Birthday party and Reptiles

Last week, Elise's little friend Ben turned 3. Jessica (Ben's mom) and I talked for awhile and decided that you don't HAVE to do a big bday party for little kids until they turn 4. (Big= lots of kids, gift bags, themed cakes, etc...augh. what a nightmare). Instead, we just went to Middleton Plantation (I've done like 4 blogs on this place, you're all probably sick of it by now!) with just us and one other little buddy of Ben's. It was way more manageable and lots of fun. The kids got to pet an alligator ("Addigator" to Elise) and a turtle.



We took a 45 minute horse-drawn carriage ride. (It was cool for the moms to hear the history stuff, but in hindsight, a 45 minute " must sit still and do anything" is a little rough for almost 3 year-olds!). They loved the horses, though. We also saw a 12-15 ft WILD alligator in one of the rice fields we went past. yikes.

We had a picnic that the kids LOVED- especially the part where Elise and Ben got to transport all the picnic supplies to the tables via a wagon. =) They're adorable and it was a ton of fun. =)


When Elise turns 3 in January, we'll see if we can do something totally low-key and fun, too!

All in a night's work...

Since we took Elise's pacifier away about 6 weeks ago, we've been 'fighting" bedtime a little more than normal. Some nights are INFURIATING and some are just downright hilarious!
Tonight was a funny one:
Adam put elise to bed about 7:30. (that's normal)
By 8:45, she was still singing and talking (no big deal), so I went up to soothe her a little more.
In the 8 minutes I was in there she told me,
"My back hurts."
"My foot hurts."
"My tummy growling."
"I not tired."
"I need to finish my milk from dinner."
"I need you to tell me story."
"I need you cuddle wif me more."

So, I cuddled, told her a story about "Princess Elise", then left the room. She wasn't tired, remember. By the time I GOT DOWNSTAIRS and ADAM flipped the video monitor over to her "channel" on the TV, this is what we saw:


If you click on that picture, you'll see closer that she DEAD ASLEEP! Probably 2 minutes from when I left her room..it's been 30 minutes since I took that and she still hasn't moved. Hilarious.

A little torn...

As I'm sitting here 1/2 watching the Florida/Vandy game (not too exciting at 35-0 now) and the Notre Dame/Boston College (rough start for the Irish at 0-10), I'm thinking of an 'issue' that has come up in my mind lately...I'm also forced to think a lot tonight- thanks to a little sickness in the house, I've completely lost my voice and can barely whisper...Adam is LOVING it!
As we continue to try being "green/organic/granola", we are eating a TON of organic food, using fewer chemicals around the house, using cloth diapers for Ainsley, etc...(btw, we used cloth for most of Elise's time in diapers, too). The tension arises in that some of this takes extra time and energy. Washing/drying/folding cloth diapers is WAY more time-consuming than chucking a Huggies into the trash! Since I have the opportunity to stay at home with the girls and not "work", I feel like part of my job can be to help us be frugal and put the time and energy into things like that. Plus, I enjoy it. I'm definitely a little bit of a tree-hugger at heart. I also obviously enjoy staying busy and knowing I'm doing what I can to help the Environment. Using those diapers is cost-effective in the long term AND is environmentally friendly, but is so exhausting for me sometimes. AND it's an extra two loads of laundry a week, which includes water, electricity, and detergent! (all of which are expensive these days...). So, how do I determine "success"?
Part of helping the environment can go against being "organic and healthy"...case in point, I have a friend who is ULTRA ORGANIC...but she drinks, literally, 10+ bottles of water a day. I know that it's healthy to drink lots of water, but it's A)More expensive and B)KILLING the Environment with all that plastic being thrown in the trash! I'm not sure how she reconciles that in her mind or the checkbook...(not that we're any better- we do tons of stuff that contradicts our other actions!). Another friend is obsessed with Clorox wipes and anti-bacterial hand sanitizer. She wipes down all the major surfaces of her house EVERY evening with Clorox wipes...I like the idea of being that 'clean', but I hate the thought of all those chemicals being on all the surfaces in my house and I hate spending the $$$ on it. Plus, I definitely feel like we, as a society, tend to "over anti-bacterialize" stuff- I think a few bacterium are good for us, in general. I'm REALLY not being judgemental! I just don't know how to figure this stuff out sometimes.
Cleaning supplies also pose a conundrum...I'd love to make my own cleaners with vinegar and baking soda. That's pretty environmentally friendly, very cost-effective, but takes some time/energy and I HATE the smell of vinegar. It actually makes me gag. So then I think, I'll buy the "Greenworks" cleaner at the grocery store...that's a little expensive, but totally organic. But then I think through all the extra packaging that it's made in, shipped in, vehicles delivering it and using fuel, etc...and I start to get really dizzy (or maybe that's the homebrew beer and lousy football night affecting me). I do make my own laundry detergent and that's working well, was VERY cheap to make, works well, etc...so that was a winner!
It's just tricky for me to figure out the answer to "Do I want to be Organic, Healthy, Frugal, or something in between?" I guess that's usually the answer...find a balance. Although I'd like to make all my own cleaning supplies and stick to the cloth diapers for the entire 2+ years that Ainsley will wear them, I can't always figure it all out. Maybe I need to suck it up and deal with the smell of vinegar (not likely), or just clean a lot with really hot water. Maybe we need to move to a log cabin in the middle of the woods, live off the land, and hunt for our own food...but I think I'd go insane and not be happy, either...not a good idea.
So, those are my random thoughts for tonight. BC/ND game is still 10-0, Florida is still destroying Vandy, and I'm heading to bed sooner than later.
Any suggestions on this junk? Let me know if you think I'm crazy...

