Sharpies and Hairspray!

This morning while I was taking a nap, (long night with Dora...) Whit watched the kiddos. He has been working nights lately. Eli managed to get his hands on a black sharpie. In his defense, he was trying to write on paper, but the sharpie is pretty strong and went straight through... all over the much abused white leather chair in the office. We were using hairspray to try to get it off and Eli wanted some hairspray. I gave in to his demands, which is why he has a mohawk! You will also notice he touched the sharpie to his mouth, and gave himself the charlie chaplin look... I thought the whole ordeal was funny, so I snapped a few shots. Pretty fake smile, though, eh?



I figured I could get upset or just roll with it. I rolled with it--they're kids, what can you do!? It is really our fault for having nice things! He needs a haircut, eh?!

I also took a few shots of Dora--another new outfit today. It's really too big, as is the pattern with shirts. The pants are supposed to be capris! Oh well! It's the turtle line from Gymboree.

Linsey noted that she smiles a lot--which she definitely does. She is a VERY Happy little thing. She has a very different personality than her brother Eli had as a tiny guy, that's for sure.

One last thing for all you moms out there... Amazon has its Britax carseats on sale right now (they put them on sale once a year.) So, the Marathon is what Eli has, and it's $60 off. I went ahead and bought one for Dora now, instead of waiting for 7 months until she needs it and having to pay full price. Isn't it pretty?! The Roundabout (what the twins have) makes you buy covers if you want some fancy print, but the Marathon just comes in various print options. I loved the butterflies! So here is Dora's new carseat--get yours today! :P

Gymbucks and Water Table

As most of you moms out there probably already knew, Gymboree just allowed us all to redeem our accumulated Gymbucks. Eli and Dora made out like bandits, thanks in major part to Grandma Stuckey. Here is one of Eli's outfits I snapped a shot of because he was on his Mader truck--and the shirt says backseat driver. I thought that was funny for some reason. I also love the patchwork seersucker shorts!!



Here is one of the new outfits Grandma Stuckey got Dora (and cousin Jocelyn) when they were all out here at the Gymboree outlet. It was so cute that we bought it even though it wasn't on sale! (That never happens with me--I refuse to ever pay full price...) It was perfect for a hot day!

In case you can't tell, that Dora is one HAPPY baby all the time!! We really lucked out to have such an amiable baby this time around.

Here's Eli's face when he first saw the water table. It's technically a birthday present from Lerdle and Papa (Grandma and Grandpa Stuckey), but it was getting warm here so my mom told me to go ahead and get it early! Cousin Hayley has one too, just like this. And Joc and Jes had one Eli played with last May/June in Dallas.

Here he is enjoying dumping water out. He loved the arctic slide, too. The ducks just barely fit through.

It took about 5 minutes before he decided it would be fun to climb up into it. He didn't even see the photo of Hayley standing in hers to inspire him. Kids must think along the same lines at this age!

As a conclusion to this post, I thought I would highlight two things with videos. First, Eli is finally starting to say things that are intelligible--like duck. He has understood me for a long time and said his own words for things, but now he's learning, well, real words!

Secondly, as much fun as he had with the water table, check out what ensued when he was naughty and didn't listen and I had to bring him inside!! He was one unhappy camper. Incidentally, he has never used those shoes before, so he was grabbing the shoe because he now associates the shoes with playing with the water table. I know this because he carried them around the rest of tonight trying to get me to let him put them on again and go to play "Duck".

My little May Flower

Spring showers bring May flowers, right? Well here is mine, a bit early!

Professor Baker??

Ladies and Gentlemen, the future Professor Baker:

He found the glasses that we think Papa Baker left and loved them!

Monkeys

Eli's recent fascination with monkeys has led us to these three cute videos...

This one makes him really laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZn5nWIj_g

This one Whit and I enjoyed, and were surprised by how much work went into it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFhvrAOFqY

and a slightly sillier, more kiddie one from veggie tales... Beware, Whit and I can't get this song out of our heads!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--szrOHtR6U

Mom and Isadora's Big Day in...

