Pretty Princesses

When Claire is in her princess garb, she insists on being called "Princess Claire". I don't mind because I am Princess Mommy when she is all dolled up. Ellie is just "El". I'm not sure why the Junior Princess doesn't get the title.

Merry Christmas!

The girls had a great Christmas! Ellie woke up before 8 AM, but we had to wake Claire up at 8:30. We trudged downstairs to see what Santa brought us. Santa did a good job this year!

Claire opened up a Disney Princess tent and a dress-up treasure chest. Claire has had on various princess dresses all day. She LOVES them! She also had her "quiet time" aka nap time in the tent.

Ellie opened a whole bunch of stuff (Santa apparently lost count of the number of packages he had Ellie's name on). Well, opened is not the right word. Claire opened most everything, but Ellie liked playing with everything. Luckily, they both understand that they are sharing everything. Claire even dressed Ellie up in a princess dress before dinner.

Speaking of dinner, we had this fabulous pecan-crusted halibut, with lemon-pepper green beans, and twice-baked potatoes. Yummy! We are having a more traditional turkey and trimmings dinner with my extended family tomorrow at Mama and Papa's house.

Our Santa experience

I had heard that the local mall Santa was very good, so I decided to take the girls to go visit him. First, we got there during his lunch break and had to walk the mall for an hour.

We arrived back in time to be first in line. Minutes later this crabby grandmother gets in line behind us and starts to complain at someone over her cell that she is second in line and what a crock that is...since they have been waiting an hour. I almost took her out. Get over it, lady. Anyway...

Santa arrives and the picture girl asks me what photo package I would like (the cheapest one, please--maybe I will upgrade if they are really good - or funny) and asks the girls names. She walks back to Santa and motions us over. Claire says, "I am not going to see Santa." Ellie walks confidently forward...until she sees Santa. Then the sucker fish (Ellie) attaches herself to my right leg, and begins to glare at the old man in the weird clothes. Claire does not look very happy, but I proceed.

We walk up to Santa and he says, "Well, hello, Claire and Ellie." (he's good...oh yeah, I gave the other lady their names). Claire says, "I don't wanna see Santa." Ellie glares. I ask Claire if she wants to talk to Santa... "No!" We get closer and Ellie starts to cry. Santa asks if we want to try the "sneak." I say, "Why not?"

Santa leaves to feed Rudolph (wink, wink) while we distract the girls with a book. We convince the girls to sit on Santa's chair, but they won't let me get very far. I've already sat on Santa's lap once (2 years ago with Claire) and I'm not doing it again. So we have me sitting as far to the left as possible. Claire is sitting on the right arm of the chair and Ellie is sitting right below her on the seat. Cute. The picture lady rings some bells to get the girls attention and takes a pic. I'm thinking, why am I paying for pictures of Claire playing with a book and Ellie glaring at the picture lady while sitting on a chair that looks like a candy cane. The lady motions me over to look at the pictures on her computer. Ah-ha! Santa is peeking from behind the chair. So he didn't leave to feed Rudolph - liar! Anyway...

I have the pic to scan and I have the story, which is not so funny now (nor was it then, really). Finally, the crabby Grandma behind us in line finally got to see Santa. I'm thinking Santa may need to wait a few years for another visit.

Claire was on a roll.

Sunday morning in Sunday School, Claire told her teacher (Miss Susan): "You are crapping me up!" I tell people all the time that they crack me up. I am pretty sure that is what Claire meant and she did not need a potty break.

In the same class, Miss Susan asked the boys and girls, "Who is Mary?" Claire said "She's the Godmother." She's right...mostly. Again, Miss Susan got crapped up. =) I am not willing, at this time, to correct Claire. Ask her who Mary is when you see her.... and Mary's husbands name is "Jofus".

Claire cracks me up....

We are all sick...some more than others. I am battling a sore throat and my voice is not 100%. Claire is very concerned when I cough and has told people that I am sad because my throat hurts (she is a very discerning child). Today I was talking to her and her face lit up...she said, "Mom, your voice isn't broken anymore!" She was so excited that I sounded like...well...me. Then later, when I was hoarse again, she said, "oh no, your voice is broken!" She's such a sweet girl.

Ellie coughs when I cough. Faker.

Funny...to some.

