Didn't forget about Elena

 I didn't forget my littlest one.  She's just hard to get really good shots of that don't look exactly like every other picture of her!  She's growing and getting to have more of a personality.  It's fun watching her kick her legs.  She can poke her eye with her toe!  When I put her on her changing table, which is her favorite place to be, she lifts and kicks her legs and laughs and smiles.  She'll do this for long minutes at a time.  It's pretty funny.  And, oh, make her naked baby and she's ecstatic!

 A little friend visited us today.  Please don't judge my yard.  My husband hates mowing, won't do it often enough, and won't let me hire people to do it.  He says he needs the exercise!  He's a goof.  But isn't this little bunny cute?  We have what I think is a family of three (I'm sure the other 100 are elsewhere) who are hanging out in our yard lately.  Today, they were just under the tree in the back yard, sitting around like they had nothing else to do.  One morning when it was raining, one was sitting right under one of Karina's swings on her swingset.  I guess he wasn't getting rained on there!

 And here is my sweet girl and my other sweet girl.  Karina loves "baby Elena" as she calls her.  She loves to touch her feet especially.  Love these girls!!!

Preschool Fun

 Karina loves preschool.  The other day I was the class helper, so I got a few pictures of her on the playground with her friends.  She's in the pink jacket.  This thing is like a four-way teeter-totter.  Below, she's hiding out doing some secret friend things with her friend M. 

 Today was the preschool's Week of the Young Child Stuffed Animal Parade.  And there's good old Lambkin.  He did have a new dress to wear (yes, Lambkin is a boy, but he wears dresses.  We're all cool with that), but she must have decided he didn't need it.  She laughs and says he's a lamb and he doesn't wear clothes, but she insisted he have it.  Silly girl. 

Just a hello and update with pics

We are all doing just fine around here, it's just hard to find time to write up a post.  I finally uploaded some pictures today while Karina napped and Elena, finally, also napped.  She did not want to go to sleep!

 Here you go, my little goofball. I can't resist this child.  She is wearing her new summer princess jammies (she has three winter ones with long sleeves, so I was excited to find this one for a good deal with short sleeves.  The girl was going to wear those other ones no matter how hot it got!) and hanging out with Lambkin.

 Below, here she is helping her daddy water our tree.  When our neighbors across the street and down a ways cut down their tree (there has been a rash of people cutting down trees in our neighborhood--I don't get it), we decided to plant some new ones of our own.  This one is doing well.  Karina and I came home from church and she didn't want to change.  Okay.  The bucket is how Bill waters them.  He fills it so he doesn't overwater and kill them (like he did our last one, it was so sad).  There's a hole in the bottom of the bucket and it drains out slowly.

 And what is in the bucket?  Why, none other than Rod "Torque" Redline, Grem, and Acer!  (Rod is blue, Grem is orange, and Acer is greenish-yellow)  They are her favorite cars from Cars 2 and Grem and Acer go all over with her all the time.  She sleeps with them.

 I have been trying forever to find my old Barbies so I could share the clothes with Karina for her princess dolls, and I finally found them.  See, I had a ton.  Some of the dolls here are Karina's princesses, but most of the clothes were mine and at least half the dolls you can see.

 I had almost forgotten to take a picture of Karina in her beautiful dress before she changed, so the bow is untied, but she still looks cute.  This was the day we had Elena baptized. 

Just trying my best to keep up with things a little on here.  It's hard with two kids.  Right now I am dying to sew some stuff and I just can't find the time.  And the machine wakes Elena up unless she's sound asleep or downstairs!

Easter

I hope you all had a lovely Easter (if you celebrate).  We did.  I'm sorry Karina made such a wonky face in the group picture.  Believe it or not, that was the best one I have from my camera.  I may or may not see the ones Bill took for a while.  It takes him months and months to upload his pictures, so I always try to get him to take ones with mine too.  Anyway, he took four, and this was the best.  Silly girl!  Elena is actually smiling in a bunch of these.  The striped dress is her Easter dress, and the white onesie is what I put her in after church.  On Karina's first Easter, she had this gorgeous dress that was supposed to be a Christmas one, but was clearanced at JCPenney's. It was creamy white with silver all over it and super poofy.  Oh it was gorgeous.  Then I had this white onesie with eyelet trim at the shoulders and it was so pretty, so I was happy when I found this similar onesie at Gymboree for Elena a while back.  I remembered it Easter after church and put it on her. 

