Chores

Our kids love having "jobs". Alison will often make up things that are her job and is excited to go to work. Apparently, Eli has picked up on her love for having a job. One of his favorite things to do is to splash in the kitty water fountain or eat some of their food...he's even tasted cat litter. Therefore, he is banned from the laundry room where he favorite things are. He's seen me close that door so many times, he's decided to help me out and just shut it himself now.

The things we'll do...

for a little peace and quiet!

You know every mom has these stories - the stories of crazy things they've done for their own sanity.

Last night, I had one of those moments.
Ben and I were trying to get a delicious dinner made (smoked pork, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob and REAL strawberry shortcake). Eli was following us around wailing because he wanted to eat whatever it was in our hand. Alison was asking to color/swing/play Elefun/swim/help cook dinner/water the flowers/read a book. We were losing our minds.
Then, a picture from the morning popped in my mind. We were at the Y and Eli didn't want to leave because he was too busy playing with the rice & bean pit.
Aha! I needed a rice & bean pit!
I searched our garage for anything I could use to make some quick entertainment. So, don't judge me...but I discovered an extra kitty litter box we had and realized that it would be perfect. Don't worry-I thoroughly cleaned the sucker before it was used. I dumped in some pasta and beans, and viola!...the kids were hooked.

Then Alison decided it would be even more fun to decorate it.


I now have a decorated litter box, filled with stale pasta and beans, that my kids love playing in...and I'm praying the cat doesn't try to use the bathroom in it!

I finally got him to wear his hat out for the day...and his second top tooth popped through!

Strawberry Pickin'

We went to College Run Farms this afternoon to pick some strawberries.

Alison pretended to be Strawberry Shortcake and happily began filling our basket.
Eli was just as happy that there was a field full of endless snacks for him.


He didn't care for the dirt or leaves that came with it, but that's the price you have to pay when you have no patience and must eat everything you see.

Alison didn't care for the dirt too much either. Princesses never get dirty...good thing mommy wore clothes that strawberry goo could be wiped on.

When our basket was full, we went to the barn and shared some strawberry ice cream, which was totally worth all the strawberry goo I was covered in.

Today

Sometimes in life you have to just stop and soak it all in. Life is crazy and zooms by way too fast.
This is what life looked like as I stopped today:


Ben's studying Greek...Alison's working on a school craft...I'm clearing an old binder to start filling it with work out plans...Eli's playing with all the paper that is thrown on the floor and of course his outfit is drenched in drool.

Pool Open!

It's officially hot enough to open the pool and I have a feeling we'll be out there a lot this summer. The water was freezing...the kid's lips were blue...but Eli LOVED every second of it. His face was covered in jelly from lunch and his face was scrunched up from the coldness, but he kept sticking his face in the water and giggling in delight.

Don't you love the bruise on Alison cheek? We have no idea were it came from :(

Walking Little Man!

Eli is walking SO much more!!! It still startles me when he walks into a room.

My 29th Birthday

I had a sweet birthday this year. Ben made a delicious breakfast before he had to go to work and we were able to have some family time before his busy day. Alison really wanted to give me something so she wrapped her princess Bible in Christmas wrapping paper and told me I could keep it. It was very sweet of her, but her frustration with Eli and Smoochie in the wrapping process did not create the most relaxing environment.
The kids and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home and then our neighbors come over for our Mexican Fiesta dinner. Ben had youth group that night so it was nice to have some company for dessert. We let Eli have some ice cream too. He picked up the entire scoop of ice cream and shoved it in his mouth...with not even the slightest expression about the coldness.

I'm praying that this last year in my 20's will be just like this day: sweet, relaxing and full of chocolate!

Hello ipod

This is a new favorite for Alison. We've always used our handy dandy itouch for traveling entertainment. We'll when Daddy got his new iphone he gave me and Alison full reign of the ipod. I put it in her room so she could play some preschool "games" in the early morning when she insists on getting up before the sun. She loves the fact that she can do it by herself now and will often ask in the afternoon if she can go lay in bed and play her games. It's cute to see her begin to love some alone time.