The scene: Dinner at Front Range Barbecue

The players: Mama Sue, Mindy, Drew, Claire, Ellie and Me

The conversation:
Mama Sue: Claire, who is your favorite cousin?

Claire: Ryan

(Cousin) Drew: What?

Claire: Ryan

I thought it was funny....

Halloween

Claire = Princess (still talking about it)

Ellie = Pink Poodle

Mommy = Ballerina

Daddy = Disgruntled government employee (Daddy is not very creative)

School picture:

Shots Day

Claire and I took Ellie to the doctor yesterday for her 18-month check up (and shots). I had warned Claire that Ellie would be getting shots and she would cry, but it would only hurt for a minute and then Ellie would be fine. Claire tends to get upset when Ellie is upset (unless she is the one doing the upsetting, then she is fine with it). Anyway....

The nurse asks me about flu shots for both girls (yes, please). I figured I would have to make another appointment for Claire's, but the nurse said she could do Claire's while we were there. Nice! So, while we are waiting for the doctor, I explain to Claire that she is going to get one little shot and it won't hurt...much. She seems fine with it. Doctor comes in....examines Ellie. All is great! He is very happy with her physical and developmental progress. Although he does tell me that the second child is typically a bit more aggressive/outgoing than the first, compliant child. Right...we have proved all that birth order crap wrong. My girls are opposite of what they are "supposed to be". Anyway...that's not the best part.....

The nurse comes back into the room and says, "Let's do Claire's first." Ok.... I put Claire up on the table, pull down her leggings, the nurse pulls her towards her and braces Claire's legs between her body and the exam table. Claire's eyes get really big as I take both her hands and bend down to talk to her. I know EXACTLY when the nurse punctures Claire's skin with the needle because Claire lets out this high-pitched, very loud, blood-curdling scream. My first thought was, "Man, is this nurse cutting off her toes?" I can only start laughing.... It takes Claire several seconds to recover, then she tells the nurse that she (Claire) is going to have nightmares. The nurse asks me, "Did she just say...?" Yes, she did. I'm not sure the nurse thought that was funny. I certainly did though.

Ellie's turn....same procedure...but Ellie gets 4 shots and doesn't start crying until the second or third one. She recovers a lot faster and is smiling at the nurse within 15 seconds or so. Claire continues to glare at the nurse, demands her sticker, and we leave the office.

Next day: Claire wakes up puking. Nice..I hope it is not the stomach flu and only a reaction from yesterday's trauma. Bad dreams? For mom!

Little Ellie Lou Who

Another great thing about being a mom....you get to do this kind of stuff to your kids...=)

Drama Queen II

Last night, after Ellie had been put to bed, I heard her crying. It was the "I'm distressed" cry, so I went to her room to make sure she was okay.

I found her at the doorway of her room, with a pink receiving blanket over her head (like a shawl), and her lower lip puckered out. She looked so pathetic, I had no choice but to pick her up. It did not go unnoticed, however, that as soon as I reached out to pick her up she broke out in a big grin. She didn't lose her yentl scarf though. She held on tight to that.

She is so funny.

I could just 'eat her up'....

I don't care who you are or what you think....that's a cute kid!

Pumpkin Farm

On Friday we went to the Pumpkin Farm to pick a pumpkin. They also have farm animals, so we got to look at those too. Since it is a learning farm, we also picked dried beans, dug for worms, and learned about making compost. I kept thinking, "Why are these parents letting their children climb on the piles of rotting garbage (which compost is). Nothing against those into the 'green' or organic movement, but... ewww... Anyway, here are some pics....
Claire's reaction to the chickens... I kept thinking chicken fajitas for dinner sounded good.

Claire waiting for her class picture to be taken. She loved the wagon!


Claire picking beans...Ellie just chillin'.

I would show you the adorable pictures of Claire picking her pumpkin in the field or of Ellie carrying this perfectly-sized and round pumpkin, but the settings on my camera were wrong and the pics were overexposed. I was not a happy camper. But I didn't realize it until we got back to the car and no way was I carrying two pumpkins and two crying, very tired children back to the field. That was not going to happen.