The Easter Bunny came to our house and hid eggs in the front yard.  Normally he would have left them in the house, but since our house is, um, a little messy and the weather was nice, he hid them outside.  She was very excited that he gave her Rapunzel socks in one of the eggs.  She kept saying, "He really knows what I like!" and had to wear them that very day.  At my mom's house, the Easter Bunny's helper hid some mini My Little Ponies for her to find.  And at church, she found about 25 eggs hidden out on the playground.  She was running all over.  The eggs aren't really hidden, they're just everywhere all over the ground and the playground equipment.  But the kids will run past some, pick up others, and then go back around.  I have no idea how they determine which ones to pick up and which to leave, but it's pretty funny to watch.  She really wanted to stay and play on the playground afterwards, but I was hot and hungry and she was in her fancy dress so I made her go inside to the social hall so we could eat.  Now I have to take her back one of these days to play there.  This girl loves a playground!

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!  Oh, and just quick, nobody paid me to have the opinions about brands I mentioned, and they never do.  It's all me.  And if you have my button on your blog, don't forget that Jennie made me a beautiful new one, so it would be awesome if you would be kind enough to switch them out.  Thanks!

Several things, with pictures

 Over the weekend, Karina went to her friend's birthday party.  It was at a place called My Gym, and she had the best time!  Look at my little big girl swinging on the uneven bars!

She even got to go on the zip line they had!  All the kids got to do it. One helper picked them up and the other lady held on as they zoomed across the room!  While the kids were running around, I was thinking of a crazy comedy sketch, just waiting for them to start dropping like flies!  But they just ran and ran and Karina was hysterical.  She'd stop suddenly, with this very serious face, turn, and then run another way!

 I was also the helper at preschool on Tuesday.  I love this shot of Karina running on the playground.  You might be able to tell, I'm not sure, but she is singing a song from "Tangled".  It's the one where Rapunzel finally comes out of her tower and she's singing about "running and racing" or something like that. 

 Here she is talking to her friend and asking which colors she wanted to use.

And here she is painting with blue and yellow (which are supposed to make green, but the powdered paints don't work so well).  She is very serious and is wearing, under the blue smock, her pink fairy outfit from the dress-up corner.  It's her favorite. 

And finally, for your most jolly viewing pleasure, I present to you my brother.  I'm not sure if he's being Dracula or what, but he's wearing Karina's purple Super Fairy cape.  Yeah.  That's my brother.  You see why I like him, right? 

Hope you all had a great week!  I'll be posting Easter pics later, woohoo!

Good News from Dr. for Elena

Woo-hoo, big GI doctor's appointment is over for Elena!  Good news all around, she's healthy and growing.  Her weight and height are all good.  She didn't have to have anything done to her that was horrible, he just examined her.  We are changing up how she gets her Zantac first, by giving it three times a day instead of twice a day.  We will also have another medication that we may or may not give depending on how she reacts to the first change in meds.  This would be something to make her less uncomfortable when she does her doodles.  He said the crying/screaming is most likely because she just doesn't like to poop.  Well, okay.  He said if it was uncomfortable or painful before, then she has the physical memory of that and cries every time now.  So we'll see if changing the meds works and if not we can add the other, and we can email him with questions!!  That is so awesome. 

So, overall, healthy baby!!!!  He said she will likely just grow out of it.  Thank goodness.  I hope that happens soon!  :-)

Thanks for any well wishes you may have sent us!

A funny memory

Tonight while scrolling through Facebook, a friend shared a story about something her kids did in their yard.  I was reminded of this story from back when I was teaching third grade.  I hope I haven't shared this story with you before, because it is one of my favorites.  If I did, well, sorry.  You can just stop reading.  But if I haven't shared it, it's pretty funny, I think!

One particular year, I had this fantastic class.  I mean, they were the best kids.  I could not have hand-picked a better class.  We had a new principal that year, and the transition was kind of rough (anyone coming after our beloved Mr. Thomas was going to have a rough time; no one could compare to what we thought of him).  But I had these kids.  Oh, how I loved them!  Nice, sweet, funny, compassionate, patient, hard workers--just the best. 

