InstaFriday

Happy Friday! Linking up with Jeannett at Life.Rearranged for InstaFriday.     If i wanted to get anything done on Sunday, this is how it was going to happen.  I love my Ergo. ...and also, I should have known what was to come when my clingy little girl was even more clingy than usual.       Monday Morning. I knew the second I picked up her hot little body that she had a fever. The problem with fevers...all she wanted to do was snuggle. The more we snuggled, the higher her fever got. Ellary does not sleep unless she is being held. Ever.       Insert genius Mommy idea to nurse her to sleep on a blanket on the floor. She actually took a nap. On a blanket. In our hallway. For 45 minutes. Seriously amazing if you know my girl.       I love him. He is going to be 3 in one month from today. I can not believe that was 3 years ago...     The plus side to Sissy being sick, and needing all of Mommy's attention: mac and cheese dinner & Mickey Mouse at his special table in the living room.     This started as a waterfall to jump over. Mommy nixed that idea. A ramp for his food was a much better idea. Love his imagination.       "Mama, don't you dare even think about putting me down."     Sad little girl, who was burning up.   Blurry picture, yes. Muffin Tin Lunch idea...genius! He actually ate all of it, and was so so so excited!     Tippy Toes. Love. A little girl who felt well enough to play for a few minutes before coming back for snuggles. Love.       Coffee. Playtime in Brother's room. Happy kids. Happy Mama. ...until all Hockey Sticks broke loose when Ellary touched Karson's train tracks.       Oh Molly. She looked so comfy sleeping on Ellary's huge bear. Too bad she drools so bad when she sleeps, we didn't let her stay there. Sorry Moll.       Looking through the Hanna Andersson Spring Catalog. Important stuff. Much more important than sleeping. He insisted on his special lunch again yesterday. He sat for an hour and grazed. He ate it all. I seriously love this idea.   "Hey Mama, there is a baby in the mirror." He needed a special treat last night. He needed something to keep his tired self occupied until bed time. Making Chocolate Chip Muffins with Mommy and waiting for them to be done was just the ticket. They are so yummy!


This would not bake Brother happy. Notice her polka dotted forehead? She has a roseola rash.  A roseola rash that isn't supposed to itch. Doctors lie.  Poor girl is miserable. She can't sleep because her forehead and eyes itch so bad. She looked horrible at 1am. She still looked horrible at 3am. Long night. Hoping for a happier baby today. With no rash. And no fever.

Enjoy your Weekend!

Mommy & Ellary

I am the only Sister, to 3 brothers.  Needless to say, I was in pink.  Always.  Not just pink, but always a pink dress.  In the rare event I wasn't in pink, I was in a dress.  A fancy smocked dress.  My Mom kept every one of them.  I have a cedar chest in my basement full of dresses from when I was little.  Dresses in perfect condition.  Dresses I can not wait for Ellary to fit into.  

Ellary in my Coming Home From the Hospital outfit.

Her baby pictures and my baby pictures are identical.  Except I had more hair.

 

 Ellary in my smocked baby dresses.

My favorite...the blue dress.  I love the blue dress.  There has always been a picture of me in the blue dress hanging up in my parents house.  It is still a little big on Ellary, but I wanted to make sure I got a picture of her in it before it got too cold.  I started writing this post in November, right after I took this picture.  

 Ellary in my blue dress & a picture of me in it.

You can see her rosy cheeks, because it was cold out.  And she was drooling like crazy.  And I didn't take the glass out of the picture frame of me, so it is hard to see.   But, I love it.  

InstaFriday

Happy Friday! Linking up with Jeannett at Life.Rearranged for InstaFriday!       Karson likes to bring every one of Ellary's toys into the living room and dump them out.  Then try to barricade her from getting into the kitchen.  Basically, he is saying "Here Baby Ella, play with your toys...and don' t you dare touch my choo-choo tacks." ps...it doesn't work  

Ellary tried to pull an all nighter, on a night we had to get up early the next morning to take Nana to the airport.  After only sleeping a few hours, I woke her up to nurse her before we left.  She made it very clear she wasn't going to wake up.
  So I took her into the living room to nurse her.  She is a fan of nursing.  We do it often. Especially at all hours of the night. I laid her on the ground...she stayed asleep.  My daughter does not sleep unless she is being held.  Little girl was O.U.T.


Look they are playing together...and no one is crying.  Happy Happy Mama!


  Goin' for a stroller ride.  While Mama ran.  Pushing a stroller.  Hard work!

  Apparently listening to Mommy yell at the guy on the Couch to 5K app who says "begin running" and takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to say "begin walking" is also hard work.  Two minutes into our run and she was in dream land.
  The upside to having a baby that does not sleep unless she is being held...mandatory break from cleaning for baby snuggles on the couch.  (and no-she really does not sleep unless she is being held-not kidding)
  Karson begs to go play outside the second he wakes up in the morning.  I finally gave in at 10, and bundled him to to go outside.  I later realized it was a whole 2 degrees outside.  Oops. 

