life's a beach

we had a fabulous day celebrating roger's birthday with him yesterday - with a few mishaps...  i cooked one of roger's fave breakfasts, ella made a 'birthday daddy' crown, and she bought an elmo balloon for him.  after lunch, max, ella, and i took naps while roger got to watch a movie of his choice in peace and quiet.  for dinner, we took him to lil' abner's - the steakhouse equivalent of the illini inn (aka hole. in. the wall.).  then it was back home for dessert - then it all went to hell...

i got home and realized my camera was missing.  roger went back to the restaurant but it wasn't there either.  :-(  

the red velvet cake that ella and i made.  i asked ella what she wanted me to draw on the cake and she said "sid [the science kid]" - her favorite tv show.  i couldn't draw him, so i drew his magnifying glass.  what a dork.  ;-)  then she finished decorating the cake by dumping a pound of sprinkles on it - which turned out to be a good thing...

because even max knew the cake was going to be inedible...

so ella picked the sprinkles off of two slices of cake and called it a night.  happy birthday roger - we love you!!!

since roger has the whole week off, he joined us at the learning garden today!!!  the theme was 'at the beach.'

tactile time - ella fishing in 'ocean water' to look for seashells

music time - ella's favorite!

daddy and ella making 'stained glass windows'

roger - you did a great job of gluing all of the sequins on!!

after a weekend of showings (not the most fun to drive around aimlessly with a 3 month old, a 2 year old and a dog - i went to starbucks a lot), we received a call this morning informing us that our rental house was under contract.  good news that we should have no more showings...so we thought...

while out getting my new camera, we found out that the tile we picked out for our new house is on back order until july.  ohmigod we're going to be homeless...  or not get the tile that we choose our cabinets/granite/carpet around...  hi freaking out.

when we got home, max was fussy so i started singing "yellow submarine" to him (i don't know, it just popped into my head).  ella walked into the kitchen and said "mommy, no sing."  

much-needed-yoga-class.  

dear roger, 

i spend all day, every day with these two kids.  i did not realize that 2 hours would not be entirely manageable...  

max was still in the swing where i left him.  so really, roger only had 1 child to watch.  ella, on the other hand, found a black crayon and after a few minutes in her playroom alone with it in hand, came out to tell roger "uh-oh, baby."

oh yes, crayon all over her baby's face, the stroller, her teeter-totter...

and the closet door...

just kidding, roger - you are fabulous with them.  ella definitely had more fun with you than with me.  i asked her if she knew what she had done wrong.  her reply: "yes, draw, paper."  

what happened to 3 and 5?

a short video to say happy birthday to roger!!!

note that when she counts to ten, she leaves out the numbers 3 and 5...  happy 35 to the best hubby.  we can't wait to celebrate with you today!!  :-)  

woga in the round

ella did pretty well last night for the first night in her big girl bed!!  we were only up a few times - the most notable was when we woke up to george crying over the monitor and found ella sitting in the middle of our bedroom floor sucking her thumb.  she spent between the hours of 1:30 and 3:00 a.m. changing the colors on her turtle nightlight, but all in all a great night!  good job ella!

today we were off to a family yoga class since ella has been asking for weeks to come to yoga with me.

ella getting ready for mommy and ella 'woga'

but first we took daddy out for gelato!

the yoga studio was super cute - it was a circular room and the teacher was fabulous with the kids!  ella was so excited; she kept saying "ella go to woga too!"

the only pose she agreed to participate in - butterfly.  but only because she could play with the rubber ball while in this pose.

ella ran off so i got myself a new yoga partner

namaste ella and max!

your crib or mine?

today we went mattress shopping and got ella set up in her brand new big girl bed!!!

the 'before' picture.  stay tuned to see what shape the room is in tomorrow morning...  ;-)

all tucked in with her bitty baby, elmo and abby.  

oh max, this has got to be sooo much better than the pack n play!

sweet dreams max!

