Happy Birthday Elly!

Happy Birthday #2 Baby Girl! You are still asleep in the rental house at Disney World, but I am heading up to wake you up and feed you. Today we are spending the morning at one of Disney's two waterparks, Blizzard Beach. Then, this evening, we are having a princess dinner celebration at Cinderella's castle. I hope you enjoy your birthday and have lots of fun. Mommy and Daddy (and yes, even Aiden) love you very, very much. You are the most beautiful princess here at Disney World.

I want, I need and more interesting sayings...

Well, school is finally out!!!! Now, I can spend some time with my family! One of my first tasks is to post a blog update on the kids.

Aiden has been his usual ham self lately. It seems almost every day, he says something ridiculous that seems like it should be in a book somewhere. Some of his latest and greatest are: "It's better to be bad (this was his response after I tried to explain to him the importance of being good", "Elly and I have little teeny tiny boobies that you can't see underneath your shirt, Daddy has medium boobies" and Mommy has big boobies", and "I can't wait till Elly turns into a boy!" He also has swimming on the brain. The other day he air swam through the living room saying, "I am pretend swimming to go get a Pop Tart" and yesterday he wanted me to carry him over to a display in Best Buy as he air swam.

Aiden is in love with Transformers right now. Bumblee is his favorite. He calls the Decepticons "bad guys." Last night he was outside with a dead palm tree fan hitting the dogs with it saying he was a Decepticon and the dogs were bad guys. Now, of course I stopped him, but it still was funny. Aiden still is all boy and loves to play. He loves to be outside or if he is inside he loves to pretend. He still adores Lightning McQueen and anything related to vehicles. I like that he is sort of an old fashioned kid who doens't sit around all day playing video games! On a side note: he still follows Cider around relentlessly and insists on "playing with Doo Doo" at all times. Doo Doo does not approve.

Elly. What can I say? She is a princess. Her latest discovery are the phrases, "I want or I need." It started about a week ago when we were coming inside and she cried, "I want to play!" The next day on the way home in the car it was, "Mommy I want to eat!" The last few days it has been either I want.... or I need ..... Yesterday, it was I need coocoo (cookie). She still loves her shoe shoes and screams for them if she feels she should have a pair on. She follows Aiden around everwhere, which annoys Aiden to no end. Aiden says, "I hate Elly" (which we did explain was not nice, but he is just expressing his frustration I imagine). Elly is tall and thin. She is gorgeous despite her one totally crooked front tooth from her index finger sucking (which I imagine gives her character). Both of my kids are tall, thin, blond and blue eyed. I am not sure half the time that they are even mine!!!!!!

Swimming - The pool is open! The kids are both doing well. I had my coworker friend and her older kids over the other day and Aiden did a great job mimicking the big kids and got a whole lot braver in the pool. He was jumping and splashing and some of the fear seemed to dwindle. Daddy took Elly in a few weeks ago just to carry her around and she loved it!!!! So, I went and got her her own pool gear so she could truly try to swim. Elly did great her first time in not being held. She was in a vest and floaties (totally covered in flotation) and she was trying to swim like crazy and happy as a clam. The next 2 times we took her in though, she screamed and was not happy. She was sick though, so I am thinking it was that and not the pool.

Attached are recent photos of the kids. The "red shiny shoes" are a favorite of Aiden and his sister. They both have been caught wearing them around the house. If you're interested in buying a pair, they are by Anne Klein. :) Aiden was jealous when I took the picture, so I snapped one of him. It's a few days before his hair cut.... He is so calm and cute now during haircuts. I can't believe it's the same kid that used to have to be restrained!

Go Aiden, Go and The Shopping Psycho!

Well, yesterday was the big day where Aiden got his first big boy bike. We took him to Toys R Us and let him try out a few different bikes. He tested the CARS bike, Spiderman, Thomas. None of them were working for him. He said it was too hard and was irritated he couldn't touch the ground and cheat (scooch his feet along the ground) like he was used to on his Mater tricycle. He liked the Thomas because it was too small and allowing him to scooch, but mommy and daddy said no.

Well, lately he has been on this Ben 10 kick. It's a cartoon he likes. They had a bike that was green and black. Apparently, in Aiden's mind this was a Ben 10 bike because Ben 10 wears green and black. He cruised around the store on his bike while we tried to teach him to brake. He did well, only got frustrated when the pedals are on top of each other and you really have to push hard to get the bike moving.

