23 Months

My last monthly update EVER!!  I'm proud of myself for following through with this little project!  I believe this will be my 63rd monthly update (I did weekly updates for each of the first two months, 21 of those).  Whew!  SO MUCH RELIEF right now!

On to the reason I am writing this.  Elizabeth is as spunky as ever.  So clever.  She says the funniest things.  I mean, not really funny, but funny to hear from such a small little person.  Just the way she says them.  Like she ALWAYS wants to know what is going on, so she'll ask something like "Hey Mommy, what is Daddy doing?"  "He's driving the car" "Oh, he's driving the car? Oh."  The little "Oh"s are just adorable.  Last night, her little friend came in our house while I was changing Ellie's poopy diaper.  Ellie said "Don't touch my poop, Lily!" in a warning tone.  I don't know why it made me laugh so much, but it did.

We had a little back-sliding on the potty training front as I had feared, but expected.  She still goes in the potty, but only when her pants are already off.  I'll be working with her on how it's okay to take her pants off by herself and go potty, this week... maybe.

Her hair is growing out of the baby stage.  It's close to all one length, so I hope it will grow out nicely from here.  It has a bit of a curl to it.  Just enough to make it look messy sometimes, but otherwise, her latest haircut is super cute.

She is definitely cautious.  I don't know why it always surprises me.  I can't even explain it... I'm around her all day every day, how could her personality always surprise me?  Maybe it is because she's so physically capable, I assume she is emotionally capable as well!  Actually, I think that's exactly what it is! She is more fearful than the other two combined.  She is scared of me sitting her up on a counter, or putting her down in an unfamiliar place.  Even doggies!  She LOVES doggies!  We saw two today at home depot riding on a cart, Ellie was cautiously walking towards them, the dogs turned around to look at her and she jumped out of her skin!  She walked back a few paces and said "NO DOGGIES! NO!"

Isn't that funny?  She is so scared of everything, but so assertive at the same time.  She was scared, but had the presence of mind to be stern and tell the dogs to leave her alone.  She seems to learn faster than her siblings, possibly because she hasn't yet hit the rebellious stage so popular amongst my toddlers.... where they do everything in their power to NOT please their parents.  It always is such a pleasant surprise!  Like the saying NO thing... something I have to teach Abbie every time she runs into conflict.  "Tell them NO!  Tell them to leave you alone!  Tell them you had it first!"  Obviously Ellie has been hearing all this and has put it into practice before her sister has.  She also came up to me today and asked me for a ponytail and looked straight up at the ceiling so I could do her hair.  This is something I have to ask Abbie to do every. single. time.

She finally stopped screaming every time we put her to bed.  Glad that's over!  Maybe from here on out, no more baby stuff to deal with!  Wouldn't that be awesome!!  All three kids capable of rational thought with the ability to reason.  A dream!  She still cries out in the night every once in a while.  I don't know why.  It's not a big deal, not like it was with Jackson.  I wonder if she is cold, or has an upset tummy.  Who knows, but I do know she goes right back to sleep after we cover her up with her beloved blankie.

Something new this month:  Carrying around princess barbie dolls EVERYWHERE.  Sometimes she has five with her... and they have to go in the car, sit in her seat with her and go wherever we're going.  Every once in a while, I try to sneak a few out of the pack, just so we don't have to carry so many, but she immediately knows who is missing.  "Where's Snow White?!"  "Where's my Belle!?"  "Where's Beauty??"  "Where's lee-lee-lella?!!"  Precious!

I'm sad that I'm going to miss the last two weeks of her life as a one year old.  I'm coming back home the day before her second birthday.  I'm hoping I can rope in some motivation and get organized so she can have a relatively nice birthday.  I already have her gifts purchased, so at least that's taken care of.  Guess I just need to invite a few other babies, blow up some balloons, bake a cake, and we'll have ourselves a birthday party! :)

On a Positive Note...

I'm having a bumpy couple of weeks.  Can't keep up, nothing is going smoothly, can't get in the groove.  It's making me panicky, especially since I need to get everything prepared for my trip next month.  All good things, I guess.  Hoping now that our 4-days-a-week swim lessons are over, things will fall more easily into place.

Sad that swim lessons threw me into a panic... but I will say it is quite an endeavor.  We spend almost an entire half hour before lessons in the bathroom.  All three kids want to pee right off the bat, then they all want turns trying to poop, then the hand washing, then changing, then re-hand washing.  And after that, I try to get them to eat snacks, because we are there right at lunchtime.  Then I try to keep Elizabeth entertained for a half hour while trying to appear happily riveted to every kick and splash and float in the pool.  Then another half hour after lessons showering, drying off, changing, all while telling the kids to stay away from the pool every two minutes, literally.  So glad we are down to once a week lessons.  I'm reclaiming like six hours of my week!

BUT, on a positive note, Jack and Abbie did really well in their class!  They LOVED their teacher, the pool and pool room are super warm, everything is pretty convenient, and as clean as can be expected considering how many kids rotate through every day of the week.  Both kids responded really well to their young, pretty and smiley teacher.  They wanted to please her, which is the best thing I could ask for! Jackson can paddle around with his face underwater now, and Abbie is happily trying to do the same... she does a pretty great assisted back float! :)  Hoping weekly lessons over the summer will keep them pool-safe and un-drowned for another year.

Abbie also started dance lessons last week!  Such a JOY!!!  Seriously, one of the happiest moments of my life.  I'm glad I waited until now, great age for her to start, not so young that she won't remember the things she learns, not so old that she seems clumsy compared to the other girls.  I mean, yes, she does seem clumsy compared to the other girls, but she is young enough that it is totally okay.  I guess it comes down to me not wanting her to feel self conscious.  She loves her teacher and plays ballerina all week long.  Such a perfect fit for her.