  New walker-walk: funny!
  The cure for the crabbies-bath time!  Karson spent 2 hours in there.  He went through 3 tubes of bath paint, and an entire tank of hot water.  He came out a happy...pruny...boy.  Well worth it!

  Mama's girl!
  "Ella, give Mama a kiss." I love baby tricks!
  He needed a special treat one night this week.  The hardest part of homemade ice cream is waiting for it to be ready to eat.  He stood there for a half hour telling me "almost done mommy...almost ready!"

Playing Outside

So, the week before Christmas, Karson gave up his nap.  Well technically, DJ and I spent the entire week in a fog, because he wasn't going to bed until anywhere between midnight & 3am.  I was still getting up all night with Ellary, and DJ was still getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work.  Needless to say, something had to change.  No more naps for Karson.  The plus side, he goes to bed at 7:30 now.  The not so plus side, we no longer have a nap time.  The one {very short} nap Ellary took on me, during Karson's nap, has been replaced with play time & please for help with various 2 year old needs.  Both kids are going to be earlier, and surprisingly, I am getting a lot more done.  Except for blogging.
A favorite activity right now is playing in the snow.  Karson loves playing on the deck.  I have sent him out a few times to play, and Ellary and I sit at the window at watch.        She loves to play in the snow too...but it was really windy and cold this day, so we hung out inside & watched big brother play.  She was less than thrilled with this, and never left the window.      It was cold, so I convinced Karson to come in, only with the promise of a snack & some "hot cho-co" with marshmallows.      Notice how both my kids were in their pajamas.  We have pajama days often around here.        After his snack, he insisted on going back outside.  He was so upset that Molly was freezing and wanted to stay inside.  He loves her so much!  

Another sight seen often around here.  Ellary rearranging our kitchen chairs.   All.day.long.

1 Pink & 1 Blue

Last night, we traded a New Years Eve get together for sledding, pizza, and an early bed time for everyone.  The whole house was asleep before 10.  Ellary actually woke up to nurse at 12:30 and I half laughed, thinking I would still be awake had we stayed up.   I kissed my babies good night & said goodbye to 2012.  A year that brought us our sweet girl.  Our sweet girl that, aside from waking up 6 times last night, let her overly exhausted Mama stay in bed until 10:00 this morning.  Now THAT is something to celebrate. It was one of my favorite New Years Eve's ever.  
Mother Nature finally sent Michigan some snow on Friday.  And being the snow loving family that we are, we loaded the kids up for the sledding hill as soon as DJ got home from work.   
We have been back every day since. 

These kids of ours, they were born into the right family.  They love the snow.    
He yells "YEE-HA" all the way down the hill.  If he doesn't, it is because he is belly giggling too hard to talk.

The first time we went, I wasn't ready to let him go down the (extremely small) hill by himself.  Ha! He does just fine, and he LOVES it!

He will be three in 2 short months, and while I sometimes catch glimpses of my little little boy, sometimes he reminds me that he will soon be three.  Like when he drags his own sled up a hill by himself.

Snow loving doesn't stop with his Mama...it continues on.  To Nanny and Bumpa, who also joined us sledding a few times this weekend.

Every single morning, the first thing he asks for is to go sledding on the 'big hill.'

I can't wait to take him skiing on the really big hill.

And then there is this sweet girl....

  ...who has absolutely NO FEAR.   We started taking her down on the big sled with us.  If we didn't start moving fast enough, she started yelling at us, and moving back and forth until we started moving down the hill.  
She looks ticked-she isn't.  She was likely just annoyed that we were letting her big brother go down alone, and she wanted to join in the fun.

Every time she got to the bottom of the hill...huge grin!

Every time.

And then on a whim, and because it was easier to leave her in her little sled that we carried her up the hill in, DJ got in position to go down...with her still in her sled.  Mama freaked.  Daddy insisted she was fine and he would hold on to her.
  Daddy was right. You could see her grin in her eyes.  She was having so.much.fun.

  So much so, that now we just push her down on her own, and one of us catches her.  Yes, my 8 month old sleds down a hill solo.  Mommy of the year.   One time, she was going slow, then caught some packed down snow and took off.  I freaked, and my mom burst out laughing.  The look on that girl's face when she took off...priceless!  Her grin was so big.  Trouble, this one is.  A dare devil...in pink...with a grin so big you can see it in her eyes.     My favorite part of our 5 sledding adventures this weekend?

The times I catch the pink & blue, together, and it hits me. 


I am the Mama to 2 littles.  One covered from head to toe in blue, one in pink.  Both smiling from ear to ear.


  I am blessed beyond belief.