Weekly Randoms and Pictures

Well, it's officially three weeks (minus one day) until Eric returns home. I can hardly believe our time apart is half over! And we've only had frozen pizza for supper twice. And pancakes for supper thrice. Okay, and once for lunch, but we were sick that day! And I served them with smoothie!
Our schedule this week consisted of story time, swim lessons, park time, making cookies with the girls in full charge (I made myself proud and really tried hard to step aside and let them do the work, spills and all!), as well as Amelia's 2 yr. well exam. Amelia is 23lb.s 8 oz., some odd inches tall... (2nd child, right?) right on target developmentally, and, other than seasonal allergy yuckiness, the overall picture of good health.

Here, Amelia is sporting her new stingray visor (courtesy of the craft time at the Barr Memorial Library) at the special Louisville Zoo comes to Story Time event. Both my brave ladies pet a very large snake named Regina, a hedgehog named Peaches, and a chinchilla named... Chincilla.
No pictures, though, as I was too busy holding Amelia back: she wanted to pet the miniature barn owl, who was not to be pet, but she was quite passionate about it. "I pet owl! I pet owl!"
Swim lessons for Hannah are going well. To be honest, she has had minimal swim time in the last year, and in a class full of 6 yr. olds, she is not progressing as quickly as they are. BUT: Hannah has learned to climb in and out of the pool all by herself, hold onto the wall while she kicks her legs underwater, and blow bubbles in the water with her mouth and nose. And after each lesson, she matter of factly states that she had fun. That is really all that matters.

Every princess needs a castle. And a good pointed-foot ballet move. Done and done!

Some of the free boxes I scored via 'recycle-dumpster-diving' were a little weakened, so we reused them to make a fort, instead, complete with 'secret tunnel.' Even Walter jumped in a few times.

By early last week, Amelia had been attempting to climb out of her crib several times. Each time she attempted this feat, she would catch her leg in the bars of the crib, and begin screaming, "I shtuck! I shtuck!" I feared she would lose her balance somehow during an escape attempt and break her leg. Paranoid? Possibly. Better safe than sorry? Most definitely.
Not wanting to purchase or assemble any major pieces of furniture while my hubby is away or 7 weeks before a move, I was lucky enough to find a secondhand toddler bed in our desired price range that was within a 5 minute drive. Unfortunately, the bed is blue plastic Disney Princess, specifically The Little Mermaid. You know, the one with the C-shells? Not ideal. I'm contemplating taking a little Goo Be Gone to the large sticker on the headboard.

I don't know, is it just me? I don't exactly dislike the whole 'princess' thing, with the dressing up, and the fantasy about living in a castle or dancing and singing to woodland creatures. I did that, too, and I turned out fine. (Mostly I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder or Anne Shirley, though. Way cooler.)
I just do not want my daughters worshipping specific characters who possess no valuable or admirable qualities as a person. Or who wear purple pasties and call it an outfit! It's called a tee shirt, Ariel, try getting one!
Erm... Anyway. Amelia has transitioned pretty smoothly. I do hear the pitter-patter of little feet leaving bed to get a book, and I have had to put her back into bed, at most, 4 times in one night. But it's been a solid week now, and the crib has been taken apart and tucked into a spare closet. In these pictures, I walked into her room after nap time only to discover some books scattered across her bed, while she was on the floor. I'm not certain if she fell asleep on the floor, though, or if she just woke up earlier than I expected... Precious, though, either way.
I can't believe our baby girl is in a toddler bed! Seems like just yesterday we were in the midst of colic and co-sleeping and total, insanity-inducing sleep deprivation.... *Sigh*
Well, that 'bout wraps things up for this week. Y'all come back, now, ya hear!!

Scenes From a Park

Utilized this nifty lil' feature on my pocket digital camera for the first time ever. Didn't realize it had sound.
(We do own an actual video camera, but I can't figure out how to upload the home movies. I tried reading the instruction manual, but it may as well be written in Japanese. So I'm just going to pack it up and make Eric deal with it after the move. Hannah's first dance recital, from last May, is still on there waiting to be shared with the grandparents. That's just sad.)

Hannah:


Hannah has completed crossing the monkey bars, but during times I didn't have my camera out. She seems to forget that simple fact every time we go to the park. She is always asking me to help her across, and I am always reminding her that she can do it by herself. So I agree to help, but only if she makes it to the second bar all by herself first. We learned a new word this week: persevere.

