A Good Mom ...

A good mom would post more often, take more pictures, record more memories. Therefore, I am not applying this year for the "Mom of the Year" award. I'm not sure where every day goes. I think a lot of it involve mundane (yet necessary) things like, feeding children, changing diapers, dropping off at daycare, picking up from daycare, paying bills, sweeping floors (not enough -- another ding in that "a good mom" thing), washing dishes (not enough), doing laundry (not enough), working, picking up toys (times 100), saying, "You two please stop that", saying, "Josh, what are you doing??", saying, "Ellie, don't hit your brother". Occasionally, there is a rare moment to take a photo, think a thought, take a shower, read a few pages of a book before falling asleep with it open. When i can multi-task, I can even watch one 30-45 minute television show -- but only when the cartoons are over and the Disney channel boy goes to bed. I'm not complaining -- I know the time will pass way too quickly. But, honestly, there are only so many hours and something eventually has to be cut. Sadly, as of late, it's been dear blog.

I try. I "think" blog post thoughts. I even think that I "should" take pictures to post. And, then, I don't. If I have a camera, little fingers want to play with it so sometimes, it's not quite worth it.

However, today, I'm managing to squeeze in a few minutes to catch up all things bloggy.

Ellie has really come fully into her "twos" in the last few weeks. Her favorite phrase lately, "I not want it." This applies to EVERYTHING: her clothes, her food, going to bed, watching a television show, going anywhere. She has become of STRONG mind as well. Just yesterday, she was in meltdown mode over her "SNACK" (everything is very important and always said at a capital letter level for her). She got a banana from "E-nana" (DeeAnna) before she left her house. Then, when she got home she had a yogurt and then it got CRAZY. She wanted crackers -- only to leave them, crying, "I not want it!!" She wanted an orange -- ate two pieces and "I not want it." Then she cried for cereal. I made her a small cup but apparently it was the WRONG KIND and, "I not want it." I finally made her cry a LOT when I said that I was done. I picked up the left over oranges, set her crying on the couch with the orange and said, "It's orange or nothing." She ate the orange, finally, even though through her crying she was wailing, "I NOT WANT IT." Oh well.

She wants to pick her own clothes now as well and will tell me, "I not want it" if the outfit is not to her liking. Again, sorta' tough, chickie. :-) Today I wish I had had a camera handy as she was wearing a pair of tights, a winter crocheted cap and one glove. It was F.U.N.N.Y!!

She has developed a real love of pretend play lately. She rides her babies around, cooks in the kitchen, makes me tea to drink, plays more with her dollhouse. I'm picking up a WHOLE LOT more toys every day all of a sudden.

Her speech has BLOSSOMED lately with her talking/communicating a lot more. She is very much the repeater so you best watch what you say around her. I've had to caution Josh about this a lot. She thinks he is a great role model for learning things. I also love how if you give her something -- no matter what it is -- she wants to get one for "Bubba" too. And she'll take it over and give it to him. Such a sweet spirit.

We have enrolled her in a 2 year old preschool and mother's day out program at church. She starts in the fall. It's a 9-2 program every day, so we'll see how she does. I'm excited because I think she will really enjoy structured learning. The preschool classes are three days a week so I think that will be just about right for her. I'm hopeful they'll help her finish learning that ABC song because I've heard, "A, B, C, D, E ... jabber, jabber. Now I know my jabber jabber jabber A, B, C" more times than I can count. And maybe, they'll help her finish learning, "Jesus Loves Me" because in her version, "Jesus Loves Me jabber, jabber, jabber. He is STRONG!!" is all there is. Jesus is ALWAYS strong in her version. He even has muscles apparently as she makes muscles with her arms when she says it. Buff Jesus. Who would have thought? :-) Love kids' singing!

We are gearing up for football season -- only a few more weeks before summer practice starts. It's Josh's last year to play for this rec team and then we'll move on to middle school. I hope he will enjoy this last year with the kids he's played with for seven years.

School starts back in less than a month -- WHAT??? So, now I'm in a frenzy thinking about back to school shopping. Consignment sales start in less than two weeks and are back to back for a period of a month. I'll be crazy, I'm sure before it's all done. I'm going to dig out all my stuff this weekend and start washing, hanging, tagging and pricing. Yay.

And, for those who made it all the way through this post, here's a couple of cuties of Ellie from today while she was dressing up. She created this "look" all on her own (should I be afraid???) complete with the cat mask and accompanying, "Meow!!" vocals. Funny girl!!



OH, how I WISH the girl would keep a hairbow or clip in her hair to keep that hair out of her face. But, alas, "I not want it."


And some from the 4th of July at our friends' house. It was dark, so they aren't great. I really like the first one -- a mistake in the camera -- because of the contrast between Josh and the tip of his bright orange punk he was using to light fireworks.











I thought this lantern thing the Fitzgeralds had was really cool. It flew for EVER. I wonder where it landed.