dandelion whine

Somebody is completely obsessed with flowers.

She is constantly walking around the house saying, "A flowah. A flowah." Then whining, "A flowah outside?" until we take her out. The first thing she does when we go outside is scope out the lawn for the good stuff.

And when she finds one there's no stopping her. She actually took a nose dive into the bushes right after I took this picture, all in an attempt to pluck that little gem.

The first time I left McKay with my parent's to go to Denver a few years ago I remember thinking that if he died while I was gone I would have dandelions at his funeral. Does anyone else start thinking really cryptically when they travel? Anyway, it was because he too was obsessed with flowers. . .dandelions specifically.

I remember walking around outside with him when he was Elle's age picking every dandelion we saw. But miss Ellery has taken the dandelion obsession to a whole new level.

But I love it. I'll collect dandelions every day if she wants to. There is something so wonderfully feminine about my little Elle.

. . .my sweet flower girl.

no good deed goes unpunished. . .

My good deed being trying to take satisfactory photo documentation for this very post.

Brian and I may or may not have gotten in an argument because of it. Funny story, we actually got in the same argument on our honeymoon. When will he learn that he's married to a woman who wants the perfect picture. When will I learn that with Brian I will never get that perfect picture? Instead I get this:

or this:

or this:

All I'm doing is trying to look all cute like a darling little self-portrait taking couple, and all he's trying to do is bug me. But you know what? I think he kinda looks cute in this one, no?

All of this photo documentation, you know, the really descriptive, memorable, car self-photos, were in honor of this:

We saw Wicked last Tuesday. . .and it was SO good!

I took a few more photos, but due to the argument in question I may or may not have deleted them out of protest.

Don't worry, we're better now.

Now, these girls are always up for a good photo shoot. Thank goodness!

they did it again

Last year Brian said that he wanted to run the Boston Marathon again someday. Neither of us expected it to be just a year later.

He ran the marathon again for his team Marathon Strides against MS last week. He and his dad, McKay, tackled Boston again and this time left all the girls at home. They said they were both missing their own personal cheerleaders at mile 24, but they got to do some fun boy things like in the picture below, without a bunch of girls to whine about how long and boring baseball games are.

A RedSox game at Fenway Park- one of Brian's dreams fulfilled. I just asked Brian how the game was, since I'm finding it hard to write about something that I didn't experience, and he said, "We ate hot dogs and basked in the history and the glow of Fenway Park." Sad to have missed that. . .

Here are the runners after the race. They were freezing and sore and so relieved to be done.

And here's Mr. MS himself. For those of you who aren't familiar with marathons, Boston is the big one. It's a difficult course and it's quite an accomplishment for these two.

Sometimes when we're driving Brian will relate the distance from where we've come from to marathon miles. I still can't believe he can run that long. I also can't believe he continually wants to, but we're so proud of our runner- and of Grandad too!

made by mckay

I have a sweet boy. I have a sweet boy who was so excited to show me the most wonderful surprise the other day. He walked me into his room and proudly showed me this:

He made his bed. . .for the first time. . .all by himself!

sweet baby girl

We went in for Ellery's 18 month well child checkup yesterday and so I thought I'd take this opportunity to do a list of what my girl's up to.

• In the elevator on the way up to the appointment, a lady looked at Ellery and she fell completely apart. Couldn't stop crying. You'd think she pinched her or something. It was funny/embarrassing.
• Dr. said we can start giving her time outs in a chair. Also said that putting her back in the chair 100-200 times is normal at first. 200? Um, right...
• Time to get rid of the souci. I'm feeling sad for her about it. She only has it in bed, but oh how she loves it.
• This girl is proving to be very different in temperament than her brother. She is feisty, sassy and wants what she wants when she wants it.
• She surprises me with a new word practically every day. I can't even count how many she can say. But her voice is so precious and little and sweet and I just love it.
• We are learning to share around here. Ellery has no concept, or wants no concept, of sharing with her brother. He is usually very patient with her. She is not at all patient with him.
• On the way to my parent's house the other day McKay and I were counting. He stopped in the middle and said, "mom, Elle can count too!" Sure enough she was counting right along with us. I had no idea.
• We are getting seriously attached. The other day we went outside to play with some neighbor friends and they said hi to her. She pointed at me and repeatedly said "mommy. mommy. mommy. mommy," poking me each time as if to say to make sure they knew she was with me.
• She is not interested in taking baths, but always says she wants to when I ask her so she can run around naked.
• She is now allowed in the nursery. We went in on Sunday and lasted two minutes. I'll have to share my wonderful Sunday experience in another post, but it's safe to say that Brian will be hanging in the nursery. . .probably until we move.
• Elle has discovered how to turn on her bedroom light while in her crib at night. I hear the click of the switch and then she starts saying, "Oh no! Oh no!"
• She loves bird watching.
• She still has diarrhea. What are the rules on talking about your children's bowels on your blog? Long story made short- Ellery has been drinking soy milk since she turned one because of a milk intolerance. . .or so we thought. Now it's looking like it could be a gluten allergy- which is in everything. I am kind of freaking out at the thought of a nearly vegetarian household wiping out a whole other food group (wheat) and feeling sad for my girl and for my laundry.
• On a brighter note, she goes around the house singing twinkle, twinkle all the time. I could die it's so cute.
• She dances by running around in a circle- around and around- and is so proud of this lone dance move.
• Since Easter, she thinks every candy is called "egg".