The interesting thing about this pumpkin farm is that the farm was given to the county by a man (and his wife) who said that kids can come pick a pumpkin for free, but they have to carry it out of the field. It only applies to a certain age range, but it still is pretty cool. They have been giving away pumpkins for 35 years. I wasn't sure if they were going to let Ellie have hers since she was underage, but the lady said since she carried it all the way out, that it was hers. Good thing; I'm not sure we could have pried it out of her hands. All in all...a good day.

Winter has come....

It snowed last night and on the way to school this morning, Claire said, "Look Mom, it's winter!"

The girls played outside this afternoon for about 5 minutes, and when they came back inside, Claire announced that it was cold outside and they would need hot chocolate. They both loved their 'hot chocolate' (room temperature chocolate milk).

Sisters

OK, sometimes they scream at each other, but tonight they are being such good sisters.

Claire is playing a computer game and Ellie is watching. They are both sitting in the office chair at the desk. Ellie sits and watches, while Claire is actually playing the game. Claire says, "Yeah...I won!" and Ellie claps. So cute. Claire just bent down and gave Ellie a hug and kiss.

I would take a picture of this precious sister moment, but I'm afraid it would ruin the karma they have right now. So....I will just keep this story in my pocket and pull it out when I put each of them in their "naughty place", aka time-out. We have two....one for each since they are both in time-out at the same time.

Ok, good sister moment is over (just that fast). Claire is yelling at Ellie to sit down and Ellie is screaming. Nice....

Claire-speak

I love when Claire speaks. Something really cute always comes out of her mouth.

Sanks, Mom! = Thanks, Mom!

furfing movie = Surfing movie (Surf's Up!)

frowing - throwing (as in up or down, aka puking)

tc - T.V.

DDD - DVD

C is for Claire, D is for Daddy, E is for Claire...(no, E is for Ellie) No, E is for Claire! (M is for Mommy) No, M is not for Mommy. C is for Claire. (she has a one-track mind)

The results of not listening.

I am working and Claire is watching a Winnie the Pooh movie of some variety. She runs in my office and starts chattering about Tigger and Pooh and something else (obviously, I am not really listening). I respond, "That's so funny." Claire says, "That's not funny, Mom. That's sick." Since she has returned to her movie, I wonder what was so sick about Tigger and Pooh. Oh well...

Mommy, I'm frowing up!

Claire has a stomach virus of some sort. She showed up at my bedside this morning at 3:34 AM with puke on her hands. Thus started my awake night. She acted like she felt fine, so I went to bed about 5:30. She watched a movie and fell asleep at some point...only to wake up puking at about 7 AM. John dealt with her while I got some sleep. She fell asleep again and woke me up crying at about 9:30. Luckily, John could stay home and help me. I did an unknown quantity of laundry all day. We knew she was feeling better when she would not stop talking.

At one point at this evening, she had on her "dancing shoes" (purple sequined dress-up shoes) and a red t-shirt (and nothing else). She just walked around and talked about puke. Nice.

We are on the countdown for Ellie's first puke. Stay tuned. =)

UPDATE: No more puke in our house...for now. Today at lunch Claire told Ryan that it wasn't "frowing up", it's "frowing down". She has a good point; at no time was puke going up. Smart girl.

Equal time

No story, just cute. Do you like how the girls have trashed my office? Nice...

So cute.... UPDATED WITH PIC

I know my girls are the cutest things on the face of this planet, but this is ridiculous. I ran errands today, with the girls in tow, of course. We went into the bank, and several women pointed at my kids and smiled. One even laughed out loud. They ARE so cute, aren't they? Then we went to Kinko's FedEx to mail a package. Again, my girls were the recipients of lots of smiles. No laughing this time. I went to Starbucks to ...well, get coffee...duh....and several people smiled at them. Even a guy...which is a little unusual. Usually it's just women that say something. Anyway....the barrista laughed as we were walking out. I'm sure Claire or Ellie did something really cute.

So we get home and I unbuckle Claire from her car seat and help her jump down from the van. Then I notice....she has these bright pink butterfly sunglasses on backwards and upside down. So her glasses are hooked on the front of her ears with the lenses upside down on the back of her head. Now that IS funny! Ellie was just being her normal cute self.

So sweet....

Today we took apart Ellie's crib and put a twin "big girl" bed in her room. She is 17 months old and we decided that she would be okay in the bigger bed. I think she is ready, but Mom certainly wasn't. I cried the entire time...=) It's all good.