One day, we're out at the playground for recess.  Suddenly, a girl comes running up to me and says, "Miss B!  Johnny just peed on the tree!!"  What?  "Johnny!" I yell, "Come here!"  He comes right over, and inside I'm thinking there's no way, the girl is mistaken, this is a joke.  He comes over and I whisper to him, "Did you just pee on the tree?"  He immediately replies, "Yes".  I suppress laughter and ask, "Why did you do that?" Johnny says, "Well, Sam did it, too."  "Sam! Come here!"  Sam comes over, I ask him, and he immediately answers, yes, he peed on the tree.  At this point, me and my fellow teachers are trying desperately not to laugh because I'm sorry, this is funny.  These boys just peed on a tree on the playground at recess while at least three entire classes are outside playing!  However, some kids saw, and I can't have kids going home telling parents that kids pee on the tree and don't get in trouble.  So I steel myself and tell the boys that while I'm not angry at them, what they did was very inappropriate and they will have to see the principal (I have to cover all my bases and protect myself as well).  It was awful.  I really wasn't mad at them, I didn't even really care that much, because I knew that with these boys, I could have just told them, hey you don't do that, and they wouldn't have done it again.  They were just being boys.  But it's school.  Sigh. 

We go inside, Johnny is crying, Sam is stone-faced.  I'm miserable, but still laughing inside.  I sit them in the office and go find the principal. She's eating with the assistant principal in the cafeteria, which is now empty.  I dread telling her, but tell her I do.  The AP, Mrs. Carter, starts laughing immediately, but Miss Bane just keeps this very straight face and starts asking me about it.  I told her how honest they both were, what good kids they are, and inside I'm hoping she won't suspend them.  She didn't.  It was one of the strangest things that ever happened during my teaching career.

I did talk to the parents of both boys, and we had a good laugh over it as well.  I was on good terms with most of the parents that year, too.  They were good parents (except one who we'll discuss some other time.  She wasn't really a parent, anyway.) (Boy, I do get off-track quite easily, don't I?  Oh well!)

These boys were just so great, though.  They remained (and do to this day) some of my favorite students of all times.  Of course, all names in this story have been changed.  

Thinking about this class, these boys, all these kids, just really warms my heart.  I simply can't express to you how great they were that year.  I will never, for as long as I live, forget these kids. 

Pictures and Happy Birthday to my Dad

 My mom had this building set, where you can use the blocks to make different styles of houses and buildings.  But Karina looked at it and saw a playground.  So that's what she and Mom made. 

Just flashing a smile. 

Today is my dad's birthday.  It should have been yesterday, he's such a prankster and a goofball!  It always sneaks up on me coming as it does at the beginning of the month.  I called him already and got voicemail so now I have to try to remember later today and try again.  Hopefully I will remember.  With chaos as our newest houseguest, remembering is hard, but just in case:  Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!

My girls

 Karina built a castle out of Lego Duplo blocks and one out of this stuff my mom found at the dollar store.  The one below is really tiny, about the size of a quarter.  But she had a whole story about how the princess lives at the top and goes on the porch out back. 

 Thanks, Bonnie, for the outfit!

And check out the smiles we get now from our little spitter-upper!  She is definitely doing better, though I still wish she could be better than she is.  Karina loves her and is very sweet with her.  We are making it all work but it is a lot of work, especially since Elena eats often because of the type of formula she is on.  We just increased to 3 oz to see if it would help.  We've been sticking to 2 oz to help cut down on the spitting up (no pun intended) but she just eats constantly.  So we're trying 3 oz.  She weighs almost 12 pounds now and is in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight!

Kitchen update

Here you may recall my kitchen corner as it once was.  And now here is how it looks now:

The cabinets are working out great and I love the counter!  I have my electric teakettle there with my tea and sugar containers, my George Foreman grill (which I use to make grilled cheese and hot dogs, gourmet cook that I am), and some other things that don't get used much.  The cake container didn't stay.  It was just housing one of three (yes three) birthday cakes that I ended up with out of the kindness of my family's heart and also my church friends. 

