Nuttin' Honey

Odell and her little cousin, born about 3 months-ish apart.
I feel an obligation to blog but I'm not sure what to blog about. Some days I sit there and ideas will come to me to blog about and I think "Aw, I should write that down so I don't forget it"...and I don't. I bet that's what "real" bloggers do, I'm sure they have a whole drawer-full of ideas to draw from when they need it...someday I will be that prepared.
I would like to share a little about our quickly dwindling summer. I know that there's still a whole month left of August, but I think most people are revving up for the "end" once July is over. We have been chilling out and just soaking up the sun every day. Okay, actually...nope, no chilling out over here, it's been HOT the last couple of weeks. I know that hot is a relative term, but out here in Colorado we get up into the nineties and I feel like I need to start being wrung out by the time afternoon rolls around. Especially because, although our house stays pretty cool for having no AC, it still gets unbearable around here sometimes when the air get stagnant in the late afternoon. Blecc. And I guess, well...as far as soaking up the sun, it happens in moments here and there, but can I just say that the misquotes out here have been MISERABLE. Truly miserable. I can't step foot outside unless I know there is a good breeze out because they are just terrible. Our wet spring invited them all in and their stay has officially worn out.
Anyway, I would also just like to say how much I love my husband and my children. I read an article once that said that LDS women were especially known for their "put on a happy face" attitude...and I just have to say that nothing is "put on" in this house. Of course there are hard days, I've even blogged about my fair share of them, but there's no reason I can't shout about the good stuff too. And be genuinely content with life. I just love it when I lay down in bed at night with my children's kisses on my cheeks and my husband's arm around my side and think that life is just good.
Some things that Chloe is up to:

• Asking every day when "preschool" is starting (her weekly playgroup).
• Asking to wear a skirt every day, and always the one that is too short for her and doesn't match any of the leggings she has...*sigh*.
  
• Being able to almost spell her name. I know, a lot of four year olds are like computing Quantum Physics at her age, but we're just taking it one step at a time...
• Looking through lots and lots and lots of books on her own. She loves them! Hooray!!
• Being a great five minute at a time babysitter for Odell. :-)
• Giggling and being silly all the time.
  
• Gathering up her pants or skirt and wading through the kiddy pool in the backyard as long as she can.
  
• She got a stuffed pink dog from her Daddy's aunt and uncle that she named "Kayla", and then promptly forgot the name and asks me about it every five minutes.
  
• Letting her hair grow out like Rapunzel.
  
• Beating us all (NO JOKE, she's uncannily good) at swordfight on the Wii. Like seriously...none of us can beat her, it's weird.
  

What Linus is up to:

• Yelling really loud at the library whenever we go like it's normal for people to talk like that. I don't know if I am just more sensitive to it while we are there or because every eye in the entire place is on him whenever he says anything, but I'm pretty sure he's louder there than he is anywhere else.
  
• Getting better and better at letting me reason with him. Yay!
• Completely potty trained for about a month and a half now. Whew! I seriously thought that one was gonna take forever, but once he decided it was time, he was way easier than Chloe.
• Yesterday I warned he and Chloe after they had had about their third or fourth fight in an hour and a half that if they couldn't get along, they would have to play in separate rooms the rest of the day. Later when they began arguing about something, Linus stops and yells, "CHLOE! Let's stop fighting, okay??!" Never thought I would hear that come out of his mouth...
• Starting to look through books on his own as well. He was going through a spout where he did not want me to read to him, did not want to read himself, and completely zoned out and interrupted rudely every time I tried to read with Chloe. Then the last few days he's been doing it on his own...that's eased my worries, his father never liked reading when he was growing up (I'm working on that...)and I thought Linus would be heading down the same road...maybe not though..
• Pointing out the "thunder" that hit our tree whenever he looks out the window.
  
