This was Max's idea

He was determine to slide his X-Wide little size 8 feet into my size 10 dress shoes. I helped him. Turned out, he could get around pretty well in them. I think the blankey bear makes the outfit!

Max loves Ellie

This morning I took Ellie to Miss Sarah's and Max had a day home with Grannie. Max was a little confused when we left together and didn't take him, but he goes with the flow. The funny part was when I came upstairs in the afternoon and surprised Max, he looked at me and gave me a hug, then said, "Ella?"  My interpretation was, "Where's Ellie? You left here with her, but you didn't bring her back home to me?"

He ended up going with me to Miss Sarah's to bring her home. He was happy to see her. I love that they spend their days together even if they aren't with me. I'm glad we were able to make that happen for at least a couple years.

Max likes the new cubbies

David has been working so hard that he really hasn't had much time to play with the kids. This really makes Max sad. He takes any chance he can to see Daddy.

This evening I finally brought him into the new laundry room to hang out for a few minutes. I dumped him into one of the new cubbies to gauge his reaction and he was thrilled! Ellie joined in the fun a bit too. Max sat there until I made him leave 10 minutes later. He kept wanting to return!

Singing

Max is learning to sing. He's always loved music. He's had his favorite song since he was little - Ba Ba Black Sheep. And, over the past month, he's been singing along and even started to request it when he can.

Tonight when I was putting him to bed, he started to help me sing You Are My Sunshine too. He sang the word Happy over and over again. It was so cute.

That little boy has his Momma wrapped!

"Chalk Rocks"

Tonight at the park I decided to show Ellie how we used to decorate the blacktop in the old days. There were quite a few slate and chunky writing rocks on the surface thanks to some trucks. I picked a few up and called her over to the sidewalk. I explained that when I was a girl my parents didn't buy me pretty chalk to color with and instead, we learned to find rocks we could use to draw on the road. She was amazed! We spent about 5 or 10 minutes hunting rocks and seeing what their artwork looked like. In the end though, it wasn't as pretty as the rainbows she can make with her sidewalk chalk.

When she was going to bed tonight she revisited the topic by asking, "When you were a little girl, could your parents not afford to buy you side walk chalk so you had to make your own?" The whole thing made me laugh.

"G" rate St. Paddy's Day

Today was a great day. I love St. Paddy's day and Ellie has also picked up on this being a special holiday. She actually insisted we decorate the house for the day. We used yesterday to do a great job of this. I let her take as much of the lead as I could. (Something I'm working on)

When we got up, Ellie told me she was scared to look into her Leprechaun trap to see if it was trapped. Lucky for her, we hadn't caught one. We skipped dance in favor of trying out the St. Patrick's day parade in Pittsburgh. The kids and I were going to go while Daddy worked in the house.

The adventure turned out to be quite a disappointment as we were very late and couldn't get parking for nearly an hour. When we finally parked, even me running both kids the mile down the road in the double stroller wasn't enough to catch the tail end of the parade. The best we were able to do was find a single man on stilts. Here's what the kids thought of the find:

We tried to make the best of it; walking around the crowd, enjoying a little Irish dancing and music, and eventually sharing a treat. The kids enjoyed seeing the paddle boats and ducks. They are easy to entertain really. I am lucky.

We returned home for lunch and a nap. The kids were really great humored about the whole thing. The thing Ellie remembered to tell Daddy was that she had gotten 3 little treats throughout the morning.

The evening was also relaxing. We enjoyed the corn beef and cabbage dinner (well, David and I did). The kids had a special cookie for dessert. After dinner the kids and I went for a walk and out to the park to play until it got dark. They are growing up so fast. They are both quite independent at the park these days. Queen of the jungle gym didn't want to leave. I found this pose quite amusing.

We ended the evening with a bath in some green water.  Even the water here celebrated the day! I even introduced the kids to their first time of hearing Whiskey in the Jar by the Rovers. (Thanks Pandora and iPhone) Max started dancing his jig in the tub. The way he breaks out in dance - meaning spreading his legs slightly and bouncing up and down - makes me smile! My boy has it in him! All in all a great time. I love my kids so much!

Ellie

Tonight at dinner, actually during desert, after I had given Ellie a little chocolate chip cookie and walked away to start the dishes, Ellie calls out in the most serious, sweet, nonchalant voice, "Mommy, God gave me the best Mommy in the world." Then she went back to eating.

