For Auntie Lolo

I got a request for more pictures of the nieces, Auntie Lolo, this one's for you!

The girls swinging at Skypark, Eliana's 10 Month birthday.

This picture was taken moments before I hauled Adessa screaming to the car, for what proved to be our most difficult day together to date. She worked herself into a raging fit like none before or since, luckily, but one that brought out the worst in both of us. I'll just leave it at that.


At second-step-cousin once removed Henry's birthday party, a ho-down at his farm! Here's Adessa with the goats.


Here we are with beloved Aunt Deborah. (Adessa hadn't warmed up at this point.)

And with my beloved friends Kim and Barbara.

Here is Adessa 20 minutes after we should have gone home, finally 100% into the ho-down, absolutely in the spirit and having a blast.



St. Patrick's Day, sort of. We had a birthday party for my friend Shanon with a St. Patty's spin, only a few days before the 17th. Please note Calvin's fledgling mustache. He's growing it for a picture at the end of May. It better be one fabulous picture, is all I'm saying. Its very hard to take him seriously.


The weather has been beautiful, and we've been enjoying our backyard. The warm weather is great because there's more kissable soft skin exposed. 8)


Adessa marched around singing, sweet.


A cake side-note: I've decided caking is my newest hobby, and got some bargain pans online. Here's my first attempt, and I learned a ton. Couldn't have done it without youtube tutorials.

Help My Hands!

Do any other moms get this? My hands are in serious crisis. Since Eliana was born almost ten months ago, they've been in some degree of dry, itchy, sandpaper-like, scaly, rashy ouchiness. It's from washing them too much, I know. I use Cetaphil mild hand soap, and try to moisturize whenever I get a minute. I've also been wearing lanolin in white gloves at night, it just seems like my hands are always wet. Diapers, noses, potty training, cleaning, cooking, I'm just always washing them. Do they have spa getaways for hands? My hands need one. If you've any tips, I'm willing to hear them. One consolation is, I don't think I'd look like royalty if we were to have another French Revolution, they're beat up enough I think I'd avoid the guillotine.

Disney on Ice and More...

Adessa kept calling it Disneyland, but we got to sit in a Penthouse box at the HP Pavillion to see Disney on Ice. It was awesome. Awesome to sit holding Adessa and have special time with her. Awesome to see her so excited and enchanted by it all. Awesome to spend time with our friends who had the box connection, Kim, Jim, Gwen and Julie. Eliana was happy to hang with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, and it was very nice to just have to worry about Adessa. Before we left, as I was dressing Adessa in her Minnie Mouse costume, she said: "Minnie Mouse will be so happy to meet me." That's right girl. I'm pretty sure Minnie waved right at us.

Posing with Grandma pre-show, in all her Minnie finery.

With Kim (wearing Julie) and Gwennie in our box.

We tried to get the perspective here, can you see the ice?


More...
An impromptu bath in the bathroom sink. (Can you see how we need to remodel, or at least update?)


Eliana rocking out on her piano.


This girl is trying it all out these days. Eliana tries to say: ball, uh-oh, more, bye and hi, and is so engaged with what's going on around her. She's also trying to stand and clap at the same time, she tries to pull herself up on everything, she tries to play with Adessa or whatever Adessa's doing, which has lead to another new noise she makes. Pretty much when she sees Adessa coming towards her she shouts: "Nahh!" because that's what Adessa says when she snatches toys away from her. Oh dear.

Here she is stuck between the stove and the counter. Again, can you see we need to remodel???? 8)


Sisterly love. A big smoocheroo, or maybe mouth to mouth? (So that's how they do it in their family... Ferris anyone?)

Three Quarters

Grandma and Calvin share a birthday, and it was Eliana's 3/4ths Day.


Eliana is nine months old, and I've missed a bunch in blogging due to general lunacy. On the same day that Eliana became 3/4 of a year, Calvin became 3/4ths of 50.7. Yeah, figure that one out. Horrific math problems aside, we are well.

Hey, wait! Actually, I'm exhausted, but it's all my own fault. I somehow have not yet given up the idea that I can get something done. I keep trying to accomplish tasks, see people, and go places. Not even like I used to before kids, just somethings, sometimes. And it's still too much. It stresses all of us out. I used to think (like last week) that I could plan well, have everybody nap on schedule and for just the right amount of time, and then still DO lots of things. Apparently, after much anguish and soul searching, and attempt after attempt to prove myself wrong, I cannot. I like to blame the non-nappers, but it's all part of what I cannot control, and therefore I have to stop expecting that I can, which is where the internal distress happens for me. I can't push it/them, it just doesn't ever work out very well, and I don't like myself when I'm in the mode of prolonged trying: trying to get somewhere on time, trying to get to just one more store, trying to stay just five minutes longer, etc.


Okay, they're sweet.


Adessa stomping in the ample rain puddles. She's even figured out that mud is just as fun when the puddles dry up.


Snuggly and warm in Daddy's fleece.


Eliana's all over the place, she keeps popping up in new nooks and crannies.