She may be feisty, but we couldn't love our little Ellie-girl more.

. . .bubbles. . .

McKay could not have felt more important last week.

He was in charge of this little guy. . .or girl, not really sure.

Bubbles.

McKay was very serious in his responsibilities. He made sure to feed Bubbles breakfast and dinner, and showed tremendous restraint when he wanted to give him several unscheduled snacks the first day.

Several times I found him hugging the bowl and consoling Bubbles, telling him that Aunt Marilyn would be back soon and he'd get to go back home.

This little one probably enjoyed having Bubbles around the most. Every morning while eating breakfast she would say "fishy, fishy!" and she could have sat like that watching him for an hour straight.

I however did not like having Bubbles on my counter. He was constantly making this face to me, opening and closing his mouth as if to say, "help me, help me. i'm so bored. help me." He had a look of desperation and he followed me around his fishbowl making that face.

Marilyn made me feel a little better when she told me that fish have a memory span of only three seconds. But then she googled it and found out it might not be true.

Oh well, he's back resting on Adele's kitchen counter now and she's the one who has to look at this face all day.

"help"

easter goodies

Easter. Of course the real meaning of Easter is the very most important part of the celebration, but coming in at a close second is the fun of dressing my darling little girl in a new Easter dress- moms am I right?

Imagine my complete sadness when Ellery came down with a nasty virus on Tuesday and was still not well by Sunday. No showing her off at church for me. I did get to show off a handsome little man in a fancy new shirt and tie though, and that helped ease my sadness.

We had an FHA (family home afternoon) of dying eggs earlier in the week. McKay was into it, Elle wanted to dump everything out and Brian and I thought, "Is it really worth all this preparation and mess?" I guess it is.

I was sad for poor Ellery that she had to miss not one, but two egg hunts during the week. The virus she had really knocked her out. She hardly ate anything and all she did was sleep, snuggle and fuss.

On Friday two of my neighbor friends put together a fun egg hunt outside. McKay loved running around gathering the eggs with his friends- who happened to be all girls except little Sawyer.

Next, Aunt Jenn put together an egg hunt and picnic with the cousins. No pictures because Elle and I stayed home and the pictures Brian took were either really far away and boring, or of the back of McKay's head. (Okay, the real reason is because I forgot to upload them and I've already started all this so it would mess up my spacing)

McKay came home and noticed that I had set aside a few eggs in Ellery's basket. I told him that we saved some for her to have a little hunt in our house, since she couldn't go outside. I went to a baptism and when I came home there were eggs hidden all over our bedroom (and Brian had cleaned the whole house! Awwww.) McKay had planned out the whole hunt for Ellery. He hid all the eggs and was pacing by the time I got home. Ellery was still asleep and McKay could not wait for her to wake up. It was physically painful for him to wait. He was so excited for his sister and I was touched by his sweetness and thoughtfulness.

So little Elle did her little hunt in one half of our tiny bedroom and McKay looked on like a proud parent. At first she was cranky and didn't know what to do, but then he showed her how and she loved it. I love how fun finding plastic eggs is for kids. Why don't I hide things and have them hunt for them more often?

After church on Easter Sunday I peeled my little girl's pajamas off and placed her in her dress for dinner with the family. I at least wanted to put her in it for someone to see.

We had a yummy dinner at Lisa's and had fun relaxing and talking afterwards.

McKay had fun being with his cousins and getting spoiled by Grammy. She gave him a few new movies and consequently McKay was Monstro the whale and Otis the dog today.

