Nostalgia

As I was looking through my pictures to find one of Elise in her pink cowgirl hat, I came across a bunch of her at that age that made me feel a little sentimental. I realized that she has always had a thing for dress up, and while the pink cowgirl hat was definitely the favorite, she also like wearing gloves, glasses, hats, necklaces, dress up shoes, etc. She still does, so I guess some things never change. You'll have to humor me with a few(or maybe a lot) of flash back pictures here.

Elise working in the yard with Dad. If Dad had work gloves, then she needed them too. Elise in another favorite hat. This picture was actually taken right after her first real boo boo. She fell on her chin in the driveway - sad!

If Dad wears a tie, Elise needs one too.

Stylin in sunglasses.

This one was just cute - no real accessories other than her bows on her very first pigtails.

She loved Dad's big shoes, even though at a size 14 she could hardly pick them up and she could definitely not walk in them.

Wearing one glove (a Michael Jackson tribute, perhaps?) and trying on Mom's glasses.

More digging in the yard with work gloves. We put them to work early around here.

We can't forget the fireman hat, a favorite of Steven's now.

I love the heart sunglasses and the matching heart necklace. She still has that necklace... I wonder what ever happend to those darn cute glasses.

She has grown up so fast without me even realizing it. She starts kindergarten in a year, and I think that has me feeling a little sad that she's definitely not a baby, or even a toddler anymore. In fact, the other day I was saying something to Chris about having a toddler and a baby when I realized, wait... I don't have a toddler and a baby, I have a big girl and a toddler. When did that happen, by the way? Each new stage is fun and exciting though. Although I must admit, Steven was such a difficult baby that I don't really feel that sad that he isn't one anymore. Maybe someday I will, but the sleepless nights and hours on end of screaming are all a little too fresh in my memory still. For now we are just glad that he is a happy little toddler, and enjoying every minute of it.

Fetishes

Steven has a thing for shoes... a serious thing. He LOVES them. He never wants to be without them. It cracks me up because that is the exact opposite of most kids his age who are always tearing their shoes off! He insists on wearing them inside, outside, to bed, immediately after the bath, etc. If I happen to sneak his shoes off his feet after he falls asleep, when he gets out of bed in the morning one of the first things he does is run to his closet and reach up towards his shoe basket which is out of his reach going, "uh, uh,uh..." (Steven language for give me that). It just cracks me up. His crocs are definitely his favorite, but any shoes will do in a pinch. Even if you strip off all the rest of his clothes and he has just a diaper on, he still insists on keeping his shoes on. It kind of reminds me of Elise and her hat fetish at that age... she LOVED them. She always needed to be wearing one. But most especially she loved her pink cowgirl hat. She and that hat were practically inseparable. These pictures of Steven were taken just before bath time the other night, and they are cracking me up. They got me to thinking of some pictures of Elise in her cowgirl hat at his age, so I had to include those as well.

What happens when Dad is in charge?

The other day after dinner, we decided to switch things up a little bit. Usually Chris does the dishes while I give the kids baths, but we decided to change and have Chris do baths while I did dishes. I stripped the kids down and sent them off with Dad for "baths" while I started the dishes. I could hear a lot of laughing and giggling and bumping on the stairs... obviously not bath noise. After a while I decided to go check on what they were doing, and here is what I found:

He was putting the kids in laundry baskets and letting them take turns "riding" down the stairs in them. At least they were sticking to the small bottom stairs. Chris told me to grab the camera because he wanted photo evidence that they were doing it and having fun... I think mostly to bug the worriers in my family. After a while that was no longer good enough and he decided to switch them to the very steep top stairs. I refused to watch or photograph. At least he didn't let go of Steven's basket on the top stairs, but he just let Elise go flying. Uggh! She had a good time though, and was begging to do it over and over again. Although he wouldn't admit it, I think he decided it wasn't such a good idea as well, because after only about two runs he made the little daredevil go back to the small stairs, much to her dismay. At least it was good exercise for the kids though because he made them haul their baskets back to the to each time they finished if they wanted another ride. It was quite funny to see little Steven trying to manhandle a basket up the stairs.

If I could choose my problems...

I know that in life we all have a given set of problems and trials, and we usually don't have a lot of choice in what those problems are that we have to deal with. However, if I could choose my problems, this one would definitely be towards the top of my list...

