Hopefully Helpful Hint....(basically a PSA for BlogReader)

This keeps coming up so I've decided to blog about it. Blogs are great. Mine is primarily my record of Ella's life/schedule/cuteness so I don't forget it and can access this info when I have future kids and have forgotten how to do everything. Other people's blogs are more audience focused and entertaining and intentionally well written (sorry folks, that's not my goal). Some are funny, some are touching, some give advice. Regardless, I'm enjoying this age of blogs mostly because I can keep up with the lives and kids of friends all over the world. But, it would be SUPER annoying to have to bookmark each blog and remember to check it, never knowing if they'll update four times this week or four times this month. So, some genius at google had the same problem (I'm guessing) and invented Blog Reader. It's SO smart. I've had it for over a year but I keep coming across people who don't know about the wonders of blog reader so I feel it is my duty to inform you. All you have to do is cut and paste the web address of the blogs you want to read and now, blog reader will put in bold the blogs that have new posts and tell you how many! AND you can read (most of) the posts right on the same page. Now I never miss a post, I only have to go to one page instead of 12 and my blog reading is so simple and quick! So, for all of you frustrated people trying to keep up with more than one blog, I highly recommend it. Just click here to get all set up.

At last...

So, Holly and I have been friends since high school and even met in middle school. We've been accountability partners for about 13 years (we spend a couple hours each week sharing about our lives and keeping each other accountable for our living out our faith in our daily lives). We've been through a lot and God has totally given us parallel lives: we both graduated from college early, got engaged 6 months apart, got married 6 months apart, married into the military, moved out west (CA and AZ), went through both husbands deployments to Iraq (2 weeks apart), got out of the military, moved back to Maryland and both were in the hospital for each other's baby girls being born. So, we thought we'd finished a lot of the hard parts and now could raise our girls together and both be stay at home moms at the same time. Well, I'm sad to report that for the first 15 months of Hope's life, our children were on completely opposite nap schedules and we could NEVER see each other during the day! There were no times between about 9:30am and 4:30pm when one kid wasn't in the process of napping. We had to start meeting for accountability early in the morning before the girls woke up and for a while it was almost the only time we saw each other. It was really hard to be moms at the same time but never be able to do things together because one of them was asleep or because they just can't do the same things (they're a year and half apart in age). However, almost out of the blue, it happened. Hope switched to one nap a day. It seemed like just another fun milestone and we were both kind of nonchalant about it but then we realized OH MY GOSH!!! We can be mom-friends now!!! We can actually play during the day! We can see each other without all kinds of complicated arrangements! I'm SO excited for this new phase! I get my Holly back during daytime hours-not only at night or the crack of dawn. Ahhhh. I'm so thankful for a WONDERFUL friend to add to our daytime playdate repertoire. YAY!!! Here are yesterday's pics from one of our first playdates with Holly and Hope :-)

Beach Trip '08

We really did have a fun time at the beach. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The Christy's always let us borrow their portable DVD player for long car trips-it's a lifesaver. Ella is obsessed with the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and Zoe's Dance Moves. This time we hooked her up with headphones which was great so we weren't all singing "A says ah, A says ah" for 3 hours.

The first day we went straight to the beach. Ella really wanted to make a sand castle. She'd only seen them in books and we really have been talking about them for MONTHS so it was really exciting to see her face light up when Aunt Marissa taught her how to use wet sand to build a tower. She was thrilled!

It didn't last long but Ella did try to lay down and read with the rest of us for a few minutes.



It's probably a little known fact but I LOVE swimming. I LOVE the feeling of being underwater and since I spent almost every day of my childhood summers at the pool, it's sort of nostalgic. I was in the pool more than anyone else on this trip and practiced all my old tricks (handstands, forward and backward flips etc.). It was so much fun! Ella enjoyed it too mostly because her bathing suit ROCKS and she can totally "swim" around the pool by herself! I highly recommend these suits with flotation devices built in. And you don't even need a fancy one, this one was $9.98 at Walmart and it's been great all summer.

