who the daddy?

My husband has accused me of having an affair with the Michelin Man. Ella Bella now has thick little feet, ankle rolls, knee dimples, thunder thighs, wrist rolls, muffin top, a tire around the middle, baby boobs, a big booty, several chins, and chubby cheeks. 18 pounds and 26 plus inches of delicious baby goodness.

friday night live

A few photos from an outdoor concert and BBQ our church has every August. Moo got to ride a "train" repeatedly and Ella Bella got to sleep on someone's shoulder meaning they were very happy little kiddos. Except for the photo of Ella Bella above, when she decided it was high time I feed her. I love that she prefers a good pout to a cry! I wonder how much time she spends awake in her crib at night making that face waiting for me to rescue her.

welcome to the world

Proof that little thunder thighs Ella Bella Chunka Monka was once actually a small baby. She is now tipping the baby scale at 18 lbs! Eighteen! Yikes. I love all the nicknames and comments we get from random strangers. 3 months?!!!! That's a BIG baby! Wow, she's really healthy! Awww, she is just storing up nuts for winter.

I have gotten a little, ok way, lazy with scrapbooking lately. I switched to a newer version of photoshop and it has taken me awhile to relearn the the basics I knew in my other photoshop program. I am embarrassed and ashamed that most of the first graders around town know more photoshop than I do! All I was learning back in first grade on the apple 2e was my right and my left. And it didn't do that great of job teaching me my left and right since I still mess them up!

flavor of the day

"Moo, let's go get Ella Bella some diaper rash cream!"

"Yeah! We are going to have diaper ice cream! Diaper ice cream!"

I highly doubt Ben and Jerry will be adding that as a flavor anytime soon.

five WHOLE days

Our internet got knocked out by a HUGE shake the house thunderstorm this past Friday. It short circuited our cable modem and the modem in my computer even with them plugged into a surge protector! Our stove also got short circuited....

Ella Bella is a roller. Yep, she decided to celebrate her 100th day of life by rolling from back to tummy. She made sure day 101 was just as exciting by rolling from stomach to back. She conquered this first gross motor skill in half (yes, half) the time it took Moo.

Hubs got sworn in and had his first shift at work. It went eerily well, none of the legendary picking on the rookie that firehouses are known for. It must be coming....


Moo has replaced his favorite word "no" with a new and much more fun word. Yeah! Moo, do you love mommy? Yeah! I hate to jinx myself, but he is in such a great stage right now. I wish I could bottle up a few hours of him right now to savor when he is a smelly, moody teen. He has been teaching Ella Bella all about trains and plastic play food and even sharing his beloved train blanket with her.



I learned just how computer addicted I am. I go without internet when we are on vacation and it's no big deal, but being home without it made me feel so disconnected. Our internet being out coincided with my sewing machine being broken and my camera needing to be cleaned which left me to entertain myself in rather unusual ways. Making a huge pot of tomato sauce (sour...). Playing play doh with Moo. Cleaning my desk! Scrubbing the microwave. Dancing with Moo to Lori Berkner and Raffi. Running all sorts of odd errands. Buying Ella Bella a new car seat! Yeah, a new seat. I LOVE Moo's Britax Marathon so much, I knew if I could find a good deal on a girly one, it would be coming home with me!

end of an era

Today is my last day as a traditional stay at home mom. No, I am not going back to work! Hubs finishes his training tomorrow and then begins a crazy shift schedule that will take some getting used to. But, he will be home during the day 4-5 days a week! Please pray for lots of GRACE as we adjust to living with each other again. I am not even kidding! For pretty much the entirety of our marriage, we have seen very little of each other and since Moo was born I have been the "on" parent except for occasional weeknights and a few hours on the weekends. We are so excited that he will get to have a more active role in our kiddos lives, but wow... there are gonna be some fights!

Also, sorry for the lack of crafty updates.... this being a sorta craft blog and all. I busted my sewing machine good just as I was finishing a large stack of hooter hiders*, burp rags, hooded towels, and baby legs when bam I broke this little tiny piece that is absolutely essential to my machine working and me not "mom" cursing like a sailer. The above photo is of a hooter hider and pouch sling I made as a gift for my friend A this past month. I'll dig around and find the tutorials if anyone is interested in directions...

