Conversations

Three and a half has been a (ahem) rough patch for us. I'll spare you the nitty gritty but getting through the day with two kids at this stage can pretty much push me to my emotional limit. Thankfully, this is tempered by conversations that just make me laugh. Here are a few that I want to remember:

Me: Ella, how do you like my new shoes?
Ella: Oh Mommy, they are just perfect.

...

Noah (overheard in a conversation with Ella): I made a snake and it is as long as the snakes in our Bible.

...

I'm in the bathroom and Noah is outside the bathroom door having a complete meltdown (over crackers). Ella comes storming in, crying.
Ella (sobbing): Momma, I need a Hello Kitty band-aid!
Me (calmly): Okay sweetie. Let me finish up in here and we'll get you a band-aid.
Ella (still sobbing and a bit angry): YOU DONT WASH YOUR HANDS!
Me (still calm): I'll be there in just a minute. (And noting to myself that we need to have the 'Ella does not tell Mommy what to do' conversation again).

We walk to the closet and get her a band-aid and then I sit on a chair holding Ella, still very upset.

Ella (through tears): I wanted a Hello Kitty band-aid. I told you that I wanted that. Number 1. You don't go potty. Number 2. You don't wash your hands. You get me a bandaid.
Me: (saying the appropriate Mommy responses while inside laughing that she had numbered her orders to me.)

...

Confession: I take the kids to McDonalds. I get Noah a cheeseburger with mustard only (because of my irrational relationship with ketchup) and Ella gets a yogurt parfait and a small fry. I know, not the best, but sometimes it is what we do. The other day Noah opened the fridge and asked me 'is this mustard only?'.

...

Ella calls her room her 'house.' She invites me to come and play house with her, mostly so that I can bake cupcakes in her kitchen and care for her baby while she goes out. I had gotten started on the cupcakes and then she informed me 'I'm going out now to exercise. Then I'm going to go see a friend. And then go to Trader Joe's and the baby store. You stay here and take care of baby.'

She walks out the door.

She pops her head back in to lament 'I forgot my list. I don't have my list.'

Closes door.

Opens door again. 'Momma, you stay here and watch baby. You don't leave my house. If baby needs a walk, her stroller is right over there.'

And she is off again.

...

Me: Noah would you like more yogurt?
Noah: (says nothing)
Me: I'll take that as a no. (And I walk away.)
Noah: I take that as a yes.

...

Me: Noah, do you want to take a soccer or basketball class this fall.
Noah (deep in thought): Um. When I grow up I'm going to be a fire man and Ella is going to be a dancer girl ballerina. Then we will go to school. First I'll do that and then I'll do basketball.
Me: Oh. I see.

...

Me: We went to that restaurant when you were little tiny babies.
Ella: How big were we?
Me: You were very little, only five weeks old.
Ella: Did we drink milk when we were there?
Me: No, you were nursing there so you did not drink milk.
Noah: Oh, we saw a nurse and she said that we should not drink milk?
Me: That is good thinking Noah. But, to nurse, or nursing, means that you drink the milk the mommy made for you.
Noah: Did we drink milk that Daddy made?
Me: No, dads don't make milk. Only mommies.
Noah: Dads make juice?
Me: This is all kind of confusing, huh?

...

Speaking of babies...more to come on a three year old's perspective of this...

Home again!

I don't know that I've mentioned it much here, but Matt travels substantially for his job. And it isn't the nice little two or three day trips, it is the generally three week trips. As in 21 days without coming home. The kids are increasingly aware that daddy is not around and that they really want him home. Yes, we video chat and talk on the phone, but those don't really cut it when you are three and just want to play with your dad.

So, one of the ways that they've learned to cope is that they save treats for daddy. Matt always comes home to a bowl of half licked lollipops and little melted tidbits of chocolate candies wrapped in plastic baggies. This time, they were really into making cards and drawings for Matt. Anything from Miss Nancy's house or church went in the pile of 'things for dad' as did their favorite creations that they come up with on their own. For this last trip the kids kept calendars on the fridge and crossed out the days until he got home. These also went into the pile.

