Where have I been?

I have been so busy at work and home like has been hectic, I just realized I hadn't posted anything in weeks!!! I've been really busy at work, which is GREAT. I love being busy and productive. Home life has been a little busy. Tessa was sick for a couple of days (thanks to the BEST Omi ever she took her for two days and Tessa didn't want to leave).

I took the kids up to the cabin last weekend when K-Rock was in town. We took them to this Mountain fair that was a lot of fun and Kirsten got some amazing pictures of Tessa. I'll have to share them when I get the time. Opa carved a pumpkin with Tessa that they lit that night. Ellis loved the fresh mountain air and anything that made him dirty. Then I had to go to Washington DC for a few days for Training. It was fun because Kristy and Katie were there also.

Mike has been working long hours also, so right now we're kind of swapping late nights and really have not gotten to spend that much time together lately. We're excited about Halloween coming up and then heading up to VA Beach for Thanksgiving.

Turks & Germans

Mom and Dad spent two weeks in Germany and Turkey. It was my mom's 60th Birthday present. She's always wanted to see Turkey. Of course they had to get some gifts for their grandkids. So what do they bring back for Tessa?



A BELLY DANCING OUTFIT? Come on people, don't you read my blogs, FB posts, e-mails, etc. I have been battling Tessa ob dresses for the last month now and you buy her a bright, shiny, glittery, jingly belly dancing outfit? She didn't stop shaking the entire night. They all laughed and said it was cute, but I reminded them that they aren't there in the mornings when I'm trying to get her dressed and explaining to her that Belly Dancing outfits are NOT part of the school Uniform.


Then for my dear, sweet Ellis they got him some real, authentic German Lederhosen and a blue gingham shirt to match. Oh My Gosh, they are so cute and I cannot wait to put them on him. They might be a little big right now, and since they are real leather I need to be careful since cleaning them I'm sure is a bitch. But he's going to look so handsome in them. Mike thinks he'll look like a dork, but I'm excited. It's so German looking. My handsome little Moose.



Now, all I need to do is buy him some thick socks and maybe some Timberland boots.

Buddies

Ellis' new best friend is Dixie. Since we've had our deck redone, we spend a TON of time out back and Ellis loves following Dixie around and patting her belly and giving her hugs.

Our new deck is AWESOME. Our old deck was part covered porch and part open. It was in pretty bad shape, with boards almost rotted through and the rails were NOT up to code. It was a hazard to say the least AND it smelled. The new deck is HUGE. We ended up completely replacing it. We built a new one that was 2' wider and 3' longer, but all one big open deck and it is incredible. The amount of space we gained in awesome and the kids LOVE it. I can see them from the Kitchen, so when I'm cooking they can play out there. We had a gate put in at the top of the stairs to keep them corralled. With the fall weather coming the timing has been perfect.



Our first meal on the new deck (also happened to be my Birthday dinner). Mom and Dad had just gotten back from a two week trip to Germany and Turkey, so we got to see them also.

No No

HAHAHAHA - with as much as this word gets thrown around our house, I'm a little surprised it took him this long, but Ellis has learned the work 'No'. He'll shake his head and say No and he'll also wave his little finger around. He doesn't always have the context right, but it's funny to see him pointing his little finger and saying "No, No".

How did I fail?

So, Tessa is totally and compeltely obsessed with dresses, pink and purple. She constantly asks Mike if he "LOVES purple butterflies" and only wants to wear dresses. All hell breaks lose when I try to put her in pants. I feel like such a failure. I'm the parent, she should wear whatever I tell her to wear AND I surely did NOT foster the dress obsession. She wore camo shorts and jeans for most of ehr life. Sure, there was an occaisional dress or pink t-shirt....but maybe it's all the attention she got on the rare days she actually wore a dress that she liked (on a side note, does that mean that Tessa is starved for attention?).