The swim and dance classes are all in one big building.  They have several dance rooms, a pool big enough for three sets of lessons at a time, a huge gymnastics room, a toddler-sized gymnastics room, and a preschool.  Elizabeth has been enjoying herself during swim lessons because I let her sneak into open gym during the last 10-15 min of lessons, hoping they won't mind a 'baby' jumping on a trampoline or swinging on a swing for a little while.

I've been waiting to go to this place for... well, since Jackson was a baby.  It's awesome, but you have to pay a yearly fee.  Not a ton, but enough that it made me want to wait until my youngest was old enough to really enjoy it.  And that time finally came, last month!  The classes add up (good thing Greg is starting a new job next month, cause I've already spent his raise on these classes!) ... it is such a joy though.  An absolute joy watching them in these classes.  I just don't know if I will be able to stop!  I feel like I should get some props for holding out for a few years.  Up til now, we've just been going to, and loving, a weekly music class.  It's super cheap and only $10 for each extra kid, a huge draw for me!

It seems like dance is a wonderful fit for Abbie, and after watching Elizabeth hanging on the bars and jumping on the trampoline... she is SO coordinated... I can't help but think that gymnastics is a perfect fit for her.  But now I wonder what I can do for Jackson.  We went to open gym (even paid for it ;)) today and Jackson had a BLAST.  Never ran out of energy, could've kept running and jumping and swinging all day long.  They have a boy's gymnastics class.  I feel like it would be fun for him, but I don't want him to feel like he's doing something girly.  Maybe some kind of martial arts?  And we'll always have sports I guess.

Anyway, all these expenses make me wonder if I should switch them over to the preschool at the gym? A couple friends go there and seem to love it.  It's an award-winning child care facility.  It's only two blocks away from their current preschool.  But what's better is that violin, soccer, swim (at a discounted rate), gymnastics, dance, art and tumbling are all included in the curriculum.  So, all the classes that we would normally have to pay extra for, are included in the tuition, which is only $60/mo more than we currently pay.  Down sides are that the teachers are all pretty young (could be an upside too I guess?), and that all those extra-curriculars during the school day must be taking away from learning time, right?  Although, I suppose at their current school, there is a good amount of play time where they just play with the same toys every day.  There's also the fact that I've already paid a registration fee for their other school... BUT no registration fee for the gym place since we already pay the yearly fee.

I don't know.  Seems like a tough decision to me.  Financially it seems to make sense, considering we would be saving on all the extra class fees.  But I guess I have to decide what is most important.  Do I want an experienced teacher, a small class size, a curriculum focused on getting them ready for kindergarten... or something more well-rounded that may or may not be intellectually equal.

Anyway, back to my reason for writing this.  I'm in a funk, and I wanted to write down a few things that ARE good -- I've been trying lots of fun new recipes and kid activities (thanks to pinterest)!  I've been running as much as I can.  Three mornings a week at best, once a week at least.  This week has not been great because of an alarm-related fiasco (I forgot to set it :)), but I hope to make up for it with a long run early tomorrow, followed by a beach-side bike ride.  Both with friends, and away from the kids, which should be relaxing!

Next weekend is the Camp Pendleton 10k mud run!  So excited for that!  I feel like I've done everything I can to prepare.  The running part should be relatively easy, I just need to make sure not to break any bones or otherwise cause permanent damage to my body.  I'm finally losing weight too!!!!  8 pounds in the last couple months!  A couple days ago I walked past a mirror and for the first time, I liked what I saw!  Not at my goal weight, but I don't feel fat anymore!  Hoping to drop below 130 next month.  Now that I have the exercising part down, I am working hard on eating healthier!  Greek yogurt is my new favorite, so yummy with a little sugar and lime juice, and a great replacement for sour cream in recipes.

Oh, I also bought some new clothes!  Sure, they're all from Target, and the cheap Target stuff at that, but they're new!  Four knit yoga-band skirts to wear this summer instead of shorts, a few t-shirts, a couple swim suits and a cardigan.  I feel like a new woman!  I even found a purse I love!  It'll be great for my trip!  And speaking of, have I even said how excited I am about my trip??  A week in Romania and four days in Paris... no husband, no kids, just me and two of my favorite friends!  It doesn't even seem real.  I can't wrap my head around any of it.  My main goal is coming back home alive, secondarily, I may try to have a lot of fun, maybe even remember how to smile after a day or two of not having to discipline kids all day long.

Anyway, back to the kids and positive things, Jackson can FINALLY (I wish I had a bigger font for FINAAAALLLLYY!) be considered potty trained by my definition.  He keeps his underwear completely clean all day, no more washing out skid marks.  He can poop in public, he never throws a fit about going, AND he kept his pull-up dry all night  for a couple nights in a row!  I never thought this day would come!!  RELIEVED does not even cover how I feel.

Abigail, as I said before, has been an absolute joy at dance classes.  She is getting a teensy bit better about whining less and talking more.  She is also being a good student at preschool (as far as I can tell), learning her numbers, letters and trying to write her name.  She is so sweet and cuddly, which makes up for the 10 min screaming-crying jags every time she gets hurt, which is down to 1-2 times a day now, from like 50.

Elizabeth is working on her potty training.  She went poop in the toilet five days in a row last week.  She was doing a great job peeing in the toilet a majority of the time too.  It was pretty awesome.  I will never buy diapers again!!  We are a pull-ups only family now.  It was INCREDIBLE to go to costco last week and buy the three sizes of pull-ups plus flushable wipes, and they ALL fit under the cart.  A BIG change from three years ago when we were buying three HUGE diaper boxes, plus wipes.  We had to have two separate carts, one just for the diapers.  Insanity, I can't even believe I lived that life.

22 Months

Blowing bubbles

We are winding down to the end of Ellie's first two years!  She's an amazing little girl, if I do say so myself.  She speaks so well!  Getting close to catching up to her brother and sister's speech abilities.  We can understand what she is saying almost 100% of the time.  She loves to sing songs, especially the disney princess songs, ABCs and nursery rhymes.  She's very aware of her surroundings and is always asking where certain people are.  Keeping tabs on everyone.  She loves puppies and horsies and birdies.  And likes to play dress up all the time.

