Unit 2 writing book. It is very cute, and full of lots and lots of funny stories and pictures we will totally be using to embarrass her later in life.

Stories like this one about how she goes with her dad to the train club on operation nights - Eric's train club has operation nights once a month, and if Emily is off of school she often goes with him. His train club is Gratiot Valley Railroad - but as you can see, she spelled Gratiot a little different - note the banner in the picture.....


But my most favorite of all is story she wrote about my Mom. Go ahead read.....

Nice, right? There is a second page that says "coffy" (coffee), but I did not realize this while I was reading this in the hallway of her school on our way out to the parking lot. I could not help but laugh out loud. And, I could not wait to get back to our house to show my Mom.

Priceless.

This book, along with assorted bathtub pictures, is going in a box that I will be bringing out when she brings home her first serious relationship....parenting is so much FUN.

And, Paige walked around all day long - including a trip to Target and the fruit market - with her butterfly wings on.
Being two is awesome.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

the towel..

has been officially thrown in. what you are about to read is a bunch of self loathing. i am not all that sorry about that. i have had a rough couple of weeks, and i need to get this all out.

i have no real idea why, but two weeks ago i had this crazy idea that i would start toilet training my very stubborn, cute and highly temperamental two year old. i must have been crazy. i decided to do it by just getting rid of diapers all together. no intermediate phase. no warming up. another totally crazy and irrational idea.

basically, for those of you who haven't already had the joy of hearing me complain about it, it went a lot like this: i begged her to sit on the toilet, i asked her several times a day...mere reminders, really..if she had to go, and it was all to no avail. yes, of course, she did what she was supposed to do at times, but most of those times were completely mandated by me, not her. when left to her own devices, she went in her own personal space...ie - she peed in her pants.

and then this weekend happened. she decided to introduce a whole new side of herself - the massive temper tantrum side. this consisted of flailing herself away from me, kicking me, smacking me if i came anywhere near her, calling for anyone but me, and screaming and crying like i was sawing her arm off. yeah, i know, total FUN.

so, i countered by almost having a total breakdown/anxiety attack/tantrum of my own. and then i spoke to a good friend of mine who helped me put it all in perspective.

i needed a break. and she probably needed one too.

so, that's exactly what we are doing.

of course, i had to take a few hours to reconcile this in my mind. you see, i am so not a quitter. failure, is not really a word that i like for to use. i needed to see this situation as not a complete and total failure. and it isn't. and well, if it really is, i can't really care about it. at least not for now.

so, i am hoping that things around here are going to get back to our normal. a lot less tantrums and a lot more silly.


and this child, has been extra sweet. she loads me up with lots of extra kisses and hugs because she knows i have been needing it.
and even though i have been not really feeling it lately, i am a very lucky girl to have these two call me mom. really and truly.

thanks for listening.

and thank you sheila - you have no idea how much you helped me.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

scrappy sunday

I have been feeling particularly crafty lately. I have been pretty much doing at least one page everyday for the last week...and I am pretty happy with the results.

These pages contain pictures from about a year ago.






enjoy!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

updates

capturing my emily on film has bit quite a challenge lately. for one, she's at school most of the day. and now that the weather has taken a turn towards a more spring-like flavor, she's outside, out of reach, after school.

she's still loving school. she is still loving her art - drawings that almost always include some sort of rainbow. she is still into writing stories to go with her art - sometimes. she is still almost always talking. sometimes it's about something really sweet and cute and funny...and sometimes it's just a bunch of silliness. this morning, while waiting for the bus, she plucked a target bag from the seat pocket in front of her seat and asked why it was there. "it's a barf bag" i said. she looked at me for a second, and says, "What's a barf?" i don't know why, but it just sounded so funny...and after i told her what barf was, she thought it was pretty funny too. "that's a crazy word, mom" she said. then she launched into all the different words for barf. lovely. and very lucky for me, the bus showed up only seconds later.




ummm, someone needs to put that shirt in the hand-me-down basket.....


and this one, is going through a major cute phase. i know, i'm her mom. i am biased. but dang, that kid is CUTE. her little phrases, tantrums, pretend play....i could just watch her all day. she thinks all little things that have a big counterpart are babies. this applies to anything. she was eating some tortilla chips yesterday, the small broken chip...yes, that was the baby, and the large unbroken chip was the mommy. she loves books. i love to watch her pretend read them. she can recall most of the stories - it's kind of freaky. she has a great memory. she is loving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right now. she can't pronounce "f". frog is pronounced"sog". fruit is "suit". and she also calls her pruny fingers after her baths, "cooney". it's downright cute-tastic.

and she's home with me all day, so i can take tons of pictures of her...whether she likes it or not.....


did i mention the drool? it NEVER ends.


thanks for looking......

Monday, March 8, 2010

a few things...and maybe a little ranting....

so this picture, is so very March in Michigan. the weather for the rest of the week will be in the low fifties. there are still piles and piles of snow on the ground. and my two and a half year old is outside, taking it all in, in bare feet. oh, and she has no jacket on as well. sorry aunt teresa.


paige doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

this whole, "breaking the rules" thing seems to amuse her very much. is this a indication of her future?

okay now, switching gears to potty training. if you know me, you know that this is the part of the whole raising a kid thing that I dislike the very most. in fact, i like raising my kids very much, i enjoy it, actually. but potty training...hate it, hate it, hate it.

i pretty much figured out that this plays on my whole allison is a control freak issue. i cannot control my children's bladders not matter how much i try. and this kills me. i am sitting here telling you this because i need to tell you this. i need to get it out. the frustration is immense.

today - seven accidents so far. both kinds. i need you to know that it's only 2 pm. the laundry is piling up. but, surprisingly enough, i am still upbeat. i will beat this. i will win. right???

so, because i take pictures of everything, i thought it would be cute to do a potty photo session. actually, i am kidding. that's kind of weird, even for me. so, i did a new elmo underwear session. if this offends you, click that red x in the upper left - or right if you have a pc - corner now. i happen to think it's rather cute.

see, cute right?

if you have any helpful tips for me, i would LOVE to hear them.

have a great week.

(oh, and the all lowercase thing...i did it because I CAN.)

Friday, March 5, 2010

this....

makes my heart, literally, melt....i luv those girls.

AND, in case you are wondering...potty training is going pretty well. I'll just say that day two was MUCH better than day one. We'll have to see how day three pans out.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

this week....

We are potty training....we'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging as soon as we can...gotta go!! (and yes, that pun was intended!)

Monday, March 1, 2010

a sledding we will go....

Over here, on the east side of town, hills are not exactly plentiful. When it snows, and we want to go sledding, we don't have many options. In fact, other than building our own hill in the backyard, we pretty much only have one option - Sledding Hill. But, alas, Sledding Hill is a pretty good option. It was made just for sledding. So, if the conditions are right, sledding on it is so very good.
And sled on it we did. On Saturday. As it turns out, the perfect day. Had we gone on Sunday, it would have been very wet and slushy because it was quite a bit warmer than yesterday.


We started out on the smaller backside hill. Emily was quite content to go down all by herself. Paige still wanted to go with one of us, or her big sister.

After about fiver or six times, we switched over to the big hill. I took Paige down with me all three times. It was awesome. She loved it too. And we would have gone lots more, but, OH MY GOODNESS, walking up those stairs with a sled and a two year old, was a bit much.

So, we took our final run....
And headed home.
SO. MUCH. FUN.

And people wonder why we live here.