Okaloosa Island 2015

We spend the 4th of July at the beach. Other than Elynn hating the sand until the last day, we had so much fun. Since that's been well over a month ago, I'm just posting the pictures because Lord knows I can't remember the details. I'm lucky to remember where I laid my keys down last.

 

The blog makes me sad

 The blog has taken a hit. A hard one. Summer needs a whippin' for how fast it went by. I have to work 10 months (or 20 extra days) now, so between that and a week of VBS, I only get about 3 weeks of do-nothing summertime. Which all of you non-teachers are mentally slapping me for complaining about only getting 3 weeks of vacation.

I've said it before, but if I could freeze time I would do it now. When they don't have me wanting to pull my hair out, they have me laughing the knee slapping kind of laugh.

Elynn's favorite quote right now is, "what dat?" And she asks it about everything. After we tell her what "that" is, she will follow it with either "I wanna ride dat" or "I wanna eat dat."

 Reese is on constant PeePaw patrol. If she hears him outside, she wants me to take them over to him and ride the Kabota or tractor. She told me this week she wanted to put on her "pink braws." I laughed because I thought she meant a real bra- which she doesn't own. She meant her overalls.

 A few weeks ago (on my way home from going to a flee market at 4:30 AM- I don't even recognize myself anymore) I found a little family of dogs living in a pipe. We took some food to them and it was right about then that Reese starting giving them names and calling them hers. Relief flooded me when they wouldn't let us get close enough to touch them. (Also Adam  says if it isn't a tax deduction we can't have it.) So from then on she wanted to go down "snake road" (still not sure why she calls it that, but she has for about 2 years now) and see the dogs. One morning she said, "Momma, the next time we have a meeting with Big Daddy and DD at the cheese place, let's go down snake road and see the puppies." Oh how I laughed because apparently we have "meetings" with our families at the Mexican restaurant.

This little curly top is a hand full. Her go-to self defense methods include, but are not limited to hair pulling, biting, and pinching. Mostly she only uses those on her sister. Recently Reese has decided that she doesn't always want to give over the toy she is playing with to Elynn. It has caused many meltdowns that force me to have to involve myself. It's not pleasant. But isn't she cute????Well...I think this was actually a terrible two's came early moment....

I dare to predict we have a hoarder on our hands. She is constantly gathering things for her bags that she's planning to take with us places. Those bags then get left in my car and once they get unpacked(sometimes weeks later) I find all sorts of things I've been missing. She takes babies and bags and strollers and car seats every where we go. When I tried to get her to leave them in the car while we shopped, she quickly told me, "Momma, you can't leave babies in a hot car!" 

A few weeks ago I was getting ready for work and when I came in the living room Elynn grabbed my hand and started walking while saying "piddy, piddy." I asked her what was pretty and my heart melted when she said "my momma." Sweetness oozes from her sometimes.

One night when Reese came and got in our bed Adam got up to go to the bathroom. When he came back she had already fallen asleep. She jumped when he moved her over enough for him to lay down. She said, "Daddy, you skittled me." Being startled will mess with your vocabulary.

Reese loves to clean with "Chlorlox" wipes.  She doesn't want the word "kindergarten" mentioned in her presence. She cries anytime it is talked about. She wants to stay with "Mrs. A-liz" forever. I think that is only because she heard me say that she has to gets shots before going to big school. It'd be fine with me if she stayed there forever too.

Elynn: Almost 21 months

I haven't kept up with Elynn's monthly updates like I wanted to, and it makes me sad! Here's to a new day though. I'm going to try to do better. 

She had to go to the doctor yesterday because she was behind on a couple of immunizations. She got 2 shots in her right arm. She complained all afternoon about it hurting. Bless her. She handled it better than I would have. She got 2 suckers for those 2 shots though, and shortly after that she chased them with an icee. 

She was in the 10th percentile in both weight and height. She weighed 23 pounds and was 31 inches long. 

