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Lauren asked me to read a book to her, and she handed me “Good Boy, Carl” from the shelf. I opened it and was ready to read when she yelled at me to “No no, ask me the questions!” which after a little negotiation and questioning, I realized meant she wanted me to prompt her to tell me the story, since it is a picture book and she can “read” every word.

So, page 1, the title page…

Me: who’s this?
L: That’s Waldron (she pointed to Carl)
Me: and who is the baby?
L: That’s Elliot in the red shirt (he is wearing red today)
*turn page*
L: See Waldron runs out of the room and goes and gets the baby out of his cage.
Me: and then what?
L: The baby climbs out of the cage and hugs the dog for saving him.
Me: Why was the baby in the cage?
L: Because the mean mama put him in there.
Me: What is he doing in there?
L: He’s crying and being sad. The dog makes him happy though.
Me: Oh. What else?
L: They go make a big mess in the house and eat milk and salami and cookies.
Me: What happens next?
L: The Waldron licks the Elliot baby and makes him swim with the fishies.
Me: Oh that’s fun, that’s like a big pool.
L: No mama, it’s a FISH BOWL and smells yucky.
Me: ah, what else?
L: The dog makes the baby go in his cage and cleans the house fast so mama doesn’t see it.
Me: and what else happens?
L: The end!
*throws book back on shelf*

A tornado came through town on Monday night, and it took out a bunch of houses across the pond from us. Scarily close. There were no sirens, nada, just a crying Lauren because the thunder was too loud during the storm.

Let’s try this google thing and see if it works…

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

We live at the end of Spring Ct, where the little A points. SE across the pond (err, I mean lake) is a sand volleyball court, shown as a little gray square. The row of condos to the east of the court and the ones south of that were hit, some of them even picked up from the foundation. A few are flagged and the owners are not allowed to enter.

Let’s see if that linky works on google maps.

The good news:

- nobody died
- Lauren didn’t cut her hair again

The rest of my day:

I woke up around 5 with my eye throbbing, oh yes, my eyelid was inflamed and infected. Managed to get it under control enough to survive. The kids had their usual morning, we packed lunch and headed to the splash park. Ate lunch, and went to play, and realized that the park was just too busy with kids that were too big and too rough so we voted to go elsewhere.

Packed up my stuff, but managed to break my glasses into 3 pieces. Ugh. Thank goodness for sunglasses. Off to the “good” splashpark where you pay to get in, but your ticket stub buys a free kids meal at Panera across the street. Worth it, even if we can’t eat half of the kids meal.

The other park was great, we found a table under an umbrella, and even Elliot, Mr. I’m-afraid-of-noisy-water was in there, having a blast, and he took a nap in the stroller too. Woot! Friends came and more friends came and pretty soon we had a decent size playgroup going. Decided maybe it was time to eat, so we all packed up, gathered around in the pavilion, and I search (with super dark sunglasses on) for my wallet so it’s easy to find in the dark when we get to Panera. No, wallet can not be found. Dump bag upside down, shake shake, no wallet. And it’s not a small wallet, it’s a regular wallet in a bright red makeup case in my bright yellow pool bag. Hard to lose.

Called my friend Liz, who had already left with her kids, and asked her to check her bag for it since her son had pulled out the matching red epi-pen case when he was playing at the table.. hoping he had stuffed it in her bag at the same time. No, my wallet isn’t in her bag, and neither is hers. Hmm. This isn’t looking very good.

She comes back, we all search trashcans hoping that the person who took them just took cash and ditched them, but after checking all the trashcans within 200 yards of the park, we find nothing. Called the police too, to fill out a report, and sent Allegra’s husband to fetch dinner. He was a trooper - headed off with at least 10 tickets for free meals and a long list of orders - and came back with everything we ordered… except my dinner.

So we got our police reports done, packed our cars, ate dinner, let the kids play in the big sandbox (with water feature, whee!) and I sat on the phone canceling credit cards and bank cards. Thankfully I only carry the debit cards and one credit card with me, so it was pretty easy.

But ack, remember those super dark sunglasses? It’s now nearly 9, and pretty dark out, and there is no way I can safely drive home. So I scavenge around in Ryan’s car with two crying and exhausted kids for anything sticky enough to reattach the bridge of my glasses and the missing arm. Finally, after cursing my husband for being so clean with his wiring jobs (couldn’t find any electrical tape in there!) I found a bit of sticky gross old duct tape on the bottom of something, and I peeled it off. Formed a bit of a nose and arm on my glasses, and drove home in the dark.

Get home, both kids are sleeping, and there are 5 huge boxes on my porch from UPS that need to be moved inside, the dog needs fed, and Ryan is still at work.

Ah, it was a long and craptastic day.

On the agenda for today: new drivers license, new glasses, stop at the bank to withdraw cash the old fashioned way, and home to sort the huge order in those boxes from my porch. Tomorrow I drive half way to Cleveland to pick up Evie for a week long visit.

Lauren and Ryan and the dog are in Ohio today, and Elliot is napping, so I have a little time on my hands to avoid doing any significant housework…

In recent news, Zoe is still afraid of storms and loud noises. She’s taken to this duck as her own personal security blanket.

