Why a Mommy Needs Her Voice...

After a pretty yucky cold, I've managed to get laryngitis and lost my voice for a few days. It didn't take long before I realized how incredibly difficult it is to be a mommy without a voice. Here are some of the challenges I faced:

1. When Adelyn's 4 yr old neighbor decided to take Adelyn's Jeep (with Adelyn) for a stroll ALL the way down the street, I couldn't scream to get them to turn around. I had to sprint down the street after them like a crazy person. And instead of telling them never to do that again, I had to just give them a really mean look and push the Jeep back down to the house.
2. Adelyn likes to call up to me from downstairs sometimes while she is watching a movie just to make sure I'm there. I usually respond, "Mommy is still here!" but in this case, I couldn't. After attempting a few different sounds, I figured out that I could only suck air in to make noise. So, when she called upstairs, my way to assure her that I was still there (besides running down and up the stairs every time) was to make the same sound that Louis did on the Revenge of the Nerds movie when he was laughing. I sounded pretty ridiculous!
3. Believe it or not, Ella likes my singing. She uncharacteristically woke up crying from her nap a couple days ago and I could not sing her back to sleep. It was so frustrating! She eventually calmed down after I patted her back and rocked her.
4. I had to make a run to Target for more formula, diapers, and baby food. Story of my life, right?! While there, I had two random ladies approach me to tell me how cute my little ones were. So I just shook my head and smiled in appreciation. That worked the first time but the second lady insisted on entering a full conversation with me about her grandkids and the age difference between them. At no point during the conversation was it appropriate to point to my throat and motion to her that I had lost my voice. So, I waited for her to stop talking and then said thank you without words coming out. Instead of trying to explain, I just went on my merry way. A little awkward!
5. I needed to call to schedule a doctor's appointment so I waited until I had some of my voice back yesterday. When I called, only the end of my words would come out and I sounded like a duck! The nurse had to have me repeat things like 3x.
6. Adelyn loves Blues Clues and watches at least one episode using the On Demand function on our cable box once a day. Every time she watches it, I sing the 'mail' song with her. I felt obligated to do it even though I couldn't sing so I motioned all the words out and she thought it was super silly!
7. Understanding a 2 yr old can be challenging at times as it is... but try having your 2 yr old whisper everything and expect you to understand her. Since I couldn't talk, she assumed that she needed to whisper as well but it became very frustrating for the both of us at times.

I've finally started to get some of my voice back just before our trip to the lake this weekend. You know me... I'll have plenty of pictures to post later! It'll be Ella's first boat trip so I'm looking forward to it. Then we're planning a visit to Six Flags next week.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Boys' Toys

Andrew loves anything electronic or motorized. We've been through numerous sports cars over just the last 5 years we've been married. He calls them his 'toys' and it's definitely something I've had to get used to. He decided to add to his collection today with this:

It's a mini-chopper if you were wondering. It's tiny and anyone who drives it looks like a clown... including me! I hate to admit it but it's pretty fun. Yes, I even took a spin on it around the neighborhood. And since it's a Budweiser edition, Andrew said it could be worth some money someday considering the historical merger in STL this year. So, there you have it... another something on wheels that is totally unnecessary and guzzles expensive gasoline. I suppose there could be worse/more expensive things sitting in my garage. Besides, Andrew has allowed me to contact another interior designer to do some work on our built-in shelves in the living room so I've got a pretty positive attitude right now. I'm pretty sure he planned it that way.

Well, here are the pictures and videos of the girls as promised. You'll find the videos to be pretty humorous- the first is of Adelyn pouting before breaking out in a smile. Sorry about it being sideways. The second is of her hiding from me after stealing some chocolate brownie cookies. I haven't been able to capture Ella's 'ya ya' babbles on video yet but when I do, I'll be sure to post for you to view. I have, however, been able to capture her favorite hobby of thumb-sucking on camera. I would have to admit that as much as I hate that she does it, she looks pretty stinkin' cute doing it (see below). The other couple pics of Ella are of her sitting up all by herself like a big girl last week. The rest are pretty self-explanatory I guess. The little girl with Adelyn in the pool is a cutie that lives in our old neighborhood. Enjoy!

