A Frozen Visitor

Aunt Karin is in town for a week. We tried really hard to get a good photo of a "live model" for the cupcake hat. I'll give it another go in better light later.

Farewell, Friend

William F. Buckley Jr. passed away today. He was a stalwart at my alma mater and a true conservative. He will be missed.

Dress Up

Ella and Iva found the dress up clothes on Friday and had a good time trying everything on!

Cupcake

I usually keep all my knitting projects on my knitting blog, but this hat is just so cute I had to share!

Bye-bye Booster

Ella decided last week that she no longer needs her booster seat. I liked being able to strap her in, but I'd rather she eat than not. So we put the booster seat away. It's amazing how much stuff kids use in their first 2 years that they will never use again!

Potty in the Potty

This very evening, not a few hours ago, Ella did her first potty in the potty. We "unofficially" started potty training last week. While I was sick and Daddy was in charge, he asked Ella to tell him when she needed to go. She started telling him, but usually as she was going.

This evening as she was obviously going in her diaper I asked if she wanted to go to the potty and she ran in there. She sat down on her potty, but from the diaper I thought we had missed it. A few minutes later she jumped up and said "bye bye" as she ran from the bathroom... and lo and behold had left a little something in the potty! Aunt Michelle and I whooped and hollered and we called Daddy to let him know. Ella was very confused as to what the big deal was all about.

I'm sure it's a fluke, but I'll take it! I'm counting on Aunt Karin to get her all trained next week when she's here...!

Happy Birthday, Baby

Today is my darling's birthday. I am usually all ready to go from sunup to sundown, but as I have been in bed sick for the past 4 days... I had nothing. No gift. No card. No special food. No plans. Nada. So I had to wing it and I think I did a pretty good job! He got a good hour and a half alone to fiddle with the van. He got a small gift from Ella. He got to add whatever he wanted to the grocery cart. He got to go to the park and NOT have to be the supervising adult. He got ribeye for dinner and homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert (he didn't want a cake).

Someday I will be really, really good at writing endearing things about Mitch. But really, I'll never be able to top Solomon:

My lover is dark and dazzling, better than ten thousand others!
His head is finest gold, his wavy hair is black as a raven.
His eyes sparkle like doves beside springs of water; they are set like jewels washed in milk.
His cheeks are like gardens of spices giving off fragrance.
His lips are like lilies, perfumed with myrrh.
His arms are like rounded bars of gold, set with beryl.
His body is like bright ivory, glowing with lapis lazuli.
His legs are like marble pillars set in sockets of finest gold.
His posture is stately,like the noble cedars of Lebanon.
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is desirable in every way.

I love you, sweetheart! Happy Birthday!

We Have Pigtails!!

As her father put it -- the cuteness factor just got bumped up another notch.

Light Bulb!

Michelle took me to Target tonight (I'm sick, but have cabin fever) to pick up some Valentine's gifts half-off. She suggested stocking up on V-day candy and using it for Easter baskets. Brilliant! I have girls so they'll love all the pink and it's the same stuff they have on the shelf now in pastels. Thanks, Michelle! Easter shopping is done!

A Valentine Surprise

I really love Valentine's Day. I love all the pink, red, hearts, chocolate, etc. We had mega plans for today and tonight. My women's small group planned a fondue lunch and I made truffles for all the wonderful women in the group. Ella and I made super cute valentine's for the kids. Mitch had a baby-sitter for tonight and the plan was to spend Valentine's Day in Paris -- crepes, the Eiffel Tower, coffee and baguettes, and pink tulips (my request instead of roses).

So yesterday evening when my throat was scratchy, I pushed it aside. But by about 9 PM it was pretty obvious that I was coming down with something -- chills, sore throat, stuffy nose, achy body. Thankfully Mitch's job allows lots of flexibility for sick days so he graciously took today and is taking tomorrow off so I can lay in bed and get better. We did manage to rent and watch "Becoming Jane" (you must check out the Red Box DVD rentals -- so cheap and easy!). But it was matza ball soup and lots of OJ for me today. So my Valentine ode to my sweetheart will be late this year. Oh well.

And the only pics I have are of the valentine's Ella gave out this year. She had a cute outfit on today, but I didn't get any pics.


Hope your day was full of love!

