She's growing up

She was getting dressed in her closet, until I pointed out that the bathroom had lights.  And more room.  This happened suddenly-one morning she told me she didn't want anyone to see her naked, went into her closet and came out dressed.

I know this is one of those signs of getting older, and I kind of don't mind, but it kind of upsets me.  It means that many of those "Baby girl" things are coming to an end.  I know that this means that there are fun new things to do, just hope her Dad is able to adjust.

I asked her to poke her head out nd she ducked back in much faster than I thought she was capable of.  She'll be upset about this when she's older, but I don't mind.

Guess where I found him?

I left the door unlocked & the light on.  So of course, Lex went out and climbed nto his favorite big thing..

Daddy's motorcycle!  I took this video with my phone, sorry about the poor quality.

A fun Wednesday!

Wednesday was a busy day!  First we visited Central Library, then we had lunch with Bry-D, and finally, we visited The Children's Museum.  This is a regular place for us; when the kids are little it's our birthday trip, and it's just lots of fun.  When we walked in, Lex started going crazy about something, it took me a minute to realise he was saying "

"Bumblebee!  Bumblebee!"  His father would be so proud.  One of the temporary exhibits is a Movie costume exhibit, and so, one of the real Bumblebee's from the first movie is at the museum.

Lex was just as excited to see "Bumblebee car!"  as Bumblebee himself.

 The man with the wrench told us about Bumblebee, and where all he had been. 

 Eliz wanted a shot of her hair, I think this is the only time Lex took his eyes off Bumblebee.

 He can be talkative when he wants, and one of the cutest things he did was to wave hello and goodbye to Bumblebee. 

 I didn't take pictures of the Costumes b/c the kids were moving to fast for me.  Eliz did, of course get dressed up.

 I managed to get that on Lex.  He didn't pretend play much, mostly just walked around checking everyone else out.

A very tiring, great time.  I'm the only one that didn't fall alseep on the car ride home.  If you go during the weekend, they have people dressed up as Darth Vadar, Storm Troopers, Star Trek, etc.  I don't think I'll brave the museum on a Saturday unless Chewy is there.

I make a trip to the library, lunch with Daddy and then a visit at the Museum a regular Wednesday event.

A sleep test for Eliz

For a couple of years, Bry-D and I have felt that Eliz wasn't sleeping well. We could hear her rolling into the wall, she talks in her sleep, she wakes up hyper, running around, climbing and jumping, and talk really loudly.  We've tried alot of different remedies, herbs, a new mattress, and nothing has helped.  My niece, The Quiter's daughter, was tested and treated for severe sleep apnea in December 2010.  As my sister would tell my excitedly about my nieces varied areas of improvement, I realised these were areas we were concerned fro Eliz.  It took me awhile to realise that we could ask for a sleep test for her, but I finally made that connection.  We went to the doctor-I love, love, love our pediatrician, btw-and she agreed we needed to do a sleep test.  That was a Monday, and we got an appointment for the sleep test scheduled for that Saturday.  Eliz was nervous, so I took picturesto try and make fun.

 Had we known they were going to color on her, we would have brought our own markers!

 Our tech was really great, He answered her many, many questions and kept it light and fun.

 Nosy Rosie wanted to touch, taste and smell everything!

This is halfway through-she had 16 wires/attachments on her!

 She was a sweetie throughout the whole thing, never complaining once!

 We agreed that she had Rapunzel hair, but better, since Rapunzel just has rainbow flowers, and Eliz had Rainbow colored wires.

 Even a finger thingy!  Two different doohickies in her nose!

Ready for sleep!  I honestly didn't think she would be able to seep with all that stuff, but she did.  The tech said that he'd be in a dozen times to put the nose things back in, and he wasn't kidding.  It was also freezing in the room, Praise Jesus, our friends the Doves loaned me a 40° sleeping bag, otherwise I wouldn't have made it.  I wanted to post this after we'd gotten results, but it's going to be at least a week, so I'll let you know when we know!

Toy switch

I first heard about toy switching when I was a teen visiting my Uncle and Aunt in Georgia.  I happened to be there for a toy switch, and once they explained it to me, I was pretty sure they were geniuses.  If you've ever thought or said out loud, "We have too many toys" try this.  We don't have alot of toys, but the playroom is a 5X7 area, so space to play disappears quickly if we have more than two or three things out.  I will also admit to being a bit anal.  I love to organize; having a place for everything and everything in it's place is very satisfying for me.  