• "AW, BABY! You're so cuuuuute! NO NO Baby, don't eat that. TAKE THAT OUT OF YOUR MOWWWWWFF! *knocks Odell over in the attempt as I'm coming over to intervene* OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH! SOWWEEE BABY! I sowee, I sowwee, I soweee *smothers her with hugs and kisses when I finally get to them to the point that she is wailing and thrashing to get him off of her*" This happens at least once a day, if not more. *sigh*
• Ticklish and giggly as ever and even snuggly sometimes still. :-)

What Odell is up to:

• Crawling for about three weeks now. Tried to teach her how to go down the stairs, although she hasn't figured out how to go up them yet. Not sure she really understood what I was doing.
  
• Claps her hands a lot. Over just about everything, even when she's mad sometimes.
  
• Silence in the house. "Ah.....ah......ah.....ah......ah.....ah......" More silence. "......AH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH!!!!!!!!" Until she gets attention, or she repeats sequence.
  
• She figured out how to fold her arms about three or four weeks ago during prayers. But now whenever I ask her to do anything else, she folds her arms and then looks at me eagerly for approval. "Odell, where's Momma's nose?" Folder her arms. "Odell, PEEKABOO!" Folds her arms. "Odell, stop moving I need to change your diaper." Folds her arms. Very reverent child...
• She's also figured out that when she puts things in her mouth, she gets attention. Now if I put her in the playroom to wander around while I'm doing things around the house, when she sees me approach her as I'm walking by, she immediately looks at me and puts her hand to her mouth like she's trying to eat something she shouldn't. The first couple of times I swiped her mouth out like four or five times to find nothing until I realized she was just pretending to get my attention. Little stinker.
  
• Starting to try to pull herself up on things, sorta. I had a dream the other night that she figured out how to pull herself up in her crib and then fell out of it. The next morning I woke up to find her starting to pull herself to a standing position by herself in her crib. And we lowered her crib that day.
• VERY flexible. This is how she gets to a sitting position: after rolling on to her stomach, she pushes herself up with her arms, does the splits all the way around until she's pushed herself up all the way. No big deal, on with life. Yeah, she doesn't get that from me...

Coming in the near future: my sister-in-law's baby shower (first baby, it's a girl! SO excited about the things I got her, which I will blog about later too...), Odell's big NUMBER ONE birthday (I know, already???), and other end of summer fun-ness. Won't be too long until I'm blogging some "jumping in the autumn leaves" pictures....

That's why when lightning hits you, you die...

A deafening crack out of nowhere. I didn't see the flash, I was sitting in the front room, but it was loud enough that I shrunk back like something was going to crash into me after I heard it. When it didn't, I realized it was just a really loud clap of thunder. I knew it must have hit somewhere really close, but I didn't see the flash, like I said, so I thought maybe somewhere on our block, where I wouldn't have seen it. Well as soon as it happened, though, Chloe screams at the top of her lungs, almost choking on her scream she's so terrified as she comes running into my lap from where she was sitting on the couch in the other room.
"What?!" I ask exasperated. "That was loud wasn't it?"
"Yeah. It was really bright!" she sobs.
"Well it's okay, it's not going to hurt you."
She's still crying her eyes out and won't calm down until finally she breathes, and sniffles, and says, "Mom? That's why when lightning hits you, you die..."
"Um...yes, but no lightning is going to hit you, okay?"
"Okay."
I got on with getting dinner started, then thought for a moment, maybe I better check out back, it could have hit the neighbor's house or something. I peek out the window where Chloe was sitting and see this:

