Woodford County 4H Fair

This was my second or third time at the Woodford County Fair. I have missed a few due to being pregnant and/or having a newborn at home. Really my Mom likes to go, so we tag along. We have friends who show Herefords.


The night before we went Elizabeth asked her typically bedtime question: "What are we going to do when I wake up tomorrow?" I told her we were going to the fair and she would see all kinds of animals...(which in the past has been true). "Hippos?" No sweetie, farm animals. Ok, so maybe I should have known she was going to be disappointed from the get go if she was expecting hippos!

Due to the lovely heat, most animals had been sent home. Only the animals that were being judged were there. There were cows and rabbits...lots and lots of rabbits! There were a handful of goats and chickens...that was it. No pigs, no sheep, no horses. Did I mention it was hot? We were only there for a few hours, I truly admire the kids and their parent's that had to hang in there all day.

The fair is always an experience and one of the most wholesome things you can do. It is pretty entertaining to listen to the judge critique cow's muscles, packages and one poor cow that had udder problems and another that needed to develop it's brisket!


Truth be told, I think Elizabeth liked the lemon shake up the best!


This is how Grant felt about the fair!

The good news is my Dad is taking us to the State Fair in August, which I predict will be the hottest day of the year! I am quite excited to go to the State Fair, as I have never been. Rumor has it they are trying to sell the Super Slide!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Brandon turned 31 this week. He didn't want a cake, but my Mom had made Fudge Puddles for him. They turned out to be the perfect size for one candle. Elizabeth sung a short version of Happy Birthday to him!


Sorry, I just realized the video never uploaded...here is take 2!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

My Mom and I took Elizabeth to her first play yesterday. I was trying to describe to her what a play was. I said something like "it's sort of like watching TV but the people are real and right in front of you". She responds "oh like when you and Daddy took me to see the cars movie" .... Yeah, kinda like that!

The Circa 21 Theater in Rock Island was our destination. It is the coolest, old playhouse. They do dinner theaters there too. They have 3-4 youth productions a year. "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" is a wonderful children's book, but I wasn't sure how they would turn it into a play. I was very pleasantly surprised and it was very good!

About 20 minutes in, Elizabeth leans in and whispers "Where is the mouse?" Well the mouse had come on stage in the first five minutes. "The guy with the big ears and the tail, that's the mouse!" I think she liked it. It lasted about an hour and she sat quietly and watched the whole time.

For any of my mommy friends reading, I will keep my eyes open for other productions that might interest our kiddos.

It was a fun day trip and Grant got to spend the day bonding with Mimi. When we got home and Daddy asked what we did today she said "We say a movie with real people!"

And here comes #6 & #7...

Grant's fifth tooth has been working on coming through for awhile. Last week #5 finally broke the gum line. Shortly followed by #6. Today I look again and hello #7! Poor guy. Our mild mannered Grant is getting frustrated pretty easily. He has a very high tolerance for pain, so he doesn't cry because of the pain, he just does a lot of head scratching and over reactions. For example, today in Hobby Lobby he threw the biggest fit I have ever heard. We had just walked in the door and I am pretty sure shoppers in the far corners heard this little outburst. He was trying to get an animal cracker out of his snack cup and was struggling to get the job done. I took one out for him and tried to give it to him. NO, NO, he wanted to get it out by himself. We will hope these teeth just hurry on in!


See the little one on the top right? That's #5!

Monkey Business & Sally

This is going to be a lot of tidbits thrown together, but let me start with the monkey business.

Grant has become quite the little monkey. He will climb on anything. The kids have a little table and chair set in the playroom and I had put a toy on top of the table that he kept sitting in and getting stuck. I walked away for 30 seconds only to come back to find that he had crawled up onto the folding chair and was attempting to crawl into the toy that was sitting on top of the table! In effort to make the room safer I had Brandon take the table and chairs down.


