I Love Legos....

I do, I really do. I guess I should say I really really really like legos since I've been trying to teach Ella about loving people and not things. This is hard because there are some "things" that she really really likes. We're also working on praying for people and not things. She tries to trick me sometimes and adds, toys or bike to her prayers and then recants, saying "no toys, no bikes". But I've decided we can pray for dogs (she loves to pray for our dog Goldie and my parents dog Pokie). Anyway, back to the topic at hand...legos. Ella got a farm set of the duplo legos (the in between size - too big to swallow, but small enough to be able to build with at a young age) for her 2nd birthday. She enjoyed playing with them from time to time but it was a small set and there wasn't too much you could do with it beyond the basics. My mother (who has sazed almost every toy that we grew up with) has a great collection of legos that she brought along on vacation with her. I realized that after dumping the entire box out the kids were occupied for a good amount of time. When we got home we bought a decent size set with a gift certificate and that's all Catherine and Ella want to play with. Oh yeah, and Matt too. Now we have enough that Catherine can destroy the little things we build for her while Ella still can be building some massive structure. I really love seeing her imagination at work - she builds stairs and gates and farms and towers - all sorts of structures that only slightly resemble what she calls them. But it's a great activity that keeps both girls active and entertained as well as Matt and myself. An added bonus is the plastic bin they came in for easy cleanup. I am in heaven!

Well I should go work on not equating heaven to earthly things such as plastic blocks....

Book Tag

Ok, so I got tagged by my sister in law, Chrissie - and I am so new to this whole blog world that I had to ask her what to do. Basically you copy and paste the questions onto your blog and then "tag" the people that you want to respond on their blogs. But they have to find it themselves....a blog version of a forward! I know this is basic to most bloggers, but again, me and most of my friends are new at this.

This is hard for me because it's all about books and I read so many books that I really can't keep them straight. I read books that I love, hate, mildly enjoy, struggle to get through, etc. All types of genres - mostly fiction and "Christian living".
1. One book that changed your life: The Bible - the only book that really can
2. One book that you’ve read more than once - I've read so many more than once but I usually read Francine Rivers' "Redeeming Love" at least every few years.
3. One book you’d want on a desert island - the Bible
4. One book that made you laugh - off the top of my head "Little Earthquakes" by Jennifer Weiner.
5. One book that made you cry - Mrs. Mike (one of my all time favs)
6. One book that you wish had been written - I'll tell you when I read it.
7. One book that you wish had never been written - I can't remember names but I have read books that should have never been published.
8. One book you’re currently reading - just finished the Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mitchard
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read - Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
10. Now tag five people:
www.flimsydress.blogspot.com
www.sears-share.blogspot.com
www.considerthelilies.wordpress.com
www.christinacostain.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/mylifeat29

Frustrations in Parenting

The morning didn't start out too bad. Breakfast was good and I was actually able to run a comb through Ella's hair and pull it back before we left to go to a brunch with some women that I was in a Bible study with last year. There were alot of kids there - kids that Ella has played with and was very excited to see. But it ended up being a morning full of lots of whining and her being too timid to do much. Of course there were moments when Ella had fun - usually involving eating or chasing Catherine (who was having lots of fun). When I had to move the van to let someone leave Ella had to come with me so I just put her in the carseat and she sat in the car until I went back and gathered up my things, got Catherine and said good-bye to everyone - which took 10 minutes. And she was happier just sitting out there! Why? She is usually a pretty social little creature but lately she's been shying away and wanting my or Matt to play with her and getting whiny when we don't.

Then she decided she didn't want to take a nap and kept running to her door and opening it and crying and then running back to bed. Of couse being very loud the whole time to increase the chances of Catherine waking up. I had to go up about four times and put her back in her bed and tell her that she had to have quiet time if she wasn't going to nap. Finally it seemed like she was going to settle down and go to sleep. FINALLY I am going to get some work done and maybe some time to myself. 15-20 minutes pass and I'm feeling pretty good. But wouldn't you know it a storm rules in bringing along some loud thunder boomers (Ella's name). I was in the kitchen when I heard a yell and I knew that it was Ella. I found her upstairs sitting up in her bed with her blanket over her head, crying. She was upset and said "the thunderboomers were so so sad". I knew what she meant! :) In that moment all the frustrations of the day were gone and I just laid in bed with her and held her close - glad to be able to comfort her.

Now the rest of the day was still frustrating - Ella decided to pee on the potty while wearing her underwear - on purpose. But it was nice to have a moment to realize that as much as she drives me crazy she's just a little girl who needs her mommy to keep her safe.

Big girl bed...

That is the new thing in our household. We finally moved Ella out of her crib and into a twin bed. I actually bought the comforter for her twin bed a year ago because I wanted to paint and pick out accessories for her room but wasn't ready to switch her from a crib - I didn't want to have to worry about her sleeping changing as well as deal with a newborn. So we finally got down an old twin bed and mattress from the attic and set it up in her room. She was so excited - especially because it was the bed that her daddy slept in when he was little! Of course she was so wired that she had a lot of troubling winding down for bed. I think it was around 9pm (starting at 8) that she stopped calling for us (1st to get her special Curious George book to have in bed, then to turn on the lights so she could read- not gonna happen!) and settled in for the night. It's such a weird feeling to see her in that "big" little bed. She seems so grown up that it makes my heart ache a bit. No more diapers, no more crib - big aspects of babyhood are being left behind this summer.

