Happy Birthday Ella!

The princess is now 2!!  And, if you don't feel like this on your birthday, find a way to make it happen.  All it takes for Ella is Jessie and the rest of the Toy Story gang.

For a change from our usual birthday fanfare, we had a quiet day at home opening her gifts, eating pink cake, and watching Toy Story 3 (or as she calls it "watch Woody?").  After a crazy Thanksgiving week, apple cup party, and skimming over Dustin's birthday, it was all we could handle.  And, she was perfectly happy.

Happy Birthday, baby girl.  You are a complete blessing.

A true friend....

We are going to Yakima this weekend for a family reunion on Dustin's side of things.  Tomorrow night we are having dinner and swimming in our hotel pool with one of Dustin's best friends, Jay.  They have two kids close to our two kids' age so it will (or should, with all intentions) work out well.

Me:  Hey Buddy, you know how we are visiting Yakima this weekend? 
Breckin:  Yeah
Me:  Guess what Daddy's friend's name is?  (Fully knowing this will peak his interest as it is the same name as one of his favorite Lego Ninjagos and may boost the coolness of the new people).
Breckin:  Peter Pan?
Me:  Nope, Jay.

Breckin:  Ooooo, Jay, huh?  Does he have a blue dragon?
Me:  No, I don't think so but you can always ask him.
Breckin:  Is he a ninja?
Me:  Not that I know of but if he was he may not be able to tell us.  It might be top secret.
Breckin:  Does he like ninjas?
Me:  I'm not sure.
Breckin:  Does Daddy know if he likes ninjas?  Does Daddy know if Jay is the real ninja?
Me:  (and it's hard to answer, with a straight face, a very serious child when he asks questions like these...)  I don't think Daddy would know.  He's never mentioned it.  But you could ask him?
Breckin:  What kind of a friend doesn't know if their best friend likes ninjas?

Me:  Good question, dude.  Sounds like you'll have to have a talk with Daddy tonight.
Yikes.  Someone's gettin grilled when they get home from work.... 

Thank you, Disney.

I am folding laundry downstairs, half listening to the boys playing trains upstairs.  I enjoy Breckin's playdates because it allows a few extra minutes to fold a load of laundry or empty the dishwasher or prep a meal without having to pretend like I'm Darth Vader or a skeleton or a Great Wolf Lodge employee while I'm doing it.  It's exhausting having multiple personalies around here. 

Anyway, I hear a lot of "let's pretend....."   "blah, blah, blah"   "and then they jump out and scare you"  "but my guy is a monster..."  and then I hear some crashing and train explosions and Breckin says "Hey, Kellen!!  That's not cool!  Don't do that to the tracks!!  KELLEN!!  Stop!  Haven't you seen what happened to Sid?  You're going to make the toys angry!!"

And all crashing stops.  Thank you, Toy Story, for instilling the fear of God and Living Toys upon my son.  He cherishes his toys like no other child and doesn't allow anyone to anger his toys.  And then I realize I'm laughing by myself at no one else in the room.  The downstairs toys probably think I'm crazy.

Stuff I don't want to forget

Our summer has been horrible.  Not because of us, because of the weather.  We've had a week of semi-humid, overcast, mostly rainy days that prevent out and abouts because you never know if you're going to get dumped on.  The kids and I have been filling our time with trips to malls with quarter rides, nonsense errands to goodwill to clean out more closets, and walks to the grocery store or yarn shop down the street to get a new knitting needle or a few bananas.  Anything to get out of the house but never be further than five seconds from a roof in case of random downpour.

In the car, I told Breckin to sing a song to make the rain stop so we could enjoy a park.  He sang Rain, Rain Go Away no less than 35 times.  In a row.  Loudly.  Dustin often wonders if the kids talk all the time everywhere we go but when you have kids that sing or talk or scream or don't have an off button, you find your selective hearing button rather quickly.  So, I couldn't really answer him cause if they do, I don't really hear them.  Is that bad parenting?  Maybe.  Sanity saving?  You bet.  But Ella hears Breckin and hears every word.  So when he was done, she busted out with her own version.  "Rain, rain.  On my shoes.  Oh YEAH!"  She's been slowly putting together small strings of words but this was her first solo singing and first multiple strings of words.  I laughed and Breckin laughed so hard that she kept saying it and followed everything she said for the rest of the day with Oh Yeah. 

I just didn't want to forget.  Oh, and we can't find the charger for the camera battery so we've had zero pictures since June 10th.  Lame. 