On our last day we went to the board walk at Rehoboth (thanks for the tip Ed!) and Ella got to ride on a bunch of cool rides. Definitely very kid friendly (and cheap!).

Just before heading home we got some Ice Cream and tried (futily) to teach Ella to lick it so it wouldn't drip. She just kept insisting that she needed napkins. She's really the neatest eater ever which is unusual in toddler world.

And last but not least...we stopped at a McDonalds on the way home for a bathroom break and CRACKED UP when we saw this lady on her motorized scooter at the drive thru. To top it off she had her little lap dog sitting on it with her!

The Dark Side of the Beach

We had a lot of fun at the beach. During the day, that is. The night (yes only one night, we came back early because the first one was so wretched) was horrible. The layout of my parent's timeshare in Bethany is not conducive to a 2 year old actually going to sleep. The 2nd level is just a large bedroom but with no door-it's just open to stairs that go down to the living room/kitchen etc. So, after refusing to go to sleep in the pack-n-play we brought (I knew it was unlikely she'd go for a "baby bed" but anything to keep her contained was worth a try), we tried putting her to bed in the "big bed" which failed miserably. She was totally wired and kept insisting she wasn't tired and wanted to go downstairs. After much frustration, crying (not just Ella), and screaming, Marissa and Chris gave up and let her watch the Olympics until almost midnight. I (sort of) fell asleep in one of the attempts to get her to sleep upstairs but it was one of those painful, half-awake states because I knew I could't really go to sleep because eventually Ella has to go to bed and it's going to involve more crying and probably screaming and I'm the only one who will probaby be able to calm her down. I also knew it would probably end with her sleeping in our bed and kicking me all night. And I was right. She eventually came upstairs with Chris and screamed and cried until I held her like she was in a straightjacket and she eventually whimpered herself into a deep sleep. And proceeded to kick me all night long. When she wasn't pushing me off the bed. Did I mention is was wretched??? God bless all you co-sleepers but it is not a good fit for our family. Literally. This was the first time ever, in her entire almost three years of life, that she has EVER slept in our bed. I'd even tried to get to her to a couple times when she was sick or upset or even just to nap, but she's never been willing or interested at all. She's been in her crib since she was 8 days old and LOVES her crib. So anyway, it was a horrible night and we weren't brave enough to try it again, so we came home a day early. As soon as we got home I did Ella's normal bedtime routine and she happily went into her bed and slept for 13 hours. I had NO doubt she would. Apparently she's inheriting my love of routine and familiar comfortable surroundings. MORAL OF THE STORY: Don't travel with Ella unless she has her own room WITH A DOOR. EVER. Ok, I'm done reliving that episode. The next post will be the normal, happy kind with pictures :-)

You NEED happy clothes!!

Chris got home from a meeting with a client in DC a little while ago. He usually works from home but sometimes heads out to meet with clients and when he does go, usually wears a suit. Well, today he came in wearing his suit and sat down and started talking to Ella. Here's how the conversation went.

Chris: Hi Ella! How are you?
Ella: Daddy you need to take off your clothes.
Chris (laughing): What? Why?
Ella: DAD you NEED to take off your clothes. Put on happy clothes.
Dad: But these are happy clothes, I'm happy!
Ella (starting to get a little sad): No. Those are bye-bye clothes. You need to take them off.

We almost melted from the cuteness. I guess because Chris only wears a suit when he's leaving and she was worried that he would leave again if he left it on. Awww...melts my heart.

Contest!

Amy (my sister-in-law) has a cool contest going on on her blog-check it out! You could win movie tix!

Random Fun

I love this picture Marissa took of Ella eating a popsicle at her house. They watched The Little Mermaid that day and Ella LOVED it. We sing "Under the Sea" and she wants to read her "Ariel" book all the time. On one occassion of reading it, Ella pointed to King Triton's chest and said "Mom look! He has weally big nickels!" Ahhh from the mouths of babes.

Marissa's friend Nora pulling Ella up and down the long hallway of Marissa's apartment! She had SO much fun.

