First Haircut

Last week was spring break and we were busy the entire week. We got to experience another "first" with Ellie on Thursday when we took her for her first haircut. Her hair has been slow to grow but it needed some trimming. Rebecca barely trimmed it all around. We are hoping to let it all grow out and cut it in a bob a bit later. Ellie sat very still on my lap, eating her sucker while she was trimmed up.

BEFORE:


AFTER:



(Notice the "boo boo" on her head? She fell out of her big girl bed the other night! OUCH! We now have a bedrail up.)


(Her mullet is now gone.)

I can't believe that next Monday she will be two years old. Where has time gone?? It seems like just a little while back I was picking her up in Kyrgyzstan as a tiny, tiny six and a half month old baby.

After her haircut, we went for another first -- our first trip to Monkey Joe's -- a local bounce place.


The good news is that it is for kids up to 12 so Josh could play with her. I didn't have my good camera as the battery was dead so we made do with some grainy pictures from my work camera.
















This picture has bothered me -- my "boy" looks so grown up here. He's slimming up and getting taller and looking closer to a man than a boy. Makes me so, so sad....


This cracks me up. Ellie took the stool that you use to climb up in the bouncy, moved it over to the video game and proceeded to "play". When she was done, she moved it back.







This sums her up: No Fear, I'm Going In ...


Both of them had SUCH a good time. They were both sweaty and red-faced when it was time to leave. Ellie has NO FEAR and climbed right up the big slides and would slide down over and over again. Josh took her through the obstacle course types. She was SO not interested in the "3 and under" set of bounces, preferring the larger (ie., bigger thrill) ones. She is such a mover/climber girl. She fell asleep right after she left. Pardon the hair all in her face, the hairbow wouldn't stay in she was moving so much!

Spring Break -- Let the Painting Begin

It is officially spring break at our house, and true to my word, we are "remodeling" Josh's bedroom. We are painting, installing a closet organizer, got new bedding, a new fan and trying to move out a lot of stuff. I know it has been at least five years since his room was painted, and honestly, it could have been as many as seven. The closet still had the original paint from when it was built in 1992 (18 years ago - wow!!). It is past time, I know.

Today while Ellie was at Dee'Anna's house, we (mostly I) painted his closet, closet doors and room door. Tomorrow, hopefully Kevin and Josh will get the organizer installed so all the things currently sitting in the middle of the floor can be gone through and put back in a (hopefully, organized) closet. Then it's on to the walls.

He wanted to do his room in his school colors. Thankfully middle and high school have the same colors: navy blue, gold/yellow and white. We are painting the back wall navy blue and will stencil the school name in large letters and then the other walls are going to be a lighter yellow. He's really excited about putting up the Fathead of HIM he got at the football awards banquet this year.

We got him a new quilt in navy, white and yellow that will coordinate well. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will turn out.

Here is a "before" photos. It's bad, I'll warn you -- everything from the closet is now sitting in the middle of the floor. *sigh* Stay tuned for an after later on in the week.

Consignment Finds - Part II

These are some photos of my recent "finds" at the Encores and More sale.

Ellie got a Dora the Explorer VW bug ... can you tell she's in heaven? Now, granted, all she wants to DO is sit in it. If she pushes on the gas and it moves, she wants out. Maybe by summer's end.



Here is Josh's most recent find -- a WWE championship belt. I think he was in as much heaven as Ellie!!



And the Dora the Explorer overalls that Dee'Anna found. I have tried them on Ellie and they fit perfectly. They will be her two-year-old party attire. So cute!!






And one of my FAVORITES -- which is technically not a consignment sale find -- is Ellie's new Maggie Moo's Mom Bunny shirt, "R is for Rabbit" for Easter. Don't you love the attention to detail? Visit her site for other great designs. She does fantastic work!! She does a boy bunny with a bow tie. CUTE!!

I am SO DONE with Cribs

Last year I got out Josh's crib to sell at consignment. When it finally sold, we realized there was a small piece missing. Couldn't find it anywhere. Discounted the crib and called it a day.

This year, however, I was SO prepared. We would sell the crib and changing table RIGHT AFTER we took it down so there would be no issues. Right? Wrong?

The two pieces got separated at consignment and when we went to put them back together someone was interested in buying it. Turns out, however, that there was a small plastic piece BROKEN. Great. So... I tried to call the customer service number on the back of the crib. Closed until Monday.

Today I called again and while I was on terminal hold, they were kind enough to give me their website address. I decided to peruse http://www.dorel-asia.com/ while I waited.

Guess what I found??? That our crib was RECALLED in January 2010 for the potential to SUFFOCATE babies between the sliding rail and the crib -- exactly where the piece was broken. Holy smokes and cows -- in fact, holy smoking cows. [Yes, I did pause long enough to Google smoking cows and here's a visual for ya'. You are welcome!]

The fact that my baby could have had her head stuck in there scares the bejeezers out of me. And, the thing that REALLY, REALLY makes me mad about this is that when I called I got this line (and it's even on their website) ...

