Just Wondering

Sunday morning Beau went to get Elijah dressed. I usually lay out his clothes, but hadn't done it yet so I told Beau "I want him to wear his white pants and Easter shirt" Beau asked why and I said "because its almost Labor Day and you don't wear white after Labor Day (which is also why I was wearing a skirt with white sandals) and I want him to wear those pants". He thought I was crazy. I went on to explain that you only wear white pants/shoes/etc between Memorial Day and Labor Day. He still thought I was crazy. He also thinks I'm crazy when he comes out dressed in his "winter khakis and a winter shirt" he has no clue what I'm talking about. Now, I know we don't really go by this rule anymore, but I just can't get past it. What about you? Do you think I'm crazy too?

Who says they're dangerous?

I had a frustrating afternoon. It started this morning. Every Sunday morning I feed Sadie in the nursery right before class and I get to my class a few minutes late. I thought I might try something different today. Sadie doesn't really like to eat as soon as she gets up (she gets that from me) so I took her to class, told the aide where I'll be and said to come get me if she fusses. She did fine, I fed her during church, she didn't fall asleep as usual. On the way home after lunch (just me and the kids, Beau had a meeting) she fell asleep. When we got home I took off her dress and put her in her bed. Then I went to work on getting Elijah to nap (a whole other issue) so I could lay down too. I went back to check on her to make sure she wasn't cold and this is what I find (I thought she was asleep because she wasn't making a noise)...

a headless baby?


Nope...

Who says crib bumpers can be dangerous? She was having a great time. The frustrating part came in because neither she or Elijah would take a nap and I was so tired. Finally Beau came home and got Sadie down and I think after I went to bed he snuck Elijah into the living room to watch a movie. At least I got a nap!

Scroll down for an Elijah post.

Elijah's first "real" haircut

Beau's been giving me a hard time about Elijah's hair. Don't mind the fact that he gets complimented on it ALL the time! So I took Elijah to a real salon thinking they could shape it up some and get it looking a little less poofy. The girl did a good job, just took a little off the top, but that's it. She did the same thing I do and charged me $10. Won't be doing that again. But I did snap a few pics...

He looks like a Beatle...

Not a huge fan of the squirt bottle...

Weird smile he does...

A little better, but still wanted to look in the mirror instead of at the camera...

Funny Story...

Actually its 2 funny stories. Sorry, no pictures this time, just a few things I'd like to remember that I thought were cute.

1. Monday Elijah was playing in his room. He brought me a book Aimee bought him for a shower. Its called the Boogie Woogie Oogie. We had never read it because its really not a book, its lyrics to a song and the CD is inside the back cover. I've never had a CD player in his room so we've never listened to it. Anyway, I guess he found it because his book shelves still aren't up and so he was going thru his books. He loves anything to do with animals and I think it caught his attention. He asked me to read it and I explained what it was. I got out the CD player, took it to his room and plugged it in. We listened to the CD, danced along to it and had a good time. A little later he asked me to come turn on "his music" again. I went in there and replayed the CD. Even later in the day he asked me again to turn on his music. At this point I was feeding Sadie and told him I couldn't come right now. He went back in and I could tell he was pushing all kinds of buttons and stuff trying to get "his music" to play. He turned it to FM and of course a Spanish channel came on (why can you ALWAYS pick up the Spanish channel?). He kept turning the dial and found a Kelly Clarkson song. He stopped, turned up the volume, came running to me in the living room (so excited) and yelled, "Mama, I found your music!!" Now if anyone tells you that kids don't pay attention send them to my house. He knows all the words to Taylor Swift's You Belong to Me, its so funny to hear him sing "She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts!" Oh, but don't judge, sometimes it comes in handy. A family from church invited us over last week for dinner. I was outside with the dad, daughter (5 years old) and Elijah. We were swinging the kids. All the sudden Elijah breaks out singing "This is the day that the Lord has made!" I was so proud!

2. Some of you remember a few weeks ago my hotmail was sending out messages that weren't really from me. Well, I was advised to change my password just in case I had been hacked into. So I changed it. Well, on my computer and on my phone I don't have to enter my password because it remembers me. Our computer is old and I think it may have had a slight stroke so it doesn't work so well so I was going to use Beau's at his office today for something. I needed into my hotmail and so it asked for my sign in and my password. I couldn't remember my password so I thought...oh, I'll just say I don't remember, answer my "secret question" and get my password. I did all that, hit submit and a box pops up and says "An email containing your password will be mailed to you shortly" Seriously! If I could get into my email this wouldn't be happening in the first place! What kind of idiot designed that?

