Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Buh-bye!

I'm off to Texas. Not sure if I'll be satellite-blogging. :)

See ya in two weeks!

Monday, June 23, 2008

DC

Yesterday, we went dowtown to do the whole museum/monument thing. I love doing that, and I had been looking forward to it for while.

Here's Eleanor on the Metro. It was her first train ride since she's been a big girl (i.e. she was aware she was on a train). At first, she was a little freaked out, but quickly warmed up, and would say, 'Get on. Get off.' at each stop. (I'm not sure why she looks dirty in this picture...I promise she was clean!)

Here we are at the WWII Memorial. Something is wrong with my mother-in-law's new camera, but I thought this picture looked pretty cool...
This is what Eleanor did most of the day. She was SO good all day!!
At the Museum of Natural History, where Eleanor loved looking at all of the animals...which were dead and stuffed. I don't think she noticed this time, but I'm preparing myself for the questions next time. :)
And this is what happens when you keep your babies out in the sun too long...
Nice. When Eleanor woke up, she sat up, took out her pacie, and said, 'GET OFF THE TRAIN!' I guess you can get too much of a good thing.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Birthday party

I'm posting some pictures that my mother-in-law took of us at a birthday party today because she and I both know that a certain great-grandmother is checking this blog religiously and anxiously awaiting some pictures from our visit. :)

Happy 1st b-day, Little Cyrus! We had so much fun at your party!


Hey, look! There are three of us in this family!


Mmmm. Cake.

Office space

So, my laptop never recovered from the wine spill. I had to get a new computer. A desktop that is stinkin' awesome and has cut the editing time for a shoot down by about 60%. (I throw out random percentages a lot- something I have recently noticed about myself, but that apparently other people had already noted.) Anyway, it's awesome. I love it. And I love my husband for building it for me (and for various other reasons.) It's so super fast, and I have more hard drive space for photos than I'll need for the the next year. Here's a picture of the monitor that I downloaded (legally) and did not take myself. It's huge and the colors are a.maz.ing.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in my "office" in the basement. And I'll be happy.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The crack of dawn

So, it has been a week since I blogged, which is unusual, I guess. We've had another one of those weeks where if I blog about us, it's going to sound like complaining. Here are a couple of key phrases just to give you an idea...eye teeth, molars, 5 AM. Oh, and incase you noticed what time I posted this, you should know that I have already walked three miles, done some weight-lifting, taken out the trash, cleaned out the Diaper Genie, and made the beds. Wait....now I'm complaining...

However, on the bright side, my in-laws are coming today for a visit, and it's just one week until Eleanor and I head to Texas.

Also, I've had the opportunity to photograph a couple of really cool families, and you can see a few of their photos on the photo blog.

Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Just some randomness...

1. I got a haircut. Not terribly significant. What is significant, however, is that my husband said, 'That's one of my favorite hairstyles you've ever had,' instead of his usual...'Don't worry. It'll grow back.'

2. It's awkard to take a pictures of yourself just sitting there.
3. It's even more awkward to post one.
4. We got a dog today. For about 45 minutes. Just long enough for Eleanor to get slightly attached before his owner came to pick him up. I kept telling her he wasn't ours, but I could tell she was thinking, "Uh...hello? He's in OUR yard, isn't he?"
5. A couple of nights ago, I spilled an entire glass of red wine on my laptop and (newish) couch. My computer died, but was revived by Jared...ah, my hero. (Times like these make those rude hair comments somewhat bearable.)
6. Eleanor really likes playing with our cats now, but they're not quite as into it. She chases them around, ordering them into her room...'Alex, Sippy....MY ROON!' They just glare at her and run the other direction.
7. She's also very into dressing up. She came out of her room today with a huge grin on her face, wearing a Tinkerbell costume (okay, partially wearing it- I had to help her a little), bunny ears, and carrying a matching bag. I tried to recreate the look for a photo later, but apparently it's only funny once.

8. I hate how the picture of me is bigger than the picture of Eleanor. I told Blogger the same size on both.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Princess {for a day}

So, honestly, we're not really into the whole princess thing. I mean, I love Disney princesses as much as the next gal, but I'm just a little turned off by the whole my-kid-is-a-princess-and-the-center-of-the-universe thing. I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I think it goes back to a student I had one time who wore a princess shirt almost everyday, and was a total brat. Or maybe it's the glitter and sequins. So I digress.