It's hard to express how nice that made me feel. I've been feeling like Ellie and I are already banging heads an awful lot. That little message from her nearly brought (happy) tears to my eyes. I took a moment, put down the dishes and walked in to give her a kiss on the forehead and thank her for sharing that with me.

Here's Ellie before bath with her Leprechaun trap we built.

Exhausted Ellie and a weekend with the cousins

This weekend the kids and I stayed at Katie's so David could rebuild the family room and mudroom. It's a big project and we are both excited for the outcome. Staying at Katie's was exciting and fun. We all looked forward to it a lot. We had a lot of fun doing meals together and just hanging out as the days passed. I have to admit that I underestimated how tired Ellie could get and what that would look like.

Friday night her and Erika were up talking until at least 11pm. I fell asleep before them, so I'm not sure how long that really went on. Then, they were up again at 5am. (Ellie usually gets 11 hours of sleep a night or more.) Saturday nap-time I had to wake them both up after 3 hours because of the evening ahead which included a late night girls basketball game at the high school. They got home at 10 something and Ellie was spent. She was a disaster getting into bed, but I think asleep about 5 minutes after she finally got in bed. We were smart enough to separate the girls into separate rooms on the second night.  Sunday I hear she was up by 6am again, 7 considering the time change.

We went to church and the girls did alright. Ellie was visibly exhausted and not making the best decisions in the world. She was quick to snap or cry, depending on the situation. By the time I got her to nap it was well overdue. However, she was overtired and I don't think she slept a wink.

When I went in to wake her she was wide awake. I asked her if she slept and she gave me this really close up crazy face with big eyes, a stern face and a little nut-so-ness coming through. I told Katie we were going to have to leave soon as I feared Ellie's upcoming behavior. The funny thing was she didn't believe me until she experienced it herself when calling Ellie for dinner.

As the evening progressed we lovingly referred to her as Poltergeist - Aunt Katie's nickname. Katie admitted never seeing Ellie like this before and even told Ellie she wanted her sweet little Ellie Bean Back. It's going to take a few days of regular sleep for that to happen, but we are working on it.

Max did really well with all things being different. He was happy to have Aunt Katie's play vacuum and used his voice to squeal to let me know when he was being man handled by his cousins in the playroom beyond his satisfaction!

It was a nice weekend and we are thankful for the hospitality. David worked hard and there's lots left, but we are making good progress! Below is Ellie posing at the paint store on Saturday morning. She wanted me to take this photo of her and send it to Daddy. Following is Max happily returning home on Sunday evening having packed his new favorite possession - his very own Vaavaa.

Fashionista strikes again

The other night we were getting the kids baths. Somehow my shirt was splashed so I excused myself to get another one. As I leave the room I hear Ellie shout behind me, "Mommy, make sure it's a pretty one please!"

That girl and her fashion opinions are going to be quite a source of drama as the teenage years hit.

Happy Birthday

I've started signing Happy Birthday with Max while we wash his hands. I did this with Ellie to help understand the length of time to scrub and it just makes it more fun to wash hands. Max not only loves the song and tries to sing it, repeating the first phrase over and over. "Happe bday... happeee bbb dday.... happe bday" He also sways to the sound of the music, back and forth on the stool while I try to stretch his hands to the water for rinsing. It's really funny. I enjoy him so much, he makes me sway to the song too. My little dancing boy is adorable!

Our Dolphin

Sunday we took a family field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with the Thompson family. We really had a great day. The highlight of the visit had to be hanging out below the dolphin tank and enjoying watching the dolphins swim around. While we were there, one of the dolphins came over to the window where Max was standing (Colin and Ellie were also nearby). When Max pointed, I think the dolphin thought he was asking him to spin. The dolphin seemed to react to Max by shaking his head up and down and then turning in circles. He sat there looking Max right in the eyes. It was so amazing!

A little train

Wednesday I was home alone, sick, not feeling well. I had taken the kids to Sarah's. I usually feel bad taking the kids to Sarah's if I'm not going in the office, but there was no way around it today the way I was feeling. Sometime mid-day I saw this train on the ground in the corner and it actually made me smile. Usually seeing toys on the ground makes me annoyed, or I try to not see them. But today, at this time, I took pleasure in the amount of joy this little train provides my son and the way it looks just lying there in the corner waiting for him to come home and play with it again. I'm happy to be able to have so many things for him that make him happy. I'm thrilled to have my Max, the son I've wanted longer then I can remember just about any memory. I'm not sure if it was being sick or what, but this little picture below turned me into mush on Wednesday.