Long Overdue

One of the good things about my "blog a day" month was that nothing accumulated, and I was able to keep up with the events in our lives without many exciting things piling up. One of the bad things was that I didn't end up getting much else done in the evenings during that month because I really only have about an hour of free time in the evening. And now I'm back to where I was before, with hundreds of unsorted photos and many events that should make it into the record book, but I did crochet a blanket and a half instead so all is not lost!

That said, I'm just going to dive in and post some of my favorite pictures and events from the last however long it has been.

The sun arrived and we were able to start playing and eating (and drinking white wine in the sun) outside!

Father's Day! Ben decided we'd been to Fuddrucker's too recently to go again for Father's Day, as is the tradition, so we went to Outback instead so he could have the ball of deep fried onion he's been thinking about for weeks that I kept refusing to share with him. I know, I'm cruel. He made sure to wear his Father's Day shirt, so there's that at least.

We had a nice time, and added another photo to the Father's day series.

2008

2009

2010

2011

We went to the Zoo a few times and discovered this thing...

Took the train to the "big city" and went on a fountain tour...

Adele discovered sand...

Adopted a baby...

(This is a terrible picture, but she really fell in love with babies recently and I can't find a better one)

And started to insist on feeding herself... with some success and an enormous amount of mess.

She will also sign "more" if she REALLY wants something. Like milkshake. She has about 15 words now, but still mostly communicates with grunting and pointing.

Fiona found a lot of caterpillars and she and a friend collected some of them up in a bucket...

Yeah, that's a lot of caterpillars!

She was very excited about all her new "friends". This next video comes in two parts. There's a gap because she falls over and needs to be rescued, then finds another "friend" who wants to join her on the slide.

We did some other stuff too, but it's time for bed and this is long enough, so I'll leave you with this link to my sisterinlaw Cathy's blog. We did this today, and the girls had so much fun. Fiona loves hanging with her cousin Emily and the big girls, and it turns out Adele is part fish, so we all had a lovely time.

Summer Tasks, episode one: Adele's Curtains

I've been pretty busy at work during the last few months, but over the summer I only work 10 hours a week instead of 20, and the girls go to daycare for the usual 15 which, in theory, should leave me for some time to do tasks around the house. It's been "summer" for a couple of weeks now, and the only tasks I've accomplished are getting caught up on episodes of Bones so this week I really kicked it into gear and made a LIST. Yep, a list of all the things I'd like to get done over the next few months. Then Ben went and added some killjoy items like blah blah taxes. Whatever. I started with the most fun - curtains!

When Fiona was on the way I planned her room and got window thingies and made it all cute. However, when she was born we found that she would only sleep in near total darkness and for 3 years we've had sheets over her cute window thingies to block out the light.

"Behold... "

With Adele I made significantly less effort (her room still functions as the guest room) but did also include the classy "sheets over the windows" technique. I have been planning for some time to solve these two issues, so I put them both on the list.

A year or so ago I got heavy blue curtains from Ikea. Ikea curtains are good because they are really long and therefore can be hemmed to fit the vast majority of windows. 3 months ago I finally got curtain rods, and this week it all came together in a grand window treatment-stravaganza. Fiona's room is getting blackout roller blinds behind her cute curtains, so all I'm attempting today are the curtains for Adele's room.

First, I made soup. Hopefully you have figured out by now that I have issues with procrastination.

Second, I checked facebook. Nothing was going on that needed to be dealt with imminently.

Third, I looked for the drill. Couldn't find the drill. Called Ben to ask where the drill was. Phone rang twice, then he SENT ME TO VOICEMAIL. Rude.

Fourth, found the drill. Located drill bits. Found screwdriver. Sniggered at screwdriver case...

HA. Nineway. That's an evening to remember.

Tried to read the world's smallest directions. Felt like an old lady for having trouble reading something so tiny.

Fifth, blah blah measured, marked holes, la de da. Tried 5 increasing sizes of drill bit before getting to the one big enough to put a hole in the wall just the right size for the rawlplug (um... translation: that plastic thingy you use to hold the screw in so it stays in the drywall). Pounded those puppies in. Screwed in screws, brackets, etc. PERFECT.

Sixth, had to drill two more holes for second bracket. Yes, we're still on window one of two. In my innocence I assumed the drill bit I finally used for the first two holes would be the right one for the next two holes, given that the hardware was IDENTICAL but I was mistaken, and the next two were somehow way too big. GAAAAAAAAAAH.

Seventh, have a BIG FREAKING DRINK. Yes, it's 11am. I'm tired of this nonsense.

Eighth, admit that what I need are new, smaller holes. Feel ashamed. Ben will not like coming home to find 3 extra holes in the wall (yeah, there's a 3rd one in there. I forget why, but it seemed like it might help at the time).

The second window went much more smoothly, and I even managed to make the curtains the right length. Ikea curtains come with hemming tape because they are so long. In the last 3 months I managed to lose the hemming tape that was included, but luckily, being the rock star seamstress that I am, I had some already!

I got both curtains "hemmed" and up and felt like I could take on the world! Curtains... CHECK! Now to figure out how to patch up the wall... I guess I should add that to the list too.

Fiona's 3rd Birthday Party

This afternoon Grandma, Grandpa, Cathy, Erik, Ryan, Emily and Andrew came over to celebrate Fiona's 3rd Birthday! She'll be 3 on Tuesday so today was the family party day.

Side note: Happy Birthday to my brothers David and Robert whose birthday is today! I counted on my fingers and I guess they are 26, which seems like it could not possibly be true! Well, Happy Birthday anyway! ;-)

Now a random assortment of photos will follow.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Fiona a castle tent and she was so excited! Here she is crammed in there with all of her MN cousins...