Sorry it took so long to post these.  Right now, getting anything done around here takes a small miracle.  You do not want to see what the rest of my house looks like.  Yeesh!

This is Me link

I decided to answer Jennie's questions when she got tagged over at Clover and Violet.  If you're new here, you should know that I'm just a little old personal blog, I don't do reviews or giveaways, and I usually am too lazy to post pictures.  I'm also not really a quilter, but since I really love reading Jennie's blog and seeing all the pretty things she and her mom create, here goes:

RULES:

-You must post the rules.
-Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you and then create 11 questions to ask the people you've tagged.
-Tag 11 people and link them in your post {Rule change by me:  If you want to answer my questions at the bottom, you can just put them in a comment if you want.  I don't have a linky.  I don't need you to add your link or anything like that, but feel free if you want to.  For me this is just for fun, so if you want to answer them, go ahead.  If you don't, that's fine, too!}.
-Let them know you have tagged them {Okay everyone...you're tagged...if you want!}

1.  When you look at your stash, is there one color that dominates it?
Pink, definitely

2.  If you didn't quilt, what other artsy/crafty pursuit would you follow?
I don't really quilt that much, actually.  Mostly, when I have time, I stamp and scrapbook, and I do sew some.  I have only made a few quilts, and I know they aren't really made correctly but it was fun.

3.  If you could hire a maid to clean only one part of your house, what would it be?
Only one part?  No way, it would have to be the whole thing.  Or the bathrooms.

4.  If you do/did work a 9-5 job, what is it/would it be?
I was a teacher.

5.  What is the oldest item of clothing that you continue to wear?
I have a striped shirt that I've had forever.  It's pink and cream and I still love it.

6.  What is your dream vacation spot?  The beach

7.  What does your sewing space look like right now {optional: post a picture!}?  A horrific mess and no, I am not posting a picture.  My entire craft room is a wreck.  Since I was pregnant and had my second baby, I haven't been able to clean it (priorities) and my older daughter comes in often and messes it up.

8.  If you could change your first name, what would you choose? I like my name, I don't think I'd change it.  If someone forced me to, maybe I'd change it to something like Elizabeth.  But otherwise I wouldn't.

9.  If I visited your hometown, where would you take me?  The beach, a couple of museums, and Colonial Williamsburg, which is within driving distance.

10.  How did you get started quilting? It was a whim.  I just wanted a quilt that had fabric made of things that were special or reminded me of people.  So my quilt has fabric from projects I'd made (this is an old quilt, and someday, when I have time again, I am going to make a new one like it but with fabric that is more currently reflecting my life) and other fabrics that remind me of friends or pets.

11.  What is your go-to dinner {share the recipe if so inclined!}?
It depends.  Usually it's Stouffers Rigatoni and White Meat Chicken in a Basil Pesto Sauce (mmmmmmm).  I don't cook much.  If I have to cook, it would be spaghetti or cheesy biscuits (bake up some Pillsbury's homestyle biscuits.  Keep in fridge to store.  Take out however many you want and slice in half while still cold.  Cut quarter inch thick slices of colby-jack cheese in a size that will fit on the biscuit.  Microwave for about 30 seconds or until cheese is just melted.)


Here are my questions for you, if you want:

1. What was your favorite cartoon show growing up?
2. If you could play an instrument what would it be?
3. Where do you get crafting inspiration?
4. If you had 24 hours to yourself, what would you do?
5. I have always wished someone would invent a real teleporter.  What imaginary invention would you want to see realized?
6. Do you have a favorite candy? What is it?
7. Do your kids say anything funny?  If you don't have kids or they don't talk yet, have you ever heard someone else's kids say something funny?
8. What is the best vacation you've taken?
9. If you could have HGTV come redecorate one room in your house for free, what room would it be?
10. Puppies, kittens, or something else entirely?
11. On a beautiful spring day, what is your favorite thing to do?

Elena's 2 month appointment and a crazy day

Elena had her two month checkup today.  She gained another 5 ounces--that's 12 ounces in two weeks!!  She's in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight.  Her reflux overall is still maintaining the initial improvement level, but we're hoping that our later appointment with the GI doctor might find something else we can do to make it even better.  She had shots today and was quite cranky.

