Happy party to you

Ellis sang Clara happy birthday today. "Happy party to you, Happy party to you. Happy party dear Clara. Happy party to you!"

Clara wants to know why do butts have cheeks.

Clara's first crush - One of the mom's from preschool told me that her son has a crush on Clara. I think his name is James but I don't have all the boys names yet. Cute little kid, his Mom likes Ed Hardy. She told me that her son talks about the flowers that Clara wears in her hair all the time. The boys seem to like here. There was a six year old following Clara around all over the playground about a month ago. He just kept following her and asking her a ton of questions and Clara was sort of walking away and answering them quietly to her shirt. He kept her interest for QUITE a long time. It was actually kind of funny (and also a little creepy!).

Boog-boogs - I think Ellis is getting a cold. It was not too long ago we were getting over one so it seems early for another one but if he were to get one, the timing is not too bad. I don't want him to have a cold when we are in Disney so we have just enough time to get a cold and get over a cold! His nose has been running and it definitely has been bothering him. He has been grabbing his nose and holding it closed as tight as he can and saying "Boog Boogs". I guess I find it so funny because of his little voice when he says it and when he takes his hand off, his nose is BRIGHT RED.

On the first day of snow on Dec 1st - a conversation between Ellis and Mommy as we are looking at the snow blanketing our whole backyard:

Is it snowing outside?
No?
Do you see the snow?
No? Where?

Everything is a question

Ellis is a little parrot right now. He can he say pretty much everything and is not afraid to try! He even knows multiple words for one thing and speaks in pretty much complete sentences. My favorite thing that he does right now is when everything is a question. It is hard to capture without the audio but it is him basically repeating any statement he hears and asking it in a high pitched lilting question. Mac and cheese = Mach and chEESE? Cereal = ceREAL? It is too funny and cracks me up every single time.

Ellis is quite a pistol. And you basically know when he is going to go off. Like when it is time to eat. Or he has to be woken up from a nap. Or if a toy does not work. Or if you look at him funny. It is torture for all around. I really hope this phase stops soon because it is really annoying. He is lucky he is damn cute!

Clara has become such a sponge lately. Asking questions about everything and the Whys? never end. She is really into writing right now. She can write her own name, Ellis' name, Mommy, Daddy and Lola taught her how to write Lola and Lolo now. She is asking about so many things it is hard to keep up and sometimes I don't even know the answers. And she is not even FOUR yet! For her birthday, I am going to get her some chapter books so at least we will have something more interesting to read to her!

She is becoming more interested in what other people are doing. How they are different than her or why they do what they do. Her hair has become quite an issue. She wants to wear her hair down a lot now because she notices a lot of other girls do and she wants to do the same. But ever since she saw that one of the mermaids in Ariel's New Beginning has her hair up, I can all of a sudden put her hair up again! A side note on this movie. She loves it and tells EVERYONE that she has a new Ariel movie.

They are beginning to play more together which is so nice. And Clara is always willing to help him out if he needs it. Before school, their favorite thing to do is run in circles around the kitchen to foyer to librarium to dining room and over and over again. It gets their energy out and I can clean up lunch! So far no one has lost an eyeball to running into a piece of furniture.

I dressed myself

Clara really has an opinion now on what she wants to wear. It is just too darn funny but sometimes there is a battle to compromise. For the most part, I let her wear whatever she wants. This could include necklaces, a flower barrette, a headband, butterfly wings, a purse, a feather boa and sparkly shoes. All together. At once. There are certain places where she can't wear these things and thankfully she does not battle me on those. School and Gymnastics are two places where she sort of has to wear the bare minimum. But if we are heading out to the store or basically anywhere at all, she likes to choose her accessories. We get comments. Often. "My, aren't we sparkly today?" or "I see someone dressed themselves!". I love the people that glance and get a chuckle. It makes me happy that my silly daughter can make there day just a little bit brighter. I sort of like it. She is of this awesome age where she is not really that concerned about what is "normal" or what other people think of her outfits. I certainly marvel at the combinations that she comes up with! Maybe she will start a fashion trend :)

Sleep! Please!