Ellie took a short nap in her bed, so I figured she was probably mostly okay to be put to bed with no problems. Riiight. Not. She cried, so I sat in her room while she laid in bed. Every time I tried to leave, she would cry. Claire came into the room and climbed in bed with Ellie. She kissed her and put her arms around and told her, "It will be okay." It was so sweet....

So I decided Claire could stay with her until she went to sleep, so I left the room. Ellie started crying and Claire...started to panic. "Ellie's crying!! Mommy, she's crying!! Aaah!!! She's crying. Ellie, stop crying!

If I wasn't already so tired, I'm sure it would have been hilarious.

Claires loves to crack eggs.

You know what's coming, don't you?

In about 15 minutes, Claire managed another one of her creations, for lack of a better word. This time the ingredients came from the refrigerator. Part of a Boston Cream Pie, several eggs, and a Taco Bell cheese roll-up. On a plate. On our family room table. Condiments (mayo, tartar sauce, ketchup, Ranch salad dressing, to name a few) scattered on the table. Lucky for me (and her butt), these were not open. The contents were all intact. I am unable to locate a culinary school that accepts three-year-olds. Any ideas?

And here I was feeling sorry for her because she has a cold and obviously does not feel well. I guess she is either feeling better or the drugs I gave her are working.

I was really looking forward to a piece of Boston Cream Pie after dinner tonight...

Where is Ellie during all this fun?

We have an extra bed in the basement. It is where Henry stayed this summer. I could not find Ellie anywhere, but knew she had been down in the basement playing. This is where I found her...sound asleep. She has the new skill of removing her clothing. Good times. Sweet baby... she slept for a couple of hours and, when she woke up, got off the bed and started playing. We have the baby room monitor in the basement now since the girls spend a lot of time down there playing (the toys are located there also).

Chef Claire, part deux

Recipe:

2 cups rice
1/4 cup Dill Weed
1-1/2 cups sugar
6 cups water (preferably from the dog's water bowl)
a handful of paper clips to taste

That is what is in the bowl that Claire is stirring. Luckily, this fun took place in the sink and the mess wasn't huge. One little problem that I still need to resolve. I started dumping the concoction down the sink before I realized there were paper clips in the bowl. My garbage disposal will never be the same...

Chef Claire

Claire is becoming more independent by the day. The day before yesterday, she made her own PB&J. She really, truly made it by herself. I just gave her the ingredients and let her go for it. She spread the PB, spread the jelly, put the pieces of bread together, cut it, and ate the entire sandwich. I'm not sure she has eaten an entire anything in months.

This morning she also buttered her own toast. I put the bread in the toaster and forgot about it. Claire took matters into her own hands. Apparently, she got tired of waiting, so she took the toast out of the toaster (it had cooled off significantly by then), spread butter on it, and was trying to cut it when I came back into the kitchen. Her comment to me? I did it, Mom! Yes, you did. I'm so proud.

Show and Tell

Claire has started school. She is a Sunbeam this year and is doing very well. She, once again, will only go potty at school, but I am okay with that.

Tomorrow she has the Show and Tell bag to return to school. I asked her tonight what she would like to take to school for show and tell. I was hoping she would say something easy, like stickers or Barbie. Oh no....not Claire. The conversation went something like this:

Mommy: What do you want to take to Show and Tell tomorrow? Stickers or Barbie? (we give preschoolers choices to give them control)

Claire: beer (Claire takes immediate control in her own way)

Mommy: Are you saying 'beer'?

Claire: Yes, beer.

Mommy: What is beer?

Claire: In the fridge.

Mommy: Beer? Like the drink?

Claire: beer.

(At this point I am not totally convinced she is actually saying 'beer', so we walk to the kitchen.)

Mommy: Claire, show me beer.

(Claire walks to the Fridge, opens the door, and points to a Corona bottle on the fridge door-shelf. Oh my, she really means beer.)

Mommy: We can't take beer to school, Claire.

Claire: (she counts the bottles...1...2) Yeah, we don't have enough for all the kids. (shuts fridge door)

Mommy: So do you want to take Barbie or stickers? (I ask this after leaving the room to laugh and returning)

Claire: Barbie

And so another day ends in the life of a 3-year-old. Note: I drink a beer maybe once or twice a year. The Corona in the fridge has been there since....a long time. I prefer margaritas. :)

It's been a few days, so I can laugh now.

