Sweet Ella

Checking out the ceramic hand that I bought for her in NYC

She is at such a darling stage right now. A few current favorite things about my little bird...

...picking flowers from 'Ella's garden' after her nap. I choose the zinnias for her; she knows that they are hers and is so pleased when we bring some inside. Occasionally she'll have me put them on the fridge so that 'Noah no touch them.'

...when she realizes that she has forgotten to feed her baby all day long. She exclaims 'feed Baby!' with concern and passion. There is no stopping her....she is like a mother bird going to her chicks. I've also realized that Baby's feelings are a good indicator of Ella's. During a thunderstorm last week, Ella grabbed her baby saying 'Baby scared!'

...Ella's fascination with Peapod in our book 'The Six Little Possums and the Babysitter.' She completely identifies with the littlest possum named Peapod and talks about the things that they have that are the same...'that Peapod pink towel' or 'that Peapod Gee-Gee.' Or the other day she asked me to count the tags on the possums. She was really asking me to count the tails, but since she loves feeling the tag on her beloved Gee-Gee, she assumed that the tails were also tags.

...hearing her sing. We listen to a song called 'Little Liza Jane' quite often and she sings along in her sweet voice. Sometimes I can't quite make out what she is saying, but I have realized that she is not singing about Liza Jane. She sings about 'Little Noah James.' She loves her brother, that is for sure.

...speaking of loving her brother, Ella continues to defer to Noah quite a bit. If a stranger comes up to Ella and speaks to her, the immediate response is to say 'Noah' and point to her brother. She even tried to do it the other day when we were at the grocery store without Noah. I could tell that she felt quite confused by the whole situation.

...and last but not least...waffles. This girl loves her waffles right now. She is really into 'jam waffles' which, surprisingly, is a waffle with jam on it. She would eat them for every meal, every day, not that I'd ever allow such a thing to happen.

Showing me her flowers

'Ella show me your feet'

'Ella show me your hands'

'Ella show me your mouth'

'Ella show me your tummy'

And a few silly ones of Momma and Ella together

I should have known better...

This is what happens when I leave to load the dishwasher. Notice the green line on the carpet by his hand. Thankfully, when Crayola says 'washable' they mean it. It took about two seconds of clean up.

A month later...the 4th of July

4th of July. Last year, we were digging out sweatshirts to keep the kids warm in the misty rains and this year we packed extra bottles of water because it was so sticky hot. Such is summer in Chicago...
We went to a parade last year, but I was not sure how much they remembered. This year, we gave them a head’s up that we’d be hearing lots of loud things and seeing fire engines at the parade. When we arrived sirens were blaring. Noah watched silently as each one passed by --it was like he could not take it all in. Every once in a while, he’d see a ladder truck and tell me that it was ‘like Noah’s’ ladder truck at home. Finally at the end of the line of fire engines, he raised up both arms and shouted ‘FIRE TRUCKS!’



Pish and Noah watching the parade intently (Ella wasn't so sure)

Meghan, Nicole and Ella

Blog? What blog?

Hello dear ones. It has been a long time.

Just wanted to let you know that we are still here and I do plan to tell some stories from our summer one of these days. Contrary to what you might be lead to believe from my former post, we have been doing more things than eating pizza pies and spicy meatballs.

I'd like to say that I've just been enjoying the lazy days of summer...and I have...but they don't seem all that lazy. Mostly, I've been playing outside with the kiddos and friends, watching Moses watch the baby bunnies in our yard, doing laundry, scratch that, neglecting laundry (and all household chores for that matter), reading this book, going to Connecticut and New Hampshire to visit mom, dad and Les and playing in the garden. Nothing earth shattering...er, actually, I did start doing a (very) little bit of freelance work which has been kind of earth shattering to a gal who has not worked in 3 year. Anyhow, all of this has eaten away at my blogging time.

One of these days I'll post something, but until then, you have this lovely picture of the kids building their 'block metropolis' with daddy Pish. Quite lovely, isn't it?

Conversation

Nicole: Noah, what do you want for dinner tonight?
Noah: A pizza pie and spicy meatball.

Makes me chuckle to think about him saying it. He was so serious about it too...

Door County, 2010

The images below are from Memorial Day with the Matt's mom's family --I think that we had nearly 30 people this year. Things to remember from this trip: Noah needing to take a basketball in the car, warm sunshine, checking on the rocks off the dock, ice cream lunch with the VanDrunens, chasing kids on the lawn, throwing rocks into the bay, ice cream clowns at Wilson's, margarita date with Matt, digging in the 'digging spot', witnessing shoe flinging contests, cuddling with the kids, cool mornings with hot drinks in hand.

What happened to May?

I'm not really sure what happened to May. I was looking back through my photo archives and here is what I've found. Nothing earth shattering, just the normal stuff of life with two two-year-olds, I guess.

Noah figured out how to put his pants on, sort of.

Ella, taking ques from Curious George, has perfected the art of putting food between her toes and then lifting her foot to her mouth to eat the food. Hygienic, huh?

