Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

LIVEBLOGGING 08: The tasters

Though Ella was asleep much of the morning, she woke up for the best part. Tasting.

(Before you look at the photos I have to explain why Ella is wearing "boy" pajamas. Remember the bubble bath night? Well I didn't realize we were going to have a bubble bath night and I wasn't prepared. So we borrowed these and they were so warm and cozy that Ella's been wearing them ever since.)

Here you go:



I decided to eat up little Ella instead of having a fourth piece of bread.



Happy Thanksgiving!

LIVEBLOGGING 08: Thanksgiving Roll-its

Marina is hard at work making "roll-its."
Though she arrived a little late to the process because she didn't want to pull herself away from "Little Bear" on the TV.



The actual "roll-it" part



I am not just liveblogging. I am also listening to Yacht Rock (Supertramp, ELO) and making cranberries!

Second Annual Thanksgiving Bread Live Blogging

It's Thanksgiving and that means Matt makes his annual salt sticks, which is a fancy name for bread rolls.
Unfortunately the early photos are stuck in Matt's phone and all I can show you is this:



But already these things have happened:
A pumpkin spice latte for me.
A trip to Abuelita's house to pick up a rolling pin.
Flour on the couch.
A sister head-collision resulting in a bloody lip for Ella.
And of course, The Nutcracker as background music.

Stay tuned. . .

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Europop Inspiration

Ella started walking about 2 weeks ago.

It started out as a few steps here and there but nothing very sturdy.
Until!
I decided to have an afternoon dance party in the computer room and since I had recently gone to see Yelle, I was still very addicted to her songs.

As Ella watched me and Marina dance and spin in circles, Ella got up, walked over to us and started bouncing up and down.

Can you really blame her? There's no way to keep still during this song:

Monday, November 24, 2008

Ella's actual birthday

Today is Ella's birthday.
We had a party for her yesterday that included a lot of cereal that went uneaten and way too much cake being smooshed. But I don't have pictures of that ready to post yet.

And anyway, today is the real birthday, so it's more authentic to show you photos of today, a day where we wound up having a crazy, unexpected party with Marina's playgroup.

I will spare you the boring dance party/finger-painting/jumping on the bed details because all you really need to see is how it ended:



GROUP BUBBLE BATH!!

Oh, wait.
Where is the birthday girl?

I couldn't very well have two slippery babies in the tub AND take a picture, so you get to see Ella pre-bath, with a carefully placed smidge of black paint on her nose. You know, because she's such an arty goth.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

More bad

We've been having pretty horrible nights around here.
Marina woke up screaming last night and stayed awake for three hours. Matt ultimately had to sleep on the floor with her.

Today we were all exhausted. And though Marina was fine most of the day, the crying started again at bed time.

This is new for us. We have always been pretty good about bed time. We read books, tell stories and she drifts off to sleep. Plus, I basically only get two to three hours to myself and those hours are now being taken up by worrying and stress over the constant crying.

I'm not really handling it well. I don't know what to do.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Grown up parties = life changing

First: I know, I know. I failed the blog a day challenge already. But I will continue on as if nothing happened, so ssssh.

This is the story of how Marina gave up diapers.

Last week, Kyle and Erin had a BBQ at their house. A grown-up BBQ. Matt was all tired and crabby so I decided to leave him at home and just take Marina. There was a treehouse there, afterall.

For some reason, Marina decided she wanted to wear underwear to the "grown up party." She never wears underwear. She fights me about it all the time.

So, uh, okay. Underwear. I brought extra clothes and we went.

I took her to the bathroom soon after we got there and she was very impressed with how pretty it was. There was a candle in the bathroom! And flowers! Wow! So very grown up!

And that was it. She gave up diapers. She doesn't even want them to sleep, which is its own stressful issue on my end.

But I totally didn't expect it to happen like that. I thought we'd be fighting all the time. That we'd have to go through a Pull-Ups phase. That we'd have to rent the Elmo Potty Movie a bunch of times.