Amelia:



Amelia is funny at parks. She likes to climb up onto equipment, and then start yelling, "Ow! Ow!" once she's up there. So I help her down, and she climbs right back up. She acts very sensitive to the touch of the equipment. She used to like slides, but she's since grown afraid of them. They are always 'too hot' now. Even when they're not. Amelia likes to jump off of everything, though, even the landings that are like 4 feet tall and should not be jumped off of by someone her size. I prefer when she liked the slides.

This Week's Random Bits

Eric left for BNCOC/VA 2009. We dropped him off at Louisville Int'l Airport early Sunday morning, and then the girls and I drove straight to St. Louis to spend a few days with my Grammy and extended family. My younger cousin Sarah was having a BBQ to commemorate her graduation from high school. I used to baby sit her. I distinctly remember a time when she was 4, and explaing the ways of the big, wide world to her little brother John (then 2), and she'd say, "It's a cinch, John. This is how you're asposed to do it." And now she's old enough to vote and go to Ole' Miss. Sheesh.
Miss Amelia's mullet is long enough for piggie tails nowadays....

While in St. Louis we decided to visit the Saint Louis Zoological Park. If you're in town, I highly recommend it. It is a spectacular zoo! We spent about 4 hours there, with precise directions from Miss Hannah Bee to view the lions, tigers, flamingos, zebras, sea lions and hyenas. We missed the hyenas, but made up for it by seeing some crocodiles, kangaroos, wallabees, hippos, rhinos, etc...

Skip to Walter, resting in the backyard after an intense game of fetch. Our dog is awesome.

Here are my girls being read to by my Grammy. This scene warms my heart. The girls adore her, and Amelia would run around her house calling, "Gammy! Gammy! Gammy, Gammy!"

A family picnic lunch at the Louisville Waterfront Park right before Eric left. Amelia's chowing down on a cookie from the Homemade Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen. Yeah, they sell cookies there, too. If you're in town, I highly recommend it. I didn't get too many pictures of this day. But we ended the afternoon taking an early supper at the New Albany Brewing Co., Eric's pick. Awesome pizza.

Me, in front of the camera... er... sort of, for a change. Road trip!
Once in St. Louis, I was able to visit a Hobby Lobby for the first time ever. Oh. My. Goodness. It was heavenly. I spent my whole allowance on lots of little crafting 'wants.' Oh, yes... By the end of summer, all my projects should be crossed off my craft to-do list and looking good. Of course, it'll all just go directly into a moving box, but I'm so excited for our next home!

Amelia didn't really like getting wet by the sprinkler. She prefers baths and pools to showers and sprinklers.

And here's a Little Tykes thing, off the curb, which we will utilize for the remainder of our time here in Kentucky.

Hannah Bee running around our yard back at home, utilizing the awesome sprinkler Mommy found on the curb at the end of last summer. Woohoo!

At the zoo... love that face... love that girl...
And Miss Hannah Bee will begin swim lessons next week! This particularly excites Mommy, as I distinctly remember almost drowning as a child. Twice. I know my girls mostly swim in the bathtub at this juncture, but alas...
Saving the best update for last: Eric discovered, shortly after arriving to BNCOC/VA 2009, that his graduation date (and therefore, his return date) will be bumped up by 2 entire weeks! He is expected to fly home on either July 2 or 3, instead of July 17. FABULOUS! Obviously, we are quite excited by this, as we do so like him.
M'kay, that's about it I think.

This Week's Random Bits

I attended my first, and last, Ladies' Night Out with my group of FRG gals here this week. I hated to take off during one of the last weeks Eric and I will have together for a while, but... I needed to take off during the last free nights I'll have for the next 8 weeks. Plus, these are wonderful ladies, and I don't get together with them nearly enough.
We went to a charity event at the Melting Pot in Louisville to benefit St. Jude's Childrens Hospital. The food... oh my goodness... Have you been to the Melting Pot before? I had not. Oh. My. Goodness.
Ladies in Kentucky party in hats. Regretfully, all I have are baseball caps, which clashed with my kitten heels.

Hannah is very devoted to journal time lately. She has three little notepads that she's constantly 'writing' in, though don't let her catch you calling it a notebook: it's a journal. It's fantastic to watch her deep in thought, 'writing.'

Amelia during some family drawing time. Can you tell I trimmed her mullet? A whole inch! She looks like such a little lady now!

The weather is sporadic this week. We take advantage of outside time when we can. At least, with 'inside time' comes more craft time. I seem to remember a special Hallmark Holiday approaching... The girls were very excited to craft some cards this week. Hannah, with encouragement, signed her name in all of them, too. She refused to learn how to write "Grandma." Sorry, Grandma!