I have literally dragged her to school in her underwear because she ripped of her shirt and pants while crying hysterically about how she wants to wear a dress. Sometimes I feel like I am totally out of control, but then they also say to pick and chose your battles. Is it really worth the fight? If she wears a dress, why is that so bad? Why can't she wear pants, like Mommy does every day? why is parenting so hard?

Backwards

We have been trucking along these past couple of weeks. The exciting news is that we are getting a new deck. Back in May we had a branch fall on the covered porch part and it did just enough damage, that we decided to tear down the whole thing a replace it with one big open deck. The exposed portion of the deck was in pretty bad shape and needed replacement anyways. I feel a little guilty paying the extra money for a new deck when there are other expenses we could use the money for, BUT I'm am so excited about getting a usable space that will be safe for the kids just in time for fall! There will be a gate and everything will up to code.

Tessa is enjoying her new class and apparently LOVES art. She keeps asking me if she can do Art tomorrow. Her concept of time is cute, everything was either yesterday or last week. She'll say stuff like "I was a baby yesterday" or "We went to the beach yesterday". She's very involved in all of her new Extra Ciricular activities. She's now taking Soccer, Karate and Yoga. They are all at her school, so I don't have to shuttle her around, but I also don't get to see her do them. I think soccer will be good to teach her team work, Karate will build confidence and I think she'll really like Karate, and Yoga is probably more for me. I'm hoping it will teach her some patience, ouija (pron. oooh-jy) breathing, namaste, calm.....we'll see how that one goes.

Ellis is really into animal sounds. Most animals fall into either the cat or dog category, but he also loves sounding like a lion. He will play with the animal book for hours (well, minutes.....but it seems like hours for a toddlers attention span). He loves wrestling with daddy and chasing Tessa. He plays hide and seek with me and will pop out and say 'boo'. He has the cutest little grin. He's also discovered walking backwards. He'll back away from you slowly until he bumps into something or falls down. He also appears to be very athletically coordinated. He loves to throw and kick balls and is pretty good at it.

We are just so ready for fall and some cooler weather and getting to spend more time outside. Mom and I attempted to take the kids to the playground last Saturday morning and we lasted about 45mins (at 10:00am) before the kids faces were bright red and had sweated through their clothes. Fall will be here soon............

Ellis - 15mo

I took Ellis to the Doctor for his 15 month check-up & shots. He did great. He is 25lbs 3 oz (45%) and 32.5" tall (85%). The doctor was very pleased with his progress and said not to worry about his speech yet, she said he was right on track. He probably says about 10 words right now, maybe a few more, but most of his communication currently comes in the form of grunts, screams, and laughs. He has the BEST smile in the world, it totally melts my heart. He's only developed this funny giggle/laugh. I need to capture it on video and post.

He's moved up to the Toddler class full-time and is doing great. He loves being able to run around everywhere and by far his favorite toys are the shopping carts. At home he'll push anything around (chairs, laundry baskets, boxes, vacuums, etc.) but he also has a particular fondess for carrying the broom around. He's a strange boy sometimes.

We've also changed his nickname from Buddha to Hooch (although I still call him Buddha a lot). He is the messiest eater and he drools all the time. The other day at dinner, he had blackberries smeared all over his face and was droling up a storm (due to teething). Well he startd shaking his head from side to side and the combo of that and the slobber swinging around, I immediately decided to pass the nickname, Hooch, along to him. My dad used to call me that growing up and it's only fitting that my son get the name also.....ESPECIALLY when he lives up to it more that I did.

DOLLY

I got the best (early) Birthday present ever from my dear, sweet sister......tickets to see my all-time favorite, Dolly Parton. She's amazing. Most people don't give her the credit she derserves. She plays the dumb country blonde to her advantage and laighs all the way to the bank. She's owns the rights too all of her songs (wouldn't sell the rights to "I will always Love you" to Elvis when he wanted to sing it) She broke away from her manager, Porter Waggoner, back in the day when women just didn't do that.

Anyway, it was a great show and I had such a great time. I will post more pictures when Kirsten get back (with her camera) from the cabin.