She has made big strides in potty training this week.  She's had successful visits to the toilet every day for at least four days in a row.  This morning Greg found her pooping on our toilet upstairs all by herself.  It is pretty awesome!!  She loves to sit on the toilet when her siblings go, especially in public.  It's kind of a pain, but I guess that will be how things work for us soon enough!  Today, she stayed dry without a diaper for about three hours.  It seems to be too good to be true, but dare I hope we are out of the diaper phase by this summer??

She's very independent and is very good about keeping herself entertained (which is great for me when I have those few hours to catch up on housework while the big kids are at school).  She is very coordinated and strong.  She loves her neighbor friend Lily (who is only 2 weeks older than her), and enjoys playing with her siblings.

She had a great time on our family vacation last week.  She is crazy about swimming, but VERY particular.  She wants to try to swim all by herself, but also wants to feel very protected.  It's a delicate balance and our first 15 min in the pool usually involve her screeching at us because we aren't doing something right.  We tried putting a vest on her, but she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  Last time we went, she was jumping in from the side, and dunking under water before I pulled her back up again.  She might learn to swim the quickest of all of them... which is good because she has a couple big kids to keep up with!

She loves going to Disneyland with us.  She is enormously better at sticking with us in line... hooray!!! In fact, I don't know that I had to remind her to stick with us last week!  She has a totally bi-polar reaction to all the characters there.  Loves them from afar, can't wait to see them, but as soon as it is our turn, and she gets within ten feet, she FLIPS OUT.  Screaming like they are the most terrifying monsters you could possibly imagine.  She was reaching her hand out to touch pooh, and kept pulling it back like she'd touched a hot stove.  THEN, as soon as we start walking away, she turns around and ever so happily and sweetly calls: "goodbye Pooh! I love you!"  Freaky.  She has the same reaction to the carousel.  I forced her to stay on the horse with me last time, it was ugly.  I was hoping she would get over her fear... I don't know, maybe she will one day... but I would guess this phase will be around for a bit.

What else?  She can almost get herself dressed, she's great at eating everything, and is my best silverware user.  She gives amazing hugs and the sweetest kisses.  She's my little front step buddy... she likes to sit with me while we watch the kids play.  And more often than not, if she is outside, I can find her hanging out there watching quietly.  Speaking of outside, she is aware of cars now too.  If she's out playing in the street when one is driving by, she says 'Oop, it's a car' and heads to the closest curb.

She is sleeping pretty good.  Still doesn't climb out of her crib, yay!  She's been crying when she goes to sleep and when she wakes up though... and has been waking up early this week.  I'm wondering if it is her 2 year molars.  I should probably stick my finger in there and check, but I'm a little intimidated by all those teeth and that sassy personality! :)

Ragnar

I did it.  Got my first race under my belt.  It was... interesting.  Difficult, but definitely doable.  I ran 13.5 miles over the course of 34 hours with a little over an hour of sleep.

Before...

During...

Finish Line!

The girls from our van :)

My first leg was 5.7 miles at 4:30pm through an ugly neighborhood in Corona... out past the mountains in the desert, 110 heat index.  So hot, felt like I was breathing sand and sweating salt crystals.  I started out running the best I could, but when I turned into that neighborhood after a couple miles and saw the steep hills, it was all I could do to keep walking.  The hills kept coming, and I kept looking forward to the downhill so I could run again... and the downhill came and it was straight down with zigzaging potholes, big enough for me to fit in.  I had to tiptoe around them.  Then, after finally exiting that devilish neighborhood, I started running again, slowly, and made it to the exchange.  I have NEVER been so hot before.  I was so hot, I felt cold, with the chills and kept feeling my arms for goosebumps.  It was so crazy!  Very grateful for the water stop where I got a re-fill... I was squirting as much water on myself as I was drinking, trying to stay cool.  Also grateful for my van-mates and the ice-cold water they dumped on me.  It was the best!

We got some food after our legs were over and tried to figure out a place to sleep.  Decided to just nap in the van at the next major exchange (the Lawrence Welk Resort by Escondido).  The van was SO stuffy and uncomfortable.  A few of us tried to just lay in the grass.  Luckily I brought a huge blanket, just big enough to completely wrap up in, and thick enough to keep me warm in the wet chilly night air.  I was the only one on our whole team to get more than a half-hour of sleep.  I seriously felt GREAT the next day, when we got our wake-up visit from the other van at 2:30am.  A nice janitor let us in one of the restaurants to use the fancy bathroom, so we could clean up a bit.  Beats the heck out of a port o potty!

My second leg was only 2 miles at 5am (when I usually run during the week).  It was all flat and the weather was perfect.  I expected that I would fly through it, but I struggled a bit.  My heart just never caught up with what I wanted my body to do.  Still kept up a good pace, for me, even passed a couple people :)  I spent the next five hours STARVING to death.  A girl in our van lived nearby, and the need for showers and a place to lay down over-ruled my need for food.  When we did get breakfast, I was the only one that actually ate.  I don't know HOW these girls survived.  They ate like birds, but they are skinny like birds too.  So I guess I know what I need to do if I want to lose some weight!

Our next set of legs brought us down the coast from Torrey Pines golf course down to Coronado Island in San Diego.  A few of the girls got to run along the ocean or bays... mine was inland through National City, past the Naval Base.  So ugly and stinky!!  I don't mean to complain.  I DID get the shortest legs after all.  But it was pretty gross.  On the upside, I FLEW through this leg.  It felt great!  I will admit to trying my first 5 hour energy drink shortly before hand... only half the bottle, but I certainly felt it kick in! Usually it takes my body a good mile or two or three to warm up, this leg I felt like I had started on mile three.  It felt amazing!!  I actually choked up a couple times, completely overwhelmed with the fact that I CAN RUN!  I had a 5.8 mile leg at 5:30pm, and I totally felt like I could have kept going for miles!