Ellis has been learning to talk so fast and so incrementally, it seems like it is not changing when in fact it is changing so fast, I barely even noticed! He understands so much (but his willingness to listen is very fickle). He has a bit of a cold. I ended up taking him to the doctor today to remove that nagging, remember-when-he-had-pneumonia feeling and of course it is just a boring old cold. Not that I am complaining, but it would be nice to get that piece of mind without the 20 dollar co-pay! He did not sleep well at all last night. The poor dear was coughing most the night and the other half of the time he was awake, for some unknown reason, was laughing hysterically at the antics of his pillow and his ducky. And they were deep belly laughs too. It must have been quite a good time! Needless to say, after his his party in the crib, he was tired tonight. We got up into his room before bathtime and he basically was screaming as he was trying to get his trio out of his crib (why, I don't know) of his sleeping loves: Ducky, Bwanky and the newly added, Piwwow. Matt threw him in to see what he would do and he readily accepted the blanket over him and cuddled into his too large for him pillow. He stayed for a little while, moving around, trying to find just the right spot and throwing his blanket over himself, something that I did not know that he did! Every now and then, his little head would pop up and say "Mommy?" just to make sure that I was in my resting spot... his floor. We ended up taking him out and giving him and bath. As soon as we were in his room (and snot suckered the poor kid) he was screaming "SWEEP! PLEASE!". Followed by an even more serious, "CRWIB, PLEASE!". The kid was tired! Now he lays in his crib, not making a peep. And I hope it stays that way until morning. Mid-morning.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE ON!

Ellis is just really talking. A lot of things are clicking with him and are just flowing out of his mouth. It is funny how he is such a little parrot of Clara. One of his first complete sentences was "I don't like it" as he pushes food away. I know he has heard it from Clara and it is so funny to hear the sentence come out of his mouth. Whenever Clara says something, he often repeats it and says it more than once. Whenever you ask him if he wants to do something, he yells, "I DO!" and I know he got that from Clara.

I am fairly convinced he does not say anything once. Trains have become "Train train". He is good about being polite. He asks for "Help Please" though I am sure he is actually not being polite and he thinks the two words are actually one that gets him what he wants. My latest favorite is "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ONNNNNNNNNN!" which has to do with his absolute favorite character. He just loves Buzz Lightyear. His tagline is "To infinity and beyond!" and that is how Ellis says it. It is so stinking cute. I know I'll be sad when he starts saying it for real, like when Ducky went from DuDu to Ducky but it is a sign that he is growing older and learning more each day! My boy is almost 2!!!!!

Clancy and The Babysitter

Clara has always had a hard time naming things. She gets a little squirrel-y when you ask her and I am more convinced it is because she is embarrassed to say something rather than not having an idea of what to say. I often ask her when she has a doll, or more likely for her, some sort of stuffed animal what she would name him and often I end up helping. So her menagerie of cats have names like, Kitty (the obvious favorite), Snowball, Calico, and Whiskers. Often, she will have her own twist on the names I have given her cats so Snowball became Snowball Snowball and Calico became Calico Snowball. Recently, she did start assisting with the naming but it started simply. For example, we now have a Mommy Kitty, Daddy Kitty, Kitty (aka Clara :)) and a Baby Kitty.

Her current obsessions (besides the cat family) are mermaids. She is constantly talking about how she wishes she had a tail. She just loves Ariel more because of her swimming power rather than her princess power. Put a dress on her, OK, that is fine. Put a tail on her, and she will play with her for hours. When we were on vacation with Maddie, Clara discovered two rather colorful mermaids in their pool toy bucket. She was obsessed with them and, lucky for her, Maddie allowed Clara to clutch one in each hand as she swam. Of course, when I saw that at Target, I picked them up for her. So each pool trip that followed started with Clara clutching a purple haired and turquoise haired mermaid in each hand. She actually named one of them all on her own. Surprise, surprise... her name was Ariel! Tonight, I let her play with them because I bummed her out when I forgot them for our pool trip today. She was swimming them all around and I asked her what their names were. She quickly volunteered, "Clancy", as she quickly covered her head. I tried NOT to laugh out loud because I felt like that was part of the reason why she isn't always willing to volunteer information like this. I stifled it as best I could and asked again, just to be sure she said what I thought she did. She did not say anything and was squirming away from me but she eventually confirmed that the purple haired mermaid was named "Clancy" and she quickly labeled the other one, "The Babysitter". So, she named her first toys ALL on her own: Clancy and The Babysitter.

