A dad free weekend

Matt had the fun of attending a bachelor party over the weekend. He left after dinner on Thursday and returned (earlier than I expected) on Sunday evening. The girls and I had a packed itinerary while Matt was gone. Somehow I didn't take pictures of anything we did. Maybe I was too tired to remember or I enjoyed the relaxation of the kids being busy during our activity time too much to take pictures. Thursday night took forever to get the girls to sleep. No tears, just no eye closing and lots of mom hair pulling. I woke up at 11:30 in their bed, so I have no idea how long it actually took.

Friday, the girls had school and we met the Johnson family for dinner and ice cream in Kensington. Three adults and three kids is quite the entertaining dinner out, but the girls all did so well at dinner. Ice cream was a hilarious mess, including the expected whole scoop falling off Madi's cone onto the floor (the ice cream store replaced it for her - so no tears). I took Madeline and Eleanor to the park after ice cream to try to exhaust them. We had a great time at the park but the girls still took forever to go to sleep. Bleh.

Saturday started with a bounce house party at the park. It was Eleanor's first invitation to a party for her own school friend. Madi bounced for the majority of the party time. Ella, had a run in with another kid within seconds of entering the bounce house and didn't want to go back in until Mama went in. Once she had a pleasant experience, she was willing to bounce with her friends and no Mama (yay). After the party, Ella took a nap while Madeline snuggled with me on the couch for a little while. In the afternoon, we went to the Kelly house to have a playdate with the Kelly and Lam kids. Naomi cooked us an awesome dinner and the kids ran wild in the pool and yard. I love how easy our kids are together now. They need very little adult oversight and they are generally really good working their play out together. Again, I expected the kids to be completely exhausted (I was). But again, they proved me wrong. Instead of fighting through bedtime, I brought the mat out to the living room and put on Frozen. Madeline fell asleep within a half hour and Eleanor decided to stay up for the whole movie and then another 30 minutes of laying-on-mom time.

Sunday, we drove to Carlsbad to buy some new shoes for Ella's flintstone feet and lunch with Grandpa Dave. The girls got to have lunch at their favorite lunch spot - Rubys - home of train watching and paper cars to play with. They both fell asleep on the way home! Ella managed to get a full two hour nap after we got home, but Madi was good with her 20 minute cap nap. Madeline spent some time helping me clean up the house which was a total disaster of toys since I had not had any time after bed to actually pick anything up. Amelia and Jocelyn came over to play in the afternoon. Amelia brought two bottles of wine, so she wins all of my mom hero awards! The girls did great after a half hour of shy interaction. I am impressed with how patient Jocelyn is playing with Madi when I feel like she must be frustrated at dealing with someone 3 years younger than her. Matt came home halfway through our first bottle of wine and was immediately attacked by his children. Putting the girls to bed one-on-one was so much easier and I am so glad that most nights we can do bedtime together!

Monday and Tuesday after school has been painting time for the girls and I while Matt has been trying to catch up on some work. Grandpa Dave had a bunch of blank canvases for us to play with. On Monday we used all of my leftover house painting cans to paint background colors on our canvases. It was awesome seeing Madi trying carefully to cover every inch of the canvas while Ella just glopped and spread and spilled paint everywhere. Needless to say, Eleanor had a bath before dinner. Tuesday we used acrylics to actually paint on the backgrounds. Madi explored some splatter techniques and tried to make a flower. Eleanor went with dabbing the brush on the canvas and using lots of handprints. Everything devolved into fingerpainting until both girls and I were basically covered in paint from chin to toe. While I ran in to check on dinner, Ella decided to start putting blue handprints all over the concrete and back fence - agh! I tried to clean the handprints and capture her at the same time, but I was pretty unsuccessful until Matt cam home. He ran a bath and managed to toss both girls in for cleaning. Once I had the yard cleaned up, I ended up in the tub with the girls (which Madi thought was "very silly"). I am loving the finished art that the kids made. We'll be bringing them to Grandpa Dave soon for his house. I am hoping that maybe next summer we can do some more canvases and see how the girls art is changing as they get bigger.

Madi hand and painted by both girls

Ella hands

splatter splatter splatter

Art round up

My favorite piece might be the box we used as an art table

Backgrounds . . Ella started finger painting immediately

Ella is 1 and 1/2!