I had the best running music!  The arm band I bought before the race is too small for my ipod, so I could only bring my phone.  Luckily my husband's company has a product that offers FREE music downloads. So, I loaded up the night before with some Beastie Boys and Lady Gaga and Queen.  Made me very very very happy to have a different set of songs to listen to, and fun, motivating songs on top of that.

The finish line crossing was sad... our team was the 'super moms' and we looked like we were trying to be funny when we ran across, totally unprepared.  Wrapped in our blankets, carrying our cameras and grocery bags full of snacks.  Seriously sad.  To top it off, somebody stole our free pizzas, and since I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was way past dinner, I was STARVING.  Didn't get a chance to get food until 9-ish... taco bell... gag... by then I was so hungry I was on the verge of puking, so I had to choke down a few tacos just to keep from throwing up.

Going through all the details... it doesn't sound fun at all.  But it was.  I would do it again!  It was such an interesting way to spend a weekend.  Definitely an adventure!!

Myself

I've been meaning to write a post recapping the last few months of my life because, well, I haven't written anything about myself for quite a while.  I've had these grand designs of including pictures, but that's just holding me back because it seems like it would take too much time.  So, since I am up before the kids, the house is clean and I don't plan on running this am... right now seems like a perfectly good time.

In January I started running again after a holiday hiatus where I gained five pounds.  Not cool Holidays, not cool.  I run with a group of working moms at 5 am.  With the addition of Elizabeth, running with the kids is no longer an option.  Even if I had a triple jogger, I doubt I would WANT to run with it.  So, the 5 am run time is perfect for me, I can be back in time to make breakfast.  I try to go with them twice a week, and it has been really fun to see everyone improving... we started struggling with 2mi, now are working on our pace on 4mi.  Probably doesn't sound very long, but the first two miles are uphill, some stretches are VERY uphill.

So, that has been exciting, to find out that I am capable of running consistently, because when I started, I was positive I could not run more than three miles and live to tell the tale.  On Fridays, I've been trying to run with my 'longer distance' friends.  I am sure I hold them back, but they are so nice and give me tips on how to go longer faster.  My first Friday, I broke the 4 mile mark, then as I was turning to head home, found out that my friend planned to do the same route AGAIN which blew my mind as I was about to die.

My next breakthrough was going more than 5 miles on my own.  It was drizzling at 5 so nobody wanted to go, I felt like I just needed to tough it out, so I plugged in my kindle and kept going.  I went soooo slow, and thought I had gone farther, but still, when I saw that I had almost run 5 1/2 miles, I was ELATED!  Two weeks later, I ran out to meet my 'long distance' friend, I was early, she was a couple minutes late, and instead of just sitting around, I kept running in circles until I had gone 1 1/2 miles.  We did a longer loop than normal, I hit 6 1/2 miles by time we got to where I could've turn for home, but I felt good!  I kept running to get back to where we started, then ran back home, all the way to my front door, 7 1/2 miles total.  HUGE milestone for me!

The first mile is still impossibly hard, and I still can't go very fast, barely getting below an 11 min mile, but it has been incredibly fun to find out that I can do it!  I don't die and my body can handle it (so far).  My first race is this Friday, a 200 mile 36 hour relay.  I'm SO nervous!!!  I have it easy compared to everyone else.  My legs are 5.7, 2 and 5.8.  The five mile legs are in the early evening when the 93 degree day should be a teensy less intense, and my 2 mile leg should be around 5am, when I am used to running.  Should be interesting, and fun, I hope!!  Our 12 person team runs from Huntington Beach near LA, inland and over the mountains to Corona and Temecula, then back through the mountains down to Coronado Island in San Diego.  I have the third to last leg which runs along the harbor, but unlike the girl before me who gets to run along the water, I am a block or two inland.  Such a bummer.  Oh well, we will get to see the ocean at the end at least :)

Anyway to close up the running topic, I feel great about being able to run now!  Looking forward to the race this weekend.  REALLY looking forward to the 6k mud run this summer!  I haven't lost a ton of weight.  Maybe three pounds on a good day, but I FEEL better!  I need to stop eating so much, and so fast!  I am still recovering from baby-mode eating.  Grabbing whatever I can and eating it as fast as I can.  No longer a necessity by any stretch of the imagination.  I need to SLOW DOWN!

I got a garden plot close to my house a couple months ago!  VERY VERY exciting!!  It has been so much work though.  I spent every spare minute for five week weeding.  Weeding so very carefully, making sure to get the roots, not using any sprays to get rid of them.  Then we had two big rainstorms and when I went back a week or so later to pick 'a few stray weeds' I found THOUSANDS.  Thousands of the exact same weed.  I suspect it is one of those that branches underground and is impossible to dig up completely.  I wanted to scream!!  So, I went to home depot, picked up some round-up and sprayed the heck out of it.  I need to go out today and see if it worked!

I also built a garden box this time around.  My craftsmanship is not great, but it is functional.  8' x 4' x 1'.  The wood was $60 and it took $80 of dirt to fill it.  Kind of a lot... and I still need to buy dirt for the other 100 sq ft of the garden :(  To save money, we started our own seedlings.  And really, this money saved seems like a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the dirt cost.  Regardless, the kids have enjoyed it.  I think we need to plant them soon because they are looking a little unhealthy in their cramped, damp home.  Love our weather, where I can just leave them outside and they get plenty of sun!  We are leaving for vacation next week, I can't decide if I should plant the plants before we leave or not.

Watering our seedlings.

The weeded-for-now garden plot.

In-progress garden box.  For the record, Abbie dressed herself,
I do not want credit for the outfit.

