Playing with Grandma

After bowling we went grocery shopping to WinCo (BEST store EVER!) and stopped by to visit Grandma Diane. She and Elle sat at the piano together. Grandma played and Elle sang. Grandma complimented Elle on her good singing and Elle said, "I know." Well, at least she doesn't have self esteem issues. LOL!

Back in the groove

Open house for Tiny Tots. With more space I'd like to make a nice little play kitchen for Elle. She's so careful about everything...at Tiny Tots. At home her play food turn into missiles and end up all over the world.

Antics

Hunter's highrise building and three car garage (done with building code restrictions that the height not exceed the pew). Medium of choice: hymnbooks.

Shopping trip to Winco from last night. Elle is modeling the latest fashion: Caution signage. Note the latest trend of wearing shoes on the wrong feet.

Elle in curls

Even though Elle has a head full of curls already we put her hair in rollers for a looser curl. She didn't have the patience to let them dry...so the world may never know.

Tiny Tots Graduation

Elle had her first Graduation Ceremony today. She was not among the graduates, but every child was featured as part of the ceremony. Everyone was wearing a blue hat. The children who were returning wore crowns. The ones moving on to kindergarten wore caps. This was Elle's highlight:



Afterward the ceremony everyone moves out to the back for refreshments and entertainment in the form of Kelly the Clown. As a side note to this we were supposed to drop off the children and then come back in a half hour for the ceremony. I parked in front and rather than loose my primo spot I walked with the boys up to the library during the half hour. I checked out a book that I wanted to put in the car before going in to the Tiny Tots party. Much to my dismay I couldn't find my keys. What!?!? I asked Elle's teachers if I had left them on the table before I left. I called up to the library who looked and couldn't find them. The only other place would have to be in the car itself. I was wearing Garrett in the front pack for the first time in a while, so it's very likely that since my routine was off I would have left them under his seat.

While the children were enjoying Kelly the Clown I called AAA and waited for them out front. Ann and Mindi from church looked after the children all of whom had no idea that anything was wrong. The guy tried using a slim jim, but the Cruiser is so old that it wouldn't go down. Fortunately Elle left her window cracked so he was able to get in a tool and roll it down enough to grab a hold of the lock. Sure enough! My keys were under Garrett's seat. Thank goodness for insurance!

Spoiled Rotten

So Uncle Paul out in Colorado sent Elle this little Juicy Couture outfit. I about had a fit when I saw the price tag! OMG!!! SERIOUSLY!?!? He bought it on sale, but the original price...YIKES! So here are some pictures of her cuteness. I love the one on the bottom (no pun intended...well, OK maybe it was!) Just you wait Uncle Paul. You'll have a little miss before you know it!

Elle gives herself a haircut

Elle had a turn to bring Clifford home from Tiny Tots over the weekend. She was supposed to take him to do fun things and write about her experience. As it was this is the last picture I have of her with that adorable lock of hair in front. She got a hold of a pair of scissors and cut it off... extremely short. When asked why she did it she said it was bothering her. AUGH!!! Clips! We could have used CLIPS!

Here's a pic of the new do. Fortunately you can't really tell since her hair is so curly. But I really miss that front lock.

Exercise in Cuteness

This teeter toter was bought 30 some odd years ago in Hersey Park. It was in a window display and not even for sale. My mother (and you really have to know Claudia to appreciate this one) marched in the store and told them she wanted to buy it.
"It's not for sale"
"Everything's for sale. How much?"

From the picture you know how that story played out. I believe it was on that same trip that I went on my first loop-de-loop roller coaster after my father promised to buy me anything I wanted. I went home with a stuffed bear bigger than I was. I'm suprised my parents haven't referred to that time as, "The Year of a Million Indulgences". It's funny how time changes your perspective.

Well, now that I have gotten completely off topic...isn't this a cute picture?

I seem to be on a roll so just as a another completely random side note I cannot for the life of me correctly spell exercise. It's always excersize which the spell checker can't do anything with. Whatever. Rant off.

