Hi folks-
It's been over a MONTH since I blogged last. What on earth has happened to me?! I'm going soft. Actually, it's more that I just have no stinkin' time! And that's a good thing for the most part. It's 10:30 tonight and Craig's already conked out, so I'm taking the opportunity while my eyelids are yet to be drooping to re-enter my technological world.
SO: school started (woot!), both for Craig and for myself, except I'm getting paid to go and he's paying to go. I'm hoping that if I don't think about the calendar too in-depth than I'll blink and next summer will be back again. :-) I'm sure when we get to that point, it'll feel like I just blinked, but right now it seems like my eyelids have frozen for who knows how long. I have to say, however, that getting things rolling this year went SO MUCH smoother than last year. I guess I didn't really realize how overwhelmed I was last year- I was in denial I'm sure- as a first year teacher, even part time. When I started this year I felt like someone took a cement block off of my back and said "there you go, now get up and look around a little and for heaven's sakes, enjoy your job, by golly!" and I replied "WITH PLEASURE!". Anyway, so things are stilly busy, but at least I don't feel like I'm doing all the many things I do halfway instead of well. Craig is taking two fascinating classes this fall: math (okay okay, I admit it, math isn't fascinating in the slightest) and comparative religions. I read Craig's book with him from that class and actually feel like I'm starting to understand all of the things my mom was so excited to share with me as a reluctant teenager. I'll read things and go "OH! So
that's what she was talking about..." So between work, school, photography, kids, callings, and housework, we keep plenty occupied. I'm still in the "this is invigorating" stage. Let's hope it lasts at least through Halloween.
Chloe is almost three. She is entering that stage where all the word's she's been collecting over her short years of life are being strung into all sorts of crazy statements that either make me scoff in disbelief or laugh hysterically. Every morning I go to put on my makeup, she comes over attentively at my knee: while waiting patiently as I begin to put on eyeshadow or blush or mascara, she asks "Mommy, what's that?"
"It's mascara"
"Oh...you like it?"
"Um...yes, I like it"
"I like it too.....what's that?"
"...blush..."
"Oh...you like it?"
"Sure...I like it"
"I like it too"
...and so on until I've gotten everything on. She also is being quite the drama queen now that she has a little brother who's old enough to know how to push her buttons. We're working on it. Still hoping it'll be a short lived phase...She's also incredibley caring. She LOVES hugs and kisses all the time. She'll give me a huge tight hug any time of day that I want (which is great because a lot of times I need it). She loves to play with her baby dolls and wrap them up and sleep with them and cary them everywhere and feed them and love them. She's finally able to take a bath again without screaming like a maniac the entire time (thank goodness). And her hair is long enough again that I can put french braids in it again (hooray!). She's finding her voice and is finally starting to sing songs with us instead of repeating everything we sing after we sing it and she loves to pray herself too. Most of the time she doesn't make it past "thank you for this day" before there's a long pause and we have to help her out, but I love that she tries so hard. Lastly, I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but she's about 95% potty trained (YES!). That means the only diaper I put on her every day is the one she wears to bed. And that also means that that is $20 extra bucks a month we can put back in our pocket. I'm SO glad that we got it done before I started work, I was worried it wouldn't happen at all if we waited too long. But as my coworker often reminds me, no kid goes off to college not potty trained. And she's right, every kid figures it out eventually on their own time. We're just happy it happened!
Linus is a little stinker most of the time. He drools like a maniac, still. He does any and everything possible to get me to laugh, especially when he knows he's in trouble. His favorite thing to do is idly discover one of Chloe's baby dolls lying in a precisely placed spot (i.e. where Chloe has tucked it in for a nap on the couch or where she's left it to finish it's breakfast in the high chair, etc.), grab it gleefully and find Chloe. It's a fifty/fifty tossup at the point when he finds Chloe. Either he'll walk over innocently and say "Hee-go" (here ya go), handing the doll to Chloe, or he walks over innocently until she sees him, and then runs back the other direction giggling madley and holding the doll high above his head. Either way, Chloe melts down completely and has to sit in time out until she can calm down. He also likes to blow bubbles with his drool, help pick up toys, empty them out as soon as they're all cleaned up, run (sort of), and yank Mommy or Daddy's glasses off of their face as soon as he's picked up...EVERY TIME. My favorite moments to watch him, however, are when he finds his soft blanket anywhere in the house. The second he sees it, he rushes over to it out of impulse, grabs it with one hand and immediately his front two fingers on the other hand go straight in his mouth and he falls on his face into the blanket on the floor and cuddles with it. He'll sit that way for a few minutes, and he does it every time, it's engraned in his DNA. I just hope he works his way out of it by the time he's sixteen. That might be an embarassing event on his first date or something like that. He's also picked up a lot of phrases. Not words. Phrases. Such as:
(previously mentioned) "Hee-go" (Here ya go)
"Ah-doh" (All done)
"Ah-goh" (All gone)
"Numenumenumenum! (while simultaneously waving his arms up and down)" (I really REALLY want what you're eating right now)
"Hey-doo" (Hey dude)
"Zow-pe-sash-a-buve-a-goh (garble garble, etc)...." (I have no idea, but whatever it is, he's really passionate about it when he tells me about it)
Anyway, since I wrote so much I guess I have to post a couple of pictures. I wish I had more, but I've hardly picked up our camera around the house the last couple of months, which is pathetic considering how much I use it elsewhere! This was dinner tonight:
They thought they were so hilarious. Every night we also try to go on a short walk around the neighborhood before we start our bedtime routine. I wish I got Linus's face in this shot as well because they were both laughing uncontrolabley at each other because they were blowing rasberries at one another. Oh to be a child again and so easily entertained...
They reach for this bush everytime we pass it. I don't think they've ever actually touched it.
This was the SUN a couple of weeks ago after all the smoke from the fires in CA blew our way. Signs of the times....?
Anyway, I wish I could say that Craig was patiently, or even impatiently waiting for me to come to bed, but he has long since given up and is sleeping the night away whilst I blog it away. G'night all, thanks for tuning in. :-)
Chloe Mar Ellingson: almost 3, blonde, blue-eyed, big sister
Chloe's relationship with her brother: It's complicated. Part best friend, part-mortal enemy, part "I'm the boss of you even though I know I'm not supposed to be". They always give each other a good kiss and a hug goodnight, but the rest of the day is mostly anything but that. She's developed a new habbit of sternly shaking a finger at him when she's deemed his actions inappropriate. Now, when the finger is wagged at her for similar actions by her parents, it's usually accompanied by an even sterner "Chloe Mar!". Now Linus is recieving the same treatment by her sister, who calls him "Yi-yus Mar!". Mostly I laugh and correct her and then there's a quick "Oh....Yiyus Cooper!". 
Favorite clothes: Yes, this is a category because getting dressed every morning is an ordeal. Mostly that's my fault because I can't turn down a cute pair of tights when I see them at the store or a large thrift selection at my infrequent trips, so she's got quite a few items to choose from every morning. She loves these tights, though. She's worn them three times this week already, going from a raga-muffin look with a colorful clashing skirt to Jane Fonda with excersize shorts and bright blue and white tennies. I better curb her (and myself) before those blessed teenage years or we'll be up the creek without a paddle.
I'm grateful for this little ray of sunshine in my life. I'm happy that we are such good friends now, I love our conversations and all her little quirks and all the new things she experiences everyday. My only hope is that I will live up to my role to teach her all those good things of life and pray for her everyday. I love you my sweet Chloe Mar. :-)
