Howe's Life

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Eleanor is ONE!

Ella's party was wonderful. Auntie Nee took gorgeous pictures and the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves. It was nice and small since many people were still away for the holiday. Ella had no problem diving into her cake, she seemed to think the frosting was the best part. We got lucky with gorgeous weather so we could hang outside and use all of our fun backyard toys. Ella was gifted with books and it has been wonderful reading new stories at bedtime.

What about us mom?

Seriously mom, what about us?

Lizzie in the sand box and Ella practicing her strut

William . . . possibly eating sand

Paige on the run

Ella's cake!

Getting ready for cake. Getting a bib on is a two person effort!

Madi!

"Why are people singing?"

Cupcakes for Abby

Ella thinking about what side to work on next

Madi and Joss having cake and a chick chat

Big girls in the tent with the babies

Look at what I can do!

William showing us the terrible placement of our plant

Shopping

Mom time

How many girls can we fit in the car?

dancing

Madi helping Ella open her gifts

Bubbles!

Seriously, the coolest picture ever!

Eleanor's favorite part of presents is eating the tissue paper

Sisters!

Ella at one year old is:
HUGE! She is currently 23.8 pounds (91st percentile), 30 3/4 inches (92nd percentile and 3/4 inches taller than Madeline at age 1), and has an 18 1/4 inch head circumference (84%, smaller than Madi at age 1).
Ella loves to growl at animals and things (especially her Lion finger puppet book and dogs walking by) and lay on pillows (and dogs) like she is going to sleep at any moment . . . but of course she never does. Ella blows kisses now and tries to talk to us (she is saying more which sounds like mas, doggy, dada, trying for agua but it sounds like ag, and signing all done and more). She walks very well, inside and outside the house . . . but she thinks she is ready for stairs and jumping even though she isn't, this is a constant source of fear for Matt and I. The likelihood is that Ella will be in a cast before age 2 since she is such a daredevil. Ella loves to climb the slide, climb the stepstool, and climb up her chair onto the couch.
She is into everything! Ella tries to put her fingers in sockets, opens drawers and cabinets (occasionally closing her fingers in them), and climb up onto whatever surface is available to her. She pulls all of the plasticware and kids dishes out of the girls' cupboard in the kitchen and walks around sucking on the empty water bottles she finds there (this has led to a reorganization of many kitchen cabinets to allow Ella to access the cabinets she likes without getting into danger). Ella also loves to empty all of the girls clothes out of the bedroom drawers and leave me giant piles of clothes in their room. I am beginning to think she will be the one Howe in our house who is not OCD about organization!
Mealtime with Eleanor is a mess! She throws handfuls of food into her mouth and eats like a football player. Her lap is always full of stuff after a meal. If Ella is not in her high chair or if you sit too close to her, she tries to feed you whatever she is eating (she also feeds Lani a ton of food, darn dog). Ella eats everything except tortillas and quesadillas. This one is so odd to me, it makes me doubt if Ella is truly mine! If you have an item on your plate that she doesn't have, Ella will yell "ma" at you until you share with her. For this reason, I am sure her diet is not nearly as healthy as Madi's was at this age since Madeline is constantly eating macaroni, hot dogs, and animal crackers (which means Ella is eating the same things). Ella also is just starting to use a snack cup correctly, woohoo, this makes car rides so much nicer. It also means we can stop keeping boxes of graham crackers in each car!
Ella is still terrible at naps and staying asleep all night (though she is going to bed at night much easier). She loves to cuddle and I think when she is big enough to share a bed with Madeline, both girls will be much happier at night.
Matt and I are so lucky to have Eleanor. We survived out first year as a family of four humans and are climbing into an easier year. I am so looking forward to watching Eleanor grow and continue to learn over the next year. It is exciting having a good idea of what to look forward to this coming year. Ella is sweet, loud, and gets along very well with her sister. As long as we can keep her from damaging herself with a kamakaze activity, we will be ok! Even a year into this madness, I am constantly amazed at how much I can get done on very little sleep, how cute my girls are, and how full my heart is with love and pride for my family!

"I'm not doing anything!"