I mean, we've been trying to potty train for a while, but I wouldn't exactly say we were trying trying.

Also, for those moms who are going to hate me, I'm not saying that she is totally potty trained, either. She's just given up diapers. That's a HUGE difference.

We have plenty of accidents. Enough that I had to buy two 10-packs of baby Fruit-of-the-Looms.

But they are grown-up accidents, not baby ones. And that's a whole new adventure for us.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Diaper-free crying

Today Marina cried for THREE hours. THREE!
Do you even understand the concept of crying for THREE hours? Non-stop crying that included many bouts of screaming. Not even Dora or Diego or DJ Lance could save the day.

At one point I even grabbed a beer hoping it would calm my stress, but I had three sips and now I have a headache.

Marina had a fever. After a dose of Motrin, she snapped back to normal. It was so odd to see her screaming and then, like, minutes later, something went off in her brain and she switched back to sing-songy Marina as if nothing happened.

So, whatever those Twitter moms have against Motrin, they are insane. Plus, wearing a baby is fashionable, I know I invested plenty of money in having cute baby carriers.

That was a weird tangent. Sorry.

I'm taking a very long time to say that even after the worst night in the world, Marina decided she wanted to sleep without diapers!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

More excuses

I am going to the Twilight movie screening tonight! And then I have to write the review immediately after, which means a very late night for me.

So once again I can not write fun stories about how Ella is a little walker now. Or how Marina is wearing underwear to school.

I promise to share those tales, along with the one about how we almost gave cousin Ezra pink eye, just as soon as I get back to normal.

In the meantime, please reminisce with me to a Halloween before Beans or Bells.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Just Kickin' It, Kickin' It

Wouldn't you know. The day after I make a promise to the internet, I get hit with Pink Eye Day.

Ella and Marina stayed home from school because their eyes are leaking boogers. And it's disgusting. Plus they hate getting eye drops, so it's that much more fun.

On top of Pink Eye Day, it appears that I've walked in to Sore Throat Evening.

You can tell how sick I am feeling because I'm making up stupid names like Pink Eye Day and Sore Throat Evening.

But a promise is a promise. And here I am.

Unfortunately, I am too grumpy to tell any stories.

So here is a picture of the girls being all white trash, kicking it in on their lawn chairs the driveway. It's titled: Just Kickin' It, Kickin' It, which is how Marina says it:

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Daily Show

From reading other blogs, I gather that this is the month where bloggers are supposed to post something every single day.
NaBloPoMo? Is that right?

Either way, it feels like a challenge. I know I'm coming into this halfway through the month, but what the hell. I'll give it a shot.

Does this count as a post?

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Minnesota shout-out

I apologize for not posting in a while.
This time, my excuse it that a friend at work recently let me borrow her copy of Twilight and I got completely obsessed with my new vampire boyfriend, Edward.

But I wanted to put up a few photos from when Grandpa Doug came to visit. Unfortunately we did not get a picture of Marina doing the Grandpa walk.

And since Matt told me that I have quite the loyal Minnesota fanbase, I thought I'd dedicate these to them.

Hi guys!

Here's Ella and her old man.



And sisters looking serious.



Barnaby and Grandpa Doug and Marina.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The longest day, ever

I hate it when the clocks go back. The day just d r a g s

So, because I do not feel like thinking of words as I have two articles to write tomorrow, here is a photo journey of November 1.

After making hand turkeys at Emmanu-El, we went out for a bit of sport. (Please notice the rainbow unicorn Vans Marina picked out and has worn everyday for two weeks.)



Ella, who has been totally crabby and ill and miserable this week, finally got a bit of her spark back at my grandma's house. (See that orange and brown rug? I used to ride that thing down the stairs like a sled.)



After a long day of eating green guavas and licking lychees, Marina got one of those rolling backpacks and a pair of new pajamas. All in various shades of purple.



Good night!