In the last post I said Claire's messes could always be worse? Well, if you are not a mother or have a sensitive gag reflex, quit reading now. If you have a sensitive gag reflex and are a mother, congratulations, you must be pregnant! HA!

OK, so Claire yells from across the living room to me and says, "Mom, I'm poopy." We're still working on the potty training thing and I know she has a pull-up on, so no biggie. I tell her to go to the bathroom and I will change her. I make it to the bathroom first and she waddles up behind me...with poop running down her leg. Oh crap (literally). I clean her up enough to get her upstairs to the bathtub. Ellie follows us up the stairs. I love that she's walking so well. I put Claire in the tub and turn to check on Ellie...who has a trail of poop behind her. Not from her diaper...from her feet! And her hands are covered in it too! She has some around her mouth, but her breath is minty-fresh (more on that later). AH! I'm freaking out and yelling at both of them (mainly Claire). After bathing and dressing both girls, and cleaning out the bathtub, I go downstairs to a lovely smell coming from the living room. Yes...poop EVERYWHERE! OK, so I may be exaggerating slightly, but there were several large piles on the floor. I throw all the toys into a laundry basket and start wiping up as much as I can. Yes, I made sure the toys were poop-free also.

My carpets are nice now that I've cleaned it. For awhile I didn't think they would ever look the same. More good news: the living room doesn't look like we were vandalized anymore.

Sorry - no pictures. Or should I say, "You're welcome!"

The "privilege" of working from home

I wasn't clear-headed enough to get a picture of this before I cleaned it up...

If my 3-year-old had been in daycare, I would not have just cleaned up the following mess...

1. A 3-lb bag of animal crackers emptied onto the recliner in the family room.
2. My kitchen utensils being used in some quasi-science experiment.
3. A pitcher of stale tea mixed with weeds from the back yard and Cheerios in a bowl that previously had potatoes in it.
4. Potatoes covered with a mixture of stale tea, animal crackers, and Cheerios in a bowl from ? I'm not even sure where the bowl came from or if it was even ours. The neighbor brats...eh...kids throw stuff over the fence into our yard all the time. Claire has acquired some really neat balls this way.
5. The tea, cookie, and Cheerios concoction on the carpet. Not even the dog would lick it up. The smell was indescribable.

The joys of working from home....=) At least there was no poop involved. It can always be worse, right?

Claire's Preschool Program

This is the :12 version. If you want the 5:00 version, email me and I will send it to you. =) You are either very bored, need a good laugh, or love Claire very much!

Ellis is pretty smart, too!

Ellie is reclining on a bag of trash (I think), reading a book. So what that it's upside down and only the jacket of the book. She stayed like that for the longest time. Ellie is very content, most of the time, to just hang out.

Proof of Claire's Intelligence...or Ingenuity

When I am working in my office, I put up two gates so that the girls are confined to one room of the house (right outside my office). Claire figured out that if she drops a toy bucket on the other side of gate, she can use a chair to simply step over the gate. Pretty smart, huh?

My Little Butterfly

This is one of my favorite pictures of Ellie. The butterfly wings bring out her big, blue eyes. No story, just a great picture.

Every 3-year-old does it at some point....

The date: 3 weeks before Claire is the Flower Girl in Bree and Dan's wedding.

The scene: I am sitting at my desk, working.

I hear John yell from upstairs, "Where did all this hair come from?"

Yep. Claire was Mommy's big helper and cut her bangs...with the trimming scissors. Just like Mommy does...kind of.

Oh yeah, and she cut her sister's bangs too. I am amazed that she didn't cut anything else off. Those are sharp scissors! I am also amazed that Ellie stood still long enough for Claire to do it.

And her preschool teacher said she needed to work on her cutting skills...right.

My Little Flower Girl.....

Claire was a flower girl in my niece's wedding last night. So cute! (Claire, not Bree - Bree was stunning!) No drama...at the wedding. There was plenty before. From Claire, not Bree. During the rehearsal, Claire wouldn't walk down the aisle by herself and threw a hissy. She loved the basket with flowers though. Luckily, her co-flower girl, Grace, told her exactly what she needed to do. Claire loved Grace and did everything Grace told her. Gavin (the ring bearer) had a crush on Claire and wanted to hold her hand. So....Grace walked down the aisle first, followed by Claire and Gavin holding hands. Claire shook off Gavin's hand to throw her flowers and followed Grace down the aisle. She got to the front of the church, turned around, and said "Mommy, I did it." and came to sit with me. It was a very good memory!

