scrappin', raftin', and baby einstein

So...today was beautiful, rainy, and then beautiful again. We all stayed close to home exept for Oliver, who spent the night with Ma'am and Pop. He spent the night and then stayed, and stayed, and stayed......I ended up calling my parent's house to report a missing child. Actually, I'm glad he likes to hang at their house. He got 'happy faces' everyday for two weeks straight, so it was a special treat to finally get to stay at their house for the first time in a while. It also gave me a chance to get some scrapping done at home. While I was scrapping, Clay was doing this:

Since there had been SO much rain, he and the guys decided once again to ride the rapids of the creek, or atleast play in it.

Eliza just took a bath and is wearing her gown from Bloomingdales that her aunt Mal Mal brought her from NYC. This one's just for you, Mal Mal.

This is the page I worked on today. It's a family tree for Eliza's baby book- took me FOREVER to go through all of my pics to find the ones that were the right size to crop down to fit in the spaces. I had a pic of everyone except Clay's grandmother on his Dad's side. The page is from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby Kit, which is FABulous.

This is the title page of her baby book that I completed a couple of weeks ago. I wish I could say that I designed this one all on my own, but alas...I straight up copied the design from, you guessed it- Becky Higgins. She is my fave.


While I was working on the family tree page, Eliza was sitting with me on the table in her Bumbo. (LOVE that thing!) I went to scan some pics and when I came back, she had fallen asleep in it! Poor baby, that could NOT have been very comfortable. I moved her to her crib, and she slept for 3 hours. It was lovely.

This is what she was doing before she fell asleep. She watched some baby einstein dvd's today for the first time and actually liked them. It held her attention for about 20 minutes, and then she remembered no one was holding her. She watched it again as soon as I picked her up and HELD her in front of the tv. Silly girl.

Well...tonight's the season premiere of SNL. I'm pumped! While we were out on a date last night, Clay tricked me into thinking for just a minute that LAST night was saturday. We were at Barnes and Noble having coffee and reading magazines, and I jumped up and said we'd better hurry and pick up Eliza so that we could get home in time. He just laughed, of course. Funny, funny Clay....

Fame, Poker, and other happenings

I am hopefully going to see Fame this saturday with some girlfriends. I am pumped. A movie. A musical. A night out. Good stuff. Really looking forward to it.

Clay is playing poker at our house tonight with the guys. This normally would not be a significant thing, considering these guys are at our house A LOT, (love you guys :o) but what some of you may not know is I grew up around poker because my Dad's had a standing poker game EVERY wednesday night since, well....before I was born? I can't remember a wednesday night when Dad's friends (many of whom he's been close with since grade school/ high school) were not around our kitchen table, nickel and diming it. I took a pic tonight to commemorate the beginning of what could possibly be a standing game here at my 'grown-up' house.

In other news, school is completely wearing me out. My new schedule of teaching 45 classes a week is starting to really wear on me. Also, the fact that MANY of the teachers at my school bring their classes to my room EARLY for music which means that I have NO break whatsoever. My 5 minutes becomes 3, somtimes 2, and once today as I was leading a class out of my room through the 'exit' door, another was coming through the 'enter' door. I wanted to bang my head on my piano. I love music, LOVE it, but 45 classes a week? Plus voice students after school? If only I didn't love my house so much and want to continue being able to pay for it. And if only I didn't have such an expensive hobby. I finally bought a copy of Becky Higgins Family History Scrapbooking and am super pumped to get it in the mail.

Oliver got a happy face today, which makes every day this week so far. He is still King of the Jungle. So proud. SO proud.

Eliza went to bed a little early tonight, so I'm going to try and get some things done around this house. This fabulous, beautiful, am-so-happy-we-can-pay-for-it house.

MK <><

King of the Jungle!

So... Oliver had SUCH a great day at school today (following directions, being polite, etc.) that he was asked to be the King of the Jungle. This is a special role in his classroom that entails leading the line, being a special helper, and other cool duties. He was super-excited about this, as were Clay and I. As a special treat, Clay took Oliver to Target and he was allowed to pick out one toy. He chose these:

(that's a super-battledroid and an R2D2 for those of you not up on your Star Wars characters. He is very stoked to have these new guys to add to his collection)

Eliza also spent some time playing in Oiver's room this afternoon while I taught voice. She has a new activity bouncer that she will tolerate being put in for about 15 minutes. Then she remembers that she's not being held and wants out. But 15 minutes is 15 minutes, and we're hoping to work up to 20 soon.

A couple of Clay's buddies also came over to ride the rapids. It's rained here for the past 28 days, and the creek beside our house is HIGH and moving fast, so the guys picked up some rafts and decided to name them with sharpie markers. I think John's is Laquisha, if you were wondering.

Oliver had to check out the action too. Gave him a chance to wear his new UA jacket and rain boots. Cutest kid ever.

First Attempt: Fail

So...tonight I attempted to try to cereal for the first time with Eliza. She's been waking up in the WEE hours of the morning for the past 4 days, and I got the green light from her doctor at our 4-month visit last week, so I figured it was time. I opened the new, pretty bowls and spoons, bought a brand new box of Gerber's rice cereal, had my camera ready, and also had a very hungry baby girl all set in her bumbo on the kitchen table. Into the mouth went the spoon, and out of the mouth went every bit of the cereal. You'd have thought I was trying to feed her medicine or some other incredibly nasty substance. Oh well...we'll try again tomorrow night. In the mean time, she did drink some of it eventually and went promptly to sleep. Let's hope she's down for the night. ;0)

MK <><

finally, a happy face

It was a good day at school. Oliver got a happy face after having two really bad days in a row. I must say, I've been embarressed to have to pick him up at school lately, thinking everyone there would look at me and smile while secretly thinking to themselves, "There's the bad kid's mom". I'm praying that there are only 'happy face' days in our future.

I honestly think that his recent behavior has a little something to do with the fact that Clay and I have been spending SO much time with Eliza lately, and for 4 1/2 years now, it's been only him. I've heard other moms tell stories of how bringing a baby into the family affected older siblings, but I thought Oliver was handling everything so well. It is definitely not easy to juggle two kids and two and a half jobs.

Clay found a used Sequoiah today, brought it home for me to look at, and told the salesman we'd let him know something by tomorrow. Trading my truck for this used one would get rid of my car payment, and I do LIKE the Sequoiah, but all of the buttons and knobs on the dash are worn through, the cloth interior isn't in great shape, and it just looks 'worn'. I can't help thinking about what we could do with an extra $232 a month though. I just want NEW knobs, that's all. Oh yeah, it has a gazillion miles on it too. Just another con. But it is pretty and white. Just not a new as I'd hoped. So...I may have a new old car soon.

MK <><

a success

just finished with the first craft night and some super-cool art was created tonight. Can't wait for the next one.

Am praying that Oliver has a better day at school tomorrow. Need to get a happy face. :-)

MK <><

Craft night tonight!!!!

I'm super excited about having a craft night at the house tonight! Usually, there's a group of guys over here watching an insanely loud movie, but tonight...we're pulling out the canvases and craft glue. I organized my scrapbook supplies yet AGAIN last night so that everything would be really easy to put my hands on.

In other news- today was pajama day at Maxwell and I bought a brand new set of pjs for Oliver to wear since most of his 'pjs' are old t-shirts that are too small for him to wear out of the house. I showed them to him last night to get him prepared for a change in plans (as in, NOT wearing actual clothes to school) and all was fine. Woke up this morning and he'd had a change of heart. "I DON"T want to wear pajamas to school! I go to BIG school now!!! " (sheesh)

It was a lovely morning.

MK <><