We had fun with the 'small' holidays so far this year thanks to pinterest.  For valentines, we made homemade gummy hearts out of cranberry pomegranate juice and cupid hearts out hot dogs skewered with uncooked spaghetti noodles for preschool snack, and decorated our door with a pink feather boa wreath.  For St Patrick's Jackson made a leprechaun trap (darn it, he escaped!), and had friends over to make fruit loop rainbows, eat green pancakes and eggs, and go on a scavenger hunt to find cups of green jello (I was too lazy to buy chocolate coins).  I wasn't feeling Easter this year... too early in April maybe?  But we did go to several egg hunts, one of which was a 'pinterest Easter party'... the mom had pinned tons of Easter stuff and wanted to make as much as she could.  So I figure all her hard work and creativity and motivation can make up for my lack of it.  The kids got to experience it either way :)  We colored eggs with friends, decorated bunny cookies, and I organized a last-minute neighborhood egg hunt.  All fun stuff :)

Gummy snacks.

Hot dog hearts.

Abbie modeling our feather wreath.

Jackson's leprechaun trap.

Jackson's fruit loop rainbow.

Green pancakes and eggs.

St Patrick's scavenger hunt.

Coloring eggs.

Decorating cookies.

Neighborhood egg hunt.

I made a growth chart ruler out of a big board (1"x4"x6') to hang in our kitchen a couple months ago.  I LOVE it and the kids love it too!  I finished a second for a friend's baby shower, and hope to find time to make a third for another friend's birthday before we leave on vacation.  This third one is questionable, but I hope it'll work out!  My other project is turning my parent's old entertainment center into a play kitchen for the kids.  I brought it home with us in January.  I worked so hard to patch the severely banged-up wood (no surprise since it is older than most of my siblings), prime, paint, reinforce with brackets, re-assemble, sand for a second coat of paint... and that is where it has sat for about a month.  I had a bunch of shelves and a couple 'doors' cut at home depot (still need to paint them)... and I got a p-trap to turn into a faucet, and a couple cute knobs to put next to it.  I bought cute fabric for curtains.  Also got hinges for the doors and cute handles.  And here is where I am stuck.  I am so scared to figure out the hinges!  I'm worried that they won't stand the test of time, or that I will have to drill a ton of holes to get them to work right.  Maybe after vacation next month, I will suck it up and just do it!!

Growth chart ruler

Kitchen... in progress...

We are also doing a 'busy bag' exchange next month... maybe the kitchen will have to wait.  There are 21 women participating, each makes an activity that will fit inside a gallon ziploc.  ALL kinds of cute ideas.  A felt cupcake decorating set.  Color matching activities.  Popsicle stick and velcro building kits.  I am making a marble maze, where you sew a large bead inside two pieces of fabric, and stitch a maze into the fabric, so the kids have to push the bead around through the maze.  I cut out all the fabric yesterday afternoon, and managed to finish one (and it is not pretty, AND Abbie did not like it... sigh!).  So, I am thinking each one might take about an hour.  21 will take up a lot of hours.  I foresee a late night or two in my future.

Marble maze

Hmmm, the kids are up, but maybe I can get a few pictures on here before they start bothering me about breakfast...

21 Months

Elizabeth is looking and acting like a little girl more and more every single day.  She loves to dress up!  She has recently moved past her princess dress obsession, and has moved on to accessories... headbands, necklaces, leis, tutus, dresses, shiny shoes, princess shoes, boots, bracelets.  I had lent our neighbor a puppy costume last halloween and we got it back last week.  Ellie wore it all day for two days straight.  I had to take her to Costco wearing it.

Speaking of puppies, she is also obsessed with dogs and horsies and kitties.  She sleeps with two puppy stuffed animals, and can hardly stand to be separated from one of them (unfortunately it is Abbie's, but she is cool with sharing most of the time).  She always asks about a 'horsie ride', but I discovered yesterday that that's just what she calls horses :)  As we are out driving around, she loves to yell out 'PUPPY!' every time we pass someone walking their dog.  It's lucky that there are a lot of dog-walkers around here because sometimes that is the only way I can keep her content when we are in the car without her siblings.

She's still talking lots.  We are moving past the 'I can't believe she just said that' stage and quickly on to the 'why aren't you using your words' phase.  First more words than we expected, and now we expect it from her all the time.  I swear she is an evil genius in the works.  She can figure things out so quickly and doesn't miss a thing!  I wish I could fill up this paragraph with all the fun examples, but somedays I feel like it is a miracle I even remember my name let alone all the fun anecdotes.  So sad...

She LOVES to zip around on her plasma car.  I can't help but chuckle every time she comes speeding down the driveway and makes a 90 degree turn onto the sidewalk.  It's hysterical to me, this little baby flying around on a scooter.  All three kids have expanded their domain to include the walkway/paseo just past the end of our street.  It goes downhill to the left, then a quick uphill where it meets with the next street.  They all love riding their bikes and scooters super fast down the hill, up the hill, and back again.

I was very concerned for a while about them playing on the paseo.  Jack and his friend had a 'secret hideout'... a 'clearing' in the tall grass between the main walkway and the path that leads to the park.  It looked like rattlesnake city to me, and snake season is coming.  For a couple weeks, Ellie was following them down to their hideout.  Walking through the tall grass with no shoes (because she had snuck out of the house).  It was looking like I was going to have to be dragging her out of the grass all summer.  But, luckily that phase has passed!  We have successfully given the boys a healthy fear of snakes, and Ellie has subsequently lost interest.

She is showing interest in potty training.  She wants to 'go pee' after every diaper change, which is useless, but since she can get herself up on the toilet by herself, it's great practice.  She is super aware of her siblings bathroom habits, and since we are on underwear check mode all day every day, she now pretends to check the other kids' pants for 'poopy' for me.  Just this week, she started telling me AS she is going poop: 'Mom! poopy is 'HIND me!'  A step in the right direction!  

I hardly even want to imagine how amazing it would be to move past the diaper stage!  Although considering what an absolute fracas public bathroom visits currently are, I can't imagine what it will be like with all three... but who knows, maybe not having to worry about a 'toddler' touching everything anymore will make it much easier.  Even more than being out of the diaper stage, I am looking forward to the 'not having to worry about anyone pooping their pants in public phase' being over.

