We took the girls last night to Sesame Street Live for their Valentines treat. They loved it, especially Ella. I loved watching their faces light up at the music and characters. Here are some pics.
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| From February 2009 |
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| From February 2009 |
I promise she wanted to go to the show, but was not excited about taking pictures beforehand!
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| From February 2009 |
Rilyn is so excited for the show to start!
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| From February 2009 |
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| From February 2009 |
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| From February 2009 |
Bye Elmo!
My girls love doing crafts and so grandma got them lots of foam hearts, stickers, and letters. They have loved decorating the hearts for Valentines Day. Ella, especially, will spend hours doing this. Tonight, as I was cleaning up the girl’s craft table, I noticed a heart that Ella ‘decorated’ with letters. Let’s just hope she still doesn’t know how to spell words or I have a future in AA meetings with her.
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| From February 2009 |
You’ll notice the ‘Es’ are really ‘3s’ because now that she is 3, she insists on putting them on every heart she decorates. I think it is her ‘signature.’
I’m pretty much OCD when it comes to matching. Picking out my kid’s clothes can get time consuming because of this, so I always do it the night before. And with girls? Well the bow, the shoes, and the earrings need to match so that takes a little more of my time. Yesterday, just a little piece of my heart broke when Rilyn showed me her Barbie that she dressed herself.
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| From February 2009 |
Here as I sit with only Asher home, I am struggling to refrain myself from redressing that Barbie. Just turn away Julie, just turn away.
Life has gotten a lot harder now that I have a full blown crawler, who pulls up on everything, and is about to cruise. (I saw him standing by himself yesterday for a second too…) Asher has already eaten half of a dead spider, (I got the other half out with my finger), and half of a clear Christmas tree light. I’ve also fished out of his mouth one of the girls rings and a carpet staple. Anybody want to take bets on how soon we will go to the E.R.? I just can’t watch him close enough with the other 2 girls running around. So, this brings me to the ‘bad timing’ part. My dear mom decides that it is a good time to clean out a closet full of my old Barbie stuff at her house last week. Wonderful! If only she decided to leave it at her house. But no! She brought it all to my house. Of course, the girls LOVED it and still do and I did get a kick out of seeing my old stuff, but now not only do I have to watch Asher to make sure he doesn’t eat another spider, NOW I have to make sure he doesn’t eat any of this stuff that has been strewn throughout our house.
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| From January 2009 |
These are just the ‘accessories’ for Barbie (which are all, conveniently, 1 inch big). We even have Barbie silverware that is the size of staples! I know I’m going to find a Barbie high heel in Asher’s poop one of these days! (If so, you know I will blog about it!)
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| From January 2009 |
These are some of my favorite Barbie things now passed down to my daughters. (The black case and car were my mom’s when she was little!) And yes, I kept all my stuff in their original boxes, didn’t you?!?
Ella’s year of firsts continue as tonight she got to go on her first father/daughter date. The rule in our family is that you have to be three to start dating (DADDY!) They painted the town red at Chick Fil A and then bowling. Here are the pics of daddy’s arrival to pick up his darling date.
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| From January 2009 |
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| From January 2009 |
And just for fun, here is Rilyn on her first date with daddy in January of 2008. Did I dress Ella purposely in the same dress that Rilyn wore on her first date with daddy? If you know me well, you know the answer.
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| From January 2008 |
Dr. Asher Paquette is ready to operate! Here he is with his personalized scrubs on that Grandma got him for Christmas (now he can look like Grandpa). I had to take these pictures of him today because he is nine months old now! He is a total crawler and loves to pull up on anything. He’s pretty content as long as mommy is around, but he does love a good wrestling match with daddy! We love our buster!
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| From January 2009 |
Here he is at his operating table.
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| From January 2009 |
Open wide and say, “Ahhhh”
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| From January 2009 |
These things feel funny!
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| From January 2009 |
Surgery is messy. (As evidence by my scrubs and chin)
Now that Ella is officially potty trained, and 3 years old, she gets to be a ‘ballerina’. Rilyn was going to do soccer in the spring, but since Ella chose to do ballet, Rilyn wanted too also. Rilyn did ballet last year so she’s an old pro. 😉 Now I have 2 girls in ballet! Recital costumes here I come!! I don’t mind though, because I actually found a time slot at Dance Elements where both girls can be in a tap/ballet class at the same time. Here are some pics of Ella’s first day of ballet.