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled cribs, find an alternative
safe sleeping environment for your child, and contact Dorel Asia to receive a free
replacement kit.

So, let me get this straight (let's assume I'm still USING my crib). I bought a crib from you. It's defective enough to cause death. A crib is not something I have an extra one of lying around and you want me to find an ALTERNATE SAFE SLEEPING ENVIRONMENT for my child. Where might that be??? How about offering me a REFUND??? Oh, but I do see you are offering a FREE replacement kit. By the way, you have to fill out an online form, get a pdf telling you how to print out a FEDEX label to send some stuff to them and then they will send the replacement kit in 5-7 business days. Right. I get it now. How is that for HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE???? 635,000 cribs were affected by this recall.

What do you do though?

As Promised

Here we are from last night's GNO event. [I'm going on a diet.] We did not WEAR these items in (lest anyone think we are crazier than we are). They were there for us to use for dress up. Don't we look like we were having fun? Thankfully, the event raised over $3,000 for the American Cancer Society

I'm Special

I've been telling people I was special for years. It has now been confirmed. (Imagine background music playing the Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket" song, "I'm gonna' make you see. I'm special, so special, I got to have some of your attention. Give it to me.)

Tonight the girls all got together for a benefit for the American Cancer Society and saw a comedian, ate chocolate, laughed a lot, listened to some great music and then headed over to Wendy's for a really late dinner.

We had pictures made at the event (dress up photos, no less) that should show up on Facebook soon. I'll post them here when I get them.

However, I have ONE photo, that shows just how special I really am. I ordered a Single with Cheese. It was not a special order burger like some of the other girls ordered, but this is what I got.




Any questions now? I didn't think so. I am SPECIAL!!! It's even obvious to the workers at Wendy's.

Consignment Finds

Last night was the worker pre-sale at Encores and More North's consignment sale. I understand there are around 850 consignors. The amount of "stuff" was incredible. I was just exhausted after going through so much of it, but walked away with some really cute, cute stuff.

Josh was able to work this year (working set up and take down) and earned some credit to spend at the sale. Today, he got out and enjoyed the HUGE (yes, really HUGE) remote control car he bought with his credit. Is this car huge??? It was NEW in the box.












Afterward, he was an AWESOME, AWESOME big brother and put together Ellie's trike. I saw the same one at Wal-mart for $25 and I got this one new in the box for $12. Poor Ellie's legs aren't long enough for her feet to touch the pedals yet so she just pushes herself around on it. We haven't put the "Barbie" stickers on it yet. I might -- or I might not. I could get some Dora stickers and she'd really be in
heaven!!



After Josh got done, Ellie decided it needed some "adjustments" and I caught her doing this:



And speaking of "Dora", here is Ellie checking out her $2 musical jewelry box. She thinks it's pretty cool and has decided to store her crayons in it.



Dee'Anna found the ABSOLUTE CUTEST EVER custom-made Dora overalls at the sale (for only $8). We were concerned they might be too big, but I think they are going to fit perfectly. I think we MIGHT just let her wear those for her birthday party. I'll get a picture of them very soon. They are just TOO TOO cute.

The running joke between Dee'Anna and I was who had bought the most shoes from the sale. I think final total, she ended up with 22 pair (for three kids) and I ended up with 8-10 pairs (for one). It was just a riot! Ellie should be happy, though, as she got three new pair of squeaky shoes: red, white and blue pairs. That girl LOVES her squeaky shoes!! And at $6 a pair, her mama likes them too!!

More cute consignment finds as I get time to take pix!!

Two Year Old Conversation

This funny story was reported to me by Dee'Anna (Ellie's babysitter) this morning. Ellie calls her daughter (Addy) "Abby". We keep telling her, "No, it's ADDY" but she still calls her Abby. She can say d's because she says "Daddy".

So, yesterday, Ellie kept calling Addy, "Abby" until finally Addy turned around and said, "NO, ELLIE!! It's ADDY." I thought that was funny!!

Addie's Party

One of Ellie's BFFs, Addie, had her birthday party this weekend and Ellie was all excited to go!! She kept saying, "Party?" "Party?" and "Abby". For some reason, even though she CAN say the letter "D" (as in Daddy), she calls Addie, Abby. It's funny. We keep correcting her and she acts like we are all crazy. She calls Addie's mom (DeeAnna) eNana. Funny. Anyway...

Addie celebrated her second birthday and we were there to help sing and eat cake. Ellie was certainly interested in Addie's presents and helping her unload the gift bags. She was also quite interested in the balloons. Here are some photos I lifted off DeeAnna's FB page.

Ellie helped Addie eat her cake ...

All the kiddos around the cake ...

Isn't this funny? Ellie is pulling stuff out of the bag for Addie who is saying, "WHOOOOO!!!"

The cute little birthday girl opening her presents ...

Addie is playing with her baby doll her grandmother got her. The baby crawls. Sweet!