Elizabeth has a two step step-stool at the side of her bed to make it easier for her to get up into her bed by herself without tugging on the covers. He has now mastered climbing up that, which means he can climb on top of her bed! In an unsupervised moment this weekend he did this, while Sister was apparently jumping on the bed and he tumbled off (I take full responsibility for this one) Elizabeth's version "I was jumping on my bed, I stopped jumping and he went boom!" The step-stool has now also been removed and replaced with a smaller one so that he can't reach the top of the bed.

We brought the kiddie trampoline up from the basement. It got pushed against the couch. He not only crawls up onto the trampoline and tries to jump (more like bending his legs and making the cutest baby sounds) but then actually crawled onto the couch and stands up leaning over the back of couch with the proudest look on his face! I am confident that there is nothing this kid won't try to climb! I have to admit there are times when I wish he still had his helmet! He flipped over the edge of the bathtub one night this week. I was sitting right there and caught him. I was trying to make him understand why it is dangerous to stand up in the bathtub, but it is hard to explain that to a 13 month old.

On this stormy day Elizabeth is upstairs playing in her playroom, which she often does. I think she enjoys the quiet time to herself. Although I don't know who she asks all of her questions to while she is up there! After she had been up there for awhile she invited me up for a party. As I walked up the stairs I see that she has reassembled the table and chairs that have been removed for Grant's safety! So now we have a little engineer on our hands! This involved screwing four table legs in. So we are having this pretend party and all of the family is invited, a lot of people. So as I am playing along I say "hello, Fred, Stan, Sally, Norma, etc..." Well she keens in on Sally and Sally is now our new best imaginary friend. "Can I call Sally Mommy?" "Is Sally downstairs?" "Is Sally behind me?" So there we have it, our first imaginary friend and I helped name her Sally. As a side note, if you ask her what her baby dolls are named it is "Lula". No idea where that came from.

What would the weekend be without an Elizabethism...We were eating lunch and it was actually a quiet lunch, meaning we weren't answering 20 questions and out of the blue she says "This lunch is horrible!". Brandon and I cannot keep a straight face. We are trying, but we can't. We are waiting for each other to pull it together and explain to her that those are not nice words to say and not good manners. But we just can't, because truth be told it was a horrible lunch!! It was a Volia meal. A quick skillet meal that I keep on hand in case we need a light meal and have nothing else. Unfortunately today was that day. We did finally manage to wipe the smiles off our face and explain why we don't say that. I don't think Brandon's explanation of "mommy worked really hard on this meal and it isn't nice to say that it is horrible" was all that sincere! It was really too late anyway. She had a big smile on her face and knew she had said something funny that made us laugh.

These kids keep us on our toes!! Our eyes have to constantly be peeled for Grant to make sure he isn't climbing or hasn't put something in his mouth he is going to choke on and Elizabeth keeps our minds sharp! I never knew we would have to come up with so many answers! It is bad to scream "I don't know, I just don't know!!" .... right??? It was great relief that during dinner tonight (when Grant had dropped his plate of juicy watermelon on the floor,thrown his bowl of green beans and Elizabeth refused to eat pizza, which she never turns down) that Brandon just prayed for patience and we just looked at each other and laughed. Seriously, what else was there to do, but just laugh! We want our children to be well behaved, but the constant discipline can be draining. We are going to choose our battles and just love and laugh with our children.

A New Approach

So I have been having my buttons pushed more than usual lately with a certain little lady who is testing her limits. After I hauled her inside today for not listening I came up with a new approach. She was in her room for a time-out and after being in a time-out we always re-discuss the reason she was in time-out. Today I took up pen and paper. I said "Elizabeth, what kinds of things do you like to do?" and we starting making a list (play with my friends, make cookies, play with the iPad, swim, watch TV, drive my Jeep, etc...) Great list! "Elizabeth, do you know what all of these things are? They are called privileges" I really have her attention now. "Every time you make a bad choice and don't listen to Mommy and Daddy you lose a privilege" Now she is really soaking this in and then responds "Maybe if I listen, after I take my nap we can swim" Yes, it's working!