Okay, we are going to an ACU Watch Party tonight. All the ACU alumni from church are getting together to watch the Wildcat football team on TV. National coverage...big deal.

I also made Sadie some squash and carrots today. She hasn't eaten it yet, but its in the freezer.

Elijah had another great day at preschool. Did I tell you he has completely given up his nap? Its really taken a toll on our family. So Beau drove him around town today after preschool until he fell asleep and then brought him in and put him to bed so we can go to this party tonight. Ha!

More later.

First Day of School

Last night we went to the Open House for Elijah's Tuesday/Thursday School. We met his teacher, Miss Ginger and saw his classroom.


I got up early this morning and made a big breakfast (French Toast, Eggs and Bacon). I went and got Elijah. He was already awake...I said, "Elijah, today's a big day" and he jumped up and yelled, "Preschool!!!" We had to work so hard to keep him calmed down enough to eat and get dressed. It was really funny...

Showing me his back pack...

Sorry its fuzzy...

He had a great day, though his teacher said he didn't take a nap - shocker. So he's been vegging since he got home so we don't have an exhausted meltdown tonight.

What's for dinner? Jambalaya and French Bread! Mmmm! I love it when school starts for many reasons:

1. My son is gone twice a week (learning) and I get some Sadie-time (and Erica-time)

2. Beau is home more. Its still really busy around here, but since the kids are in school there are fewer things during the day and week.

3. Football season

4. I know that if school is starting, football is starting and if football is starting that means cooler weather is coming and I LOVE cool weather.

5. Fall and winter cooking!! Soup, stew and hot chocolate!!!

On the move!

I got the walker out for Sadie last week because I needed to do some work and she wants to stand all the time. I didn't expect her to move around, but boy was I wrong! She is all over the place! I even took the walker to the picnic Sunday and everyone got a kick out of the 4 month old walking around.

HEB had pears on sale on Saturday so I added them to Sadie's diet. She now has had oatmeal, bananas, pears and watermelon. I know...watermelon. I was eating some at the picnic and I let her suck on it. You would have thought I had pulled off a limb by the way she was acting when I took it away! I also have some squash I may make her tonight...we'll see.

Three fun-filled Days

Aimee is one dedicated friend. I'm not really sure why she loves me so much, but I know I love her right back. She made a 4 hour trip with a 1 year old to come and see us for a few days. They got here at 9:45 am. You read right...AM...do the math and figure out what time she left Alvin! We had a great time. We didn't take many pictures on Tuesday because we were just having so much fun we forgot to snap any pics. I did get a few during dinner Tuesday night though.

We had slow cooker lasagna, french bread and salad.



I don't think Grant was impressed with my cooking. Why? Look at the next 2 pictures.

Grant, I can see where you're trying to hide your lasagna!

Wednesday morning we went to Cameron Park. It was great! We started off at the Splash Park...

Sadie, my Golden Girl, was a perfect angel...as usual.

Elijah's not a huge fan of the water shooting out of the ground. He was a little reserved.

Contemplating whether he should go in or not...

Playing with some other boys...

He kept asking if he could go to the playground and swing. I told him he needed to play a little more in the water. This picture is of him coming to me and saying "I got wet, Mama, can I go swing now?"...

"Please can I go swing?"

Finally!!

I was trying to teach him to pump his legs...

We took a picnic and ate at the park. Almost the whole park was shaded and the park ranger would even ride by on his horse...it was great.


The boys didn't take naps on Wednesday, they were too excited. They did wrestle though. They were finding each other's belly buttons...

Pausing for a pic...

Wednesday night we went to church then went out with the youth group to get snow cones. I'm not much of a fan of snow cones, but Aimee is and the boys hadn't ever had any so we decided to go. Remember how I told you the boys played HARD all morning and didn't take naps? We got to the snow cone place at 8:30pm. They boys were so tired! Elijah LOVED the snow cone, but I couldn't get much of a shot of him for the extreme exhaustion...

They sure did sleep well though.