On the way to the airport I asked Ella what she was going to do when she saw daddy at the airport. 'I'm going to give him lots of hugs and kisses. And jump' was the reply. That is pretty much what happened.

We're so happy to have him home again!

Cozy

This post is especially for the world travelers that have mentioned my lack of posts.

As I waited for breakfast to finish baking this morning, I noticed the kids toting all the contents of their beds into the kitchen. Then I realized that they had been silent for a couple of minutes. When I finally went in, Ella explained that they were keeping out of the rain and that it was 'cozy'. Noah came out to eat breakfast. She would not come out for breakfast and maintained that 'she did not want to get wet.'

A good idea

Winter hats?

No.

Ear protection for a loud summer thunderstorm.

Summer goodness

Lately

Yep, not so good at updating the ole blog lately. Matt's been in Bogota for the past three weeks so the kids and I have been flying solo. I do have a few pictures that seem very typical of life right now.

Here is Ella. It was not warm but she decided to put on her bathing suit and furry boots to play in the yard. The addition of the shirt was my idea.

Noah joined her. He's sporting his Lightening McQueen undies (have I mentioned that my kids can't seem to make it to the end of the day with pants on? I'm not sure why but I just go with it.) Oh, and they are inspecting the dog poop that has yet to be picked up. They do this every time we play in the yard.

Now Noah is calling me over to get the poo. Thanks buddy. It is always an emergency.

And now Noah is explaining something really important to Ella. A friend had the kids the other day and when she brought them home she said that Noah was her informant. That pretty much sums it up. Noah narrates life for all of us.

So there you have it...some typical stuff from June. More later.

Weekend Notes

This is from a few weeks ago and it has been sitting around, but I'm just posting it now...

We've had such a sweet weekend that I don't forget it. On Friday morning Matt called saying that the kids were going to spend the night with his mom so that we could have a night on our own! We had an amazing dinner at a six table, hole-in-the-wall sushi place and then slept in (you know, to 8am). Being the responsible people that we are, we decided to forgo a morning bike ride and start distributing the 5 cubic yards of compost and mulch that was sitting on the driveway. I only note this because 1) it was just about the cutest thing to watch Noah load mulch in the tiny wheelbarrow and then to see Ella push push it to the place where Matt had his load and then drop it off just like her daddy and 2) because we finished it in 8 hours. This is HUGE as it took us about 6 weeks to do the same thing in 2008.

That night we had a hilarious dinner with friends and then decided that even though it was super late, we'd stop at the walk up Dairy Queen for ice cream on the way home. Ella squealed with delight at the sight of a cone dipped in sprinkles. It was precious to watch them concentrate on their cones and to see how they shared them with the other.

That brings us to Sunday. This year the preschool Sunday School class has been using alphabet to the learn the attributes of God (ie. R is for righteous). Today was the day that the children shared what they've learned with the adults in a little program. The preschool class was up first, each of them holding their letter and ready to say their lines. I was amazed at how well all the kids did. Then it was Ella's turn. She was supposed to say 'L is for love. God is love.' She looked at the teacher, looked at Noah, backed away from the microphone, reached up for her brother's neck and gave Noah a big hug. We all clapped. Noah was also not interested in telling everyone that D is for deliverer.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the weekend but here are to recent ones. I told the kids that we were going to Kangaroo Lake over Memorial Day weekend and that they should pack their backpacks. Ella took this job very seriously and walked around with her packed bag on her back for about a week.

And this picture does not really have anything to do with the weekend either...Noah just thinks it is really neat that he can cross his fingers. Want to remember.

New Kodama Sandals!

A box of Havaianas arrived yesterday...what a treat to have new flip flops arrive at your doorstep! Ella particularly liked the jewels on her PINK ones... as seen below, she took off immediately and wanted to play outside in her new shoes.

This is the goofy smile that she gave me when I asked if she liked her new shoes.