The Beast Stage

We have officially entered the beast stage with Ellis. That, or it is one heck of a toothache! He has this new scream. A sort of alien holler if you will. It reaches a decibel and frequency of nothing even close to human. We just got back from our, becoming annual, Owen Travel Experience of driving somewhere out east, stopping in a million places, exhausting each person in the family to their breaking point, breaking some along the way, promising that we will never do it again, and then always doing it again. The main thing I will remember from this trip is Ellis screaming. And how cute baby Tyler is!

Quote of VA Beach

Your face is burning. Not your body but your face. My face is not burning. You have to put suntine lotion on your face daddy. Clara to Daddy

An article; an an article

Ellis has graduated to saying mostly full words now instead of just the beginning of them (Do* is now Down). He also started this funny thing where he uses articles on EVERYTHING. For example, we got him a water shirt that has Buzz on it and when he saw it, he grabbed it and jabbed poor Buzz over and over again saying, "A Buzz, A, A, A Buzz". It is sort of like a one year old rapping!

He is completely ridiculously into his shoes right now. He wears shoes all the time even if we are not going outside. I had to get him another pair of crocs because he outgrew the 4,5. I wanted to get him another type of shoe but he screamed at the store unless it was a croc. Really? Oh and he says crocs too. "A shoe, A, A, A Shoe."

Ellis' First Sentence!

Ellis has been talking NONE STOP! And more and more of it has become words. And not even just words here or there, but two or more strung together! The funniest thing is that everything has an article. Mater went from Mamee to A Mamee and Duck went from Duck Duck to A Duck Duck. It really cracks me up.

And tonight he said his first sentence! Matt and Clara were in the garage sneaking freeze pops but I think he heard them talking about it. He runs to the garage door yelling DOOR DOOR DOOR and when he gets there he stopped, pointed at it and declared, "Go to this door!". It was clear as day!

Bye Bye Be Bo

Ellis got some new jammies and they are a bit big on him. He really has been wearing an undershirt to bed every night until we got these new jammies even if he was just wearing a onesie and that is it. Last night, he was playing up in his bed before he fell asleep and he talked about his be bo for about ten minutes. Be bo this and be bo that. Tonight, he said out of no where while he was trying to fall asleep in his crib, "All gone be bo!". I can just imagine him up there feeling around for it and not finding it and declaring it all gone!

Sitting inside growing eyebrows

I am one for saving a buck. As I have grown into an adult (and I almost laugh outloud calling myself that), I have learned that there are places where it makes sense to skimp and save and others where it just does not. For example, with coupons. A coupon only makes sense if it is on something you normally buy. You are not saving any money buying that new choco chum candy bar that you would have never eaten without that stinkin' coupon.

I get my eyebrows waxed every now and then. I should do it on a schedule so they are pretty much stabilized into the place that I want them to be, or not be. I got this brilliant idea to get my own waxing kit and just maintain the arch that the lady made for by myself. Well that was NOT the smartest thing that I did today. The left side came out fine. And I was excited to see the pieces of hair ripped out of my head and into the wax. I think I got a little overzealous with my wax and accidentally ripped of a major part of my right eyebrow. It looks weird. I am telling myself that it looks like a scar. You know, people do get scars on their eyebrows and do not grow hair there and it is a perfectly normal thing. I need to come up with a story like I got hit in the head with a machete while I was saving an elderly woman from being robbed. Too much? Maybe.

So now I am sitting inside sulking, growing eyebrows as fast as I can and wondering what I am going to tell my friends tomorrow.

Maybe the lesson is simple: Don't wax your own eyebrows!

It's an L, It's a F, It's a T

One unknown advantage of the location of our house is that we can spot all the airplanes going into O'hare. It is not annoying at all because they are still pretty high. It has entertained a number of small children and men (what's the difference REALLY?) as they play or sit with a beer in our backyard. One friend even contemplated once that I could probably tell time to the planes coming in if I got to know their flight schedules.

