Friday, July 9, 2010

stereotyping

Tonight I decided to try a little something "new" with my cooking, and instead of making regular old pancakes as usual, I decided on making oatmeal pancakes. I thought they were delicious - a little heartier and flavorful than the regular ones - but when Ella took a bite, her response was a little different than mine.

Ella: "Mom - is this Chinese food??"

Me: "No, honey. They're pancakes. Why would you think it's Chinese food?"

Ella: "Because it's DISGUSTING!"

I'm not sure Ella's even TRIED Chinese food before...She's only ever seen us eating it, and she thinks it looks gross.

Who knew you could even stereotype food!

trapped

In the photo below, you will see a smiley, happy Chloe. But just moments before, she was screaming for dear life.The girls have been playing "house" a lot lately, where Ella is the Mommy, Britten the Daddy and Chloe the baby. They have a whole set-up in our unfinished basement with a bedroom for naptime, toys in a playroom and even a kitchen for their happy little family. Ella and Britten are good little parents, taking good care of their little baby. Clothing her, changing her diapers, and even strapping her in her booster seat and giving her a bottle of water.

The problem with having a 4 year old and 6 year old as parents, is that they can become easily distracted and forget altogether about their baby. They become so distracted, in fact, that they unintentionally leave their baby strapped in her booster seat, all alone, screaming her head off in the unfinished basement. This has honestly happened at least a dozen times in the last couple of weeks.

Chloe's screams are like white-noise around here, so she literally has to scream and scream for way too long before someone actually hears her or remembers they left her strapped in her seat, all alone in the basement.

Andy and I have had many talks with Chloe's "parents" about not leaving their baby unattended, and despite their promises of never doing it again, the fact is, they are 4 and 6. Their promises don't mean much. Chloe is either a glutton for punishment or has the child-like ability to forgive and forget, because she agrees to play "house" with Ella and Britten day after day.

But as you can see, she doesn't seem traumatized by it at all:

Let's hope her REAL parents do a better job taking care of her! :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

our little plumber

In working with our water meter, Chloe very clearly shows us her plumbing skills.

Friday, July 2, 2010

nothing quite like it

There's nothing quite like the perfect summer day. As a child, my definition of this would include: swimming, picnicing on the beach, playing at the park...and of course, ending the day with ice cream. I guess now that I think about it, this hasn't changed for me as an adult.

Me and the kids had a day like that today...Enjoying so much quality time together outdoors. I love these sort of days, knowing we're creating memories they'll take with them into adulthood. They're priceless.

The beach was a blast. We met up with some friends to swim, play and picnic on the beach. I don't have pictures to document, but I WISH I would've had my camera on me when Ella literally caught a FISH in her small toy bucket. Not a minnow...an actual FISH. She was utterly ecstatic and very carefully ran around the entire beach showing everyone her "catch of the day!" I honestly don't know how she did it, but that girl has determination like no other child, and when she sets her mind to something, she does it. Such is the case with her catching a fish in her toy bucket. Amazing.

We ended the day by stopping by a local park. We had intentions of playing at the park while Daddy ran errands, but when we got there we found something better! They had a community outreach going on that included live music, FREE woodworking kits for kids (compliments of the local Home Depot), food booths, ice cream, and lots of other things...

We had a blast! I love last minute surprises like that...especially when they're FREE!

Ella enjoyed putting together her birdhouse. It was so cute to see how proud she was of herself when she was done! We're going to paint it tomorrow and put it somewhere in our yard.
This was Chloe's favorite part of the evening...go figure. This girl never stops eating.
It was a fun-filled day, leaving us tired and sun burnt, but it was worth it!

There's nothing quite like the perfect summer day!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

6 months old

I know, I know, you've been sitting on pins and needles for MONTHS waiting to hear the new about this little guy... In short, our life has been NUTS the last six months. I won't go into it all right now, but I know there have been a few concerned blog readers wondering about our well being. So I will just say that we are doing GREAT. And so is the sweet little face you see above.

In fact, that sweet little face turned 6 months old today, if you can believe it!?!? It seems like only yesterday that Asher Andrew was born. Like I expected, I had a very quick (I didn't say painless, just quick!) labor and delivery. They clocked the labor at about 1 hour, and I only pushed through one set of contractions before he was born at 2:04pm on January 1st. 2010.
It left me with a very bruised tail bone, and him a bruised face, but otherwise all was great!

He was a little guy, like we expected him to be. At 6 lbs, 9oz, 20 inches long, Asher was our smallest baby! But he was ready to GROW, and more than doubled his weight by his 2 month appointment.

In a nutshell, I didn't blog right after having Asher because I very much struggled with postpartum depression, along with anxiety/panic attacks. I only struggled through this a short time after delivery, but words cannot describe how scary this was for me...feeling SO out of touch with myself and not being able to control my emotions. My heart goes out to women who struggle with this for months, sometimes years! It's truly debilitating and leaves you feeling completely helpless and overwhelmed. Anyhow...

I can't explain it, but even the idea of blogging stressed me out, so I decided that I wouldn't blog again until I really WANTED to. I realized that day came today...When it dawned on me that my baby boy turned 6 months old and I wanted to show him off to the world - well the blogging world!
This is me and my smiley, sweet boy just a few days ago. He is hands down the sweetest little guy in the universe. The name "Asher" actually means happy, which I found out while pregnant. Somehow, I knew in my heart that his name would suit him perfectly and it really does.

There will be more posts to come, so please don't give up on me. There is a lot of fun things going on these days, and I'm excited to start sharing them with you again!

Until then, Happy 6 months, Baby BOY! You were the best gift God could have ever given our family!