So, Elizabeth is growing up super fast.  She is quick and agile and adventurous.  She is clever and loves to sing... she almost has the alphabet down and knows more than a few 'princess' songs.  She absolutely adores being read to.  Which, I will admit I haven't been doing enough... but she has been getting good at strongly requesting specific books.  She loves the ABC book, Goodnight Gorilla and most recently Brown Bear Brown Bear.  She giggles with delight at EVERY SINGLE PAGE.  It's quite a joy!

Jackson 4 1/2

Jackson learned to ride a bike last week! By far the most exciting and rewarding parenting experience to date. It is always good to get parental instant gratification, because it is a very very rare occurance! so, he's had a 14" bike for a long time... I believe his third birthday? The back tire was flat for the last year, and since I couldn't find the tire repair kit in the garage, we just let him ride it flat (since it had training wheels), then bought him a 16" bike for Christmas. So I tried to teach him to ride it one day after I had already been running, and it was HARD! I was so tired, and the bike was too big for him, and it did not look promising. So, I decided to hold off until later.

Fast forward a few months, our 7 year old neighbor had learned to ride his bike in like 20 min, and I know that she was not running around behind him the whole time. She says that they took the pedals off his bike so he could use it like a balance bike, and voila, he figured it out right away! So I spend the next hour or two taking the training wheels and pedals off his big bike, find out that it is still too big for him, take the training wheels off the little bike, find out it is just the right size, then FINALLY get around to repairing that tire (seriously why is it so hard to repair a tire... Shouldn't they make it just a teensy bit easier to access the tube??).

Anyway, so training wheels are off the little bike, tire is repaired, and we are ready to give it a try, at last! Jackson jumps on, I hold on to the seat, and off he goes! I ran with him for two circles around the street, barely holding on with just one finger. He had a wonderful idea to use the driveways to get himself started at the beginning, and slow himself down when he was done. Then he had it! Minutes later he was zipping around like he'd been riding a bike for months! It was so great!! He was so proud of himself, and Greg and I were so excited. Such a fun moment!! I love riding up and down the street with him. I'm convinced it is impossible to ride a bike without smiling :)

 He has been doing well at school. He says that his teacher is going to teach him how to read, and he is so proud and excited about it. He has been very enthusiastic about asking what the street signs say, and telling me which animals start with what letter... "octopus starts with O, kangaroo starts with K... I hope we learn about S today!!" I saw a fun activity on pinterest where you make a 'sight word parking lot'-- you draw parking spaces on poster board with a word in each one, call out sight words and they need to park their cars in the right spaces. I think it would be perfect for him. I'm hoping to do it next week, I had a couple busy weeks with hosting bunco, playdates and a baby shower. Hoping we will have some extra time next week before my first race and vacation hits us.

 He and I have discovered a love for angry birds. I knew I would be uncontrollably addicted, so I waited to get the app as long as possible. Like all the other kids we know, he is really good!! I am so surprised how well he can plan out his moves and double check the angles. I think it is a great game... He would literally play for hours, and I will admit to letting him play a lot... It is seriously the first thing that has EVER kept him occupied for more than 30 minutes without inciting tornado behavior afterward. I don't know how else to describe that behavior... If he sits and watches tv for very long, he starts jumping and climbing and screaming... Like all that energy he didn't use for the past 30 min needs to come out all at once. It pretty much drives me crazy. 

He is still the most stubborn child imaginable. He is finally starting to understand consequences though. He will behave when threatened with time out... Where before, I would have to threaten, follow through, then have to continually return him to time out over and over again while he was screaming like I had just beat him. Sadly, the thing that worked to make him realize that time out is not the end of the world was a higher level of punishment... Time out in the back yard. So, if I saw him out of time out, he went to the back yard. Although, now that I am thinking about it, he did figure out how to drag a chair around, unlock the side gate and come in the side door to the house. Seriously, he is such a naughty kid. He goes through phases where he screams and cries when he doesn't get what he wants, which I think is completely unacceptable for a kid his age. I've been feeling frustrated to say the least, and embarrassed if he ever does it in public... Which is thankfully rare.

I decided this morning to go back to something that has worked in the past -- I up used to keep a cup of rocks above the kitchen sink, I would give him rocks for good behavior and take away rocks for bad behavior. I have a ton of peanut m&ms leftover from Bunco... I was thinking I could use those. Put m&ms in for good behavior, take them out (and eat them, haha) for bad behavior. I think it works well for him to have a visual reminder of his behavior, and to know that I recognize when he is behaving well.

He is out of his dressing up stage. It is kind of sad, I will miss his costumes, I'm so glad I took lots of pictures!! But it is also awesome, because my laundry pile has decreased significantly, and maybe soon, I will not have to clean up a pile of costumes in his closet all the time (somehow they keep getting thrown around). I remember the exact day when he decided he was over it, saw the look in his eyes... So sad... We were all ready to go to Disneyland, he was in costume, the girls were in their costumes, something clicked and made home think he was too big now, and he took off his costume and I haven't seen him wear one since :(

New things have replaced the costumes though. He and his friend carry around treasure boxes full of random items, and have a secret hideout in the tall grass at the end of the street (this will have to stop soon since it is rattle snake season). He loves to take my skateboard out and ride it down the paseo hill. He plays with the 'older' boys sometimes. It makes me so happy to see my little guy holding his own with the big kids. I am so grateful that my kids have so many other kids to play with on the street. I hope they are learning lots of good things about friendship and sharing and standing up for themselves. It's kind of like a mini eco system out there on our street.

He is wearing 4t and some 5t clothes. Still in pull ups at night, and having poop drama a few times a week. He willingly, and completely of his own accord went poop in public for the first time ever at the park yesterday. I am sad that he's been holding it all this time, but I didn't realize how lucky I was at he COULD hold it! If Abbie has to poop while we are out... All bets are off for us having a good time. She will sit on the toilet, but won't go, then she poops over and over in her pants. We have had some days at Disneyland where we literally spend half our day carting Abbie in and out of the bathroom. So, anyway, the fact that Jackson went willingly and without drama, is HUGE for our family!  Only three more potty training drama years left I figure... I fully expect to be insane by the end.