Anyway, Ellis just started noticing these planes and gets very excited when one flies overhead. He points and ohs and ahs at them as they fly past from West to East. Tonight at dinner, Clara was sitting at the table with Matt and Ellis and she was staring at a plane and noted that there was an L, an F, and a T on it. Now sometimes I can tell what kind of plane it is. An American or United plane is not a hard thing to spot. But for her to see and be able to read those three specific letters on a plane all the way in the sky: impressive. I have learned over the years to actually believe her when she says something is true (unless it is something like her Kitty stuffed animal barfing in her bedroom, something which happens more than I would like to admit). So L, F, T to me means Lufthansa. I looked at their flight schedule because Matt noted the time and sure enough, there was a flight coming in from Orlando and it landed at 5:49. Within 10 minutes of Clara seeing the plane. It is flight LH 9417 if you care. Do I actually believe that she read those letters, sure! Why not? It is more likely than Kitty barfing in her bedroom!

Sorry Verizon Lady

Somedays can literally chew you up and spit itself ALL OVER YOU. Today was one of those days. I watched Anthony this morning, a favor LONG overdue since Julie has kindly watched Ellis a number of times when I needed to do preschool stuff with Clara. I knew that he would either be really easy or a handful so in preparation for his arrival, I put Ellis down for a morning nap, something he often needs but never really gets. I mostly don't put him down for a morning nap because then there is an even less of a chance that Clara and Ellis will go down together and I will get a break that I usually need badly by 2 or 3 o'clock.

Of course I could have made the day simple and do only one thing, but today was the first day I could upgrade my phone (some silly thing to do with Verizon's billing cycle) and since I am NOT good at waiting, I ran over there with the kids right after Julie and Brandee left.

I take my kids with me everywhere. And when I mean everywhere, I mean everywhere. I am rarely anywhere without a child asking me for a snack or a skinny boy on my hip. And there are times when I know it is inconvenient but that is what kids are sometimes. I have no family out here and I don't like to ask favors of friends unless it is 100% necessary. And I get that my kids are not always as desirable to other people than me. And of course today was one of those days. Ellis threw up TWICE while we are Verizon. It is gross for me to deal so I could only imagine what the twenty-somethings that were waiting on me were thinking.

It was so gross, the whole thing. And there I am, standing in the store, hugging my crying, stinking, phlegmy baby, while the woman handing me my sparkly, pink and professional new phone, is doing her best to not throw up on me because of what she saw, trying to keep it together myself because I am tired, headachy and honestly a bit hungover from my rare night out last night, all with a smile of apology on my face. So sorry pretty and dressed up Verizon lady, I hope you have a good story to tell your co-workers later. Sorry I made you let me into the back section where customers normally aren't allowed because my hands were full of half digested salami. Sorry that I threw away that grossness in your garbage because you took me to the break room sink instead of the bathroom sink like I asked. I hope that does not smell later for you. And please don't lock the door when you see me walking up the store next time because I promise he won't barf again! (fingers crossed)

To our Nut Nut

We had to say goodbye to our beloved striped orange kitty today. Smithers, or Nut Nut, was a great cat. He was a loud, little and sweet thing. He always sat with his tail curled around his body. He liked to pee and barf in inappropriate places but you could just look in his eyes and see what a gentle heart he had. We had to let him go today because his kidney's had failed and we did our best not to fail him in his last hours. We brought the kids to say goodbye and Ellis saw him and said, Nu Nu Hu (which is Nut Nut Hug) and leaned his head in to rest on his small body. He looked much better with the IV fluids and the care he had received at the hospital so it was nice for the kids' last view of him to be "normal". But unfortunately that was not enough and we kissed him goodbye.

The best we can do is remember all the wonderful things about him, the every day stuff that is so easily forgotten. His favorite places to be were under the dining room table on one of the chairs, curled up on the third step down from the middle section of the stairs, or curled up in the bean bag or chair in the living room with Monty. Smithers liked to roam the hallways in the middle of the night with his little BIG meow. If you went in to pet his head, he would make a little whirring noise. If people were around, Smithers would be no where to be seen but on the off chance someone pet him, he would be their best friend forever. He loved to be scratched HARD and let the kids poke and prod him and he LOVED it. His favorite game was the laser pointer and would look for it for a long time when it was gone. He LOVED turkey and any cold cut that crossed his path. He knew when it was cheese time or if sushi was at the table. He let Monty eat all the food and never complained once. He was the first pet for all of us to lose. It was a lesson of life to have to say goodbye to him today. All in all, he was a good cat and a cat that will always be missed. RIP Nut Nut, we loved you. Waylan Smithers "Nut Nut" Owen - Feb 20, 2000 - May 14, 2008.

