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.