It's only ten am, it's hot, why not swim now. I am sad to say after being in the kiddie pool 20 minutes she decided to sit in the water table (that I had put inside the kiddie pool so Grant could walk around easier). After being asked and warned to get out of the water table we were inside removing two items from our "privilege list." Luckily, she made a good decision to take a wonderful nap (and is still sleeping) which I know will help immensely and also realize is contributing to the problem.

After a little quiet time for everyone, I am sure we will all enjoy the rest of this steamy day! Now, I just have to brief Daddy on this new system!

Four Generations

A few weeks ago my friend Kara (of Kara Kamenski Photography) took generational pictures for me. It was the four generations of ladies on my mom's side; my grandma, my mom (only daughter), me (only daughter) and Elizabeth (only daughter). We actually had a three generation one done about 20 years ago.

I had a little time between snacks, naps and laundry to do a photobook of our four generation pictures! The post to view the book is the one prior to this. Grandma, your hard copy will be hand delivered to you! I can't even begin to tell you how much I treasure these pictures.

Shared photo book from Alison

Click here to view this photo book larger

Tonight's Dinner

I have made a resolution to feed my family fish/seafood once a week. I struggle with this because I am not a seafood lover, despite my Red Lobster past! We picked up tilapia for dinner tonight. Our little pound puppy loved it. He sorted through the other things on his plate to eat the fish! Go Grant! We had to bribe Elizabeth with a cake pop to finish hers! I think she was confused about eating fish. She had a lot of questions. Are we going to catch it first? (we have never been fishing with her) Is it going to be dirty? Will Daddy grill it? Will it be flat in the oven? (flat? what?!) All reasons why it is important to expose them to all kinds of foods!

I over seasoned the fish and it was too salty for me. Brandon thought it was perfect. I think he was just glad to have something other than chicken! We had one roma tomato from our garden so I diced it and mixed it with olive oil and basil for a little topper.

Elizabeth asked the blessing for us tonight. I have tried to attach the video. Hope it worked!

Just Another Saturday...

It is just another weekend, but a couple of things have happened worth documenting.

First, Grant started cutting tooth number 5! I knew he was close. His gums have been red and puffy for the last month. He actually slept good last night. Usually just about the time he starts sleeping through the night he starts teething and is up again in the wee hours. He has been sleeping through the night for about a month, so I figured it was time for more teeth!

Yesterday we went to the library. Elizabeth is part of the summer reading program and we are up to 30 books. Every time she reads (has read to her) 5 books she gets to pick a prize from the treasure chest. Of course she has picked a sucker every time!

After naps we headed into town for a few errands. Shopping is so much more fun with Brandon! An extra person to help get the kids in and out of the car seats and shopping carts. The only problem is there is usually one item that I would buy if I were shopping solo. Instead I get questioned and the ite remains on the shelf. In this particular case it was a $12 night light from Target. Why do we need that when we could replace the bulb in her turtle light? Good point. Other than it was a super cute night light ;)


We made an awesome dinner. I should use the "we" loosely here. My contribution was a caesar salad. Brandon made Parmesan crusted rib-eyes and sauteed mushrooms. Delish!! If you ask Elizabeth what her favorite food is, she will tell you steak and mushrooms. How many (almost) three year-olds can eat as much steak as their mother and fight their father for the last spoonful of mushrooms!

In place of bed time books Elizabeth wanted to play Candy Land. Candy Land is a favorite in our house and I give this game full credit for helping Elizabeth learn her colors. I had almost made it to the "Kandy Kastle" when I drew the "Gingerbread Tree" (back to the beginning) and Elizabeth looked at me and said "Don't worry you will be back to the top in no time!"

I love never knowing what she is going to come up with next! She keeps us on our toes. We are working with her on her manners. This morning she said "May I have some juice please? That is good manners isn't it mommy?" Yes, very good Elizabeth!

Now, we brace ourselves for the heat wave ahead of us this week.