No, You're in Trouble

Wanting to do things like Mommy is normal for a little girl, right? Emulation of mother is probably very important for a little girl's development, self esteem and identity.

Sigh

I came into the bathroom and Elle had gotten into my mouse. I took a look around at the mouse spread all over her, the cabinets the toilet and without saying anything went to get my camera. When I came back she looked at me...BEAMING! She was going to get pictures taken of her cuteness!!! I looked at back at her and said, "No, you're in trouble little Miss." This is the face she made.
At this point she forgot she was in trouble and wanted to show me more of where my mouse ended up. I just know this is my mother's revenge for something of hers that I got into as a child. Although nowadays, I can't exactly remember what it was...

Elle's Birthday Party

The theme for Elle's party was "Little Mother". Her friends were invited to bring their baby doll. The first thing we did was go shopping. The boys lined up the different play food on the couch as the store. I made little stickers of each food item. The girls were given a paper and a set of stickers to make their shopping list. It didn't quite work out like I expected. They put whatever in their basket and then got confused when I asked them if they were getting things on their shopping list. After that we sorted the food into fruits, vegetables, bread and protein. It was on this point they lost interest and left the structured activity. I laid the food out and all the dishes and just let them play house for a little while, which was better received.

While they were playing house I set up the kitchen so they could do some real cooking. I got a angel food cake mix where all you have to do is add water and bake. I measured the mix and split it four ways. For authenticity's sake I let them spoon it into a bowl with measuring spoons. I put a drop of food coloring in the baking dish after they mixed in the water so everybody got a different color cake.


After they were done I let them clean up their workspace with the kitchen wipes. After they were done they read stories to one another and their babies. Garrett needed a diaper change so I passed out his unused newborn diapers to everybody and we all gave our babies a diaper change. Then I gave them each a sheet of stickers I had made of baby things to put into their books. They drew pictures of themselves with their babies. By then the cakes were done baking, but they needed time to cool so we opened presents. Elle got a stuffed doggy, two new baby dolls, a Barbie doll, a bubble blower, and a ballet princess dress. I served up the cake. It was supposed to serve 12 so I figured the girls would want to share since each of their individual cakes would serve 3 people each. When I invited the boys to come have some cake too, one of the girls started crying because she didn't somebody else to eat her cake. Actually she started crying when Michael walked in. I couldn't help but laugh. I imagine to a three year old the prospect that Elle's BIG daddy is going to "share" translates into he's going to eat it ALL. The boys dejectedly went back upstairs and so I cut each girl's cake into four parts and gave each girl a different slice of each color. They didn't finish it all, but they did at least take a bite of each color. Figures. This is the picture that I put on the back of their "Little Mother" booklet. All in all I think the party went well, except at the end when one girl fell off the living room swing and two others were fighting over the teeter toter and one got hit in the face with the seat of the teeter totter and bit her tongue pretty good. Literally it was 2 minutes before her mom showed up. Crying and bleeding. Perfect.

Little mother

We had Elle's family birthday party today at Grandma's house. Grandma Diane gave her a pretty new dress. Uncle Mikey and Uncle Daniel gave her some new food for her kitchen and Grandma Claudia gave her a new baby doll with accessories. She is VERY excited to have another baby!

Competing for Time and Fingers

OK, I know I've got a lot of catching up to do. Birthdays, Thanksgiving, etc etc. Would you believe that facebook has sucked up my usual blogging time? AUGH! It's fantastic and devious all at the same time. So, if you haven't already looked me up and made a friend request please do. You can look me up either under my married or maiden name. I've moved all of my profile information there which is only accessible to people I know.

I have several posts in the works that I am going to backdate once I have them done so please stay tuned! In the meantime let share a quip about Elle.

I had worn my wedding ring to church. It really shouldn't be something mentionable and that's got a story too. First the background. A couple weeks after Ethan was born we were going to take family pictures. I wanted to wear my wedding ring for the picture and against my better judgment and swollen fingers I forced it on over the knuckle.