The Potoshnick children had haircuts.

I gave in to my desire to get little bento-style lunch boxes for the kids.

Ella renewed her relationship with baby and they are best buds again. Ella works hard to wrap, er smother, baby in blankets. She also has been showing a strong interest in doing everything herself as well as the color pink.

Noah continued with his tower building. The one below was all his creation, except for two blocks at the bottom.

I've been tending to the garden, nurturing my tiny seedlings, and rearranging plants.

Noah used his potty for the first time. I don't think that a boy has ever been happier with himself. And me, I had no idea that I would be so happy about it. I felt like I won the momma lottery.

And Ella has been experimenting with new accessories while strutting around the yard in her undies.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are good days. Before the kids turned one, I began to realize that play groups are more for the moms than they are for the kids. Quite serendipitously, a group of five, and then six moms materialized and we've been meeting on Tuesdays ever since. At 6 moms, 12 kids and 3 on the way, we are quite a crew. I love these women. I love that we have been able to share our lives for the past year and a half. They are so dear to me.

Sunday afternoon

Everyday stuff.

I love this picture --to me a captures our normal life right now, completely full of energy and spunk. Now that the kids are talking more, we have very sweet toddler conversations, especially when we are in the car. I'll give a few snippets of our conversation on the way home from Bible study this morning. I write this so that I don't forget it.

Noah: Momma, Bites! (translation: Mighty Bites, his favorite cereal)
Mom: Noah we don't have any Bites in the car. You ate them all.
Noah: Momma Bites!!
Mom: Noah, I don't know what to tell you. Bites all gone.
Noah: Bites!
Ella: Gee Gee, Gee Gee, Gee GEE! (translation: her beloved Froggy)

I look back and see that Noah has stolen Gee Gee from Ella's clutches, probably out of frustration that there are no Bites to be eaten.

Mom: Noah, that is not kind. Gee Gee is Ella's.
Ella: Aya Gee Gee. (translation: Ella's Gee Gee)
Noah: Noah Gee Gee.
Mom: How about you share? I'll count to ten while Noah holds Gee Gee and then it will go back to Ella.

I give Gee Gee to Noah.

Mom: One, two, three.
Noah: Four, five, sax, seben, eight, nine, ten!
Nicole: Okay Noah, time to give Gee Gee back to Ella.

Amazingly, he gives it back to her without a fuss. Noah continues to count. Ella mutters about Gee Gee. I deal with the construction traffic that has sprouted up on Roosevelt Road by heading into the neighborhoods. We drive by a park.

Ella: Momma ark!
Mom: Yes, Ella, a park!
Ella: Aya ting! (translation: Ella swing!)
Mom: Not right now Ella. Ella swing later.
Ella: Momma ark! Aya ting!
Noah: Noah ide! (translation: Noah slide!)
Mom: Yep Noah, you like to slide. Did you go to the park with Aunt Debby this week?
Ella: Aunt Deaddy! Aunt Deaddy ting!
Mom: What else did you do at the park?
Noah: Ide!
Ella: Ducks! Quack, quack, quack.
Mom: I heard that you saw ducks.

Noah starts in with quacking noises followed by snoring/oinking noises (to them, it is the same noise). Ella imitates Noah. The car approaches a train track.

Ella: Choo, choo!
Noah: Freight train!
Mom: Yep, that is where the train goes...

Ella and Noah make train noises for a few minutes and then go back to quacking and oink/snorting. And that is it --I love the simplicity of these conversations.

He is risen

I'm a bit late for an Easter post, but that is okay, right? As the liturgist at church asked: if the resurrection is as significant as Christians believe it to be, then why don't we celebrate Easter for longer than just one day? Me? I need to ponder the cross again and again --to see that Jesus entered our messy world and willingly took the wrath of God so that we might know God.

After the service we attempted another family shot with about the same success rate as last year.

And then Noah smothered me with tickles. (I know, I need to cut his mullet. I'm getting there. In my defense, it was extra poufy that day.)

Following church, we headed over to Nana and Boppa (his new name) Potoshnick's home for a celebration dinner and egg hunt. Noah was all about finding eggs and depositing them in the basket. Ella was more of a delegator--she'd spot and egg and then tell Noah to go and get it.

Discovering that the eggs actually have stuff inside.

Following dinner, the kids devoured candy and then insisted the Aunt Liz and Uncle Stephan lift them high in the air over and over and over again.

Matt and I got such a kick out of watching them approach their baskets once we were home. Ella opened each egg and dumped the treasures in her basket. Noah made neat piles of each item.

So there you have it --Easter greetings from the Potoshnick clan.

Best Part of the Day

Welcoming Daddy home from the train --you can't see it, but they are running to him.

As some of you know, Matt has a new job. Same company, different role and different schedule (that would be code for travel.) We've been trying to figure out ways to bridge the gap when Matt is 1000 miles away and we had success last night with video chatting. The kids were so thrilled to see his face on the computer and to hear his voice. Ella smiled, chatted and told about the day while Noah attempted to engage Matt in a game of hide and seek.