A Little Update

Alison:
We went to the farm this week and she didn't cry...hurray! She didn't care to get too close, but at least there were no tears.

My predictions were true and she did fall out of the bed the night I took the rail off. She didn't even remember that it happened and has stayed in since then :)


Eli:
Has gotten a lot better at walking.
His new favorite thing to say is gingle gingle.
We said bye-bye to the binky yesterday. After 30 seconds of being mad, he was over it.





Ben:
Apparently I need to start taking more pictures of Ben.
He's been a busy beaver! He's in the middle of a hard Greek class, on top of working and the last 2 weeks he's preached. Here's his sermon from last week. Listen to it-it's amazing!


Jonathan Owen Chang was born on Thursday. He was 8oz. 4lbs and 20 inches long. We're all very anxious to meet him!






Groceries:
I've learned a lot since my meltdown. In fact, I'm thinking of making a column on this blog just for things I need help on, because it's been so eye opening. We've saved a lot already simply from my change in thinking. One afternoon I made zwiebach (the picture is from our zwiebach picnic)...it's lasted us 2 weeks of snacks, breakfasts and dinner sides. The cost to me-nothing, but some time. We started buying whole chickens instead of bags of frozen pieces. One chicken (about $3) has lasted us 4 meals, plus lots of broth for later. I spent an afternoon price checking a couple of different stores in our area and was encouraged to find some much better prices on some things I typically buy.

School:
We just finished up the alphabet. Alison has done amazing all year and hopefully learned a lot. We're going to start next week on numbers and refreshing on letters. I've been focusing more on writing and would like to see her become more confident in that soon.

Goodnight Bunny

What do you do when you can't stand going to bed with wet hair?
You wear a bunny hat to bed.

This is also Alison's first night without the railing on her bed.
She's excited to be able to make her bed in the morning by herself...
I just hope she doesn't fall out tonight!

Tea Time

We took a break from school yesterday to have some tea.
Really, mommy just needed a little more caffeine to get through learning about the letter Z, but Alison thought it was a big treat to get real tea (non-caffeinated blueberry).
She was so cute to watch sip her tea and chat about the morning.
It made me look several years down the road, at a grown up Alison, and I hope we're sitting right here at this table sippin' tea and chatting about life.

ELI'S WALKING!!!

We declared yesterday Eli's official day of walking. He was determined to figure it out and would get very frustrated when he fell. I realized, as I did with Alison, that I would cheer when he sat down because I was holding my breath during his 5 or 6 steps. So yesterday I started cheering every time he stood up on his own. It's hard to cheer for several minutes and it ended up sounding like an African walking dance chant. Ben and I were dying laughing, but it worked...he would get a big smile on his face and walk across the room. It was a perfect way to spend a Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day!

"I'm a SCARY MONSTER!"

One Top Tooth!

Thank you wooden police and fireman!
You have served this family well.
You have let this small human gnaw on you for hours and
your wardrobe has been eaten by slobber.
Because of your sacrifice my son FINALLY has a top tooth!

PJ Party!

Alison climbed in Eli's crib yesterday after naps. It reminded of when he was first born and she would sit in there and read him books. Now she just looks like a giant. Maybe I should rename this blog to: My Giant Children.

Eli's first haircut

I only trimmed enough of his hair to get it out of his eyes and off his ears...but then I had to trim the curls too, or else he'd have a mullet. There wasn't even enough to save for his baby book, which is good because I can't even think about it for too long or I get teary. He's growing much too fast and I'll miss those baby curls.

Boy Fun

I just love watching Eli play.

La, La, La!

The same day Alison figured out how to sing into this toy was the day she learned how to walk. Eli figured out how to sing into it and started taking 5-8 unassisted steps. They both have loved this toy, but Alison never blew spit bubbles and tried to break the musical bear.

Hotdogs! Get Your Hotdogs!

Our neighbors gave us this "kitchen". Notice that it does not have wheels.
Eli doesn't let little things like wheels stop him from serving up some hotdogs.