The Birthdays via Photo

Corbin's Birthday on Friday, July 25th. I can't believe he's actually two years old! While he was trying on his new clothes, including his light up Diego shoes that he LOVES, Olivia said, "You look hottie! That's a fancy word for bespecially cute!"





The Big Birthday Bash on Saturday, July 26th to celebrate both Corbin's birthday and Eliana's birthday. Somehow, I didn't get a single picture of Eliana opening presents. I can't even believe it. Corbin's favorite, hands down, were the tools from grandpa. Big surprise. Eliana's Aunti Jenn and Aunti Care were having a contest to see whose birthday present was Eliana's favorite. So when Aunti Jenn asked Eliana which was her favorite present, she started listing them all, and finally said, "I just like them all!"





My birthday cake masterpieces. Eliana's was a white cake with white chocolate raspberry cream cheese filling, and Corbin's was a banana chocolate chip with chocolate hazelnut cream cheese filling. I know. You're so impressed. And it was my first time. This is where you say, "OOOOh! AAAAAh!"








Olivia was well able to entertain herself and anyone who cared to be entertained during the party. Olivia actually got a couple of presents too, one of which was a bug puzzle. When someone pointed out to her that it was a puzzle about bugs, she excitedly said, "Yes! I'm a bug expert, you know!"







Grandpa Harland got out his metal detector after the party. I think my kids will be "detecting" and "digging" for weeks now. Olivia was using a plastic golf club for detecting, and Corbin was using some of his new tools to dig in the grass. After finding a couple of pennies, Eliana said, "Just tell me if you find the silver money, that's the only kind I want!"

Fancy Date

On Sunday, we took Eliana and Olivia to Michael's Landing in Corvallis for a "Fancy Nancy" date. For those of you who do not know about Fancy Nancy, she is a little girl who is very fancy but her family is not, so she teaches her family how to be fancy and they all dress up like movie stars and go out to dinner. The girls have been asking for a long time to do it, and so we finally did. Steven and I let the girls pick out their own outfits and ours, and we did hair, makeup, and of course, accessories.

The girls were absolutely hilarious during the date. On the way there, we had this conversation about what kind of food there is to eat there. We discussed that it was a fancy restaurant, so they could probably get anything they could think of. Olivia said, "I want french fries!" I asked Eliana what the fanciest food she could think of was, and she said "Parfaits ... that's french for ice cream sundaes." She asked me what the fanciest food I could think of was, and I told her, "Escargot ... that's french for snails." The girls thought that I was kidding, and when I finally convinced them that I was serious, they were horrified and curious. Eliana wanted to know how I ate the shell.

Then, during the drive, there was this hilarious conversation about fairies:

Olivia: "My pet fairy gave me powers, but not fairy powers, restaurant power. Tinkerbell is the only one who shares her power with me. She's the very nicest fairy ... you have to see her, Mommy. It's hard to see her, you have to pray to her to see her.

Eliana: "So you can't see Tinkerbell so you might accidently step on her? If she's so small, how can you see her?"

Olivia: "She gave me that power too!"


At the restaurant, we walked in the door, and the two hostesses were trying so hard not to laugh at our dressed up little girls. Eliana asked to sit outside (although we convinced her to sit inside because outside was yucky seating) and Olivia announced that she would like french fries.

When the waitress asked what we wanted to drink, Olivia said, "Hot chocolate please!" And Eliana asked politely if they had root beer. When the root beer came, it was Henry Wienhards in a bottle, so she got the bottle and a glass of ice. She picked up the glass of ice and said, "This doesn't look like root beer to me!" When we explained to her that she poured the root beer into the glass of ice, her eyes got really big. She spent the rest of the meal pouring little bits into her glass and then refilling it.

Then there was the wonderment of an appetizer! When it came, Eliana said, "You know, this isn't even our dinner!" And Olivia said, "It's our appertizement BEFORE our dinner!"

Eliana ordered fish and chips, and Olivia ordered chicken strips and, of course, french fries. Eliana was disgusted that they served something that looked like ranch but wasn't with her fish (it was tarter sauce).

While we were waiting for our food, Olivia told Eliana, "I'm daddy's lucky child." And Eliana, ever the logical child replied, "You know, we're ALL lucky." And Olivia says, "Yes. But I'm daddy's luckiest." There's this long pause, and then Eliana says disdainfully, "Olivia, that's rude."

Then we ordered a mud pie for us all to share at the end. It was a wonderful evening.

I think the highlight for the girls was going down to the landing and throwing rocks in the river. They thought it was so interesting how dress-up shoes aren't made for walking on the rocks.

Summer Daze

Today, Olivia rode her bike for the first time. Really, truly rode her bike. After months of refusing to even touch the bike, she got on the bike and patiently pedaled it down and up the sidewalk. Go figure. My drama queen is cool as a cucumber on her bike. She smiles beautifically up at me and says, "aren't you proud of me, mommy?" And then, "I think I'll walk my bike for this part." and my favorite, "My crown doesn't fit under my helmet, so will you wear it for me, mommy?" She pedals carefully where she wants to go, every so often honking her horn without stopping or looking around, just honking while she pedals. She says, "I honk my horn for trucks and ring my bell for cars. Look, that one's a truck, so I'm honking my horn." It's cute, hilarious, and unbelievable. I told her that we were going to celebrate "Olivia riding her bike" day by going to ice cream. I walked and Eliana and Olivia rode their bikes. Eliana was so busy riding in circles telling us, "I took the long way through the college and I still beat you!" that she kept running into things and crashing her bike because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. I think she crashed three times on the way to the ice cream parlor.

