February is Always Awesome

While we've had some lovely El Nino rains resulting in flooding all over San Diego, a sinkhole on the 8 freeway, and lots of days for the girls to wear rainboots - February has had a couple of gorgeous weeks of spring weather! I love having 80 degree days!
The girls enjoyed superbowl at the Kelly house this year. It was amazing because we (the grown ups) were all able to sit and watch the game for once. The kids loved having dinner together and played until well past everyone's bedtimes.

I hope they know that this is what Naomi and I want to see in their future!

Matt spent the second week of February in Kansas City for work. The girls and I made it through a fairly stressful week with a couple of early mornings and a crazy grant budget issue that I still haven't solved two weeks later. The two highlights of the week were the hour I spent working in the backyard and soaking up the sun along with the amazing Thursday evening the girls and I had while we waited for Matt's flight to come in. We went straight from school to get Madeline's hair cut which involved a lengthy wait and both girls being very patient. Afterwards, we had dinner at The Corvette Diner. The girls sat down for dinner at 7pm which is way later than we ever go out with them. They were so entertained watching the waitstaff dance, generally just people gazing, and eating french fries.

Of course, President's Day weekend began the first day Matt was home from Kansas City. He had to go to the office to do all of the normal work he wasn't able to do while traveling. He did meet us for lunch after the kids and I visited Sea World for our first 2016 trip. The girls spent a ton of time touching the urchin and fish. Ella was very specific that we had to start with the penguins and we spent a relaxing 20 minutes lying with the turtles.

Saturday brought Eleanor attending gymnastics and Madeline going to dance. Our neighbors are also in Ella's gymventures class which definitely adds to the fun! Matt went golfing with Mike Shea (in town from back East) and the girls created a very clear schedule for their afternoon with me (earned by cleaning the playroom). We went to the Corner Bakery (Madi's favorite still) for lunch, visited the park, took a walk around the neighborhood, and painted nails.

On Sunday we had lunch and spent the afternoon with the extended Howe family. Both of Matt's aunt/uncle pairs were in town and all of the cousins. It was great to catch up with everyone. Ella was in a great mood and actually wanted to hug people. The only hard part of the afternoon was when my girls terrorized poor Yoda the cat under the guise of wanting to pet him. On Monday, Mom escaped to brunch and do some work for the morning. In the afternoon, we went to the Higgins yard to see all of the Sheas. Baby EJ is so big now and the girls played really well with him and of course with Danica, Brynn, and Michael.

Grandma T took the girls overnight this weekend when Matt went to LA for a basketball game. I have never been alone in the house overnight and I have to say, it as awesome! In the 24 hours I was alone, I did 9 loads of laundry, the house was totally clean, the dogs got tons of snuggles, and I managed to get a ton of my work done that has been put all due to multiple issues over the last week (including the night spent in the ER and day on the couch after Eleanor scratched my cornea). I even got to meet Auntie Renee for lunch in Carlsbad at a place that isn't Ruby's. I am reminded that if I didn't have kids, a 24 hour day would be plenty to get everything done in my life. Instead I am very thankful to my mom for giving me the chance to catch up on things (especially since the kids destroyed her house for the second time recently). Ella was especially excited to visit Grandma since lately when we pull up to the house after school she yells at me "I don't wanna go home, I wanna go Grandma T's house!"

Walking with Grandma T

Ella's poo stance

The girls sleeping at Grandma T's with Bella

Ella wearing a jumper that was mine and handmade by Abu

Dinner at the Brick with Grandma T and Abu

Ice cream after dinner (yep, this one was awake until 10)

Madi is now in love with cones and rainbow sherbert

New clothes!

Cupcakes for breakfast - supposedly to celebrate Bella's birthday

January 2016

January has been incredibly busy! Work for both Matt and I has been crazy and I feel like we have barely been keeping our heads above water trying to get everything done at home. In the spirit of a new year, Matt and I rearranged the living room furniture which led to a desire to paint and our first ever hiring of actual painters instead of doing the job ourselves. Brilliant idea! Our new paint is beautiful, our house looks so much cozier, and it was so amazing to leave for work and get back home to perfectly painted rooms!

Madeline decided to take some time off from dance and both girls have been going to gymnastics on Saturday mornings. They are both enjoying the classes, but Ella is having a hard time making it through the whole class without asking to snuggle and take a nap.
We had parent teacher conferences for both girls this month. It is awesome to hear about the activities the kids are doing at school and their relationships with their friends. Eleanor's teacher says that she is doing wonderfully with puzzles, learning colors, and matching shapes. Ella needs to work on helping clean up and using her big girl words instead of crying. Madeline's teacher says that she is great with numbers, paying attention, and beginning site words. Madi needs to work on how to deal with her friends with they upset her.

Matt made it through my work trip to Claremont, but Ella was in a terrible mood the whole time I was gone and the following week. She is working on molars and just can't sleep through the night (which means I am not sleeping either). Matt and I keep telling each other that once we get through these teeth we will be on the road to good sleeping and better mornings.

Visiting Baby Samantha Johnson - Madi loves babies!

Madi was so excited to hold Baby Samantha. "she is so cute and little"

Zoo trip!

Wren, Eleanor, Madeline - We are trying to take this picture every year, next year Wren's little sister will be included too!

Hitting up the zoo again . . Yay for passes!

Ella playing Uno for the first time! So looking forward to family game nights!

Horse from Grandma T. Ella loves this thing! (By the way, Madeline is wearing my old romper that Abu made)

Dinner out means ice cream too

A floor full of sleeping babies that must be patted

Pouty Madi

Eleanor is 2!

Oh my goodness Ella is 2!!! How is that even possible?
We celebrated Ella on her actual birthday with cupcakes at home. She was so excited and Matt got the most awesome video that truly illustrates Ella's personality!

At two, Eleanor is super talkative. She dances (with surprisingly good rhythm), sings, repeats everything she hears. Ella loves to watch tv and is very specific about which shows she wants to watch. She is learning to share, to take turns, and to help do little activities around the house. At home and at school, Eleanor tries as hard as possible to stand in the middle of any room that is being cleaned and only put one thing away. Ella still doesn't go to sleep easily. Her current favorite bedtime routine involves staying with Madi and whichever parent for books and songs, then sneaking out of the bedroom to sit on the couch until she falls asleep around 9. It sucks. Ella loves watching Matt play video games during these evenings. Ella's new favorite activity is pretending to drive the car. She and Madi can spend hours sitting in the front seat steering, moving the mirror, asking "where you wanna go?" while I sit in the backseat with a book. This has morphed into Ella yelling at me from the backseat "Mama stop, I drive the car not you" whenever we go places. If she is this impatient to drive already, the next 14 years are going to be very painful for her.

Science Museum with Dad

Dinosaurs from Aunt Wendi!

"Yep, I'm adorable!"

"where you wanna go?"

Sisters in rainboots!

When you can't drive the car, just be a car

Stretching with Dad

Sister selfie!

Eleanor has slowed way down with her growth in the past few months. Her two year old stats are: Weight 29.6 pounds (81st percentile), Height 34 3/4 inches (76th percentile and also happens to be exactly Madi's height when she was 2), Head 19 3/4 inches (98th percentile, still huge).
The Sunday after her birthday, we had friends over to celebrate Eleanor and watch football. We set up the tv outside, ate cupcakes, and grilled pollo and carne asada. The kids had a great time running wild and Matt and I ate leftovers for a week. It was a great day and put us all in a good mood before we had to get back into the work/school routine.