Balloons in the Park

A few weeks ago Brandon's parents mentioned that they would like to go to Balloons in the Park. I had heard of the event, but none of us had ever gone. It is basically a hot air balloon festival that is held at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe. Well it happened to be this weekend. They had plans on Saturday, so we decided to go Friday night. After looking online we discovered it was Balloon Glow on Friday night. How cool to see hot air balloons at night!

We got a late start, as Brandon had a long day and we had a very long Avanti's experience. Three Sister's Park is H U G E!! We had Grant in the stroller, a blanket, two kids chairs and two adult chairs...and of course a bag with snacks, diapers, pj's etc... Luckily they had trolly/hay rack transportation back to the actual balloon site.

It was like any other street festival. There was the carnival food and rides. The inflatables for the kids were just starting to be deflated as we were arriving. However, Mimi took Elizabeth on a swing ride. We think she liked it. It went pretty fast and she was really soaking it all in. We think we saw a smile once or twice!

Then the count down began for the Balloon Glow. We call counted "3, 2, 1....ALL GLOW!!" The hot air balloons all lite up....interesting, they aren't leaving the ground. Then we hear someone say they are tethered to vehicles. Well that's odd. How are they going to go up if they are tied to a car? Some of you may have already had the thought that we started having...."isn't it kind of dangerous to have a hot air balloon up at night?" Well turns out it is and they did not leave the ground. However, if we wanted to go back at 6am Saturday morning then they would be taking off!! I think at this point someone said "3,2,1...bend over!" Ok, so Balloon Glow wasn't exactly what we thought it was. In hind sight, it never actually said the balloons would be going up, we just assumed that what hot air balloons do....go up!


This was a pretty cool eagle balloon.


We still had great family togetherness and really isn't that all that matters!! One more adventure for the books! We did end the evening with funnel cakes :)

Pound Puppy

Pound Puppy is my new nick name for G-money...oh sorry that is a nick name too! Brandon and I sometimes call Grant Ryan, G-money (long story on the history of that) P.P. is the latest, due to the amount of food our boy consumes! Grant is a very go with the flow baby, laid back and relaxed. One night last week, we took some food away from him and did we see some attitude! We have learned that you don't mess with Grant and his food. I am pretty much done with the baby food and trying to give him as much finger foods as possible. He still only has four teeth (although number five is very slowly emerging!) My policy is my kids eat what we eat. As long as it is soft and I can cut it up small enough, Grant gets to try it. Yesterday he had meatballs for lunch and we had enchiladas and black beans and rice for dinner. Yikes! That is quite a variety of food for an almost 13 month old! We have been trying to watch all of the dairy (milk, cheese and yogurt...all of his favorites) and not give him too much. However, I have been giving him a pro-biotic every other day and it seems to be keeping things running smoothly!

He is usually the first one eating and the last one eating! But to be honest, only half of it usually makes it into his mouth! He really hasn't turned anything away yet. He loves all of the fresh fruit (watermelon, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries). I just wish he was a bit more of a clean eater. He typically needs a bath after a meal. His favorite place to put his hands are of course in his hair!

As he continues to pack on the pounds I should mention that he was only in the 85 percentile for weight at his 12 month check-up. I know anyone who has held him recently knows that he is no light weight! He is just a solid boy! Thanks for helping me tone my upper arm "mommy muscles" buddy!

Baby Shower

(this has actually been a few weeks now...I was hoping to post a few more pics, but we have had some technical difficulty, so before I forgot I thought I would just go ahead and post it)

This past weekend we hosted a baby shower for Brandon's cousin. I thought I would share some of the things we did. My sister in law came up with some really cute ideas! I credit her with the creativity!

The invite idea I stole from another blog. We also cut out onesies and used them as nametags, attaching them with a safety pin.

The "pom-poms" were made out of tissue paper (16 sheets for the large ones, 8 for the smaller).

Our menu included chicken skewers with zesty orange dipping sauce, meatballs, fruit kabobs, veggie cups and marinated tortellini/cheese/pepperoni picks.