Ella put on this dress up outfit by herself (complete with little chinese slippers that look like cats) and then came out and asked me to take a picture of her. Of course I obliged. She's never asked for that before-she usually runs from the camera!

Lunch with my dad, Marissa, and GG. Ella's first outing in underwear! (too bad if that's too much information, it's a big deal around here)

My niece Hannah on her 2nd Birthday!!!

Beach pics to come soon...

Potty x3

Peer pressure certainly still works on me at 28 so why not use it on 2 year olds? That was the idea when Amy, Jen, and I all brought potties to our weekly playdate this week. Amy wanted Hannah (who actually turned two that day) to learn from the more experiences potty-pee-ers Lexi and Ella (who have been potty trained for about 2 weeks and 1 week respectively). Hannah did very well at our potty play date but I'm not sure if the results "stuck." Either way, we had a lot of fun :-)

The Girls on their thrones

Ella wanted to take a picture of the mommies while we sat across the kitchen cheering them all on in their peeing. I didn't edit this picture at all-pretty well centered! I was impressed with her photo skills (though she did take 10 pictures of her pants laying on the floor also).

This is the floor and a finger and a skirt. I have about 15 similar pictures from when the camera got passed down the line of potty girls. Thank God for digital cameras! Kids probably didn't get to touch cameras when people had to buy film!

Lots of fun was had by all. As for a potty update, Ella is doing really well-very few accidents and she has acquired the skill of "holding it." She even did two 3 hr trips to and from the beach with no accidents at all! She is not doing so well with #2 but she doesn't go very often (once a day and sometimes skips a day) so it hasn't been a big deal. I'm honestly kind of shocked and how well it's gone! I'm so proud of her!

A good reminder...

My wonderful friend Jen's blog post today is worth reading....I give it a hearty AMEN and hope to learn from it's sentiments...check it out here

Potty Training: Take Two

We're potty training again. I wasn't really planning it but it seems like God engineered the timing. We had an exhausting weekend last week so we stayed home a lot at the beginning of the week to recover (normally we're out and about every day). Since we were here, I decided to put her in underwear and see what happened. She did pretty well so I got bold and took her out in underwear on Thursday-a 40 min drive each way to lunch with my dad and sister and grandmother-and she did great! NO ACCIDENTS! The last two days she's been in underwear all day and had one accident each day (neither were when we were out thankfully!). So, I think it's really going to happen this time! She gets an MnM each time she goes in the potty which is highly motivating for her. The only thing that makes me concerned about whether this will last is that she has NEVER told us she has to go to the bathroom. I just ask her 100 times a day and she says yes 3 or 4 times. So, I'm not sure that she REALLY understands what it feels like to need to go or exactly how to "hold it" (she grabbed her underwear the first time I told her to "hold it"-makes sense!). But, it's looking very promising. It feels very different from the first time we tried. I've been dreading it since she turned two but it's not nearly as painful as a expected to remind her to go all the time or to carry a change of clothes. I think next time around (with another kid and future milestones with Ella) I'll be more willing to wait and resist any pressure for kids to do things early or even "on time." These things really do happen in their own time and it's much less painful when they're really ready. So, if she stays in a crib 'til she's four, I'm ok with that :-)

Beautiful Girl

So, I just left Ella's room, putting her to bed, and had a really hard time tearing myself away. I came out and tried to explain to Chris how incredibly smart, and funny, and sweet our child is and ended up in tears. I'm so scared I'll forget these times and miss them SO much. I LOVE that she just randomly tells me "Mom, I really love you." I LOVE that she wants to snuggle while I read to her for hours every day. I LOVE that she just asked me if she could please have some homework because she's going to school soon and then asked "Why are you cracking up?" when I laughed. I LOVE that she tells me everyday that she wants to be taller and taller like a giraffe. I LOVE that she loves to help me cook. I LOVE that she is so honest about her emotions ("Mom I'm fwustwated!" or "that weally scawed me"). I really want to be like her in so many ways. I wish my focus was as good as hers when she's working on a puzzle or spearing fruit with a toothpick. I wish I was as good at saying no to food when I'm not hungry. I could probably learn from Ella's example how to take compliments instead of deflecting them. She's creative in solving problems and funny on purpose and so loving even to the dog or her dolls when no one's looking. I'm SO in love with this beautiful girl.

