The WingTip Incident

Ok, this isn't for the squeamish...

Today Eden had been in the bathroom awhile, and when she finally came out she went into Dan's closet and got something (I could hear her from the living room). She appeared in front of me wearing nothing but a shirt, socks, and Dan's wingtips. I laughed at her and she started dancing around and being silly:
Me: Wait a minute--what was that on your leg? Turn around...
[Eden turns around, there is a brown streak down her leg and on her sock]
Me: What in the world? Is that poop????? Did you poop????
Eden: ooops, my mistake! Forgot to wipe!

Needless to say, a "hunt" ensued, with all of us retracing Eden's steps trying to find the "trail." Lovely.

I made her a new sign in the bathroom, with little pictures of everything she is suppose to do before leaving the bathroom (wipe, flush, wash!) so we can avoid another wingtip incident.

Going to the Farm!

My girls and Nia are going to stay at the farm for the weekend. They always have a great time there. When my mom called and asked yesterday, I told Dan and he said, "Oh, but I have that thing Saturday morning, so we won't be able to plan anything for the two of us." and I said, "YAY! I can..." "Sleep in?" he interrupted. "No! Clean!!!!" How sad is that.

I will try to get Papa to send me some of the pictures so I can post some of there farm moments.

This Week at the Grimes House

There is nothing particularly special about this photo except that I wanted those of you who don't see Eden regularly to see her legs. They are so long and thin. As the weather got warm this week, we broke out the shorts and I was amazed to see how much Eden's legs looked like her cousin Samantha's and her Grandma Dian's. I am glad she inherited those genes! Not that I haven't seen her legs all winter in bathtime and getting dressed, but it just struck me as I saw her bounding around in her shorts. She is her father's daughter.

The newest Grimes Girl pastime is drawing or coloring with all the supplies spread out on the floor. Elly is getting better and not eating as many crayons.

Here are the girls on a walk with their babies on one of the nice warm days last week (80's).

This face basically sums up Elly when she is told she has to come inside.

On Becoming One's Mother

I have realized that I am becoming my mother. It shouldn't surprise me, as my mother turned into her mother, and grandma turned into great-grandma and so on. It happens so gradually, you don't even know until it's too late.

What gave it away for me was this phrase, "Who's that coughing?" This is something my mother would say. I never realized why it mattered to her. But, alas, now I know. Who is coughing matters--if a child is sick, it means sick days, lost pay, trips to the doctor and pharmacist where you spend more money. Even more than money, it means up-all-night, wet wash cloths on the head, fever spikes, runny noses, stuffy noses, trouble breathing, ear infections, tonsilitis, wondering if you should go to the ER in the middle of the night, wondering why this happens when your husband is away on business, worries that the ailment will be passed to the other children. Most of all it means watching your child be sick. To this day, my mother cannot stand it.

The other night, I sat in the living room, reading, and I heard a little cough come from one of the sleepers down the hall. "Who's that coughing?" I said. I get it now. Thanks, Mom.

No One Trashes a Room Quite Like Elly

I read somewhere that a one year old is like a little tornado. My house is proof of that. Here is Elly in all her demolishing glory.

Bye-O Baby

Elly thinks Marcus' swing is her bye-o-bye spot. She likes to curl up in it and sing "Bye-O, Bye-O Bye!"

Tater Cake

Who's the sweetest baby in the world?

Writely So

Eden has become quite obsessed with writing her name lately. This is her name on her Barbie MagnaDoodle. She refuses to write in lower case letters though, despite me telling her that she will have to use them in school. She keeps telling me she has a "different way to write." She can write EDEN, ELLY, MOM, DAD, DAN, PAPA, CAT, DOG, and her favorite USA.

Here are a few relatively new pictures of the gals.

Eden dressing up like a bride (yes, it starts that early); Elly with her wild fro; Elly's mischievous grin; and Eden "smiling like Momma."

Wheels on the Bus

Elly's new favorite book has pictures and lyrics of the song "Wheels on the Bus." She likes to sing along, though her version sounds more like this:

"Weees on bus go wownd wownd, aaah fphrouuu town!" She also loves the baby on the bus verse ("bye bye bye, aaah fphrouuuu town!") Her other favorites include Pat-a-Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and ABC's.