My Nut Nut

So Nut Nut is sick. We noticed over the last few days that he seemed to have lost weight but he was acting pretty normal. He was still eating and doing normal Nut Nut stuff. He did not look so great today so Matt took him to the vet. It is not looking good. According to the vet, he is really sick, really dehydrated and really small. He has lost a lot of fat and muscle and is just skin and bones. His temperature was down and they were able to bring that up and maintain that through a warming cage. He is on an IV and they are doing tests to see what is wrong. Basically we are preparing for the worst. We talked to Clara about it and she tried to wrap her three year old head around it. She asked if Smithers barfed (because apparently the stomach flu has left quite an impression on her). She wanted to know if Daddy could get in his car and go bring Nut Nut home tomorrow. She then said, I don't feel like barfing today but I might barf tomorrow. Anyway, back to Nut Nut. I hope things turn out well but it does not sound promising. I just want to scratch his tennis ball head one more time!

With these things right here

Every day Clara gives me fodder that I will be able to use for years to come to make fun of her.

I was putting Clara down to bed the other night and I kindly reminded her that her light stays off when I leave instead of staying on for hours upon hours reading books to herself. She said to me, "I am going to cover my eyes when you leave." I asked her what she was planning on covering her eyes with and she said, "These things, these things right here" as she points to her eyelids.

Today we dropped Grandpa off at the train station so he could meet Matt downtown to go to a White Sox/Yankees game. She was SO sad that she could not go to the game with her Daddy and Grandpa, her absolute two favorite people. She asked if she could go to a game tomorrow and if she could wear her special shirt like Grandpa (who donned his usual jersey to attend the game). I actually broke my heart how sad she was that she could not go! Matt said that we need to take her to a Schaumburg Flyers game. She would love that!

What a conversation!

Clara really can engage you in a full conversation now and can describe all the interesting things that go through her three year old head. She is really into imagining things which for some reason surprised me at how early that starts. She is a champ at laying on the grass and telling me about all the fun things she sees in the clouds. That game I must say is one of my favorites. She likes to make you "meals" out of mulch and often it is waffles or ice cream. She even has Ellis fake eating her "meals"! Today she was outside picking the weeds to "make them grow". She kept calling them plantains even though I told over and over again that a plantain is like a banana. She has even had them before and insisted the plants were plantains and that I had to be quiet so they could grow. Not a very helpful thing to have to do when I am on the phone!

The kids are absolutely loving it in the backyard this year. Ellis spends most of his time in dirt, moving dirt, hiding dirt, and/or throwing dirt. That last one is his particular favorite. And seeing as my oldest is a sweet little girl that never threw ANYTHING, this whole throwing dirt and sand thing is giving me mild heart palpitations. I know I need to let it go but jeez, you throw it once, you see the allure, isn't it over already?

It will be SO nice when the guys go back there and do the work we have planned for this year. Nothing as crazy as last year: a couple new beds, mulching the whole thing, removing the plants on the side of the house that we hate so we can start over and general clean up. It already looks good before that work is getting done so it will be just awesome once it is all said and done. The mound of goodness that we have collected in front of the shed will soon be a grassy knoll and I cannot WAIT for that. All but maybe 3/4 plants from last year are coming back. Not a bad return considering how much work we did last year. I am flower crazy!

COOKIE!

Ellis just turned 18 months and he has changed so much in these last few weeks. His vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger but he really is not :) I took him for his check up and he is only 19 lbs and 4 ounces but he is in the 45% for height. Still not on the charts for weight though! Someday right? I did get "permission" to turn him around even though we did that a few weeks ago.

You never know what words are simmering under the surface. I was grabbing a cookie for Clara and Ellis heard the crinkling in the pantry. He came running over screaming COOKIE! with his hands in the air. He was practically breaking down the pantry door to get one!

He has been learning words at lightening speed. Chin, Cheeks, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Teeth, Ears are ones on my face he LOVES to label. He is more than willing to try out new sounds and is such a word sponge. I just love teaching babies how to speak.

Ellis' ability to sing Twinkle Twinkle is changing everyday. His favorite time to sing it is in his chair after eating. He will sing it over and over again and he is learning more words of the song. He can say twinkle, little, star, up above (his all time favorite). Most of the time he just babbles to the tune. It is really quite funny and ALWAYS in tune.

