Play Time

One of the cool things about having two kids is it gives you a whole new perspective on how children behave at certain ages.  The stages are the same, but how the child acts within those stages can be very different.  Ela skipped crawling, for example, but crawled up and down stairs for a long time.  Lily, on the other hand, crawled until she figured out that walking meant she could hold things.  Now, she only wants to walk up and down steps, too.
The girls are very much alike in many ways, but their differences stand out more to me because I see them all the time.  The place I see these differences the best is when they are playing.  I learn so much about the girls from play time in general, but especially when they play pretend.  I have been reveling for awhile now in the joy of hearing Ela tell me what she is playing when she pretends.  Lily has just entered the phase where I can tell she is playing pretend, but dont always know the story.  It's a very exciting step for her. 
Ela's pretend games focus almost exclusively on animals.  The monkey is hurt, the dog is hungry, the elephant is scared, and she is there to save the day.  She is sweet and caring to her animal friends.  Lily is similarly sweet and caring, but her friends are babies.  She holds them, covers them with blankets, plays peekaboo with them, and takes them endlessly in and out of the stroller she got for Christmas.  She says good night to them when she goes to bed.  It is something of a relief to me that they differ in this way because it means that they don't have one favorite toy that they fight over.  Lily's favorites are all babies, and Ela wants the animals.  Only rarely do they fight over one of them, and it usually doesn't last. 
The other thing I've noticed about the girls is that Lily's play seems much more realistic than Ela's ever was.  When Lily plays in their kitchen, a spoon is always a spoon.  With Ela, the spoon was almost never a spoon.  Instead it was a worm, or a wand, or medicine.  Lily plays with the things as they are, Ela assigns roles to toys depending on what is going on in her mind.  It's very interesting to me. 
Another exciting step for the girls is watching them start to play together.  Lily has been interested in playing with Ela for awhile, but Ela has generally opposed this idea.  She has actually become convinced that whatever she wants to play with, Lily is trying to steal from her, even when Lily is halfway across the room completely engrossed in something else.  Lately, though, she has opened to the idea that they could have fun together.  So far, this is only true in the car, but it's a start.  I enlisted her help one afternoon to try to keep Lily awake until we got home so she could have a good nap.  Once Ela understood how to do it, she made it her priority in the car during almost every trip.  She asks Lily what animals say or where her nose is, she plays peekaboo, and the giggling is priceless. 
Some of this pleasantness has transfered to how they interact in the house.  Now when Lily gets a bonk and is crying, Ela tries making funny faces at her to cheer her up.   Sometimes it even works!  Similarly, Lily will pat Ela's back when she's sad, or give her a kiss, though that usually doesn't make her feel much better.  I am so excited to see them at least try to get along.  We should have a lot of fun as they get to know each other. 

Busy Weekends...

I really do have things to write about.  The trick lately is finding the time to write them down.  Fitzgerald said something clever about that, and he was totally right.  Anyway, a quick summary of what I've missed:
Two weeks ago, the girls and I went to Atlanta for a Mommy night out opportunity: My sister volunteers with March of Dimes down there, and had promised to fill a table at their first ever fund raising dinner and auction.   She was short a few seats, so we drove down to help her out by eating crazy good food and bidding on really cool stuff.  It was a real sacrifice... especially since the money was going to such a good cause...
Anyway, there was a silent auction while we all enjoyed wine and other adult beverages and some lovely cheeses.  I bid on a packaged that included tickets to a puppet show, zoo, and museum with IMAX because I thought Ela would enjoy it.  I actually won, too!  So that was pretty cool, and now I have lots of new reasons to visit my sister.
And the food, people, oh the food... March of Dimes had gotten four local chefs to each do one course using local materials.  I didn't think to start taking pictures until the third course because I rarely get the chance to eat food that is worth photographing.  As much as I'd like to be, I'm not really a foody.  Anway, the first course had eggplant croutons that were super good.  The second course had grits and a chicken croquette.  I don't even like grits, but these were amazing!  The chicken might have been my favorite part of the meal, except it was all too good to pick.  Here's course 3: duck, endive, and apple sauce with a pecan chip thingy (remember how I said I'm not a foody?).  Soooo good.

 

 The fourth course was dessert: a yam spice cake with carmel/chocolate mouse and a little bit of what turned out to be pear gelato I think (it wasn't on the description).  Tell me you aren't hungry just looking at it...