I Shot Myself in the Foot...

... figuratively speaking, that is.

I am an incredibly indecisive person. A shopping trip, for instance, is an extensive process. There's the initial stage of placing things in my cart after many moments of wondering how bad I actually need the item... and then there's the other stage of going back through the store placing things back on the shelf that I've decided that I definitely don't need. I recall from one of my business classes in college this being called 'buyer's remorse.' I call it 'filtering'... and my husband calls it 'ludacris' and hates to shop with me because of it. You would, too, really.

I've decided that I'm partly like this because I didn't have many options growing up as a kid. I didn't have choices to make because they were made for me. One of my many theories. So, in attempt to make my child a better person (in this case, more decisive) I've committed to giving Adelyn many choices. You know... like when I ask her what movie she'd like to watch... I pull out 3 or 4 for her to pick from. Well, it's finally come full circle and has seemed to back-fire. When I ask her which movie she'd like to watch, none of the 3 or 4 will do. She has a completely different one in mind. Further, when I ask her what juice she'd like to have in her sippy cup and give her the choice of apple or grape juice with water, she would prefer to have a fruit punch juice box instead.

So, I've figured out that the best way to make a 2-yr-old decisive, is to give her LIMITED choices. Does she even need to know about the other ones? Because of my crazy theory, I now have the pickiest little 2-yr-old that ever existed. Maybe my parents had it all figured out after all!

I have some cute pictures to post but haven't uploaded them yet but I'll get that done over the next few days. I also have a really cute video of Adelyn throwing a classic 2 yr old fit. I got her to smile at the end. So cute!! I'll get that posted later, too. Have a great weekend!

Ella Bella Butter Bean is 7 months old!

In honor of Ella's 7 month B-Day today, here are 7 facts about our sweet baby that you may or may not already know about her.

1. ELLA has the cutest chubby legs with lots of dimples on them and I love it . (This is why we added the 'butter' in her nickname.) Despite all the chub, she is still rather flexible and loves to suck on her feet!

2. ELLA now wears a size 3 in diapers compared to her big sister's size 4 Cruisers. (I don't know which is more sad... that my little baby is growing so fast or that my 2 yr. old is back in diapers!)

3. Much to my dismay, ELLA is officially a thumb-sucker who prefers her left thumb. As soon as I place her in her crib, she rolls to her left side and puts her thumb in her mouth.
4. ELLA loves to watch our cat. She seems completely intrigued by the cat's graceful movements.
5. ELLA finds her big sister to be very funny. This is the look she gets when Adelyn enters the room:
6. Ella likes to babble in ya-ya's instead of the typical first ba-ba's or da-da's.
7. Ella has no interest in crawling right now. In fact, she is content lying her head down on the floor during tummy time. She can finally sit up independently for seconds at a time but is still working on mastering this milestone. She's in no hurry and I'm not sure I am either!

Lesson Learned

So, we went out to eat with Andrew's mom and dad last night and on the way to our cars as we exited the restaurant, they each grabbed one of Adelyn's arms and playfully swung her over the curb. All of the sudden, Adelyn started to cry in pain and grabbed her left arm. No biggie, right? Well, that's what we thought until she kept us up all night crying in pain and guarding her left arm and screaming "boo boo elbow!" She even let me put her Cinderella ice pack on it. Finally, we decided to bring her in to Children's Hosp. in STL this morning to have her checked out... just in case. We get there and minutes after our visit with the triage nurse, she is doing pull-ups with both arms on the stretcher in the doctor's office. Trust me - we had tested the validity of the injury multiple times on the way to the hospital to ensure that it wasn't a potential bogus visit and it wasn't until we reached the hospital when her left arm became mobile again.