Noah found his old flip flops, set all of them in a pile together, put the new ones on and was off and running in his before I could get a picture. However, this morning he has been busily making crowns from the gift wrapping.

Thanks Kodama and Cristina! We all love our new sandals!

And PS --Moses received a crown as well. Not sure how he feels about it.

Noah at 3 years, 4 months

This son of ours, Noah, I love him. There are so many little things that have happened lately that show me who he is. He's really into the some of the CDs that we have in the van and when he hears a song starting he exclaims 'oh, it's my faborite!' Or, take his relationship with Ella. I love that he cares for her. While collecting eggs on Easter and when he noticed that he took the egg that Ella was going for he took it out of his basket and gave it to her. Then again, he also speaks his mind. The other day Ella kept asking him to tie her up like a doggie but he was not interested. After listening to her ask one too many times, he told her adamantly 'Ella I'm working.'

One thing that I noticed from a young age was his tenderness. The other night he was not feeling well and around 9:30 I heard him calling for me and saying that he wanted to lay with me in my bed. Figuring that it would be good for both of us to just go to sleep I brought him in and with his head on the pillow he just lay there smiling, so content to be in momma's bed. And then when I told him that we really needed to go to sleep he decided that we should hold hands while we fell asleep. So that is what we did... Such sweetness from this little boy. I want to bottle it up and remember it forever.

Or, take his cleverness. I was telling him a story while he was going potty the other day. I'm not sure how this got to be a habit but it is. This particular story was about a little boy named Woah and his sister Wella and their dog Woses. Their lives have a striking resemblance to ours and he smiled knowingly as I told him about the adventures of Woah. And then at the end he asked me if Woah liked 'finkles' on his pancakes. He can say sprinkles correctly, but he knew that we were changing the starting consonants for our little story. I could tell that he thought himself very tricky...

Or, remember that 'red thing' that he did not want to wear while playing basketball. He was doggedly against that thing for a good few months but now it is now a thing of the past. He started watching basketball with Matt and one day he decided that it would be okay to wear the Noah jersey. And then he wore it and wore it and wore it, so much that the 'H' started falling off. Then he started asking for pictures of Joakim Noah to be cut from the newspaper. And now, they are a part of his little boy shrine of favorite items above his bed. He still wears it but now it is just the NOA jersey. It is also his faborite.

Or, the most recent development has been the giving up of the nonnies, aka pacifier. We decided to let the kids trade their beloved nonnies for a toy when they were ready. Anticipating this I purchased a train that I thought Noah would really want. We showed it to him months ago and told him that our friend Baby Owen really needed his nonnies. 'Maybe later' was always the response. Recentlywe were in the toy story and he came across this Lightening McQueen toy. He wanted it really badly and I told him that it looked like a great toy but that we did not need it, we were going to leave it for other kids, on and on. He thought about it for a minute and then told me that he wanted to give his nonnies to Baby Owen and get this 'Light Queen'. He was sure of it. He proudly carried it to the register and then out to the car and then took a nap without the nonnie. After getting up from his nap he told me that we should send the nonnies to Baby Owen. So we boxed them up, addressed them to:

Baby Owen

His House

and then affixed a Lightening McQueen sticker in place of a stamp, assuring me that the mailman would take it to Owen promptly. He proudly walked them out to the mailbox and we have not really heard a word about the nonnies since...though he does happily tell visitors of his accomplishment and show them his new toy.

8:58 am

I've been hearing little voices chatting away in their room for about 20 minutes now. I finally poked my head in to check on them and Ella slipped me her 'baby' through a crack in the door. 'Not to eat, Momma' she tells me.

Noted. I will not eat your baby.

Adjustment phase

Last fall we decided that we'd build toddler beds for the kids...the room is little and they are little. And even though they won't last all that long, we are hoping that they'll give us a bit more time till we need to fill the room with twin sized beds.

Last night, we finally finished the beds.

