Language Explosion

In the last two weeks, Violet has made huge developmental strides. She is talking in five and six word sentences and putting more and more words together. Every day, there are new words! It's truly amazing. I am so thankful to our wonderful First Step therapists who have really helped Violet blossom!

This evening, we all went to dinner at Bob Evans. As we were finishing up our meal, out of nowhere, Violet blurts out (in the only volume she knows: LOUD), "I luh (love) you, Mommy!" "I luh you, Daddy!" "I luh you, Dee-dee!" By this time, all the tables in our little area are looking and listening; It was hard to ignore since she was practically shouting. "I luh you, Ga-Ga (Jonah)!" There were lots of smiles and "awws" from the surrounding tables...then, "I LUH YOU, ME!" Everyone around burst out laughing. Violet loved the attention and joined in with hysterical giggles, which made everyone laugh even harder!

It was the highlight of my whole day! That little girl brings so much joy to our family!

Sisterly Love

The other morning, Violet went to Sadie and said, "Put cose on, Dee-Dee" ("Put my clothes on, Sadie.") So Sadie did. She even changed Violet's diaper (her first diaper change ever)! Sadie broke the tab on the first diaper and I had to help her get it on tight enough, but other than that, she did a great job. I captured it all on film (well, not film, technically, but you know what I mean).
By the way, Violet picked out this entire outfit herself, from the pink hat to the plaid skirt to the turquoise shirt to the striped leg warmers. She is quite the fashionista! After Sadie was finished getting her dressed, Violet said, "Dank Dee-Dee!" (Thanks Sadie!"). It was so sweet.

She stole my heart (and her sister's chocolate)

Snow Days

Here's how we have spent the last 2 days...

Jonah built a snow man at 9:00 yesterday morning. I love his problem-solving skills with the skateboard ramp!

Apparently, this snow man likes high dollar beer.

We also made our Valentines yesterday. They turned out super cute. I borrowed this idea from www.highlowaha.com.

These are Jonah's. He took extra time with one very special Valentine (wink, wink)!

These are Sadie's.
These are Violet's. Didn't she do an amazing job? ;)


They each have fortunes inside that say things like: "Happy Valentine's Day," "I'm so fortunate to know you," I heart U!," and "You're so sweet!" We had a lot of fun making them.

Movie Night at the Aldridge House

Last night, was movie night. The kids decided to build a fort in the living room so they could watch the movie from inside it. It took them longer to build the fort than to watch "G-Force!"

Coco and the Cone of Shame

Poor Coco had her girly parts removed today.

Sadie is sad that Coco will never have puppies. She said she "never wants to have her uterus taken out."

Jonah asked if they were going to remove her placenta as well. So we had to have a little anatomy lesson after that.

Coco did very well but has to wear a cone until her stitches are removed (10-14 days)! She is pitiful. She is just laying there in her bed and wimpering. :( She is breaking my heart.

Sorry for the long absence...

Where has the time gone? Another year over and a new one begun. I'll try to wrap up 2009 with some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Sadie's 7th Birthday
Another cake masterpiece by Nana and Gramps. Jonah made a stage for Sadie's Polly Pockets out of a shoe box. He spent days on it. It was so sweet and Sadie loved it!








Holiday Cookie Decorating























Christmas 2009






















No Christmas cards this year, but this would have been the picture if I had not been so lazy. I only had to take about 28 pictures to get one decent one of all three kids and the dog.



Here are a few of the rejects...






















First Snow












My Little Gangstas

Cracking the code

Here's the conversation I just had with Jonah:

J: Mommy, can I ask you a question?

Me: Sure.

J: Do you promise to answer it with dignity and respect?

Me: (Laughing) Uh, I'll try.

J: Do you promise to answer it truthfully?

Me: (Wondering where on earth this is going) I'll try.

J: How many numbers are in Santa Claus' phone number?

Me: 10.

J: Hmm. That shouldn't be too hard to crack!

The dog ate my homework

I get it now. Dogs eat freakin' everything. WTH? I thought dogs were suppose to be smart.

So far, Coco, who has been in our family a total of 4 weeks, has eaten, or tried to eat, mulch, toilet paper, carpet, molding, a basket, a plastic easter egg and a red crayon. The red crayon almost did her in. She vomited several times (red) and had red diarrhea. Talk about fun.

I called the Vet. She told me to watch for dehydration. After the last bout of vomiting, she was completely lethargic. She could barely raise her head. I called the Vet again (who happens to be a friend of mine). She told me she thought I should take her to the emergency hospital.

All I could think about was the fact that I was going to have to drop several hundred dollars if I had to take this dog to the E.R. I didn't want to think about that but I did. Yes, I am a terrible dog-mama. Luckily, I also know the owner of the Emergency Clinic. I called him and he very kindly walked me through some things to try. After force-feeding her some water and Nutri-cal, she perked right up and was ready to play!

Halleluia. Thanks to my two fabulous Vet friends, I can get those new tires for my car that I so desperately need before the winter. Oh, and I will be investing in pet insurance ASAP!

I sure hope this poor dog lives to see adulthood!

More Tricks and Treats...

Halloween is over. Now it's just a hop, skip and a jump to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Where DOES the time go?

Here are the treats I made the rest of the week...

Orange pumpkins. Lame, I know. I should have started the week out with these. The kids didn't say, but I think they were a little disappointed in my lack of creativity with this one. For dinner that night, we had monster fingers (a.k.a. carrots with almond fingernails, dipped in ranch) and bagel eyeballs.

Then came, white chocolate covered pretzel sticks made into ghosts with a few strategically placed chocolate chips. I didn't take a picture of this one. Even though it was super easy and not very creative, it was a big hit.

On Friday, I went to Jonah's 4th grade classroom and made the witches (cleverly known as The Pear Witch Project). Wish I could claim that one but I got it from the same web site mentioned below. The kids had a great and messy time making them and an even better time eating them. I thought the finished product was pretty darn cute!

Last, but not least, were the witch fingers. I made those yesterday. This was my favorite project. They turned out so real looking, and quite tasty too.

Yesterday, on Halloween, we carved our pumpkin. This year, we started a new tradition. We each picked a part of the pumpkin to draw and then Michael and I carved it. Jonah had the left eye. I had the right eye. Sadie took the nose and Michael did the mouth. I think it turned out pretty good. I think it will be interesting to see how it turns out each year as the kids get older and more skilled. I can't wait for Little V to be old enough to get in on the action.

Next came Trick or Treat time! Coco even dressed up. She was a little witch. I carried her in my sweater. This was the first year that Violet actually Trick or Treated. She didn't actually say, "Trick or treat." What she did say was, "More!" One lady gave her more and Michael scolded her. So she stuck her hand down into her basket, pulled out a piece of candy and handed it back. :)

The kids came back with quite the loot. They were very excited. They each got to pick 15 pieces of candy from their bags which they get to keep. The rest goes into the community pot (part of which was recycled last night because we ran out of candy. The rest will hopefully get mostly eaten today when I have my class). Then they can have one piece each day until it is gone. This is the only way I can stay sane. Otherwise, it would be, "Can I have a piece of candy?" all day long, every day starting at 6 in the morning. My dad thinks this is cruel. I think it is genius!

Hope you had a Spooktacular Halloween! We did. (Except for the fact that some hoodlum stole one of my flameless candles that I had lighting the walkway).