Here's a picture from Andrew's cell phone to be used as a visual. Keep in mind that this is BEFORE we saw the ER doctor. Boy, did we feel like suckers....

Well, apparently this was all legit. Adelyn had what is called "Nursemaid's Elbow" which is common for kids under the age of 4. It happens often when kids are swinging (like in Ad's case) and the the bones in her elbow are dislocated and tissue gets stuck in between. It causes pain throughout the forearm up to the elbow and is easily treatable by simply rotating the arm in a certain way to pop it back in place (but it's recommended for only a doctor to do this). The doctor thinks the nurse popped it back in place when she took Ad's blood pressure. So, there... another lesson learned. A $100 lesson may I add. :)

Miss Independent

"Miss independent... Miss self-sufficient... Miss keep your distance, mmmmm..."

I've had this Kelly Clarkson song stuck in my head all day as I've dealt with my newly independent little 2 year old. Not only has she been super demanding lately, she has to have things done on her accord. For instance, she demanded that she have a piece of cheese today. Well, there could definitely be worse snack choices for her to make so as I went to the fridge to retrieve her cheese, she screamed, "Addy get cheese!" and ran to beat me to the fridge. And don't even think you're gonna offer to help her open the cheese either. That, too, has become an Addy task. Whewww... can't wait for those teenage years.

Anyway, the funny thing is that when I hopped in my car by myself this evening (which is like NEVER), guess what song was playing?! You guessed it. So, I turned it up and totally jammed out to it on my way to town. I know, I know... not the coolest, most up-to-date music to listen to when I have some free time to myself but I just couldn't resist the irony!

Catching Up...

Sorry for the delay in posting. We've all been sick so the internet hasn't been a priority. Plus, we've had BEAUTIFUL weather over the last few days so we've been trying to take advantage of that since we've recovered.

Even though we were still recovering from the sickies, we had a pretty eventful weekend. Adelyn had a birthday party at an awesome indoor waterpark nearby so she had tons of fun there. Here are a couple pics of the party. She was a bit hesitant to get on the slide but she did go down the 'Lazy River' with me and take a couple spins in the whirlpool.

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for barbeque yesterday and Adelyn had more water fun in the sprinklers. She also helped Grandma in her garden by picking some tomatoes.

Andrew and I also got to have a 'date night' so he convinced me to go out in the old Jeep (top off) and drive into STL for my favorite pizza at Cicero's. It was fun but I had to pick out the knots in my hair from the wind when I got home.

Today, Ella started to babble in syllables. I've been looking/listening for this developmental milestone for a while so I was so excited when I spotted it today. So now my job is to foster this babbling by reading and singing to her like crazy. Poor Andrew. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of my sweet little babbler.

I took the girls to the park today and Ella absolutely loved swinging! She would giggle/grunt every time I pushed her. Oh, and I met another mommy at the park who I plan to contact soon so we can schedule a play-date. Her husband is an engineer as well so we were already exchanging cute stories about our incredibly intelligent but goofy husbands! :)

Finally, I wanted to share a couple pictures of our pets sporting their new collars. I chose a pink and brown stripe for Shelby to match her chocolate coat and a modern swirly design with grey in it to match Savannah's grey fur. Don't they look FABULOUS?! :)

Well, I'm sure I've missed something I should share since my 'mommy memory' has been less than helpful lately... but if it's important, I'll post about it later!

Mommy is Getting Old!

We just got back from a trip to my hometown to attend my HS Class Reunion. I got to see people I haven't talked to in 10 years! It was a great time! I don't think you realize how truly important someone's presence is/was in your life until you haven't seen them in a long time. We all grew up in a small town and were so close because of that. I feel bad that I don't keep in touch like I should. Here are a few pics of old friends I've known forever... including my best friend, Meesha! BTW, thanks, Christy, for all those embarrassing photos of me when I was a freckle-faced, style-deprived child! :)

Flashback Friday

I know I've been terrible at 'Flashback Friday' posts... but I came across something just in time for another edition. I made this slideshow about a year ago of Adelyn's first year. Included are pictures of her first 4th of July (which you've already seen), her first Halloween, first Christmas, first haircut, etc... hope you enjoy! (BTW, I can't wait to make one for our blue-eyed princess when she turns 1 in January!)

