Trifecta

New pacifier

New carseat

New [boy] clothes

Tired eyes.  Home sick.  Except for picking up Ellen from school and stopping for gas (where this was taken).  This was after taking a 3.5 hour nap.

You're ugly and your mama dresses you funny*

*Did anyone else used to say this?  Can't remember what else goes with it, if anything.

Even though the girls were born in two different seasons I thought we could get away with buying Lilly only the occasional item or two (and I'm talking very occasional).  But when I looked through Ellen's old clothes Saturday afternoon it became clear we have no fall/winter clothes for our littlest pumpkin (we must have still been heavily borrowing clothes from Ashling when Ellen was this size because we have very little of anything in the 9-12 or 12-18 month range).  Besides socks.  We have lots of socks.  The pant outfits she has been wearing the past few weeks have served us well but the shirts are short sleeved.  When it appeared she may end up wearing the Halloween costume and Christmas pajamas Mom bought her last month for the the rest of the season, I broke down and went shopping.

It seems I always think of the girls as being in between sizes (for the most part it is true) so I bought Lilly 12-18 month clothes (Old Navy tends to run smaller anyway).  And I may have ventured into the boy's clearance section and picked up a few items in the ivory/light yellow/light gray color palate.  No one will know, right?  I was selective.  I didn't get everything we need but it was a very good start.  The good news is once Lilly hits 2T, we are golden (and we have quite a wide variety of 18-24 month clothes as well).

Now I need to get Ellen's closet stocked and ready for the cooler weather that seems to have snuck up on me this year (usually I am more prepared than this).  She is in the same boat as Lilly but thankfully has leggings and a fleece pullover that are helping us make the transition.

Until we get it all sorted out, please don't laugh when you see my children.

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Lilly is crawling all over the place.  This bean bag is the only way to contain her :)  She is also pulling up on things, fighting sleep, has Jack Nicholson hair (reminds me of Squiggy) and her top two teeth are coming in at a painfully slow rate.  She's a mess!

Disclaimer:  All of the pictures of Lilly smiling seem to be blurry or more blurry than the ones of her not smiling.  It's a baby conspiracy if you ask me.

Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy

An email offering discount tickets, a peek at the calendar (to see if I was working) and one phone call later... we were officially going to Disney on Ice.  I told Ellen we were going to do something special (just the two of us) but kept it a surprise until that morning.  Phillip showed her clips on you tube before we left so she would know what to expect.

My review:  It was neat but I don't know that we would do this again.  We only paid $13 (each) for our tickets so we got our money's worth, it just didn't have that wow factor I was expecting.  And it was a little long - 2 hours.  Maybe I needed a more animated date to help me get in the spirit - Ellen was mostly quiet and reserved throughout the show.

Walking to Bridgestone Arena

 Someone kindly offered to take our picture

 Ready and waiting

 The show is about to begin...

 And we're off!

 My failed attempt to capture the magic

 Bubbles!

After the show we went to Chick-fil-A to eat and play.

Ellen:  Mommy, can I take my socks off?

Me:  No

Ellen:  Please?

Me:  No

Through the glass she holds up her socks and smiles at me.  I came in to get a closer look.

This is the face of defiance.

Defiance aside, it was a good day.

A 'Brave' Birthday

Ellen had a great time at Oliva's birthday party.  I came straight from work but missed the first half of the festivities.  The girls brought bears to play with and wore what they called "Brave hair".  The castle was a big hit.  It was dark by the time Olivia opened presents but she got a lot of good stuff.  Fun, fun.

Advice from Twitter, behaving badly and other tidbits

I remember when Andrea and Ashling came to visit once when Ashling was in the crawling stage (probably a little older than Lils) and it was so funny to me (and cute!) how she would work her way all over the bed, climbing over Andrea as well, and she had a smile on her face the whole time.  She was having fun.  That is Lilly these days (she's not quite on Ashling's level but it won't be long).  She's happy.  She's on the move.  She's determined.  She gets where she wants to go.  Pillow barriers on the bed are no longer safe nor effective.  She tried to crawl out of her classroom this week.  Watch out world!