Her Brother's Shadow

That little girl follows her brother around like it's her job.  She knows where he is at all times.  She does what he does and says what he says.  She has the little sister shadow like no one's business.  Ella has taken to playing under the dinner table, standing on her head, attempting to jump on the couch before I can catch her, slide down the stairs on her bum, tickle, chase, making funny faces, and- the most important little sister job- annoying his friends.  She will stand at the bottom of the stairs and holler "OWEN" or "KELLEN" at the top of her little lungs when Breckin runs upstairs to play in his room with his friends.  She loves his friends as much as she loves him and will mortify the both of them relentlessly if she sees them on the street.  Poor Owen and Kellen don't know what to do with her so they avert their attention and attempt to pass quietly.  I'm sorry, quietly is not a word known in our house.

Today, she took her Breckin parroting to an extreme.  I always know where she is cause one and a half year olds aren't as quiet as they think they are.  I can hear some sort of toy pounding or sing songing or little feet stepping wherever she is.  Or I can at least catch a glimpse of that hair swooshing around the corner as she pushes her little shopping cart filled with towels.  (Her fave!)  But today, while I was making lunch, after checking in her usual hang outs, I couldn't find her.  Not under the table, not by the toy drawer in the kitchen, not at her little white table doing puzzles.  I called "Ella?" and heard a giggle.  Not too far away from the kitchen counter but nothing I could see.  "Ella?"  Something smacked a wall and more giggling.  And pattering of feet.  "Miss Ella Bee?  I'm gonna getchu."  The surefire way to make her run down the hall.  Giggles but no running baby.  Then I see a small pair of jeans sticking out from under the dining room window curtain panel.  That girl has watched Breckin play hide and seek enough times to understand how to find a hiding place and STAY THERE!  What the heck?  She was standing perfectly still- except for her little head wiggling back and forth with the excitement of being found.  I tickled that curtain panel's baby belly and out she came.  Holy cow am I in for it.  She can manage, at one and a half, to hide behind a curtain and stay put even with the threat of I'm gonna getchu...  I'm fascinated and scared and proud.  And in big trouble as she finds better places to hide.

Ella Meets Hospital

You know hindsight and how it's always so smartassey?  Like duh, mom, you should have known that.  How dare you be overly confident in your children and think that safety measures are not cool.  Or necessary.  How many times has Ella gone up and down stairs in all situations- my house, grandma's house, sidewalks- and never had a problem?  A bazillion.  We put our safety gate up at the bottom so that I know when she motors to the play room cause I know I can't watch everything all at once.  99% of the time she'd be fine but it's safety first.  So why, when my mom asked, do we need to put the safety gate up, did I shrug and confidently say "nah, she'll be fine"?  Because it was my hindsight's turn to be smart, not mine.

It was 8:15 at grandma and bapa's dinner party and I was literally tensing the muscles in my legs to announce it was time to pack the kids up and head home when I 1) wondered where Ella was 2) heard a couple thump thumps and 3) heard Breckin shout "Ella just fell down the stairs".  Perfect.  Lightening struck and I don't know how I got from my chair on the deck to the bottom of the wooden staircase and I thought she was actually alright until I picked her up and realized the drool was not from the oreo she just ate, it was from her lip.  Damn head wounds bleed a lot.  A LOT. 

Grandma was smart enough to get a wet washcloth and we dabbed as best we could with a shreiking baby girl.  Enough to notice three tooth sized holes in the top of her lower lip and one small hole in the outside of the same lip.  I didn't see her fall, THANK GOD, so I had no idea what she hit or how.  I am not an urgent care specialist so we decided it was best to take her to one to find out if she bit through the whole lip.  Ick.  We left Breckin in the responsible hands of Bapa, Unca G, Auntie Heidi, and Uncle Jim and I never thought, before this day, that crew was the responsible one.  Just kidding, family.  ;) 

My mother drove while I sat in the back and dabbed her lip carefully.  She was not a happy camper.  My shirt was covered in blood as was hers and sometimes that's just what you need to get first in line at urgent care.  For her first visit to the real deal emergency peeps, it was a good one.  We had plenty of hands on deck, she got a Curious George picture, a new teddy bear, and a Maisy sticker.  The doctor was super cool and informed us she did not needs stitches, her cut wasn't all the way through- just on both sides, and she also cut that skin connecting your upper lip to your gums.  OUCH.  Leave it to my mom to say "well, that's one way to get botox lips."  Seriously. 