For the past couple of days, Eden has been working on apologizing to Elly when she hurts her, and asking, "Elly, are you ok?" Yesterday, we were at the dreaded Walmart (that's another story) and both the girls were riding in the basket part of the cart while I tried to do my shopping at 8pm (Dan was gone). So needless to say, we were all tired, and the girls were becoming delirious. I had told them not to stand up but neither of them were listening. Suddenly, Eden sits back hard and hits her elbow on the cart and starts to cry. Elly sits down and gets right in her face and says "EEE-en, you ok?"

The blogging has been a little light lately, not due to a shortage of things to blog about, but more because I haven't yet figured out how to keep Elly from scaling things and hold Marcus and type at the same time. Give me a few more weeks and I'll get it.

Shhh....

Eden leaned into me with a serious look on her face, "Mom? Can you keep a secret?" I said, "Yes," as I leaned into her. Then she said, "Okay."

Fun with the girls

The girls are really sweet with Marcus. Elly loves to "help" him with his soothie, as long as she doesn't get tempted to put it in her own mouth!

Marcus

Marcus is the sweetest little guy ever...the girls love having him around and he fits right in. He sleeps through the noise and laughs at the girls' antics. He's super chill and has such a sweet disposition. We're pretty lucky to have him during the days while his mommy and daddy are at work. The only problem is...I'm having a little trouble remembering that he's not "mine."

Another example of Eden's keen perception...

On Saturday night, I went to pick up Eden from Sunday School and the teacher said quietly to me, "Eden wasn't her normal self tonight. She was really quiet and acted tired." Of course, this was the night after our slumber party, and she didn't have a nap, so I said, "Yeah, she's really tired, we were up late last night." Then the teacher kind of pulled me aside and said, "She said the oddest thing...she said she couldn't play because she had vertigo?"

Everything Changes

Eden just said to me, "You know, Momma, as I grow up everything changes." I said, "What do you mean?" and she said, "In my heart and my life, EVERYTHING CHANGES." Then she smiled at me and walked away.

Slumber Party!

Since Eden's surgery, she's done a lot better at sleeping all night in her own bed. Though sometimes she still creeps in and wants to sleep with us or on the floor. When she was waking up alot because of her obstructed breathing, we would make a bed out of blankets on the floor (she called it the "down bed"). So now we're giving her a reward slumber party on Friday if she does well all week and stays in her bed. So tonight was officially the first Slumber Party! We put Elly down in her own bed, but the rest of us are going to sleep in the front room with Eden. We watched "Cars" and ate popcorn and played Candyland (Daddy won) and had a great time. I think this is going to be a fun tradition!

She's 18 months today!

Elly is a year and a half today! She's looking a little nasty in the picture, but it's hard to get a picture of her without a snotty nose these days (teeth again!) and her clothes are usually dirty...she's wearing one of Eden's headbands which she puts on the back of her head. I love how it pushes her little ears down into Yoda ears!

Elly's talking alot now. She's making simple sentences without us asking her to say them. Like "Daddy's home?" She also said "funny" and "nice" and "cooooool" yesterday in the proper context. The other day we ventured out and she got hiccups in the van. If you've read my previous posts, you know that she is extremely polite for a one year old (really not sure why!). She says, "excuse you" (she says this to excuse herself or someone else) whenever any noise come from her mouth, or, uh, well you know. And she also says "honey" after everything too which is a the sweetest thing ever. So anyway she got the hiccups and after each hiccup she would say, "'scuse you, honey" HICCUP "scuse you, honey," HICCUP "scuse you honey..." and so on. It was hilarious.

"They're functional."

Eden came running into the living room yesterday and said, "Look at these shoes! And they're functional." Then today she told me that Elly "has a lot of potential."

Baby Girl

The second picture captures Elly's personality to a tee. Eden dressed her in this polka dot dress with striped socks and a little cardigan. They were eating some snack mix I had made them and being total hams. While Eden was dressing Elly, she was being SO sweet to her, talking to her gently and trying to help her into her clothes. I was feeding Marcus so I couldn't see them, but I could hear their sweet little voices. It was precious!