shh... don't disturb!

catching up on pics from this week:

yesterday we went to ella's first painting class - she loved making her hat!

today, ella did a forward roll on the balance beam!

i have one word for you: oy

one of the craziest weekends ever.  felt like my life turned into a comedy of errors.

friday (continued from previous post):

ella wanted to hang out with roger when he was mowing our "lawn" (which took him all of 3 minutes for the 30 blades of grass that needed to be cut).  but he was still consumed enough with it that he didn't notice ella laying on the ground.  :-(

we met up with our neighbors at hot rods for dinner again and then they came over to hang out a bit (we did preface it by saying they needed to leave before 3 a.m.!!).  

their daughter, dakota, was sooo sweet with ella and ella just adores her.  when i checked on them, they were playing 'house' in ella's room - immediately tugging at my heart strings whenever i realize how fast ella is growing up.

we called the girls downstairs for dessert and after a few bites, ella announced that she needed to use the potty (we had taken a hiatus from potty training) and she wanted dakota to help her.  i told her that we needed to help her take her diaper off and then dakota (if she didn't mind) could sit in the bathroom with her.  roger ran her to the bathroom and realized what the girls had been doing while playing 'house.'

oh i wish i could have been a fly on the wall for the discussion that lead to the removal of ella's diaper, finding her underwear and putting it on, and putting her pants back on.  

um, dakota, i hope you don't have plans for this weekend - you need to finish what you started... apparently a 7 year old girl is more effective than us at getting el interested in going to the potty.  :-)

so it began on saturday.

saturday:

ella spent most of the morning running around in the backyard in her underwear, because, well, let's face it: i can just hose her off out there...

ok, seriously didn't hose the kid off.  she was just playing!

yesterday night we had roger's friend and his girlfriend over for dinner and they are vegan.  i'm guessing boxed mac and cheese and brats aren't vegan??  roger made dinner and it was delicious and, despite having to frantically run el to the potty every 30 minutes, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable evening.

sunday:

today was supposed to be a chill day.  key words: 'supposed to be'. 

max and i headed out to run a few errands, leaving el and roger working on potty training at home.  i was almost home, at a stop light, when i glanced in the rear-view mirror and thought to myself 'oh, shit, that guy is going to hit me.'  i tried to roll forward to give him a little bit more room to stop, but my efforts were fruitless and he hit me anyway.  :-(

thank god it wasn't bad, and max seems to be okay.

sooo close to crawling!!!!

then the power went out.

ok, trying to salvage this day - we headed to the pool (thank you uncle mike, aunt danielle and isabelle - ella LOVES her new swimsuit!!).

came home from the pool and there was a pretty rainbow.  but still no power.

aaaannd we're completely in the dark.  trying to potty train.  and feed the kids dinner.  but el had fun with the flashlight.

we were supposed to host a playdate tomorrow, but ended up calling the other mom to tell her that given everything we have going on, we need to reschedule.  she was soooo sweet and invited us to drive up and stay at their house for the night since we didn't have A/C.  our power did come back on but it makes me feel more at home and happier finding some good friends here.

and after 48 hours of sitting on a little stool in the bathroom talking about all the people we know who use the potty and several loads of laundry, ella asked for her diaper tonight.  :-(  

two more words for you: beer me!

weekend ready

yesterday, ella had her first bloody nose.  i was soo scared she would freak out when she saw the blood.  instead, she said "oh no, mommy.  ella got pizza sauce on arm!"  ha ha.

we spent today enjoying roger's day off!

max being a trooper during ella's gymnastics class.  one day, buddy...we'll get you into some fun activities of your own!

off to the farmer's market for cherry tomatoes and pizza crusts.

max turned bathtime into playtime.

my little goober  :-D

count me in

this week we have gone to a few music classes and storytimes and dodged a few monsoons.  

we bought ella her first board game: hi-ho-cherry-o!  she's doing really well at counting out the fruit and putting them in her basket.

happy 6 months max!!  i can't believe 6 months have gone by since max joined our family.  we love you buddy - thank you for making us smile every day!

max's first 'remote' control car!  you shake the little rattle and the car drives around in a little circle.

max has started scooting around - and just like ella found his way to the tile floor

love my goofs

as you can 'planely' see

it's been a relaxing weekend.  on friday night we ate dinner at a new restaurant called 'hot rods.'  the dining room looks like a big garage and overlooks a real garage where mechanics are working on actual sports cars.  our neighbors joined us and then came over afterwards for game night.  ella played monopoly for the first time - she rolled the die and then counted the spaces for her battleship to move.  our neighbors ended up staying until 3 a.m. - oy!  

unfortunately, both kids woke up bright and early saturday morning.  ella, max and i watched the lorax and then ella helped daddy plant a real tree in the backyard.  :-D

after their nap, we headed to the pima air and space museum for national aviation day, celebrating the birthday of orville wright.  

...aaannd...i had the wrong day.  oops.  

here are ella and daddy with the plane in front of the museum that we did NOT go to:

we spent our evening eating grilled pizzas and skyping with gigi, poppie, and uncle steve and auntie BB who are coming in 2 weeks!!

this morning we were off to the pool.  max fell asleep on the walk over, so this is how he spent most of the time at the pool:

hey, ella, are the float ring AND the water wings a little bit excessive?

glad you could join us, max!!  love the view of the mountains from the pool.

tell me about it

it's been a pretty chill week here...well...aside from the fact that it's 108 degrees outside...

on monday we picked up ella's princess plate that she made at storytime last week.  since we were there she decided to paint a mug for daddy's coffee.

on tuesday we met up with ella's friend for a storytime and gelato!

i ordered a medium pineapple gelato for ella and me to share.  i ate all of two bites...

ella has been more and more vocal everyday - asking questions, making observations, and asserting what she wants or needs.  i did a google chat with a few of my friends from high school - one of them has a 3 year old girl who sat quietly next to her mommy and watched.  not my ella.  ella contributed more to the conversation than i did...  ;-)

today we went to ella's new gymnastics class and she loved it!!  her faves are usually the balance beam and the trampoline...

today she jumped off the low bar and swung from the high bar (after first telling the teacher that she pees in the potty).

and she did her first forward roll by herself!!!

max is getting better at sitting independently!