Mother's Day and Spring Programs

For Mother's Day I received a great new camera. It even takes short video clips!

I have some great pictures of the girls. Today was Claire's Spring Program at school and I captured about 5 minutes of her actually participating in the program!

Now if I could just get the stupid stuff of the #$(*&$ camera. The end of my current camera transfer cord is too big and the little SD card will fit into the SD drive on my computer, but it won't let me retrieve anything. You have to love technology! ...love...hate...same dif.

I'll figure it out soon enough. Or John will get tired of my complaining and figure it out for me. =)Update: I figured it out (obviously)! The above pic is the girls waiting patiently to go to church on Mother's Day.

Have you ever wondered...

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be walking along, fighting gravity, when suddenly this giant walks up to you, places her palm on your nose, cupping your face and forcefully pushes you backward? If you do, call and ask Ellie. I'm sure she could relate the experience. Claire doesn't like that Ellie is now walking...go figure.

This is a picture of Ellie just one year ago. Hard to believe she knew what was coming...I now know what she was thinking that day: "A year from now I will be walking, fighting gravity....."

Nice day today!

It was a beautiful day today and Claire went outside to play. I went to find Ellie and she was outside playing too! She had to go down several concrete steps to get to the middle of the yard, which is where I found her and Claire playing happily. Claire played with a rope and Ellie got in and out and in and out and in and out of the Little Tykes car. They both had a blast and I can't wait until it's nice every day!

Ahhh...sisters!

Claire is 3. Ellie is almost 1. Why do I spend so much of my time yelling at Claire to get off her sister?

Claire calls Ellie "Baby". Ellie calls Claire "AAAHHHHH".

Claire is already learning that when Ellie starts crying to either run or try to comfort her before I get there. She's a smart little thing. Of course, Ellie has learned to manipulate that situation to her advantage. I can't wait until they're 11 and 13! NOT!

I asked my friend Barb which was more effective, a taser or a 9 MM. She laughed. I wasn't kidding. Yes, I was. I'm going to torture them by embarrassment and have a great time!
If you see me at the mall in 10 years and want to join the fun, just let me know.

The Bag Lady

Cousin Ryan was here in February. He was helping me change the garbage bags in the kitchen trash can and asked why the bags were all stuffed into the box rather than rolled or folded nicely. I pointed at Ellie. I don't think he believed me. Here is proof! The culprit caught in the act!



So innocent...does she think that will work in a few years? It doesn't work now, so she's got a lot to learn.

Claire is 3!

So I'm posting her bday party wrap-up a month late. So what. Like in 10 years she will even care. Get over it. I've had a long day.... =)

Claire's party theme was "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" Next time you see Claire, ask her to do the "Hot Dog" dance from the show. It's hilarious!

Ellie kept the mouse ears on for a surprisingly long time.








This is what Ellie thought of the party. It was mainly boring. We had food, there were presents. Cousin Ryan was there! That was all.

Why Claire says bad words....

It's too quiet...
What is that?









This can't be good. Scissors on the floor are never a good sign.








My first thought (and words out of my mouth) were "Damn it!" My second thought was "I bet cutting up this cassette tape was fun."






Claire's take on her mess was "Oh no! Dammit" But she was so proud. =)

Why I buy non-toxic markers.

Claire. Markers. Body art. No big deal. It will wash in a few days.

Ellie. Markers. Her version of body art. It will wash off in a few days. Poison Control said not to worry.

Ellie's dentist said her teeth will not be purple permanently.

Why do they grow up so fast?

Some days they aren't growing up fast enough. Other days I just want them to be little babies again.

Ellie is standing by herself. She is walking along furniture. She will probably be walking by her first birthday at the end of April. She's so cute!

Note: I went out to take a picture of Claire riding her toy on the couch, but I missed the moment. Leather furniture is quite durable.

Fashion Plate Claire strikes again!

