One last birthday photo

This may be my favorite birthday picture of Kalena, but somehow it didn't make it into the other posts.  This one is from her actual birthday-- we had a little cake to celebrate even though we were doing the cake pops in a few days at her birthday party.  Actually, I called my mom to warn her that Brian was insisting we have cake on her actual birthday in addition to the party and my mom told me she'd already bought one.  I guess we have some cake lovers in this family.

Kalena is one of them.

It was weird, definitely

So, woke up to something odd this morning.  Our car was, well, not broken into because apparently we left it unlocked, but ransacked I guess?  I noticed something was off when our owners manual was on the floor instead of in the glove box.  I looked around and noticed that papers in the console were messed up and a previously folded blanket in the back was not so nicely folded anymore.  I figured maybe Brian had been in there looking for something, but I called him and no.  And since I didn't do it that means somebody else did.

Our guess is drunk college kids were trying car doors and looking for cash because 1) we live less than a block from the dorms.  2)  No locked cars got broken into-- not our neighbors or our other car parked on the street. 3)  In the end they took nothing.  That's right, they looked through everything and left it all there.  Weird right?  I mean, we did have a portable DVD player in there (granted it was pretty well covered with winter clothes still left in there) as well as new (still in the bag) toys in the back.  I guess from now on we will be more paranoid about making sure the car is locked, especially since whoever did this was ballsy enough to dig through a car IN A CARPORT.  Also, don't worry I took the portable dvd player and the toys out.

So let this be a lesson to any of those would-be thieves out there.  I HAVE NOTHING WORTH STEALING.

Not going

So, I'm not going to my 10 year reunion.  Mostly because I was still undecided when the deadline to RSVP and pay for the events came and went yesterday.  The reunion has a facebook page which meant I could check who is coming and who isn't.  And pretty much none of the people I would be interested in seeing is going to be there.  So there it is.

On the upside, one of my good friends from high school who isn't going to the reunion IS coming to GJ in a few weeks and we'll be getting together then so that should be fun.  Plus, she just finished her MD, so now I can say, "Oh yeah, my friend who's a doctor."  Who doesn't want a friend who's a doctor?

Midnight meetings

Remember when we switched Kalena's crib to a toddler bed because she wouldn't sleep in the twin bed?  Well, she slept in the toddler bed for a couple weeks, but then she and Will started climbing up and jumping on it, so we moved her to the twin bed.  And THEN she started moving the crib around her room and using it to play with her blinds so it had to go.  Of course, a few weeks after I took the crib apart my grandma died and we had a whole bunch of company including crib-needing babies, so we set it back up.  But as a crib, not a toddler bed.  ANYWAY.  The point is, Kalena is in a twin bed and has been for awhile.

SO, now that's she in a twin bed she's developed a rather annoying habit.  She wakes up in the middle of the night and cries until I come in, then she asks for ridiculous stuff.  For instance she's asked: for fruit snacks, for daddy, to go to grandpa's house, for any of the million things on her floor inches away from her bed and so on.  I'm not sure WHY she's waking up OR why she's crying for me.  She didn't do this when she was in a crib.  So what's the deal?  Do your kids do this?  Don't get me wrong, I am SUPER grateful that she doesn't get out of bed to come find me instead.  (She doesn't get out of bed until her sun comes on, hallelujah for the good nite lite.)  But I would like her to stop.  Is there a way to get her stop?  Because I'm really not a fan of getting up in the middle of the night for no good reason.

Makes me smile every time

Every night before Kalena goes to sleep, I sing to her.  I sing the song I am a Child of God and after many repetitions, she knows it by heart.  She won't always sing it with me, but she does sometimes.  The funny thing is, she always gets a little ahead of me by the end.  For those of you who don't know the song, the very last line is "to live with him someday."  Only Kalena, because she's ahead, adds in an extra syllable and it's always in the middle of "someday" which totally makes it sound like she's saying "to live with him some damn day." Best lyrics ever.

The cake pops!

