She likes to party party...

Annika went to her first ever 'friend' birthday party today. It was at a gym and there were all kinds of fun things to do: a slide, a foam pit, a rope to swing on, etc. She had a very good time.

Something random: Look how long Annika's torso looks in the first picture. It is just the shirt she is wearing, she doesn't look like that in real life but I think it is funny.

Something else: My camera is really bothering me. All my pictures come out grainy and/or blurry. My dad keeps asking if I have read the manual. Ummm, no. I am unable to read instruction manuals. (It is not my fault, remember my brain cannot process information that is too technical or boring.) I am, however, able to give my instruction manual to other people, have them read it and then give me the Cliff's notes version. So I will see if I can talk Karl into that. Until then, I am afraid you will have to put up with my bad pictures.

Further proof that Elizabeth is the cuddliest baby ever

Hurting tongue and bleeding eyes

Ian is sick. He will be in my bed for the second night in a row. And it is very hard to write this with him right next to me saying "What are you doing?", "What are you typing?" "Who bought our tv?" "What are those buttons for?"

Anyway, he has had a fever and when I ask him what is bothering him he says his "eyes are bleeding" and his "tongue hurts". Chandra, use your crack nursing skills and tell me, what can this mean? How do you treat 'bleeding eyes' ? And is there some sort of tongue virus going around?

OK, seriously I am assuming his throat is sore and am crossing my fingers that it is not strep. Hopefully he just has some sort of virus and will be better tomorrow. But for now, we are snuggled in my bed watching "It's Me or the Dog".

A long dramatic story dedicated solely to the subject of styrofoam

Monday morning Ian came downstairs with all these little white styrofoam pellets stuck in his hair. I laughed at first because he really was a sight, but then I realized there was probably a huge mess somewhere. I was right. He completely demolished a big block of styrofoam so it was in millions of tiny pieces all over his room. Oh, and the boy decided he should dump out a laundry hamper on his floor before he shredded the styrofoam. So the result was clothes and toys covered with these clingy bits. I don't know if you have ever dealt with tiny styrofoam pieces all over your house before but it is a big mess. They are all static-y and they get everywhere. So what started as a mess in Ian's room ended up being a mess in the hallway, the downstairs carpet, on the sofa, my clothes, Elizabeth...you get the picture. And the only way to clean up this mess was with the nozzle attachment to the vacuum. So I started in Ian's room. I vacuumed the bookshelf, the floor, his bed, his dresser, indvidual tinker toys and legos, under all the furniture, the stuffed animals- basically every surface in his room. Plus I had to vacuum all the dirty laundry- tights, socks, pants, shirts. This is his room after quite a bit of vacuuming:

I wish I would have got a better picture, solely for blogging purposes. This one in know way does justice to the magnitude of that mess. That stuff was everywhere. It was horrible. And I had to clean it quickly because it the kids kept spreading it around due to the static factor. It took me all day and two vacuum cleaners to finally get it cleaned up. And actually, I had other things that needed to be done that day. I wasn't quite planning on devoting an entire day just to vacuuming.

To add to it, while I was cleaning, Elizabeth was following me around doing crying.
If you will recall, baby likes to be held at all times and was not happy with me being otherwise occupied. Also while I was cleaning, Ian fell (jumped) off the couch and bit his tongue hard. (And then he couldn't sleep at nap time because he couldn't suck his fingers because it made his tongue hurt. ) I couldn't make him clean with me due to the fact that it would have made the mess even worse.

A lesson was learned though. Styrofoam is evil and should be treated in the same manner as scissors, Sharpie markers and my makeup. Under no circumstances should it be within reaching (or climbing) level of any of the children again. Ever.

A baby and her Goody.

Grandma Goody that is. And after looking at the pictures of Ella, my 'baby' doesn't look like much of a baby anymore does she? And to that question, I prefer your response be something along the lines of, " Oh my no, Elizabeth is such a baby. I can't believe how babyish she still is!" There is absolutely nothing wrong with a little denial.

Elizabeth is the biggest snuggler. When you pick her up, she usually lays her head right down on your shoulder. I thought this picture was so sweet, I shamelessly stole it right off Mom's facebook.

Pictures!!

Yay! I finally got those pictures off my camera! This is the newest baby in our family- Ella Grace. She is two months old now and just came home from the hospital last week. Isn't she sweet?

I need a tech-to-English dictionary please

I know I haven't posted in a few days. People have been complaining. I say people, okay really it's just my dad. My excuse- I am having camera issues and I need pictures with my posts.

So I called Kodak to find out why I can't get my pictures on to my computer. Talk about an exercise in futility. Okay, so we know about me and my dumbness concerning computers. The lady kept asking me questions I not only didn't know the answers to, I couldn't even figure out what exactly she was asking. So she was frustrated with me and could not understand my non-tech speak. Add in the fact that I couldn't understand her either half the time due to her heavy Indian accent and you can imagine the fun conversation we had.

Bottom line: I still can't get my pictures off my camera and on to this blog. Kodak lady said I should probably call the computer company. What are the chances that that will go well?