No Sandbox for You

A few months ago we emptied Elaine's sandbox and filled it with water. We decided to do this because she was just taking the hose and filling it anyway. So, we decided to eliminate the muddy aspect and just give her a pool. She must be missing the sandbox because the last few days she has not been playing in her "pool" but instead playing with the leftover sand on the rocky ground. It was a little bit pathetic to watch but she was having a great time. (Please forgive the very unladylike pose.)


A minute later a she looked like this. I asked her what she was doing and she told me "I'm sleeping in the sand". The funny part really was how she said it. She has mastered the "that's a stupid question" tone perfectly.

I Hug You, Charlotte

This has become a very common phrase at our house. The more interactive Charlotte gets the more Elaine wants to be around her. She definitely loves her sister. If Charlotte ever makes a sound and Elaine is not near by she comes running yelling "I check Charlotte". If Charlotte cries Elaine comforts and kisses her. It is annoying, however, when Elaine yells "Wake Up Charlotte" and she does. They are best friends right now. Hopefully, it sticks.

Just add Sunshine

Rob's new firm closed at noon last Friday so we all went on a walk. The girls looked like this:
When we got home Rob decided it was a good day to go swimming. It was in the 80's here but the water was nowhere near that warm. Of course, if he was swimming so was Elaine. Rob jumped in and out but not that little girl. She was not about to get out. She has staying power. It reminded me of one of those contests where you have to keep your hand on a car and if you are the last one standing you win. Lets just say I wouldn't want to compete against her.

Since she was swimming I brought out her new cute bikini. She refused to put it on. It took Rob and I to force her into it and about 10 seconds for her to get it off. She kept saying "it's stuck". I put my feet in the water and they hurt from the cold but Elaine thought it was great.

Happy Easter

I had visions of posting adorable pictures of the girls in their matching Easter dresses, all smiles with hair perfectly in place. What was I thinking? Don't I know my own children? This is a collection of attempts at getting that perfect picture.

We hope the Easter Bunny brought lots of candy to your house.

Too Cute to be so Bad

It has been a rough week in the our house. Charlotte is not sleeping at night and Elaine is still refusing to go to bed. Needless to say, we are sleep deprived and cranky. That being said, these girls a really adorable and I still love them.

Charlotte played herself to sleep. She stayed asleep in this exact position for an hour. Elaine played in the bathtub for a long time to help accomplish this.

This is the only funny thing I have to say about Elaine today. I could, however, give a very lengthy list of all her naughtiness. She was watching Curious George or George Monkey as she calls it this afternoon when she suddenly jumps up saying she needed her bike. I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to what was going on but I helped her bring it inside. Next, she is searching frantically for her hat. She found the Santa hat which seemed to work for her purposes. After I helped her put the hat on I was focusing on Charlotte when I saw her perched just like this in front of the TV. Finally, I noticed the need for bike and hat came from George. He was doing a paper route on his bike and was wearing a bike helmet. Monkey see, Monkey do.

Doggy Door

This weekend I took a few moments to make a much needed air filter change. This is something we do every few months but this time Elaine was aware of what was going on. The cover swings open and Elaine was sure it was a doggy door. She ran up the stairs as fast as her little legs could carry her and kept saying"there's dogs in there". It was so cute. I wished for less than a fraction of a second that we had a dog. She sat right outside the vent and waited for a puppy to appear. I think she learned about Doggy Doors the other day on Dora.

In other news, Charlotte has started eating rice cereal. She only thinks it is alright. This is what she looks like when she eats it. Her tongue is trying to push it out but sometimes it escapes past her clenched jaw and she has to swallow it. This is the second attempt at feeding her. She liked it better the first time.

She is pretty happy when it is all over. Elaine was very concerned about the mess. She said "clean up, mommy" so I did.

Hello Handsome?

Yesterday we took advantage of the free car washes for life that came with the Pilot. As the girls and I waited a very nice many who worked there came an doted on them. He said "what a pretty little girl" to Elaine and "hello handsome" to Charlotte. Then he said "it's a boy, right" I corrected him. People always assume boy first for some reason and I only correct them if they ask. This man must have been embarrassed because he then goes into some long thing about how the second child is like a father, the first is like a mother and then he tells me my next will be a boy. I felt bad for him as he tried to explain himself but I didn't feel like I could say "Dude,

don't worry about it". Anyway, after our car was done Charlotte was in her car seat which is pink and another man came up and said "hello handsome". This man did not ask for verification and I was grateful. I don't think I could have gone through the previous scenario again. I do think it is funny that in her pink car seat and pink outfit that says the word Princess the same mistake happened twice. I would rather have someone say she is a boy than ugly, for sure.

To the Rescue

Yesterday Elaine found this Christmas dishtowel and first thought it would make a great blanket for her baby sheep. After a few minutes I noticed her "blanket" had taken on a new identity. She had it draped across her shoulders and was yelling "to the rescue" while trying to run around the house. Thank you Buzz Lightyear for the laughs. I clipped it for her so it would stop falling off. She was quite proud of her superhero self. The sheep served as the trusty sidekick at first but them she felt like the sheep needed a diaper on, making it inadequate.