Start today with the idea that everyone is dumb.  Things will be much easier to understand. - Comedian Nick Griffin via Twitter

September was not the best month.  I had high hopes for October, my favorite month (and always a very busy month), but it let me down on the very first day.  And Ellen has been sick (stubborn fever) and missed 2.5 days of school, so Phillip and I both missed work this week.  And I have not been on my best behavior (you don't want to know).  Maybe November will be the new October (for this year at least).

Speaking of October being a busy month, we have a fall festival next weekend, Chili cook-off at work, 3 birthday parties, a baby shower, Ellen's fall party, Grey Ghost 5k, Trunk-or-Treat (school and church), dentist (me and Phillip) and doctor appointments (eye doctor for me and Ellen and Lilly's 9 month check up), fall break, picture day for Ellen, field trip to Lucky Ladd Farm and a family outing to the pumpkin patch.  Hopefully we can fit it all in.  With me working every other Saturday, Phillip will be flying solo for some of these events.  Stay strong!  Don't let the family down!

Ellen got an electric train caught in her hair Tuesday.  The train was so tangled that Phillip had to cut it out.  It was in the front, of course, but thankfully it blends in with the rest of her hair.

Ellen is going to a Brave themed birthday party tomorrow night for one of her friends and classmates, Olivia, who is turning 6 over the weekend.  She is very excited.  Ellen is going to ride home from school with Olivia which is equally as exciting (would be even better if the bus was involved).  Ellen was also invited to a Fancy Nancy birthday party coming up next Saturday.  Being a little girl is so much fun!

Ellen actually wants to be Merida from Brave for Halloween.  We found a good costume at Walmart but the only medium they had was slightly damaged, and since those costumes are cheaply made anyway, I didn't want to buy one that was already tearing up.  I have looked a few other places but the $16.97 Walmart price cannot be beat.  Target sells the bow and arrow set but it is out of stock.  Hopefully I can find what we need in the next couple of weeks.  I usually shop early, and thought I was, but apparently I underestimated the popularity of Merida.

One perk of being home with a sick child: having time to cook a pot roast.  And it was so good! 

We have been playing a fun game we affectionately call Hide the Skull.  Ellen and I bought a $2 skull from the Halloween section at Target to put under Phillip's pillow in hopes of giving him a little scare.  We came up with lots of good hiding spots and decided to put it somewhere different every day.  We ended up hiding it several times between our two bedrooms the night we bought it... cheap family fun that never gets old!

Out with the old and in with the new... pacifier, that is.  We searched and searched for suitable replacement pacifiers for the original two we received from the hospital but came up empty handed (the Nuk pacifiers sold in stores are the not the same as the ones from Baptist, which should be illegal).  We forgot to send one of the beloved white pacifiers with Lilly to school one day and she did end up taking an Avent pacifier they had on hand (it was new and had been sanitized).  A few weeks later we decided to buy the same kind of Avent pacifier she had used at daycare so not only could we replace the Nuks that were suffering major wear and tear, but also to have the option of having more than two pacifiers at our disposal.  She refused it.  Ahhhh!  Fast forward about 2 months, we were running out of options so we decided to give Avent another try.  She took it.  Success!  We have since bought two more.  The joys of parenthood.

Ellen and I are going to Disney on Ice tomorrow (add that to our list of October activities!)  It is a surprise.  I am really looking forward to it!

Ellen giggles, Lilly smiles and peanut butter toast are sure to cure what ails you.  After the week I've had, believe me, I know.

You wake her, you take her

It's actually a good thing she feel asleep during church (and slept through Bible class as well).  Sundays are hard.

Brace yourself...

I want another baby.  But that isn't important right now.  YOLOS is gone (signage and everything).  And I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.  Now where will I go when I am in crisis?  To the new and exciting restaurant coming soon?  No thanks.