Thursday morning the boys played until Aimee put Grant in his car seat...

We had a fabulous time! Thank you so much, Aimee, for coming!! We took a lot more pics than this. If you want to see more click here. (Look, Aimee, I did it!)

I'm not saying they're rational...

Okay, so we all have our pet peeves. I am about to count down mine. Now, don't misunderstand me...these are simple, innocent pet peeves. If you are guilty of one of them I'm not mad at you, I don't make fun of you, I just smile to myself and wonder why. With that said, lets begin:

1. Why do you need a giant diaper bag and a purse? This pet peeve was passed down to me from my mom. She used to say, "If I ever catch you carrying a diaper bag and a purse..." This once came after having a woman with her two bags slung over her shoulder try to walk thru a Joe's Crab Shack smacking my mom in the head. Now, Aimee will say you carry a purse so when your husband has to go change the baby you still have your purse. Can you not live without your compact for the 3 minutes it'll take to change the diaper? Get a diaper/wipe case.

2. Why do you go for your cell phone when its obviously not your ring? Is it some failed attempt to look important to everyone?..."Oh, the phone's ringing, some one must be calling me"...nope, not you! Now Beau would say that he goes for his phone because he has so many rings he doesn't know if its his or not. To this I say, why do you need so many rings? Didn't you set them? Don't you know what they are? You know you didn't set your ring tone to Wild Thing, why are you reaching for your phone!?

3. Why are you wearing that t-shirt over your swim suit? Now, I understand if you need to wear a t-shirt to keep from getting your sun burn further burned or if its required for church camp. However, why are you wearing it because you think you look overweight? First of all, how much do you really think you're hiding in a wet white t-shirt? and you're just drawing more attention to yourself when you're fully clothed with those said clothes clinging to you.

4. Stupid questions. "You're still pregnant?" Nope, just gave birth, that's why I look so good! I just prefer you to think before you speak.

5. If you're going to use an idiom or cliche please do it correctly. No, Beau, you did not "Soil your oats" or "hit the nail with the hammer".

6. Quit saying "I could care less" the saying is "I couldn't care less" If you don't care - which is what you're trying to say - why would you say you could care less...that means you must care because you could care less.

7. Why do the people on Wheel of Fortune yell? I have never understood this. I've see Pat Sajak on other tv shows and no one ever yells at him. He doesn't seem to have a hearing problem, why must you yell "R!!!"

8. Most people don't think when they're unconscious so why would you think "he's thinking that unconsciously?" Sometimes its "subconsciously".

9. Now this one is mostly just cute to me. I'm going to pick on you, Jannie (mostly because I don't think you read this very often! Ha!) When signing an email its unnecessary to sign it with every name you've ever gone by. Actually, why sign it at all? When your email arrives in my inbox I see who its from, but that's fine. I just think its funny to sign off with
Love,
Mom, Mama, Mommie, Mother, Mamaw, Mimi, Grandma - we got it, we know who you are.

and 10. Please look in the mirror after you dress and before you leave the house. Please do not wear a mid-drift if you have a muffin top or if any other part of your body is hanging out. I don't want to see it...no one does.

Now, please remember, these are just things I find comical. I'm sure any of you could come up with your list of "Top 10 things Erica does to annoy me" but please don't send it to me, unless its funny!

Look what I made!!

I was at a baby shower for a friend a few months ago and she got a bow hanger as a gift. I thought...I can make that. So I did. Took me about $3 and 10 minutes! I love those kind of crafts!

Look at all those bows!! Love it! Have I mentioned lately just how much fun it is having a girl!

I just shipped Elijah off for a night of fun with Mimi! Beau is on his way home from San Antonio and Sadie is laying on her mat singing to herself. I should get a recording for you. Probably not as cute to you, but I love it. I have a day of working on the house planned for tomorrow, then Beau's parents will bring Elijah home and stay for dinner. I have a new recipe planned - Rachael Ray's Chicken Shepherd Pie. I know you shouldn't try a new recipe for guests, but you can't go wrong with Rachael!

More later

Getting Closer!

I'm daily getting glimpses of what Elijah and Sadie playing together in the future will look like. She ADORES her brother and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. He calls her "my girl" as in..."good morning, my girl", "you have a wet diaper, my girl?". He is pretty protective of her. She was on her mat playing the other day and I was trying to get an email sent. Sadie started fussing and Elijah came up to me, very upset, and said, "Mama, put the computer down, you need to feed Sadie!"



