Memorial Day

Today, my sis and I took a spontaneous mini-roadtrip to a State Park about an hour away. We had a picnic and let the girls put their feet in the lake (too cold to get in!) The girls had a great time, and Eleanor once again surprised me with how brave she was around the water.

Here's the evidence of her bravery and independence. I was having a mini-heart attack that she was leaning so close to the water, but she insisted on doing it "ALL BY MYSELF!!"

And some other lake pics...

Sidenote: E's adorable swag is a hand-me-down from none other than the one and only Sophie B. :)

First swim of 2009

So, it's that time of year (at least here in Texas) when the mommies squeeze themselves into those spandex torture devices known as swimsuits and tote the kiddos (beach towels, floaties, sunscreen, sippy cups, etc.) to the pool to have some all-out, super-intense fun in the sun!

Or your kid, who is notoriously hydrophobic, could say, "No thanks, Mommy. I just wanna sit in the beach chair right now."

Seriously, it took an insane amount of coaxing and distracting, but after fifteen minutes or so, we ended up here...

She had a GREAT time! I'm so proud of her!! She's getting to be such a brave little girl! We even managed to get to where I was only holding her chest up while she was lying on her tummy kicking her legs...huge progress from the clinging-to-my-mommy-like-a-baby-koala point from which we started.

Chloe was a natural in the water. Totally dug it from the get-go and had no fear!

Some more pics from the pool.

Get your workout on!

So, about six weeks ago, I purchased Wii Fit and Eleanor and I have pretty much been doing it everyday. She is especially fond of the yoga and strength training...

Surprise!!

This weekend, we had a surprise party for my aunt Teena who turns the big 5-0 in a couple of weeks. My cousin Karen had the idea a month or so ago, and we've been working pretty much ever since then to pull this thing off. The hardest part of it all was actually surprising Teena who knows everything about everything that's going on in town!! We had the party at a little restaurant in town that happens to be owned by a friend of the family. (It's a very small town, people. So cute!)

Teena was so suprised and everyone had a great time! Happy Birthday, Teena!!

The family How cute is my niece Piper?!

My nephew Ryder and my grandmother, Gran.

Some pics that I stole from Teena's house while she was at work. :)

My cousin's daughter Madison and Gran

Teena and a couple of old friends (one of whom I found on Facebook!)

Some of the kiddos hiding, getting ready to say, "Surprise!"

Eleanor will tell you it's not a party without the cake!

Little Miss Chloe ready to party!

And there's Miss Priss herself

Zoo!

I have mentioned before how awesome the zoo here is! We decided to take the girls back on Monday. It was a perfect zoo day weather-wise. Well, that is, if you bothered to watch the weather and dress yourself and your child appropriately, which was not the case with me. I just assumed since it had been in the 80's that a tank-top would work, but it ended up being in the 60's, so I was a little cool. Eleanor didn't seem to be bothered by the weather, as she was totally pre-occupied with all of the animals. (My sister and I were pre-occupied with the male elephant and his apparent...um...arousal...but that's not a story for this Mommy blog.)

There was also some excitement when Eleanor dropped "Baby Minnie" (see photos below) over the rail into the alligator pit. I knew that the rest of our trip would be a complete disaster if we didn't get her back, so I climbed over the rail and down several feet into the alligator pit, where I saved Baby Minnie from her impending fate as an alligator's lunch. Afterwards, we were annoyed that we didn't get a picture, but I was sort of in a rush to get my happy little behind away from the alligators before I ended up being a story on the evening news that made everyone shake their heads and say, "What an idiot!"

Some pics from the zoo...

A squirrel. Really?!

Nightmares

Well, since Disney on Ice, Eleanor has been making great efforts to reassure herself and everyone else that the show was 'not scary.' She talks about it a lot. She says, 'the ghosts wasn't scary' and 'the spider web not scary' and 'that fire is just pwetend.'

She started having nightmares associated with things she had seen in the show, and there have been a few nights when we got very little sleep. She started associating her Elmo toddler bed with the nightmares and became hysterical at the very mention that she should get in it. So one day, after having been awake since 1 A.M., I made the (somewhat irrational?) decision that we would head to Wal-Mart at 6 A.M. to find her some other sort of bed to sleep on.

I ended up buying one of those blow-up mattresses like you take camping. I also let her pick a new comforter (Dora!) and new sheets. We took it all home, pumped up the mattress, and voila! new "big-girl" bed. The mattress is very comfortable and is high enough off the ground that it looks like a real bed.

The best part is that it worked!! She has slept very well since we came up with the new arrangement, and is still excited at bedtime to climb into her big-girl bed. There have even been a couple of mornings when she slept until 7:30! Woo-hoo!