Elise's day-to-day...

Here are a couple quick shots of our day-to-day playtime with Elise. She is SO MUCH fun these days- especially as she starts to 'play' with Ainsley. She constantly says, "I Wuv Ain-swee, I pway wif Ain-swee, Ain-swee woll ober on Tummy all by self,etc..." it's adorable, really. So, here's a pic of a FORT (who can remember childhood without building forts all over the house!?) we built on Monday- elise INSISTED on having Ainsley AND Gus under there with her. She also ate lunch under the table. Although I felt old as my back creaked from getting in and out of the fort for a few hours, She LOVED it.



Her good little friend from across the street, Kristina, comes over almost daily and they play so well together. Although Kristina is almost 5, she's a great little playmate. It's extra cool because I see Elise's language skills improving DAILY, probably thanks to an 'older girl' influence.
Kristina was over Wednesday and we put "Superhero capes" on them and they ran (sorry, FLEW!) around the house for a solid 30 minutes...elise took a GREAT nap that afternoon! =)

"Ainsley" is famous!

Ok, so not really "FAMOUS", but maybe I could say "published"?! Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. A good friend of ours from Japan (now lives near Seattle with the NAVY and has three adorable little kids that Elise still talks about!), does custom-made baby gifts (bibs, burp cloths, blankets, etc...) and they're the CUTEST THINGS in the world! Seriously! Fantastic quality, adorable fonts and patterns, etc...they're so professional looking and made with love! =) Cheryl made three burp cloths for Ainsley (which we get compliments on ALL THE TIME!) and the pictures of those are on her website. So, that kind of makes her famous, right?! =)
Anyway, if you are AT ALL looking for a baby gift for anyone or something (especially great for '2nd kids' when the parents already have all the necessary gear and you just want to send something fun and personalized)...here's a shameless advertisement for Cheryl and her company. Check out "justsewcute.com" (even an adorable name), and look at "burp cloths" for 2 of the 3 of Ainsley's...as an example. Cheryl is the first to admit that her website needs a little work, but the quality of the product is top notch, the website is just a work in progress...so, that's all. Check it out and let me know if you have any other questions, email her through the website or ask me- I've ordered burp cloths and bibs from her several times, and I have 3 of my own now, too! =) Enjoy!

...Desperate Times

When we first moved to Jacksonville (4 1/2 years ago-WOW!), Adam quickly FORCED me to get a job. Why? He would come home from work and I would absolutely overwhelm him with a need to 'use my words' (there's some theory out there that by the end of the day a woman needs to speak 30,000 words vs men using 15,000. That's probably a pretty accurate difference in how the sexes communicate). I didn't have any friends there, yet, and I wouldn't talk to anyone throughout the day. He would get home from work and I would pounce on him and just talk,talk,talk,talk....poor guy.
Then I got a part-time job at the outdoor gear shop, "used" all my words during the day working in retail and everyone was happy!
I think the same scenario has played out this week. Adam has been out of town for 7 full days now and I'm dying to 'use my words' on anyone, anywhere...it's pitiful, but I make myself laugh to think about it.
Example #1: Thursday I went to the nearby park with both girls. Ainsley played/slept happily in the Baby Bjorn, so I was able to play well with Elise. However, there was a friendly mom who started talking to me early on...man, would she come to regret that! She was so sweet and we traded 'pregnancy/kid/husband stories' for a few minutes, then she walked away following her kid to a slide. She had another friend with her and they were clearly catching up on old times, talking about college memories, etc... I was SHAMELESS and kept hovering so they would include me in the conversation. They would move away a little and avoid eye contact with me, but I kept moving in on their conversations...after about an hour it was time to go home-I'm pretty sure they faked the "our kids are getting tired, we've got to go now..." line!

Example #2 (this is so humiliating): Friday afternoon we headed to Publix for groceries. Ainsley (once again in the Bjorn) was super happy, and Elise was being great, too. Two people in a row stopped us and said how cute the girls are, which is always sweet, but I was on a mission to get groceries and get home. We're in the Apple juice aisle and this guy/wife with a 3ish year old keep commenting on how smiley Ainsley is. I take it as 'invitation for friendship' and just start chatting with them...so much for my "mission". After a couple SECONDS of small talk, they AGAIN say "your little one is just SO happy..." Then I, at a loss for how to return the compliment b/c their kid is throwing a total fit, I say, "yeah, she's the kind of kid that makes you want to have another one right away". They looked a little shocked at the comment, YET I KEPT GOING!! "I mean, who wouldn't want to get pregnant again immediately when this one is so good?!"...The look of disbelief on their faces finally got through to me and I stammered something like, "Well, I should go now..." and walked off quickly, avoiding eye contact when we passed several more times throughout the store. I mean, was I really discussing our FAMILY PLAN/REPRODUCTIVE FUTURE with ABSOLUTE strangers at Publix?!?! Who does that!?!
I guess I do.
Good thing Adam gets home soon.

Bubbles...