It was an interesting visit overall.  I donated some books to their office because I noticed how ratty they are and how some are missing pages.  When I told Dr. B, I think he was embarrassed, and told me there were some big changes coming to the practice soon.  Right now, there are 5 doctors there, Dr. P, Drs. L, Dr. B, and our Dr. B. (who is also my friend Kelly's kids' doctor). Apparently there is a difference in philosophy or something and three of the doctors are going to be separating and starting their own practice.  I'm not sorry at all--the two Drs. L are not my favorites.  One is the one who made me feel stupid for not knowing the difference between diaper rash and impetigo (despite my extensive medical background, ha ha, and the fact that I use cloth diapers and Karina almost never had diaper rash), and the other Dr. L was the one who, when Karina was 9 months old with strep throat in Albuquerque and running a super high fever, couldn't get past the question of when I had given her the acetaminophen.  Really?  Just tell me to give her some dang ibuprofen!  But anyway, I'm happy to hear this news and really happy he's not leaving the area.  I told Dr. B I would save the other books I had intended to bring in (they had a slight mildewy smell from being in storage for several years, but I found a way to hopefully remove the smell, so if it works I'll be donating them) until their other practice opens, and of course told him we're coming with him!  He was very appreciative.  I told him I'm a former teacher with all these books just lying around.  I'd much rather some kids get use from them.  So that was a very interesting conversation we had today. 

Long day though; spent the afternoon shopping with Kelly for Celebration of Life food (the big dinner the youth host for our senior members to thank them for their support of the youth group).  We both had our kids with us.  You should have seen us: Karina fell asleep in the car on the way there, so she was in the stroller. Elena was in a grocery cart being pushed by Kelly's 6 year old son, and Kelly's other son was in yet another cart.  When Karina finally woke up it was great because she and A could ride together in the special "car" cart and N didn't have to help push Elena around anymore since I could then put her carseat into the stroller.  Then at the next store, I tried to feed Elena and apparently shook up her tummy too much and she threw up all over me.  Sigh.  Needless to say, I'm going to bed now!  Tomorrow Kelly and I are making cupcakes in the afternoon and the next day is the big dinner.  I'm bringing the girls over, so it should be an interesting day again. 

Hope you all had less chaotic days!

The Pinterest Issue

Some or all of you have probably been reading the Pinterest guidelines about copyright lately.  Sigh.  What a mess. I was so excited when my cousin invited me to join and then voila, this shows up and I started worrying.  So when I was reading on Clover and Violet's blog about how they deleted all their boards and are starting over, and that they even have a Pinterest friendly blog button now (that you can borrow here), I decided after much debate to follow suit. 

No pun intended, I don't want to get sued!

Anyway, to all you pinners out there, just be careful.

Two Stories

Lately Karina has been making up stories and songs.  This morning at breakfast I had the chance to write two of them down.  I'm sharing them here for you but also for me, so I can remember them.  I wrote them as close to how she said them as I could.

Story 1
Once there was a ladybug who wanted to play outside but it was too windy.  So she found a giant spiderweb to stop the rain.  So she went to a path.  She went to a walk.  There's a playground.  It has some swings on it.  She went on the slide.  And then she went home over the hills.  And then she went all the way home and then she took a little nap.  And that is the end of my story!

Story 2
Once upon a time there lived a lovely ladybug who wanted to go to the gym.  But it was too breezy.  So she had to stay inside.  It was too breezy outside.  So she watched a movie.  She was sad.  She took a little nap.  Then she looked out of the window.  The sun was out.  It was warm outside when she woke up from her nap.  She played on the swingset.  She watched TV.  Then snow came.  She played in the snow.  The End.

Real quick little short update

Elena gained 7 ounces in 7 days!  Dr. B was ecstatic!  She is doing much better and he told us it takes time for their bodies to get used to not being in pain, and for them to realize that crying is not the sole way to be in life.  She has been much happier lately and today was just grinning at me for whole minutes!  It was great.  I would say today was one of her best days yet!  Bill even said she's been sleeping better at night.  Thank goodness she seems to be on the mend.  I don't know if we could have handled much more of it.  It was really taking its toll on us, Bill especially because he was staying up so late with her.  Keep fingers crossed that she just keeps getting better!