Thanks K-Rock.

WHAT????

Last night, while Tessa was watching Tinkerbell, I was cross-stitching. I know most of you just fell out of your chair laughing at the thought of me cross-stitching. It doesn't seem to be my style, but I LOVE it. It's very therapeutic for me. Anyways, if I do it when Tessa's around she normally tries to climb all over me, plays with the scissors, pulls the threads, and constantly asks "Can I do it, Mommy" NO, you can do it when you are 10, you're only 3, so that's seven more years! Two minutes later "Can I do it now?"

When you get older, sweety. Then she asked "I can do it when my beebos (aka boobs) get bigger?" What the HELL? Where did she learn that? I thought she may have stumbled on her words, or gotten something wrong, but she kept asking it. I've never said anything to her about her beebos getting bigger or anything. I finally asked her where she got that from and she said "Daddy" to which he replied "I never said no such thing". She always points out how Daddy, Tessa and Ellis have little beebos and Mommy has big beebos and somehow she's figured out that she will get bigger beebos as she gets older.

Oooooohhhh, the things kids say!

Quirks

Seeing a post from Samanthat on her daughter Penny who has a fear of sinks with soaps, reminded me of some of Tessa's quirks. In general Tessa is not afraid of anything. She has no fear of water, animals, even storms. When we have bad thunderstorms she just stares out the window and says "Look Mommy, it's blinking" (aka lightning).

For some reason, though, she has developed a fear of the bath drain. The tub in our bathroom has a stop that you push down to close and when bumped or touched the wrong way can open easily. So of course, with all of her toys, buckets, AND Ellis in the tub, it gets bumped and opens. She flips out. It's gotten a little better since we have been working with her on it, but for a while. She would start screaming and pushing Ellis out of the way, which in turn would freak him out since he didn't like getting knocked over in the tub. It's very strange, since she developed this fear recently. She's gotten better where she doesn't start screaming or shaking, but she always lets us know "Don't let the water out, Daddy". We have to wait until she's in bed before draining the tub.

The other quirky thing is that she doesn't like flushing the potty when not at home. This fear I think I can explain. She was at the new playground by my parents house with my Mom, and had to go potty. They are newew, nicer, public potties with automatic flushers. I guess since she was so small, the sensor didn't work quite right and it flushed while she peeing. Then at the same time a lady started to dry her hands with one of those X-lerator hand dryers and I think it was too much at once. Since then she never wants to flush in public. On our way back from Jekyll Island she had a total melt-down when I flushed and for 20 minutes was screaming in the car about how I flushed the potty. Sometimes I can coax her to do it, but it's still a little wierd.

LOVE

Tessa LOVES everything now. It's her new word. This morning I was wearing these cute little red shoes and Tessa said "Mommy, I LOVE your shoes. Wow, they're cute." or the other day when I was changing she said "Mommy, I LOVE your belly button." And on Tuesday she asked Mike "Daddy, do you LOVE purple butterflies?"

It really is pretty funny how she says it all the time. Her other phrase is "Ooooh Maaaaan" Last night I said, alright Tessa, it's bedtime and she said "Ooooohhh Maaannnn". She just cintinues to crack me up. I can't wait until Ellis starts talking, and just listen to the two of them.

Classic Tessa

My parents came back from the mountains today (my mom was up there all week, soooooo jealous) and we had them over for dinner. We just grilled some burgers, had some fresh corn from the mountains, cucumber salad and fresh peaches from the mountains. While eating dessert, Tessa tried to eat her ice cream with her hands. So in an attempt to help educate Tessa, Opa said "Tessa, you can't use your fingers! Dogs don't even eat with their fingers." then off to the side he said "Because dogs don't have fingers." You could just see the wheels in Tessa's head turning and she said "No, Opa, dogs don't eat ice cream"!

Yeah, Opa, you silly goose.

