My Little Brother

While the everyday happenings of an almost three year old and a nearly one year old are thrilling, the big people do fun stuff too. I am so proud of my little brother who is getting his MFA in creative writing and poetry at Virginia Tech. He has written some amazing poems and just finished a novel. One of his poems was just published in the Boxcar Review and here is a link:

http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/main.html

He was named one of the Best New Poets of the Year.

Congratulations, Spook, we are so proud of you!

First Day of School!!

No, this is not an incredibly delayed post. Today was actually the first day of school. Ella is going to preschool 3 afternoons a week and today was the very first day. Because her school believes in transitions, it was also my first day back to school. Ella and I went together and she knows that when she is ready Mommy won't go to school with her, she gets to go all by herself. From the looks of today it will not be a long transition!

Another first today...Ella cut her hair. This morning I cut her bangs as I tend to do when they become abnormally shaggy. Ella has also acquired the freedom to sit at the table and do art projects (with me 5 feet away) while I cook dinner, clean the kitchen, etc. if she is awake and Charlotte is sleeping. Of course, Ella wanted to be like me. So she cut her hair. The good news is that the layered look is in right now, so she is quite fashionable. And when it is in pigtails you can't even tell. It took me about 15 minutes to see the humor of cutting her own hair the first day of school, but I got there.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Standing outside school on the first day


At the cornmeal table with YaYa


Playing outside


Rug time splits


The whole class and teachers!

Several Milestones

Well, a lot has been going on this house lately, so much that I have not been keeping up with writing about it all.

Ella has her own big girl bed and she loves it. No side rail even. She is great about going to bed and taking naps in it and sometimes will find her blankie (fifi) and paci and head to it when she tells me she needs some quiet time.

Also, she is toilet trained! It wasn't as bad as I feared. Yay Ella! Her reward for potty training was that she got to pick out her very own nail polish (or paint polish as she calls it). She picked pink. We were all so very surprised.

Charlotte started eating solids 2 months ago (plus a few weeks) and after 2 months of baby food she decided she was too big for that, she wanted the real thing. So no more spoon for her (unless I can sneak it in quickly!). At not even 9 months she wants only finger foods. They grow up fast in LA.

Charlotte has her first tooth barely poking through, and she can crawl. She still prefers not to (yay?) most of the time, but if there is something of Ella's she REALLY wants she can get there.

We have been enjoying the perks of LA (NOT the 90 plus heat still!) like going to Disneyland, seeing the Twins play in Anaheim, going to the farmer's market (live music and pony rides make it a fun trip for all) and swimming in our little pool and Lil's big pool. Each night in her prayers Ella's list continues to grow. It includes family, friends in LA, friends in MN, friends she only sees on their blogs, and recent additions are the little pool, the big pool and my big girl bed.

Funny comments:
Do you have to use the bathroom? No, I don't have any pee-pee in my lungs.
This morning she informed me that when I was little and she was my mommy she could have it (whatever I told her she could not have at the time).
In 2 minutes mommy, I have to send an email to my friends and write on the blog.

Walsh Designs

Well, I finally have added another blog, with lots of baby photos - but this one is for my (teeny tiny) home business that I am trying to get started. The website is:

http://walshdesigns.blogspot.com/

Currently available are birth announcements and holiday cards, but many more options will be coming soon.

Is that too much self-promotion?

Thanks for checking in,
Deirdre