Carnival of Golf

I forgot to mention in my previous post, the Knox Alumni Carnival of Golf now has a new home on the web: www.knoxcarnivalofgolf.com. You can see where the guys have been in the past with links to the courses if you want to check them out online. Also, there is a photo collection of Alumni Golf Outings including the last two Knosher tournaments as well as Carnivals '04 & '05.

Just another day...

I had a nice birthday weekend. I tend to turn my birthday into a weekend long event as opposed to just celebrating the day. ;-) Actually, Andrew was in Vegas for a conference for work (yeah, I'm sure they worked a lot) Sunday night through last night so my actual birthday was not that exciting. But Andrew watched the girls much of Saturday so I could have a break. And then he surprised me by arranging for the girls to go to the sitter Sunday afternoon so we could go to lunch and shopping. It was nice to spend time with just Andrew and not have the girls around.

In other news, we finally gave in and have rented a storage unit. We are in the process of cleaning out all the extraneous junk from around the condo. Gone is the corner by the couch where we just threw all our extra blankets (all 15 of them), gone is the wooden chair from upstairs, and the two rocking chairs. We are cleanin' house! I can't tell you how happy this makes me. I've gotten so sick of staring at all our stuff we don't have room for. So now I have a new project of organizing everything around here. I just have to find the time to do it!

The girls are doing well. Nothing too exciting to report with them. Ella doesn't have a new word of the week yet. She's still stuck on "Hello". Oh, "Go!" is a new one. Andrew counts down, "3-2-1...Goooo!" and when he gets to the "go" part she says it with him.

We want to say congratulations to our friends Erika & Aaron Ford who just welcomed a bouncing baby boy on January 19th! We can't wait to meet him!

Mmm...Mmm...good

Another baby milestone to report: Lily has started eating cereal! I'm hoping that eventually the cereal eating will curb those late night wake-ups. She did great her first time. She was so excited! She would grab at the spoon and even simulated chewing a little bit. And the third night (last night) she had it down pat. She would get so excited as the spoon came toward her mouth. And of course, I would make silly noises and smile and tell her how good the cereal tasted. What a cutie pie she is!

TGIF!

Ahh, I'm in love! Yes, seriously in love with Friday mornings! Ella is at the babysitter's house until this afternoon. Lily is all snuggly in her bouncy seat taking her morning cat nap and here I am free. Free to do whatever I want. These moments are few and far between these days. I used to get them a lot on the weekends BL (Before Lily) because Andrew would so generously watch Ella. But now we're on a man-to-man defense where we each take a kid so neither of us get any time to ourselves anymore.

This week has seemed to be eternally long. First, Wednesday felt like Thursday. Then, for about two minutes when I woke up Thursday morning, I seriously convinced myself it was Saturday morning. Then both kids started crying at the same time and I woke up out of my reverie.

Perhaps the week seemed long because I didn't have a car for two days (Andrew needed the Pilot for work, have you ever tried to get two kids, carseats, and a double stroller into a Hyandai Elantra? Not gonna happen.), and was stuck at home. Or maybe its because Lily has decided its fun to wake up once or twice a night. Which wouldn't be so bad if I could fall back asleep right away, but my silly mind starts going and doesn't want to shut off.

Or maybe the week seemed long because it's Week 2 of my Weight Watchers diet. In a moment of insanity two weekends ago, I signed up to lose the rest of my "Lily weight" as I like to call it. Have you ever started a diet but just weren't entirely mentally ready for it? I am a person who LOVES to eat. So watching every morsel I put in my mouth is no fun. And takes the fun out of eating. But WW works. So I guess I shouldn't complain. I'll lose the weight and then I can maintain by eating all the lovely carbs I want! (In moderation of course, so as to not gain the weight back).

I should take a moment to say Happy Birthday....to me! Yep, the big 2-9 is on Monday (the 23rd). Only one year away from the really big 3-0. Hard to believe I've been on this planet that long already. Well, actually, I can. I feel older than 29 already. Again, waking up at night sucks! So, I guess I have to quit my month-long shenanigans of reminding Andrew that he is a year older than me. Really, he's just a month and half older, but for that month and half I like to remind him he's older, which means he'll be turning the big 3-0 before me! HA!

I also want to take a moment to throw out a congratulations to our friends Garth and Beth who recently became engaged! Yay! Garth was in town for his job so Andrew met up with him at the Cheesecake Factory last night.

Okay, I'll stop my totally random-nothing-really-to-say post.

New Photos!

Finally! I have about 165 new pictures uploaded to our photo site. Just click on the Latest Pictures link in the sidebar.