Noah was all about getting in his big boy bed but Ella maintained her passion for the crib. We finally convinced her that she could still be a little girl, even if she slept in the bed. She does NOT want to be a big girl.

So, last night, they took all the animals and blankets and what not and threw it on and off the bed while singing Nothing But the Blood of Jesus at the tops of their lungs. The night went fine until Noah rolled out of his bed. Note to self - get some side rails.

And even though they've napped in different rooms for the past two years, I let them nap in the same room today. Ella seemed a little scared and she asked that Noah be in the room with her. I acquiesced. I poked my head in about an hour and a half after putting them in their beds to find Noah in bed with Ella. 'I'm reading to Ella' he tells me.

Easter 2011

I know...it has been awhile. There is more to come, but for today here are a few pictures from Easter.

Play Kitchen = Labor of Love

I have yet to decide if this fits into the genius or idiot category, but we decided to build the kids a play kitchen 5 days before their birthday. We'd hemmed an hawed on this for months...should we spend money to buy really cute one? Should we make one? Could we re-purpose something that we already have? Should we get a cheap one? I think that I've seen most every play kitchen out there from the most basic kitchen manufactured ones, to the most intricate DIY ones, to the completely elaborate ones that I want for my own kitchen.

We wanted something that, you know, did things. As in knobs to turn and buttons to push. In the process of deciding what to do, I also realized that this would be a fixture in our house for a long time and for that reason, I wanted it to be something that would grow with the kids as well as something that fit into the rest of the house (as in, this thing might be sitting in our living room for large spans of time someday).

So, here is what we came up with. It was a labor of love and some late nights, but completely worth it. I'll put the details here as some of you have asked how we did it.

We started with two Ikea wall cabinets. The fridge unit is about 43 inches tall, in case you are wondering how tall this baby stands. And yes, they are strikingly similar to the kitchen that Matt built for us.


From here, you can see the legs on the unit. Right now, they are about 4 inches from the ground, but they can be raised as the kids get taller. And you can also see the little estate sale table along with chairs that a friend gave us that we refinished over the summer.

Matt built a box that would hold the stove as well as an oven door, complete with Plexiglas window. These were both attached to the cabinet frame. The pink was my addition as we all know that E loves her some pink.

We attached little puck lights in the oven and fridge as this is a continual point of fascination in our real fridge. They can click them on and off by pushing the light. Also, you can see in this picture that the oven opens down like a real one. Hinges on the bottom was something that we really wanted (did I mention that we thought a lot about this??)

Moving on, the stove was a bit more complicated as Matt wanted to make something that they could turn on and off. I was all for big black circles to be burners, but when he found a red rope light for a few bucks at the hardware store, I knew that we were going beyond spray painted coaster burners. First he built the box with a ledge in it to hold the rope light and cook top. I cut the Plexiglas to size and then spray painted painted everything except the concentric circles to get the look of a glass cook top. We were left with the question on how the kids would turn the rope light on, but for another few bucks Matt found a remote control adapter so that the unit turns on and off. They love it, though I do have to say that I keep the 'mote' up high as I don't want the light to be on for long periods of time. I'm not sure if a fire ever started from a rope light but I don't want to be the first one.

For the sink, Matt found some old outdoor water tap handles in his dad's workshop and brought them home, wondering if they could be used as burner knobs or water faucet handles. As we were piddling around in the workshop, I noticed some old copper piping. With the handles and the piping, we came up with this little faucet. Oh, and the sink is a brownie pan.

Lastly, the counter around the sink is a remnant from our butcher block counter in our kitchen. It was a beast to cut the hole out of the middle but in the end it worked wonderfully!

So there you have it. Even though we were both completely spent by the end of the week, we had so much fun figuring it out together.
Now, all this is just nice information unless the kids like it. Thankfully, they we hit the jackpot. We frequently have two very busy chefs that whip up delicious muffins and pots of steamy green tea for their momma and daddy. Well, that and some carrot, apple, fish, syrup concoctions that I find a little suspect.