For dessert we had cake pops, dipped pretzel rods and lemon bars. Amber did most of the leg work for the cake pops. They were delicious, but they take some time, as they are a multi-step process.

Cupcakes!

This is a bit overdue, but I came across the pictures on my phone today and I realized I forgot to post this.

A few weeks ago a group friends met at our local kitchen store on the square for Ladies Cupcake Night. We weren't really sure what to expect, but we were hooked at "cupcake!"

We learned to decorate three different kinds of cupcakes: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Corn on the Cob and a Hamburger (complete with ketchup, mustard, lettuce and cheese, all on a sesame seed bun!). I picked up some new tricks. Above all I learned that decorating cupcakes is a lot of fun and super easy when someone else bakes the cupcakes for you, makes the frosting and has everything ready to go! I usually get one or two cupcakes in and wonder why I had this crazy idea! This was the way to go! Best of all they tasted delicious too!

Elizabethisms

An Elizabethism is just what I call things that she says. Here are a few from today.

"Mommy (long dramatic pause) I'm sweating like Daddy!"

She is sitting on the bed writing in a notebook. Not just scribbling, but trying to make it look like sentences on a page. So I ask her what she is writing. "I'm writing my stories from today". Oh my future blogger!

"I think Grant tooted. Did Grant tooted?"

"When I was a baby I...." fill in the blank with anything from I sat in that high chair to my name was Grant Ryan. "um no sweetie, you have always been Elizabeth Brooklyn!

"Will you dance with me?". Always! (our collection of Time Life Rock Ballads CDs arrived this week!). Actually, a Pauli family dance party is one of our favorite post dinner activities. There is nothing better than singing, dancing and laughing with your family :)

Grant's One Year Check-Up

Today was Grant's one year check-up. Our little peanut weighed in at....(drum roll please)... 24 pounds and 3 ounces! This is actually only the 85th percentile. He measured 30 3/4 inches long. All of his growth is very much in proportion. They tested his iron again and it was 11.3 and they like to see 11+. All in all he checked out good.

He had to get four shots, two in each leg. This is one of those times where his meaty thighs come in handy! He cried, but as soon as I held him in my arms he was calm. He was asleep before we even got home (we live a mile from the office!).

It's hard to believe his weight has more than tripled in year! He doesn't even get whole milk! We are going to start letting him feed himself more and cut back on all of the baby food. He got really angry last night when he ran out of food on his tray! Don't mess with this kid and his food!

Before we turn around twice he will be walking!

Stories Through Pictures

Pictures tell a thousand words right? Here are some of our latest moments!

Elizabeth picked day lillies and then gave them to Grant


Ok, not much of a story here. I just thought this picture was really cute!



This is some serious bedhead!


While Brandon and I were preparing dinner one night Elizabeth decided to try on Grant's clothes. This picture does not show all of the layers. She had a pair of pajamas on under here too!


This is why we have kids...to help us clean the house, right?! (Just joking!)




When she woke up she said, "Look Mommy I had monkey on the stairs with me!" She started in her bed, but the gate was up at the bottom of the stairs and instead of saying anything I guess she decided to just go back to sleep!

4th of July Weekend

What a beautiful long weekend to celebrate our country's independence. Here is what we did.

Saturday:
We took the kids to the zoo. It was about 95 degrees and soooo humid. We got through in about an hour and everyone napped well (well the girls did!). We then went to the Pauli Pool and grilled out. Half way through dinner my mother-in-law wished my father-in-law a happy anniversary (oopps!) I thought their anniversary was in April! OK, well Happy 34th Anniversary to Kenny & Robin! Thanks for spending your evening with us!

We ended the evening with a family movie (Princess Diaries 2 - thanks to a garage sale swap!). We try to do this once a month. We all pile into our bed and watch a family friendly movie. After the kids were asleep Brandon tried to get me to watch Full Metal Jacket (claiming he hadn't seen it before)...um I think I lasted five minutes and demanded that it be turned off.