 The things they auctioned live were a little out of my price range unless I wanted to give Zack heart failure later, but it was fun to be there, eat and talk to other adults without trying to coax food into one child while trying to keep the other satisfied with the amount on her plate.  And let's not forget the super yummy food. 

Anyway... This weekend was equally busy, even though we actually stayed home for a change.  Friday, we took the girls to a little carnival.  I learned something very important: my girls LOVE rides.  We started them on this:

 The ponies rock and the carts go around the little track.  That's it.  Ela giggled so hysterically that I had to get video.  It was funny.  Lily didn't want to get out when the ride ended.  That was small beans, though.  From there, we hit a bouncy house, and then a rocket that also just went around and around.  Then Ela spotted The Hurler.  
The Hurler is one of those rides that spins in several directions at once, so you get super dizzy.  I actually like these rides, too.  It's fun to spin, right?  Anyway, Ela insisted she wanted to go on it.  I showed her that she was not yet the requisite 42 inches to get on.  But then I saw that kids 40 inches and up could go with an adult.
Uh Oh.
Ela is 40 inches.  Can you believe that?  I couldn't.  We got out our tickets and on we went.  I was terrified that she'd hate it and come out crying.  I hadn't been on a ride like that myself in 6 or 7 years, so I was also mildly worried I might be sick.  Good thing my stomach was empty.  But Ela loved it.  She laughed, squealed, and wanted to go again the minute it was over.  Lily, by the way, was totally offended that she couldn't go too.  Neither girl wanted to leave when we were done.  I made mental notes to not take them near an amusement park until they were both 42 inches tall.

Saturday, we took it a bit easy as I got ready for an afternoon 5k.  That's right, I ran a 5k.  I can hardly believe it myself.  The run was called the Pink Shamrock and took me around downtown Raleigh.  It started at 4:00, so I left Mom with the girls during quiet time and went down by myself.  They met me at the finish line when I was done.  I finished in 36 minutes 31.8 seconds precisely.  That works out to 11 minutes and 47 seconds per mile.  I was super proud!  Now that 8k on Thanksgiving doesn't look quite as scary...

Sunday we checked out the International Festival downtown again.  We timed it so we could eat dinner from around the world.  All Ela would eat was this:

 Which is Dutch, by the way.  I couldn't pronounce the name, but it had chocolate sprinkles, and that was all that mattered to her.  The rest of us had a much more balanced, if not entirely healthy, meal from the Phillipines, Columbia, France, Turkey and Vietnam.  Yum.  Ela decided to try the chocolate cake from France, too... Then we checked out the booths.  There were informative ones, such as this one on Columbia:

And also places where you could buy things.  All us adult girls got henna tattoos.  Ela got a balloon animal.  It was a good time all around. 

Next weekend, we're off to Ohio for a little family fun.  So there will be more to say, and I'll get better at carving out time to say it.

Abingdon, VA

Last weekend, I tossed the kiddos in the car and we headed out to get in some quality time with Zack's folks. The destination: Abingdon, Virginia, home to the Virginia Creeper Trail. The plan was to bike it and take in some of the beautiful mountain scenery. We stopped in Boone on the way up to visit with some friends, but still arrived in Abingdon in time to check out some fishies and eat dinner before bed. 

We headed out the next morning to ride the trail. 

Grandpa took on the challenge of hauling the kiddos.  That adds somewhere between 50-60 lbs of weight, not counting the trailer, but the route is mostly downhill, so it didn't become an issue. 

And of course we stopped along the way to check out the scenery.  Ela loved watching the water and wanted to stop over and over again.  Lily just wanted out of her helmet. 

We stopped for lunch about 7 miles from Damascus (our final destination) and then booked it the last leg.  The bad thing about riding with kiddos: the grown ups are tired at the end of the ride, but the kids have done nothing but sit all day.  Ela was ready to wiggle so we took her to check out some trains.

She was sad that they didn't move, but she enjoyed climbing around in them. 

Grandpa was having so much fun with the girls that he volunteered to take them for the evening so Grandma and I could go see a show.  Tarzan was playing at the Barter Theater, so after dinner we headed out.  I enjoyed the break from my little sillies. 
We headed back to Winston after breakfast the next morning.  It was a lovely trip.  I bet it would be really amazing as the leaves change, and I hope we get to go back some time and ride again. 