So, once again, I've been a little 'distant' from the blogging world for almost a week...not that it's been boring around here, but I've just been uninspired to blog. Adam is out of town for a couple days, and I was planning on cleaning the bathrooms once the girls went to bed, but I'll just do this instead. Then maybe do the bathrooms quickly and then watch Grey's Anatomy at 9. I can get it all done...no problem. Which, by the way, Elise told me today at the grocery store when she dropped a can of yogurt..."It ok, Mommy. It not break open. Noooooo Pwoblem". It was cute.
An earlier funny comment by the resident almost-three-year-old...We were supposed to meet some friends at the park after they ran errands...but they never made it. We still had a great time, and on the way home in the car, I said, "Ben and Miss Jessica probably just got stuck at the store". She paused and then looked PANICKED as she yelled, "Wait right there, Ben. We come to get you unstuck. I coming to help you!"....it was adorable! She really thought they were STUCK at the grocery store...if Adam were driving, he probably would've messed with her some more and gone to the store looking for the Sadler family....but I'm nicer. =)
What else? For the last two days I've been counting the # of times I go up and down the steps during the course of a day...just out of curiosity b/c somedays it really seems like ALL I DO is go up and down stairs...yesterday was 28 and today was 36. (That's counting EACH flight, so Up the steps = 1 and Down a few minutes later=2), so 18 round trips today is pretty high. More than I thought.
Ummm...just to spice things up (no pun intended here), Ainsley is going on Day 5 this week (and WEEK 3 of some sporadic issues) of EXPLOSIVE HORRENDOUS DIARRHEA ! It's so gross, even Elise was gagging and dry-heaving a little the other day as I was trying to change Ainsley's diaper in the back of the car at the grocery store...poor thing! I don't know what bug has gotten into her, but the latest strategy (!) by the Pediatrician is for me to collect "samples" for three days, label it all, but it in baggies, FREEZE one sample- yes, she actually called it a POOPSICLE, and return it to their office tomorrow for further testing...so that's been fun. I've also set aside all cloth diapers until this passes...it was just too foul. And i have a TOUGH stomach, so you can guess how bad it is.
On that note, I need to head up to the bathrooms to clean- I only have 19 minutes until Grey's is on and I don't want to miss that! Sayanora!

Halloween Happenings...

Ok, so at almost 3 years old and almost 9 months old, our kids aren't really ready for the spooky-ness of Halloween, but we had fun anyway. Being the frugal one, I "recycled" costumes from Halloween 2006 and 2007. yay! I included pics of the last two years also for comparisons.
Elise was the same Monkey that she was last year-it was a little big last year, a little...um...'fitted' this year. Ainsley wore the duck costume that Elise wore 2 years ago. Cute. Easy. Fun.
2007 ELISE MONKEY

2008 ELISE MONKEY














2008 with buddies Ben and LeeLee








ELISE 2006 DUCK






AINSLEY 2008 DUCK

Who does that!?!

Adam meets up with a friend 2 or 3 mornings a week to work out, so he left this morning about 6:10 to meet Ben for a run. On Elise's school mornings, Adam's alarm is set for 7:15 for me to get up, prep breakfast, etc...before the girls get up at 8. No big deal. BUT, this morning Ainsley was up at 5:50-very unlike her! She cried off and on for about an hour and then I finally fell back asleep. 20 minutes later, the alarm goes off...I hit SNOOZE. Two minutes later, it goes off again! WHAT?! I'm not a big "SNOOZ"er, but, seriously, TWO MINUTES!?! I hit it again and looked at the numbers to make sure I was correct. It was 7:19. I rolled back over and closed my eyes. 7:21 and it's BEEPING again...really!? Who programs their alarm (apparently Adam) to only give you 2 extra minutes? That's such a tease. I thought Snooze meant, like, 9 more minutes...Grrrr...

This week...

A couple quick pics from the last few days...

Elise and I just spent 30 minutes on a little craft project that a neighbor dropped off...Elise had a lot of fun making little ghosts...we hung them outside and she loved it! and this may be my new favorite picture of her!
Ainsley started munching on Cheerios this week. Doesn't sound all that exciting, I know, but it's cool to see her dexterity improve and it's AWESOME to be able to put her in the highchair, scatter a few "O's", and all of a sudden I have 20 minutes to work on lunch/dinner/etc..!!! yay!