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| From January 2009 |
Don’t let this cute smile fool you, she had to skip her nap today and she really was like this:
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| From January 2009 |
and this:
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| From January 2009 |
She did manage to strike a few poses for me.
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| From January 2009 |
I call this “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
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| From January 2009 |
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| From January 2009 |
My friend told me about how to make $70 extra bucks a week by:
1. lying down for an hour twice a week on a recliner
2. with my laptop (or a book)
3. and have free childcare
I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity! The only catch is that you have to have one arm hostage to a needle while it is sucking out your plasma (there is a more scientific way to explain the process but you know what I mean). Well, I’ve never had a problem with giving blood so I was ready to start as soon as I could.
Today was my fourth time to give plasma. It just so happened that today my plasma sucking machine ‘malfunctioned’, (which they say almost never happens.)
Except to me of course.
Anyway, something about my red blood cells escaping into the tube that was bringing my plasma into the plasma bag-(hey, I’m not a doctor!). So, for that reason, I had to be disconnected to the machine asap. Therefore, I could not get any of my blood back that I had just now ‘donated’ and I couldn’t get any saline pumped back into my body so I could feel ‘replenished’ from all my now, missing plasma. So, I get disconnected and stand up and walk to get my money that I well earned. I walk about 20 feet and need to sit down.
Fade to black.
Next thing I know I hear the phlebotomist who dismissed me to leave say, “M’am? Are you okay?”
Well, I was all sweaty and slouched over across the chairs, dizzy, lightheaded, and I couldn’t see but black and purple blotches so yah, I was not feeling that great. Apparently, I blacked out when I sat down. So then, 3 phlebotomists and a doctor helped me back to a recliner (I must of been a sight to see for the other 50 donaters as I’m being helped by 4 men and I totally cannot see.) I rest there for awhile and they tell me, “We probably should of given you the saline.” You think so? After 20 extra minutes of rest and a bottle of water and my blood pressure taken 15 times, they let me go. So, am I donating again? Um…YES. They told me the chances of a machine malfunctioning on me again is almost never. I think I’ve heard that before somewhere but I like lessons learned the hard way.
As I was driving home, Rilyn (who was in childcare at the time-the ‘plasma playroom’ as I like to call it) asked me why I give my plasma. I told her that I am saving lives. She got really weepy and asked, “Will you save my life mommy?” I told her that she doesn’t need it. She said, “You want me to die?” I told her she isn’t sick and then she told me that sometimes she has a cold and will need my plasma then. I told her when you are in a hospital and your body is sick inside then you might need plasma. She asked, “when I’m a mommy, will I have to give plasma like you? (she is staring wide-eyed at my lime green band wrapped around my elbow) “No, Rilyn. And you know what? (truth prevails as I grow weary trying to explain to Rilyn how I’m trying to save the world, one plasma bag at a time) Mommy is giving plasma to make money, ok?”
“Oh, OKAY!” end of conversation.
Rilyn loves to talk about what she learned at school. She asked me yesterday, “Who killed King Martin?”
“What?” I said.
“You know King Martin, he made the children of all colors love each other?”
“Oh, Martin Luther King!”
“Yes!! Man I miss that guy! I have him in my heart.”
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Since Ella is now three, she gets to go to the dentist! She had her first appointment today. I was bracing myself for a screaming fit, but she was actually very brave! The hygienist did say though, “I can tell this one is hard, isn’t she?” (She could only get 2 out of the 4 x-rays done and Ella kept closing her mouth during cleaning.) But, the trip was successful in my book because she didn’t throw any tantrums! When the hygienist asked what flavor she wanted for the cleaning paste, Ella said, “cheese”. Hmm…sorry Ella, no cheese flavor here. Ella tried again, “Heart flavor.” Too cute. She settled on chocolate.
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| From January 2009 |
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| From January 2009 |
the paquettes 