What a Mess

I think you remember me boasting in my daughter's neatness; how she is pre-wired to clean and organize.  Well as of late, she has made  a liar out of me.

She's now making a huge mess during Room Time and has no motivation to clean it up.  

While it's frustrating, I've at least gotten a cute story out of it:

Yesterday I said, "Okay Elena, room time is over and you can come out when you put these toys back in the toy basket."

Well, you would have thought that I had asked her to pick up her bed and swing it over her head. She assumed a pitiful, defeated posture on the floor and whines, "HELP ME!!!" 

So to teach my two year old personal responsibility (are your eyes rolling? they are, aren't they) I replied, "Elena, who made this mess?"

She immediately sat up, smiled, and said, "GOD Did!"

That answer usually gets a good reaction when I ask about the moon, trees, and sun, so I guess she figured she might as well plug it in here. I love the two's!

Hallmark Cards

Have y'all seen that commercial for Hallmark's singing card line where a couple is in their parked car, the husband hands his wife a card, she opens it, the card starts playing "their song", and next thing you know they're making out?... Well if not, I promise you that it's right up there with all the other Hallmark commercials. 

Cheesy commercials or not, I gotta tell ya, Elena loves singing cards! She found this card that she's holding below at Nana's house this past summer and played it over and over again while we were there. Then to her glee, Nana sent Evan that exact same card for his birthday! Now we can listen to it whenever we want!!!

Go 'Stros!

Photoshop

Ben gave me Photoshop Elements for my birthday and I'm just now having time to really play with it. It's way fun and way overwhelming at the same time. I thought I'd give you a sample of what I've learned so far. Here, I was attempting to brighten the eyes - and boy did I succeed!

Behold the power of Photoshop!

Before

After

I'm thinking I might need to tone it down a bit -- what do you think ;)

I Highly Recommend It

HEB

I like to celebrate big milestones on this blog; birthdays, anniversaries, promotions... etc. So, today I'd like to celebrate the "life" of my HEB at NW Military and Huebner. Yesterday was it's last day in business before it merged with the NW Military and Lockhill-Selma store to become the mega-super-central market like-HEB at NW Military and Wurzbach Pkwy.  My HEB was, in my opinion, the best little HEB in San Antonio; it was small, but big enough to get what you needed, it was rarely crowded, always clean, and the people were super nice. HEB at NW Military and Huebner, you will be missed! Sniff Sniff.

I was pretty curious about this new and improved store, so I decided to check it out today (today being the first day of business). Apparently I wasn't the only one curious. The store was CA-RAZY! I'm thinking of making a shirt bragging something like, "I survived HEB's opening day..." 

Hey, double-seats in the shopping cart! Things are looking up!

Party On!

And now I'm caught up...

This past Saturday was Evan's birthday party. Ben's family came in from Houston, and of course my family that's in town came too! We did a Puppy Dog theme and Abby and Susan helped a ton with the decorations and food prep, which Evan really appreciated. :)

Thank you family and friends for loving Evan and celebrating his first year of life with us!

   

   

   

The Zoo

Still catching up...

On Thursday we went to the zoo with all of Ben's family that was in town!

We couldn't see the real giraffes, but this one really got Elena excited!

Another big hit, was the vending machines :)

Pumpkin Patch

I'm backing up here...

Last Wednesday I took the kids to the pumpkin patch with Grandma, Aunt Abby, and cousin Micah!

Micah was really into it

"Mine!"

"My precious"

Along with moving small objects of large quantities from one location to another, Elena also likes to line them up.

  

This one is more your size, Evan!

  

  

Just Another Manic Monday

I don't know about you, but Mondays are my day to catch up on things that went by the wayside over the weekend. We had an especially busy weekend including the few days leading up to it, so I was really looking forward to this morning. I intended to post some of the pictures from the weekend, clean floors, plan the menu for this week...etc.

Well, my Monday is off to a shaky start. 

At 7:45 I was sitting on the couch with Evan and I hear Elena stirring in her room. I jump up to get dressed and wash my face, before I "let loose" the two-year old from her room (she has a child-safety thing on her door knob which prevents her from getting out on her own). 

A few minutes later, I'm just about ready, but I decide to use the bathroom. We have a "toilet-room" within the master bathroom. I swing the door shut out of habit; it's not latched, just mostly closed. As I flush I hear Evan, who had wandered into the bathroom, pull out the bottom drawer on my vanity which is right next to the door to the toilet-room. This is bad, very very bad!

The drawer is now blocking the toilet door from opening! 

I try and squeeze my hand out the one inch opening, but can't get the angle I need to slide the drawer back in. So now I'm looking through the trash and the cabinets above the toilet, trying to spot anything that would fit through the opening, the whole time thinking, "What Would MacGyver Do?" 

I won't go into everything I tried with no success, but at about 9:00 I realized that I needed to try and bust down the door. The problem is, Evan is now by the door, so I have to wait for him to get bored with playing in the cotton balls. 

Finally, at about 9:15 he crawls off. So here I go, body slamming the door. I have to say, the movies make it look a lot easier than it is. After multiple attempts going shoulder first and giving it karate-style kicks...nothing. The only thing I've accomplished is knocking the drawer off the gliders. ARGH!

Elena is now beside herself; screaming and attempting to kick her door down in solidarity. 

Over the next 30 minutes I prayed, regretted not having my phone on me, tried repeatedly to knock down the door, wished Elena didn't have the child-proof door knob on her door, wondered when Ben would start to worry after not hearing from me, and then...I had an epiphany!

It finally occurred to me to take the heavy lid off the toilet tank and use it to beat down the door. So, after just a minute of destroying our toilet door. I crawled out! FREEDOM!!!

The next thirty minutes were spent picking the lock on Elena's door (she had locked it at some point during her fit), cleaning pee off of her floor, and feeding Evan (now starving), the whole while thanking God for protecting everyone but the door from harm during those two hours!

It's now 11:30 and I'm exhausted! Happy Monday!

The Problem 

(Goodness, I want to paint those cabinets!)

The Solution

The view from inside the little toilet room

The Aftermath

I think we're in the market for a new door

One Year Old

How is it possible that this little baby has already reached the one year mark?  

Happy Birthday Evan!

love,

Daddy, Mommy, and Elena

Girl After My Own Heart

Thank you Nana and Char Char for the stickers!

Well, I feel like I am way overdue for a post. So, I'm pretty excited to have some material here, and I'm doubly excited to write about Elena, seeing as how her brother is about to steal the show this week with his birthday.

Ben and I are pretty tidy around our house.  I think we both secretly think we're superior to the other in our cleanliness, and we look down our noses at the other's little pile of .... whatever it may be that occasionally accumulates. Anyways, it has become evident that Elena has inherited the gene. 

We've started giving Elena "room time" since she is no longer taking naps. The idea behind room time is that she gets some down time, she's forced to entertain herself for a little while, and, oh yes, it gives mom a break. Let me just say, room time is the best invention EVER!

The funny thing we've discovered though, is that Elena doesn't really "play", she cleans! The first time in her room, she set to work (with no encouragement at all from me) picking up every little toy and book and putting them in their place.

I guess she has shown signs of being "orderly"/"OCD" (your pick) from the time she could walk. She would entertain herself by playing with small objects of large quantities; things like q-tips, fridge magnets, and rocks. Her routine involved moving them from one basket to another, and then doing it all over again. Thoroughness was the guiding principle as she played; if one rock got moved into a purse, all of the rocks had to go in as well. 

I think this picture is a pretty good example of the above. She couldn't put one sticker on her arm, they all had to go; but of course keeping the hearts on one side and the smiley faces on the other. :-).