It's Game Day and One Wore Pink

Well, Aiden's Redskins jersey arrived yesterday from an ebay seller. So, now Aiden has a Portis jersey just like his daddy. Elly wore her new hat for all of 10 minutes, but hey it was cute while it lasted. Aiden decided making monster faces like yesterday is fun and Elly was right there with him. Finally, when I told Aiden to turn around so I could get a picture of the back, Elly followed suit. She likes to be like big brother!

Halloween Fashion Models

My best friend Mandy is starting up her own boutique kids clothing line and selling things on eBay. I am helping her out by taking pics of the kids in her outfits. She custom made Elly's Halloween Dora tutu just for me and then she designed the Hello Kitty outfit and gave me a freebie! Aiden just got his Halloween shirt that she created today. I know I am partial, but darn my kids are not just cute, they are gorgeous!

Where did the summer go?

How did the summer fly by so fast? Seems just like yesterday I was posting my first summer post and looking forward to all the things I would get done during the long summer. Well, summer has come and gone and it's back to school time.

The kids have just been amazing. After returning from Disney, we had lots of summer fun. Swimming in the pool and spending time as a family.

Aiden has discovered board games. I picked him up a few from a tag sale over the summer and we had quite a few family game nights. He likes Disney Sorry even though he doesn't quite understand fully how to play yet. He also has a monkey game he can play independently where you pull sticks out of a barrel and hope your monkeys don't fall.

Aiden also continues to amaze and delight us with his verbal commentary.... Just last night, he said
skyscrapers are called skyscrapers because they scrape the sky. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff! Aiden is also doing well learning to aread and can read a few of his easy readers books.... He has an AMAZING ability to rhyme. He can rhyme anything it seems and I don't even remember teaching him to rhyme. All I know, is this kid is smart. He also is starting to understand the concept of money and can tell you how many dollars he has in his piggy bank. The last few days, he has been obsessed with spelling and you will hear him ask you, "Mommy/Daddy how do you spell....." (The pic above shows Aiden spelling his name all by himself for the first time!)

Elly continues to be gorgeous and grows more independent each day.... At her 2 year check up 2 weeks ago, she is still measuring in as tall and very skinny. She doesn't have an ounce of fat on her body and still doesn't eat a whole lot. We still haven't cut her long blond hair, though Eric and I are in disagreement about that. I think it's time for a trim and he says no, not yet. Elly strings together 4-6 word phrases like nothing and even the pediatrician was impressed with her capabilities. It seems she can do just about anything she sets her mind to as she spends her days trying to keep up with big brother. She still loves "bee bees" (dolls) and has even started sleeping with the teddy bear I had as a young girl. She also still has a shoe fetish and must pick her "shoe shoes" each day. Sometimes she even changes pairs throughout the day. She also still loves Barney and spent many hours watching Barney this summer. I even found a costume for her at a tag sale for play.

Over the summer, we accumulated a few new things for the kiddos. Elly got her first big girl bedroom set. It's a twin bed with matching tall dresser and desk and hutch. Then I had lots of fun taking her shopping with me to pick out bedding. She has done a really good job sleeping in her bed. We really only had a hard time the first few nights. Elly also got a power wheels Dora Toddler ride on. Now, she rides around Chilmark Ct trying to keep up with Aiden in his monster truck. Aiden is a bit upset that she no longer wants to ride with him and follows her around trying to convince her to hop in. Aiden got to go see Transformers with us over the summer and mommy scored a big bag of Transformer toys second hand for him to play with. And daddy caved and got him the Bumblebee mask. Yes, just what he needed, more toys.

The sibling rivalry lately has been pretty bad. Aiden gets irritated because he can't boss Elly around and Elly gets irritated because Aiden won't leave her alone. Sometimes it's cute though. Especially when we have a "night night" competition. We will say Aiden or Elly go night night and they both start in saying no Aiden/Elly go night night. Other times though, we want to rip our hair out because they just won't leave each other be and you have to break up another battle of the wills. One thing they both agree on is loving ice cream. Elly calls it "I I". I just wish she could eat it as neatly as her brother. They also both enjoy playing tea set in Elly's room. I finally was brave enough to crack open the ceramic tea set my parents had given her last Christmas.

Now, we are in the process of planning for Aiden's 5th birthday. He says he wants to go to "Sand Whales" (Sea World) and wants a scary dinosaur cake with decorations. I am not sure how I will go about all of this, but we probably will take him to Sea World since it's his last birthday before he starts Kindergarten next year.

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!