A few videos.

Lucy has been away for a few days for the wedding, prepare to see her and all her wonderful dancing soon on this blog, however, here's what Eli has been up to.  

Eli tried a lemon after doing a Youtube search for Babies and Lemons.  This is the outcome.

There is a lot of stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down going on in our house.

He'll be walking any day now.  He's getting good at walking and pushing things to get him where he wants to go and dancing while he does it!

Happy Fun MEA Weekend.

It's Lucy and Eli!

Can you watch the crawler?

So, I'm a little behind on everything lately.  Today has been one of those days; I got Lucy to school, went to work, hit the grocery store, did the dishes, 2 loads of laundry.  Everyone is fed and happy, yet, I still feel as though I have done nothing because there is still so much to do.

Mr. Eli is pulling himself up to standing and managed to move forward a bit on his hands and feet.  I now stand firmly behind the fact that he will skip crawling all together and start walking.  Standing is all he wants to do.  If I'm wrong and he does crawl, it won't be on his hands and knees.  He's a hands and feet baby.  Now that will be funny.

I think I've decided on a dinosaur for his first Halloween costume, but chances are good I'll change my mind.  Too many ideas.  Lucy wanted to be a monkey and have Eli be a banana.  Then she changed her mind and wants to be Little Red Riding Hood.

Ok.  Even procrastinating.  Back to work.

Just keep going and going and going and going.

We took advantage of the nice fall weather today with a walk hoping to catch a glimpse of Peaches, a lost beagle in our neighborhood.  Unfortunately, we didn't see her, but enjoyed our time anyway.  Lucy is very interested in taking dance so I'm going to try to find her some beginner classes in the area to start and see if she likes it.  She also got a Blue Dragon Award!  These are given out to the very best spellers in the class.  I don't think there is any doubt I'm going to be seeing a lot of these from my Little Miss Spelling Bee.

She also has a fundraiser going on at school.  This is going to cause a bit of a rant from me.  Now I can't say I think it's great that the kids usually go around selling insanely overpriced items and giving a small fraction of that to the school.  Apparently that is no more at her school.  Now they cut right to the chase and just make the kids go around asking for money (cash, check, credit card.  Any will do) and actually encourage going door to door asking strangers.  (This is something they frowned upon in the past and suggested just selling to family and friends for safety concerns.  Now it's stated, stop home regularly and drop off the money so you don't walk around with a bunch of cash).   Granted, they state it's for a "Walk-a-thon", but it doesn't matter if you give or not, nor does it matter how much you give.  Either way, all the kids are going to walk around the track like 10 times as the school cashes the checks.  Are you honestly telling me that all these yuppie parents can't be a bit more creative in ways to raise money?  Right off the top of my head I can come up with several.  This is just a joke and an embarrassment.  However, hey richie rich parents, get your heads out of your asses.  Ok, I'll leave it at that.

Still no movement on the crawling front.  I guess I jumped the gun there.  Eli can push himself up to sitting from his tummy and pull himself up on me so he's mostly standing, but can't move those marshmallow legs to crawl.  I know it's coming.  I think I should go get some baby gates to be prepared.

Eli also had his 6 month check up last week and all looks good. His weight has plateaued.  Which is nice for me because that little bugger is heavy and has a big head...why do all my kids have such big heads? My head is so tiny.  I shop for hats in the kids section and Lucy has to buy the adult hats.  At least they both have my eyes.

Did I mention the new Band of Horses album is out.  Go get it.  So good.

Morning time.

Lucy and I discussed our pet peeves over Caribou Coffee this morning on the way to school.  She had hot chocolate.  I can't imagine Lucy if she drank coffee.

An Open Letter to Minneapolis

Dear Friend,

I miss you.  We use to be so close and circumstances have arisen which have pulled us apart.  I remember the days and nights we have spent together.  All the good times dating back so many years.  The late nights downtown at all the joints that once graced your streets; most of which are gone now, but the memories hold true.  The days frolicking in your parks and shopping in your stores.  Wandering aimlessly taking photos of your beauty.  The apartments and houses I've lived in, Uptown, Downtown, Northeast, South; we've done it all together.  Always something to take in.

Any road trip out of state, I did not feel at home from the "Welcome to Minnesota" sign that graced the borders.  We would detour if needed to be greeted and welcomed back with open arms from the view of your skyline.

Sure, I come to see you, but it is always in passing with a sideways glace as the things I have to do have taken over my things I want to do.

While my address now reads St. Paul, I'm still a Minneapolis girl at heart.  I'll be back, even if it takes some time.

Sincerely,

Me.

Stock photo.  Not one of mine.

I am Iron Man.

It is 7:26 and I am ready for bed.  We've had a busy day.  Again.  I think it's time to have a relaxing day.  Though I say it daily, Eli is still getting ready to crawl.  However, I have confirmed that the things he is doing means he is days away.  At least confirmed by another mother who's little man started crawling just a month ago.  This is our friend.  He's a cutie.  2 month older than Eli, which seems such a small amount of time, but when they are babies, the gap is still there.  He is pulling himself up and crawling around.  it's fun to see where Eli will be soon and enjoy him sitting still for just a little while longer.  I have a feeling once he starts to move, there will be no stopping him.  Ever.  At least I won't have to worry about daily exercise for a while.

It has also come the time to finish baby proofing.  Even without being mobile, he certainly is curious.

We wrapped up our day at the Grand Opening party.  I think that wore every one out.  Except Lucy, who is our playing with friends.  The energy of a ten year old cannot be duplicated by anyone.  Unless they have had 4 red bulls and a pot of coffee.  Even then, the crash is a lot harder.  We did find some super hero masks. So that's a major win.  I really need to stop writing these posts at night.  They are seriously lacking.