A little gardening! We planted some sunflower seeds in a backyard bed, and a few Super-tunias and seeds in our baskets and one large planter out front. We're keeping it really simple since we're moving at the end of summer. Other than our hanging baskets, all of our outside planters (3 large and 6 small) were discovered last winter on someone's curb. Again, I practically jumped from a moving vehicle to claim them, and I distinctly remember a phone conversation with my sister as I'm standing at the gas station, vacuuming potting soil off the floor of our trunk because one of them tipped over on the drive home. But that only cost me 4 quarters, so who gets the last laugh? Mwa-ha-ha!!

Miss Hannah-Bee and me at the park. She refused to let me work the camera here, but I actually quite like her picture. Between the two of us, we almost have an entire face.
This girl cracks me up! We've celebrated her 5th birthday three times in the last two weeks. Basically, we find whatever baked goods we have in the house, pop some candles into them, and sing 'Happy Birthday' to the whole family after dinner. We decided to leave the cloth celebration banner pinned up in the dining room in anticipation of yet another 'birthday.' At this rate, it may remain up until Amelia's (real) 2nd birthday!
Eric has officially started BNCOC this week. I forget what this particular acroynym stands for, as there several. Hundred. Let me ask the DH about this ASAP. Anyway, the gist of it: it's a 10 week training school for soldiers once they've been promoted to Staff Sergeant. They take lots of classes, like leadership, Army history, sexual harrasment prevention, etc. It's exciting stuff.
Regardless, we are lucky that the first two weeks of this course take place right here on Fort Knox. So Eric will be able to come home each night, and will also have Sunday off. But the remainder of his BNCOC will take place at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, VA. He will be gone from May 17 - July 17. We are not exactly looking forward to this, but it could be a lot worse.
And that is this week, in a nutty nutshell.

Spring Break 2009

Here's a picture of my feet on the spring break of my dreams....
a sandy beach...





And here's a picture of my feet, on the spring break of my reality. A sandy... sandbox. In the backyard of our not-so-exotic Kentucky home. *Sigh*
(Yes, I am so pale I match the 'white sand' in the sandbox. And I'm in desperate need of a pedicure, no? I try to stick with a more natural look, but have sadly inherited my father's feet. And while I'm sure he's glad they don't look feminine, me... not so much).


But we are fortunate enough to be enjoying 70 degree days with gentle breezes and lots of outdoor time this week. The girls have been thoroughly enjoying their sandbox, our replenished supply of bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and eating snacks outside at our little picnic table.... The girls spent some time picking 'flowers' in the front yard with Mommy and Daddy watching on and reading.... We also logged plenty of time at our favorite parks getting good and dirty...
We have had a pretty darn good spring break this week!!
Happy Spring Break!

Happenings

Let's begin this blog by me stating that I do, in fact, brush her hair. Girl Scouts honor! But my girls like to do crafts first thing after breakfast, pre-clothing and hair brushing. And I consent because if they accidentally get paint on their 'jammas' versus their clothes, well... who cares?We had a few rainy days keep us inside lately, so we tried some new crafts. Here is Hannah painting a peg doll! Which we will later construct into a necklace, once we get more hook things at the craft store. We, mostly me, are excited about the endless possibilities found in the unfinished wood aisle in Michael's in conjunction with the weekly 40% off coupon which allows me one new craft per week at a bargain! Yes!!
This week's craft bargain (Yes!!): Peg doll necklaces for the girls. Came across this terrific idea here. The girls named them Hannah and Blue. Can you guess which is which?
Here is an adorable photo of Hannah from last week, a couple days before a tornado almost got us!! Yeah, did I mention the tornado? We were seriously, incredibly fortunate it dissipated 3-4 minutes prior to reaching Fort Knox. Thank God Eric is such a weather fiend, and once he heard the sirens he turned on the news, firmly stated we were getting the girls out of bed and bringing them downstairs in case we needed to crowd into our little windowless half-bath (it's actually more like a glorified shoe box with a toilet--but whatever).... and then right before it was time to grab a blanket and crowd in there, it was gone. Crazy.
At last week's story time there was a guest speaker from the Humane Society of Nelson County. The woman brought her 11 yr. old cocker spaniel, Tater Tot, in to meet the children and teach them about dog safety. We learned to only approach dogs on leashes, and only pet them if you receive permission from their owner. And if you see a dog approaching you in an aggressive manner you:
get down and pretend to be a rock! Amelia had fun copying the big kids.
There's Hannah approaching Tater. What a sweet dog!! She likes apples, so her owner brought a baggie full of apple pieces for the kids to feed her.
Hannah pretending to 'be a mountain' while you wait for the dog to sniff you prior to petting them. Sweet girl! What an animal lover she is. She says that when we get a house of our own she wants another dog named Daisy, and also two cats named Brown and Brownie. I see a compromise in there somewhere... and a lot of lint rollers...