So, remember when I said that when it came to the birthday party I was the laziest mom in the world?  Well, that's not exactly true.  I mean, no I didn't make any cute invitations, (or even invite friends) or decorate at all, or put any effort into wrapping gifts (gift bags for the little ones, not even a bow on the big ones.)  But, I did make cake pops.  Winnie the Pooh cake pops!

Aren't those cute?  By the way, I totally didn't wrap them up for the birthday party.  We just did that with the leftovers.  Turns out three year olds don't care if their cake has a pretty bow, they just want to eat it.  Anyway, they took all my party effort but I'd totally do it again because I love them.  I mean, Winnie the Pooh cake on a stick-- does it get better?  

I also wrote about these at Food Lush today, so check that out too.  Because I KNOW you can't get enough of me talking about cake.  Good thing there aren't any of these left, otherwise I'd totally be eating one right now.  And I'm pretty sure they have like a gazillion calories apiece.  

Now I just need an excuse to try these!  Kari?  Maybe for Amelia's birthday?

Read them or get rid of them?

I have several books on my bookshelves that I hated reading.  Mostly they are books I had to read for AP Language or Literature in high school.  Honestly, with some of them I can't even remember the story, but I do remember hating them.

So.  The logical part of me says if I hated them I should get rid of them.  In most cases that would mean throwing them out since they are written in, highlighted, etc.  But!  Another part of me says that at 28 I'm a very different person than I was at 18, so maybe a new perspective would help me enjoy them?  On the other hand, do I really want to spend time re-reading books I didn't like?  I mean, I'm a fast reader so it wouldn't be a LOT of time, and I could quit if I still hated them, but is it worth it?

What do you think?  Trash them or give them a second chance?

You can't win 'em all

The good news is, we did make it to the park today.  We managed to hit the sweet spot, in between the cold this morning and the rain this afternoon.  However, I am an idiot, so I decided to wear my flip flops.  Maybe you're wondering what's wrong with flip flops at the park and the answer is nothing.  But when you haven't been wearing them all winter and you're planning to walk to the park it's a good idea to wear, you know, shoes made for walking.  And it started to rain on us on the way home so I was moving as fast as I could while pushing a double stroller and not actually running.  SO. Walking to and from the park in shoes I haven't worn all winter means I have lovely blisters on both feet.  

I am endlessly fascinated by how different my kids are.  The park was crowded today (a group of elementary school kids were there) but Kalena ran right in and joined the playing.  Will, though, did not.  He would toddle over to the edge of the playground and stand.  He'd watch for a minute, and then run back to me and sit on my lap.  He did this for probably half an hour before he finally got brave enough to go up the stairs to the slide.  And then when he got up there he got overwhelmed by how many kids there were and burst into tears.  I had to go up and get him before he got trampled.  Kalena is fearless and Will is reserved.

I love seeing those personalities emerge.

Thoughts

• If I kept pop tarts in the house all the time I would gain like 50 lbs.
• The other morning at breakfast Kalena shared her cake with Will, with no prompting from me.  Moments like that make my day.
• Yes, I occasionally let my kids eat cake for breakfast.  Like the day after a birthday.
• Rain is predicted for the next 3 days.  I REALLY hope that's wrong.  The kids need some park time.
• I had another migraine.  The excedrin migraine helped some, but I still had to spend an hour laying in my dark quiet bedroom while my mom watched the kids.  I'll be making an appointment to see if I can't get something prescribed. 

Party time!

Kalena and Will's birthday party was today.  For those of you who don't know (or don't remember, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before) we decided that for the foreseeable future we'd celebrate Will's half birthday to avoid his birthday being overshadowed by Christmas.  And since his half birthday is in June and he and Kalena are still too young to care about stuff like joint parties, we decided we'd just do one.

ANYWAY, it was today.  And I am the laziest mom on earth, so there were no decorations or friends invited.  Just us, my parents, Brian's mom, and Eric, Amy and Espen.  Now, for pictures.

My mom and Will.  Will decided to hoard the talking dinosaurs, gifts to each of them from Brian's mom.

Will in the cozy coup, his gift from my parents.