After an afternoon in the sprinkler, I took Elise up to the bath after dinner last night. While "coloring" in the tub with bathtub finger paints (Thanks, Paul and Jen), she was apparently experiencing a little intestinal discomfort. After the second or third "episode" she said (all by herself, not prompted by me, I promise!), "Eis (Elise) toot in bat-tub make bubbles". YES! hilarious. We called my brother Kelly, knowing he would appreciate it more than most. Elise repeated it mostly on the phone and it was great.

National Lampoon's Camping Trip

As the title suggests, we took a 'camping' trip this past weekend. Since Adam has been out of town more than we'd expected with this job, we wanted to just get away for a day and have a little adventure with the girls...and it was definitely that!
We rented a pop-up camper from the nearby Air Force Base, which was very nice. It had 2 queen-sized beds, a gas stove, mini-fridge, and (the kicker) AIR CONDITIONING! Hilarious. Adam is a long way from the 8-day backpacking trips he used to guide in Colorado and Wyoming with Young Life...if it weren't for the kiddos, we'd still be 'roughin it', I promise!
We decided to just do 24 hours out as the first camping attempt and headed over to ShortStay, a Naval Recreation site- just 45 minutes from home. The place was awesome- situated on a huge lake (Lake Moultrie), there was a good-sized beach, tons of kids running around playing, campsites, log cabins, a playground, mini-mart, sailboats to rent, etc...we had a blast during the day! We spent most of the time in the lake- our own private little beach area, too.

Elise got to try her own little kayak out, she LOVED 'swimming' with Adam, and got thrown in the air more times than we could count...(on a side note, as a result of throwing a 36 pound wiggly kid into the air dozens of times, Adam's back hurt so bad he could barely move on Monday!).

Naptime didn't go so well- elise thought it was more fun to peek under the curtain and talk to us over and over again, for about 2 hours until we gave up and went back into the lake...

Ainsley was easy and happy, she became a true "roller" over the weekend, too, flipping over onto her tummy every single time we put her down on her back. She slept great the whole day and went through 5 outfits in under 24 hours, using a variety of bodily fluids.


The only big issue was sleeping overnight for elise! She was so over-tired from not napping and hours in the sun that she just couldn't settle well. Poor thing (and poor us!)- she was awake crying (sometimes in total hysterics) from 8pm until midnight! augh. She's a kid who likes routine and we screwed that up enough for one day that I think she just snapped. Adam ended up sleeping in the bed with her and Ainsley and I bunked in the other one. Since we hadn't planned on that, I didn't bring an extra blanket, so about 1 am I found Adam shivering and curled up under one of Ainsley's extra 'swaddling' blankets! I would've loved a picture of that. We both woke up looking/feeling pretty ragged, but we survived! It was fun, a little chaotic, and another realization that packing up/getting away/cleaning up isn't NEARLY as simple as it used to be. We loved it, overall...it just may be another 6 months until we try it again!

A Winning (?) Bet

A couple weeks ago, Adam had some neighbors over here for a poker night. Although Adam claimed it would be an "early night" as I went to bed around 10, he didn't join me until after 1:30...and at some point in the evening, the fact came out that Adam has a kilt in our closet...it's another story how he got it- THANKS, TIM WATKINS!!!!!! I guess in the course of the conversations, Adam was DARED to wear the kilt to the Memorial Day picnic a few days later. The winnings, should he choose to don the kilt, was a box of Padrone (sp?) cigars! I guess that's a good thing amongst the guys... So, two days later, we're getting ready for the picnic and Adam comes downstairs in the outfit pictured below...I had forgotten the mention of the bet and was a little shocked when I heard Elise exclaim, "PRETTY DRESS, DADDY". We both almost fell over laughing! (He actually changed the shirt before we left to make it a little 'louder' outfit...he wore a bright blue Hawaiian shirt with the plaid kilt!!!). We walked across the street, the neighbors were UNBELIEVABLY SHOCKED that he actually wore it outside! We loved it and it was hilarious...obviously, they're not aware of what former Young Life Staff members have done/will do for a good laugh (and a box of expensive cigars) !!! Elise's line was classic and the guys are bringing the cigars to the next poker night! Nice dress, Adam...

"NEXT BLOG"

Ok, so I have several postings building up in my head and with Adam out of town for a week, I'll get to them soon... but this one I've been meaning to type quickly forever...at the top of our blog page (but below your Internet Search Windows), you'll see a blue 'task bar' that has the option of hitting "Next Blog"...near the middle of the screen Right-to-Left...see it? Ok, sometime when you're a little bored, hit that button. You can just skip through a million Blogger windows! (I guess it's kind of like spying, or "Lurking" as my brother Kelly recently introduced us to a new term), but it's absolutely fascinating. The coolest thing is that it changes by the minute...you can just keep hitting "Next Blog" at the top of most pages and go on for awhile...It's a real sociology lesson when sometimes you'll go through 10 blogs in a row that AREN'T in ENGLISH! It's so cool to realize that, as Americans, we're really not the majority of the world that we often think we are! You'll see blogs of people's families like us, advertising sites, just random stuff, etc...I saw one the other day titled 'Teenage Knitter: I love monkeys, I love knitting, so I make Knit Monkeys"...such a riot...and pretty ugly knit monkeys! =)
So, "Next Blog"-away and and enjoy!