At first it didn't really register. I thought maybe the wind was finally starting to tear the tree apart. But that's a weird way for the tree to start to crack, I thought. Then it hit me. Oh...oh my gosh...I think our tree just got hit by lightning. First I called my mother in law next door to see if she saw it, but she didn't answer her phone. Not home. It's still pouring rain outside, and then I turned to Chloe.
"Chloe did you see the lightning, hun?"
Chloe, still clinging to me with each rumble of thunder that passes. "Yes."
"...what did it look like?"
"...like....a BIG white light."
So the next thing I think to do is call Craig, not that he could verify it for me, but he was just walking through the door getting home from work when I told him that I think our tree got hit by lightning. Sure enough, he goes out back and takes a look, then points out the shards of charred bark and tree that exploded off the tree (we found them my in-laws yard about 40 or so feet away and over the roof too). Then I start to panic thinking how a) about fifteen minutes earlier I was thinking about how perfect the heavy rain was looking as the sun was starting to peek out and how I should take the kids in the backyard to take some pictures of them dancing in the rain. Thank goodness I didn't. And b) the window Chloe was looking out of when it hit, which I had JUST opened wide a few minutes before it hit, is just about 6 or so yards from that tree. Poor Chloe saw the lightning hit the tree right in front of her face. Thank goodness no one was outside when it happened.
Don't worry, though, Chloe is handling it in stride. She already told Grandma and her uncles about the whole thing like it was a dramatic near-death experience. I think she'll be okay. :-) That picture only shows part of the gash, I'm going to go out tomorrow and take some more shots of the whole thing, for anyone interested.

Summer lovin'

So I have about half hour to blog before I need to pack up the kids so we can go to the library. Let's hope Linus doesn't scream bloody murder when his twenty minutes on the library computer are up like a certain last library trip we made....
The last few weeks have been busy! Filled with visiting family and park trips and a sick, ornery 3 year old. I didn't take my camera out half as often as I should have, but I kind of wanted to not be stuck behind it the whole time everyone was out here...so I didn't. Selfish, I know. Here are a couple of shots of the kids with their cousins!







This is just one of the days that we went to the park- actually it was my first trip to the beach at Windsor lake with the kids...lame, I know. We were just going to come to let the kids run out their energy, and it quickly became apparent that we should have brought swim suits. There was no use stopping Linus, so I quickly gave up and just let him get himself as sandy and wet as possible. Which he did.
We miss everyone now that they are gone! It's always fun when Ellingsons get together, lots of game playing, lots of kids running around, lots of movie watching, and let's not forget Mom's ribs. Mmm....ribs....unfortunately, I didn't gorge myself this year on them...trying to lose weight, you know, but I savored every bite of the few that I ate.
In other news, Odell started teething the week that everyone got here (the week of the 4th), she popped three out on top and just popped the fourth one, completing the set, a couple of days ago. She was a mess while everyone was here...literally, horrible diapers, horrible diaper rashes, and a few vomitous experiences that she shared with me that required complete clothing changes and showers on both our parts. But she's all better now that the teeth are through. She also was figuring out finally how to get up and rock on her legs with all the family around within the last week is now crawling in full swing. Had her first falling down the stairs incident a couple of days ago, just down our couple of stairs in between our kitchen area and the play area, but it gave her a good bonk on her forehead. I've now lost the days of setting her down with a basket of toys and resting assured that she won't go anywhere, but I guess after 11 months she had to do it sometime! :-) Also, I got pigtails in her hair this morning. So cute.
Linus also got sick- he was puking at the beginning of last week, and after a few days when he hadn't let up and wasn't keeping much down and was just a horrible, weeping, sleeping, cranky mess, I took him to the doctor. The first thing the nurse did was proclaim that it was probably strep. I scoffed- okay, whatever, do the test if you have to, but it's not strep. He didn't have much of a fever, nor was he complaining of a sore throat. No way it was strep. But I guess doctor's know best, she did a quick swab and it came back positive. I opted to give him a shot instead of the oral medication because I was afraid he wouldn't keep it down. Couple days later and a few too many loads of laundry later, he's now back in underwear (instead of diapers, trying to catch the stuff at the other end) and puke free. Hooray! Today is the first day that he's genuinely seemed like he felt better...I could tell when he started running screaming some song at the top of his lungs around our house and laughing hysterically at nothing that he must be on the "I'm done being sick" high.
Anyway...library time. Wish us luck.