My mom spoils me, as you all know. One of the things she did after she left was give a friend of mine some money so I would have babysitting for Eli if I wanted a break from two. I have used it previously in order to get a nap on days I was really tired (or anticipated being tired.) Today I just used it so I could have some one-on-one time with my tiny little girl! She laughs at me when I stick out my tongue--I do it in response to her doing it all the time.




Doesn't she look cute!? She smiles now when I tickle her, so it's much easier to get photos of her smiling! She will also smile when I look at her and say "I love you!"

So, today is Dora and Mom's Big Day in... no brother, just the girls. :-) I love this little dachsund line... Thanks for the bow Cass--I think this brown and pink one is my favorite one you made her!

On a side note, she used to have two dimples--now she is down to just one on the right side, just like her brother! A legacy from dad--I don't have any dimples.

The Holy Grail

I have decided to share my quest...and my failure.

Last night Dora woke up at 1:30 and simply refused to go back to sleep. We were up until 3:30 am!! Staying awake with a grumpy baby for two hours at night is not fun. To add insult to misery, Eli woke up at 5:45. Of course, I can't wake up Whitney to help because the poor guy was working until 3 am--I know, as I was awake when he came home! On top of that, he had to be back at work at 8 am.. so no help (or sympathy) from him!

This morning Eli and I played trains, colored, ate, threw up (him, not me) and generally made big messes and had big fun (other than the throwing up part. He feels fine--just choked on a pretzel.) All in all, a very normal Tuesday.

And then it happened.

Eli was really whining, and I issued the threat. "Do you want to go take a nap early?"

He said, "Yep", which is his yes.

He grabbed his blanket and started marching upstairs. I picked my chin up off the floor and followed him--although all I had to do was lift him into his crib. He merrily deposited his blanket next to him and smiled at me.

This is not the holy grail. That came moments later. Dora went to sleep, too. I lay her down, and then, singing Hallelujahs in my head, I lay down on the sofa by her bassinet. I had just drifted off to sleep, having finally gotten the holy grail of mothers with two young children--the SIMULTANEOUS NAP when...

WAAAAAAAH!!! Dora woke up.

So rest safely in your beds, on your couches or wherever else you people with no children, one child who still naps or no young kids sleep... The holy grail is still out there--unattainable.

Oh yeah, and here are some photos and a video for my mom. I bought Eli some new jammies, that have a crab on them. My mom taught him what crabs do. Please ignore my voice. I sound like a homeless smoker, but actually it's the result of my recovery from a cold. I actually feel just fine now--I just sound like an old man with esophageal cancer (which I can say because my grandpa had it)...

This first photo is Whit holding Dora in the outfit Libby sent for her. Cute little cherry outfit, right?

The second photo is just Dora smiling--nothing special but I am still a sucker for it. Eli really likes both the monkey and the banana on her onesie. He says "anana" over and over and points, and also makes the monkey noise and points.

The third is Eli in his crabby shirt. I couldn't get him to pay attention to me. He kept playing with his train and watching Blues Clues!!

The final one is Dora in the outfit I had to search for online. I saw Jocelyn in the tomato hat and loved it. Unfortunately the only size they had was 3-6 months, so she's a little small to wear it right and it'll be warm when she can wear it so I am documenting it now.

Strawberry Smiles

Another new outfit--can you tell Dora's happy to wear it?

Thanks Grandma!

Basketball & Bees...

We went to the park yesterday after Eli's nap. Whit wanted to shoot some hoops and I took the camera, as usual. I had changed Dora because she spitup allover her ladybug outfit...

I did take a snapshot first of how my diva sleeps--nothing is going to flatten her head!! (Please ignore the non-matching pants--I didn't have anything that went with the ladybugs and I didn't want her legs to be cold!!

This was her new outfit--I love the bees--thanks mom!!

Of course, now she will smile. Oh well!