Brian and I still haven't decided our Easter traditions. Every year it's been different. I am trying to decide what to do. Does the Easter bunny come, or do we just leave him out of it all? Do we do real eggs or plastic eggs? Do we do just candy, or candy and toys and all the other Easter goodies that are out there? If we do the bunny, do we do it on Saturday or Sunday? If we don't do the bunny, what do we do? And either way, how do we remind them of what Easter is really about? Do you see the stress I am under about these decisions? We have to decide by next year though, because McKay is smart and this year he was asking questions.

How do you guys do Easter?

having a lot of love in my heart. . .

for these girls. . .

and

realizing that we need more pictures together because i look pregnant in this one

and

happy anniversary to jana and mark.

i guess the pic is quite fitting after all.

thank you, edyta

Tonight I let my kids stay up a little later than usual and they watched the first twenty minutes of Dancing with the Stars with me. McKay was watching quite intently, and then we had the following exchange:

McKay: Mom! That girl's kinda naked, huh?
Me: Yep, she isn't very modest is she?
McKay: Yeah! And she's kinda pretty!

How do you teach modesty to a three year old boy? He spent the next few minutes condemning those who were "kinda naked" on the show, which is most of them, and I found myself getting into judging others and how dancers wear costumes and how those girls don't know the things we know about modesty. It all happened so fast. It was getting too heavy and complicated and definitely confusing my poor three year old.

What happened to the days when modesty meant that McKay couldn't run around the house naked?

All I know is I don't think I'll be letting him stay up for that show again. I guess I can be glad that he didn't want to wear one of the sparkly costumes this time, like he did when he was two after aunt Marilyn's dance concert.

And, I got some pretty good snuggling as we were watching the "kinda naked" girls. I can't complain about that.

little mother

Meet Billy.

A couple years ago McKay had a brief interest in babies. I, seeing no harm or embarrassment in letting my son explore this area of play, picked up Billy at Target for my boy. Brian died.

But McKay was thrilled with his baby. He hugged him and burped him and carried him all around the house. He was one proud papa. Billy actually has a twin too, Bobby. You see, Lisa wasn't scared to let her boy play with a doll either.

This baby phase lasted for less than a month, and Billy was then tossed into the stuffed animal bin and neglected, poor thing.

Meet the little mother.

A couple months ago she found Billy at the bottom of that stuffed animal bin. And she has hardly let him go. She would take him everywhere if we let her. . .along with her blankie, souci, bear, cup and anything else she decides to get attached to that day. She loves to carry things around with her.

The other day when we were helping Jana and Mark move in to their new house she carried around a donut hole for a whole Saturday. Didn't eat it, just clutched it very tightly and felt secure that it was with her.

After having a boy first, I am kind of amazed at the natural maternal instinct that I already see in my girl. Receiveing the same promptings as McKay did at her age, she is comletely taken with nurturing this baby. How does she know? It's clearly something that's already in her. Something that already brings her joy. Something that's already fun to her.

I love that about little girls.

I love that she found him among a bunch of other toys and she was immediately drawn to him. . .

. . .and she's been feeding him ever since.

guess what we watched on sunday?

boys club

In my house it's becoming normal to be excluded. McKay gets a look in his eye. He gets a voice. He'll look at Brian and say, "Dad, we're boys, huh?" and then callously look over at me like I'm nothing.

He gets this way when he feels bonded to Brian over something that I don't like, do, or try to contest. Peeing standing up? Boys Club. Playing guitar? Boys Club. Jazz game? Boys Club. Beards? Boys Club. Chips and salsa? Boys Club.

(This is what the Boys Club does when I ask to take a picture)

The latest instigator is music. More specifically The Avett Brothers.

(image found here)

Brian found these guys a couple months ago and has been listening to them ever since. Consequently, McKay has become really into them as well. You know, Boys Club. Brian made the mistake? of showing McKay a video of them on YouTube a couple weeks ago. This took McKay's interest to a whole new level.

You guys know my son enough by now that you know he's hardly ever McKay. Lately, we've had Seth Avett around a lot. Seth Avett has a big old beard. And Seth plays the guitar and sings very seriously.

Although I'm not a member of Boys Club, I'm still quite a fan. Here they are singing their favorite song, which McKay requests often. Brian will hate this picture, but I think it's precious. And the best part is that McKay knows all the words. There's nothing cuter than hearing a three year old with such an adult song stuck in his head.

(By the way, Mack's favorite is Backwards with Time if anyone's interested)

Luckily I have this girl to keep me company. She's not allowed in the club either. We've got to stick together around here, her and I.

Avett Brothers. . .out.