I had also told the kids we could play at the park. The problem being that Olivia rides VERY slowly. It took a lot longer to get there than I anticipated. So my kids were playing at the park at 8 p.m. They were the only kids at the park. Corbin was certainly the only one playing in the fountain at 8 o'clock at night.

I'm also putting together an art show with my friend Prindi. It's tomorrow night, and I'm very excited. I think it's going to be great! I'm displaying my stick art. The kids will be singing "I had a little turtle" ... I think they'll probably steal the show.

On ANOTHER positive note, I just finished a ten-day detox, including one juice fast day. I lost 7 pounds and counting ... and with my new glasses and bangs, I've had two people tell me that they didn't even recognize me. The totally weird thing is that a lot of my normal "fav's" taste and sound discusting ... ice cream, chocolate, coffee ... I think I'm going crazy. It's actually probably the healthiest my body has been in a while, but it still feels weird. Someone offered me coffee at a meeting, and after my first sip I almost gagged. Too weird. There's something therapeutic about drinking coffee, and I can't see anything else really filling that gap. I'm not a big herbal tea person, and I'm not sure black tea would be any different. I guess maybe I'll jump on the jamba juice wagon! BTW, have you heard of the new "hot smoothie"?? It sounds gross to me, but supposedly it's good. sure. right.

On the way home from the park today, I realized that for the first time, it actually felt like summer to me. The "do-fun-things-with-the-kids-just-because-its-summer" thing. It was good. Really good. I hope I keep feeling this way for a long time. Too bad it took me a month and a half to get here.

A WHAT infection?

So, I'm totally stressed out about this Corbin thing, and today Steven and I finally had a real good talk and decided he's just not ready. If he was ready, this would be easier. So we're limiting "mommy times", but continuing to nurse. I feel really good about the decision. It's a big relief after the turmoil of the last four days.

However, I now have ANOTHER issue consuming me .... I have a corneal infection in my left eye. Who knew that something like this could come on so quickly?? Last night my eye was itching, and by this afternoon the light sensitivity was so bad that Steven had to come get me. I couldn't drive home. It figures that I can barely resolve one stress before the next one comes. And Corbin broke my glasses this morning. Apparently they're un-fixable (is that a word?). And my eye doctor is on vacation. I'm wearing taped-together glasses with sunglasses over the top. Believe me, I feel REAL sexy! Apparently lots of people that get this have to wear glasses with prescription sunglasses for six weeks. I'm hoping that's not me. I'll find out tomorrow.

And tonight I got stung by a bee. I need a relaxing bath.

What a week

I'm having troubles processing that it's only Wednesday. It has been a week frought (is that how you spell that word? I need Carolynn's new dictionary) with chaos.

Firstly, and probably most significantly, we're trying to wean Corbin. What a harrowing process. Mostly because he's not happy about it. On Sunday night, Corbin woke up at 2:30 a.m. asking to nurse. And since I said no, he proceeded to scream for two hours straight and refuse to go back to sleep. Again last night, he woke up at 4 a.m., and didn't scream, but refused to go back to sleep. During the day, he has been this grumpy monster that I don't even recognize. It's been really hard. I miss my happy little guy.

I know that this is really good for us, I feel that it's time for our relationship to change, but it is really hard on this poor momma's heart. My baby is sad, and I am refusing to offer him the comfort he wants. On the other side, I think it's time that he learned to be comforted in other ways. I just wish it was easier on us both.

Another positive of this, though, is that he is finally EATING! He's done this thing for months where he refuses to eat unless it's something yummy (snacks, sugar) or breakfast or dinner. The whole middle part of the day, he wouldn't eat. Yesterday he ate crackers, a banana, chili with nachos, and part of an apple (and a popsicle ... shhh) ... all in the middle of the day. I cannot even tell you what a relief this is.

So, while I'm playing catch-up from having Courtney and Avery here, plus the fourth of july, Corbin is making life difficult, and that leaves my poor daughters catching the short end of things.

During rest time today, they worked on a little art project:



Oh well. It washes off. You can't see very well in the picture because the purple doesn't show up very well, but it was very tastefully done.

Did I mention that in addition to this week's stressors, Steven and I are on a 10-day detox diet?? So no carbs, grains, sugars, etc. Basically just veggies, meat, and fruit with lots of water. So I'm also craving coffee, sugar, and at this point, I'd eat just about any kind of carbs. I hope I feel good and lose enough weight to make it seem worthwhile.

Awesomeness!

I found this really great quote by Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state. I really really like it and the idea behind it!

"I think really the big changes happen very often at the local level. The most important people in my life were my parents, but the next most important people to me were the people in my community: my teachers, as well as the people who lived in my community and made sure I got home safely at night. These people were very much a part of my life and still are. Some of them I still stay in touch with: That's what communities can mean.

If you've got great family and great friends, as I have had throughout my life, that helps a lot. I'm also someone who has great religious faith. I am a great believer in being able to draw on what the Apostle Paul once said in Romans 5, which is that you have the glory and tribulation also, because from tribulation grows perseverance, and out of perseverance, hope.

In times when life is easy, we don't appreciate enough our religious faith, or the people who support us and care about us and love us. But when things get tough, we have to rely on them. Every time you go through a tough period, I think you're just making yourself a stronger person."

The Green Tinkerbells

Ellie-isms

I whacked my hip on the metal stair rail, and after chuckling at me, Eliana said, "Sorry. I shouldn't have laughed."

Olivia was wondering if we were eating pig for dinner, and Eliana told her, "It's called chicken for a very good reason. Because it's made out of chicken. Why do we eat chicken? I don't know. That's a very good question."

Randomly heard from the vicinity of the back seat, in all seriousness, "I think you'll make a very good mom."