When you get there, scroll down and start with the December 2005 album (I've added new pictures to it) and work your way up.

ENJOY!

Our Lives this Week

Let's see, I do promise to get pictures up very soon. I just have not had any free time to go through them all. I am working on it though. I suppose you're probably sitting there wondering why she isn't working on the pictures now instead of spending time writing posts for the blog giving excuses why she can't get the photos uploaded? :-) Well, this is something quick to do and I can cross it off my to-do list and have a feeling of accomplishment that I actually got something done for once. ;-)

Okay, enough blabbing. This week has gone by fairly quickly for us. Ella had a playdate here at the house with her good friend Camrynne. They had a blast running up and down the hallway together. I'm sure the Old Lady in 208 (she actually signed her holiday card this way--well without the "old" in front of it) LOVED us that day. Ella also showed Cam how to climb into the crib to turn on the DVD player (I'm sure Cam's mom is thanking us for Cam learning this new trick). I also was nice and got Megaland out of hiding for the girls to play in. So I have been picking up plastic balls all over the house all week. Sadly, Megaland has returned to its storage spot today while Ella is at the babysitter's.

Lily is really growing up already! For a three month old, she is grabbing at toys and bringing them to her mouth to chew on. She is also grabbing her toes. So cute! She smiles and "talks" all the time. Something Ella really never did. Well, Ella still doesn't talk--at least not a lot. Although, she is improving. I think I'm going to start a new blog thing where Ella has a word of the week. (I know you all are brimming with excitement and will tune in each week to find out what her word is!) This week's word is: HELLO? She says it like a question, like "Is anyone in here?" She also says it as a statement. But its much cuter in the question form. She will pick up her play phone and say "Hellooo?" Or knock on the bathroom door and say it. She will also just go around her room when she's playing by herself, saying the word to no one in particular.

Not much else exciting this week so far. We are going to a birthday party for one of Ella's friends tomorrow. And I am going to Mom's Night Out (MNO) for the playgroup that Ella and I are in. Once a month, the mom's get together on a Sunday evening and go out to dinner sans kids and hubbies. Yay! Lots of fun! I haven't been since probably August. So I'm really looking forward to it. It's also to celebrate the group's two-year anniversary. Ella and I are among I think five other members who have been the group the longest. There are about thirty members now.

So I guess that's all. I'm finally taking the Christmas tree down this weekend. I suppose I've procrastinated long enough. I'll post when I've finally got the new pictures up!

Have a great weekend!

Not So Breaking News

(Another completely random post here) I just have to say the news about Angelina Jolie being pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby is first of all, completely sad that this is the top news story all over the place. Are we really that surprised by this? They've been playing the domestic family thing for almost a year now. And aren't there more important newsworthy events happening out there? But at any rate, I could have sold this story to the press more than a month ago and we'd be rich now!

We were at the Hornet Christmas party and talking about babies since three different people (us included) there had babies this fall. And somehow it came up that Angelina had been seen at one of their OB offices this fall. So I just figured that she was pregnant. And now the truth is out! Man, the opportunities we miss. ;-)

Seriously, I think the whole paparazzi thing is ridiculous out here so even though I had reasonably hard evidence, I would never want to contribute to the madness. ;-)

I'm a Big Girl Now!

Here's a picture of our nuk-free Ella on her new tricycle!

I have posted some pictures from when we opened gifts on Dec. 17th. I will hopefully be posting many more soon from our week in Wisconsin!

The Pacifier is Gone!

Whoo Hoo!

I think this process this weekend was harder on Andrew and I then it was on Ella! At least it was hard on me, I felt just awful about taking her nuk away. But it really was time. Saturday morning after Ella woke up and gave us her nuk, I took the two remaining pacifiers we had in the house upstairs and cut the tips off. This nearly brought me to tears. I felt like I was cutting the head off her favorite doll or something. I felt like the meanest mom in the whole world. I put them back in the cupboard in their normal spot.

We made a trip to Toys R Us later in the morning and bought a few things. One of which was a new tricycle for Ella. We were going to get the nice metal Radio Flyer variety, but she tried out a cheaper plastic model with buttons that made different sounds. So, of course, she liked that better than the nice metal trike. Andrew took her out to the car while I purchased the bribe, I mean, trike.

