Elizabeth's 2 year stats

Elizabeth had her two year check up a few weeks ago. The gap between her height and weight is finally starting to close up a bit. She is doing well, although she was very angry that she had to take her clothes (and shoes) off for the exam.

Weight: 22lb.13oz. (5-7%)

Height: 34 1/2 in. (50-75%)

Phone woes

Just an FYI:
Our new Magic Jack is not working so well. It takes it approximately three days to get our voice mail messages on the phone. I am thinking it would be faster for people to just send us letters. Pony Express would probably even be faster than our voice mail. So until we get this sorted out it might be easier to just leave me an email if we don't answer the phone. (I am usually home but can't always hear the phone ring over the vacuum, kids screaming, dog barking, etc.)
Carissa . dains @ comcast. net (no spaces)

Haven't we been through this before?

I have been desparately trying to get Ian on a normal sleep cycle. This means he can not take naps. However, that is easier said then done. He does okay until around dinner time and then he crashes.

I came into the living room at 6pm and discovered this:


I wake him up:


And...now, 30 seconds later, he is asleep again:


I was able to rouse him again by offering to let him play on the computer. But I guess that 10 minute cat nap ruined things because he is still awake (in his bed) and it is 11pm.

Ian golfs

Elizabeth golfs

Swimming at Uncle E-fun's

Park pictures #2

The park we went to had a dog park as well so we took Max and Barney. It wasn't easy cramming two adults four kids and two dogs in our van but we did it. There was some upset when a certain 100+ lb. dog couldn't figure out where to sit and tried to sit on Annika's lap. In that dog's defense he wasn't sure where to go in my crowded van and also no one has told him that he is not a lap dog.

Doggie BFFs


No, Max would not like to do tricks...


But Annika will!

Park pictures #1

Look down at the bottom right of this picture. There is Elizabeth really wishing she could climb up there with her sisters:

I have a lot of pictures to post and am going to get to them soon. I have been busy being ticked off at the dog, doing homework and (re)reading this:




Needless to say it has been a long week.

Too dumb for facebook...or...I'm not crazy, I'm just an airhead

So I was on facebook today and saw Lucy had written to me "You are funny" or something like that. Now I found that puzzling that she would just mention that out of the blue, because I hadn't written anything to her recently. So I looked on her wall (young people, is that even the correct term?) and saw unbeknownst to me I did leave her a comment. Here was her status, paraphrased (hope you don't mind me sharing Luce) "Lucy McKillip just got six holes in one." Everyone else commented "oh you're a champ" or asked if it was puttputt or regular golf. And here was my comment: "Does your journal have a unicorn on the front to guard your hopes and dreams?"

Now how did that get on there? I wrote that to Malcolm because he likes lame Scrubs references as much as me and his status had made mention of a journal. But somehow it shows up on Lucy's comments about puttputt? I do not get. It was kind of amusing though that she had such normal comments and then my weird one that made absolutely no sense. And how sweet was she to write back and tell me I was funny? That was a very charitable way to put it.

Does this shirt offend you?

It really really bothers Ian when I wear it. He hates it. I got it from my mom and the first time I wore it he badgered me with questions- why was I wearing Grandma's shirt, why did she give it to me, why did I have to wear it. He complained all day about how much he didn't like it. I forgot about it until a few days later when I put it on one morning while Ian was still sleeping. I kid you not when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were a stern "I told you not to wear that shirt."
The next time I wore it I knew it would cause a ruckus, but I don't like taking clothing orders from a four year old, so I threw it on to run to the store. As I was bent over Ian buckling his carseat he looked me over and said sadly, "You look horrible."

Now me being me, I couldn't help but wonder if I could some how use this to my advantage. I know time-outs or taking away privileges don't work with Ian as punishments, but what about threatening him with the shirt? "If you don't pick up your toys, I am going to go put on Grandma's shirt!" I bet he would do whatever I ask him, that is how much he hates this shirt.