3 (months), 2 (thumbs), 1 (pink rocket)...blast-off!

ella and max bonding over thumb-sucking.  

happy 3 months max!!  

today we went to the learning garden.  ella was painting her rocket ship - she mixed the blue and pink together so i said, "ella, look!  when you mix blue and pink, it makes purple!"  ella looked at me and pointed at the pink paint, and said, "no, mommy.  that pink..."  i stand corrected...

we've also started looking into pre-schools.  these two are growing up too fast!!

she wore an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini!

yesterday morning we headed out to breaker's waterpark just north of our rental house.  it was closed for raytheon employees and we had a fabulous day!  we asked ella if she wanted to go to the pool and she shook her arms in the air and said "'cited!!"

she had a blast at the kiddie pool, especially going down all the slides

after seeing daddy hold an unwilling me at arm's length under the splash bucket, ella wanted to try it out so: ha ha roger, gotcha back   :-D

ella wanted to go to the "big pool" next - she LOVED the waves!!

max - all dressed up and nowhere to go.  he was soo not a fan of being in the water.  

today we asked ella how she liked going to the pool.  her response: "towel, wet.  hair, wet."  yup, so pretty much the same as taking a bath to her...

poor max, he's been crabby all day.  we went up to phoenix to do some shopping.  you know you're in trouble when it takes 2 cashiers (on 2 separate registers) and a manager to ring you up at potterybarn kids.  :-(  but we got ella's bedroom set!!  she's going to get her big girl bed and max will finally be in a normal crib!  and maybe now, george won't cry about having to sleep in ella's room if she let's him sleep at the foot of her bed...

ella had a great time with uncle alan as always - and thanks again for lunch!  we'll miss you this summer and can't wait to see you in august!

ella decided to do some shopping on her own when we got home.

we also couldn't help laughing - ella threw her sippy cup on the floor so roger told her to go to time out.  she said "okay," went to the time out spot, looked back at us and said "here?"  and then sat down facing the wall.  ha ha.  love you, ella bean.

...we all scream for...gelato?

yesterday we met some friends for storytime and gelato - okay, not so much storytime because i was extremely late, but the gelato was delicious!

today we took max to the doctor for a quick check-up - he's doing great and weighing in at 13 pounds, 11 ounces!  

on the car ride home, ella said "need phone.  daddy phone."  when i asked her who she needed to call, she said "amy."  :-)

and she's super excited to be a flower girl for amy and justin!  she said "walk, aisle, hold hand...ibzelle (i'm assuming her attempt at saying 'isabelle')!

we also found out today that our house should be done on june 27th and our closing is set for june 29th (just 1 day before our lease is up on the rental house).  buckle up, kids - it's going to be a busy few weeks!!  

scorpion queen

so yesterday i woke up and as i was heading to shower, i noticed something on the ceiling of our bedroom...  OMG it was a scorpion!!  on the CEILING!  why did i have absolutely no idea that they could climb??  lesson of the day: how to kill a scorpion...  :-(

step 1: (always the first step to any negative situation) call roger.  in tears.  he jokes that i should call 911.  i think he's serious.  he thinks i'm a moron for thinking i could call 911.  yes, but this is a superbug - giant-sting-equipped, scary-ass bug.  i don't even think it qualifies as a bug.  it's a small cat..

step 2: curl up in the fetal position in the opposite corner of the bedroom for the next 20 minutes trying to muster up the nerve to kill the damn thing.  this is how much i love ella and max.  if i were alone, i would have left the house altogether until roger could come home and kill it.

step 3: drag a barstool from the kitchen into the bedroom, get a broom, put on shoes, pull hair into ponytail (i'm experiencing cold sweats at this point), and one of roger's shoes.  

step 4: climb onto the barstool.  whack the scorpion off the ceiling with the broom.  jump down and hit it with roger's shoe until it breaks into two [screaming the whole time].  

i'm soo not meant to live in the desert - scorpions, lizards, and rattlesnakes, oh my.  ugh...

continuing the theme of the month at the learning garden: things that go.  ella was so excited about her choo choo train.  i also tried zumba for the first time with one of the other moms from the learning garden - so much fun!