The kids

Tessa has learned a couple of new expressions. One of them is 'again' and the other is 'because'. Pretty much everything I say is anwered with 'again?". This morning she asked What is today, mommy? and I replied 'Tuesday' and she said 'again?'. In addition to that, everythings is because of something. I'm thirsty because Tinkerbell is laughing" or Ellis is poopy (AGAIN) because he's not listening. And sometimes it just stops at because and then I ask 'because why' and she just says because I said so.

Tessa is taking soccer this summer and so far really likes it. She said she really liked her coach, Diego. I asked if he was cute, she said yes. I may enroll. Mike asked her if he was Mexican, I explained that was not appropiate. Tessa wasn't waying attention as she was taling (again) about doing toe-taps. We've also started Tessa with some swimming lesson. She's had two and already she thinks she's Micheal Phelps. She always wants to swim without her swimmies, she wasnts to go down the water slide (despite her major slide accident) and wants to go off the 'jumping' board. Her swim instructor keeps commenting on how great she is and unafraid of the water.

Ellis is still a little unsure of the whole pool thing. He likes the baby pool since she can stand. We have a little pool at home we bust out sometimes that has a little slide in it. He likes to splash around in there until TEssa comes barreling down the slide and knocks him down. Then he's done and wants out. In the big pool he just clammers on to whoever is holding him. The more we go, the more comfortable he gets. I try to hold him away from me and let him float some. He talks up a storm, but I have yet to decipher what he's saying. I swear he said Princess the other day when pointing to Ms Princess' classroom. He's really ready to move up to the new room.

At the end of the summer there are two kids moving up from the toddler class and then Ellis will move in there. He LOVES it in the room. If I let him walk back to his class, he always veers to the left instead of the right for his room. Ms Laura siad they are working with him on sitting down and staying seated since they do Circle Time in the toddler room. Ellis like to walk too much, so this can be a challenge. He loves to copy Tessa. Whatever she does, he tries to do. If she hides in the closet, he goes and tries to hide in there. If she runs down the hall, he does the same thing. It's SOOOOO much fun watching the two of them together.

Fun weekend and lots of GREAT news

I had a GREAT Saturday night up in Greenville celebrating Sam's 40th Birthday with a big group of Ladies. There were 15 of us women and Wade cooked a fabulous 5 or 6 course dinner. I think i'm still feeling some of the effects of the alcohol. It was great hanging out with a bunch of great women and NO KIDS! I really that night away.

Mike had the kids (by himself) Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and did great. When I pulled up to the house, Ellis was in the swing and Tessa in the pool in the front yard. She cam running up and was so excited to see me. We tried to go to the pool after thier naps, but the thunderstorms closed the pool down early so we just had dinner and hung out.

Great News #1 - Kirsten is leaving Iraq today! She should be on route by now and we just can't wait for her safe arrival home. We won't get to see her until mid-July as she has some affairs to tend to in Del Rio, Texas. BUT the important thing is that she makes it back to the Good Ol' U-S-of-A.

Great News #2 - Mike is back in Atlanta working for 2000 Concrete again and is actually working on a job in Atlanta (Kennesaw to be MORE exact which is about 10-15mins from the house). After 17 months of being out of town, he will come home every night. I am SOOOOO excited. Of course I'll have to get used to the snoring again, but I'll have tons of help with the children duties and cleaning the house and taking out the trash, etc. It still doesn't seem real. Of course, we have a TON of projects that need to be addressed, so I'm sure we'll stay busy over the next couple of months.

So far - life is good!

Sweeties

I think I have blogged about this before, but I think it's worth mentioning twice. Tessa and Ellis are very different. I'm actually quite surprised by how different they are. I never believed in the inherit gender differences, but they seem to be living up to some of them. I mean no matter how hard I tried Tessa's favorite color is purple! Although, she did ask for Spiderman this afternoon and has been doing Spiderman moves, so I feel partially vindicated. Even physically, Tessa and Ellis have very little in common. TEssa has pale blue/gray eyes and is on the smaller side. Ellis has dark brown eyes and is large for this age. But one thing they both do that just warms my heart, is that they both play with their hair when they are tired. As soon as I see one of them pulling their hair I know it's either nap or bed time. How is it that they can be so different, but then have that one thing in common?