Ela Goes to Preschool

I really don't know where I went last month, sorry about that.  We're rolling into the fall routine now, so I should get back to the blog a bit more now.  I wanted to post a picture with this, but my camera is being uncooperative so I'll have to settle for some stories about Ela's grand return to preschool.
Preschool started Wednesday, but we've been building up to it for weeks now.  I had a parent meeting a few weeks ago, and when I was telling Ela about it, I asked her if she was excited about being a frog this year (that's her class name).  She replied, "Yes! I'll be a good frog.  I'll go ribbit! Ribbit!"  I nearly fell over laughing.
Last week, there was a room visit day, and Ela had  fun looking at all the new toys in the room.  She seemed less interested in the kids than I expected, but on the way home, all she could talk about was how she wanted Kate to come play at her house.  We haven't ever done a playdate with anyone who couldn't just walk over, so I'm looking forward to setting that up. 
This year, Ela's class gets to use the carpool at preschool, meaning parents just drop them off and teachers walk them in at the beginning of the day.  At the end of the day, the teacher brings them out to the car too.  The parent never has to leave the car, which for me and Lily, is awesome!  The school has a great system, so it all runs very smoothly.  Today when her teacher brought Ela out, she told me that Ela likes to eat lunch.  I had to double check and make sure she was bringing me the right child, since Ela doesn't eat... ever.  What we figured out was that she doesn't really eat much, she just really likes sitting at the table with the kids, and she's always the last one done. 
I know Ela's enjoying preschool because she sings on the way there.  Ela is not a performer by nature, but she'll sing to herself when she's happy.  On the way to school lately, she's been singing "This Old Man."  I've been impressed by her counting ability as the verses go on, but she doesn't really know all the words, so she makes some up.  Her version goes something like this (I'll start with a middle verse to give you the idea with the counting):
This old man
He played five
He played knick knack on his lunchbox
with a (mumblemumble mumble) BONE
This old man went rolling home.
This old man
He played .... one two three four five six...
He played six
He played knick knack on his carseat
with a (mumbledybumble) BONE
This old man went rolling home.
If she's having half as much fun in the class as she is getting to and from it, then I'm happy. 

Road Tripping

Apparently, my mom and I are gluttons for punishment, so last week, we decided to drive to Moline, IL with the girls to visit my great-aunt, among other people. It's a 16 hour drive, and we did entertain the notion of flying, but have you seen plane ticket prices recently? Ugh. The girls did really well on our trip to Pittsburgh, so we decided to see how far we could get them.

We started out Thursday afternoon, hoping they'd nap, and rolled merrily along until dinner time. We learned that Ela travels a lot like this:

And Lily travels a lot like this:

We stopped for dinner that night and then rolled on until we ran out of steam. The next day, we got up with the girls, and continued. We stopped in Effingham to visit one of Mom's cousins, which was a lot of fun. Then it was back in the car and we arrived in Moline in time to have a nice dinner with Aunt Margaret and my dad, who was in the city on business.

Saturday, we had a very fun day. We went swimming at the pool in the morning, then we went out for lunch at a lovely place owned by a friend of ours called Lagomarcino's. We got lucky and our friend was there, so we had a nice chat, too.

We had a little time, so we went down to the John Deere Pavilion to see the tractors, and instead we hit the jackpot. John Deere is celebrating it's 175th year, and they were having a "Farm Day", complete with animals...

...some of which wanted to eat the girls's skirts. But really, it was the very best petting zoo I've ever seen.

There were also games. Ela is still talking about milking a cow.

It was super fun.

After another lovely visit with some old friends, we headed back to my aunt's for another lovely dinner. The next day we went to see one more friend, had lunch with my aunt, and headed back onto the road. We drove until we hit Lawrenceville, where we stopped to visit Zack's Aunt, Uncle and cousins and have a quick dinner. Here are the girls with their second cousins. 

It was quick, but nice. We drove again until Lily ran out of steam, woke up a from a dead sleep and screamed until we stopped the car. So now we know exactly how far she can go before she's done. And it's really freakin far for a fourteen month old.

We had breakfast Monday morning with one more friend, and then it was back on the road for the day. We managed to make it to Winston in time to celebrate Zack's Dad's birthday with him and have another lovely dinner.