I would like to mention I used Picasa to do this post, My sister told me about it a long time ago and I finally figured it out. It is quite amazing and it made me start to think. Google does everything so flawlessly and makes life so easy maybe Google could be President

Oh No, Teletubbies

I think the Teletubbies are a little strange so I just assumed Elaine would feel the same way. I was wrong. I turned on the TV this afternoon to find Teletubbies on PBS. I tried to hurry and change the channel but she was already hooked. When I did changed the channel she said "I watch the babies, Mommy". How could I not let her when she said it so nicely. She told me the color of each baby and continued on with a running dialog of all that happened on the show. These are the pictures of what she looked like while she watched. Good thing Tivo records the previous 30 minutes so she could watch it AGAIN when it was over.

Sibling Rivalry

I don't care much for grocery shopping. I never know what to buy and always feel like I spend a lot and end up with nothing. This is, perhaps, a result of the fact that I am not a very interesting cook. Anyway, I thought I had mastered the art of taking both Elaine and Charlotte to the grocery store until today. When we arrived at the store sitting in front of the door, seemingly placed for us, was the cart with the fake car on the front. I had Elaine climb on in and placed Charlotte and car seat on top of the cart. (Yes, the place they say not to put the car seat but everyone does anyway.) With the fake car the actual basket is smaller so the car seat could not fit in the cart itself. I thought it was perfect until Elaine decided riding in the car was unnecessary and she would rather be sitting where Charlotte was. So, there I was in the middle of the store with the extra long and clumsy fake car cart, a baby perched on top and a 2 year old hysterical because she wants to be sitting where her sister is. Elaine sat on the floor in hysterics and refused to move. I am sure people were judging me so I picked up the crying toddler and pushed the cumbersome cart to the check out where it took an M & M bribe to calm her down. This was all caused by the fact that Charlotte was in the seat she wanted. Never again will I try for the novelty cart.

A New Kind of Family

This is Elaine's "family". She loves them more than the real thing, I think. She carries them from room to room. She hugs and kisses them constantly. She reads to them, bathes them, and puts them to bed in her room. They sometimes have to go in the car with us. She knows where they are at all times. I have heard her call them Mom, Dad and Charlotte. I believe Charlotte is the pink and white soccer ball. It is really interesting and funny to see how she treats them.

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles

So, for the first time in....months both girls are napping. I should be using my precious free time to clean my house but, no, I'll waste time blogging.




Today was Charlotte's 4 month checkup. We were very excited because we wanted to know how much she weighs. As you can tell in the pictures she is a solid girl. I was holding my breath waiting for the nurse to tell me 18 pounds and shocked when the scale said 14lbs 5 ounces! Not as fat as I thought. She is still a little on the short side so that is probably why we think she is so huge. She cried a lot over the shots but was a trooper. I am excited to start rice cereal and formula with her. She is growing so fast but it getting so fun. She is a really good baby despite her poor sleeping habits. She has very kissy, ticklish cheeks and a cute little laugh. She sounds like Elaine already. If I am not in the room sometimes it is hard to distinguish who is making the noise.

Elaine loves her sister and insists on hugging and holding her. These are pictures of this mornings loves.

Elaine was saying "what a good baby" and rubbing Charlotte's head. She insisted that Charlotte lay down on her legs.

Night Owl

For a very long time I have bragged about how well Elaine goes to bed. We would say it's time for bed and she would go and lay down without any crying or fighting. We would see her 10 hours later refreshed an happy. Those days are now a distant memory that we hope come back as reality. Suddenly, if we try to put her to bed she becomes hysterical. If we leave her in there thinking she will just cry herself to sleep she throws up(this girl does it on command). Anyway, it is not uncommon for us to be ready to go to bed before her as was the case yesterday. This girl makes me tired.

Peanut?

Yesterday, Elaine decorated Charlotte with these colorful laces. With her new look Charlotte got a new name from Elaine, Peanut. She kept saying "look it's Peanut" and "what a cute Peanut" I am not sure where it came from but it made me laugh.
Once Elaine saw I was taking pictures she wanted in on the action so she sat next to her Peanut.
This was all so much fun that she dragged an empty diaper box in from the backyard and sat right down. She was lonely so she kept asking to hold Charlotte. Rob helped initially but Elaine wanted to hold her alone so we obliged for a few moments.

Her world was perfect when she got to hold her ball and her sister: two favorite things.

In other news Elaine got her first haircut yesterday. I trimmed a little over an inch off to help to look less stringy. It looks much better and I tried to be sneaky but when it was over she told me that scissors cut hair. I will be hiding the scissors for quite a while!

Everyone seems to be feeling better. Charlotte is still congested but her little fever is gone and I my fingers are crossed that she will sleep better tonight.

On the Mend

This week both girls and Rob have had colds. Thanks to my superhuman immune system I have avoided it. I am grateful that they all seem to be better today and hope both girls will sleep tonight.

Since she was not feeling well Elaine made herself a bed to watch TV. She literally gathered all the pillows and blankets and stacked them herself. It is safe to say, at 2, she has more common sense than her father.
When she was feeling better she was up for some light reading at the pool.

I apologize for the naked pictures. She has gotten very quick at taking her clothes off and is hard to catch to put them back on.

She also found a new use for the pool net. It seems to hold the noodles perfectly.


This is Charlotte modeling her sun hat. She loves the hat and thinks the sun is only alright. I will teach her the finer points of sun worship when she is older. I know she will love the sun because she has proven over the last several days that she only loves me. She proved this last night by crying hysterically when Rob was left to watch them last night and calming down when I rushed home to save her.