I think someone is awake upstairs which is pretty unusual for my girls so I'll have to stop my sappiness and go check!

Thanks for checking in....

The 4400

Ok I know it sounds like all I do is watch TV because I like posting about shows I like - but I am the type of person who likes to share something I enjoy. Matt and I are about halfway through the second season of The 4400 and it is so cool. It keeps throwing us for loops but still answers enough questions that you don't feel lost (like you might when watching "Lost"). I highly advise picking up Season 1 at your local blockbuster or renting it online.

More Dance

So I finally got to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance - a couple of days late because I was on vacation and it was DVR'd at home. It's so nice being able to skip through all the stuff you don't want to watch. I loved all the dances. Aside from the Natalie Dimitry dance they were all ones I would have wanted to see again. I especially loved the Wade Robson group dance - definitely the coolest. I already knew that Benji won because I looked online (kind of figured...) My sister in law and brother were at our house Saturday night and I made them watch with me. My SIL was hooked after watching the dances and will hopefully watch next year. Anyway, here is a link to a good interview with Benji by another blogger. I think from that interview you can link to another one where he talks about possibly passing on the Celin Dion contract.

http://www.duckyxdale.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Back to the Real World

We just got back from a week long vacation with my family at Ocean City NJ. It was a great week - beautiful weather, beautiful place, time with family. It was Catherine's first time at the beach and she enjoyed it so much more than I thought she would. There were a number of times we had to grab her back before she was covered by a wave.
Here are some pictures from our trip....

Ella on her first merry-go-round ride. That was the tamest ride she went on....

Catherine and me on the beach- I actually don't want to post this but am having trouble deleting it and just want to publish this and go to bed...peace...

Irrational Fears

That's what we're dealing with currently. Ella has developed some big time fears that really make no sense....
1. People dressed up like animals
OK I can understand that a bit - a giant walking talking cow might be a bit scary (Chick-fil-A), but why be scared of a giant life sized Twinkie giving out free Swiss Cake Rolls? Both resulted in major freak outs from Ella - tears, trembling, yelling. If she didn't like Chick-fil-A nuggets and playroom so much I don't know if we would ever be able to go there again.
2. People with tattoos
This is a new one - she's seen tattoos before but we were getting ready to leave a restaurant last week and she saw an older man with long white hair covered in tattoos. He was a bit odd looking but not really because of his tattoos - but of course that's what stood out to her. I was hoping it was a fluke but she saw a woman the next day with tattoos and was scared again.
3. Cement trucks
I hope it's not all trucks - this one reared it's ugly head today at the park when a cement truck pulled about 30 feet away to do something. That was it for our picnic - Ella had to sit on my lap and pulled my arms around her tightly. Then she wouldn't walk back to the car so I had to push her in the stroller while carrying Catherine and our bag of stuff. So I'm praying that she was just in a weird mood. I don't think we can avoid trucks.

Now that I got that out of my system I need to focus on So You Think You Can Dance.

So You Think You Can Dance

Tonight is the final of SYTYCD - the only reality show that I watch at all. I never watch voting shows because I inevitably get frustrated because people get voted off before they should. So last week I actually voted for the first time ever in a reality show. And it worked- the people I voted for stayed! I have a voice!

Who do you think will win? Let me know.... I tend to be a fan of Benji's - he's excelled in every style that's he's done. I like Travis but I really don't think he's as versatile as Benji. Also Benji has four years on Travis - it's his time!

I probably should be playing with Ella right now. Gotta go

Family Picture

Here's a picture of the whole family about a month ago. My parents were taking the picture and trying to get the kids to smile. Of course my mom was standing a couple feet to the side of my dad so this is the closest we got to all looking in relatively the same direction.

Free Cell

They say the first step towards recovery is knowing you have a problem. Well...I'm addicted to free cell. You know the game on your computer you probably never play. Well I probably play it at the very least 50 times a day. Once I had a winning streak of over 100 games. Try it sometime.....it'll hook you in....

What I'm watching

Matt and I just finished watching the first disk of the second season of The 4400. It's a series that runs on USA and is now on it's third season. It's pretty cool - a bit sci-fi for some though. Of course each disk is a separate rental so it feels like a season ending cliff hanger.

I just finished reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Very easy read that will make you think and rethink what you believe about faith, social activism, the Church and much more. Might be tempting to toss it out if it offends you but read to the end because I feel like you really get a sense of his heart and his mission.

Remembered....

Ok, so I only started this thing about 12 hours ago. And I already forgot my user name, member name, screen name....all of it! After 15 minutes of searching and getting very close to starting over I finally got it - don't ask me what it is now because it's almost 11pm and I tried so many combinations of user name/password that I really don't know which one worked. That's what having two kids 20 months apart will do to your brain. :)

On another note I just finished watching some episodes of season one Veronica Mars. It's one of my favorite shows and I have three of my friends hooked on it so we're watching the first season in order to try and get caught up to season 3 by Oct.

That's it for now - I need to be sleeping...

Here is a recent picture of Ella (2 1/2) and Catherine (almost 1 year).

This is my first post here - just trying it out and figuring out how things work. But I actually need to finish cleaning my kitchen! So long for now....