We came home and left the trike in the car. When it came time for her to take a nap, she went to the cupboard, like she always does and pointed for her nuk. So I gave her one of them. She looked at it, was a little perplexed at the missing tip and showed it to me as she said, "Oh nooo." I told her, "Uh oh, it's broken, that means we have to throw it out." So she went to the trash can without really thinking about it and threw it out. She knows there seems to be an endless supply of pacifiers in this house. Then she went back to the cupboard and reached again for another one. I gave her the second and final "broken" nuk. She looked at that one and promptly threw it in the trash can. Again, went back to the cupboard. This time, I picked her up and showed her there were no more nuks there. Then Andrew said, "You don't need those nuks anymore, you're a big girl now. Big girls don't need pacifiers." She cried for a little bit and went in her room and was sad. While she was pouting, Andrew went down to the car and got the trike and brought it back up.

She wasn't too interested in it right then, but after a few minutes, she cheered up, got on, and Andrew pushed her around. From then on, she didn't need the nuk. She never did take a nap on Saturday, but she did go to bed just fine without it, slept all night long too. Then today, she took her nap and went to bed without it. She did ask for it a couple times yesterday and I just reminded her that they were broken and we threw them away and that she was a big girl and didn't need it.

It really is amazing how quickly kids grow up. She loved her nuk from the first day she was born. I hated to take it away from her, but I also hate seeing four year olds walking around with them in their mouth and they are talking around it. We were definitely headed in that direction. She is such a sweetheart! I do hope she finds something new that will make her just as happy as the pacifier did!

Exciting Times

I said I would use this blog to keep you all informed of baby milestones. Well we are hitting two of them! The first happened yesterday. Lily rolled over from her back to her tummy all by herself at three months! Ella didn't do that until she was almost five months old. We were playing on the floor and she was trying to do it so I gave her a little help. Then I put her back on her back and went into the kitchen to help Ella get some juice. When I came back out, Lily was on her tummy! She did it again today all by herself. I can't believe how much more advanced she is than Ella was at this age!

And the second milestone involves Ella. We are retiring her nuks this weekend. We have decided to do it cold turkey. She was really good for a long time about only needing it at nap time and bedtime, but for the last month or so, she is demanding it pretty much all the time. We don't give in, but I am sick of her asking for it all the time, and I don't really think she needs it anymore. She also has gotten very mischievous about it. She will go and grab her pjs out of the drawer and give them to me to put on her. To her, this indicates its bedtime and therefore will receive her nuk, even though its only 6pm at night. She will also go to the cupboard and ask for it at like 10am in the morning and go lay in her bed for like ten minutes because to her this is taking a "nap". Then she will get up and play with it in her mouth for as long as I will let her have it. So, tomorrow morning after she wakes up, she will join us at the garbage can where she can see that we are throwing them away. We have told her for the past two days that we will be getting rid of the nuks and that she is a big girl now and big girls don't need their nuks anymore. It makes me sad to be getting rid of it, because this means she really is getting older and not a baby anymore. But it's time. I know she will be upset. But I have faith she will get over it (hopefully quickly) and become attached to something else. She's already getting attached to her new Nemo blanket I got her so I think that may become her new security object.

So wish us luck as we become the "mean, tough love" parents this weekend! I'll let you know how it goes on Monday! Feel free to weigh in with your comments about how mean we are. ;-) I just hope we don't traumatize her forever.

What's in a Name?

I wouldn't be me if I didn't post something totally random every now and then. I get these emails from babycenter.com that tell me the normal progress of growth for children (our kids are right up there of course!) and also provide parenting articles. I received one the other day that listed the top 100 baby names for 2005.

Out of curiosity, I checked it out. You may be interested to know that Ella is now ranked #16 on the list. Holy cow! Her name was ranked #89 back in 2002, which is why we picked it. We were trying to be original and wanted her to have a unique name. It jumped to #44 in 2003, #29 in 2004 and then the astonishing #16 last year. Lily was ranked #52 in 2004--yet another reason we picked it, not incredibly popular. And now, its ranked #26 for 2005! It was #69 in 2003, and #79 in 2004. What the heck?! So much for unique names!

Part II: Happy New Year

So we flew back to CA on Jan. 1. Our plane was supposed to leave at 8:50AM which is pretty tough to do with two kids. That's mighty early. Not to mention, I'm not really a morning person. So we get to the airport, get all checked in, fine, dandy. March to the gate area and learn that our flight has been delayed somewhat indefinitely due to a mechanical problem. The plane was currently in the hanger getting fixed. Okay, by all means, take all the time you need to get that bird up in the air properly so we make it back to CA safe and sound. But, I could have slept another two hours!

