Ob.sessed

It couldn't have been a month ago when I was wishing that EJ would enjoy the television a little more. She's always loved the characters - Elmo, Cookie Monster, Mickey Mouse, Dora, Spongebob, and others - but she would never spend more than 46 seconds actually watching them on TV. I know, that's a good thing, right? Kids are becoming screen-obsessed - tv, video games, computers, ipods - and its leading to laziness and obesity. I. know. But all I was wanting was 20 minutes without having to worry about what my child was getting into. 20 minutes to make dinner or dry my hair, or clean the bathroom, or check my email, or blog, or mess around on facebook.

Have you ever heard the saying, "be careful what you wish for"? I'm telling you - be careful what you wish for! Within the last two weeks, Ellis has become DORA OBSESSED! I'm pretty sure she would sit and watch it the. entire. day. if I let her. She asks to watch it first thing when she wakes up in the morning, first thing after nap, when we're in the car, when we're at the store. You get the idea. And everytime I turn it off, she CRIES and CRIES.

Case in point: I know that 2 minutes is really too long for a video on a blog post, but I think she's cute, so I couldn't cut any out. I want her to see all of this one day! :)

I guess there could be worse things for her to be obsessed with. She's learning some new concepts and working on her spanish she's actually yelling "arriba" as I type. I'm sure it will wear off at some point and one day I'll be longing for the days that DORA was the thing she was obsessed with.

On a side note, EJ is only wearing diapers at night now, big girl panties all day! She went through a phase several months ago where she was really into the potty training thing, but I was SO not ready. She got over a it and we were peacefully in diapers full time. When she started showing interest again a week or so ago, I figured I better jump on it. So, she's had a few accidents here and there, but never away from home, besides once at Aunt Jill's house, but that's basically home. I do put a diaper on her at naptime still, although she stays dry during nap now. I'm not going to risk cutting a nap short due to wet pants. I NEED that time!!

Camera Slacker

You wouldn’t know it, since I’ve failed to take a camera with me, but Hope has been playing indoor soccer and basketball since January.  I finally remembered to take my camera to basketball today.  I’ll work on soccer next week.

This is Hope’s first time playing basketball.  We weren’t sure this was going to be her sport, based on what we’d seen when she’d just mess around with her cousins.  She really wanted to play, though, so we let her give it a shot.  She ended up playing great!  She’s a pretty good little shooter and defender and she’s definitely got a height advantage.  After her first game she was a little frustrated because she thought it was “confusing”, there were too many new rules.  By the fourth game now, she’s starting to get the game figured out and is doing really well!

Here are some pics of our little hoopster:

 

    

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

                                    

 

 

 

                                                                       

 

Oral Interpretation 2010

It's been a busy week: doctor's appointments, girl scout cookies, PTA dinner nights, and Valentines parties. But one of the highlights was Oral Interpretation. This is one of Hope's favorite events at school. The kids that choose to participate pick a poem to memorize and recite. They have an assembly for the school and then a performance for parents at night. Our little performer chose to participate in not only one, but three poems. One with her friend Bailey:

One by herself:

And one with her 2nd Grade class:

Hope is the "Regular Teacher" at the end!

She's already talking about what poem she'll do next year!

Wordless Wednesday

Testing, testing . . .

Well, I really don’t have anything exciting to blog about, but I really wanted to try out this Windows Live Writer. So, I figured, what the heck, I’ve got cute kids, I’ll just post some pictures of them. :)

Hope and Thunder

EJ and her Golf Ball

So that was easy. I still have lots to learn, but that was definitely better than trying to insert pictures on Blogger!

Creative Arts Fair

Hope’s school hosted their Creative Arts Fair last week. The kids got to do things like make instruments and paint with fish rubber, of course. They also did a little dance called “Hip Hop Rodeo":

Hope told me the night before that she "needed" cowboy boots and a bandana. Luckily Justin had some old cowboy boots that he had outgrown and I pulled a bandana from the dress-up bin. Obviously, they weren't as much of a "requirement" as Hope thought.

On a side note,
I tried to do this post in the Windows Live Writer that Lindsey blogged about. I think, in general it's going to be great I'll have to post again soon to really try it out but I couldn't get a video to upload on it without uploading it to YouTube first. So, I went back to the "old editor" on Blogger, because I still don't know how to upload video on the new one. My next post will feature Live Writer - stay tuned!

Sleep comes pretty easily at my house.  Hope started sleeping through the night at 12 days old.  Ellis took quite a bit longer than that, but always had good, 5 to 6 hour stretches from fairly early on.  Ellis will still fuss on and off in her sleep occasionally, but never anything that really interrupts MY sleep.  So, while I know many parents deal with sleepless nights, I'm NOT used to it.  So, last night was no fun for me!
Ellis was fussing on and off throughout the night.  Not the fussing she usually does, that lasts only a few seconds.  I was actually having to GET OUT OF BED to check on her and calm her down.  I would rub her back and, as soon as I thought she was asleep, I'd slip out of her room.  Right as I would lie back down in my bed, she would start up again.  Finally, at about 3:15, I nudged Brandon and asked him what I thought we should do.  I wanted to bring her into our bed - if she must have my hand on her back, she can have it there while lying next to me, so I can GET SOME SLEEP!  "We don't want to start that", was Brandon's reaction.  While I totally agreed, I still wanted to sleep.  Both of us were beyond tired at this point, so we finally decided to bring her in.  Here's how the next hour played out:

EJ: Is Hopie sleepin' in her bed?
Me: IGNORE
EJ: Daddy's sleepin' too.  Thunder sleepin' in Hopie's bed.  Hopie sleepin' in Hopie's bed too.
Me: IGNORE
EJ: Daddy sleepin', Mama.  I'm pettin' Daddy as she's rubbing his arm.  Mama's sleepin' in her bed too.  Is Hopie sleepin' in her bed?
Me: (No longer able to ignore) Yes, EJ, everybody is sleeping and you need to go to sleep too.
EJ: I'm pettin' Daddy.  Mama, I'm singin' you a song - "Happy Birthday to you . . ."

Yes, this went on for AN HOUR!  Different versions of the exact same thing.  Brandon's alarm was going to go off at 4:30, so right before that, when she started saying. "Do Dah! Do Dah!" Camptown Races, I guess? I told her that I was going to put her in her bad and she needed to go to sleep.  I told her she didn't need to cry anymore.  She responded with " Not yet, in a minute", but I took her anyway.  I layed her down, walked out of the room, and she went to sleep.  She slept soundly, until I had to wake her up at 7:20 to take Hope to school.

Hopefully last night was an anomaly and we didn't start any "bad habits" after only one night.  I must say, I feel for people that go through this all the time.  I think God only gives us what we can handle.  He knows I can't handle kids that don't sleep!