No sooner than it was on did I realize my mistake. The nature of arteries and veins is such that blood will flow into, but not out of a digit that has compression around it. My finger began to swell. I tried soap, butter, oil but soon I realized that as my finger was swelling that if the ring was forced off the same way, much of my skin would come with it. I wanted to call the fire department. Michael thought he could handle it himself and got his dremel out. The dremel didn't cut but rather heated up the metal. So I sat with a glass of ice water and when I couldn't take the searing heat from the dremel to gold friction I doused my finger in the water. The ring was not cutting and my finger was starting to turn purple.

Michael finally relented and let me call 911. Two firefighters showed up in their little paddy-wagon with a tool specifically designed for cutting off rings. It looked very similar to a can opener. The firefighters got my ring off, but I still have a scar from Michael's failed attempt with the dremel.

So back to the story about Elle. She noticed my ring and was fascinated by it. I also showed her where my scar tissue was all red and irritated from wearing it. The next morning she came into the bathroom while I was in various stages of getting ready for the day, crying and panicked. She put a washer onto her finger like a ring and it was starting to swell. She had slipped it on and could not get it off. I had flashes back to my own ring being cut off. Only this washer ring was 1/2 inch from her finger to the outside edge and about a 1/16 inch thick.

Michael ran to the garage and got a pair of snipers and tried to cut through this metal washer. The first time he placed the snipers over it he got part of her skin caught in. AUGH, NOOOOO!!! He hadn't put his contacts in yet. I helped him place the snipers over the washer and avoid her skin. He pushed the handles together with all of his might. Michael is a very VERY strong man. I imagine this strength is heightened under duress. Though he heaved against the metal it would not cut.

Rather than waste precious time with possible injury in a do-it-yourself gone wrong I ran to get the phone and call the fire department and save my daughter both her finger and any scars. Michael tried the washer again and it slipped off her finger. Strange. It didn't look like the snipers budged it at all. Coming off an adrenaline rush ...not my favorite way to start the morning. Thankfully, though, it was with happy fingers.

For Time and All Eternity

My friend Lucie got married in the Oakland Temple today. I felt very honored to be one of the only non-family invited to the sealing.

Lucie and I grew up together riding bikes, pretending we were mermaids and playing together in my doll house. Even as we got older and outgrew so many happy childhood pastimes we still spent time together. She and our friend Megan came with my family on vacation to places like the R-Ranch and Clearlake. We cheered for the loosing car at the races, shouting "GO 71!" each time the car would lap. Megan moved away to Texas, so Lucie and I flew out one summer to visit her for two or three weeks. Little did I know that that would be the start of Lucie's world travels. I couldn't even begin to name all the places that she's been, but I know for sure she lived in Alaska canning fish and went to an Eastern country as a teacher. Japan or Taiwan. I'm not sure.

After I got married I tried to interest her in Michael's best friend growing up. Seeing her now with her husband Daniel, I'm so glad she waited for the RIGHT one. They are so perfect together. Cut from the same cloth, if you will. He's been all over the world, too. I'm sure that their world travels will continue, only together now. While I know that's not the only thing that makes them perfect for one another, I still don't know Daniel that well yet. Despite not knowing the specifics, I can still see and feel the wonderful balance they are together. I feel so much joy for my dear friend, seeing them flow so effortlessly together. Looking so beautiful on her wedding day, she reminds me of Anne of Green Gables; pretty on any other day, but today outshining all the rest with grace and elegance.

I had to take Garrett with me since he is still nursing. My mother was going to watch him for me in the lobby while I went to the sealing ceremony. Since I already had a babysitter I decided to take Elle with me so that she could see a REAL princess. Every girl is a princess, being a spirit daughter of Heavenly Father, the King. Unfortunately not every princess knows she is one. For those who do recognize and honor their royal lineage I want to give them special attention in the eyes of my daughter. To be in the house of the King dressed as a princess on your wedding day...well, that comes after years of behaving like one.

