Easter and then some

I can't seem to keep up with what my kids are up to right now. What with traveling between Houston, Tampa, OKC and work, I feel like I'm living out of a bag.

Swimming has begun in Houston and Tampa and Evi had lost her confidence. It's taken a couple weeks of swimming almost daily, but she's back at it again. A little water bug! And Eli is right behind her. He jumps in right after her, ready or not. He just motors around in his floatie all by himself.

Poor Evi, being the big sister comes with a lot of pressure. Sometimes I feel so bad for her. She's constantly being told "don't do this, your brother is watching!". He wants to do everything she does, if he sees her do something, he's always right behind. Like jumping on the couch, or into the pool, regardless if someone is watching or not! So much pressure on a 5 year old!

She has been learning to ride her bike! She's getting pretty good at it. I still stay close behind because I dread the first time she takes a fall. For those of you who have never seen Evi injured, it's an exhausting experience. Lots of tears, loud constant crying and she tries to be a gimp and not use whatever limb is injured...at all. And I am constantly reminded by my own mother while I'm telling Evi to get over it, that I was drama queen #1, and had to be carried for DAYS when I fell down. I then tell her that was a monster of her own creation, but she doesn't seem to care.

Eli is repeating most everything. He's gotten everyone's name down, but surprisingly, Evi's was pretty much last. He now knows how to make his sister cry when she wants something. And already seems to enjoy this ability. I try to tell her he's going to do this for the rest of her life is she doesn't learn to control her emotions, but I'm getting nowhere. She's just too sensitive for her own good.

Easter was a success. The kids enjoyed their many celebrations and hunting the eggs.

It was fun to watch Mila and Eli together this time. They finally acknowledged eachothers existance. Most of the time it was just to steal toys from eachother, but they would actually play a little together too now.

Boys will be boys:

Eli was sitting on the deck, behind Monet, the cat. I noticed he was really concentrating on her "backend". Then slowly, he raised his finger to her hiney hole...luckily, my reaction was enough to startle Monet into moving, and Eli did not get the chocolate starfish!

Evi & Eli were in the bath together, Evi laying on her tummy next to Eli. I came back in the room and Eli said, "Toot!"

I asked "Who tooted?"

Eli reaches over and puts his finger in Evi's crack! I spend the rest of the bath trying to get him to leave her crack alone!!

NO PICTURES!!!!

I still have no camera!! I don't know where it is! This having 3 places to "live" is killing me! I can't keep track of anything. The kids are enjoying it however. I think they like having more people around than just old mom & dad. But I have got to find my camera!

It was rodeo month in Houston, and we ventured out one cold (it was cold for Houston) afternoon and saw the animals and watched the events. Our favorites by far where the barrel racing, calf scramble and muttin' bustin'. I think Evi & Eli enjoyed the petting zoo and riding the ponies the most.

My cousin Melanie had her first baby, Malin. It was the first "baby" Eli has gotten to meet. She's sweet, and oh so tiny! If only Eli had had a head like that!

Eli is verbal. He finally says "mommy" which is so sweet to hear! He's gotten a few more animal noises down, like cow and sheep. He's a slow learner compared to what his sister was I think. All part of being the second child, right?

One exciting event for us was almost getting to see a giraffe give birth at the Houston zoo. The mother giraffe was walking around for a while with just a hoof sticking out. She gave birth about 30 minutes after we left, but we couldn't have seen it anyway, they had moved her behind a wall. Which was probably for the better. I'm sure it would have a source of nightmares and a million questions.

I took Evi to a wedding with my parents, Auntie M & Mila. We went and bought her a pretty spring dress. Obviously my poor child needs to dress up more because she felt so beautiful in it, she kept singing how pretty she was (with her eyes closed, this was serious singing). And once we got to the wedding, all she wanted to do was dance. So of course, after the wedding party had done their dancing, I ended up on the dance floor with her...and no one else. Eventually Mila joined the party. But it was serious business for Evi. I wish I would have gotten it on video. It was great.
We are still living with Gigi & Chacha, and have spent some time in Tampa too. I just wish our house would sell already, even though it's been only a little over a month, I'm ready to move on to the next step in our process. I'm ready to be there!