She's actually closer to 19 months . . . but with the way doctor visits get scheduled, we just had her 18 month appointment. As usual, Eleanor is giant! She is 27 pounds (90th percentile), 34 inches (95th percentile), and has a 19 inch head (91st percentile). She stood on the scale all by herself and didn't cry at all when she got her shot!
At 1 1/2, Eleanor has a very clear and loud personality. She is either very happy (shown by singing, dancing, these adorable smiley giggly faces) or pissed off at everyone (crying, laying facedown on the floor, asking to be held while crying, yelling at an octave unimaginable in a small child). Ella loves to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Where is Thumbkin, Twinkle Twinkle. She wants to be read to and likes to try reading with you. Eleanor follows Madeline around constantly. She wants to be as big as the big kids. She gives giant hugs to everyone (as long as she's in a good mood).
Ella loves to eat. She hits Hangry and is inconsolable until the food is placed in her mouth. Ella will eat just about everything you give her, even cauliflower and artichokes. She loves a banana each morning and all junk food. Ella eats chocolate, ice cream, applesauce, fruit snacks, cookies, chips, pirate booty which Madi basically never ate at this age. Pretty much the only foods Eleanor doesn't like are yogurt and sashimi. We tell her to feed her feelings and let her eat constantly so I feel like we will be spending Ella's teen years apologizing to her for her chunkiness.
Ella watches a ton of tv (for better or for worse). She asks for shows by bringing me the remote and saying "doc" or "hot dog" (which means Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). She will sit in her chair in the living room and watch until whatever song she wants to dance or sing with. Then she is up out of her chair and bopping around the living room. Ella likes to take walks with the popper after dinner, chalk all over the sidewalk, and visit her friends. She watches out the window like Madi does and yells "Wren" when she sees Wren walk by then runs to the front door so she can go out for a walk also.
I adore how much Eleanor wants to snuggle (I also hate it when I'm trying to cook dinner or we've been snuggling in bed for an hour). She is very open to meeting people, is more comfortable going to a man than a woman, and I would describe her as outgoing. Ella loves the dogs (especially Jameson) and will pet any dog that she sees in the neighborhood. I am so looking forward to watching Eleanor's personality continue to grow (and I am already doing research on how to help her build patience with others).

This is Eleanor's favorite driving position. Ridiculous.

"Who . . Me?"

Popsicle and a teeny tiny ponytail.

Ella loves sharing her food with the dogs

Ella being devious.

Baby EJ is here!

The day after our vacation we got to meet baby EJ Higgins! He was born while we were gone and both Madeline and I were so excited to see him. My excitement continued upon the actual meet, but Madi was nervous and very shy for the first hour or so that we were at the Higgins house. Ella was NOT HAPPY that I was holding EJ, but she'll get used to it. She did like touching his little toes and gave him a kiss when we went home. He is so tiny and does all of the ridiculously cute baby stretches and face movements. We tried repeatedly to get pictures of the girls near EJ, but they were just too quick. Congratulations to Gisella and Andy! I hope you're ready for me to move in for a couple weeks in August to get a baby fix!

Monterey - Our first trip as a family of four!

Last week, the San Diego Howes took a car trip to Monterey. We left on Saturday morning super early (which meant packing and prepping after work everyday the week before) and drove up to Pismo Beach. The girls did well for the first leg of our drive. Ella slept for a couple of hours, Madi decided that she was too excited to sleep and just watched out the window, read books, then watched shows with Ella on the iPad. We stopped in Santa Barbara for breakfast and some park time. The hotel in Pismo was all about families. We were right on the beach cliff, had a pool, and stayed in an awesome suite! After some time in the pool, digging on the beach, and watching a princess movie from the blow-up toddler bed (the boat) . . . the girls were exhausted and slept so well all night. We had the hotel breakfast and another swim in the morning. Matt met Jerry West's son at the pool and got to have a good sports conversation for a while (something he really needed 1 day into a trip with three girls). After lunch, we piled the girls and our stuff back into the car and headed to Pacific Grove. The girls did well in the car again and we made it to the timeshare about 3 in the afternoon. We took a walk until it was time to check in where we got to see deer up close! After we unpacked, we headed out to dinner with Erin one of my very best friends from childhood! It was so nice to see her and catch up. Matt ended up walking the girls since they were too antsy to sit the whole time after such a long car day.