Girls rite of passage

Aunt Kristi and Uncle James came to Grandma's house for Sunday dinner. Aunt Kristi had done her nails and wanted to have a manicure session with Elle. I'm not really that girlie. I've had my nails done once in my life. Right before our wedding. It's not that I wouldn't like to be more girlie. I think it would be awesome to have my hair done nicely all the time, or wear stylish clothes. I don't know if it's because I grew up with a bunch of boys or because my engineering nature is just all about practicality. In any case, I have a VERY girlie girl who insists on wearing pretty dresses and doing her hair just so. I'm glad Kristi was so willing to spend so much time with her doing the things that make her feel pretty and special.

At first Elle wasn't too sure about the nail polish. Just like with the tiger make-up I did it first to show her it didn't hurt. Kristi brought three kinds of polish. Pink, sparkly purple and dark red. I figured Elle would pick the purple one since it was sparkly AND her favorite color. I had my nails done in the purple. Elle surprised me and wanted the dark red like Aunt Kristi was wearing. I showed her how to let her hands dry on the table and hold very still while Aunt Kristi was painting.

It's been just a few days. Mine has already come off. My nails are very thin and don't take paint well because they just flex with my fingers and the paint pops right off. Elle has been taking care of her fingers. She calls them her princess nails. I'm so glad Kristi was excited to do such a fun girls rite of passage!

Barbie Movies and crack

Barbie movies are like crack for 3 year old little girls. SERIOUSLY! We have pizza and a movie night on Fridays. Since Michael went to the temple after work and wasn't home yet I had the kids watch Fairytopia. I knew Michael wouldn't tolerate sitting through a Barbie movie. He barely made it through The Last Unicorn a few weeks ago. The other option was Nancy Drew. We'll probably save that for next week. Elle couldn't even eat her pizza she was so mesmerized by the screen. Half way through the movie I noticed she still hadn't touched her pizza. I had to remind her to eat.

Michael called when he got out of the temple to tell me he was on his way home. Elle realized it was him on the phone and excitedly said, "DAD! You're missing it!"

Her whole world is princesses, friends, clothes, doing it herself, helping mom, loving babies and of course...her hair. She gets complimented on it daily now. I combed her hair in the bath tonight and after I got all the tangles out she walked around gently stroking her hair saying, "So pretty". She insited that nobody mess up her hair.

The thing about fat

I refuse to wear maternity clothes anymore! I've bagged them all up and sending the last of them to DI (Deseret Industries). Rather than run around with my skinny jeans awkwardly around my knees (because they simply won't go up any farther) I went to the second hand store and bought some temporary fat clothes until I can shed my baby weight. I just don't see any point in spending money on clothes that I'm going to slim out of. If I did spend anything substantial I would inevitably feel obligated to just stay fat to use the clothes....and that doesn't make any sense at all!

As it was, I got three very nice pairs of pants and two shirts (one of which was an Ann Taylor) for a grand total of $14.94. Then I took Elle shopping at the Mall and just one of her outfits, on sale at 60% off, was was more than that. I think I would like clothes shopping if it wasn't so time consuming and expensive. But then again, everything is relative...right? Maybe I don't like shopping after all. But I do like having new clothes! (I don't like labor, but I do like the new baby).

I am really just a slender person trapped in a fat person's body. Most all of the clothes that I picked out at the value center that I estimated to be an easy fit turned out to be TOO TIGHT! Happily I did discover that most of the clothes that I liked best in texture, style, and design were from the Ann Taylor line. I've got good taste, or just expensive taste?...a matter of opinion. I didn't realize Ann Taylor fit my tastes so perfectly until I inadvertently kept picking up this brand over and over out of a random selection.

I had an epiphany on the nature of clothes. Back before clothes were made in mass production, women had only a few dresses that they would wear. They didn't have fat dresses and skinny dresses. As a woman got large with child and was subsequently overweight after the birth, she could still fit into her dresses thanks to the forgiving skirt. Upon realizing this I started gathering skirts to try on, which led to the second half of my epiphany when none of them actually fit me around the waist. Dresses were adjustable in the back via the lace up. How clever is that!?!? And here we think that our modern ways are superior! HA!

If I had the time ...and talent, I think a new line of clothes taking advantage of both the tried and true and modern conveniences would be quite the hot commodity.