Conversations with Evi:
when she felt like a cousin was leaving her out
EVI: "HE HURT MY FEELINGS! I ASKED IF I COULD PLAY TOO, AND HE TOLD ME 'NO, I DON'T WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU' "
mom: "what exactly did he say? did he say the last part, or just no?"
EVI: "JUST 'NO'. BUT HE WANTED TO SAY THE OTHER THING!!!"

at a wedding
EVI:"WHY DO YOU KISS WHEN YOU GET MARRIED?"
mom: " it kind of seals the deal, makes it official" and I give Evi a kiss
"now are we married?"
EVI:"NO, WE'RE 2 GIRLS!" she thinks a little, then kisses me and says
"WE'LL HAVE A GIRL & GIRL WEDDING!"
she also says she's going to marry her brother a lot, which in her defense, I remember Julie Montemayor saying in primary school that she wanted to marry my dad, and I became very upset because I wanted to marry him...so she should get past this!...right?

E is for Echo

Eli is trying to say everythingng. No one can really understand him, but he's trying. He's like a little echo following you around. He has also perfected his high pitch squeal when something is not going his way. It's worse than a girl's. We're working on "help please". I hope it takes soon!
But he is a lover for sure! Scott drove his truck to Tampa and was gone for 4 days, which is the longest he has ever been away from Eli. When he came in the door, Eli burst into tears, it was so sweet. He then hugged him for a long time with that half smirk (his shit-eating grin). But he loves on everyone. Unlike his sister who cried anytime someone came over, Eli runs to them with open arms.
My children love to run naked through the house before bath time. It's funny how quickly Eli picked up on this from Evi. One night while Scott was getting them ready for a bath I was doing something with mom on the computer. Eli comes tearing in butt-naked. Matti (mom's Toto dog) comes running at him and licks his weewee! Mom and I squealed and laughed, and Eli just stood there for a full 60 seconds at least, unsure of what just happened with a blank expression! Scott finally had to pick him up and take him to the bath.
Gigi & Chacha bought a large battery operated vehicle for the kids at their house. It's a Jeep, and it's almost as big as Mali's Jeep Liberty. Eli hasn't figured out how to work the peddle yet thank goodness! (Nor are his legs long enough to do so anyway!) So he enjoys being Evi's navigator at the moment.
Living with Gigi and Chacha has been, well, exhausting! Mainly for my mother, I'm sure. Thank goodness we have an entire upstairs living area (with big screen & our own DVR) and 2 whole bedrooms. It would definitely be really rough otherwise. And here I gave my parents a hard time when they bought such a big house!

We, once again, went to Tampa and hit a couple parks: SeaWorld & Busch Gardens. We also fit in a celebration of cousin Mya's 3rd birthday and beach trip or 2. Eli was finally big enough to ride some rides with his big sister. He loved it!


Eliisms:
truck, stuck, duck, look = all sound about the same, and like the f-bomb
milk
watey = water
bubbles
Tooti = which he says like the kid from "The Shining" says "REDRUM"
and he pretty much repeats whatever your last word was.

Conversations with Evi:
discussing poop...
Scott: "How does something so big come out of someone so little?"
EVI: "I EAT A LOT OF CHOCOLATE"

Talking about going to see Beauty and the Beast and all the singing that will happen
EVI:"I KNOW, AND WHEN THEY START SINGING I WILL BE LIKE, TOTALLY OVER IT"

While mixing her ice cream with toppings:
EVI:"I'M MEXICAN IT UP"

