Do you remember? The 23rd of ...

Pondering the universe. Literally- watching a show about space.

SEPTEMBER?!? I haven't posted since SEPTEMBER 23RD?!? I even wrote something in October but never actually posted it. Slacker. I really miss writing, if you can call my ramblings writing. But between working, kids, exercise and sheer exhaustion, it just hasn't been a priority. I feel bad because apparently people actually read what I write (blogger counts for me). Like, hundreds of you actually read this. Astounding. I didn't even know I knew that many people.

This post is going to feature my tiny baby Booga. Many of you have not met her, or see her very seldom. She is interesting. She is tiny- still only around 25 pounds. Pretty sure Oskar was 25 pounds at 6 months. Shortly after she learned to walk, when she was about 9 months old, she followed me around the house. I kicked up the corner of the rug and she bent down to fix it. For while she was really into pretzels and would leave them in places around the church. I think she was squirreling them away. There was one day when we were leaving the nursery and she said, "I get pretzel" and runs over to the toy kitchen and gets a pretzel out of the oven. Another time Dan texted me a picture of the baptismal font with a pretzel on it and asked if Ellie had been there. Apparently she had, but I had no idea. She LOVES basketball. There was a phase where she would line up EVERYTHING. This lasted for about a year and the habit still makes an appearance some times.

  

To understand her overall temperament, watch this clip from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 starting at min 1:45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjPe9gcXtT4&t=17s  She is Baby Groot. She definitely has a rage problem and loves to dance and yell. Completely oblivious yet somehow simultaneously tuned in to everything around her. Her voice has always been deafening and remains so. This movie has great music and we listen to it on Pandora. We had it on tonight while we were getting ready for bed. Keep this in mind.

The tiniest helper of them all.

Dan and I had a meeting on Monday and the kids were in the nursery and we heard her yelling, "DAD! DAD! DAD!" Girl had climbed up on the counter and holding her arms victoriously in the air, said "I pooped!" Now that you know all about Booga, enjoy an adventure in potty training. 

Sometimes Ellie gets swallowed by furniture.

She was potty training really well last fall and then she just stopped. Super annoying and she has been uninterested ever since. UNTIL... tonight. No joke, I was cleaning up and the magical Mr. Blue Sky (the song from Guardians of the Galaxy) came on and I heard Ellie yelling from her room that she had to go potty. We've had so many failed attempts lately that I almost ignored her. Realizing this is impossible due to the volume of her voice, I went and helped her use her little potty. She asked for privacy, sat down, peed, waddled over with her pants around her ankles and got toilet paper, wiped, and went to get her potty and dumped the contents into the toilet, still with her pants around her ankles. What the hell? Where did she learn to do this? I'm thinking maybe daycare but holy crap that's initiative. I'm really hoping we are on the road to ridding ourselves of diapers. Knowing her, I guess I'n not surprised that she went all out, but still. Crazy.

Hiding redheads on the beach.

We went to Bonita Springs, Florida in February. Buying plane tickets was probably not the best use of our money, but we had free lodging and we needed a vacation badly. The kids had a lot of fun and it was fun to take them somewhere warm. We were even able to prevent Ellie from getting a sunburn! Both the kids loved spending time with their cousins and I got to go on a 1200' parasailing adventure with my sister-in-law which was fantastic. Although, our toe dip in the water toward the end of the excursion was most definitely a butt dip. The only bad hing about the trip is that between the one million stairs in the house, the stone floors and walking on the beach my lower legs hurt SO much the entire time we were there. I was prepared for it this time because it had happened before but MAN it hurt so much. And no, I was not alone in my suffering. Others felt it too.

This is a story from what I was going to post last October.

We were shopping for clothes for our family pictures when Oskar picked up a tiny dress and said it was a beautiful dress for Elena.

"Oskar, that is too small. It's for a baby."
"When we get another baby..."
"What?!?"
"When we get another ba-"
"WE ARE NEVER GETTING ANOTHER BABY. NEVER." I hope someone overheard it and found it amusing.

I'm very anti-additional baby do to my inability to exist as a self sufficient human while pregnant, much less do a job and care for children. But that got me thinking, would I want another kid if I had better pregnancies? I doubt it, I only ever wanted 2 kids- a boy and then a girl. I got what I ordered. But I honestly have no idea if I would want another kid or not. I just found that interesting. Sorry if you disagree.

Must sleep.

Bye guys! Thanks for reading!