*If the term hooter hider offends you, how about knocker blocker, or titty tent.... thats just for you Uncle D, hope you guys have a great time at the wedding!

mean mommy

I daily underestimate my son's intelligence and awareness for the world around him.

A couple weeks ago, we were taking Moo and his Cousins to the giant wood playground. We took a rather unusual route in getting there because of construction. Moo had not been to that particular part of town since May. We were waiting at the light and he said something that just made me so sad for him.

"Mama, go see Hope? I go see Hope! I love Hope."

Hope is his friend from preschool. I think they were each others sole motivation for being excited for school. We were sitting at the same intersection we always had to stop at on the way to his school. He remembered. And I felt like a mean mommy. You see, we decided he would not be going back to that preschool this next year mainly for very practical and very adult reasoning. It's 40 minutes round trip from my house. It's $8 in gas a day for him to get there and back. I don't need it. He won't miss it.....

I was wrong. He does miss it. He had to give up his first friend HE chose. All his other friends are his friends by default, I like spending time with their moms and therefore he is friends with them. I didn't even get Hope's phone number so they could get together and play. Mean Mommy.

new

I slept in this morning.

The kiddos did not. I was a bit of an olympic insomniac last night and din't fall asleep till 3:30am. I figured Ella Bella would holla' and wake me up between 7:30 and 8. WRONG! I woke up on my own at 9:20 to only hear the faintest of cooing from her and chattering from the Moo Man.

I open the door, turn and look in Moo's crib. Moo is dancing in his "emperor's new clothing" gleefully saying "Where the diaper?". I find a very dry diaper crumpled on the floor and a completely DRY crib and bedding. Ummm, maybe we should look into that potty training thing. Seeing as my very unpotty trained toddler went from 8pm to 9am without a diaper, apparently...

about 10 minutes later I was reminded Ella Bella is certainly not ready to be potty trained when she shot poo all over me, her, and the boppy while I fed her. Lovely.

three

Three months old today! I just love this little lady and her sweet, calm disposition. She is cooing and chatting up anyone who will hold her and smile back. I have been more laid back with her and let her take the lead on when she wants to eat and sleep. She has fallen into a lovely little pattern of sleeping from 8pm to 8am and eating every 3-4 hours during the day with one long nap in the afternoon. Yeah, she rocks! She also has a nasty little habit of wiggling into trouble, whether it be rolling of the couch or into her brother's trains eliciting a tantrum from him.

Her current raves:
-Moo Man
-Moo Man's curly locks
-Her mommy
-Jumparoo
-Tacky 80's light fixtures
-People
-Black and White
-Dressing up as a strawberry

She could do without:
-Bottles
-Her car seat
-Sitting in any photo prop

week in review

Our week in a few photos:


Someone is FINALLY potty trained! Too bad it's a plastic cucumber and the potty is actually a bumbo seat.... Moo is convinced the bumbo is a potty... this could be very BAD come potty training time.


Ella Bella picked up some sweet new tricks from her cousin Booger Bear this past week. She is now drolling up a storm and rocking out in her jumparoo. I nearly had a nervous breakdown when my little 2 month old baby was too big for the lowest settings on her jumparoo and excersaucer. She is growing up WAY to fast for my liking.



I love Craigslist! I got a sweet deal on a Phil and Ted e3 stroller from the same awesome stroller girl would I bought a Maclaren Volo from a few months ago. I am in stroller love....


Just when I thought we had dodged the new sibling blues, Moo has decided that he is very jealous of Ella Bella. He tries and throw the boppy on the floor while I am feeding her and is constantly telling me that Ella Bella should be put down for a nap. He is also going through a mama boy phase and is inconsolable when I leave. Oye. He can often be found attached to my legs or hollering for MOOOOOOOOOM in a not so pleasant preteen way. Thanks to his cousins for teaching him that! :) Along with the jealousy, he wants to do whatever mommy is doing. From cooking, to going to the bathroom, to sewing, to photography... he is right there.