Well, we've made a big decision this month...we're putting our house on the market and attempting a move to Florida! YAY! I'm so excited! We have cleaned out our house of ALL extra items...and I mean ALL! It's amazing! Scotty & I have decided we want to be minimalists in our next house, it just feels so big and clean now. The kids have a different plan though. I boxed up all their toys, except for 3 storage containers full of toys, plus a few odd items that won't fit. Poor Evi, after a couple weeks of those toys, she's utterly bored and keeps asking where something is, and doesn't like my response of "it's in storage". And on the note of cleaning things and boxing things up...I have no idea where my cameras are at this moment, so there are hardly any pix to add to this post. Plus I've had no time to take any!!!
So now we're moving in with Gigi & ChaCha in Houston so that I can drive to work and not have to leave a day early 5 times a month in order to start a trip. I can't wait!! Gigi can though!!
...Now on to my kids...
Evi had her last month of school. At first I wasn't sure if we should send her, but she begged to go to see her friends, and the house was no where near ready, so we let her finish out January. I'm a little sad because she absolutely LOVES school this year. And she has this great group of friends that I like the moms too. But she asked if she'll get to visit them after we move, and was perfectly alright with leaving when I said yes. Although she doesn't really grasp the subject entirely, I'm sure. I let her invite Addie, Lainie and Julia on a play date just the 4 of them, as a going away party.
Evi is totally jazzed about living near the beach, Mickey Mouse, Sea World, Busch Gardens , and of course her cousins, that it seems to be enough to trump everything else. Plus, she wouldn't go to school with these girls next year either since we aren't in the same school zone as any of them. At least, that's what I keep telling myself and everyone else in my own defense!!
Evi still has been sleeping with me, or Scott when I'm gone. How can I say no when she has a smile ear to ear as she crawling into the bed with me? Or when she says, "let's do your favorite cuddle mom," meaning spooning. Surely she sleep in her own bed by the time she goes off to college, right? I've been doing my best to ruin Eli too. If I go into him when he cries, then there is no way he's letting me lay him down anywhere but my bed. But if Dad goes in, he doesn't usually fight it. So needless to say, Scott has all but banned me from being the responder...poor Eli.
Speaking of Eli, he now says his name with the "L" in it. It used to be "E - I!!" Now he says it exactly as his sister does when she's annoyed with him, the same inflections and everything, it's great! If you think his name is short, it's not when Evi says it.
He also tries to say "stinky", "okay", "mickey", "nose", "eyes", and "soda". (Don't even try to have a Dr. Pepper around this kid without sharing! He's already a Pepper!)
We recently went through a 4 day stretch where Eli threw up once a day around 6 to 7 pm. The first day, we think he was just gagging on some drainage. But after that, we highly suspect he was forcing it because he figured out how! So nice, we have a buelemic year and half old son...great! Luckily, after the 4th day he seemed to have forgotten about it...for now.
We had some photos done this month. Bebe has an outfit and rocking horse that both Scott & his dad had their pictures taken on around Eli's age, and I had a costume that was mine that wanted Evi's picture in. Evi unfortunately kissed the concrete with her nose at the zoo a couple of days before we did it though. Still they turned out cute.

Conversations with Evi:
when talking about how Eli sleeps in his bed by himself,
EVI: THAT'S BECAUSE ELI'S A BIG BOY

Mom: "My sweet, silly girl!"
EVI: "I'M NOT SILLY, I'M PRETTY"

after falling at the zoo, while sobbing,
EVI: "WHY DOES THE CONCRETE HAVE TO BE SO HARD?"

EVI: "I'M SAYING THE BAD WORD IN MY HEAD, AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IT, SEE..." she looks me in the eye for a few seconds with a huge grin on her face
"I SAID IT IN MY HEAD AND YOU CAN'T HEAR IT!"
Mom:"what bad word?"
EVI::"I CAN'T SAY IT! IT'S A BAD WORD! IT'S THE ONE YOU SAY SOMETIMES"
(that list has several options)
Mom: "just whisper it in my ear"
EVI: whispers"OH MY GOD"
Mom: "yeah, let's just say that one in our heads"
That could have been so much worse!

Scooby-Dooby Doo!!!

I swear to you, we live with Scooby-Doo!! Eli tries to repeat everything, and it all comes out sounding like Scooby-Doo. Especially when he tried to say "where are you?" Imagine it, it's hilarious!

He also says "there it is" and pretty much calls everybody "daddy" He has gotten "momma" down a few times lately which is just so sweet.
He tries to sing the "hot dog" song at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too.

He answers "nuh'huh" to any question and waves his arm out in front of him like he does when his sister is in his face. Doesn't matter what you ask, the answer is "nuh'huh".

And according to certain people (and by certain people, I mean my family) he is a cry baby... And he is. And I blame his sister, not that she cries a lot (which now that I think about it, she kinda does...she's sensitive) It's that she has what he wants. He knows he's likely to get what he wants from her and possibly us, if he cries. And he wants everything she has and wants to do everything she does. And my theory is that Evi got everything she wanted and didn't have to share at 18months, so I usually make her let him see what ever the item is, and he usually looses interest in it. And she's usually a good sport about it. (of course, I use the word "usually" loosely all 3 times) Evi's a pretty good big sister! But in his defense, he is only a year and a half, and doesn't have many means of communicating. (speaking of crying, Evi is doing just that after her brother whacked her in the head with his monster school bus)

He loves his bath, that is, unless cousin Mila is in it. He ran to Gigi's bathroom excited to get in the bath, and when he saw Mila was already in it, he began saying "nuh-huh", waving his arm and running from the room. Too funny!