The girls liked the ice cream the best. After dinner it was a short drive home.   The whole trip went really fast, and we were busy non-stop.  It was actually a very good time.  I was really glad we could see so many people in such a short time.  And I'm also really glad the girls travel well.  I suspect it will come in very handy in the next several years. 

Fun with the Grandparents

Over the last few weeks, the girls and I have been spending some time with their grandparents. It's been a lot of fun for all of us.
First, we got to go to a picnic at John Deere, where my dad works, to celebrate its 175th anniversary.  It was quite a big to do. There was ice cream, crafts, bouncy toys, face painting, or knee painting in Lily's case...

...and of course lots of tractors and mowers to play on. Ela has read a book about "Allie Gator" about a millions times, so she was especially excited about meeting Allie.  But she was happy to climb on anything that might move.  I'm so proud that I have a girl who likes tractors (and trains). 

The surprise high point of the picnic, though, turned out to be a bouncy slide. This thing was super tall, and looked scary to me, but Ela really wanted to try it (having been scared out of the regular bouncy toys by the fact that she could barely stay standing in them).  Convinced that I would have to retrieve her, I decided to let her go and watched as she climbed the ladder to the top of the slide.  When she got up, she was hanging out as far from the edge of the slide as possible.  I braced myself for my own trip to the top, then called to her to come down the slide.  To my great surprise, she threw on a big grin, and dove down...

Several trips later, she was still making the face of terror and giggling like a maniac. So I guess I have a future roller coaster rider on my hands.
A few days after the picnic, we headed up to Winston Salem for a visit with Zack's folks.  It was warm and a very short visit, so we kept it low key.  Ela's favorite part was a trip to the pool.  We tried to convince her to go to the indoor one, but she really wanted to come to the neighborhood outdoor one, so we slathered on the sunscreen and off we went.

Lily hasn't really been in many pools, so while Ela ranged all over, gradutally getting braver, we worked on getting Lily wet without upsetting her.

I'd say we had some success. By next year, she'll be chasing her sister around.

It's really nice being in North Carolina full time.  We love that visiting family isn't such a big production just now.  We intend to make the most of it while we can!

Beach Week

Last week, the girls and I headed out to Holden Beach with my family. The older Ela gets, the more fun this gets.  This year, we had rain for the first time in a long time.  So we decided to take the kiddos to the aquarium.  Ela could have spent the whole week there. 

We managed to pull her away by reminding her of the fishing trip we also had planned.  Ela was old enough to go this year.  Thankfully, the sun came out in time for that.  Ela giggled the whole time the boat was on its way out, announcing that it "tickled her tummy", and we had a great time catching mackerel. 

Minjee was a pro at getting our fish off the hooks.  Tristan got to be the shark catcher. 

We caught two, but I only got a picture of one.

The rest of the week we devoted to the usual beach activities: playing at the pool, hanging out on the sand, and dipping our toes (fearfully for Ela, excitedly for Lily) into the ocean.

It was a very fun week for all of us.

The Same But Different.

It has always amazed me how two little kids can be so very much like their parents and yet very different from each other. Zack and I have often discussed how much either Ela or Lily is like one of us, either physically or in attitude or preference. Yet the girls are very different little people. Lily eats anything that holds still long enough, Ela lives on air. Ela wants to snuggle all night long, Lily needs her space. It's really interesting to me to watch how they grow and emerge as their own people.

The differences between my girls really were apparent last week in one specific way. Ela hates having her hair touched, much less put up into a ponytail or washed. It gets tangled fairly easily, and she is convinced you're hurting her from the moment you approach her head. I finally got tired of the constant battles and took her in to get a super short haircut.

She actually sat very still for the cut, fascinated by the pieces of hair as they fell. The resulting cut is adorable (I'll post pictures when I get my computer back). Ela loves it and spent the rest of the day prancing in front of mirrors. She still complains when I approach with a comb, but it takes much less time to brush, so the battles are at an end.

When we got home, Ela went to her room for quiet time, and I set to work getting Lily to take a nap. I got her all snuggled in my arms, and she presented me with her little, soft hairbrush. Amused, I ran it over her little fluff of hair. She loved it. I brushed her hair until she got so relaxed she fell asleep.