Ellis has rediscovered cars. We "found" the figure eight track and the Cars container in his room. He plays with them non stop. And he is always so serious and quiet about it when he plays with them. He can play by himself (if he is not hungry or tired) very well. He likes to line them up, knows most of them by name (as in, which one is Luigi but he does call Mater, Mamee), and can play with them forever.

Ellis has his molars coming in right now. His top two are about half way broken through and his bottom ones just broke through in the last couple of days. He has been really crabby over the whole thing. I tried these teething tablets but not have had much luck with them. I must say that he is eating MUCH better than he has in the past. The kids actually eats MEAT! He started with roast beef, moved on to salami and even housed chicken the other day. It is amazing. He actually sits down to lunch and dinner. It is like a whole new world of pleasantry. Though he is currently boycotting breakfast and I need to find a fix for that. My current fix is a fruit bar but I don't like giving them to him. I miss the days when he would eat a whole banana at breakfast.

Clara has been a crabby toddler the last couple of days but I think we are past that. She was a little off her potty schedule which makes a crabby constipated girl. She has been really into making faces on paper and handing them out to people. She is more than willing to create art for ANYONE. Today she gave one to Dr. Sam and the cleaning lady and any one else she sees have been spammed with her art. I bought her a egg notepad (after Easter clearance) and she likes to rip of a page, draw a face on it and line them up. I asked her the other day what it was and she said it was a customer. Where did she even learn that word!?!?! She is too funny.

Clara is obsessed with wings right now. She even sleeps with them when she can get away with it. She wants to wear them all day long and wants to fly away. She got a fun new pair from H&M this weekend and she was outside with them declaring how the wind was going to take her away and she was going to fly. If only that were true! She would love that.

Every night before Clara goes to bed, she insists on drawing whales. This all started when she discovered Matt's wipe off board in his office. She stands on a stool and draws and draws and erases and erases. She mowed through two dry erase markers already! She likes to bang them and make polka dots so she completely ruined the tips. She just loves it. Her drawing repertoire is expanding but whales are still her favorite. Basically it is a circle, with eyes, and a mouth and a LONG tail. She makes them in all shapes and sizes and sometimes they turn into other animals by accident. Camels and birds have been surprise creations. And every now and then she will write a letter by accident and gets excited about it. She really seems to be showing an interest in reading. I don't want to push it on her or anything but she will point to a word and ask what it says. I did a "test" to see how many lower case numbers she knew and she did know most of them. So Heather suggested that as I read a book, I tap on the word as I go to show her the flow of everything. She is very sure that you read EVERY word in each book. Her obsession with book is ... well an OBSESSION! She loves the Berenstain Bears, Harold, Angelina and Dr. Seuss books right now.

Up above...

Ellis is beginning to talk a little bit more these days. He says Duck Duck (speaking about his true love), No (he says that VERY well), Night Night, Daddy Car, Fishies, Ucky (Yucky), Nose, Eyes, and Choo Choo. I am sure there are a few others that I am forgetting right now. He does sign a lot which is nice. He signs water, more, eat, night night, all done etc. He does sing now too! The other day we were hanging out in our bedroom and Ellis was repeating something over and over again that I could not make out. I asked Matt what he thought Ellis was saying and Matt said it sounded like he was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! And sure enough, he was! He was specifically signing the Up above the world so high part. I wish I could type what it sounded like but it was sort of like Uh eh uh and completely in tune! I started singing the song and he tuned in at the right part with his version of it. Too cute!

Clara-isms

These things just make my day:

"I am very tired from all of that hard work." - Clara, after being picked up from preschool one day

"I was throwing up all the way downstairs last night." - referring to when she had the stomach flu in December

"I want a two difficult books" - asking Daddy to read her some LONG involved book to make bedtime as far away as possible

"I can't, I'm too little" - a comment often heard when she is asked to do something she just does not want to do herself (like get a tissue for herself)

I WON! I WON! I WON!

