Catch-up

Well, I thought that this was going to be the month where I blogged all the time.  Ha!  That didn't happen!  So, here I am the last day of the month, sitting on the couch and watching The Bachlorette and trying to cram in 2 weeks worth of what's been going on in one post.  I thought a photo recap of the past two weeks was the only way I could go about getting everything that I had hoped to write about these past two weeks.

The girls helping Chris prepare mashed potatoes.  Every opportunity that we have to get the girls in the kitchen to help us out, we are all about it.  Chris and I both agree that it's important for them to be comfortable in the kitchen and to learn how food is prepared.  They really do love it.  Keep in mind that they are 3 and 23 months old so they won't be able to hang in the kitchen for the whole process of baking some cookies.  Yesterday they helped Chris make apple crumble.  We actually called it apple pie.  Maddie has been going crazy over apple pie.  She's never had it or seen one before but about two weeks ago whenever you asked her what she was making in her kitchen or what she was going to pick up at Costco, her reply would always be "apple pie."  So, Chris made her some pie.  

This was Ella on her last day of preschool.  Tomorrow it will be two weeks since she has been on summer break.  So far, we are all handling it fairly well.  There's been a couple more uses of the time-out spot but we're managing.  We're looking forward to swim classes in a couple of weeks and hopefully spending some days at the zoo.

When Chris saw this picture of Maddie, he said, " That's my gungy."  And he's right, this face is so her.  She's such a little ham.  T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

This is Ella and Maddie's cousin, Ruby.  They LOVE her!  Seriously, Ella talks about her all the time and tells us that one day she's going to be a big girl like Ruby.  Ruby is four.  My brother and his family are in the process of moving to Montgomery, AL and we couldn't be more excited.  This will probably be one of the only times that they will ever live this close, so we plan on taking full advantage of it and seeing them quite often.  I am sure they will be sick of us by next summer and ready to move on to their next location!  It's so cute seeing all of them play together.  It will be great for the girls to live close to one of their cousins and see her on a pretty regular basis.

 

Maddie, fast asleep on my parents bed.  Her first time taking a nap on a big bed.  I had put Ella and Maddie down for a nap at my parents house.  They just started to share the same room at their house.  Ella sleeps in a twin bed and Maddie in the pack-n-play.  I went upstairs to check on them to find Maddie out of the pack-n-play, running around the room naked.  So, no more pack-n-play.  Let's hope she doesn't figure out how to climb out of her crib any time soon.  I don't know what we are going to do if that happens!



Sweet girls.

This is what Ella was doing yesterday while Chris and I were busy packing up some things in the house.  She thought Cooper need to be tucked in as well.  

This is what Maddie was up to while Chris and I were cleaning up the kitchen.  This girl loves her winter hats.



23 months old today.



Ella doing one of her "cool tricks"

And that's the 2 week catch up!  Maybe June will be my month were I actually follow through with blogging on a regular basis.  

Gungy

What is a Gungy you ask?  Or maybe you're thinking how on earth do I pronounce Gungy.  I actually just spent the last five minutes trying to figure out how to spell it, so I'm winging it.  

Anyway, this is our little Gungy -

 

Ella came up with the word Gungy.  I don't know, just one day she starting calling Maddie "Gungy" and the nickname stuck.  I can't even remember when it started, maybe a year ago?  I do remember the first time Ella called her by that name.  Ella loves going to get Maddie when she wakes up from her nap.  She gets really excited and starts jumping up and down when I tell her that Maddie is awake.  One day after I told her Maddie was up, she said, "Hey, let's go get Gungy."  Not really sure if Maddie is going to appreciate that name when she gets older.  Well, she can thank her big sister for that one.  

We're big into nicknames around here right now.  Ella has recently started referring to Chris and myself as Daddy-Tron and Mommy-Tron and of course, Maddie is Gungy-Tron.  Nothing like adding a "tron" onto the back of your name to make you feel special or to make you feel like you should be in the next Transformers movie.  It's pretty catchy because we now sometimes refer to the girls as "The trons."  

Anyway, lots going on with us.  We're in the process of picking a realtor to help us sell this place so we can move.  Yay!!  We've spent the last week cleaning, and donating, and taking things to storage, throwing things away, and cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning.  We have a lot more to do but we've definitely taken some big steps this past week.  

Ella's last day of preschool is next Tuesday. She is ready for summer break.  Not so sure that I am!  

Yes, she can throw

It was suppose to rain here all weekend so on Friday night after a great dinner, we decided we should take the girls to the playground since they were going to be cooped up in the house all weekend.  It was a beautiful night so we had the windows down in the car.  The girls love the wind in their faces and laugh hysterically- almost to the point where we want to roll the windows back up.

We pull up at the playground and the girls have their shoes and socks off.  They always takes their shoes off once we buckle them into their carseats.  Chris is looking all around and can't find one of Maddie's socks.  He asked Maddie where her other sock was.  She didn't answer right away and sat there looking at him.  Then she said, "I throw.....................I throw sock.....................Window."  She threw her sock out the window.  I'm glad it was her sock and not her shoe!

I guess we learned our lesson about having the windows open in the backseat.  We're going to have to watch this one!!

But there is no doubt she's my daughter.  The girl loves cake, just like her momma!  I made strawberry shortcake last night for dinner and she ate all of hers.  She then looked over to see what Ella had left in her bowl, pointed at it and said,  "Eat Ella's."  I am beyond amazed at how skinny she is.  

Mom's Night

A couple of weeks ago, it was my turn to go with Ella to school for Mom's Night.  Like Chris, I too was looking forward to spending some one on one time with Ella.  It's hard when you have two little ones running around to give them each some special attention.  So, I was really looking forward to our night.

We first went to one of Ella's favorite dining spots, Chick-A-Lay.  That's always a crowd pleaser at our house.  If Ella was picking where we would eat,  it would either be the Chick or the fish restaurant (that's Six Feet Under for those of you familiar with it in Atlanta).  

After finishing up our chicken nuggets and lemonade, we headed on over to the school.  We had a really fun night.  We went to her music class and sang some songs and then headed back to her class and painted a butterfly.  Ella loves to paint.  She brings home a painting every day from school.  Her teachers  told me that she loves to paint and do puzzles.  They also were telling me how much Ella has really come out of her shell the past couple of months.  It's so funny that she brought that up because Chris and I have really noticed a difference in Ella this past month or so as well.  All of a sudden, she's become this chatty little girl.  I mean she's always been very comfortable around the people she knows but now she's starting to be a little more friendly to everyone.  She'll say hi to just about anyone.  It's really been a great thing to see her personality really start to bloom.  

Back to school night,  her teachers did the same thing that they had done for Father's night and asked all the kids questions about their moms.  Here are Ella's answers to the questions.

1.  What is your mom's favorite color?

Ella's answer:  Pink

2.  What is your mom's favorite food?

Ella's answer:  Sandwiches

3.  What game do you like to play with your mom?

Ella's answer:  Jumping Jacks

4.  Why do you love your mommy?

Ella's answer:  I love my mommy because I love her

5.  What is your mommy's job?

Ella's answer: Doing the laundry

That last answer cracked me up!   We do a lot of laundry around here and Ella and Maddie are always my helpers.