She can say so many cute things!
She tells us "I tink" when she poops in her diaper. Reese has been working on potty training her. I'm not so concerned with it until she turns 2. We will kick it up at notch then. The beauty of a second baby is that you don't get all worked up about that stuff. I know full well it will all happen when it happens, and there is no need to rush it.

If we ask her to do something like put on her "jamas" she says "I don't want to!" She loves her Sissy, but she is also very likely to bite her, pull her hair, and pinch her. There are times that I can't blame her for those actions. It's her only defense.

We all lay down in Reese's bed where we leave the girls after they go to sleep. Usually within a few hours Elynn is crying for us. So she gets in our bed, and depending on the night, Reese may or may not make it in her bed all night.

She wears 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes and diapers. Over the past few months as her hair has grown it has turned out very curly. Everywhere we go people comment on her curly hair. Reese asked me this weekend "do I have a curly head like Elynn?"

Elynn loves all babies and trys to manhandle them the way Reese does her. Pate (Addie's little brother), commonly referred to as Pete, is her favorite little project. She is determined that he will mind her and take a paci and a bottle when she tells him to.

She also loves "Me Mouse" (Minnie Mouse) which will be her party theme this year!

Mother's Day and Birthday

Just after I posted about 4 being perfect, we had 3 straight afternoons of this right here. It was pleasant.

 

But it can go from that to this in a matter of moments. 

That's right. Back bends on the coffee table.

Elynn took a little time out of her busy afternoon to prop up andrelax.

PeePaw (known simply as Paw to Elynn) taught Reese how to drive the Kabota. Elynn can't believe the adults in her life are letting a 4 year old escort her around. 

Wednesday afternoon Elynn ran a fever, and it came back again once during the night, so Thursday morning we were at Dr. C's office at 8:00. She also had a nasty cough. I wanted to go ahead and get her looked at in hopes of avoiding a weekend trip to the doctor. We didn't get to see him until 10:30, but she got a shot that she wasn't real happy about. Her little bottom lip started quivering the minute he walked in the door. She weighed around 22 lbs if memory serves me.  

We went to Clay's scrimmage game where she enjoyed popcorn and a pickle.

And there he is. Y'all. He's a head taller than me and he's only 14. So hard to believe that I was changing his diapers just YESTERDAY! He's cute as he can be, but best of all he has the sweetest heart. I repeatedly tell my sister that I don't know how in the rip she got so lucky. Reese would love nothing more than for him to be her big brother.

The girls cheered him on when they weren't busy giggling.

We kicked Mother's Day weekend off by painting the rails on what will soon be the screened in porch. We had A LOT of help.

Reese randomly asked all day "is it time to go to Addie's party?" I assured her that we would not miss the party. There was slip and slide that will be talked about for years to come. And there are scars that may possibly be on her rear end for years to come.

Elynn and Jaylie shared a cupcake.

Because we are mature and sophisticated, we shamelessly took a few turns ourselves. There were a couple of times that children could be heard from the top crying for their mommas, but we pretended we couldn't hear them. ;)

Elynn harassed her baby, as she calls him.

We went home, took baths and went to eat "Mehcan" as Reese says.

Elynn immediately passed out.

Mother's Day started with them cooking me breakfast in bed. Well I use the term "cooking" loosely. I got coffee and a bowl of fruit.It was so sweet and Reese loved being my waitress.

The expected struggle happened while I tried to get a good picture with my littles.

We went to church with D.D. and had lunch at my moms.

Reese wanted to go to her D.D. and Big Daddy's but I honestly didn't have it in me to load up and go anywhere. Reese called and used her sweetest voice to ask Big Daddy to please bring her a watermelon.

Monday was Adam's 32nd birthday. Really? Monday? Who wants to celebrate their birthday on Monday???? We went to D.D. and Big Daddy's for supper and this cake that Elynn so graciously helped with. ;)