On Monday, Matt golfed at Poppy Hills in the morning. After dropping him off, the girls and I had breakfast at an adorable little cafe and went to a park to play. We also went to the grocery store and the beach. I was loving the time with my girlies! We met Matt for lunch at the golf club, so yummy. We loafed around while Eleanor took a nap and then walked over to the lighthouse. The views were beautiful and the girls had fun running around the outside yard.

Tuesday we went to the aquarium in the morning. It was amazing! The girls loved the touch pools and the giant wave that goes over your head in a glass tube. We also got to see the penguins get fed (where Matt noted that only our kids need a snack at all times). Ella began to get cranky so we put her in the backpack, shockingly she fell asleep that way at 11 in the morning! It was surprisingly comfy to carry her that way and I go to have a little snuggle. We spent the evening at the park, walking down to the beach, and getting ice cream. The ice cream shop was ridiculous! It was run by an older hippie gentleman who made the waffle cones from scratch and played tons of loud rock. Madeline devoured her first bubblegum ice cream and Ella ate her chocolate chip until it had turned to soup.

Matt golfed again on Wednesday morning. The girls and I went to breakfast again and then headed to Target. Matt ended up being done golfing very early since he wasn't paired with anyone. We all got to go to the beach together for some digging. It was cold, but the girls had fun anyways. After Ella's nap we did some laundry and the girls played in the jacuzzi. This involved mostly kickin gin the water and squirting Matt and I with water from their water toys. We went out for a sushi dinner and then headed to the Dennis the Menace park. This park was crazy! The slides were huge and there were crazy kids everywhere. The girls had fun and Matt was worn out from trying to keep Ella from disaster.

On Thursday, we did the 17 mile drive into Carmel. The drive was gorgeous, but Carmel was a little too busy for me. We wandered through the farmer's market, looked at the fish in the park, and walked around the main street. After some cranky kid time, and a yummy lunch, we piled the girls back in the car for the ride home. We ate dinner outside in the grassy picnic area of the timeshare and the girls had the joy of digging in the dirt and chasing balls.

Friday morning we packed it all back up and stopped for a snack on the way out of Monterey. The Happy Girl Baking Co was so yummy! We picked up some jam to bring home (Madi picked out the flavors) and the girls ate two chocolate chip macadamia muffins. The drive to Goleta was smooth with the girls watching shows on the ipad for the majority of the time in the car. Out hotel in Goleta had a pool, so naturally that was the first place we went after checking in! The girls spent an hour jumping in, splashing around, and enjoying the water. It was a perfect afternoon for the pool, hot with a breeze and very relaxing. We went to the hotel next door for dinner. The restaurant seemed super hip and the food tasted great. Sadly, I woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning. I spent 4 1/2 hours thinking that I needed to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake up the kids while I was dying on the floor of the bathroom. After an hour or so of good sleep, I woke with the girls feeling much better. Matt, on the other hand, started his round of dying on the bathroom floor. Luckily, my mom and Karl were in Santa Barbara for a wedding, so I took the girls to meet them for breakfast. We had a yummy meal and Madi ran with Bella on the dog beach while Ella spent an hour digging in the sand. We collected Matt and headed back home. This was the only bad leg of our drive. We made good time until LA, but then it started pouring. By the time we reached San Clemente, none of us wanted to be in the car a minute longer! We stopped at Grandma T's for a break. The girls ran around, watched the giant tv, and ate dinner. We even got them to take a bath! After the rained slowed and it seemed that traffic had gotten better, we piled back into the car. The last bit of our drive was not bad at all. It was great to see home and unpack. The girls were not interested in sleeping at all after spending the day sitting in the car. So it felt like a normal night at home, haha!

All in all, the trip was a wonderful beginning to family vacations. I loved the time with my girls without worrying about work or schedules. We had lots of time to sing, dance, and play together. Even better, Matt was looking forward to going back to work just to have some quiet time away from all of us!