Waiting for the doctor

"Really, I'm not doing anything"

Even when relaxing, Ella chooses to do things her own way.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Post Christmas Week

I scheduled the living daylights out of the children each day Matt was not at home with us during the break. When he was home, we tried to get some things done around the house and relax together (or i tried to relax alone while Matt and the girls relaxed together . . . this usually turned into Matt holding Ella for a nap and Madi watching a show on the iPAD while kicking in the bathroom so I could take a bath with my kindle for 24 minutes. I guess that means we almost relaxed almost together haha)

All these new toys and we just want to play with the box!

The day after Christmas was Organization Day! We had the awesome fun of sorting through what we don't use anymore in the playroom and then finding homes for all of our new toys. Madeline was actually very helpful with this since she loves to clean up, Ella however was not so helpful. We also prepared for Eleanor's birthday party. This meant Madeline and I did more baking (yay) and made lots more frosting (double yay)! We also went to Madi's favorite store for some last minute items . . . any guesses which store that is?

On Monday, I took the girls to Legoland with our new passes (Thank you Jim and Sue). I should have considered the fact that everyone one their mother (literally) would be at Legoland since most kids were on vacation. It was PACKED! We went on a few rides, saw a show while we waited in line for lunch (perfect timing), and spent at least an hour in a little park area that has slides, lego play places, and climbing things. Madeline went down a huge slide all by herself and loved the play area. Ella loved just getting to walk around with freedom and get into things. Next time, I will plan a little bit better!

Tuesday we drove up to Orange County. We had breakfast with Grandpa Dave, visited my Aunt Sue, and lunch with Grandma T and GrandKarl. It was a nice full day and led to a wonderful car nap on the way home. Ella is getting much better at being in the car (as long as she is sleeping or eating) and doing especially well going out to meals.

Bundled up to go visiting

Wednesday was New Year's Eve. Matt worked from home in the morning and we planned to be gone so he could work. Since it was raining, we met Naomi and her boys at the Children's Museum downtown. It was filled to capacity by the time we left. Yet again, I should have considered that everyone had their kids at home this week! We had fun even though it was crowded. The kids played on a climby thing, rode the trucks around, and generally ran their hearts out. Naomi and I hauled the giant small kids around and organized snacks. Naomi got lucky and both her boys zonked out after the museum. I was not so lucky and only one of my kids chose to sleep. In the evening we went to the Gross house for a kid friendly East Coast New Year Celebration. Madi fell asleep on the couch by 8:30. She has never really stopped playing when people were around to play with, so she must have been exhausted. Greg (with Steph's direction) made white chocolate martinis that were so yummy and we missed the ball drop due to Matt changing the channel. It was a great evening and will likely be repeated in future years to come!

Ella was very unhappy when I set her down to play. Blame it on the molars.

Snack time

I managed to end up with a playdate group from Madeline's school and we met up both Thursday at the park and Friday at our house. While I love having Madeline get the time to play with her school friends (who she "super-missed" over the break), it is hard for me to hang out with the parents being that socializing with new people is scary for me. I tried on my pointers from Amelia (no weird teaching stories) and it seemed to go okay! We have even been invited to another playdate this weekend! Somehow we filled Saturday and Sunday up with errands and a dinner at the Johnson house. It was also freezing cold here in San Diego for these days, which meant hats, scarves, and generally being bundled up. What a great reminder of why I don't live in other parts of the country!

While I complain about how many days in a row I had to fill with my kids, I am very lucky to have so much time to watch them growing up. Ella's walking improved greatly over the break and now she always prefers to walk versus crawl. She is also working on climbing onto the couch, standing up on the bed, climbing off the bed, and all sorts of other dangerous activities now too! I am predicting that Ella will be in a cast of some kind by her second birthday. Ella also started blowing kisses over the break, so cute. She is trying really hard to communicate, but is frustrated that I don't always understand what she wants. Madi is such a little mom. She loves to play with her dolls, pat them to sleep, and dress them. She wanted lots of snuggle time over break with Mama and Daddy. Madeline is improving her fine motor skills and completely surprised me by starting to write the alphabet outside in chalk. She asked me daily to write letters for her to trace. Matt and I are so looking forward to see how the girls change in 2015 and how much easier our daily lives get!!

