The joys of home ownership

Thankfully our water heater was repaired quickly and fairly inexpensively last week. Today, the washer quit working (with a full load of clothes and water in it). After flipping switches, un-plugging and re-plugging and finally jiggling some hoses it started working again. Meanwhile we discovered the wet carpet in our closet. Yes, that would be new carpet. It's only a small section near the wall by the shower. After removing the drain cover in the shower and seeing the pool of cloudy water we deducted that perhaps we have a drainage problem. We'll be calling the plumber again tomorrow.

To deal with all of this we decided we needed some pool time after naps. As we were pulling out of the driveway, J & I noticed a dangling metal item hanging from the garage door, which promptly quit working about a foot from the ground. The garage door openers no longer work. Thankfully, we can still raise and lower the door manually. At least J was planning to be home for the plumber anyway. Now we can have the garage door repair person stop by tomorrow, too. Ugh.

In totally unrelated news - 2 funny quotes from Will. Last night as I was preparing dinner I asked Will what kind of fruit he wanted.
W: "Chocolate fruit"
K: "Huh? I don't know what you're talking about."
W: "You know, the kind you put chocolate on."
K: "Will, I have no idea what your talking about. Do you want blackberries? They're dark like chocolate."
W: "No, mama. Chocolate. I will show you." And he goes to the fridge and gets out chocolate syrup. "This, mama, you put this on fruit."
K: "Where did you learn this, Will? We've never done this at home."
W: "I learned it in college, mom."


Then at dinner tonight after Ellie Kate so politely screamed at the top of her lungs and pointed for more chicken (followed by signing "please") for about the 3rd time, Will says "Ellie Kate is one sassy girl tonight." Agreed.

Hair-do's and Monkey Bizness

The hot water heater does not appear to be working...Justin is downstairs working on that. Let's hope this goes ok...

Yesterday Will went to a friend's birthday party at Little Monkey Bizness. He was mostly in an "I need a nap. I'm going to disagree with everything you say." mood, but he did play a little.


Ellie's hair is long enough now that I can play with it a little. I've learned I have to be very quick putting in ponytails, not to worry about straight parts or off-centered pigtails, and that the high chair (with food to distract) is the best place to style.
Yesterday was the single side pony with a ribbon bow - yay! (I think her little mouth is so cute in this picture!)


Today we tried little pigtails. These didn't stay in quite as long.


And I do believe we have a walker now. Elle has been stringing together several steps and does really well when she doesn't think about it. If she focuses on it, she's still pretty shaky. Now on to the vocabulary. The screaming until we figure out what she wants (usually a carb-filled snack of some kind) is getting pretty old.
No booms from the basement yet. I guess that's a good sign.

Will-style

Ok, last post of the day. Just a couple funny pictures of Will. The first is "playing golf" in the kitchen. Generally, not a good idea. But this actually more closely resembles floor hockey. The second is him getting ready to go on a walk. We were not going that far, but he seems prepared for a hike!



Isn't he a handsome little boy? Can't believe how quickly he's growing up.

4th of July

We had a fun (though rainy) 4th of July weekend. We were so glad to get to see some friends visiting from Texas. Cooper & Will are about 5 months apart - they had a great time.


Getting a picture of this many kids is tricky...


Ryan got a turn helping Ellie Kate walk - it seems that's all she wants to do sometimes!


Isn't Jackson so cute?!


We spent the fourth with Justin's family. Again, getting a picture of kids is not easy...

Elle kept a little ponytail in for the first time that day - hooray!



It ended up being too rainy for fireworks, but we saw a great rainbow on the way back home. It was so bright!


Can you see the second rainbow just to the left? It's fainter, but still there! Will thought it was pretty cool.

15 months

I'm a little late posting this, but since Will is home sick today and is now taking a nap, I have a little time. Eleanor turned 15 months on June 25. Here are the stats:

23 lbs 3 oz (54%)
30 in. tall (36%) - I still don't know how we got short kids!
big head, as usual
7 teeth
taking steps here and there, but not fully walking
loves to climb!
says lots of words - mama, dada, cracker (ca cah), socks, shoes, uh-oh, bye-bye, nose, bar (Nutrigrain bar), ball, no-no, dog, and roars like a lion when she sees Will's stuffed lion - hysterical with her husky little voice!
signs more, food, milk, please, thank you - and blows kisses when we say I love you to her
favorite foods include crackers of all kinds, yogurt, chicken, pizza, Goldfish crackers (thanks Go-Go & Grampy), fruits - banana, strawberries, cantaloupe, grapes, kiwi, she'll try lots of things - she was eating my cucumbers like crazy a couple weekends ago.
She is starting to have a temper and throw mini-fits. She's definitely into arching the back; this is not my favorite stage. It's frustrating for everyone.
Here are some pictures of Elle in her typical spots...
Can you see her behind the table?

They were playing peacefully, I looked in to check on them and find Elle sitting on top of the car ramp.

Yes, that is Botchie's bed she's sitting in.

Climbing out from underneath her high chair...notice the bow in her mouth.

Father's Day

We had a fun Father's Day weekend -including some time at the pool.



Eleanor has been on the go pushing shopping carts, baby strollers, laundry baskets - anything that will move. She goes so fast! One of these days she'll be brave enough to let go and walk on her own.


The kids were being silly with Will's play safety goggles. Someday this picture of Will is going to come back to haunt him...I think high school graduation would be appropriate, don't you?



Amazing how much happier this little girl is when she's healthy!

Call the fashion police

Will: "Mommy I got dressed all by myself!"
Me: "Wow! Yes, you did, great job! Do you think that matches?"
Will: "Uh-huh. See, there is brown right here in my shirt and there is brown right here in my shorts."


Regretfully, he spilled water all over himself later in the day and had to change. :)

Here is Eleanor in her adorable summer romper from Aunt Jenny.


And here she is once she figured out she could untie the straps all by herself. We resorted to double knots after this.