The Ikea fiasco has reignited his love of trains and we have had trains all over the floor since we got back from the coast. "Play trains mama?" "MOOOOOOOOOOM, MOOOOOOOOOM, play trains, ok?"

moo vs. the ocean part 2

Moo's second encounter with the ocean went pretty much the same as the first back in December....

Run to the water with great excitement, waves come up to his ankles, Moo gets scared and falls on his butt. Moo becomes terrified of the ocean and spends the rest of the time at the beach sobbing in terror if anyone he loves goes near the water. He even ran out to the edge of the waves to try and "save" me.

Ella Bella didn't particularly enjoy her first encounter with the ocean either. She didn't cry, but her little body tensed up as her toes went in the water.





We bailed on the beach after half an hour and headed to the hotel pool. Which, despite getting completely submerged and struggling while we fished him out, Moo loved. Ella Bella was watching from the side in her car seat until I noticed she was completely drenched in sweat and didn't respond when I pinched her foot. I unbuckled her as fast as I could and jumped in the water with her to cool her off. She was fine, just gave me a scare! She seemed to like the pool...

cured

Ikea. I love Ikea. Well, I loved Ikea.

I have been hither and yon the last few days traveling down to the sweltering coast to see my sis and her hubs and to meet their darling daughter Booger Bear. She is precious! I took just a *few* photos of her as she was introduced to the Auntie La's photo torture.

On the way back, my parents graciously agreed to stop at IKEA.

Let me set up the scene for you. 5 people traveling in a 5 person suv for 4.5 hours when we get to IKEA. 1 Gram, 1 Papa, 1 Mama, 1 Moo and 1 Ella Bella. Moo has not napped in days and went to bed way later than usual. Ella Bella equates anytime she is not in her car seat with eating. Gram and Mama (me) just want to shop. Poor Papa gets drug along. It's a Saturday and IKEA is BUSY.

My dad takes Moo to go jump on the beds and my mom and I begin perusing all of the wonderful offerings of IKEA, and quickly realize Ella Bella has soaked through her clothes. We take the redneck route and change her on one of the dozens of desks on display. Her pants are soaked and we are not about to loose one minute of shopping time so we leave her in just a shirt and diaper. First Mistake.

We continue shopping in relative IKEA induced bliss for the next 10 minutes. My dad and Moo meet back up with us near a train table. Moo wants to play trains and my dad watches him. Since Moo is completely train addicted and isn't going anywhere, my mom hands my dad Ella Bella and we proceed with our shopping. My mommy instinct is immediately nagging at me that Ella Bella is going to start screaming and I should just carry her. But do I listen.....

Nooooooooo.

About 5 minutes, okay maybe 10 minutes... it is IKEA, later... I can't ignore my instinct anymore and go back to get Ella Bella.

Oh goodness... the scene I found.

My dad had made it about 30 feet from the train table where Moo is screaming in a full on tantrum on the floor, undoubtedly because he had to leave the trains. Ella Bella has gone all angry tomato face and is full on screaming with her diaper falling off. My dad is frantically trying to dial his cell phone and hold her while this lady tries to "help him" by taking Ella Bella. He was full prepared to deck this lady if she even touched his grandbaby.

I felt sooooooooooo bad.

My poor dad. I don't think he will be so eager to go on another trip ANYWHERE with us. Needless to say, the IKEA experience went downhill from there. Moo screamed the rest of the time mourning the trains he left behind, I was walking around while feeding Ella Bella (thank goodness for hooter hiders!), my mom was trying unsuccessfully to calm Moo down, and my dad, well, he was understandably rattled and, umm, MAD. I bet my sis is having a good laugh right about now....

By the time we found our way back to the car and got everyone loaded up, we were all CRABBY. I am sure some expletive or off color description would more accurately convey the mood, but this is a family blog. Let your imagination fill in the scene. And we were still 8 HOURS from home. Oye vey.

So, I am cured of IKEA.

More accurately, I am cured of EVER taking my children there again.