Doing something like this takes more planning time than work time.  The actual switching of the toys takes an hour, maybe less.  It starts with a list of all the toys you have.  Get rid of some of them.  Goodwill or trash, but just get some toys out of the house.  Every time we switch, I find things that are broken or missing something that can't be replaced-get rid of them!  After you've written down what you have, group toys together.  Whatever toys you think should be out at the same time, and you have room for, group together.  The only advice I have on this part is that more than a few studies have shown that when people have more than three choices, they choose nothing.  This may explain the "They have tons of toys but they're playing with a paper bag!" phenomina.  You can apply that theory to toys by keeping the options down to 3 types of toys.  Example-we currently have out baby dolls and their blankets, bottles, etc; a basket of trains, and some matchbox cars with a semi truck.  We have puzzles and board games, but I try to make sure that there's only three of them out at a time.  We switch toys every two months-this works well for the kids, about the time they seem to be getting bored with what's out, we switch.  The toys are stored together in tubs, and come out twice a year.

 I have a "Toy schedule" document that has what toys come out together, as well as when.  We have some toys that end up staying out all the time-art supplies and dress up.  We have far more books than we really need, but we rotate those as well-that way I can always justify buying more books!   A tip that I only follow with toys, not books, is 1 in, 1 out.  If you get a new toy, get rid of another, this is a big anti-clutter rule.  I'm also not rigid with this rule, either. 

If you take the old stuff out to another room, then bring in the new stuff, the kids will unpack them for you, and you can put away the other toys without anyone noticing or even caring.

Outside for the first time in a long time!

It was really wonderfule outside, so we grabbed the outdoor toys and played.  We had the chalk and frisbee, thought I didn't take pictures.  Eliz spent alot of time turning our sidewalk into a road using the pink chalk.  Lex never would ride on "his side"

What are they thinking?!

These are day lilies, and they don't usually peek out of the ground until mid-April.  Look at that!

I mean, really, this is way to early for them to be this high out of the ground, especially for Indiana.

Even the bearded iris is at it!  I need to divide and replant this, and it looks like I'm going to have to do it much sooner than I had anticipated.

This does not surprise me very much.  This is fringed bleeding hearts, and it's a very early riser.  It's usually blooming while everything else is just starting to think of coming out.

This has, however, got me into the mood to get outside and get myself dirty.  The few days of sunshine have also helped.  My grandmother has a flower bed that she said I could have, and I'm of a mind to drive over and dig it up.  Need to prep the ground and start planning the iris' move before that, though.  Yay Spring!

Sweet Buns

Don't tell me you were expecting me to post a picture of food? 

The only time men's underwear is cute.

They are genetically predisposed to this behavior

I left the light on and the door unlocked.  I suppose this is better than going after the power tools.

Having a grandfather that used to race for Porsche, and a father that wanted to fly the fastest planes known to man, this is normal behavior. 

He never stopped "vrrooommmm"-ing, and Miss America there never stopped smiling and posing. 

So, I guess he'll drive the car in the parade whiel she smiles and waves.  If he'll go slow enough for anyone to see her.

Rainy Days

Bry-D says that we need this all this rain to clean the salt and grime off everything.  I suppose that's true, however, I haven't been very inclined to go out in it.  Not sure why, maybe b/c the rainy gloom came immediately after the snowy gloom.  We've been hanging around in the house lately, not doing anything very exciting.

Young artiste's at work.  He is constantly telling me that the white and grey crayons are "Boke". I have yet to convince that they are not "boke" they are just difficult to see on light paper.

He never says orange is broke.

Finished work

Eliz has gotten really interested in drawing things from pictures.  Though she never tries to draw the exact picture, she usually changes something about it to conform it to her personality.

She used the watercolor pencils for this Easter Basket, though I don't know if she ever painted it.

Color in motion!

Such concentration

Reading.  She's getting braver and braver about reading books herself.

She kept telling Eeyore, "Be still, I'm trying to lay on you!"  She was to comfortable to adjust her skirt when I told her it was flipped up.

A basin, two small cups, and water.  All he needs for a good time.

That towel was soaked by the time he was done.  Clean up was easy-he thinks the dishwasher racks are a train, so I tell him to put stuff in the train, and then he choo-choos it for a few minutes before closing the door.

Maybe next week we'll venture out into the mud again-if I get us rain boots.

Morning Photography

In case you'd like someone to come and take your picture before the sun is up, Eliz is available.

So glad this isn't of my face...just because I'm a morning person doesn't mean I look good.