That's right, I think I could deal pretty well with the problem of my pants always falling down due to a lack of hips and a very small bum. Just invest in a few more belts, and life would be good :-). Unfortunately for Steven, belts in size 18-24 months are pretty hard to come by, and when I do find one it is generally in the $20 - $30 range. So, since he's still in diapers, we just let his pants fall down most of the time. Like I said, I would trade problems with him if I could and let him have a little of my flab. After all, chub is cute on a one year old anyway.

It is funny how two kids who come from the same parents can have such totally different personalities. They were playing outside today, and it made me laugh how differently they do everything. Elise was twirling around pretending to be a princess, singing songs, picking flowers and posing for pictures while begging for me to snap a photo. Steven was climbing underneath the slide where it is gross and who knows what is growing, finding old rotten limes from the lime tree and using them for balls, generally running here there and everywhere, and climbing up anything and everything in site. It just cracked me up how differently they even play. Here are a few pictures that I thought showed pretty well how different they are.

Best Buds

People used to tell me that one day my kids would become friends and entertain one another for a given amount of time without needing Mom. I have to admit that I didn't really believe those people. But magically, that day has come. Elise and Steven are best buddies. Lately there are times when a half an hour goes by before I realize that things are very quiet and I wonder what they are up to. My brain immediately goes to the worst case scenario, but when I find them they are playing together oh so nicely. It is really beautiful. I am almost caught up on laundry, which almost never happens. I have time to get to things that I normally put off forever for a lack of time. I am loving it, and I also think it is cute that they are becoming such good buddies. Elise always tells me, "Mom, Steven is my best friend." What cuties!

I Am Brave

I am brave. If you don't believe me, then you should know that I took our two kids to Disneyland all by myself yesterday, without Chris or any other responsible adults to help. It went surprisingly well. I had prepared myself for a Sea World repeat, but Steven was very well behaved. We only stayed about two or three hours, but it was fun. Here are a few pictures from the outing.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful Dad's in our lives. We love you!

Steven has been sick all week. It is quite sad actually. I wonder sometimes why he gets sick so often. Then I see him laying face down on the driveway lapping up dirty water out of a puddle on the concrete, and I stop wondering. Yes, that actually happened today. I'm not sure if boys are just naturally grosser than girls, or if it is just the case with my kids, but Steven sure does things to gross me out a whole lot more than Elise ever even thought about.

On a side note, the other day I walked in to find Steven watching cartoons in this fireman hat. It made me laugh, because at this age Elise almost always had a hat on. Her pink cowgirl hat was her favorite, but once in a while she wore this very same fireman hat, so it reminded me of her. He usually hates hats, but I think he is warming up to them.

Silly Sayings by Elise

1. Elise: "Mom! Dad just said the most wonderful thing!"

Me: "What did he say?"

Elise: He said, "Sure, fine, you can have chocolate milk!"

She said these little quotes above with such excitement, it was like she had won the lottery. Chocolate milk is good and all, but she was seriously soooo excited.

2. We drove through McDonald's for lunch the other day, and as we were pulling out of the drive through I looked in the bag and noticed that our fries had been left out. I said, to myself more than anything, "Ooops, it looks like they forgot our fries." Elise heard the comment and replied, ""What? No fries? That's ridi-key-lous!" I don't think I've ever heard her use the word ridiculous before and it was cracking me up the way she pronounced it. However, I tend to agree that to drive through McDonald's and come out with no fries is a little ridiculous - the fries are definitely the best thing on their menu!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

... A boy in mismatched shoes and a cowgirl playing!

Yesterday I was doing dishes and I heard Steven at the back door going, "uh, uh, uh" which is Steven language for, "I want something and you need to get it for me." I walked back to see what he wanted, and he had put on two mismatched crocs - one of his own and one of Elise's, both of which happened to be lefties. He was reaching for the door and giving me the "uh, uh, uh" to go outside. I opened the door and sent he and Elise out to play, and went back to doing dishes. From the window over the sink I could see them, so I was doing dishes and watching the kids play.

Elise came running in saying something about needing a sun umbrella and a cowgirl hat so she could "ride the range with her horsie." Two minutes later she was back out the door and here is a picture of what I saw:

Apparently the bike was her horsie, and she was dragging him up and down the driveway. However she was careful to hold the sun umbrella over both herself and the horsie so neither of them would get too hot. What an imaginative little girl!