There may be fun girly hairdos in my future yet.

Potty Time

That's right, folks. We're finally turning our attention to that potty that Ela got when she turned two. We've actually done a little training before now, but never very seriously. No one ever told me that potty training is as much about training Mommy (and Daddy) as it is about training the child. Not only was Ela not motivated, her parents weren't especially motivate either. Plus there were tons of reasons not to mess with it. Between getting a new sister and moving, Ela's had plenty to adjust to in the last year. So the potty training took a back seat. But not any more. When Ela joins the three year old class at her preschool, she has to be trained. She loves preschool. I love preschool. This is suddenly important. So we started getting serious, just in case it took a really long time. I decided that Thursday was the best day of the week to start because we don't have to be anywhere between Thursday and Monday. This left us four days to get good at this whole potty thing. We've been talking up big girl underwear for practically a year now, so I just pulled out some and put them on her. Timing is, of course, a challenge, but so far we've been very successful! Each day we last a little longer without an accident. And yesterday, she even left the house without incident. As I type, it's been twenty-four hours since her last accident. I think she might even wear big girl pants to Church tomorrow. If that goes well, may be she can even wear them to preschool! The most annoying part of all this is the sitting around the house. It's only been two days, and I'm already dying to get out of here! I want to hit the gym, or go shopping (which I usually hate). Anything to just leave the living room. But Ela is terrified of public bathrooms, so we'll sit tight for a bit longer until she can be trusted for the occasional long stretch. My diaper bag will need repacking: only one size diapers, but spare bottoms for our big girl for awhile. I'm so proud of my big girl!

Settling In

Over the last few weeks, we've gradually been settling into a routine that will be the norm for the next year. It was my intention to find us lots of activities and to start into them as quickly as possible so we'd be too busy to spend much time missing Zack. I think I've accomplished that. For my own sanity, I joined a Bible study, and I was delighted to discover that our new church has a bell choir, so I'm ringing again, which is nice. Then, in order to combat my tendency to eat when I'm sad and to reclaim my body from my girls, I joined a gym. I wanted to do this in DC, but here it's actually affordable, especially since childcare is included in the membership. So swimsuits should be slightly less scary this summer. Ela goes to preschool twice a week. I want to get her going on either a piano lesson or dance class too, and we started doing story time at the library, but they took March off, so we'll have to get back next month. Lily doesn't have any activities of her own yet, but she's learning to like story time at the library and is getting used to the childcare center at the gym. The new house is starting to feel like home. Ela still calls it her "new house". I haven't found any part of it I really don't like yet, which is a very good sign. It took some work, but we got the car into the garage, and that was super exciting for me. Both girls have napped in their car seats in there while I've been inside getting things done. And not hauling groceries through the rain is a really nice perk. I've also fallen in love with our patio out back. Ela loves being out there, and I can be anywhere downstairs and watch her as she plays in her sandbox or gathers pine straw or draws with sidewalk chalk. Ela also loves that she can let Dory in and out. I have to be careful to lock the door when I go upstairs or she'll just let herself out one of these days. Of course the bedroom wars started up again when we moved, but Lily is almost sleeping through the night again. Ela seems to like her new room, but still tries to sneak in with me in the night. She had a really bad dream the other night, and now she knows the magic words to get into my bed. I need to get her a new bed to replace her current one, since it broke in the move and is currently propped up on books. In the mean time, I'm not encouraging her to sleep with me, but I'm not declaring a full out war yet, since it'll just get worse when the new bed comes. Zack, for those of you who are curious, is still in country for a little while for training. He seems to be enjoying learning about a new branch of the military. It certainly keeps him busy! I might get to see him one more time before he goes abroad. I'm at least confident that we have everything under control here. Time to start looking for adventures!

Ela is Three

That's right, people!  Ela turned three this week.  We celebrated with a trip to the zoo, which was lovely. I also gave her a little interview that I hope to make a yearly tradition. She was playing with a lot of her toys as she talked to me, so her focus was not entirely there, but I think that makes it all the more entertaining.  Here are the questions and her responses:

What is your name?  My name is Ela.
How old are you?  I am three.
What's your favorite animal?  My favorite animal is the cow.
Who is your best friend?  My best friend is the cow.  The cow is my friend.
What's your favorite thing to do? It's the firemens!
What's your favorite color? Blue
What's your favorite food? Chicken
What's your favorite book? My favorite book is the Kookaburra! (I see a Kookaburra!)
What makes you happy? A bear makes me happy.
What's the best part of your birthday?  Cupcakes after dinner!
What do you want to be when you grow up? (at this point she was playing with a firetruck, and had lost all interest in talking to me) The fire's got your finger.