 He and Abbie aree getting along better. They are both in their pretend play stage, so occasionally, but rarely, I will find them playing together. A few days ago, Abbie suggested they play house where he was the dad, she was the mom,and Ellie was the baby. I found this endlessly cute. Jack and Ellie are still two peas in a pod. They are crazy about eachother. He is so sweet to her and I thin he likes that he can kind of be a caretaker for her. He tried to put her diaper and pajamas on after their bath the other night. I suggested it just to be funny, but when I came in his room with Abbie, she was on the bed with her legs in the air, and he was trying to wrestle a diaper under her. He had also picked out her favorite pajamas. Very very sweet!

 He is still an inch shy of being tall enough for the next tier of rides at Disneyland. Soooo close! Maybe by the end of the summer! Well, hopefully before the end of the summer since one is a water ride. I can't wait to have someone to go on it with me!!!

 Seems like a weird place to end this, but it is past breakfast time and I'd better get going before the kids stage a revolt!

20 Months

I must admit, I am looking forward to having all my kids out of the "month's old" age bracket.  It is confusing to try to remember how old Elizabeth is in months all the time.  I've been saying she is 21 months for weeks, but looks like we are only to 20 :)  Which means, only 3 more 'month' updates left... EVER!!

I always feel like I am bragging when I talk about Ellie, but I seriously think she is endlessly amazing.  We tried out her first piggy tails yesterday and she looks SO BIG!  Like a little girl already!  She says the most incredible stuff.  This week included, "all the kids went to Gracie's house", "he's wearing buzz lightyear pajamas" and "why is it dark outside?"  Sure, it was said with her own unique pronunciation, but there was no doubt what she was saying!

She's a little fireball.  Quite a temper!  I've definitely seen worse, you know, at least she doesn't go off on me all the time, maybe once every other week or so... but the kids definitely get a good taste!  Poor Abbie especially!  Ellie will come at her like a little tiger if Abbie takes something away from her, or even just has something she wants.  Arms flailing, hair pulling, banshee screaming, spitting mad.  I have to think this is a good opportunity for Abbie to learn to stand up for herself, to push Ellie away and say "don't hurt me!" ... but holy smokes... this baby of mine has a lot to learn about patience!

She has a few books that she loves.  The 'ABC Book', 'Goodnight Gorilla' and 'Going on a Bear Hunt' (which is a family fav too).  She loves to talk about the bear at the end of the Bear Hunt book... how he is sad because he doesn't have anyone to play with.  She is really good about getting into the book cupboard by the TV and flipping through half a dozen at a time.

She is an absolute WIZ with the ipad.  Knows all the gestures to open, unlock, pick an app, switch between apps, close the apps... not to mention how to play all the games.  I can't believe we even lived without one.  It is the BEST teething cure!  Tylenol and teething gel have nothing on putting a toddler in front of 'the bubble game'... instant happy baby!

She loves to sing.  She knows almost all the words to the 'Sleeping Beauty song' and the 'Rapunzel song'. And she hums to herself and dances around.  She loves to dress up... rain boots, slippers, princess dresses... and pajamas too.  She LOVES her Pocahontas pajamas from her Aunt Katie.  LOVES THEM. And also loves a pair of satiny purple ones, which she likes to dance in.

She is getting pretty independent.  We can go to the park, and she can do almost everything she wants to do without my constant supervision.  It is heavenly.  She can also play around the house and rarely get hurt (including defending herself from her siblings), which is pretty awesome.  It's funny how I have an internal timer, knowing how long the kids are okay for... I will be getting ready in the morning, and something will ding inside my head saying 'it is time for the kids to start whining now' ... but then there is silence.  It's a beautiful thing!  Sure, it still happens eventually, but I am loving the opportunity to reset the timer for an extra few minutes!

She gives the best cuddles, and will still lay her head on my shoulder and hold on to me like a koala from time to time.  Best feeling in the whole world.  Greg and I have both said how much we will miss this benefit to having little babies around the house.  On the flip side, I have been SO excited to get rid of lots of our space-hogging baby gear!  I'm overdue for a goodwill trip, and can't wait to clear out some more space in my room and the garage!  It's going to be awesome!!

Oh wow, I was just thinking about how we are going to keep Jackson in the same preschool for one more year... so he and Abbie will be together through 2013... and I was thinking that Ellie is almost ready to be potty trained, and might even be able to go to preschool starting in Jan 2013.  Sure it would be a stretch, no need to start her so early, but how crazy would it be to drop all three kids off for preschool at the same place!?!?  Wow!

So, in summary, Elizabeth is super great, growing well, my best eater by far, lots of fun, very cute.  Love her lots and can't even imagine life without her as part of our family!!

Three Years Old

My sweet little baby girl is three now!  She has been so mature for so long, it seems like she has already been three forever.  This age suits her very well now that it is official.  She is so sweet and happy and fun.  She LOVES princesses and dancing and dressing up.  Her favorite movie is 'the Disneyland show'... basically a Disneyland commercial from the early nineties.  I don't know what she sees in it, but she can watch it a million times and never get tired of it.

She has been doing WONDERFULLY in school.  I am so proud of her.  She is learning her numbers and letters very quickly, and does a pretty good job with a pencil and scissors.  I was able to watch their  'sharing time' last week when I went in to make pancakes for 'pancake day', and she was just great, getting up in front of the other kids and talking.

She got her second official haircut today.  Took three inches off and her hair is still super long.  Hopefully this will reduce the tangles though.  We are pretty sure she is left handed.  She writes and eats with her left, but we are not absolutely positive yet.  She throws with her right sometimes, so we are still trying to decide what kind of mitt to get her for t-ball! :)  She also started swimming lessons this month.  First lesson was great, second not so good... it was 62 outside, much too cold for swimming and she was NOT going to get in.  She screamed her head off while sitting on the first step for nearly 20 minutes.  Have to hand it to her, she is persistent.

