Laundry and Complaining

I know these two often go hand in hand, but in this case they are two totally different things. I happen to have a very willing laundry helper...but she does need a bit of assistance.

She also answers my phone for me (in a silent sort of way) if it is within her reach when it happens to ring. Please not that I did not put her hat on her or her sock and shoe. Those were her items of choice to find in her drawer and put on herself today for her own entertainment.

Here's how she does the laundry:

Find little pink stool and haul to laundry room so she can reach the lightswitch.

Turn on the light.

Get clothes out of dryer and haul to couch to fold.
(mommy helps here)

Put clothes from washer to dryer.
(Mommy helps here too)
Clean lint trap. (her favorite part)

Put lint in garbage.

Climb up on stool and turn out the light.

Haul stool to every other lightswitch in house.

Test them all to be sure they are working properly.

Mission accomplished!

And here is the 'complaining' part. Mr Elliott was not fond of his floor mat toys when I first introduced him to them, but unlike his sister it is the musical star that gets to him, not the bug (note the picture from last post of Kate and the bug). I have to laugh when I watch this... until the end...then I feel like a horrible mom for making him scream. :D I did pick him up and snuggle with him immediately afterwards. :)

(this just might break your heart Gramma Jo)

Missed Kates Birthday

Since the month of October was so busy for us I never got around to doing the birthday post for Kate. Besides the fact that I never got any pictures of her birthday cupcakes. I think everybody but me got some, and Sjo allready posted about that, but this is just a memory post of the past 2 years with Miss Kate. You know what that means...LOTS of pictures.

So on the morning of her birthday Gramma Jo called early in the morning (not that early really, but this girl sleeps like her mamma)and told her HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (note the pleased look)She got to open her present that came through the mail from Mommy and Daddy and the one from Gramma Jo she opened on Skype so Gramma could see and of course I didn't get any pics.

(that is just a play knife for anyone who is worried)We had birthday cupcakes the day after her actual b-day with all the Pear Clan (of the immediate family) when we met up with them at Peach Beach to meet Aunt (to-be) Rufe for the first time. (which is what Sjo posted about) The next day we went to local relatives for dinner and were priviledged to have some Minnesota relatives there to partake of the hastily thrown together brownie cake I threw together last minute. Highly recomended if you have limited time and a lot of chocolate lovers in your family. All you need is some icecream to go with. Mmmm!And now on to the memories....

I REMEMBER THIS VERY WELL8 days overdue...

and at the top of Multnomah Falls...determined to get that baby here one way or another.

It sort of worked.

A day and a half later we had our little girl!
3 days old and dressed in yellow because we didn't know what gender we were having.

2 wks and we finally had all the girl stuff


2mos
She was afraid of the bug on her toy for the first couple of weeks after we used it.
Reading her first piece of mail very seriously...
I called this her grandma look. :D

Of course she was a chocolate lover from the beginning.

A true girl at 6 mos.7mos

Aunt Jenn's fabulous photography

Chillin in the sun on a visit to Moses Lake...little did we know we'd be living there by the end of the year.

I could finally put a barrette in her hair by 7mos10 mos and she had 2 antenna on top

(more of Aunt Jenn's photography)

Allways getting into mischeif.

9mos

An after-nap hairdo

My determined little alien charging along with some help from Uncle AJ.

Lovin' the water!!! :)

11mosMommy got ahold of the hair again.

(those antennae are filling out a little)

Being introduced to some Ridgefield cousins' puppies

11mos

And then she was 1 yr before I knew it and so thrilled with her PB&J "cake". It's really just the candle that matters you know. :)

Lovin' on her baby. :)

Her first golfing experience.She loved to copy Mommy and Daddy (and still does)

16mos
Somewhere she picked up The Beattles style.

Her favorite trick...

Swishin' her hand in the water pitcher when mommy's not lookin'.

17mos

Enjoying the first bit of warm weather.

18mos

Watching the turtles with Leroy at the zoo. 19mosLearning how to blow bubbles at Nate N Emily's wedding. (she was so pleased when she actually did it herself)Climbing up the twisty slide. (check out the hair static)Showing her 'drama queen' side. What could possibly be such a great find in the pantry overflow cupboard.

And here we are at 2 yrs already and baby brother nearing 3 mos...*sigh* Where has the time gone. She's certainly becoming more of a challenge all the time...but we love her bunches and bunches. Yesterday night she tripped and slammed her forehead against the ridge of the doorframe and got the whoppingest goose egg I have ever seen. It is her first big *OUCHIE* I guess and she still hardly cried after the initial wail was over. I knew she must have hurt herself pretty bad to be actually crying, but didn't know exactly where, when I scooped her up off the floor. I was questioning her where it hurt and checking her knees and knuckles. Daddy had distracted her with some silly antic and she stopped crying and asked for her 'night-night' (favorite blanket) in a sniffly little voice. As I snuggled her with it I was still checking her over for bumps when Mr. Wise Guy and I simultaneously noticed the mountain of a ridge protruding off of her forehead between her bangs. We both gasped as we watched it grow before our very eyes. It was literally sticking an inch off of her forehead and the skin was all tight and shiny with a deep purple line down the middle of the tremendous lump. The weirdest part was that she never put her hand to her head or anything...she curled her fingers up tight and that is why I was checking her knuckles. I don't know that I've ever watched a 'bonk' swell like that, and I kinda got that sort of helpless watching-your-pregnant-belly-feeling of 'will it ever stop growing?'. Probably just because she had been highly active previous to the *BONK*. She's doing fine today, maybe just a little more tired, and the swelling has gone down. She keeps wanting to look at her ouchie in the mirror. :)

What a lovely ending to a birthday post. :D... such is life.

Just Another Morning at our house

First let me pause in this blog to ask:

Have you drank your milk today?Where's your mustache?

Am I done now mom?
And here's Mr. Elliott doing 'Rock,Paper, Scissors' or something like that anyway.

(Does he not look like Curious George in the above picture?)

Giving me the 'I'm cute' look...

and the 'tolerating you' face...

and the 'I can be mad too' face.

Oh look, Kate just gave me a kitty!

Here's a ferocious squeeze for it. WHAT!?! Now a dolly?!?!
Boys aren't supposed to play with dollys

...but it is nice and soft and cuddly

Hey wait, are you taking pictures?

Maybe if I ignore mom she'll go away with that camera.

What? you're still there? Okay, here's one hug and then you better leave me alone.Now if you don't get this dolly offa me I'm gonna bite it!Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Meanwhile....

Kate is wearing her new winter hat backwards with her PJ's still on and acting like a wild child...Hopping around in circles with a few jumps and twirls thrown in.

Speaking of throwing, beware of sticking your head in the door of her house.

Intruders are welcomed by this...

DUCK QUICK!!The 'little Man' watching mommy in the kitchen...and Miss Kate helping mommy in the kithen.

And then its off for a walk to the park with La La.

These cousins seem so much alike sometimes. They both know what they want, are pretty tough kiddos, and can be very stubborn, and determined, but also love to laugh and have fun.

Here they are wanting the box of crackers I'm holding above them.
Miss Kate on the twisty slide

And here she comes flying off the end! :)

Elliott hanging out in the stroller all cozied up for the occasion...

Being his usual happy self.

And back home for the evening...

Kate teaching Elliott how to play with his toys. :)

Bye for now Ya'all