It will grow back!

I keep telling myself, " it's just hair, it will grow back." But the problem with that is that this girls hair does not grow very fast. It's taken forever to get it to an even length . . . now this:
(before)

































And yes, I have realized that our bathroom is the absolute worst place to take a picture in our house. My kids look like they have skin the color of skim milk. I've tried several editing techniques and can't seem to get rid of the pasty white cast and the bluish skin. Eccchhhhh!

Poop and Emily's haircut

Last night, I was home with the kids while Dan was umping his first baseball game of the season. We had fun playing games and watching CARS on the Disney channel.
I was making a cake to take over to the Lynch house tonight and Emily came in and told me that she pooped. My immediate reaction was to get in the bathroom and clean it up. Well, I went to the bathroom and discovered that Emily had pooped on the potty all by herself. She'd wiped (or attempted to) and everything. We immediately called Daddy to tell him the big news. We've been waiting months for this and FINALLY, it's happened. Let's hope that the road keeps going in the right direction.
She kept asking for a special treat? I had no idea what she was talking about. I let her lick the beater from the cake, but that wasn't good enough.
I found out later when Dan got home that he'd bought a special package of M&M's for each of them for a potty prize. She was waiting for me to give her that, but I had no idea about it.
Sorry Emmy!
Well, later in the night I found Emily sitting in the living room chair with the hair trimming scissors in her hand . . . I told her that they aren't toys and put them away, out of reach.
This morning, I found Emily in the bathroom again, this time cutting her hair with the same scissors.
I need to wash her hair and survey the damage before I take some pictures. . . . but will get some posted of her new do later today. I did determine that there really isn't any way to hide this one . . . it really resembles a mullet. It's lovely.

Louie went to his first dental appointment today. Karri, the hygentist, has been really great with getting them comfortable with everything that goes along with a visit to the dentist.
She has the special glasses that the kids wear and they love it. The appointment starts with some Disney Princess and Buzz Lightyear toddler floss things. What kid wouldn't want their teeth flossed by a spaceship or Cinderella's castle? Then the kids are introduced to "Mr. Thirsty," that little thing that sucks the water out of your mouth, or water glass or whatever. Mr. Thirsty is very "cool." (to Louie, everything is really "cool" right now.)
The visit was topped off with new toothbrushes (CARS and Cinderella) and picking a (crappy) toy from the prize chest.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Oh what fun we had at the Clifford exhibit at the "See Um" on Sunday morning!

Another weekend, GONE!

Where does the time go?
I'm working on getting some pictures from our past weekend. We took the kids to the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, to see the Farm Babies exhibit. Oh my, were those farm babies cute!
Saturday, we hung out at home and the kids played with their new Little Red Scooters. Emily's PT at school suggested that a scooter is a good way for her to strenthen her leg muscles. So, we got two of them. It's not worth the fight.
Yesterday, we had an exciting day! Louie's been asking to go to the Children's Museum (aka the See Um) to see Clifford the Big Red Dog. So, we headed over there after doughnut Sunday at Church. It was so much fun. We didn't go to any other exhibit except Clifford and we were in there for almost 2 hours. Everyone was getting tired, so we headed home.
Grace was coming over to babysit yesterday afternoon while I went to see Le Miserables at De La Salle High School (my nephew Charlie was Javert) and it was really great! Dan had a softball meeting up in Brooklyn Center. When I got out of the show, my phone had 10 missed calls! I got home to an empty house! Wondering where everyone was, I called Dan to find out.
Turns out, Grace had an exciting afternoon with Emily and Louie.
For some reason, Emily puts just about everything that will fit, into her mouth! Gross, but I got over it long ago. So, yesterday afternoon Emily was playing with her Bitty Babies. She's fascinated with combing their hair, etc. So, she's got this little Bitty Baby hair comb and she put it in her mouth and it got jammed in her mouth somehow and she couldn't get it out??? No clue how this all happened, but Emily freaked out and was screaming. Grace couldn't get it out of her mouth and then Emily was hysterical. (she must have thrown up because her clothes in the dirty laundry stunk) So, Grace called her dad, Bill. He told her to call 911 and then he drove like 80 mph down Cleveland to get to our house in record time of less than 2 minutes!
Grace called 911 and the police came, but Bill was there and had gotten the comb out of Emily's mouth by the time that time.
Poor Grace. I feel so bad for her. I don't think the whole thing phased Emily at all. Louie told me that he heard a police car . . .
Let's hope that Grace will actually come back and babysit again! Emily and Louie love having her babysit.