Footloose and Fancy Free at Johnny's

New Year's Eve Dinner

Fun in the Snow

For some reason Photobucket isn't posting the entire videos I upload. So I'm giving Blogger a try. I'm not sure what each one is until I post it, though!

An Early Valentine

Ella received some money in the mail last week from Babcia and Dzia dzia for Valentine's Day. Since she has more clothes than the Queen of England, we decided to get her something she wanted rather than needed. Ella has been obsessed with bikes (Sarah's in particular) so we opted for a tricycle. She is love, love, love with it! I think she'd sleep with it if we let her. We're still working on pedaling, and she has gotten a few pushes in here and there. Thankfully the bike extends to grow with her so we should get some good mileage out of it in the next few years.




Taken outside today... it's about 60 out. he he he

Give Me a Break!

This really makes me mad. Let me see... the lender loaned money they should have known would be difficult to repay once interest rates went up and the borrower wanted instant gratification so took out a loan they weren't sure they would be able to afford in the future... and so the government is going to bail them all out. Is the government going to provide me with assistance to purchase a home? Nope. Because we're smart and are saving and waiting and being patient, we are just out of luck. Now, I understand that getting the housing market stabilized is good for the economy overall and thus for my grocery and gas bills. But I'm really tired of irresponsible, 'I want it all and I want it now' spending in America. More people need to tune in to Dave Ramsey -- including our government!

Toddlerhood

Ella's "Terrible Twos" started around 12-13 months. We've had temper tantrums, biting, hitting, etc since then (time outs started at 15 months and are pretty ineffective). I had convinced myself that since she started so early, certainly by 2 she'd have grown out of it. I'm serious -- I was convinced! HA! Since turning 18 months she has added, "No!", pushing your hands away if she wants to do it herself, climbing, and upping the ante on the tantrums.

It's hard for me to tell if this is the 'real' Ella or not because since November, she's been sick. We've had three ear infections in six weeks making for one cranky kid! I suppose I could keep her home all the time, but she has so much fun with other kids that I hate to do that (don't worry -- I keep her out the church nursery and other groups when she's contagious). Needless to say, this has been the most frustrating few months of Ella's life yet (for me).

To add to all that, we're having sleeping issues. Ella has never had sleep issues. Since the day we brought her home, she slept in her own bed in her own room. About a week ago when we'd put her down for the night, she'd go running for OUR BED! She's never slept in it and I have no idea why this started. Last week she started waking up between 1-3 AM and screaming to go to bed with us -- but I'm not sure if that's the ears or what.

Life Lesson: No matter how consistent you are with them when they are babies, it ALL goes out the window in toddlerhood. I feel like we've started back at square one! I should've had another one before we hit the toddler stage! Forget the icky pregnancy -- who wants to go through this again!?!?!

OK, I feel better now. Thanks for listening and any and all advice is welcome!

A Trip to the Springs Preserve

It has finally warmed up here! I realize that most people who read this blog are going to want to throw something at me for complaining, but it's been in the high 40's/low 50's for way too long and I've been freezing. Late last week it warmed up to... 70. Yeah, sorry for all you in the depths of below freezing temps, snow, wind and blizzards. But you get snow days -- we don't.

I digress. We headed out in the gorgeous weather yesterday to check out the brand-new Springs Preserve. The Springs Preserve is a 180-acre non-gaming cultural and historical attraction designed to commemorate Las Vegas' dynamic history and to provide a vision for a sustainable future. We only made it as far as the play area where Ella wore herself out. We're planning to head back to check out the gardens and trails.







No, Ella doesn't have a shiner. She has pink eye (and an ear infection), but boy did we get some looks yesterday! She also has a cut on her lip and chin (she tripped and fell on Friday), which didn't help.

Sugar and Spice....

and lots and lots of ribbons and bows! That's what little girls are made of!

Go Giants!

Aside from University of Michigan football, I'm not much of a sports fan. I really like football, though, and last night's Super Bowl match up was superb. Would it be a huge upset by the underdog NY Giants or the completion of a perfect record season for the NE Patriots? We are a NY Giants family so we were rooting for the upset with lots of dip, pizza rolls, chicken brats, and chicken wings. Ella wore her almost too small Giants outfit and we cheered them on!

I am very happy the Giants won because it makes Mitch very happy! Kind of like Michigan beating Florida this year... brought me to tears! Today I have a very happy husband, a tired baby girl, and lots of left overs! Not bad for the day after.