Thursday, January 13, 2011

mlk

You might remember how I mentioned we have a new chalkboard wall in our kitchen. I use it to plan our menu and the week's activities. At the start of the month, Ella pleaded to write some things for me about the month of January. Here is the drawing she came up with...see if you can decipher its interpretation:


Need a hint? I know it looks a bit like a Thanksgiving turkey to the untrained eye. But it's actually a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. (you know...because Martin Luther King Jr. Day is in January.) You see how she spelled his name right above our menu? And those are conversation bubbles coming out of his mouth. They say things like, "love," "Be nice," "I have a dream" and I believe I remember her quoting, "Don't hit people."

Below the menu is Ella's own "dream" for the world:


It reads:
I want it to
be kindess, [kindness]
Love, peace,
perfect, hugs,
family, home
sweet home
and Brothers
and Sister.

That's her dream for you.

josie's first birthday

My Josie and her baby blues

Our little baby is officially a toddler. Her first year went by so quickly!

For her first birthday, we kept it simple and had her grandparents over for dinner and a quiet evening of celebration together. We ate some veggie soup which she is known to devour and introduced her to the joys of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting.



Surprisingly, she didn't lay into the cake like we expected (or like her siblings did on their first birthdays.) When we gave her the cupcake, she promptly squished it in her fist and then proceeded to pick it apart with her fingers, exploring the feel of it rather than the taste of it. I gave her a few small bites, which she accepted willingly, but she wasn't all that impressed. So what you see in this photo pretty much ended up in the trash can.

I had a lovely video of us singing her the happy birthday song and blowing out the candle, but somehow in my transfer of images from camera to computer, I deleted it *boo hoo*.

After dinner and cleanup, we opened presents. We got her a pair of soft soled shoes to help her in her new walking efforts and a fun sippy cup with a straw which she prefers over the handled sucking kind. Memaw and Papa got her a foam book which she has taken a real liking to and has been flipping through today.

A new development on her birthday was this special "photo face:"



She has officially learned how to strike a pose.
Happy birthday, my sweet love! You light up our lives!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

one small step for josie

Just shy of her first birthday, Josie officially began walking. She didn't want to perform for the camera when I actually took the time to GRAB the camera, but this gives you a general idea. And by the way, today is her birthday!

daddy daughter date


For Christmas, Bryan and I gifted each other books we thought the other would benefit from. I gave him a book on raising daughters which I thought would be helpful for both of us to read. It has had an impact for sure and reiterated to him the importance of quality time with his growing girls. Bryan used to regularly take Ella out on "dates" but the practice has gotten lost in the last couple of years for various reasons. As a sort of new years resolution, the hope is to get a daughter date in once a month.

When Bryan asked Ella if she'd like to go on a date earlier this week, the look on her face was priceless. She beamed! She was so excited, it was all she could talk about. When she woke up the morning of her date, she said, "I can't wait till tonight!" and she told all her friends at school that her dad was taking her on a date. When Bryan picked her up from school, she told many of the moms retrieving their kids the she was headed for her daddy date.

I helped her pick out a pretty dress and shoes and curled her hair and even let her wear some shimmery eye shadow and lip stick. She felt beautiful. As Bryan got ready, Ella requested that he get dressed up and "not wear jeans." She's an old fashioned girl, I suppose. So he got spiffy for her.

They left for the Chocolate Bar and Simon, Josie and I had pizza and played the Wii (which is a preferable date for Simon!) Ella ordered pizza at the restaurant and shared a beautiful chocolate dessert with her daddy. She ate quite a lot and he helped her with her manners, like eating slowly and putting her napkin in her lap. After she was quite full and let out a louder-than-she-expected burp, a look of embarrassment crossed her face and she leaned in to Bryan. "Pretend that was you, Dad, if anybody asks!!!"

On the way home, pondering the loveliness of her date night, she told Bryan, "Dad, I think it might be kind of weird if I married you."

Seeing her come alive with special Daddy time amazes me. What a high calling it is to be a parent and to have so much power to build up or tear down. I hope these times with Daddy will increase her confidence and desire to stay true to the lady she was created to be and that, through being pursued and honored, she will learn what it is to be treated rightly by the opposite sex. I love seeing her with her Daddy. She just adores him. In fact, last night at bedtime, we were all cuddled up reading books in her room and she was next to him. She told him with a smile, "Our date night never ends, Dad." He'll always be her number one fan.

christmas 2010 highlights

We had a lovely Christmas this year! The kids picked out our tree all by themselves. I actually stayed in with Josie since the weather was seriously frigid. I was very proud of myself for releasing the need to pick the perfect, most proportionate tree. They all did very well in my absence! It was a good exercise in letting go!


On the 22nd, Mimi flew in on a little charter plane. She was sick with a cold but was still in good spirits.

