Good boy, Otto!

I walked in on this scene the other night....

....and I asked, "Rand, what are you doing?" He replied, "I'm measuring Otto."

Really, why do I even bother to ask the questions that I already know the answer to?

Volunteering

Life is going on here as normal....I have been busy with dog training, which has been fun. Ella is starting to smile and coo like crazy. She especially loves getting her diaper changed, which I think is hilarious.

Yesterday I went and volunteered at a Special Olympics riding class. It's run by a local vet out in Surprise, and she gives lessons four days a week. I think that I will be starting to help regularly on Thursdays -- Werner gets one night a week to go out and have fun, and now that I'm a) not pregnant and b) Ella's old enough that I can leave for a few hours without a problem, this is going to be my night out.

It was so nice hanging out with horses again. I forgot how big they were! Even though I haven't done anything with horses in four years, it was funny how everything came back to me. I was able to help the kids cinch them up and bridle them without any problems. The program really encourages independence, so the kids need to do as much as possible and we're there to keep them on task (they tend to get a bit distracted) and help if necessary. Now I need to go buy a pair of boots!

Isn't Ella pretty in her dress? It used to be mine when I was a baby -- thanks, mom, for keeping it!

For Margie

Yes, I know that Ella has other aunts, but somehow I think that Margie will be the one to appreciate this outfit the most.

Please excuse Rand's expression -- he just doesn't quite get the self-timer function on the camera. We tried many, many times to take this picture and this (sadly!) was the best one.

To clarify, the onesie says "If you think I'm cute you should see my aunt!" No, I didn't specifically buy it (sorry Margie) -- it was mixed in with a huge lot of newborn clothes that I purchased.

My kid is weird.

Rand has some very odd little phobias. All of his clothes were starting to get pretty snug, so I went through everything and got out the 3T clothes (aside: it's so strange to think that I have an almost-3-year-old). Amongst his new t-shirts were several with different characters: Bob the Builder, Elmo, Jimmy Neutron, etc. Nothing freaky about them. But Rand absolutely will not wear them.


I finally got him to wear the Jimmy Neutron pajamas -- because I'm scottish and there is no way that I will go buy new pajamas when there is a perfectly good pair in the dresser -- by turning the top inside out so you can't see the character and unabashedly lying to him that "No, these are just blue pajamas."

He also was given a pair of blue crocs by someone who outgrew them. But will he wear them? Nope, even though his toes are completely squished inside his red ones.

However, Rand has finally conquered his fear of Thomas the Train. About a year ago, we got a Thomas video from the library. We thought we were brilliant -- Rand loves trains, Thomas is a train, this will be awesome. Wrong! Rand was happily watching the movie when Thomas crashed. Rand let out the most terrified scream that I have ever heard, and ever since then he has proclaimed that "Thomas is too scary." In his weirdness, though, Rand still likes to check out Thomas movies from the library, but they just sit on the shelf for a couple of weeks and then we return them.

Last week I decided to be a mean mom and just put the Thomas movie on. Rand was screaming and crying but I told him he just needed to watch it for two minutes, and if he didn't like it, then we would turn it off. Sure enough, after two minutes he was LOVING it. And now he can watch Thomas movies.

Maybe if I just wrestle him into the Elmo shirt he'll get over it.

In other news, Miss Ella is turning into quite a chunky monkey! She was up to 12lbs 2oz on Monday at her 2-month appointment, and is 23" tall. She was quite charming and smiled like crazy at the doctor. I love the double chin!

A week with Rand

Randisms from the last week:

"Why can't Ella eat cookies?"
"She's doesn't have any teeth -- she's too little."
"Like Zaccheus?"

I decided to sneak in a shower early one morning before the kids were awake. Rand woke up, came into the bathroom, and asked what I was doing. I said, "I'm taking a shower. What are you doing?" He replied, "I'm standing in the bathroom watching you take a shower."

Rand got a well-deserved spanking and started crying. Trying to get him to communicate to me why he was spanked, I asked him why he was crying. "Because of spankings and stuff like that!"

Yesterday I put Rand down for his nap. A few minutes later I heard him get out of bed and start playing with his trains, which he knows he's not supposed to do during naptime. I poked my head in the doorway and said, "Rand, you're supposed to be in bed." He said, "Go away mom! Go do something else!"

Rand loves it when Ella "talks" to him, so to try to get her to do this, he sticks his head in her face and says, "Ella, can you say OOOOOOOO??" It's very sweet to see how she just beams at him.

Rand learned to pedal his trike this week! Now we just need to work on steering.....

Labor Day Weekend

Rewind to three weeks ago -- we spent a lovely Labor Day at the Scottsdale Train Park with the Wotherspoons. There was a very very nice man working with the model trains and he let us come inside the room to look at them. Rand was in heaven! We stayed until he (nicely) kicked us out so he could go eat lunch. It was a fun way to spend the holiday.

Two months old

Daddy Time

Looking on the bright side

Great news! Ella has a healthy set of lungs.

I know this because she howled for 51 minutes on the way home from the train park this morning (not like I was counting or anything).

Great news! Rand and I got lots of snuggle time this morning.

This was because he woke up at 5:30am and although he stayed in bed with me for another hour, he never went back to sleep.

Great news! I have two dogs staying here for training.

However, these are two of the most horrible little dogs I have e.v.e.r. worked with. And I've worked with 500+ dogs, so that is saying quite a lot. They're not mean or anything, just insane.

Great news! I'm enjoying a huge delicious iced coffee.

This is because I (surprise) have been up since 5:30am, and, unlike Rand, I did not get to take a nap in the car on the way home from the train park.

Attack of the Sticker Monster!

Also known as Rand.....

Snuggles

Suffice to say that last night was a very. long. night.  Werner is gone and it was me, two kids, and six dogs.  We've been working on Rand sleeping in his own bed all night.  I got up twice during the night to put him back to bed in his own room, but at 6:15am, I cried uncle and told him he could come into mommy's bed.

I got him all tucked in and he asked, "Mommy, can I snuggle with you?"  I said sure and he scooted right up next to me, his nose touching my nose.  Then he said, "Mom, I love you."  Awwww.  

He never did go back to sleep, but that's okay.  I think we'll go to over to Barnes and Noble this morning to play with trains and then come home and take naps.

Sweet brother

We've had an...um....interesting morning thus far with Rand. It's good to look at pictures like these to remind myself that he really is a sweet boy!

Wordplay

Rand has been creating his own word jokes recently, and he thinks that he is HILARIOUS. He learned a kids' song at church that goes like:

It's a big, big house with lots and lots of rooms
It's a big, big table with lots and lots of food
It's a big, big yard where we can play football

And instead of the last word (rooms, food, football), he likes to replace it with "tower," for some silly reason. So he sings it -- "where we can play TOWERball!!" and laughs so hard that he can't even finish the song.

He also loves the song "Why does the sun shine" by They Might Be Giants (yes, our son has very sophisticated taste). The song talks about "atomic energy" at one part, and now Rand likes to substitute a different letter for the "gy". Like "atomic ener-h!" or "atomic ener-m!" Again, this is followed by hysterical laughter.

Can you tell that he's a good big brother?

Bath #2 went much better.

Yay for happy, clean babies!