Kalena and her new big wheel.  We should get paid for advertising for Lowes here.  That's what I get for not wanting to spent sixty bucks on a kid's plastic tricycle.  

Me with Kalena.  Apparently I feel the need to give you even the most obvious of captions.  

Kalena squirting her new squirt gun into Brian's mouth.  

Kalena taking her turn in the cozy coup.  She's driving so fast her hands are a blur!

And there you have it.  Kalena's going to be disappointed when she doesn't get cake every day now.

Happy birthday Kalena

Has it already been 3 years?

The day she was born.  FYI, it's not very much fun to have a brand new baby with two collapsed lungs.

Partying it up at 1 year old.

 What 2 year old has time to stop for pictures?

And today.  3 years old, smiling and happy as ever.

Happy birthday to my baby girl!

Denial. It's a fact of life as a parent.

So.  We're still having Kalena nap in the afternoon because she goes right to sleep at nap time (usually.)  This does screw with her bedtime, but instead of letting her stay up later we just put her to bed at 7 and pretend like she's going to go to sleep.  She doesn't of course.  Usually she's up until 8:30 or 9, and almost every night one of us has to go in at some point and tell her to go to sleep.

Brian doesn't like to go in (he thinks it encourages her to cry so we'll come see her) but I guess I'm a softie. Plus it's hard to resist going in when I know she's going to ask me for "ONE hug and ONE 'mooch" (that's smooch.)  Of course, she thinks asking for one of each over and over is acceptable, but still.  Hard to resist.

Maybe I need to open an early morning indoor playground

I took the kids to McDonald's for breakfast the other day, because of all the rain.  I know you're thinking, "Elsha, how is it that rain keeps you from cooking breakfast?"  And the answer is that it doesn't.  BUT, our morning routine usually involves outside play between breakfast and Will's morning nap.  (Don't think I'm not wondering what's going to happen come next winter. I have no idea.)  The kids are used to playing outside.  They get a little crazy if they can't.  And, as I mentioned, Will cries.

ANYWAY.  There are a few indoor playgrounds around GJ, and I like all of them.  The one at the mall is free and geared toward young kids, so it's great for Will.  And the one at the gymnastics place is huge and great and pretty inexpensive, although it's a little much for Will.  But you know what McDonald's has over both those places?  It's open EARLY.  The other places open at 10.  10 am, when we're an hour into Will's morning nap and both kids have already been up for at least 3 hours.  McDonald's, on the other hand, I can get up and load the kids into the car and go.  And you know who's there at 7 am on a weekday morning during the school year?  NOBODY.  Well, not nobody.  But very few children and that means we have the play area to ourselves and Will's not getting in anybody's way.  (Technically neither of my kids are old enough to play at McDonald's but whatevs.)

Plus none of the other places have breakfast burritos.

bullet point time

The benedryl is kicking in, so this'll be short.

• We had family here for 10 days, I managed to take approximately 0 pictures.
• Apparenly when you have a family member die, people try to feed you to your own death.  I gained at least 5 lbs last week.  Probably due mostly to eating cake after EVERY meal.
• I was due with Kalena 3 years ago today.  Which means in 8 days we'll have a THREE YEAR OLD.
• I really wish it would stop raining around here.  Will loves playing outside SO much and when it rains he literally stands at our sliding door crying and saying "outside please!"  (It's not nearly that clear, but I understand him.)
• Every time I think it's time to switch out the winter clothes for the summer ones it gets cold and starts raining again.
• I really need to buy Will some summer clothes.  Right now he has one t-shirt and Kalena's hand me down plain white onesies.

I hope everyone had a great mother's day!  

Moving right along

It seems weird to skip straight from the "my grandma died" post back to regular posting.  I'd like some super cute picture of the kids to create an easy segue, but apparently I've taken no irresistibly cute pictures of the kids lately.  So will you settle for this one of the cousins watching Toy Story 3 (I think) together?

I guess I need to get someone else to make sure there's no hitting/pushing/poking/stealing of toys for a few minutes so I can take some pictures!