Uncle Josh came in on the 23rd bearing many amazing gifts. He's a very good gift giver and seemed to rather enjoy spoiling us all. Here he is beaming with satisfaction as his gifts go over big. (Sorry the photos in the post are all terrible!)

Uncle Josh, my big brother.
For Simon, the big hit was the matching Spiderman gloves and hat, which he didn't want to remove until he started sweating.



Uncle Josh made Ella's dreams come true by gifting her the entire set of Narnia books.


We celebrated Christmas Eve at the church with a candlelight service. Ella was thrilled to read some of the Christmas story up on the stage although she was suffering from a rather nasty runny nose.



Christmas morning, we celebrated in our normal way. Bryan sat with the kids and told the story of Jesus' birth and the kids threw in their two cents as well. Then we opened our stockings. The kids were thrilled with all the little treasures, especially the new toothbrushes! I love that they get so giddy over Crest spin brushes. And of course, the large tin of m&ms which they've come to expect. We also gave Ella a Magic Tree House (Christmas in Camelot) book which was the only thing she asked for specifically this year. She was ECSTATIC to open it and had it read cover to cover within a couple of days.


We spent Christmas day with the Mowrey clan and had lots of fun eating and laughing and opening gifts. I'm still trying to find the room for all the kids' loot!

I promise we didn't let her actually eat candy canes.
Amidst the loot

batman birthday


Simon requested a batman party this year to celebrate turning four. (Can it really be true that he's already four??!) We haven't really done a "proper" party for him in the past since we learned through experience (Ella is always the guinea pig) that smaller parties are better until the child is a bit more mature and able to handle all the activity and attention. (Ella always cried when a crowd sang her happy birthday.) This was the first year that we instituted the "guests equal the number of years you are" rule. Simon was able to invite four of his closest buddies and we had a swell time celebrating dark knight style.

We decked out the table with all his favorite junky foods (and threw in some carrots for good measure.)


Always gotta have the chocolate cupcake.

Simon is into all things super hero these days and I wanted him to be able to dress up as Batman for the day. He already had a super cool mask, but no attire. I found some cheap Batman pajamas online at Walmart and considered that the costume. I tracked down capes at Oriental Trading Company and was able to get one for each of our guests so they could join in the fun! The only problem was, the day before the party, I gathered my things to assemble Batman goody bags when I noticed I hadn't counted Simon in on the total when I ordered the capes. I was one cape short! I envisioned teary meltdowns as Simon handed out capes to all his friends and didn't have one for himself. It was too late to order another one (DRAT!) Fortunately, I had a remnant of black satin stored away in the basement (leftover from the dress I had made for my senior prom...gasp!...I am NOT a hoarder!) I whipped together a cape, amidst muttering under my breath how annoyed I was at myself for miscounting, that made Simon look the part! He wore it all day and has even asked to sleep in it (I denied the request since it ties around the neck and I was afraid he'd wake up in the night strangulating!)

The boys all played nice and there were no tears, fights or black eyes. I was rather pleased with the whole affair! There was even space for some adult conversation! My only regret is that we didn't wrestle all the boys down to get a photo of them in their capes. It was a little too high energy to remember such things...

Simon got a batmobile from his friend Gabe. It's super cool.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

simon's bedroom makeover

For Simon's fourth birthday (Dec. 9) I decided that his big present should be a room makeover. When we moved to this house almost four years ago, Simon's room was a bit of an after thought. He was only six months old, still slept in our room, and there was too much going on to really put much thought into his play space. As he's gotten older and needed more room to play, I've felt slightly guilty that I never made his room special or suited to him. It's kind of been the "whatever-is-handed-down-or-leftover" room. And it wasn't inviting for play or imagination because it was crowded, disorganized and small.

When Ella got a bunk bed, Simon insisted on spending weekend nights in her room, and that underscored my feeling that he needed to feel excited about his own space. We conned my dad and step mom into lugging another IKEA loft/bunk bed when they visited us for Thanksgiving and I set to work on the makeover the week before Simon turned four. Here are the before and afters...

Bed, before: It was a platform bed and was awesome for transitioning from a crib to big boy bed. But with a small room, it was impractical since there was no way to store anything underneath.


Bed, after: IKEA Kura Reversible bed with canopy. Instant imagination tunnel and tons of space to play underneath. I imagine making some curtains that could enclose the play space below to create a hideout if he fancied. Someday, maybe.


You'll also notice that I (along with my amazing painting gal pals) painted the walls a deep navy blue. It was a risk in such a small room, but the large windows and coat of crisp white on all the trim make it pretty sharp. All the bright colors POP against this deep blue backdrop. I'm in love with the color! The star wall light stays on most of the time, especially at night, because the deep hue on the walls absorbs light and it gets super dark under the canopy.

