Zoom Zoom

Last weekend we celebrated Owen Porter's 3rd birthday. The event was held in a car museum, which led to car theme games, cake, and treats. Elise and Zion were in car heaven! There was a large section full of any car toy imaginable.

There were cars to ride in, cars to push, car puzzles, car books, rocking cars, car video games, and Tiffany Porter even added a car version of pin the tale on the donkey.

Elise couldn't seem to understand why we were trying to put the blind fold over her eyes.

Isn't this such a neat idea? I'm keeping this photo for inspiration if we ever do a car-themed room someday.

On a side note, our water heater spilled a little stream into our garage yesterday. There isn't any damage to our garage, and we have a home warranty for the water heater so there are no major concerns here. But the minor concerns are getting to me. First, we have to shower ourselves and bathe the kids in cold water. I haven't braved cold kid baths yet, so if you might see a little peanut butter in Zion's hair. But the worst problem is the dishes. I can't run the dishwasher because it is attached only to the hot water pipe, which has been turned off in order to prevent a pool in the garage. So I'm washing all of our dishes by hand, using water heated on my stove top. I really shouldn't complain until out stove gives out and I have to heat the water in the fireplace =)

Elise quote of the day:

Elise walked up to me in the kitchen with her arms full of toys.

Elise: "I told Zion that these were my toys, but he is welcome to share them."

This elicited two reactions from me:

1) Pride: she knows that is good to share with Zion, and is even polite about it.

2) Skepticism: if she really had told Zion that he was welcome to share the toys, wouldn't the toys be in the living room with Zion instead hidden in Elise's arms in the kitchen?

A Day at Sea

It all started with Elise riding in her laundry basket boat. She paused in her play to say, "Hmm, I need to ride on some water." I answered, "Elise, we can pretend the carpet is water." Elise had only really learned the term 'pretend' recently, so I wasn't sure she would buy into my crazy idea. But her eyes lit up as she hopped on the carpet, exclaiming, "Oh, oh! My feet are getting wet!" This was just the beginning of Elise's day at sea.


She requested a sail for her boat, and I added a blue blanket for the water. She ran to get some towels to dry off from her swimming excursions. She even put on her swimsuit. She petted the turtles on the blanket, and pretended to pick them up and put them in a basket in order to "protect them from floating away." She 'swam' in the water, then hopped out and wrapped herself in a towel and explained, "I need a towel because I'm so cold because I'm so wet from the water." Then she looked up and exclaimed, "Oh! Oh! My boat is floating away!" and hopped in her boat for another sail across the turtle-filled sea.

I will long remember this as Elise's first day spent in a pretend world, and a very fine day at sea.

Trip to Maryland

Neither pictures, nor words can really capture what it meant to be in my parents' home with my sisters and our expanding families. Some of the best moments were mornings when my kids, my sisters, and I piled on my parents' bed to watch the Olympics. Or the morning when they all watched Olympics and I slept in =) Some other highlights were yummy food, board games, and reminiscing over gifts given by my grandparents.

One day we drove over to see my sister Summer and her husband Dave's home for the first time. They treated us to dinner using their wedding china and new silver. But the highlight for me was watching Elise play with her uncles. They gave her rides in an armchair by spinning her round and round. Then they thought they should check if she was getting too dizzy before spinning her more. This lead to her trying to walk around the room, reeling like a drunken sailor, then clamoring back into the chair and begging for more.

Elise building a car out of blocks with Uncle Graham.

Zion playing the piano with Uncle Graham.

Elise and Zion playing in my parents' sandbox with Aunt Summer.

Elise quotes:

Elise, ready to climb on my legs for an airplane ride: "May I come aboard?"


Jeffrey, seeing Elise for the first time after our trip:

Jeffrey: "Elise, I heard you went on a big trip!"
Elise: "Yes!"
Jeffrey: "Where did you go?"
Elise: "The grocery store."
Jeffrey: "Um, yes. I heard you went on an airplane ride."
Elise: "Yes!"
Jeffrey: "Where did you fly to?"
Elise: "Um, here!"

We had gone to the grocery store that day, and our most recent flight was the flight home, but I don't think the conversation went as Jeffrey had planned.

Flying Home

We are back home. The kids are tucked safe in their beds, or laundry basket in Elise's case. I will post pictures soon and tell of our fun weekend with my wonderful family.

I survived my plane flight with the kids fairly well. My favorite moment occurred after I learned that Elise needed a trip to the plane bathroom. Of course I wouldn't be able to fit a third person in that micro space. So, I stood up in the aisle with Zion in my arms. I then turned around with a smile to face a plane full of strangers and inquired if anyone wanted to hold my baby.