We also had our family's first near-drowning scare.  Hoping to never have that milestone again.  The kids were playing in the hot tub post-lessons, I turned around to grab Ellie's towel and must've been lost in thought for a moment, making sure we had an extra diaper for her.  I realize Jackson is yelling 'Help Abbie!  Help Abbie!  She is drowning!'  I turn around and Abbie is smack dab in the middle of the pool, head above water for a moment, then under.  Her face is just inches below the surface and she bounces 2-3 times towards the stair railing as I am getting into the hot tub.  It was a weird moment.  I could see her eyes so clearly, I could see that she knew what she needed to do, so I decided to let her.  She reached out her arms, grabbed the railing and pulled herself up!  Such a scary situation, (and at the time I just wanted to curl up into a little ball with them), but I have to say that I am SO PROUD of both of those kids!  They both kept their heads on straight and did exactly what needed to be done.  Jackson knew he couldn't go in after her, so he yelled clearly and calmly for help.  Abbie knew she had to get out, and got herself out of that water.  So proud of them, and I know that they were proud of themselves too.  Interested to see how this week's swim lesson goes... to see if Abbie is more scared (which I don't think is possible considering the 20 min of screaming), or more confident, now that she knows she can survive a stint under water.  Funny note:  after Abbie's incident, Jackson said many times "Abbie that was amazing!  You swimmed so good!  I want to try that too!!"

Back to Abigail and her three-year-old-ness... she loves playing with her princess dolls, and princess barbies.  She still goes to sleep so nicely for us, but has begun climbing into bed with us at 4:45.  I must say it does beat her just yelling for us at 4:45.  This morning she went back to sleep until 7, dare I hope for a repeat performance?  I'm interested to see how the time change affects us!

She loves to ride the little red strider bike (two wheels, no pedals) and gets around really fast!  She glides and balances for a really long time, and it is so fun to watch her speed around!  She is still pretty clumsy, she gets hurt slightly less often, sometimes we can go to the park without her crying even once! (sometimes).  She loves to talk about her friends, and likes to try to make new friends -- "what's your name?  My name is Abbie!"  We are working on follow up conversation topics :)

She loves going to Disneyland, and readily suggests her favorite rides, which is fun!  (Jackson usually only suggests a train ride, followed by another train ride).  She likes 'the tea party ride' and 'the monster ride' and 'the lady bug ride'... oh, and how could I forget 'the Ariel ride'!!  We had a fun time on her 'official birthday visit' when she dressed up as Snow White, and then we got to MEET Snow White AND the Evil Queen!  Fun times! :)

So, she's great, she's fun, she's a total drama queen sometimes... and we absolutely love her!

19 Months

Elizabeth is something else. She still amazes us daily. It's been SO fun watching her grow up. Seems like it happened so fast though! I was just reflecting yesterday that the memories I have of spoon-feeding a little infant are not connected to this full-grown toddler strutting around the house. It happened SO FAST, just BOOM, there's a toddler! I can't even believe that a short year ago, she was a little tiny baby!!

She's been sleeping well for us. Naps great, goes to bed, sleeps til morning. We have the occasional bad day, but it sure is amazing to be able to count on a nice night of sleep a majority of the time! She got her bottom eye teeth last month. She was a MESS when they were coming in. Not looking forward to the top two! But, how amazing will it be, one day very soon we will be DONE with teething in this house! :) She can run and climb and throw and stack... she rides her plasma car around with ease, loves to ride in her brother's jeep -- although yesterday they had their first accident -- he ran into this woman's car WHILE I was talking to her, poor Ellie didn't get hurt, but got jostled pretty good. It was SO embarrassing!! The worst!!! I swear there are days when my kids seem to have total brain damage. The same day, BOTH Jackson and Abbie rode their bikes right towards a moving car. Even my yelling at them to get out of the street didn't phase them -- BRAIN DAMAGED!!!

Anyway, Ellie is great, and fun. She is speaking really well. She sings 'I love you tooo, Mommy!' and it is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Yesterday, she was standing behind Jackson while he was watching TV (meaning he didn't hear her at all), and she was saying over and over 'I love you, Jackie Ray!' Adorable! This morning, she grabbed the remote and said 'I want Bubble Guppies!!' And she's started saying "I'm hungry" when she wants food and it is so cute... like a growling hhh-UNGY!!

We went to the dermatologist yesterday to have a growth on the back of her ear looked at. It's pretty big and ugly... white and lumpy and about the size of the tip of my pinkie finger. Doesn't bother her at all, but the dr said it is nothing to worry about, probably just a calcifications. It doesn't seem to be connected to the cartilage, which is good. So, once the dr gets all the insurance stuff settled (this is her first month at her own practice), we will schedule a surgery to have it taken out and biopsied. It'll be nice to have that taken care of because it has been weighing on my mind a bit lately!

She wants to be JUST like Jackson and Abbie. She jumps on the couch and plays just like Jackson does, watches him like a hawk. And she likes to wear princess dresses and dance and play just like Abbie does too. It's very adorable to watch her copy her siblings. It is most apparent when the kids are at school and she goes crazy playing with all the things that the other kids are usually busy playing with -- like the train table and Abbie's snow white dress. She also likes to pretend to go potty, which is fun, but I admit, it would be pretty awesome if she'd actually GO! :) She loves trying to wear the big kids' underwear too. I've caught her with three and four pairs pulled up over her legs!

I am in full valentines/birthday mode this weekend, and need to clean the house before I get started on any of my dozen projects I have lined up for myself. This (already LATE) update will have to be short! But, basically, she's still awesome, love her, so grateful for her. Can not imagine life without her. So fun and adorable and cute! Except when she throws fits at the grocery store for unknown reasons (seriously?? I thought shopping with only one kid would be pure bliss!!)