"This is a giraffe"...

They are too cute!

Beau left town this afternoon to go to San Antonio to surprise our old youth group. They are going to Fiesta Texas tomorrow. We got some errands ran today and had lunch with our youth at Rosa's. I feel like I had important stuff to say, but I'm tired and can't remember any of it. Elijah hasn't gone in the potty in 2 days. I have no idea how to want him to go. I'm afraid he's lazy. I offer candy, the zoo, a toy...nothing. He actually told me, "I want to go in my diaper". Nice.

More later.

Homemade goodness

I've taken on an interesting feat. I have decided to try to make all of Sadie's baby food. I like the idea that it will all be natural with no preservatives, but mostly want to try and save money - baby food is so expensive.

So, last Friday I made her some cereal and banana. Now I will admit that I may need to buy a box of cereal. Its not too hard to make the cereal from scratch. I just ground up some oats (not quick cooking) and then cooked them for about 10 mins. Then I pureed some bananas. I think it may still be a little thick for her, though, which is why I may need to figure out how to make it thinner. Anyway, I remember giving Elijah plain oatmeal and he hated it, but when I mixed it with bananas he loved it so I skipped the plain oatmeal with Sadie and went straight to the banana mix in.

Here's how it went:

The anticipation, "Something special must be happening. Every one's around me with cameras!"


Taking a bite...(she mostly licks the spoon)

"That's weird!"...

"Its different!"...

"Let me think about it a minute"...

"Not too shabby!"

I froze the remaining cereal and bananas. We tried it again Sunday night and had about the same reaction. Mixed reviews. She doesn't NOT like it, but she doesn't act too excited. I have some peaches I may make today. We'll see. It's been fun and pretty easy so far, we'll see how it continues.

What we have here is a failure to communicate!

The last time I left you Elijah had used the potty once just out of the blue. Well, Friday we had an interesting (all-be-it frightening) event. Friday night it was time for Elijah to go to bed. Beau gave him a bath and I put him to bed. Everything went very well, Elijah was just fine. A few minutes after putting him to bed I sat down to feed Sadie and Beau was sitting with us in the living room. We heard Elijah's door open, he walked out and said "I need to tee tee in the potty" Beau jumped up, said okay, took him into the bathroom. Elijah pulled his pants down, took off his diaper and went in the potty. It was just perfect. Then it happened. Beau said, "Okay, lets pull your pants up and go get your M&M's" Elijah wanted to "tee tee more" and kept trying. Beau tried to explain that you can't just keep going and going. Then, when he tried to get Elijah to put his pants back on Elijah turned into something resembling a wild beast. There was a lot of screaming, crying and a few thumps and threats. Finally, I told Beau to let him stand there and try. I had this conflict that we've been trying to talk him into using the potty for a year and now we're punishing him because he wants to. Well, we ended up having to wrestle him into bed - twice. He finally fell asleep. Saturday he wanted nothing to do with the potty then Saturday night the same thing happened. We were able to distract him early enough that the fit didn't happen, but that makes 3 times now that he's gone in the potty. I've learned a few things though:
1. He will only go if its his idea (I can't figure out how to entice him to go any other time).
2. If he's tired you're fighting a loosing battle (nap time is our friend).
3. You can't explain to a 2 year old that you can't just keep going and going.


So...at least it looks like we're heading in the right direction, it looks like there may be a few bumps along the way, though.

Here are some pictures from Friday and Saturday.

The kids found some time to play before they got dressed. Elijah was laying by Sadie telling her, "We're almost neckoed Sadie!"


(Don't worry, Sadie had on a diaper too)


We went on a walk Friday morning and this dog went with us. After returning home Elijah wanted to give him (who we named Cody, though I think its a girl) a drink. Then we playing in the garage for a while. It was a good dog, I don't know who it belongs to.

Saturday Beau went tubing with the youth group so Sadie, Elijah and I went to Mom and Dad's for the day to try out the new pool. We had a great time...its so nice.

The "beach entry" part of the pool...

Elijah loves being able to splash around in the shallow water...

Sadie and Pawpaw...

I have no idea why Elijah makes this face when you tell him to smile now...

I see many more days filled with swimming in our future!