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party, and one of the party favors was an adorable princess t-shirt. (Yes, a t-shirt as a party favor. Isn't that awesome?) So, today after church, I put it on Eleanor. Cute. After her nap, I thought it would be fun if she wore her tutu since she had so much fun wearing it last night and was very sad when we took it off at bedtime. Also cute. After running around like a maniac for a while (Robin was over, and Eleanor got a little beside herself about having company), she went into her room, and came out wearing this crown she got from Chick-Fil-A back in December and had never had on her head. Super cute. How funny is it that she chose to bust it out for the first time while wearing her brand new princess shirt?!

And voila...one really stinkin' cute little princess...





This one is my favorite because I think she looks like me. Finally...evidence that she's mine.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

It has become apparent to me

that when we tell Eleanor a thousand times a day how cute she is, she's SO listening. (Be sure and click here for a flashback mirror picture.)











Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Pretending

So, Eleanor is getting into pretending these days, which I love. It's the cutest thing to listen in on her monologues as she plays with her toys. Yesterday, she was playing with her Little People school bus, and this is how it went:

She puts her Little People polar bear on the school bus.
'Doh to stool!" (Go to school.) She makes the bus drive back and forth, while singing "The Wheels on the Bus." 'Roun, roun, roun. Roun, roun, roun. All tooo TOWN!'
'He's der.' (He's there.) She takes him off the bus. She makes him walk around for a little while, and then she puts him back on.
'Doh home!' (Go home.) Another round of "The Wheels on the Bus," and driving the bus.
'He's der. Have a snact.' (Have a snack.)
She repeated this same monologue over and over for about thirty minutes.

And I was left wondering how she knew that school buses go to school and then home. And how she knew it was appropriate to have a snack when you get home from school. How do they learn this stuff?!

And here's her new favorite face. I think it's her version of a fake smile. Not sure where she learned that either, but it makes me laugh...

Monday, June 2, 2008

Eating

***An addendum to this post...
Maybe the way I described what happened last week with dinnertime was a little on the dramatic side. When I "sent her to bed hungry," that means she chose to only drink her milk and eat whatever carbohydrate we were having (e.g. rice, corn, etc.) She ate no protein. Now, we know that our bodies burn through carbohydrates very quickly, and that they do not provide enough nutrition to keep us full through the night. I "sent her to bed hungry" means I made no further attempt to get her to eat protein other than that which was on her plate. What I have been guilty of doing in the past is giving her yogurt after her meal to make sure she'll stay full longer. That's it. I can assure you there was nothing cruel or unusual about it.

Here are the results of my little survey:
The kid(s) eat what we eat. Period. 3 (33%)

I give the kid(s) what we're eating, but if they don't like it, I give them something else. 5 (55%)

I give the kid(s) whatever they like. Hey, a hot dog every night never hurt anyone. 1 (11%)

You're supposed to feed them??! 0 (0%) (Well, that's a relief!)

So, I want so badly to be an A, but this week I'm more like a C. Here's the deal...90% of the time, Eleanor won't eat what we're eating. It frustrates me to no end. I mean, I'm not asking her to eat hot wings. I try to make sure what we're having is appropriate for her, or I fix a special portion for her with less spices or onions or whatever. But she won't eat it. Most of the time, we can get her to try a bite, but then she'll spit it out, which really makes me even more frustrated because it's disgusting and uncalled-for. Last week, I decided I was putting my foot down, which resulted in sending one little girl to bed hungry five nights in a row. That, in turn, resulted in one hungry little girl waking up super-duper early and demanding milk.

So, last night she had a hot dog and tonight she had chicken nuggets. Both nights we were having something I knew she wasn't going to eat, and I didn't feel like wasting any of it by having her squish it between her little fingers or by the aforementioned spitting out. I did give her the same side items...she just didn't have the same main dish.

I really want her to grow up willing to try new foods (this coming from the queen of picky!) and eat whatever is put in front of her. Ughhh....

Next to bathtime (don't even get me started), dinnertime is the most frustating part of our day! Did I already say UGHHHH?!!