Happy 'to-to' Elizabeth

Reading her birthday card:

Opening presents:

This time she cooperated with blowing out her candles:

Elizabeth's sunshine cake:


Because this blogs also serves as a baby book, I am going to re-cap Elizabeth's birthday party. We figured an after-nap party would be best because Elizabeth would be in a good mood and she was. She seemed to enjoy herself. She opened her first present (a dog on a leash that barks and walks) and she was done. She didn't want any more presents, she just wanted to play with that. We got her opening a few more but then she got tired and would hand the packages to me and say "Here, open it." She was funny when we would open clothing because she would say "Ohhhhhh!" What can I say, she is a clotheshorse already. She got lots of cute outfits (I can't wait to dress her up in them!) and fun toys. She is a lucky baby!
I was a little worried when it was time for the cake because she was a little mad on her actual birthday when we sang to her (see birthday torture slideshow.) However she handled it well and even blew out her candles after I demonstrated. I guess it is a good thing we did a trial run earlier so she would know how the whole birthday cake thing works, that we really will give her a piece and are not just going to hold it in front of her while she cries!
So I think after two weeks of celebrating, her birthday is now officially over. Now we can look forward to the next birthday.

Mmmm...custard

This is one of those times where she goes straight from the highchair to the bathtub.

Today's high was 80 degrees

I hate to jinx myself but...

Can it be? After NINE months is this dog finally housetrained?

Alexandria says...

"Mama I want to be like you when I grow up...except I don't want to lose my keys all the time."

Deja vu

Fashion by Elizabeth

Remember how Elizabeth has been wanting to dress herself lately? She has been wearing everybody else's clothes. She has a particular weakness for fleece, but any jacket or winter coat will do. She gets upset that we won't let her wear them outside the house (it is hot after all) or to bed (her bedroom also gets warm.)

Technology is taking over our house

I have tried to fight it but there seems to be no stopping it. The girls are now happy new owners of ipods. Karl got them both free- one in a drawing, another from his boss. The girls love them and run around singing their songs at the top of their lungs. It is pretty funny to hear two different songs being shouted out at the same time. And all three of the older kids are computer experts. Even Ian is able to minimize windows, scroll and double click like it is nothing. No one taught him this, how does he know how to navigate his way around a computer so well? And Alexandria? Have you seen her blog? She is amazing. She posts slideshows that put mine to shame. And the thing you need to know about that is that she is unable to see the pictures on her computer when she selects them. So she is blindly trying to select just by the file name and is able to do it!
Even the baby wants in on the technology:


Also now Karl has set Alexandria up with her own email account. Today I asked her how her ear was feeling and she said "I'm emailing you about that Mommy."
And she did, complete with pictures. I tell you it is tough being the dumb blonde among this bunch. Although I should be glad because they can all help me, right?

Fun at the lake

We went to Papa and Nana's this weekend and got to enjoy our first boat ride of the season. Poor Alexandria was sick and had to stay home in what she called "military confinement." Luckily I am sure there are plenty more boat rides to be had this summer.


Heading to the dock:

Elizabeth enjoying the wind:

Ian helping Papa drive the boat while Kurt looks on:

Ian modeling Erin's sunglasses:

Elizabeth and Erin:

Lucy and Annika(in Chad's sunglasses)

Elizabeth gets her turn driving the boat:

Annika:

Birthday Torture

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Since Elizabeth is having cake at her party on Sunday, we opted for birthday brownies tonight. It turns out a surefire way to anger a two year old (at least this two year old) is to hold a dessert just out of reach while you light the candles, sing to her and wait for her to blow out said candles. Poor baby!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wow,this ended up being really long but I couldn't leave any of the pictures out. "You are my sunshine" is Elizabeth's favorite song.

Flashback

June 1st, 2007

I was 36 weeks pregnant with Elizabeth. I had been sick and there were dishes in the sink and laundry was piled up. I called my mom and joked that if the baby were to come early it would be that night, since things were in such disarray. Imagine my surprise when I went to sleep that night and woke up a few hours later in labor. I had had no indication that the baby would come early. I had to call my mom back and tell her to come over, for real. Mom came over, we headed off to the hospital and Elizabeth Claire was born just a few hours later.