Note to self

Remind me never to take you to the Kensington park after school, no matter how nice you're being and how sweet you ask at the time. Because within 20 minutes, you will be bored of the swing and you will be starving. Only you will not admit that you are starving. And instead you will throw the bag of veggie sticks on the floor and scream for more. At the same time. And because the bag is full of dirt, I will throw it away, which will only make you scream louder. And you will throw yourself against the disgusting public garbage can, which is even grosser than all the boogers running down your nose. And I will have to carry you back to the car as you scream "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" and have all the other mommies look at me with pity/amusement. Oh, and did I mention Ella is with us?
Yeah, remind me never to do that.

Caring too much about music

Oh my God.
Why am I getting all emo about the littlest things? First clothes. Now this.

We went to Trader Joe's today. Just you and me.
The thing Ella and Daddy do not know is that you and me, well, we have the greatest time when we're in the car. I think I've trained your ear to like my music and we listen to certain songs over and over again and laugh and point to billboards and trolleys.
So, because last night was particularly rough with Ella, I decided we would go to the La Mesa Trader Joe's, which is an entire 7 miles longer than the Hillcrest one, meaning 7 more miles of fun.

Because you've been on an Edith Piaf fix, I thought we'd have to listen to the same song we've been hearing all week. But you changed it up tonight and wanted to hear PJ Harvey. I mean, yeah, it's on the mix CD that I made - the one with the Marina approved indie rock. But I never force the PJ Harvey on you. Usually you'll hear two seconds and decide either "ya! yes!" or a singsongey "no."

Tonight, you said "ya! yes!" to PJ and made me replay the loud parts. Which, as anyone knows, are my favorite parts.
And you'd think that's why I am all emotional. But it's not.

It was already dark on our ride home and for the first time in the history of the Marina Mix, you said "ya! yes!" to Air's "Kelly Watch the Stars."
Maybe because you just learned the word stars? Or because it sounds kind of robotic and spacey? But something about it made you want to hear it over and over again. And when we pulled up to the driveway you said, "No Ella. No Daddy."
So, because I was feeling overly sentimental, I drove around the block.
Just you and me. No Daddy. No Ella. Silent and happy, listening to music, looking at our very own stars.

Hey, Ladies!

It's been raining for days.

And we are bored.

Good thing we have this new camera phone!

Caring too much about fashion.

Ella started wearing your old clothes this week.
You don't even care or seem to notice. Strange enough, It's me who has the problem. I don't know why, but it feels very surreal to see these outfits on Ella.

Maybe because I feel like your newborn phase was ages ago, but when I look at the onesie with the owls, or the one with the fruits, I realize it actually wasn't so long ago.




It wasn't so long ago that we spent hours and hours rocking in the chair to stop you from crying. Or that you were sick for three months with different colds. Or even that long ago that you were in my belly, kicking me every time I played that Phoenix song.

I mean, I have blouses with the tags still on them that are older than all of that stuff combined. And seeing your outfits, the ones you wore to your first days of daycare or to our park excursions, well it made me a little nostalgic.

And the thing is, Ella looks super cute in those outfits and is all smiley in them, as if she knows I'll one day get all weepy about her own adventures in the fruited onesie.

Rebel

Just as I was putting the "Once Upon A Potty" tape in the VCR, you decided the floor in front of the TV would be a much better place to - as the tape says - "wee wee."

Hearts and flowers

Happy Valentine's Day, girls!

Ketchup! For dinner!

For the past few days I've been meaning to write about how you much prefer eating condiments to actual food. How I took you to the Greek restaurant by our house and all you ate was the yogurt sauce with a few sprinkles of rice for nutritional value. Or when we went to get pancakes, you literally just licked the fancy whipped butter off every bite we gave you.

But then Daddy bought us these fancy new phones.

And. Photos!!



Here is what Ella looks like these days.

So, yeah, go ahead and eat your mustard and apple sauce lunch. I'll be on the couch, taking pictures . . .

Strollin'

So we do not have a bigger house yet.
And we do not have a bigger car, either.
But we do have this!!!!



The fancy schmancy double stroller that doesn't look like a double stroller. Woo hoo!

I have never been this excited about baby gear.

Super Tuesday

So, yesterday you had a fever at school that mysteriously disappeared the second you left the building.

But rules are rules.
And the rules say you can't go to school until your fever's been gone for 24 hours.
So you stayed home. And Daddy did, too because he knows that two babies for an entire day = weepy mommy.

I think, though, that you did this on purpose.

Remember this photo?



You weren't going to trust me to vote for your guy, were you? So you "got sick" as a way to ensure your presence in the voting booth.
And what about your secretive-voting Dad? Only Ella knows for sure what circle he bubbled.

Nineteen Months

This last month was your month of language.

You've been saying words for a while now, but just recently you started putting them together. Most of the time it sounds like: Amani upati Ila Biila Doggie??

This is all very cute. You are pretty much a commercial for wonderful, sweet babies. Like, in my imagination, when I pictured having a kid, it said exactly, "Amani upati Ila Biila Doggie??"

My imaginary child, did not however have tantrums. And definitely not the HOUR-long ones you've treated me to.

One started because I didn't let you eat cereal in the bath tub.
I didn't know kids could cry that hard and that long. I really expected your blood vessels to explode and I'm totally not just saying that for the sake of creating a metaphor. I really did watch your veins in your head get bigger and bigger until I had to just walk away.
But all the literature out there says that you throw such tantrums because you love me. If you didn't love me, the experts say, you wouldn't feel comfortable enough to "let it all out."

So, thank you for all the love, Beans. I love you back just as much.

Fair is fair

So, now that there are two of you, I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. . .

Like is it fair to just keep writing posts to you and not Ella? Am I expected to create an entire new blog about the musings of a 2-month old? I mean, what could it say besides: Ate. Slept. Cried. Pooped.

Well, actually, Ella has been getting around quite a bit. Like she went with me to see "27 Dresses," which was amusing only because the guy character writes for the wedding section and for many, many, many years, so did I.

Also, Ella met some babies her age and decided that it would be the perfect time to have a diaper explosion that would mess up the pristine nursery of some baby whose house overlooked Torrey Pines beach (hee hee, nice job!).

And, sorry Marina, but today she hung out with YOUR friends, Eliana and Cash and Isabella and Zoe at Java Mama cafe.

So it seems that Ella just may be deserving of her own blog. But I'm going to make you share because this might be the only time you will not throw an hourlong tantrum about it.