We finally get on the plane around 10:30 and end up departing about two hours behind schedule. Fine, dandy. Then we hit a bunch of turbulence, so we have to fly at 24,000 feet instead of whatever you normally fly at. Fine, dandy. Just get me home in one piece. Then we hit 90mph headwinds, which added at least a half hour to our trip. Fine dandy. Then we have to fly into LAX the opposite direction from normal because of the winds, we circle over the ocean at leaast three times before we're allowed to safely land on California pavement. Then we have to taxi ALL THE WAY AROUND THE AIRPORT to the one existing gate (Gate 36) for Midwest airlines. Now, we are finally back. Fine dandy.

Everyone flew great, except for me who was in a bit of a mood by the time we got into the Burger King line at about 2pm.

On the way home, I said to Andrew, "Well that was a fun way to start our new year off." He replied, "Yeah, it's like starting off with a bogey on the first hole in a round of golf." I agreed. Although, usually, a bogey would be a nice way to start off a round for me (instead of a double bogey or a snowman). Then he said, "I did finish a round with a 68 after bogeying the first hole though, if that tells you anything." So, we're hoping the year ends up with a round of 68!

Then on Jan. 2nd, we decided to try and get pictures taken at Penny's. We needed to get Lily's 3 month pictures taken, and it would be fun to have a picture of Ella and Lily together, and a nice family picture. We realized all this was quite ambitious, especially knowing our girls and their feistiness. As soon as I pushed the stroller into the photo studio, Ella started screaming and melted down. Okay, so we started with Lily. We got two really cute pictures (one vertical and one horizontal) and then Lily started to have a meltdown. The photographer was really nice and gave us time to try and get the kids calmed down while she took someone else's pictures, but it was just not going to happen. So we packed it up, ordered some pictures of the two cute ones of Lily and were on our way. I'm thinking we may not get any good pictures of Ella and Lily for like another year. So, I hope no one out there is holding their breath for a cute "sister" picture. But we will be sending out the Lily photos with our Christmas thank yous, so you might receive your thank you a little later than usual. ;-) Oh, but we did find two Christmas ties for Andrew on sale, they were 62 cents each! Originally, $25 and they are not hideous at all, they are actually pretty nice for Christmas ties. So the year is looking up!

Jan. 3 turned out to be a good day, our round of golf is shaping up so far. I will promise not to use the golf metaphor too often throughout the year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you end up with a round of 68 too!

Part I: Merry Christmas

Okay, since I never did get around to posting while we were gone, I will probably add a few posts instead of doing it all in one long one.

So, we had a very joyous holiday celebrating with the Christmas Trifecta. That would be three straight days of holiday cheer. We started on Christmas Eve night celebrating with the Comande family (that would be Pat's side) at Grandma Iz's house. Unfortunately, Ella only got in a 45 minute nap before we headed over there. She was still on California time. So she had a meltdown for about an hour and half. But after that, she was cute and bubbly and waited patiently for us to open each of her toys to play with. I think one of her favorites was her new microwave! Much more high-tech than the one-button wonder on her play kitchen. Now, she has one that beeps, countdowns, has real buttons, and the food spins around! She also got a lot of other great gifts from everyone.

Day two of the Trifecta was quite busy. We opened gifts with Andrew's immediate family in the morning and then headed over to Aunt Sue's house for Christmas dinner. Everything was great there as well, despite a small meltdown again from Ella. We're beginning to think she's not so into family gatherings. ;-). She did love Aunt Sue's Finding Nemo aquarium musical snowglobe though! Christmas night we headed over to the Marriott to have dinner and open gifts with my mom and Dave. Ella was actually quite well behaved and didn't have any meltdowns! Yay!

Then we have day three of the Trifecta which would be the Isaacson Family Christmas. Now, these people know how to celebrate! Things got going around noon and didn't end until 10 or 11pm! It was so much fun to see everyone and with that amount of time, you really do get a chance to visit with everyone! We had another Ella meltdown. But we figured out she was getting her two-year molars so we gave her a little Motrin (love that stuff!) and she was a happy camper again.

We spent the rest of the week after Christmas taking full advantage of our in-house babysitters, Grand Tom & Grand Pat. We went to dinner and a movie (The Family Stone) with Ben & Jenelle. The next night, Andrew and I went to dinner and a movie (Harry Potter 4--excellent!), we went shopping, had lunch with a friend, saw some other friends, went to a wedding and out for dinner with the Comandes for New Year's Eve. I think both girls were really missing us by the end of the week! But it was so nice for Andrew and I to get out without the kids!

Hopefully I'll get some new photos posted soon! I have 250 new ones to go through. Look for those soon, maybe after the weekend.