I don't know why, but I love just rocking with either one of them when they are tired and watching them play with their hair.

Fun Weekend

We had such a fun, relaxing weekend at home. I mowed the lawn on Saturday and we set up the "water park" for the kids. It was so much fun just hanging out in the front yard most of the day. We grilled hamburgers and just enjoyed being at home together as a family. On Sunday, Tessa went over to Omi's house. She took Tessa to the pool. We just ran some errands with Ellis and got some stuff done. Then Omi and Opa brought Tessa back and we grilled pork tenderloins with Black Beans & Rice and just relaxed. We relocated our porch swing to the other side so that we can set up a table to eat on the front porch. It was just a perfect lazy summer weekend.

(Yes, that's Ellis holding a Budweiser can - just like his Daddy)

Jekyll

I was very lucky to be able to represent my company, Turner, at the GAPPA conference in Jekyll Island. My dad attends the conference every year also, so my parents went as well. The whole family got to go and that place is amazing. It's so beautiful and there is so much History there. We got some great history lessons while we there also, since my mom has worked on several of the Historic sites there. After breakfast we would go for a little walk, and then the remainder of the day was spent at the pool.

This place is just so amazingly beautiful.

Tessa's Birthday

Tessa's Birthday was a really crazy day for us. It was the same day that the Puppies that Kirsten helped rescue from Iraq arrived in Atlanta. 11Alive (local news station) was filming at my parents house and then came to the airport with us. It was just a crazy, hectic day and on top of that, it was my sweet baby girl's 3rd Birthday.

We put her down for a nap at my parents house before we went to get the dogs. We kept hearing her jumping around upstairs, but didn't think much of it. I finally decided to go check on her and when I walked in the 1st thing I smelled was baby powder. Then I started to search for the source and noticed the jar of baby powder scented vaseline next to Ellis' diapers. Then I noticed the entire bottom half of the room covered in vaseline. It was on the walls, the door knob, the windows, the mirrors, Tessa's hair (hence the sweaty look in all of her pictures). It was literally everywhere. I was so mad, and scolded her and made her apologize to Omi and Opa, I almost spanked her, but then it was her Birthday and I've never found spanking to be very effective in her case....now Ellis may be a different story.

Anyway, by the time we got back from the airport, we were pretty drained. So we had a quiet dinner, some cake and presents. She was so excited about her cake and her presents. The next day she got cupcakes and balloons at school. Ever since she makes us sing Happy Birthday anytime she eats a cupcake. I can't believe she's already 3!

Behind

I am so behind on posting and updates. I still have to do Tessa's B-Day pictures and Jekyll Island. Hopefully I'll get those out this weekend.

Ellis is growing up so fast. He walks and climbs everywhere. He loves to climb into laundry baskets, and if he's really lucky Tessa will push him around. Last night he climbed into the little baby bathtub we have sitting around (even though we don't use it anymore) and Tessa was pulling him up and down the hall. Nothing like watching my 31 pound 3-yr old pulling my 24 pound 1-yr old around. Then when he got out she climbed in and said "my turn". Ellis "talks" all the time, but I don't understand any of it. He says Dadadadada mostly, he sometimes says Mama, but not to me. He can say ball and dog, and will sign "milk" and "more". He does really like the book "Llama Llama Red Pajama" and will try to say Mama Llama.

He is a big snuggler. He loves hugs from anyone and snuggles right on in when you hold him. On the contrary, he has an awful temper. He gets so angry if something doesn't go his way, and he'll clench his teeth and scream.....and then he's over it, definitely a little on the moody side. As much as I hate to say this - he's a bit of a momma's boy. But he's sweet and he's my little man and I am going to get all of the hugs, snuggles and kisses I can get now while he's still young. I know there will be a time when it's SOOO un-cool to love you mom......sniff sniff....don't cry.