This Week

(ignore the slight snot-nose here, please. it was one of those times where it became dried before you even realized it was there,
and she wouldn't let me do the 'lick my thumb and wipe it' trick. shameful.)

We have been experiencing gorgeous weather this week! Needless to say, we've been spending a lot of time playing outside and blowing bubbles, taking wagon rides, going to the park, etc.Hannah showing us her latest trick! She even dangled with no hands for a few seconds!

Hannah wanted to take a picture of us. So, in a rare moment, the parents on the other side of the camera.

Hannah looking ever so precious at breakfast the other day. The girls are on a big breakfast kick this week; every day the girls gobble up two bowls of Nature's Path flakes each! Which is Mommy and Daddy's favorite cereal right now, as well. Needless to say, we're having trouble keeping the pantry stocked.
One of our crafts themed around "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Hannah wrote her name on the circles, one letter per circle. Then, she glued them in order onto a piece of construction paper, and added a face and antennas. Amelia needed Mommy to write her name and draw the face, but she very much enjoyed playing with the glue.
We also tried this craft from "No Time for Flash Cards" where you use cookie cutters dipped in paint to make shapes on your paper. Our cookie cutters are cheap plastic ones (Dollar Tree-- they were 6 for $1), so while we weren't quite able to identify every animal, it was still fun.
After a little while, and by that I mean 4 minutes, the girls just wanted to finger paint anyway.
Hannah has gotten fairly good at writing letters. Maybe half the alphabet? Either big, little or both. The only word she writes is her name. And our little lefty has started switching hands on me lately! Strange. She has a few 'sight words' she can read: 'a, I, no, on,' and 'all.' Hannah also is showing a natural propensity for math. When we are eating multiples of an item, say grapes, we will use subtraction as we eat. "I have seven grapes. If I takeaway one, that leaves me... six!" It's awesome to see children learn through simple play, with no stress or strict agenda.
Amelia has also made some huge strides in her vocabulary recently! In the last week, she has added the following phrases to her repertoire:

"I wu you!"--I love you!
"Boo!"--blue, or really any color. She will point at other colors correctly if you ask her to, but verbally identifies them all as blue.
"Na-na!"--Hannah! (this generally has a negative connotation)
"Dee-du, Mom."--Thank you, Mom.
"Okay, Mommy."--Okay, Mommy. (she replies to everything I say to her with this phrase)
"See Amy!"--Show me my dang picture, woman! (as she's pointing to the digital camera)
"Tickle me, Daddy"--Father, would you please engage in the sport of tickling me for my amusement?

Leaps and bounds, I tell ya!

Wearing "Green"

In our house, we use a lot of paper for art. Even with coloring on both sides, using scratch paper and always, always recycling leftovers, it can feel like a bit much at times. So we've been using our imaginations lately, and seeking out projects that utilize our 'trash' a bit better.
What are some things you do to be more conscientious crafters? Do you have any specific resources you turn to for ideas?

Some scissors, a mixture of blue and yellow washable paint (makes green--didya know?!) in our cleaned-out applesauce cups, Mommy's hot glue gun, and viola! A lovely pair of "green" St. Patrick's Day hats. Top of the mornin' to ya!

Scar(f)

Evil-Knievel here tried jumping off Big Sis' twin bed. That didn't work out so well, as you can see. I anticipated the bruise on her forehead being really bad, so we tried immediately swabbing the bump with a cotton ball soaked in vinegar. You can barely see it now, less than 24 hrs. later.
Old wives tale? Perhaps not.

Hannah's scarf is complete! It's fine merino wool, and of course, pink and purple. She seemed quite pleased that she was finally able to wear it, and would hardly sit still long enough for me to take a picture.

This Week

We did some 'green' themed crafts. Here is Amelia using markers and glue, a dangerous combination. What idiot didn't put her smock on?

Holy Turkey Bacon, Batman! She does eat meat!

Love the hair, right? Our inspiration for this side-half-pony comes from the one and only Sophie-saurus.