Claire LOVES to play outside in the backyard! Now that she can open the back door herself, we have had to establish some rules about playing outside. 1. Sam must be outside with Claire. She's really good at getting him to go outside with her. 2. She must be dressed. Shirt and pants required. 3. She must come tell me she is going out. 4. She must have shoes on. If it's snowy, then boots are required. 5. If it is cold or snowing, a coat is a must.

Perhaps I should have been more specific about the show rule, but, as the evidence shows, she does have shoes on.

This picture makes me laugh because it is the epitome of who Claire is. Note 2 different shoes on the wrong feet.

Note to paranoid Moms who may be reading this: Our fence is too high for anyone to climb. The gate is locked from the inside. Every yard around us has outside dogs, so nothing is coming or going over our fence without a lot of noise. I check on her frequently.

Does this look right to you?

This is Ellie sitting on the back of the bookshelf. I'm not sure how the bookshelf ended up like this.

Sisters

Sometimes they are so cute you could just pinch them! On this morning, I was getting dressed when I heard Claire talking on the baby monitor. I go into Ellie's room and Ellie is sitting in her bed (actually I think she had her legs stuck between the bars) and Claire is talking to her. Claire only recently started talking in full sentences where you can actually understand her. Well, I could mostly understand her, but no one else could. She was telling her baby sister, "Is ok Eyyee. Mommy's comin." (phonetically so you get her speech patterns). So sweet.

Of course, this is all before we go downstairs and Claire starts yelling "NO EYYEE. DAS MINE!" I hear that a lot. At those time I want to pinch someone, but not because it's cute.

It's not fair!

It's not fair that I understand EXACTLY what my almost 3-year-old is thinking. I can look in her eye and know exactly what she is thinking. Good thing she is still in awe of this "gift." Someday she won't like it. And she's quite the actress too.

Let me set the scene: I am working (as is the norm these days) in my office, which is right off the living room (aka playroom). Ellie starts to scream. Not a hurt scream, just a "I'm really pissed off right now" scream. I walk out and am able to capture the moment above. Ellie is trapped under Claire's chair and can't move forward because of the couch. She can't move sideways because she's too big. She can't move back because Claire is blocking her with her feet (and probably kicking her also, but I didn't witness that part). Claire is enjoying her TV show and paying, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Ellie is screaming right underneath her. Claire just looks at me (before I can say anything) and says "Ellie is stuck." Right....Ellie is in for a rough life. I'm going to have to help her toughen up somehow. Naw...Claire will do it for me.

Note: Ellie has this freaky ability to get a foot worked out of her sleepers. She wiggles it out between the snaps. It's weird. In the picture above, her foot is out.

Claire is potty-trained too now. Kind of. She will potty at preschool, but when she comes home she asks for a pull-up or diaper. When I leave her big girl panties on, she wets them. I think out of spite. Someday her therapist will explain it to me.

Claire's first obscenity

Should I be excited about the fact that my almost-3-year-old has mastered her first curse word? Probably not, but I still think it is funny. OK, I am not the most proficient cusser. I have my favorites, as do most people, but I typically keep it pretty clean. Or so I thought.

Claire wanted to watch TV in our bedroom a week or so ago. The DVR and TV have issues and frequently "locks up." The only resolution is to crawl under the dresser and flip the switch on the surge protector that they are both plugged into. On this morning, I turned on the TV and nothing happened. Knowing it was "locked up," I proceed to get on my hands and knees to flip the switch. During this process (and being 40 with 2 small children, it is a process), I hear Claire say "Dammit." I look at her in shock and she has her hand on her forehead, which makes it pretty funny. After flipping the switch and regaining my composure, I tell her that's not a nice word.

Well....the next day, Ellie dumped over a bin of toys. And Claire.....slaps her hand to her forehead and...you guessed it..."Dammit!" She IS using it appropriately, so I should be proud, right?
Yes, she is sitting INSIDE the toy bin Ellie dumped.

I'm sorry.....

I have been slacking off in my documentation duties as of late. Here is my excuse: I'm busy.

That's my excuse and I will try to be better about posting stories and pictures. Being a mom, wife, cook, housekeeper, friend, employee, business owner, student, volunteer, driver, personal assistant, teacher, and dog poop picker-upper takes a lot of time. Only a mom would truly understand! Long live Starbucks! =)