The Amazing Adventures of Rand and Ella!: February 2009

Cousins!

Rand and Ella have their very own cousin -- Elijah Luke Guenther, born on February 20! Rand is very excited about this new development and immediately asked when he could go meet Elijah.

Werner has an iphone app that consists of different sound effects, including a baby crying. Rand asked me who the baby crying was. I asked, "Who?" (Because it's just easier to find out what Rand thinks instead of coming up with my own answer which Rand will dismiss because it wasn't what Rand was originally thinking. Anyways.) Rand said, "It's baby Elijah, and he's crying because he needs Aunt Katie to change his diaper."

A little update

Life is slowly getting back to normal....we still do not have a proper floor, but everyone is healthy and we are getting back into a routine.

I have been busy with horse-related stuff, which has been SO MUCH FUN. Last weekend I was in charge of six kids and five horses at a local horse show, and I think I did a good job coordinating everything and everyone. Nobody cried, everyone was where they needed to be, and ribbons were won! I was also in my first parade this weekend, the Parada del Sol, again with the Special Olympics crew. I got to lead/wrestle a slightly freaked-out horse for a couple of miles, which was great exercise to say the least. His special needs rider kept saying, "Elizabeth, please don't hurt my horse." I was sorely tempted, but resisted.

Rand saw Monty Python's "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch and I thought he was going to fall off the chair from laughing. He also loves Dr Demento's song "Fish Heads." We are very much into culture at our house.

Valentine's Day!

We had a super fun Valentine's party this morning with some of the moms from my playgroup. Rand has been very excited about Valentine's Day this year and has had lots of fun making Valentines for his friends as well as Valentine's cookies. We've now been friends with some of these families for over two years -- it's so fun to see our kids start to actually play with each other (on their own! without constant supervision!).

We had four three-year-olds playing ring-around-the-rosy by themselves and it was SO ADORABLE. We tried to teach "Duck Duck Goose" but somewhere along the line the phrase "goose" got translated into "everybody get up and run away as fast as you can!" so we'll work on that.

When I was tucking Rand into bed tonight, I asked him if he was excited about Valentine's Day tomorrow. He said, "Yes! And hearts will fall from the sky." I asked him if this was something he had seen on TV, and he said no, but that it would happen for real. Alas, I think he will be disappointed.

Yesterday we drove by a church and started talking about Jesus and how He lives in our hearts....it is lofty stuff trying to explain salvation and souls and whatnot to a little boy. Rand was digesting all of this information and asked, "Mom, does Jesus make the thump-thump noise in my heart?"

Windmill Internets and other things

Some updates from our oh-so-exciting life....

-- Rand has been SO GOOD recently. Like ridiculously wonderful to be around. I took both him and Ella to the DMV yesterday and got an incredible amount of compliments on my well-behaved children. There was a little boy behind us who was having a very hard time and Rand (on his own!) shared his Thomas trains and his craisens. It was so sweet to watch!

-- Ella has an ear infection. Poor sad little girl! She is doing much better but it's made for some long nights this past week.

-- Werner and Rand were at the park the other day when Rand saw a weathervane. He asked Werner what it was called, and Werner completely blanked out. Stalling for time, he asked Rand, "What do you think it is?" Rand thought for a moment and said, very seriously, "I think it's a windmill internet."

-- Rand has cut out his afternoon nap. It makes for a long day for me, but it's so so very nice to have him asleep by 8pm instead of having him lie awake in bed until 10pm.

-- Miss Ella now weighs 15lbs 14oz! No wonder my arms get tired. She is very much a mama's girl but still ever so sweet. We started her on solid foods and so far she is not impressed.