Sunday:
We woke up around seven with all of the kids joining us in bed for an episode of Mickey Mouse. We had a lazy morning and then packed up for the river. We joined my parent's on their boat for the afternoon. We grilled out, caught some rays (some more than others!) and maybe a little nap!

Brandon and I rented The Company Men. Not an uplifting movie, but I suppose it was a pretty realistic story of people losing their jobs during the recession. We both went to sleep feeling very lucky for all that we have. And were reminded that it wasn't that long ago that when people would complain about their jobs the common response was "yeah, but at least we/you have a job". All in all, an OK movie. We watched a lot of movies this weekend!

Monday:
We decided to treat Elizabeth to a special "date" just for her. Grant hung out with my mom and we took EB to Pizza Hut for lunch. When asking her where she would like to go for her special lunch that is what she choose. We were fairly confident we would be heading to the Arches, but pizza it was. After lunch we took her to her first movie. We showed her the trailers of Mr.Popper's Penguins and Cars2. She choose Cars. I thought this was odd for her, considering she has only seen bits and pieces of Cars1, but it was her choice. As we walked into the theater we walked by the "penguin" movie and she started the "I want to see the penguins." I told her if the Cars movie went well then I would take her back to see the penguins. Well, I don't think we will be seeing Mr.Popper's Penguins. After 30 minutes (geessh!) of previews she ran out of patience quickly. The movie just didn't really hold her attention. We made it through the whole thing with only two potty breaks, but it was a lot of seat/lap repositioning! For a two and half year old she hung in there. I think we will wait until fall until we attempt this again! Surprisingly, we didn't have to buy her a ticket. Actually on the way home she said, "Next time I stay with Ima (what she calls my Mom) and you and Daddy can go to the movie!" Sounds like a plan to us!

We finished the evening with a good old American meal of ribs and corn on the cob and of course fireworks! It took about 40 minutes to get out of downtown traffic. Brandon is fairly confident that the police directing traffic had no idea what they were doing and were much more of a hindrance than help.


It was a great long weekend and Elizabeth went to bed asking "Daddy, will you be home when I wake up or do you have to go to work?" We were sad to say that he has to go to work. "But oh no Daddy how will I give you a kiss?!" (followed by some very sad boo-hooing).

Such a Boy!

We had someone come out and look at our hardwood floors. It was concluded that our floors could be refinished. We were contemplating it until we started watching Grant bang his toy cars on the floor. We have decided to wait!

Grant's Favorite Things To Do:
- Push his toy cars/trucks around on the floor and up the wall
- Crawl over anyone or anything (Jack and floor pillows are favorites)
- Bite (mainly my shoulders and Elizabeth's toes - must get this under control!)
- Bang anything to make a loud noise (especially if daddy is trying to sleep in)
- Climb/crawl up the stairs (yes he made it to the top yesterday - if you stop paying attention for two seconds and it is quiet, check the stairs!)
- Wrap cords around his body (mainly his neck and arms)
- Eat, eat, eat (only if he gets to feed himself; new foods this week: peas & watermelon)

Not that Elizabeth didn't do a lot of these things too, but he is just a such a boy!

Garage Sale Wrap-Up

The big question: Was it worth it?

YES! Did we make a lot of money? NO! Did we clear out a lot of stuff? YES!

Brandon surprised me and took the afternoon off. Although his intention was for us to run up to Chicago and pick our new counter tops, the place closed early and we weren't going to be able to make it in time. Instead we loaded up the unsellables and headed to donation sites! I finally parted with a chair and ottoman that had been in my mom's family for probably 40 years. It was a cool piece of furniture but was in need of reupholstering and who has the time! We also parted with my parent's first dining room table and chairs. It was also the table I used in my first apartment. It was time...

I would never do a garage sale by myself. Jessica and I had a lot of fun and we kept each other entertained! They were very gracious garage sale hosts!

Until next year...