What is it, three days later?  Ella acts like nothing happened.  She is back to her binkies, eats like a champ, hasn't lost a minute of sleep, and was only clingy and fussy the day after.  No doubt her body hurt from however she fell but I can't find a bruise on her.  You better believe we are putting that baby gate up until she's twelve. 

My Husband Loves Movies

He loves them so much that once in a while he cooks up a plan to watch all of a series of movies in one day.  Like all six of the Star Wars (done it) or all three of the Lord of the Rings extended versions (not yet).  It seems like a marvelous idea but when it's over, the idiots dummies fellas who participate with him are cross-eyed and swear to never watch movies again.  They are sore and cranky and sick from too much movie snacks because we all know you can't watch a movie without enough red vines and chips and Goobers to last a Himalayan expedition.  Today- actually last night and today- they schemed to survive the ultimate Harry Potter viewing.  They watched all seven movies over the span of Friday evening and from 9:30 am until 11:15 pm today.  They work themselves illegally doing this only allowing a ten minute break between movies, one half hour for lunch and one half hour for dinner and Dustin is a relentless coordinator of film times keeping to a strict schedule and posting it well in advance just in case one more person wants to sneak in between shows.  They will know to show up at exactly 3:52 pm to catch whatever movie starts next in case they've seen the prior episodes.  It's insanity at its finest.  I don't attempt to stick around and partake.  I don't love movies THAT much and I love my lower extremities more than their determination of finishing what they said they would.  I don't think I can sit that long.  Most of the time they are bleary eyed and sick of it half way in but damn it if they aren't going to complete the task. 

So where does that leave me?  Well, we haven't done one of these feats in a while so when I said yes to this chore, I forgot that small children are a) not quiet in a house 2) not able to watch these movies and f) not likely to leave Aaron alone especially if he brings Brutus.  I started planning a day long excursion with both kiddos but didn't decide on our destination until midnight on Friday.  Where could we go with questionable weather and stay out for twelve hours?  It had to be a combo of things so we did the errands business in the morning- hair cut, Starbucks run, gas up the car and hit up Northwest Trek AND IKEA for the rest of the day.

Usually any two items from that list is enough to run Breckin and Ella ragged but the whole list?  It was the antithesis of movie day.  I didn't sit down for twelve hours.  Ella sort of did but she was more interested in getting out at each animal habitat and playing in the kids furniture at Ikea so not only did I not sit down, I was lifting her in or out of the stroller five hundred times.  Breckin walked the whole way at Trek and played in the ball pit at Ikea.  Hello exhuasted feet.  Both kids were phenomenally good.  Beyond my expectations.  I think it helped that it was a yes day.  Wanna go back to the wolves?  Sure.  Wanna eat hot dogs for lunch?  Sure.  Wanna visit the scientist research cabin fourteen times?  Ok.  Slow down?  Fine.  Run?  You bet.  Whatever caught their fancy, we did.  Cause we didn't have to be home at any certain time.  We spent six hours at the Trek going back to visit Ella's favorite river otters no less than ten times.  We checked on Breckin's wolves at every opportunity.  We played scientist and lost camper and forest adventurers in the research cabin.  We had ice cream.  Twice.  We had the luckiest tram ride of the day seeing newborn bison, black tailed deer, their babies, trumpeter swans, mountain goats, elk, caribou, moose and their babies, a hummingbird flew through our window, a raccoon, blue heron, and bullfrogs.  Breckin saw a wolverine go poo in it's den.  He listened to the park ranger talk about a Spotted owl and asked intelligent questions like "how old is that owl when is his birthday mine is May 11th?"  and "did you know I've been very good at not touching the stinging nettles?"  and "I think I'm kinda done with this owl which way is it to the wolves?"  He's scientific like that.  I took some pictures but it wasn't worth my arm skills to try to juggle the camera and chase Ella and pull Breckin back from habitat fences.  So the pictures lost the battle.  There are some over there.  They ended about lunch time as did my arm tolerance. 

The kids went to bed at 10:30- parent award of the year, I know- but we don't do days like this very often and I'll consider it a vacation day.  Would they have gone to bed much earlier if we were in a hotel or cabin?  Nope.  And I'm really hopin they sleep past 8:00 and don't mind playing some board games or coloring or watching a movie tomorrow.  My feet could use the break.  Sorry, hon.  Looks like it's more movies.