breakfasts with ellie.

somehow, i end up taking lots of pictures of ellie during breakfast. 

here are some of my favorites:

maybe it's because her curls make for the most incredible bedhead?




happy wednesday! 

star of stage and screen.

(we always have to pick all the dandelions on the way to the car.)

ellie has been hilarious lately.
and a pill.
but a hilarious pill.


i have gotten some videos of her. i'll share. :)

the mcdonalds song that she made up:

"mcdonalds! a mickey mickey donnn."

getting all broadway on me:

unfortunately i only get the tail ends of what she is doing. when she sees that i'm filming it she tends to stop, or at least tone it down. she was twirling around the room singing at full volume for at least 15 minutes, then she saw the camera and started humming instead.

sound effects:

she finally met a policeman the other night when she was with daddy and she got to see the lights on his car. then she watched him pull someone over and for the rest of the night she kept saying, "he got his man!"

also, a few things for me to remember about ellie lately:

she came up with her first name for a toy the other day: "karicity." like felicity, but with a "kar" at the beginning instead. it has to do with lyle the crocodile. she loves the books about him, and his mother's name is felicity.

which leads me to her listening comprehension. her storybooks are real worlds to her. the other day she said, "mommy, it's so quiet here on east 88th street tonight!" that's another lyle reference. she remembers so much about her stories - which is usually a good thing, but sometimes bad.

finally, i asked her the other day if we were friends. she looked at me and said, "of course, mom! i love you!"



i love hearing all of the things she is thinking. she has such a wonderful imagination. her mind is always working, that girl.

goals: accomplished?

(this is me, being real - wearing lazy clothes and kids playing around me.)

last year i made 25 goals for 25 years. 

did i accomplish them? 

get ready for a wordy post

or some cute photobooth pictures with some annoying words bordering them. :)

1. eat at least one green, leafyish thing per day.

i really have been pretty good at this one, on average. maybe not every day for the last 365, but i have made a real effort to eat more fruits and vegetables and i usually get in a few each day. green smoothies have really helped.

2. be better at realizing when i'm in a "technology loop" and getting out of it immediately!

having two babies can really stop you from getting stuck on the internet for long.

3. make better breakfasts for myself and for ellie.

4. finish at least one book a month (but let's shoot for two).

on average? yes. each month? no. i just finished reading nightwoods by charles frazier.
5. finally sew that bathrobe for myself before the baby comes.

eh, i bought one. it turned out to be too much easier and cheaper. maybe at some point i'll make a really pretty one, but the one i have works.
6. make a quilt for baby boo.

sigh. i kind of suspended projects like this one indefinitely. right now my two very active babies need my focus and add a husband trying to do school and work full-time... not happening. i'm not that sad about it. i have been able to get some smaller projects done over the past few weeks and i'm working up to bigger ones, such as this.
7. print off more pictures and get a good start on an ellie book and a family book.
not so much. 
8. get organized with the bills and budget. 

i've actually gotten worse... you don't need to hear my excuses, but i still plan on it.
9. get out of bed earlier (i want to say that i'll wake up at 4:45 with the husband but we all know that isn't happening). 

why did i think this would happen? sleep when the baby sleeps has been the rule around here lately. the two have conspired to rarely sleep at the same time (not joking) and so i get very little sleep, much less alone time.
10. make more dates happen (we've been on like, two real dates since ellie was born).

we've done okay. maybe a couple. definitely need more.
11. participate in some kind of organized walk/run. i'm not committing to running, though.

this one i actually, really did! color run 5k! yes! cross it off!

12. spend more time reading with ellie (she likes to "read" to herself, but i need to read to her more).

i've done really well with this one, too. we go to the library every two weeks even though it is usually a challenge to keep both babies under control. ellie loves all the worlds from her storybooks. she asks for specific authors and characters. :)
13. drink more water. i go through phases where i drink a lot and then i don't. back to being a fish.

yes and no. more no. i have been drinking more, but still soda more than water. yikes.
14. take the little family on at least three awesome, memory-making adventures.

i'm counting it. we went to the beach a couple of times, but in general we have spent a lot more quality time as a family - most of it is exercising together and i'm proud of that.
15. pare down my closet and start only buying the things i really want/need (example: the perfect black jeans), not just what's on sale or cute at the time.
16. lose the baby weight (that would be by my next birthday, but within four months would be ideal).

i did it! back to pre-poppy weight (which was the lowest i had been since moving to georgia) in four months and now i am down to eight pounds below that! yes!
17. eat more dinners at the table.

we have been eating more dinners together and dinners that we plan together, rather than a separate meal for each of us. hard to explain, but we've had a big change in that aspect.
18. get back into keeping a real journal. 
no. partly because i have no place to keep something like that from little hands. 
19.  reduce the sugar intake. bake healthier.
20. keep some plants alive.
21. do another money experiment like the one we did last year (where we only spent $100 for the whole week). 
didn't. :(
22. potty train ellie. eek.
she has definitely not been ready. we're going to make another go soon. 
23. keep my room cleaner, make my bed, etc. (somehow my room is the worst in the house, no matter how hard i try to keep ellie out).
24. be better about keeping in touch without the internet.
25. say and show my love and appreciation as often as possible. 
 i hope i've been better, but i always need to keep working on this one!  

15 out of 25 - not too shabby! some of my life changes weren't specifically because of these goals (in fact, i couldn't remember what all of them were for a while), but i think just having them written somewhere subconsciously made me work toward bettering myself. 

i'm still very much a work in progress, but i think i have been heading the right direction. 

maybe i can come up with some new goals for a new year. maybe not 26. maybe 10? 10 per year? 
check back and i may have some that i feel like sharing. 

summer...

summer is almost "officially" gone.
by that, i mean that school is starting (in our college town, ellie's beloved "bulldog town," it's a real noticeable change) and we are going back to a more regular routine.



however, i happen to know that summer will stick around and become indian summer and then early autumn and it will stay HOT. boots and scarves are still months and months away.

summer, we have loved you. sleepy mornings, late nights, dinners full of fruits and veggies, swimming, fireflies, running in the park, parties and parties and parties. we have had the pleasure of spending quality time with so much of our family this summer (utah family, we want to see you soon! i don't know when, but hopefully soooooon!).

i have loved our adventures.

i do miss naps and bedtimes terribly, though.
can they come back, please?

birthday time.

today officially begins my late twenties.

still so much life to live.
can't wait. :)

happy birthday to me.
 (ellie has been singing happy birthday to me all week. it's great.)

later this week i'll have a post about my goals from last year.