We’ve also started walking to the local grocery twice a week, it’s good uhm.. exercise for me. The stroller rolls really nicely, the kids weigh about 60 lbs combined, and we typically load the stroller AND the saddlebags (which aren’t on there in this pic) with our REUSABLE bags, not the plastic ones. But this pic was funny because Lauren has the watermelon under her legs.

Lauren had 12 weeks of a really fun set of gymnastics classes, but Elliot was the one to conquer the bar.

Elliot and Gella had a ton of fun splashing last weekend. They are 15 months old in this pic.

When I was a kid I would frequently ask Santa to give me a cage with a key so that I could lock my brother inside. Imagine, my dreams came true, a generation late.

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago, and the monkey house was hopping. This mama gorilla shows such patience with her little nursling …

First she wants *this* side:

Then she wants *that* side:

And back to the *first* side again:

Mothers all over the world understand exactly what that face is saying

This is a conversation from last weekend, guaranteed to come back and haunt Lauren as a teenager.

I had Elliot on the bed to get a night dipe on, and Lauren was on her side of our big giant bed at my mom’s house and getting ready to get under the covers.

L: mama look, he’s pulling his tail! I have a tail on my butt too!
me: That’s his penis Lauren. Remember boys have a penis and girls
L: have a GINA!
me: right.
L: you have a gina mama
me: yes, I’m a girl, I have a VAgina.
L: Elliot is a boy. Elliot has a penis.
me: right
L: mama, do ALL the boys at school have a penis?
me: yes, all the boys have penises.
L: oh. wow.
L: Nonnie has a gina, I have a gina, mama has a gina.
me: right
L: brother has a penis, and Daddy has a Ry-nis!
me: yes, they have penises.

(I seriously was ready to pee my pants after that one.)

Look! We got some chicken pox!

Elliot is all scabbed over and no longer contagious and Lauren hasn’t shown nary a spot. We’re on the lookout for them though!

And some of the paperwork I need to complete our taxes is in a file box in Ohio. But that’s not why I’m posting. I’m really posting because I have an update.

Elliot has chicken pox. He’s all spotty. Not a bad case, pretty mild if I had to guess, but we managed to expose a few people in Cleveland and a few more in Chicago. Lauren hasn’t come down with anything yet, but she might.

In other news, there is no other news, which is a good thing. Ryan has trained his replacement for the downtown job, which means he’s usually home for dinner and he’s a lot happier with work. I applied for a job - actually two - both work at home positions, but haven’t heard back from either company. One was a ticket agent for a major airline, the other was grading standardized test essay questions. Both would have been things I could have done a few hours each week from the luxury of my computer.

Lauren cut her hair again, so all our scissors now live on a high shelf in the closet. She’s sporting a “Dorothy Hamil” which most people think is a really cute look for her for spring. And Elliot took his first steps recently but still prefers crawling as his mode of transportation. He’s great at going up steps, but won’t go down, and sits patiently for us to carry him.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/807771,CST-FTR-diaper22.article#

Looks like the new sport is Extreme Parenting around here.

But it’s a nice article, and we like spreading the EC love.

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated anything. Elliot turned one last week, and Lauren turned three last month. Though if you ask her, she went from “two-and-a-half” to “Three-and-a-half” overnight.

Today I took the kids to the pediatrician for a well baby visit. We really like our new doc so far, he’s very friendly and took in stride all of my “crazy” bits, even applauding me for continuing to nurse Lauren and not using jarred baby foods.

He also mentioned that Elliot is “unusually tall”

The kids stats:
Lauren is 3 yrs and 1 month old, and weighs 32# with her clothing on and shoes off. She’s 39.5″ while standing to be measured.
Elliot is 1 year and 1 week old, and weighs in at 21.5# (thin) and is a remarkable 31.5″ long when measured from head to toe on their table.
I think Lauren was 33″ at her 2 year checkup, if that gives you any comparison.

In other news, we had Elliot’s Baptism and birthday party with his cousin Gabs on Sunday.

Gabs went right for the cake. Elliot was less than impressed and wanted to watch. The party was fun, we got to see aunts and uncles and cousins that we don’t see very often, and some friends too.

Lauren hates to be left out, so she posed this one with the dog at my Mom’s house.

For Elliot’s actual birthday (St. Valentine’s Day) we had an all white (yes, no food coloring!) icing on chocolate cake from Target. I have to say, their $4.99 “bar” cake is exactly enough for dinner and a slice for later. Perfect. And pretty good tasting as well.

Lauren started “school” at the beginning of February as well. She goes to Miss Cindy’s class (”Miss” Cindy is a 50-something grandmother) at the park district (literally around the corner) for 2 hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. There are 16 kids in the class, and Lauren is the youngest. The class is *just* long enough for me to take Elliot to the store and then go back and pick her up. She loves it so far.

Elliot is cruising furniture now, and wishes he could walk. I’m sure it is only a matter of time until he’s flying around. Time to get him shoes. And Lauren would like some rollerskates.

This set of Elliot faces is from December I think. I just love what a ham he is for the camera.

That’s about it from here. Ryan is working a lot, but they did hire a new guy to replace him downtown, so it’s just a matter of time before he can get this guy trained, all the big issues solved, and escape downtown.

Next week we might be in the local paper too! More on that when I know it.