I am so amazed :) I entered this contest on Celebrity Baby Blog. It was a digital scrapbooking contest run by HowFastTheyGrow.com where you submit a page and they pick the top ten up for voting. I made into the top ten (and I did not know! Heather called me as soon as she found out). I immediately sent out an email when I got home and people really rallied for me. I know a lot of people went out of their way to send it onto to their friends and had votes casted from as many computers as they could get their hands on. Kelly's dad completely went out of his way and had his people on his heating forum vote away! It was so much fun and I am so amazed at how people rallied for me. Thanks so much to everyone! I won a free scrapbooking album and 300 dollars worth of pages (or books I guess!) from How Fast they grow!

Books

Clara follows ALL day long hounding us to read her a book. She always has current favorites, books she will carry around with her basically anywhere she goes and she just turns the pages until she has every picture memorized. Just imagine what she will be like with books when she learns how to READ! I was just like that actually, I LOVED books when I was a kid. I was always getting in trouble for reading with a flashlight at night. Right at this moment, her favorites are a please and thank you book (a Richard Scarry one), a Thomas the Train one - The Big Big Bridge and (of course) the Beranstain Bears Junk Food book. She LOVES that Junk Food book. I was cracking myself up this morning because I was telling her in detail about the different systems of the body because in that book their are pictures of what the bears insides look like. For example, there in the nervous system and the digestive system. She was just STARING at the digestive system because I was telling her the connection with eating and poop, going from the mouth through the stomach etcetera. She was asking so many questions about it. It was so funny to hear her repeat words like digestive system back to me.

The other night she specifically asked Matt to read her two difficult books. No Jamberry or Pajama Dance for Clara. She wants a DIFFICULT book!

Looks whos walking now!

About a week ago, Ellis took his first teeny tiny fall steps and about two days ago was when I saw him try it again. It was not until yesterday where I saw him talk his first intentional steps. They are so cute. It is pretty much like a teeny tiny shuffle. He barely picks his feet up off the ground and just does this silly giggle as he shuffles along. He was really practicing it tonight and I got one of his first "long" walk attempts on camera! He will be running before not too long! My baby is walking!

Enough!

I could really do without sick babies. Enough already! This season has been pretty brutal for our family. The stomach flu, colds and now RSV! Clara and Ellis have had something or another in the last month. Clara got pretty sick around three days ago and I took her to the doctor after she threw up a couple of times. (There has been so much barf in my house lately). Anyway, Ellis is the one that ended up getting the diagnosis of RSV (since it was easier to do the test on him). Today he has a fever (did my first butt thermometer test) and he is taking a serious nap. I hope he wakes up better. My poor kids...

January

Now that the holidays are over (which is a good and bad thing), we can focus on this "new" life. No work, more play and please, please, please - less stress! Things so far are looking good. We have a little "vaca" planned at the end of the month and both kids are getting older (which is a good and bad thing) and we have no major milestones or things-to-be-waiting-for so it is nice just to LIVE!

Clara started preschool yesterday. Things went well. I was in the classroom with her for a little bit at the beginning. It was a bit chaotic because we were a little late (surprise!). Clara was excited though, we had been prepping her for a while. I stayed in the classroom for about half an hour and then I waited for her with other parents in the hallway while it was in session. Ellis stayed at Julie's house and played with Anthony so I could focus on Clara. He did fine there! I am glad because I was sure he was either going to be fine, or a total wreck :).

Clara did well, no crying and went with the flow for the most part. There were a few moms that I recognized from various other things we had done around town and I chit chatted with some of them. That was nice! At the end, Clara said she was just a little bit sad from preschool and from Mommy. I am assuming that means when I left the room because we ended up leaving pretty abruptly. Matt showed up for a few minutes which was nice! She was happy to see him.

Ellis stood by himself for the first time yesterday. He has been able to stand for a while but it was the first time he did it on his own accord and did it over and over again. It usually ended in a fit of laughter.. because you know, standing is SO funny. I do love that laugh though, that high pitched bit that he does. He is still such a squeaky little baby.

Ellis said dinosaur perfectly the other day. And he is signing a ton. Today right before his nap, I was showing him Night Night, and he was doing it with one hand, sticking his fist under his chin and making himself a double chin (which is hard to do when you are that darn skinny). It was adorable. And he learned it so fast. He is all of a sudden into books. He loves those priddy books - the ones with pictures of kids and animals and every day objects. He is learning signs of a few things in those books like flower. He likes the kids and of course the cars and trucks. He said tractor. He is the KING of saying a word perfectly once and never saying it again!