Hannah completing her green craft. We also did another green "green" craft: a St. Patrick's Day crown (made from recycled milk boxes) to wear to Daddy's parade on Saturday. Since it's only Friday, I have no pictures of the girls actually wearing their crowns yet. So... later, gator.

Hannah chowing down on some "deceptively delicious" cheese quesadilla. Amelia could tell something was amiss with this entree, and calmly requested* plain tortilla with her meal instead.
(*threw her quesadilla to the dog, shoved her plate across the table and screamed)
But when we used the same butternut squash/shredded cheese combo on pasta or in a grilled cheese sandwich, she thoroughly enjoyed it. Go figure. Fresh baby spinach on homemade pizza (under the sauce--hence, deception) and the pumpkin bread with cauliflower puree are also hits in our house. I like this cookbook so, so much.

Springing Forward

Well, Kentucky weather is unusually freakish lately. Even for Kentucky. Sunday afternoon we skipped grocery shopping to stay home and wait out the tornado warnings. Exciting stuff! Now can I please just go get the dang bananas and dish detergent??
We've had high's in the 60's this past week, with tomorrow forecasted to be a whopping 78 degrees! And, true to form, Wednesday will be back in the mid-40's. Nice. But we are certainly taking advantage of our springish days while we can....

Here's our little vegetarian, who has recently also sworn off eggs. She will, however, root under the table for any dropped raisins that Walter didn't get. Remind me to add 'children's vitamins' to that grocery list....

Hannah found a little purple flower in our front yard. It's probably a weed, but we were still excited to find signs of spring life.

Amelia playing in dirt. The girls adore playing in dirt lately. Forget the park! Give them shovels and any and all of my currently plantless pots with dirt, and they just go back and forth, shoveling to and fro... "planting" flowers. I look forward to planting a few annuals with them in May, when Kentucky is finally considered safe from freeze.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the answer is 'yes.' Amelia did sample the dirt.

That hair is still crazy, even after a recent cut and even more recent brushing!

Hannah found 'treasure' at the field opposite our place. We spent some time running from pirates and trying to bury it. We also tried drawing a map to it's location, but Hannah is experiencing a desire to draw things beyond her years, and naturally, is frustrated by that. I've been trying to lightly outline things for her in basic shapes with pencil, allowing her to draw over it in color and elaborate. I don't know, is this wrong? I don't want to condition a perfectionist, but I understand that she can't yet draw what she sees.

Been a little while...

We've had a somewhat busy time lately. Last week, Eric went to Mardi Gras with the band. Usually, we do just fine with him gone, as we're pretty used to short trips and long days. But then there are those times when he leaves, and the remaining family goes to the nuthouse.
This was such a time.
Amelia is still working on those bottom bicuspids. Not only is our sweet girl a bit of a drama queen, she does not suffer teething kindly. And we ran out of teething tablets. And can't remember where we bought them in the first place.
And Hannah, for whatever reason, took to throwing huge tantrums anytime we were in public. Oh, yes. Lovely. There was the FRG get-together where a kind lady had to carry a screaming, crying Hannah to our van for me... then, there was her well-exam, where upon discovering that they closed the immunization office early and that we would have to come back later, she screamed, cried and ran away from me... and I had to chase her down the hall carrying Amelia, two lovies, a diaper bag, and a blankie with a pharmacy full of people staring at us. Mommy did the 'walk of shame' a few times last week. By Wednesday, we stopped leaving the house.
Luckily, everyone is feeling a little less cranky this week. In fact, I'd say we're back to down right sweet and adorable.

Here's Hannah 'making' some icing for her 'cupcakes.' She has decided to rename herself Rose, and says she is having a wedding tomorrow at 6. *Sigh* This is my problem with little girls liking Princesses: basically, their whole goal in life is to find their prince and be married, wear dresses and crowns. I've told her that weddings are for Mommys and Daddys, and we should just throw a dinner party. Or a birthday party. Or her inauguration... where she'll be a President, a highly respected political status, and do wonderful things for humanity. And she'll still get to wear the dress!
She's four, so she doesn't care.

Painting in pajamas, a favorite pastime. The girls have a whole new stack of art to put up on the art wall. Now, if I could just find my tape.

Amelia is getting better at painting. Before, she was confused by the process of using the water to wet the paint, and instead kept rinsing the paint off before touching her brush to paper.

Just a sweet face. Her mullet is getting so long, I'm tempted to trim it. But I fear she might look more like a little girl instead of a big baby. I'm not ready for that, yet.