Oh yes, and he can open the front door! Damn handles instead of knobs! And of course, he runs straight for the street, giggling all the way.

Evi had her first "parentless" outing. She went to a movie for a friend's birthday with just the friend's parents. She was okay with it until they called on the way to get her to see if she wanted to spend the night. The look of panic in her eyes when I asked was evident. I don't know why I asked, other than pure entertainment value for me. So then after that, she was a little leery of getting in the car with them. But she did, and she had fun. But I was a mess knowing my baby was in someone else's car...

Evi is Miss 20 questions. Seriously, every answer just leads to a new question. And while I hate to squash her curiosity, I also grow very tired of ALL the questions. And some of them are just too deep:
"Where does God live?", "What's a soul?", and my all time fave, "What do they do with the poop after they clean the water?" (when trying to explain the stinky water plant we drive past)

And of course, there were pictures with Santa! Evi did better, she at least wasn't kicking and screaming this time! But after all the big talk about how she would stand next to him, she wouldn't do it, and Eli was untrusting of him too. So in the end, I had to sit with the kids and Santa just sat next us. By the time we left, Evi was talking to him though, she had to in order to tell him what she wanted, and she wasn't going to miss out on a present!

We spent a quick weekend in San Antonio with my family. On the way home, Santa was taking pictures in the airport. And Evi actually sat on his lap! As you can see in the pix, she was holding my hand the whole time, of course. But still, major improvement!!!

Christmas was a success. I went a little overboard, I can't help it. It's in my blood. I blame my mother! Not that I'm complaining, just blaming!
It took 5 different Christmas celebrations for Eli to finally get the hang of opening a gift and
knowing that there was something exciting inside it.


(By the way... All the pix in this post are from my sister & her husband. Thanks guys for some great shots of my kids! I had a hard time choosing!!!!)

M is for Mimic

Evi and I had a girls' night this month. We got dolled up (Evi wore her "high shoes," aka, her plastic play dress up shoes-luckily mommy packed another pair of shoes in anticipation of those hurting her feet, which they did!) We had noodles at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant "Lido's" and then it was off to see Shrek the Musical. She really seemed to enjoy it as she danced in her seat. But sadly it started about the time she's usually getting ready to go to bed, so about 20 minutes into the 2nd act, she fell asleep hard! The clapping, laughing and singing didn't bother her a bit. But she said she had a really good time even though she couldn't hang with the big dogs!

Evi had 2 more birthday parties this month too. One with her friends, a "tea party". It was cute, they all came dressed up and it was all girls. I kept miss counting how many would be there by 2, but luckily 2 girls were last minute sick, so we ended up with enough goody bags, thank goodness! Next time I'll make myself do 5 extra regardless!
I made rainbow cupcakes that were a hit! They looked pretty neat. I am a little proud of them, if I do say myself! We once again did a book exchange instead of gifts, which all the girls really enjoyed. Evi enjoyed it too as long as she didn't think about all the toys she was missing out on by not getting presents!
Her last and final celebration was a fun day Old MacDonald's farm in Houston with family and some close friends. And she raked it in gift wise on this one! Thanks everyone!

We spent a weekend with cousin Mila, who is technically 8 weeks younger, but she was showing him up! Poor Eli, once again, falling behind because he's a second child! Mila was spouting monkey and elephant sounds on demand, pointing out facial features. The only body part Eli could identify at this point was his weewee. "Eli, where's your weewee?" and immediately he looks down to between his legs. Bet'ya don't know that one yet Mila!
We also made a trip to Ren Fest in Houston. It was fun, as always, and spent WAY too much money, as always! Eli rode his first pony (in picture above) and LOVED it! And yes, that is a unicorn horn sticking out of Evi's head (her souvenir of choice). But what struck me the most that weekend is the fact that my son's head is still gigantic in comparison to Mila's! Seriously, it's like he's a pumpkin head and she's a pea! So totally not fair! (from a birthing standpoint!)