July Photo Shoot- Ella's 6 Mo & Fam Pics

Here are a few pictures from our recent photo shoot. I think the top is my favorite... her big sister has the same pose in the same tutu so I am a little biased I guess. I also love the contrasting blue background to bring out the blue in Ella's eyes. And I love the smiles that Ella was giving us in the white ruffle bloomers... I think this one would be awesome in black & white. As always, there are too many to pick from! We also had some great family photos with the four of us (in the header) as well as just the Oney grandkids. Thank you again, Katie, for some awesome photos!! We will SO miss you being our personal photographer! :)

Adelyn's 1st Dentist Visit

Adelyn had her first dentistry appointment last weekend. Even though it's a little early for her first appointment, we were recommended by our pediatrician to get an opinion about her upper frenulum which wraps around her gums to cause a gap in her two front teeth. Apparently this is very common and unless it's pretty severe, many dentists don't recommend a frenectomy (surgically cutting it) and allow for the permanent teeth to come in before referring the patient to an orthodontist for braces. The pediatric dentist we saw thought that, because of the severity of Adelyn's overgrowth of frenumlum under her upper lip, we should see an orthodontic surgeon to perform a frenectomy to be sure that it won't cause a gap in her teeth in the long-term. That's the bad news... the good news is that we need to wait until she is 4 or 5 yrs. old when her baby teeth are finished growing. Actually, I am somewhat relieved that the dentist feels the need to have it cut even though I definitely don't look forward to the procedure. I don't want to chance her having a gap in her teeth when she is older because I hear that braces don't always correct this issue.

I forgot our camera to capture her first visit but we did get a few mobile pics on the cell phone. She loved the office... it was so awesome how kid-friendly it was. There were animals painted all over the walls and the 'kid only' waiting room was so much fun! Oh, and she scored lots of prizes (including a new Cinderella toothbrush) for being such a great patient! I definitely don't remember being so spoiled during my dentist visits when I was a child. :)

Besides Adelyn's big appointment, we had fun this weekend at the local Homecoming. Andrew and I had a lot of grown-up time, too, with parties on both Friday night (in Soulard) and Saturday night (in the neighborhood). That means that the girls got to have some quality time with Grandma! Adelyn also had a friend over yesterday for a great play-date. I have pictures to post but will have to wait until I have more time later to upload them. We're off to gymnastics class!

Fam Pictures and Ella's 1st Tooth!

We had our pictures taken last night and I'd have to admit that I am so relieved that it is over! Preparing for pictures for two little ones gets stressful... especially since our photographer lives over an hour away. I always forget something... this time, it was only Ella's custom bracelet that would have been adorable. Unfortunately, our photographer will be moving as soon as they sell their house to be closer to family so we will definitely miss her spoiling us during every shoot. I can't imagine how stressful it will be with a stranger! Ella did very well for her 6 month pictures. We got some cute naked ones as well as some cute ones in her new Tea Collection outfit. We also dressed to match for family pictures... the girls wore this (with matching bows of course!):
I love the polka dots! Anyway, we were also able to get a couple shots of the girls with their cousin Austin. I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out!

Here are a couple pictures of Adelyn last night after the evening shoot. She was super sleepy at the restaurant. (Isn't this a sweet picture of daddy holding her?!)

When we got to Coldstone, though, she perked up and was happy to share some cotton candy w/ marshmallow ice cream (yuck!) with her cousin before she passed out in the car on the way home.

I don't have any good pictures of Ella from last night (I'll have plenty later!) so here are a couple recent pictures of her playing. BTW, Ella got her first tooth (bottom right) on Monday and got her second one today. I'll take pictures when they're a little more visible. She's growing up way too fast!!