Kirsten's Achievement

Operation Baghdad Pups was a HUGE success. As most of you know Kirsten has rescued a mom dog and her puppies from her base in Iraq. She helped raise the required $5,000 which included a pick-up from the base by a bunch of Private Security Forces. Unfortunately, five of the seven puppies died while they were in a shelter in Iraq awaiting transport to the US. On Sunday, Fatoon (mom dog), Moussad (male puppy) and Ellis (female puppy) arrived in Washington DC. Moussad headed out to California and Fatoon and Ellis headed to Atlanta.

11Alive has decided to pick up the story and came to my parents house at noon yesterday and interviewed Mom and Dad, talked to Kirsten via Skype, and then went across the street to Interview Vicki and see where Fatoon would be living. Then we all headed over to Peachtree Dekalb Airport to meet the pooches arrival on Pet Airways. Yes, there an airline dedicated to transporting peoples pets. It's a lot safer (and more expensive) then regular airlines. Kirsten was able to pull her military card and got a GREAT discount from them.

It was very emotional watching them arrive. Just the fact that it was a link to Kirsten, that she had touched and played with them and now they were here. The Blue Ridge Rescue Group is fostering Ellis and Vicki and Casey are adopting the mom. It was so much fun and totally chaotic. There were so many people there and we were even abel to Skype with Kirsten on Vicki's iPhone, so she got to participate some. She cried too (go figure). I am so proud of Kirsten and her accomplishment.

Tessa's Week

Today is Tessa's 1st day in her new classroom. It's the pre-cursor class to Pre-K, and is even more structured than the last class. Although she doesn't really have books and stuff yet, I still thought it would cute to get her a bag-pack to mark the occasion. In the fall she will start wearing a uniform. I thought this little Zebra was so cute. They did have an Owl one and I am totally obsessed with Owls right now (hence Tessa's room, her PJ's, etc) but I didn't want her to grow up hating them, so I went for the Zebra. She LOVED it. She has been showing it to everyone.

This week is kind of a crazy week for Tessa (and the rest of us). Tomorrow will be her only non-event day. Wednesday is her 3rd Birthday! I can't beleive she's going to be three! I'm taking cup-cakes and balloons to school after nap-time. Then we are going over to Omi and Opa's. The dogs that my sister rescued from Iraq are scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon also, so we will get to meet the momma dog, Fatoon, and have cake and ice-cream with Omi, Opa and Vicki and Casey (and whoever else is coming). Thursday is Water-Park day at school for Tessa. They have a little water play area at her day-care and for the Summer they get to play out there on Thursday mornings. Then on Friday we all leave for Jekyll Island. I am attending the GAPPA conference there for Turner so it's a free vacation at a REALLY nice club. I am so excited and we SOOOO need this little vacation. The other fun thing is that my dad goes to the same conference, so my parents will be there also. While Dad and I are working at the conference, Mom, Mike and the kids get to hang out at the pool or go to the beach.

What a crazy week.

Good Job

This is what I always say when one of the kids does something good or right. I make sure I praise them and usually will clap also to emphasize that I appreciate the good behavior or action. Ellis was walking along the hearth on Sunday morning, clapping his hands and saying "Good Job". It was too cute. He's really working on his speech and he loves to imitate sounds, especially animal sounds. He mimics the dogs barking, or any noise Tessa's makes.

He's just growing into a handsome, cute little boy. He walks everywhere now. He loves opening cabinet doors, but hasn't been too bad about taking everything OUT of the cabinets. We have those magnetic locks on some of them, but not all. His favrotie activity though is to chase Tessa around the house or have Tessa chase him. He tries to imitate what she's doing. It's so sweet.

I love you so much Ellis.

The WINNER is.......

........TESSA! She won Tacky Day with this lovely ensemble.



This was Tessa's outfit on Monday and thankfully I had the right day, because as we walked out of the house I had a moments trepidation that it was NOT Tacky Day and Tessa was just going to look silly.