Princess Party!

Filling Momma's shoes

Elle has found my only pair of heels in the closet and decided to claim them as her own. She loves wearing them all over the house and even wanted to wear them when we went out today.

A little princess walking around in her momma's heels is so classic!

Elle has also found my bag of material scraps which she loves to get into. She'll take out some piece of material and have me tie it around her wrist or drape it over her head, all the while saying, "So pretty. I'm a princess!"

Ethan on the other hand has used the same bag of material scraps to give Hunter a wildly nasty Indian burn on the back of his neck. Apparently that was the "fee" for use of the living room swing as dictated by Ethan. Hunter went along with it until he realized how much it hurt. As a punishment Ethan went on restriction from TV and has to make Hunter's bed for a week. He begged for a spank instead.

Night time antics

Michael gave Elle a bath in the downstairs shower. She was having a fit about it, so he decided to play with her hair a bit to get her OK with the deviation in the normal routine. With her hair soaped up he started molding it into a cupie doll look, followed by a troll hair-do...mow-hawk, spikes, etc. She is very much into hair (among all the other girlie things that is so stereotypical for her) and she loved all the different styles.

After we put the kids to bed I went to check on them before going to bed myself. They had all climbed into Elle's crib which was cute, but silly considering the HOT weather. I took this picutre before breaking up the nest.

Scary Fever

I'm not quite sure where they might have picked it up, but both Elle and Ethan started feeling sick on Saturday. Elle fell asleep on the couch and Michael took her in to our bedroom so she would be more comfortable. He checked on her a while later and was shocked to discover that she was burning up with a temperature of 104.7. I called the doctor who advised us to go to the Emergency Room right away. I asked if it would be OK to go into the minor injury clinic, because experience has proven that a trip to the ER is rarely ever treated like an emergency. You usually wind up sitting in the waiting room for several hours. They insisted that the ER was the place.

fine.

We had given Elle some Tylenol to bring her fever down. She was feeling much better by the time we got there, and I was prepared with plenty of snacks, books and other paraphernalia for a long haul in the waiting room.

Much to my surprise we hadn't been checked in for even five minutes before they called us back. They took her vitals and when they determined she was stable they sent us over to the pediatric department. Elle wasn't happy about the rectal thermometer, but that wasn't going to be the worst of it.

As we were sitting in the Pediatric waiting room Elle looked like there was positively nothing wrong with her. She was her enthusiastic, precocious little self. My mom and I were both concerned that the doctors would dismiss us as second party hypochondriacs.

The doctor suspected a urinary tract infection, so I took Elle to see if she would cooperate on the potty. Unfortunately she kept telling me that it hurt to pee and refused to do it, so the nurses took her into a procedure room and gave her a catheter. We waited outside because we knew she was going to be mad and we wanted her to have some uninvolved party who she would let comfort her after the fact.

Listening outside the door was torture. We stood there and wept as she cried out for Mommy and Gra-ma and told the nurses how much it hurt in her little baby way, crying "owie!" over and over.

What was worst of all was that the test came back negative. All for nothing, and we still don't know what's wrong. However, all the upset started her temperature up again. I could feel her getting hotter by the second as she laid on my chest. We asked the nurse to take her temperature again and it had spiked to 105.8. Well, at least they got in on record and know we're not over reacting.

The doctor came back in and ordered blood work. This time we had to hold her still, and she was mad at us. An hour later the doctor called and told us that everything looked normal, meaning her fever was caused by a virus. "You can't do anything but wait it out. There's a bad virus going around and the fever will probably last about five days, but come back if it goes longer than that."

Can't do anything? That's what you think. I'm not about to sit around and let my daughter get brain damage because her fever is too high and you can't fix it.

Her fever went up again before bed to 102.7, so I gave her some more Motrin and took her to my bed. After she was asleep, I used the F-scan to find and treat the virus, (background: this is the machine Grandma used) . The doctor suspected Ethan had the same virus since he had a fever too (not as high) and wasn't feeling well. The next day I used it on Ethan. That was the end of the fevers.