So, we bought the "Ben 10" bike and a real Ben 10 helmet and pad kit. Oh, Elly got a pink ball. So cute, she loves all things boy AND girl. We headed home, had some lunch and then took Aiden out in the street to practice. He did really well, only getting frustrated with that hard push. Oh, and he only likes to wear one elbow pad and no knee pads because he thinks the elbow pad is the watch like Ben 10 wears.

Elly followed him around as she always does. (Have I mentioned that lately she loves hats and glasses and shoes?) She calls shoes, "shoo shoos", and is pretty much a shopping fiend. On Thursday I went to the mall with just her any my friend from work and her baby girl for a girl's day out. Well, the first store we went in, Children's Place, Elly screamed for shoo shoos (pink and blue faux crocs), and got a pair of sunglasses. Since she is always stealing Aiden's CARS ones, I thought this would be a good idea. She also got a dress, a purple stuffed rabbit (all stuffed things and dolls and well even live animals at the zoo are called "bebes".) She drank half of my starbucks drink and after another fit in a shoe store where mommy wanted to look, we headed home. Oh, yes, almost forgot about the football she had to have at Old Navy. Now, you may be thinking, I spoil my kids, well yes, but this is probably the first time I have taken Elly out alone and really spoiled her. So once in a year and a half isn't too bad!

PS. The shirt that Aiden is wearing is a mommy purchase. Isn't he cute!!!!

Sock Hop

My school had a Sock Hop on Friday. Of course, I had to work at it (but only for a short while), but the kids had fun. Aiden wanted to dress up as a tiger and Elly got a sort of retro looking outfit. I donned a wig and poodle skirt. It was fun to get dressed up, and Aiden loved dancing in the cafeteria. Now my wig and skirt hang in the closet for next year.

As you can see, the kids only continue to get better and better looking with each passing day!

Valentines 2009

We had a nice day. Actually, my day started yesterday. Eric surprised me at work with a very gorgeous bouquet of roses and then we had a date night. We found a sitter and went to Fogo de Chao and then went to see The Uninvited. Despite the annoying teenagers at the movie, it was a great night. (We have agreed to take a monthly date night, and I am very excited!)

This morning we exchanged cards and gifts. Aiden got a new pair of Lightning McQueen slippers (his first pair of slippers - he asked for a pair about a month ago.) Elly got a big stuffed frog. Eric suprised me with a very emotional gift. Inside my card was a lighting plan for our front yard and a business card. My present is professionally done front yard lighting to be installed this week. I was floored to say the least by his thoughtfulness and generosity.

About noon we made a on the fly decision to take the kids to the zoo. It was a bit chilly, but otherwise we had a great time. It was the first time Elly had ever been to the zoo. The last time we went to the zoo was when I was about 6 mos preggo with her.

Rusty

Poor Rusty. Eric called me at work on Thursday morning. I was in a team meeting when they buzzed Eric into my teacher friend's phone. Eric was crying and I couldn't understand him. He said Rusty had been paralyzed and that Rusty couldn't move his back half. I left work and we took Rusty to the vet. They confirmed it was probably a spinal injury (dachshunds spines can become injured very easily.). They told us we had to get him into surgery ASAP or he would become permanently paralyzed. With surgery comes no guarantees and the cost of the procedure is a minuscule 3,000. Well, what could we have done. Our dog is looking into our eyes and begging us to help him. We take him in for the surgery (which is at a different location). Yesterday, we went to visit him. They had shaved his whole back and he had a Frankenstein looking suture up his spine. Our poor dog. We still don't know if he will recover. They told us there are many options if he doesn't. One to put him on a cart and they can train us to manage his bladder. Some might say, hey it's just a dog..... This dog is a part of our family who has been with us longer than our children. Yes, there would have come a point financially where an attempt to save him would have not been an option. Luckily, the cost was not at that point. Now it is just a waiting game. If you read this and can say a prayer for our dog, thank you in advance.

The Easel

Well, the art easel that the kids got for Christmas is a hit (Did I mention that I was up at 10pm putting it together on Christmas Eve? Eric had "forgotten about it" but thanked me profusely for doing it for him.).

This morning I had Elly on one side with her chalk and Aiden painting on the other side. Elly not only enjoys covering the board with chalk, but she likes erasing it just as much if not more.

Elly has a red nose because she had just got done falling on the kitchen floor and having a quick cry. The green slime on her arm is paint residue from one her failed attempt to cover her entire body in paint.