A Day in the Life of Louie

Last night at dinner, we were talking about Emily's school taking their second field trip today to the Eagle's Nest, at the New Brighton Community Center. She missed the first trip this winter because she was home sick. We have been there several times before, for the annual Rondo ECFE Family Night Potluck. Emily and Louie love it there! It is tons of fun.
Emily was really excited to go another field trip with school this week. On Tuesday, they took the city bus down to Leitner's to get dirt and seeds to grow their flowers. Lots of fun for the kids. Louie was very sad that he wasn't going on a field trip. Until he announced his own plan for today. It went something like this:
"After the sun comes up and mommy goes to work, Youie has lunch and Emily goes to school on the school bus . . . Youie can go to the Train Store." Currently, Louie speaks about himself in the third person "Youie." And in his short little life, having no concept of time, all time is measured by how many times the sun comes up and the sun goes down between now and then . . . .
I asked him, how he was going to get to the Train Store. He told me "Youie's Daddy is going to drive him to the train store. So Youie can play, play, play." (all the while signing "play")
So, today after Emily went to school, Youie's Daddy took him to the Train Store. This is Mecca for a 2.5 year old boy that LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine and all his friends on the Island of Sodor (and he can name all of them!).

I almost forgot . . . .

I received an e-mail last week announcing my brothers new job. . . .
check it out, very dramatic!

Kimley-Horn announces Mark Jansen, PE

The weekend wrap-up

We(I) had a fun weekend with the kiddos. Dan had a bad headache on Saturday, so Emmy, Louie and I played outside for the majority of the afternoon. We ran into a friend of Grandma's on our walk. She lives on the next street over. Her name is Judy Flahvan. We just saw her at the "Conversation with Books" up at St. Kate's in February. (it's and event where a panel of five ladies read six books and offer their reviews, likes and dislikes of each book. interesting discussion) We have been walking around the block several times a day with Emily, the PT at school recommended that so she can work the muscles in her legs.

After our walk, the Ramos cousins came over while Paul and Tesa went bowling. We took another walk around the block so Lorenzo would stop crying. Then we had a pizza party and watched a movie. It was fun!

On Sunday, Dan was feeling worse so I took the kids away for the day. When we got back from Church, we walked up to St. Kate's to feed the ducks. That was fun! Louie wanted to throw the whole bag of bread crusts into the pond.

After that, Tesa called and invited us over for a BBQ. We went and Emmy and Louie played outside some more! We got home at 7:30, Dan was feeling much better. He helped get the kids ready for bed and into bed and they were crashed!

Louie must have been tired. He's our alarm clock, going off at 6:30 every morning. On Monday, he slept until after 8am. I was gone before he got up.

How does your garden grow?

Our seed starter greenhouse is really coming along. There are sprouts on every pod and so we got to take the cover off an put it in a sunny window. It's on the window ledge in the playroom. Emily is so proud of her garden. She still talks to it and wants to take care of it. Yesterday, she asked if she could have it in her room? Um, no. We've seen what happens in there behind closed doors and having that mixed in, would not be pretty. Yesterday, she emptied out her entire dresser drawer in her bed before she fell asleep for the night. What a huge mess that was! So, no on the plants being in her room.
Like everything else, Louie wants to take it to bed with him . . .another definite NO.














































































I picked up some cute shirts for St. Pattys Day at the Children's Place Outlet a couple weekends ago. They were so cute and impractical, but they were cute. . . . here's a picture of Sassy! And then the fighting over the Dora bike began . . . .





Also, I'm working my tail off to find a couple of independent scrapbooking stores in MN to sponsor a weekend of One Day Photographers' Workshops. The one day workshop is a super condensed version of her 10 week class. It has received rave reviews from people that have attended in the past.
I've found one that is on board in the Twin Cities, but need to find one outstate that would like to host one as well. The store needs to be 2-3 hours from St. Paul. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
We're on a mission to bring Karen Russell to MN to teach her amazing photography class!

A Visit to the Dentist

Yesterday afternoon, Emily and I had appointments to get out teeth cleaned at the dental office.
Karri, the hygentist, was so good with Emily! We have been taking baby steps to get to the point of a full cleaning. A year ago, she came along and watched me, then she sat in the chair when I was done. In July, she let Dr. Lee count her teeth. Yesterday, Emily climbed right into the chair, let Karri inspect everything, polish all her teeth and then she even let her FLOSS!
I can't believe that she was so willing!
Dr. Lee wasn't there so we got our checks done by Dr. Coates. I don't think Emily was too fond of him, she kept trying to clamp down on his fingers when he was looking at her teeth. But, she was very good and got a new Disney Princess toothbrush and some princess floss things.
Louie came along to watch too. It's his turn on April 1, but Karri got him all ready! He got a new Lightening McQueen toothbrush and Buzz Lightyear toddler floss things. He let me floss his teeth with it tonight!
I went to the appointment, so I didn't have the camera with me (and the point and shoot has a dead battery and we have no charger, waiting for Grandma to get home). I'll be sure to bring it along for Louie's appointment. We'll see what happens!