Sisters

It is so rare that I can catch both Elizabeth and Katherine in the same spot long enough to snap a picture. There's usually some debate of who's sitting on which bean bag or who's toy is who's. Then there are those moments when I just can't grab my camera quick enough. I'm glad to say that those are becoming more and more the norm. Moments when Elizabeth and Katherine playing and laughing hysterically. As soon as I grab the camera they both head for me or have moved off to do their own thing. This just happened to be one of those rare moments where they stayed put long enough for me to catch a great picture of two sisters having fun.

Elizabeth often times sits in the middle of her bean bag and calls it her boat. She pretends she sitting in it fishing or just hanging out. Sometimes she'll say, "Don't rock the boat!" or maybe sing, "Row, Row, Row your boat...." Katherine likes to climb in and sit with her. Normally she climbs right on her lap and Elizabeth can only handle that for about 10 seconds before she's either abandoned ship or pushed her sister overboard. Katherine giggles with delight either way.

I've been trying to come up with ideas to get them to stay put so I could take a few good pictures with both of them. I asked Elizabeth is her sister could join her and she agreed. The first picture I snapped was perfect! Those grins are priceless! Nothing like that to melt your heart!

Wild Bird in Our House

A week ago as Elizabeth and I were eating breakfast in the family room. I kept hearing this loud chirping. I thought it sounded awful loud. The sliding glass door was open (screen closed) so Bandit could go in and out. We still have that hole in the screen from the screen dog door that fell out a couple of years ago. What bird could possibly fly through that hole? That would be crazy. Sure enough when I went into the kitchen to make sure there wasn't a bird in the house, there was this little wild bird! It made two laps around the kitchen stopping only to re-examine it's options. Then it flew straight out the hole in the screen! WOW!!!! All I could think about was how in the world am I going to get this bird out of here. I was baffled by the whole thing.

Cute Katherinisms

Over the last couple of days, Katherine has been completely cracking me up.

Last night she brought Dennis the remotes specifically so he could turn on the TV to music for her to dance. As soon as she handed off the remotes she turned looked at the TV and started dancing and singing like a crazy woman! When we didn't turn on the TV she froze and threw herself to the floor. Two seconds later she was standing and dancing again. Crazy girl

This morning, I was helping Elizabeth with something and Katherine was clearly ready to eat her breakfast right then. I hear her saying, "Help me! Help me!" When I got up and headed to the kitchen she had pushed the kitchen table chair (they are on wheels) with her booster seat in it all the way to the desk between the nook and family room. I guess she was really hungry. During her breakfast she said, "Want milk!", "more banana!", "All done now!", and "Want down now!" After she finished eating, she was so excited to be out of her chair that she started dancing (given there was music playing in the kitchen and we normally dance and sing every morning). As Elizabeth and I watched her she told us, "I dancing. I singing. I turning. I clapping." Wow!

Where did all of those words come from?! She's been speaking and speaking pretty clearly for a while now, but there had only seemed to be a few complete sentences/phrases. She's turning into such a little girl so quickly and seems to be on the learning fast track. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be so grown up yet.

Funny Conversations

Conversations with an almost 4 year-old can be quite amusing. We've been going around and around with Elizabeth about her being a girl and not a boy. Yesterday, I spoke with one of the other Moms and she was telling me how her son talks about Elizabeth nonstop. Elizabeth on the other hand had not mentioned him, so today we were talking about who her friends are at school. It went something like this.

Me: "Are you friends with any of the boys in your class?"

E: "Yes, Lucy and Peyton!"

Me: "Lucy and Peyton are girls and Peyton moved away a while ago. What about boys?"

E: Big grin and said, "Yes.......Will and Mason."

Me: "Anyone else?"

E: "Taylor and Carson, too, but they're girls. They're not boys. You're not a boy. I'm not a boy. I'm a girl. You're a girl and Daddy's a boy."

Me: "That's right! Good job! Are they're any other boys in your class that you are friends with?"

E: "Jared. Jared is funny!" as she giggled away with her hand over her mouth. "Steven-Christian, too." Bashful grin.

I've learned that she typically gets that bashful grin when mentioning a boy that she "likes". She adores our little friend Matteo and gets all bashful if you mention him. She'll follow him everywhere whenever they are together. I'm thinking she might have a crush on Steven-Christian, too. What a silly girl! Isn't 3 a little young for the boy craziness to start?