Consignment-Mania

February and March are consignment mania for this girl!! I am now on my fourth (and last) consignment sale for spring. Encores and More North started drop-off yesterday and I worked yesterday and today bar-coding items. It's quite busy so the time goes quickly and by volunteering I not only get to shop first, but I earn credit to use at the sale. Can't beat it.

Kevin picked up my "left-overs" from another sale today. I dropped off right at 130 items, not including shoes and came home with about 50, so I'm pleased. I'll re-tag all of those and take them to the E & M with the bottoms dropped out of the prices and hopefully won't bring anything home!!

I've already seen some very cute shoes (my weak spot) at the sale that I want to get.

I'm anxious to start getting the checks from the other three sales. It will be fun to see what I made. :-)

If I can just make it throught the next few weeks, I will be through with consignment for five more months and can get on with moving more stuff out of the house, painting some of our rooms and spending a lot of time at the ballpark. YAY!!

Party Planning

The planning has begun for Ellie's two-year-old birthday party to be held the end of this month. Last year, she had only been home five months and we just didn't want to overwhelm her with a big party with all the people we wanted to invite. This year, we can.

That being said, consider this your invitation to her party. If you want the details of where and the time, email me. We would LOVE to have you. We are telling people no presents. I know this will go right through the ears of some -- I know you all -- but Ellie TRULY needs nothing. I am currently in conversation with John Wright, whose family is about to head back to Kyrgyzstan to work for several months, to see what dreams we might be able to fulfill. So, if anyone wants to make a donation to those efforts in lieu of a gift, that is perfectly fine as well. We will let you all know what that effort will be as soon as we feel "led" toward a particular thing. Some of the "dreams" we've considered are a birthday party at the orphanage, blankets for the orphanage, mattresses, fruit parties at the orphanage. The problem is, there are so many needs.

Ellie's party theme this year is, surprise, DORA. All things are Dora at our house 24/7 right now. We'll be driving down the road and hear her go, "Hey, hey" singing the theme song. I'm tossing around food ideas -- I thought maybe we'd go with some stations: maybe a Mexican station with chips, salsa, sour cream and cheese, maybe some quesadillas, maybe a Mexican dip and then maybe a "Sundaes on Sunday" station with ice cream to go with the cake. This is all still in the planning stages. We have the most FABULOUS cake being made by a friend at our church. Her cakes are always beautiful AND taste great. I can't wait to see it!!

The picture above is what I sent her for a sample of a cake I like.

I also found a cute little "party favor" bag idea. You take a paper bag, spray paint it with purple and then paint on eyes and a mouth to resemble the "backpack" on Dora.

Another friend from church is making Ellie a Dora dress to wear. I found one that is really cute, but I'm not sure if I can find a pattern for it, so ... who knows. Either way, I'm certain whatever N. does will be adorable.

This is a photo of the one I like.

And, of course, Kevin and I are pondering a "Dora style" adventure for the party too. Should be great fun!! Swiper, no swiping!! Hope to see you there!

Ellie's "New" Room

Since she is coming quickly up on her two year birthday, we decided it was time to update Ellie's room to a "big girl" room. Fortunately, my dear friend Susan had just gotten a new bedroom set for her daughter Katie and was so kind to give us Katie's former bed and dresser.

I found cute bedding to match the colors of her room and we set it all up. We have a few minor repairs to make to the spindles on the bed and a wee bit of touch up to do on some of the paint, but overall it's in really good shape!! Ellie seems to really like it!! She looks like a peanut in a pond in it, she is so small.



And, for her birthday, I found her the cutest Disney TV/DVD combo at consignment for a fraction of the cost of retail. We put it in her room today so we can't wait to see her reaction this afternoon. Of course, I'm sure it will only play Dora movies!! *smile*



And the best consignment deal so far: this cute little set of Dora steps. I had priced some very similar at Home Goods for $24.99 but just couldn't bring myself to pay that for steps. Imagine my EXCITEMENT when I found these (Dora, no less!) at the sale for $3!!! They are very helpful for her getting in and out of bed and she learned to maneuver them very quickly last night.



Spring break is in less than two weeks and Josh and I are going to do a makeover on his room then. Stay tuned for pictures of his new "cool-to-be" room!

Powder

Some days I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Most of the time I do both.

Every day I'm thankful for wood floors. Seriously.

It would seem that it would be better if I could tell this story and say that I just wasn't in the room with Ellie when she did this. But... she likes to come in the bathroom with me and sit on her potty (fully clothed no less). I was reading Josh's sports magazine (yeah, probably TMI here, but, required for the story). It was a short article -- one page.

Ellie was playing quietly with something, but honestly, I didn't look. I guess I should have. When I did look, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry -- I did neither, I just watched and wondered how long it would take to clean up ... and then got the camera.








After her potty powder time, she decided to draw on her chalkboard. Since she had already painted her face and hands hot pink with glass marker earlier, I figured a little chalk might help tone down the leftovers of that. Girl is so curious and into everything.