Ela's Birthday Party

We threw Ela a birthday party last weekend so that her daddy could be there for it.  He left for his big adventure on Sunday, so on Saturday, we got the family together for a low key celebration.   Our intention was to hold it at a park near our house, which would have worked great on Thursday or Friday when it was in the 70's.  Saturday dawned windy and cold, though, so we went over for a little while to let Ela play...

...and then we went back to our house for lunch, cupcakes, and presents.  The cupcakes were decorated by Minjee, who did a super job as usual!

Ela had a great time hanging out with all her grandparents, her aunt Minjee, her great-grandma, and cousin Daniel. We were glad we could put something together for her so that Zack could be a part of it.   This weekend if the weather is more cooperative, we might head out to the zoo on her actual birthday.  I can't believe she's almost three already!  Where did the last three years go?

Snow Play

Last weekend, we headed up to Virginia for what is becoming our yearly skii trip. Due to the crazy warm winter we've had, it was Lily's very first experience with snow (which the resort could barely keep on the ground). 

She was clearly unimpressed.  I think she might like it better when she's able to walk. 
Ela, on the other hand, was delighted to be back in the snow.  She remembered the "green sled" and wanted to go down the hill with Mommy first thing.  I happily obliged.   As it turned out, one trip down the sledding hill was enough for her, and then she was ready to revisit a few of her other favorite parts of the play area:

Making snowballs was her favorite part this year.  I still couldn't talk her into wearing her gloves, though.

We played for a little while, and headed home when a misty rain started falling. We met Zack back at our rooms and tried out the swimming pool. It was quite the popular place to be, since the weather was iffy for skiing. We had a good time watching Ela work up the nerve to play in the water while Lily took an extended nap.

In the evening, I got to leave the girls with their daddy and try out the tubing area, called The Plunge, with my sister, her boyfriend and Mom.  They have a hill set up with lanes for the tubes to slide down, and with the weather so warm and a whole day of tubers come and gone, it was a little icy and a super fast ride when we arrived.  We had a great time flying down the mountain. 

So it was yet another fun trip.  We're already thinking about how it will work next year.  Will Ela be old enough (or evening willing) to try skiing?  Will Lily enjoy the snow?  We can't wait to find out!

Bath time in a Navy house

The other night, Ela took a bath at her Grandma's. When bath time was over, I was patiently instructing her to pick up the bath toys one at a time. I pointed at the little yellow barge that was floating in a corner of the bath.

"Okay, Ela, now pick up the boat."

Ela looked at me with a very serious face and replied, "It's not a boat, Mama, it's a ship."

Zack would be so proud.

Where is Ela's bed?

The move is in progress! My biggest complaint so far with this move is the timing.  We requested two consecutive days for the movers to pack everything, and then a day later in the same week to move it into the new home.  Those days were apparently unavailable, so what we got was three days spread pretty evenly over two weeks.  On the Friday before MLK weekend, some very nice ladies came and put all our stuff in boxes.  Then they left it in the house in DC all weekend long.  No, really.  So us girls hung around to watch the boxes get packed and then left poor Zack to deal with the rest.  The pay off for him is that he won't be around for the day it all arrives at the house.  Lily is about the same age as Ela was last time we moved, so for her, the packing up was something interesting to watch.

Ela is old enough now to wonder where her favorite things are.  She kept asking about toys that were already sealed up.  It took her awhile to process that the stuff was in the boxes to go on the truck.  We did find one way to amuse her, though (sorry about the flipped picture, I'm not working on my usual computer).

So we are living with my parents now.  Tuesday, Zack reported that movers came and picked up all our stuff.  The trouble was that they had another load to put into what was left of the truck.  We hoped they might make it to North Carolina anyway, but we're not that lucky.  Instead, our stuff is due to arrive Monday.