Cathy and Erik and their kids gave Fiona a really cool glow in the dark drawing toy which she had a lot of fun playing with inside her tent.

Adele got a present too and was really excited about it!

I made a rainbow cake... Fiona likes rainbows a lot right now and was really happy about the cake! I was happy that I managed to get it all baked and assembled in time despite the 45 minutes of unplanned sheltering we did in the basement due to the nearby nearby tornado.

I didn't make enough frosting to cover the whole thing (turns out 6 layers is a LOT of cake), but on the plus side you could see the rainbow on the outside too :-)

It was so fun inside!

Nom nom nom nom nom. All that food coloring and sugar and birthday excitement made for a pretty fantastic party! Here we all are (except Ben, who is taking the photo).

Happy Birthday Party Fiona! I can't believe you are almost 3!

Adele learns new tricks

Adele is doing really well in Physical Therapy. She has two people who come out - one is the PT who comes every 2 weeks, and the other is a case manager who comes once a month to see how she's doing in all other areas, and give advice and ideas etc. Both ladies are wonderful, and have been a great help to her.

We have periodic goals for things we want her to do by the next visit, and the last one was for her to be crawling at least 5 feet on her hands and knees. The visit was this morning and she pulled it out at the last minute! Yesterday she started crawling on hands and knees! She still defaults to belly crawl, so we have to work on it more, but she's doing it! Check her out!

She started out doing this goofy hoppy crawl...

But she quickly got the idea that she should move her knees with her hands...

Today the other teacher who comes gave me some handouts about oral-facial exercises and games to strengthen her face muscles to help her with talking (I know, who knew you could do exercises for that?!) but then at dinner time Adele made it pretty clear that her oral-facial muscles were working quite well already...

I'm hoping this is not going to be her new favorite game!

Fiona and the worms

Recently Fiona has been really interested in all things creepy and crawly. She gets super excited to find spiders in the house, and when we spot ants on the sidewalk she crouches down to watch them and says "ooohhhhh, cuuuuuute". I'm happy she likes bugs in general, and luckily she also has some sense and DOES NOT like centipedes. She doesn't freak out when she sees them (unless she's screaming on the inside and trying not to panic like I am) but she says they are yucky and gross. And they are.

Anyway, yesterday I was doing some dandelion eradicating (more on that later) and found some worms for her to see. She was very happy and excited about this and wanted to hold them. Here are some videos that I hope you enjoy as much as I do :-)

(Yes, I know they are sideways. Yes, it's possible I will NEVER remember that the camera needs to be horizontal.)

In the second video she's singing "sleeeeep in my hand, sleeeep in my hand". And later the worm did indeed sleep in her hand. If you're using "sleep" as a euphemism for "squished to death by an overenthusiastic toddler". Note to self: only let her hold big fat worms, they seem to be more resilient to her love. Poor little worm.

Our week (the parts I photographed anyway)

This week we did some things. Here are some of the things we did that I took photos of (thus enabling me to remember we did them).

Adele's first ponies!

Could this girl be cuter? Um... nope!

Fiona was wearing jeans for most of the day then after a visit to the bathroom decided to change into tights and spin around.

I was having a hard time making the shutter go fast enough to get a non-blurry picture and not having it be super dark, but I'm practicing.

We went to the library (surviving a torrential rain storm on the way) and had fun playing with their toys...

Fiona enjoyed her post-library cup of tea...

Adele loves this toy so much!

I am so impressed that she can follow instructions now, and that dancing is really funny!

Well, those are the photographic highlights! Now it's the weekend. have a good one!

Mother's Day!

Today we had a nice Mother's day together. I got to sleep in this morning until after 9am, and it was wonderful! We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then I got to open some presents!

Ben gave me this gorgeous bunch of irises - my favorite flower.

And a CD of The Lonely Island - a band that is often on Saturday Night Live. According to NPR they are "the hottest thing in fake hip hop". They sing really entertaining songs that are not the least bit family friendly and I definitely can't listen to it with Fiona in the car. They are so funny, and one of the guys who sings with them - Andy Samberg - is also an SNL cast member. I kind of have a giant crush on Andy Samberg, and luckily Ben felt that it was unlikely enough that I'd actually meet and manage to seduce him to to give me this...

Oh yes. Your eyes do not deceive you. That's a framed picture. Best. Gift. Ever.

As a side note, I asked Fiona on Friday if Daddy had got me a present and she told me that he had, and it was chocolate cake. Turns out he was scrambling this morning to find something, so she totally covered for him.

We went for lunch together at El Loro Mexican Restaurant. I had a Mother's Day Margarita. It may or may not have been before noon. I really can't say. It was delicious.

That afternoon we went over to Ben's parents house to hang out with his family. The ice is finally melted on the lake, Bill built beautiful new railings on the deck, they had the yard landscaped and it is looking gorgeous. I'm looking forward to when it's a little warmer and we can hang out out there.

We had dinner together and hung out until Fiona and Adele were tired. Fiona fell asleep in the car and we were able to pop her straight into bed. I hereby retract my previous statement about the Andy Samberg photo. Being able to avoid the 30-45 minute bedtime routine and get Fiona straight into bed is the best gift ever! Sorry Andy...

It was a lovely day, but the best part of all is really not the flowers or the CD or getting Fiona to bed with minimal fuss - it's the reason that each of those things were a part of my day. It's this girl, who amazes me every day with how smart and funny she is:

And it's this girl who is growing into a sweet little thing who is easygoing and cuddly and has a goofy sense of humor:

My sweet girls :-)

Happy Mother's Day to Me!