The Girl's Garden

This year I thought that it would be fun to see if the girls would enjoy planting seeds and watching them grow. A few of our friends had done it in the past and the kids had really enjoyed it, but lost interest once the plant completely sprouted. I was able to find little individual starter cups that had seeds included for only 99 cents. You can't beat that for an inexpensive fun kids project. I picked out a gigantic sunflower one for Elizabeth and a dwarf sunflower one for Katherine.

About 2 weeks ago we soaked the little soil pellet and E poked the seeds into the soil. I put the little clear plastic top back on it and set them in the kitchen window. There is plenty of sun in that window! I knew that Katherine wasn't going to really care much about them, but Elizabeth diligently asked multiple times a day to see the seeds had sprouted. I was amazed to see that the seed had started to sprout in just 24 hours. In about 3 days we had little plants in both little cups. You'd think that Elizabeth would loose a little interest, but instead she was even more insistent about checking their progress and made sure that we watered them every day. At one point she even offered me the remaining dinner on her plate because the plants might be hungry instead of thirsty. Very cute! I assured her that they had everything they needed.

This weekend we transplanted them from the little cups to a planter in the back yard. We also added some other seeds in another planter. I am hoping that we'll see those spouting in the next week. Last night I forgot to water them until Dennis mentioned it and Elizabeth had to join me. She was so excited check on them. I'm just glad that the bunnies didn't decide that they would make a good meal. I think that would have devastated Elizabeth.

I have added a new gallery with pictures from our gardening adventure this weekend. I hope to add more to this gallery as the growth of the plants progresses. I hope that we are able to get some nice sunflowers. I know that Elizabeth would be absolutely tickled with that!

Kentucky Derby Heart Break

I think almost everyone that knows me knows that I was a dedicated equestrian at one time. I hope that that will be a large part of my life at some point in the future. For that reason, I don't usually watch horse racing. I've always felt it was cruel to the horses. Thoroughbred horses bones do not fully develop until they are 5 years old and they are run from a young age. Most are retired at the age of 3 years-old. Many more are forced into retirement even earlier due to injury.

Today Dennis put the TV on the Kentucky Derby so I watched it. I was heart broken at the end of the big race when the filly, Eight Belles, that came in second broke both of her front two legs (compound fractures at that) and had to be put down on the spot. How can people continue to celebrate? Sure they won a lot of money, but a horse had to be put down. I was hoping they would show a fall so maybe I could see an accident instead of a horse that was just pushed too hard, but they didn't. To make matters worse, this was a horse that they had done a highlight story on earlier in the programming. She had one a big race the day before. She looked fine at the end of the race but when the camera was following the winner walking back down the track they passed her laying in the middle of the track. My heart was truly breaking for this poor beautiful animal. I really do not think that I will ever understand how people could get so much joy out of such a sport.

Carowinds!

Today has been one nonstop day for us. We started out with the bed of Fruitos. Then headed to Elizabeth's speech therapy. That was followed by meeting friends at the YMCA. Elizabeth & Katherine got to hang a child watch with their buddy Matteo, while I met up with my friends, Robin & Lori, for a fun cardio dance class. From there we ran to church to drop off the palm leaves and drove through Chick-fil-A for lunch. After we ate lunch and I showered again (thankfully no more Fruitos incidents) we headed to Carowinds.


I realize that many of you may not be familiar with Carowinds. Carowinds is a local amusement park about 4 miles away from us. Those who have visited know that you have to drive right past it to get to our house. It's no Six Flags Magic Mountain, but it's plenty of fun. The children's area theme Nickelodeon characters, so it's perfect for Elizabeth's age.

We met up with several friends (4 Moms, 1 Dad & 5 kids in total) at Carowinds. This was the first day we've been to Carowinds since they have been open on Fridays and weekends. It was about 80 degrees here today so it was perfect weather for the outing. Katherine got to ride in the hot air balloons with us (she wasn't so thrilled) and the carousel. She loved that while it wasn't moving. Elizabeth and her friends rode most of the other rides together, while we watched.

The last ride that the kids wanted to ride was one that Katherine could not ride, so our friend Robin took both Elizabeth and her daughter on it. Katherine and I sat on the side line and watched. It wasn't a ride I was too thrilled to get on so I was very content watching. Katherine was able to have some time out of the stroller She had a blast dancing to the music as we waited for the others to ride.

I was able to capture some great pictures (be sure to check them out). I can't wait to go back! It looks like this will be may become part of the normal Friday routine.

A Bed of Fruit O's!