I'm sure glad that Zion is a charming cutie-pie, or I might have had to fall back on my back-up plan. I would have changed Elise's stinky diaper right there in her seat in the middle of the airplane. And if anyone thinks I wouldn't have done it, you should have seen me changing Zion's wet diaper in his seat, or putting a pull-up on Elise under the airport restaurant table =)

Our trip home started smoothly thanks to my dad, who got a pass to help us through security. Things got a bit rockier when our ride home in Nashville fell through. Jeffrey is on-call this week. We figured that he could drive us home if anything but an open globe came into the ER. So or course an open globe came into the ER. That meant that Jeffrey was repairing a busted eye, and I was on my own to get myself, two kids, two suitcases, and two car seats home. I'm not sure which is the harder task.

Thanks to a helpful porter and a taxi driver, we made it home. It was then that I realized that I didn't pack my keys or a garage door opener because we were planning on riding home with Jeffrey. I located our hidden key, but then discovered that while the key would have unlocked our front door, it does not unlock the screen door that covers the front door. So, I had to scale our pad-locked backyard gate and hope the key would fit the backdoor. It did. We are safe at home. But I'm thinkin I deserve some sort of super mommy award for my efforts in getting us here.

Where the Sunshine Sleeps

Bright and early tomorrow, the kids and I fly to my parents' home in Maryland. I'm braving this flight alone with the toddlers, so I could use some prayers.

Zion is officially a toddler now. He is walking 95% of the time now. Today he greeted Jeffrey by standing up in the kitchen and walking across the living room to the garage door, all the while clapping and saying 'Dada!'. When did my baby become a little boy?

I will likely take a break from blogging until we return from our trip. I'll bring back pictures and video from our mini family reunion.


Elise's quote of the day:

The sky is a bed where the sunshine sleeps.

Toddler Time

Bye-bye big kids, it's toddler time in Nashville! School began on Monday this week. The zoo, parks, and library story hour are once again free from crowds. And we celebrated with a trip to the zoo and several outings to parks.

This is a random video showing the kids playing together. It is fun to see them enjoying each other.




Here is a better video of Zion walking. He now walks more than he crawls. Welcome to toddlerhood Zion!

Zion Walking Video

Zion is working hard at his walking skills. Throughout the day he will stand up in the middle of the room, take several steps, fall down, then stand up again and clap for himself. This video doesn't really do justice to his accomplishments, but it is the best video I have so far. Enjoy.

Elise's Trains

Elise loves trains. She loves building trains out of her chairs and outfitting them with stuffed animal friends. We then sing train songs while sitting on board and steering with plastic tea-party plates. She loves building trains out of wooden blocks. She carefully places the bus driver 'Little People' character up front to drive the train, then places all of the 'Little People' critters in our house throughout the rest of the train. Occasionally she or I will also sit on board, and yes, we again steer using those plastic tea-party plates. She loves trains.





So yesterday I began to wonder what kind of parent I was to not buy this poor girl a proper train. Wouldn't train time be so much more fun using cars that actually had wheels on them? Perhaps so. But today I was reminded of the beauty of classic toys like blocks. They are only limited by our imagination. And Elise's imagination is starting to grow.





Today those blocks were a car, city, bank, grocery store, zoo, and fishies. Now, I admit that Elise's imagination left mine behind when she requested that we build fishies. When I asked her how to build them she replied confidently, "first you put one block down, and then another, and then you put a face on it." Hmm.

As a side note, Elise has named the building's occupant, the little blond girl with the frilly dress, "Grandma." I suppose this is a compliment to you Grammy and Kay Kay.

Beauty in the Basket

Elise insists on going to 'bed' in a laundry basket. She will take entire naps in this basket, and begins each night here as well. Sleep is lots of fun around here. We spent a good chunk of this morning playing 'night-night'. Elise made a bed for me out in the living room. She tucked me into bed, then ran off to go to bed in her room. A minute or so later she ran out to wake me up. Then we switched and repeated the cycle all over, and over, and over, and over.

Zion is the latest addition to Elise's train full of friends.

We spent this weekend at my cousin Andrew and Brenda's home. We celebrated Andrew's birthday and all of the kids were thrilled help open his gifts. As each package was unwrapped, Elise exclaimed with glee, "it's a box!"

After we successfully blocked-off the stairway at Brenda and Andrew's home, Zion found a whole new way to climb the stairs - from the side. He only made it up a couple of the steps, but Jeffrey and I are very thankful that we do not have stairs at home to tempt this little climber.