In the mean time, we've been working at the new house, though I admit most of the work was done by my family before we arrived.  Mom and Minjee painted everything, and I mean everything, and it looks super.  I helped with the finishing touches, but there was very little left to do.  We've put up curtains and shower curtains and gotten a dryer (the washer was installed by Dad and a friend before we got here).  It's all ready, and now we just wait.

And Ela gets progressively more confused.  I have been calling Mom's house "home", and she got very upset about that.  To her, this house is "the dog house" because that's where she sees all her favorite doggies.  It is NOT home.  I never would have thought that she'd get tired of being here, but she's starting to express a desire to go home.  Whenever we go to our new home, she goes to "Ela's new room" and hangs out.  She's started saying she wants to sleep there.  I keep telling her that she can as soon as her bed gets there.  That led to lots of questions about where Ela's bed is.  I think she gets that it's on a truck, but I'm sure she can't figure out what's taking that truck so long.  It must be the slowest truck ever.  That's what I keep telling her.  We're looking forward to Monday!

New Year's Top Ten

Lots of people have done top tens about the past year. I realized, though, I've already blogged about those things, so here's the top ten things you can look forward to seeing on this blog in the next year, in no particular order.

1) The big move - We're moving to North Carolina in the next month or so. That will almost certainly make for a post or two soon.

2) Ela - She does so much cute stuff, she will certainly be featured here, along with her accomplishments and activities. On the list of potential topics are potty training and preschool.

3) Lily - Her big sister will be going to preschool, so she and I should get a little more quality time. This might lead to me writing more about her. Milestones that are likely to turn up here include walking (she might even crawl, unlike her sister) and turning one.

4) My Waistline - Once we get settled into our new home, I'm planning to throw myself into a new exercise and diet regime to get rid of the last of the baby weight. My secondary goal is to look and feel better than ever by the time Zack gets back from the mid-east. I'll probably share my progress or lack thereof.

5) A Visit from Zack - Zack will be gone for most of the year, so he probably won't feature here much. Writing about him will only make me miss him more. However, he will get to come back for at least one visit, and I will write about that.

6) Creative Activities - I'm still trying to clear out my yarn stash, so I'll probably post a bit about what I make. I'm also hoping to do more crafty stuff with Ela as she gets old enough to participate.

7) Cooking Adventures - With Zack gone, I'll have more range in the kitchen. This is a chance to try some new recipes without fear of him starving if they don't turn out. :)

8) Dory - The dog has actually already moved. She's staying with my family until we join her. I'm sure her name will pop up here from time to time.

9) Family Fun - Being back in NC will mean having more family close by and more chances to hang out with them. We're all looking forward to that.

10) Lots of Outings - We'll miss the plentiful sightseeing opportunities of DC, but we'll still be getting out and doing exciting things from time to time.

It should be an exciting year! Stay tuned!

Christmas: A Summary

We all had a very merry Christmas this year. Ela is just getting old enough to really be a part of it all, which makes it lots of fun. She got to help her Grandma make cookies for the first time.

Here's the results of her sprinkling duties on the first tray:

Of course, we went to church.  We opted for the children's service on Christmas eve, and the girls looked adorable as usual:

Ela loved the kid's performances, and made it a point to tell them all... loudly... when everyone else was done.  It was great to see all the other kids all decked out for the holiday, too. 

And, of course there were lots and lots of presents:

Santa came through with the blue train:

Zack's been telling everyone that all Lily wants is her two front teeth.  She has the bottom but she wants the top.  Well, she didn't get teeth, but she did get hair:

Ela has mastered the fine art of unwraping, and enjoyed both the unwrapping and the playing this year:

Zack and I got Ipads in preparation for his upcoming deployment. It's hard to pull myself away from this new toy, but there's a lot to accomplish around here. We intend to kind of ignore New Years as we prepare for our upcoming move. We hope all our friends out there had as merry a Christmas as we did!

Zoo Lights

Every Christmas, the National Zoo puts up lights.  This year we went with some friends.   Ela wanted to see the animals, but when she saw what the lights were like, it totally left her mind.  Lily slept through most of the event.  I found it was really hard to take pictures with both people and lights, but here's what it looked like. 

 

 

Clearly, Ela had a super time.

And it turned out that there were a few animals still out and about.  Ela even got up the nerve to touch the donkey.

We had a great time both checking out the event and hanging out with friends. It was an excellent way to get into the Christmas spirit!