Today I have a couple of fun things to blog about. So I'll start out with my funny morning story. I woke this morning, like most, to find Elizabeth had climbed into bed with me sometime after Dennis had gotten up. As normal she just couldn't stay still and was ready to kick me out of bed. I somehow managed to convince her to half way lay still for about 30 minutes. Finally at just before 7am I rolled out of bed.

I'm usually such a morning person and am ready to get up and start my day. This was not the case today as I was up until 12:30am cutting out palm leaves for Vacation Bible Study at church. They needed them today so they could put them out for church Sunday. Way to procrastinate Marla! I've had almost all week to cut them out.

So I got up and got Elizabeth dressed before I jumped into the shower. This is a pretty regular routine. I turn on the TV and she gets to watch Curious George (she loves that monkey!) while I'm getting ready for the day. When I got in the shower she was tucked in nice and comfy watching TV. Katherine was still sound asleep.

When I got out of the shower, I was a little surprised to find Elizabeth had the box of Fruit O's (Harris Teeter brand Fruit Loops) and was eating......no not eating them, picking them up. She had emptied the entire bag of Fruit O's on our bed. I can just imagine her jumping on our bed (which she doesn't that I know she does) with Fruit O's flying everywhere! That would have been a great picture to catch! She saw me and had an instant look of panic, like you're not suppose to be out of the shower yet, I'm not done cleaning up my mess. At least she was cleaning up the mess, so I couldn't be too hard on her.

It was interesting to watch how she was cleaning up the mess. She was picking them up ever so delicately and deciding if it was a color she wanted to eat or put in the bag. She would then proceed to either eat it or put it in the bag. This is probably not a surprise for a child of mine. If you know how I eat M&M's (or any multi colored candy) you will probably completely agree.

Once I was dressed I helped her out. I think it would have taken her all day to pick them up and then she'd be bouncing off the ceiling for certain. I wish I would have run down stairs to get the camera. It would have made a great candid shot. However, Katherine was awake and clearly ready to get up for he day, so I didn't think about that until after the fact. Maybe next time. I'm certain that this won't be the last time this happens.

Sleep, sweet sleep and Crazy Weather

SLEEP, SWEET SLEEP!
Katherine has only slept through the night (6hrs of sleep is considered sleeping through the night according to the books) a few times and rarely two nights in a row. It has been taking it's toll on Dennis & I for some time now. We joke that she's just giving us a little tease on the rare occasion that she does sleep through the night. I'm sure it is a necessary light at the end of the tunnel that we need to get a glimpse of every now and then. One day we'll be past this phase....hopefully sooner than later!

We've tried just about anything to try to help her get back to sleep. Unfortunately, nursing seems to be what she wants, which is another thing I'd love to see end (that's a whole different topic). We tried crying-it-out (CIO) with her, but that only made her worse. It got to the point where she didn't want to be put down at all. It worked great with Elizabeth, but Katherine is not Elizabeth. Not to mention that Katherine has some lungs on her! One day while she was CIO at nap time I went to check the mail and I could hear her clearly at the mail box. YIKES!

So why am I so exited this morning? She slept through the night!!!! I'm sure it's just a lucky break and tonight will be back to the normal 2-3 wake ups, but last night Katherine slept from 9:30pm to 5am. I really think that she would have slept even longer if the heaters had not kicked on this morning. Got to love light sleepers, NOT! I'm hoping that they (both girls) out grow that one day. Maybe when they are teenagers and want to sleep until noon. Haha!

CRAZY WEATHER!
Yes, you read correctly above that the heaters were kicking on this morning. I know it's the first day of May and our average temperature during the day is in the 70's, but that hasn't exactly been the norm this year. We had weather in the low 80's last week followed by severe thunder storms/tornadoes, followed by a cold snap that sent us back into the upper 30's at night with highs in the low 50's. That has been a pretty typical trend for our weather this year. This morning we were in the low 40's but the high today is in the upper 70's! INSANE!

Trying to guess what it's going to do has made things interesting. Do I dress the girls in short sleeves or long sleeves? Pants, capris , or shorts? Switch from AC to heater at night and switch back to AC mid day or just open the windows? Jackets or no jackets? I'm sure you can imagine there are more questions along those lines.

Then of course with the wacky weather comes a lot of colds and allergies! Dennis is the one that has started the cold bug at our house this round. I'm sure at some point at least one of the girls or I will get it. I can handle the weather changes, but the colds that come hand and hand with them are getting a little old. It would be nice for everyone in this household to stay well for longer than two weeks!