Christmas Week

The week before Christmas was busy and wonderful. We went to Clairemon to see the neighborhood that totally decks out in lights with the Gross, Johnson, and Kelly families. On Saturday, Madi and I went to the Gross house for a Cookie decorating party with the big kids. Somehow I didn't take any pictures, but the girls and Brennan had loads of fun with the frosting bottles and sprinkles. Naomi, Steph and I ended up with lots of adorably messy cookies for teachers and lots of cookies still left to frost later on.
The girls had school on Monday and Tuesday, allowing me time alone to finish up projects around the house. I had a conference call for CREEC, wrapped presents, made a few more cinnamon almonds, frosted the rest of the cookies, finished recovering the dining room chairs (I only did four before we moved out of the condo), did last minute shopping, that kind of thing. On Tuesday, Madeline had a Holiday show at school in the afternoon. The kids sung christmas carols, the dreidel song, and Santa even came to visit! Madi did not make it even sitting with her friends last year, but this year she jingled her bell and even sang her favorite songs.

Sitting with her friends waiting to start the concert

Bell jingling

I had the girls home with me Tuesday afternoon through the return to school in January. 12 crazy days!!! There were times when I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the end, but we got there and survived. On Christmas Eve Day, Matt worked from home part of the day. The girls and I played, got ready for our Christmas brunch (Madeline helped me make the cinnamon rolls and cupcakes . . . she really likes to eat the frosting before it gets put on anything). Madi and I also made cookies to leave out for Santa. She wanted to make these sugar cookies which are rolled in sprinkles and a hershey kiss gets placed on top. They should stay in little balls to make this happen. Ours turned into one giant cookie on the cookie sheet, so we went with flat cookies instead and no kiss. We also started our craft that will hopefully be an annual thing - the girls put their hand prints on a white cloth that I am going to turn into a table-runner to put out during the holidays. Then we can watch their little hands grow (thank you Pinterest, we'll see if this turns out as cute as it looks or if it just becomes a chore).

We let the girls open their gift that have been under the tree from our out of town family on Christmas Eve. Madeline was so excited for present opening this year! Ella wasn't really sure what was going on, but she tried to get involved. Since she loves ripping paper, Eleanor did okay opening gifts. She and Jameson competed for who could eat the most Christmas wrap.

Madi showing off her unwrapping skills

Ella stole Jameson's present

On Christmas morning the girls woke up to the Elf being gone (he now lives in my sock drawer) and presents under the tree from Santa. Luckily Madeline was willing to believe that Santa had to borrow Mama's wrapping paper since I accidentally wrapped all of the girls' presents in the same paper that I had wrapped other presents in which had been under the tree all week. Oops! Next year I will use special Santa paper!

Christmas morning!

"Santa came!!"

After we opened Santa presents, the girls and I got ready and headed over to the Hill's for Harlow Christmas breakfast. We got to spend some time with Lisa and her kids (Sydney is just about old enough to babysit!), see Grandpa Dave and Kay, and even have quick visits with the other Harlow brothers and Great-Grandma Joan. The kids were loaded up on gifts and excitement with many more hours of fun ahead of them! Luckily Ella took a little nap on the way home so she could handle the day (mostly). At home, Matt was working away on finishing the Christmas brunch spread. He and the dogs enjoyed some quiet time in the kitchen. We got home to brunch being prepped, the smell of bacon in the air :), and family arriving. It was an awesome time with family! Madeline (and I) were a little shocked by the number of presents that showed up in front of the tree . . . maybe next year some unnamed people will control their purchasing, haha. It was so nice to feel so loved. Madeline obviously understands presents now as she kept asking "Is there one for me? Can i have another present?" After the massive present opening event, we took a break for cupcakes and alcohol. With everyone sufficiently relaxed and the dogs played with, we dove back in to celebrate Ella being one (almost). Thanks everyone for spoiling the girls (and us) we had an amazing brunch and hope to repeat it again!