Here's Whit introducing Eli to the ball--and giving him his own smaller version, a tennis ball.

Whit had the idea to let Eli dunk!! Cute, eh??

Then Eli wanted to dunk the real thing... This photo is my favorite!!

Here's a video of the dunk... Eli did it a lot of times!! I wasn't the best camera person because I was watching Dora at the time, too!

TWO MONTHS!! Holy Cow!

Dora is two months old! To celebrate I put a new cute little 3-6 month ladybug outfit on her. (When we went to her checkup, she weighed and measured solidly in the middle of the 3-6 range.) Something was off though, because the shirt and pants I put on her were HUGE!! Whoops. Perhaps I jumped the gun on moving her up.

I moved her back down to 0-3 months clothes and took these photos. My friend Melanie made her outfit--well the onesie and the tutu! Cute, huh?

I could NOT get her to smile--I don't know what was wrong! But I got a few closeups where you can see how pretty her little blue eyes are. Also, I tinkered around with the photo and came up with this one! (It's my very sad attempt at being artsy!)

And Eli had to get involved--he says "bug" now, and he was VERY interested in the bug on her onesie. The closest thing to a smile we got was when he kept poking and touching her "bug". That's his little blonde head and chubby paw in this one.

Also, here is a bonus video. It's not very good. Eli loves to dance, even in his carseat while I am listening to music. (THANK HEAVENS I don't have to listen to lame baby music. I think I might blow my brains out if I had to! He likes the radio...I know that makes me a bad mom. They use bad language and such, but I do what I can to survive!) Anyhow, Eli was REALLY dancing so I tried to videotape it. He didn't dance too much or get too excited due to his distraction with my holding up the camera, but I thought the video was cute anyway. (Which probably means only my mom will like it!)

Easter Church Clothes

I know, I know--WAY too many blogs in just two days. I have hit some kind of awful limit and no one will read my blog anymore because I prattle on and on!! I promise I won't blog now for a while!!! I just wanted to put up some photos of the kiddos in their new Easter clothes. Whit tells me I can't expect anyone to read my blog if I post something new every 20 minutes, so sorry for all the annoying posts so close together.

We have church out here at 1 pm--which leaves us plenty of time to get ready for church, but also means church starts the same time as Eli's normal nap! It makes him a little cranky on Sundays. Today Whit had to work, so this was my first Sunday all by myself with two kids (sort of--Emma was there at church to help out during Sacrament, so I shouldn't whine too much!)

Anyhow, that explains why Whit's not in the photos. We are all in new Easter clothes, except me. I have had my dress since about 2001!

Dora's actually laughing in this one! I loved it!

These are Eli's new duds--thanks to Grandma Stuckey! I love the tie!! And the new vest. He also has an airplane sweater vest that goes with the same outfit.

Here are a few of the three of us--Eli wasn't very cooperative. It's hard to get TWO kids who are both simultaneously happy! Props to Angela who has been doing it for a long time like a pro! She makes it look easy...

Eli did NOT want to pose for photos, so Emma (who took these) made me promise to put up this one--

Here are two of the kiddos with Emma. I promised Eli a jelly bean if he smiled. It worked, but the smile is pretty fake!

Easter Morning

We had a fun Easter morning! Eli did his first real Easter Egg Hunt and he really had a great time!! We have another one tomorrow where there will be other kids, so this was a good trial run!

Here is what all our baskets looked like. I don't have one because Whit got me the Nike Shox I have been wanting in lieu of candy, etc. (Good deal, huh!?) Note that Emma scored a Coach purse and a stuffed animal!

He loved the bubble blowing lion (no photos of videos of that), but he also liked his chocolate cow. When he realized he could eat it, he got really excited and dove right in, so I moved the operation over to his high chair. He ate the whole head off!

Here's mom and baby Dora on Easter morning, too. All she got was a stuffed animal and a teether...

Here are two videos--one of the egg hunt and one of him exploring his basket...

This one is Eli's basket...