In the span of a week she started: crawling, pulling herself up onto furniture, drinking from a sippy cup, saying "Mama", clapping her hands, got her first bed-head, and this week she is waving and saying "Haaaaa" for hi. Blast-off age, here she goes!

I kept trying to get a picture of the side of Eliana's head, to showcase the sweet potato she'd massaged into it. But every time I put the camera up, she turned to smile or bestow one of these amusing expressions.






All cleaned up!


Gwennie came over to play, and the toy-tubs became boats.






Eliana wanted in on the tub-action.

Eight Months of Eliana

Eight months old, 1/5! Little banana face. (No, really- there's banana on her face.)


Figuring out her sippy cup.


At our annual 7pm countdown New Years Party with the mom's group. It was held at Stacy's this year, a break from tradition because our normal host, Kim, was having her second daughter Julie! Welcome to the crew, Julie! Gwennie's a big sister, but we missed her for the picture. Some would argue that all of our kids missed the picture, but hey, it's a record.


Enjoying the jumperoo. Everybody jump now!


Eliana's getting ready to move, which means mostly that she scoots around on her bunners (that's the official term at our house) and gets herself tangled up in her toys. She hangs out for, oh, about 30 seconds on her tummy before getting cranky about it, so crawling may take a while. Meanwhile, she pulls herself to her knees on the toy basket and otherwise freaks me out. She cut a tooth (did I tell you?) and seems to gnaw on everything, so we are expecting the arrival of more. She is delightful. She really prefers being with me, will cry if she sees me walk by if she's in anyone else's arms, or even playing on the ground. But from my arms, she is babbling, giggling, playful, engaging sweet delight. What fun it is to get her up from a nap, she rewards you with the most adoring expressions and noises. She's starting to grab at everything, which doesn't delight Adessa, who thinks she's trying to take her toys away or pull her hair. Is this the beginning of them being at odds? I hope not with all my heart, I aspire for them to be best of friends and peaceful playmates. (Well, I can hope, right?)


Adessa, while still dependent on her binky for comfort and to sleep, while still preferring to do most of her #2s in her diaper at nap-time, while still sometimes throwing terrific fits when she's tired or hungry or just plain ornery, said this to me yesterday on a walk: "When Eliana gets bigger, like my age, she will stomp in puddles in her raincoat." I was pretty impressed. I am her mom and everything, so I'm supposed to look for signs of spectacularity in my children, and I think that was a pretty spectacular sentence for my girlie. Another one she does, she'll cry holding my legs, looking up at me for comfort and say: "I just want to be held." For some reason, her using the past tense of "hold" at 2 1/2 just makes me laugh. 8) She also has started drawing faces, recognizable smiley faces. I'm not sure when kids do that developmentally, but I'm sure she's waaaaay ahead. Right? Hopefully she won't be like me, though, I always took to things quickly and then was kind of bewildered when everyone else caught up and then passed me.

So Much Fun... (but not too much!)

Possibly too many pictures, though.

We essentially had two Christmases, because Calvin had to work on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was with his parents and sister and her family, and Christmas Day was with my family. The girls did great with all the hullaballo. I had to take down the Christmas tree the day after Christmas to fit the new toys into our small house. ( Which lead to fits of internal dialogue for me about materialism and teaching the girls about giving and how Christmas isn't about shopping, and about the tremendous amounts of junk you can get for pretty cheap these days, and how at the same time that I wanted to teach them valuable lessons, I also wanted there to be a lot of fun stuff for them to open. I'll be mulling all that over)

But, yes, our Christmas: I'll let the photos tell the story...

The weekend before Christmas, we feasted at Mt. Hermon's Christmas Banquet/Concert series with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis and Auntie Evie and Uncle Randy and the cousins. Adessa LOVES her cousins. Thank you, cousins, for being so attentive to my girls.



This shot is pre-banquet. These pictures kinda make me wish I'd waited until after the banquet to do the Christmas cards.


Monday, 12/21 my merry mom's group decorated gingerbread houses.


All this fun done near tuckered 'em out!


Eliana and our tree, on Christmas Eve eve. I love pictures with the tree, they are instantly interesting and magical. I think this means I should get more houseplants.


Christmas Eve morning, we opened our little family's presents. Say cheese!


Hey, this is fun!


Opening presents with the Lewis Clan after our delicious Christmas Eve feast and revelry.


Opening presents with the Beck clan, Christmas morning. What Calvin missed was...

Adessa's first and favorite present. After opening a trunk full of dress-up gowns and accessories, Adessa was interested only in prancing and curtseying and sashaying around. She had to be talked into opening her other wonderful gifts. And now, post Christmas, she has to be talked out of wearing only princess gowns in the cold, in the rain, to the grocery store, etc.


Pausing to rest for a moment after the present-opening frenzy.


Ben and I with the gorgeous sign that he made for our family. This thing is beautiful and will feature prominently in our house.


Adessa snuggled with Auntie Lolo before our Christmas dinner at church, which was the end of the Christmas fun. Also which, lucky for you, I didn't get any pictures of. 8) Happy Holidays!