Closet, before: It was nothing special. The doors are made of thick particle board and couldn't be any cheaper or more unimpressive. Simon used them for collecting random stickers.


Closet, after: I used an entire can of magnetic primer under a fresh coat of white. I wanted Simon to be able to spell words and use his magnetic letters and phonics system on the face of the doors. But even after ten coats, the primer is only strong enough to hold the thinnest, flattest magnets. The larger letter magnets barely stay on. It's still kind of neat though.


Ceiling/Light fixture, before: TERRIBLE! Ugh! Plaster textured ceiling with ancient, not so cool vintage flush mount light.


Ceiling/Light fixture, after: I hand drew some simple, cartoon clouds and used the remnants of an old can of blue paint I had leftover from Ella's room at our old house. I love the way it turned out! (Ignore the bit of white still left around the base of the new fixture...I'll have to touch that up!)


And the light fixture was such a fun shade of yellow, it was what gave me the inspiration to move forward with a dramatic shade of midnight blue. They complement each other, don't they?


Wall art, before: I kept the airplane decals that I had used in his room before because I thought he'd miss them.

  
Wall art, after:  Fortunately, the decals show up better on this new wall color. The same goes for the pinball glass that has always hung in his room. It is highlighted and more noticeable now.



He loves it, and I am thrilled to have done such a massive overhaul on his room! The amazing thing is, I was able to achieve pretty dramatic changes without spending much money since paint is the biggest alteration and the bed and lights were IKEA-mazingly affordable! It was fun to do and I hope it will bring him hours of imaginative play.

first crush?

Not long ago, we said goodbye to some friends who moved back to New Hampshire after being a part of our church for about six months. In the short time they were here, Simon became very close buddies with the little girl named Abegail, who is right around his age. Something about this little girl brought out a side of him that I had never seen before, and haven't seen since. Whenever she was around, he would get giggly and excited but not in a crazy, rowdy way that he gets around other boys. It was more like sheer joy and elation to be with her.

The week before they left, we had a little luncheon play date to send them off with love. I snapped some photos that I think captures the feeling Simon has for Abegail.
Happy.

Happier.

Happiest.
One night, chatting with Simon, he mentioned Abegail. I said, "She's nice, isn't she?" He replied, "Yeah. And pretty too." 

Since she moved, he made a Wii character out of her. *Sniff*

where I left off

A lot happens in the span of three months. That's how long it's been since I recorded anything on this blog! It's so hard to find the time and I've avoided spending extra time on the computer since it steals time away from the kids. So, I've got a lot of material to cover in this post...And since it seems crazy to try to catch up, I'll just give you some "best of" material.

In October, Ella had a school trip to a pumpkin farm. The photo below is of her and her closest school buddy, Makenzie. They are a super cute pair but sometimes I'm flabbergasted at the drama that occurs with girls in KINDERGARTEN! Seriously, sometimes it seems like seventh grade stuff.

Makenzie and Ella
Later in the month, around my birthday, we visited Mimi in Edina. We had a great hike at Thousand Hills State Park and enjoyed visiting the petroglyphs. Simon loved being out in the wide open space and he mentioned the hike again to me just this past week. We'll be visiting this spot again for sure in the spring when it's warmer.

Simon on the run amidst the trees
I finally got him to sit still long enough to snap this shot! This boy is known for his boots!

In that same trip, we spent lots of time at various parks. Mom's apartment is pretty small so we're always looking for ways to get the wiggles out. The above shot is Simon playing guitar with a stick at the old Rutledge school playground I mentioned in a post long ago. And below is Ella looking sweet at the same park.


For Halloween, we kept things simple. We trick or treated just along our street for a couple of blocks and then went to a party at some friends' place. Ella was Elastigirl from The Incredibles, Simon was Spiderman, and Josie was a daisy. There were so many stinkin' cute photos, but I just don't have the room to share them all!

This costume was amazingly cute but didn't stay on very long. Babies and head gear don't mix.

Spidey and Elastigirl
In November, I (and a handful of amazing girlfriends) painted the cherry red kitchen a more subdued bluish gray. (Enter *sigh of relief* here.) The paint job also included a chalkboard wall by the fridge that I use for my menu planning as well as for keeping track of tasks and weekly events. It has also come in handy for the kids art fix. Simon has drawn me some interesting works. The below images come from his "Garden of Eden" depiction. Simon is particularly interested in this Bible story, in fact, when we read it last time, I asked him why Adam and Eve had to leave the garden. His answer was, "Cause there was a SNAKE in there!!!"
This Garden features three snakes that say. "P P P" instead of hissing.
Detail of snake's face
And we'll end this "best of" with a shot of Josie. Man has she grown. But I'll give the low down on that in a post all her own. Hopefully. If I can find a free moment.
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