One of Eli's favorite things to do right now is say "ah-ah-ah-choo!!!" Fake sneeze, it's so cute. He does the build up and everything. While Evi cried everytime someone sneezed, Eli thinks it's hilarious.
He is all about imitating his sister. He likes to brush his teeth. But not only does he want a tooth brush, he wants to do all the other steps too, like put it under the water and have toothpaste put on it. God forbid you don't put toothpaste on it. He is trying to say "shew-wee" when he gets his diaper changed, but hasn't quite gotten the sounds right yet, just the inflection of his voice. Same with thank you.
He wants to sit in her booster seat at the table any time she's not in it. Usually she plays at the kitchen table if it's something she doesn't want her brother to interrupt, like Barbie, or coloring. But what is cute is that as soon as she's done, he's in her seat, picking up where she left off.


Conversations with Evi:

Evi wanted to play with her easybake oven one night when it was just too late to get it started and I told her no. So she went to her daddy,
EVI: DADDY, YOU NEED TO BE THE BIGGER BOSS AND LET ME PLAY WITH MY OVEN, BECAUSE YOU REALLY WANT COOKIES

Evi is 5!!!

Evi is 5!!!! My sweet baby girl is 5! She once again, gets to have several birthday celebrations. We went to Tampa for a week and she celebrated one night with her cousins Grace & Mya. After opening 2 presents from them, she asked why she only got 2. (just wait, there's a theme here) She celebrated again on the actual night of her birthday with just us, and after opening 4 gifts, she asked why she didn't get more!!!! From there we had a little talk about being greatful for what we have and what a lucky little girl she is to have all the toys she has. I told her that we needed to pick 5 things in her playroom to give to other kids who don't have as much and she tried to talk me down to 3! And then said she knew what 3 things she wanted to donate, but she couldn't find them! Turkey!
When we celebrated for the third time with Scott's family, she asked how many presents she was going to get. I said "it doesn't matter how many gifts you get, remember, so if you only get one present..." "I'll be happy" she said. So at least my talk got through a little! She still has her friend party and a party in Houston with my family to go.
Halloween this year fell on a Sunday, so living in the bible belt, they of course, moved Halloween to a Saturday. Evi ended up having 4 days of costumes: school Fall Festival, Pirate Princess; StoryBook Forest Trick-or-Treat, Cinderella; neighborhood Trick-or-Treat, Mulan (which everyone just thought she was a geisha, yes, I dress my 5 year old up as a Japanese prostitute, come on people!!); and finally a costume birthday party as Sleeping Beauty.
Eli was a dinosaur, and got the hang of trick-or-treating pretty quickly. He would walk up to the door and knock harder than Evi, and really wanted to go in when they opened the door. He wouldn't carry his bucket, but knew how to pick candy out the bowls when they let him choose.
His communication skills are getting better. When he's hungry, he beats on his chair, when the tv is off, he will bring you the remote. (much like his father, the tv always has to be on). He says "hot" and tries to sing with the ABC's song that's on the fridge. He was starting to say "daddy" pretty well. But while in Tampa starting referring to everyone as "nya-nya." No matter who he's talking to or looking for, he says the same thing. He says "meow" for the kitty, and pants like a dog for puppies. He came up with that on his own. And says "WOW" a lot. His great sleeping habits are starting to crumble a little. If he cries out in the night and I respond, he will not let me sit in his room, only stops crying if I lay him in my bed. Damn kids! Always little control freaks!

The week in Tampa was great, as always! The girls got along better than ever. Eli loved the beach. We spent 2 days at Sea World and a day at Busch Gardens thanks to a pass I have from work.
As you can see from the picture up top, Evi is finally not deathly afraid of large characters. After tears every time we've been Disney, she actually ASKED to take a picture with Shamu. When she asked, I moved quickly so she couldn't change her mind. Eli on the other hand was very excited to see the Count walk by. When he tried to tickle him, you could tell Eli wasn't sure of the situation, but at least he still laughed!
The roller coasters were AWESOME!! One of my favorites was the Manta, where you basically ride face down. It was a pretty cool sensation. We even convinced Evi to ride a coaster that did a loop. I had to turn to my top mothering skills of bribery to get her to do it. She kept saying no, so I asked, "what can I promise you to get you to ride this?" She said, "a toy...no a penny" (a flattened penny that we had been collecting every time we saw a machine anyway, and it only costs 50 cents) So I said, "OK! A penny it is" (sucker!) She rode with me, with Scott & Grace behind us. After you do the loop you go into a spiral and she shouts "I WENT UPSIDE DOWN, AND I LOVED IT!!!!"
Needless to say, they loved it and immediately wanted to do it again.