Countryfest 2012

That's right, folks. It's that time of year again.  Oak Grove, Minnesota held their annual Countryfest.  I have to say, what a disappointment.  It seems every year it gets a little bit worse. But we go.  Lucy hasn't missed a year and still enjoys it.  Plus, the sweet corn is extremely tasty.  Also, we always win a cake and I like cake. Lucy and Dad went on a bike ride first, and Mom got out the most annoying toy imaginable.  It's ok for about 2 minutes, but then it just goes on and on.  No, I didn't add music to the video.  That is honestly the sound it makes.

We also brought the lego table home with the Duplos.  The video cuts off rather abruptly.  Eli got the Duplo stuck on his finger.  He was very tired so I quickly worked to intercept any possible crying that was going to happen.  My mommy ninja reflexes preventing any crying at this time.

Now my computer is acting up making typing pretty difficult, but all in all a good day.  Perhaps I will revisit this for more information at a later time.  Until then here are some more photos from today taken with my phone, and a few more can be found at secondgradeeducation.blogspot.com.

I think my father has learned the mechanics behind invisible shields...otherwise, this is a very ineffective fence. 

Tired...

Eli and I left the house at 10:00 a.m.  We got home with Lucy at 5:00 p.m.  Then it was back to work at 7:00 p.m.  I'm tired, so today I shall give you the following:

I got a new app for my iphone.  Lucy likes it.

Busy, Busy

It was officially the first day of the 5th grade for Lucy Belle.  And it went great, she came home extremely happy.  I was a little nervous with how shy she can get, and a new school can make for some nervous Lucy, but it was awesome. She made new friends and with the intimidation of her new school being so much bigger, she only got lost once and really likes her classes. We had homemade fried chicken and homemade potato chip for dinner (her favorite) and for dessert???

Creme filled red velvet cupcakes.  Eli and I ran around and worked, so not too much there.  However, he has learned to stand while holding onto things.  And wants nothing to do with sitting anymore.  Unless, of course, he is bouncing on his butt.  He still loves that.)

Lucy is in bed reading before bed, Eli has crashed on the floor and the dogs are worn out and sleeping from jumping around at the smell of chicken frying.  With everyone calmed down and in bed, I feel it was a productive day.  Yet, just for a smile...a funny turtle.

Oh and why did they stop making Pom Iced Tea, and if they haven't, why can't I find it.  I've started adding regular Pom juice to my homemade iced tea.  It's good, but not the same.

Sunday Funday

Today, I started my coasters.  Well, one of them.  It's a test run and I've already learned a few things so I should have it down when I make an entire batch.  Eli is SO close to crawling.  He was practicing while I worked on my project.  You can see him getting ready to move on the video below.  It's a little long for not much happening, but I thought I'd leave it on just in case.  Pretty low key day for us.  Ate some watermelon.  That went over very well.

On a side note...

Fun. doesn't even compare to The Format...however, if I pick and choose songs, it still makes me super happy.

Just another video because he was so funny today.

Saturday

Remember when I said, the teething is worse at night.  I take that back.  There were 2 mini naps today and the rest of the day was awake time.  Lucky for me, Eli was in an awesome mood most of the time.

  As shown in the above video.  When he wasn't, we would just find a new activity and that seemed to do the trick.  We played a lot of peek a boo, sang and danced, took a bath in the big tub, johnny jump up, tried some bananas  with mixed berries. I feel like I didn't do anything, yet I'm exhausted.

Look at these rosy cheeks, those teeth will be here soon.  (I hope).

We did manage to get to Lowe's for our supplies, but haven't been able to get started yet, that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Currently listening to (well watching): Buffy Marathon

Currently Love: String cheese.

Friday

Its 8:00 and I’m in bed.  This is the way things are going lately.  Eli is teething and it seems worse at night (or just worse because he’s sleepy), so the dogs and I are getting into bed early to stay near him if he wakes up. 

It’s been a long week for numerous reasons.  However, today, we went shopping.  Lucy starts the 5^th grade on Tuesday and we went looking for clothes.  My goodness I had no idea the taste of 10 year old girls is the same as back in 1988. Neon everywhere.  If they bring back hyper color and hammer pants, I think we really need to do something about this.   She managed to find some things she liked and we spent the rest of the day relaxing around the house until she got picked up for the weekend. Lucy got new clothes, Eli got this guy:

Lucy didn't want to put on her new clothes for photos.  Maybe next time.  

Eli is on the verge of crawling.  He bounces up and down when he’s sitting and reaching, leans forward, just about reaches the hands and knees and then….face plant!  Luckily he thinks it is pretty funny. 

Currently Listening to: Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

Things I currently love:

My new Apple Airport Extreme. 

While I have a built in hatred for anything labeled “extreme”; this morning the router went out.  While I’m sure I could have spent hours upon hours trying to troubleshoot the damn thing, it wasn’t very strong anyway.  Unless I was hard wired, everything loaded very slowly.  Today I decided to avoid the stress of customer service phone calls and trouble shooting on a computer that has been infected with laziness.  (I have a sort of keyboard virus which constant types z’s.  I won’t even go into the lengthy process on how I just got those 2 into this post. Anyway, now I’ve just dumbed it down to my computer has a lazy virus that it can’t seem kick).  The point of that entire ramble, I got a new router.  It is fantastic.  

Homemade Iced Tea

Yes, I can get this at the store, but it never tastes quite the same.  Plus, I’ve got the ratios down perfectly to my liking. 

Remote Shutter

Relying on the timer on my camera is just too much when trying to get several kids into a photo.  This thing is extremely handy. 

Tomorrow:  Polaroid Coasters.  Let’s see how that goes.