Ho Co Fair 2008!

The fair was a lot of fun! We got to hang out with the Boons, Christys, and lots and lots of farm animals. I can't believe it was a year since we went last time! It's flown by. Ella was scared of the huge cows and pigs but somehow by the time we got to the petting barns, she became a new child! She was SO excited to touch everything that she almost fell into the baby goat pen trying to reach them. We ate deep fried oreos (yumm) and corn dogs (Chris loves them) and drank lemonade. We were anxious to see if they had the pig races like last year where little piglets race around a track to get oreos. This time, Ella got chosen to cheer for one of the piglets and won a necklace which she's proudly worn for the last 3 days. Our favorite fair moment was when the emcee at the pig/duck races said "These ducks are really young so they might need some help to get around the track. Who do you think should help them? Who comforts you and helps you and guides you?" All the kids started yelling "Mommy! Daddy! Our Parents!" and with no prompting, Ella yells "JESUS!!" Awwwww! I love that girl!


Peering at the sheep


Wheelbarrow riding with Dad

This is her "Oh my!" face before touching the baby chick

Trying to feed the sheep with her buddy Joel

This wheat felt amazing! Theresa and I sat there with our feet in it for a good 10 minutes. We eventually got the husbands to get shed their socks and shoes and get in also. Who knew there'd be anything akin to a spa treatment at the fair!

Ella really liked this bunny. She reminds me most times we see rabbits that they like carrots but she does not.

Last year's fair pic with daddy. Her hair was so short and she was just so little!!

This year's fair pic with Daddy. They're both so adorable!

Ode to Playgroup

We started going to a Playgroup when Ella was only about 2 months old. It was really for me at that point-to get out of the house, get advice from other moms, and begin to let Ella begin to become the social butterfly that she is. We've continued to be part of the same playgroup for the last 2+ years. We've laughed together a lot and our kids have grown together and we've benefited from each other's parenting successes (and learned from each other's failures!). Overall, it's been a blessing to get an evite for every other wednesday for these past 30 some months. What a blessing you all are in my life and Ella's. I hope for MANY more to come.




Ella sang at the top of her lungs most of the time she was playing in the pool. I think it distracted her from the fact that the water was freezing!

Trying on a helmet was SO exciting for her! We mostly have tiaras around here.

So, she wants to be a football player and a cheerleader...sounds good to me!

Random Update and Pics

It's been a pretty good week so far and Ella has had her "terrible two" moments but she managed to get all of the kids on her schoolbus again! She got a Curious George stuffed animal and a Mickey Mouse puzzle for her "prize" and was very happy. She is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (the show and all the characters) right now. Her cutest current phrases are "are you happy?" (she asks all the time and then says "good! I'm happy too!") and "can I help you with anything?" which is a wonderful thing to hear. We're working on potty training again but in a laid back sort of way. We've been able to spend some time this week with old friends from Virignia Tech Navs and it's been awesome. We really miss being connected to the mission and vision and community of the Navigators in our daily lives. I really hope God leads us back to that in some fashion in some season of life. Now for some recent pics of the little one...


Cousins :-)

More cousins

Playing guitar with daddy

Playing "dentist" (she likes getting her teeth brushed if she gets a paper towel bib and to recline-it's hysterical)

I surprised Ella and crawled into her crib one morning, she wasn't as pleased as I'd hoped

She liked it once Daddy came in and "fweeked out" and wanted to take our picture

It's a little hard to tell but yes, somehow Ella and Hannah were inside this DOLL tent, yes, a tent for dolls, not children...

And finally...Marissa graduated! She now has a Masters in Community Arts...YAY Marissa!

Oooo-check it out

My friend Libby just posted about this website where you can get free blog templates...super cute. Check it out if you're looking for a new look :-)