Two Elmos?

[Elmo A] [Elmo B]

Elmo is Evy's cuddly item. We have two Elmos just in case one gets taken out during a "sickness" or if one is in need of a wash. We've been hiding the fact that there are two as Evy would want to play with both of them if she knew she had two. We are pretty sneaky when we pull the switch-a-roo and Evy has never noticed the difference. Until now. Last week I switched Elmo B for Elmo A. The second Evy saw Elmo A she started bouncing around and laughing saying "New Elmo! New Elmo!" "Look mom, new Elmo!" Then she looked at me and said, "You closed his mouth." Cripes, she's on to us.

A Typical Day Off

[The morning usually starts with a little TV so mom can wash dishes, start laundry and quickly throw on some make up and a pony tail.]



[Heading out for our morning errands. Target has a smoking deal on Sobe Life Waters so we need to stock up!]



[Playing at the "germ pit" in the mall, where Evy always thinks the other kids are chasing her.]



[Evy found this headband while in Dillards. She put it on and danced in front of a mirror! I opted to purchase the $3 version at Claire's]



[On a typical day the food and dishes from the kitchen must be emptied onto the floor at least once.]


[Lunchtime! If given the choice, Evy will pick mac 'n cheese every time.]

[Playing in the sink gives mom enough time to cook some pasta and cut up an onion to get dinner partially ready. Nevermind the fact that it takes at least 20 minutes to clean up all of the water.]

[Afternoon bathtime kills 45 minutes and cleans the baby all at the same time!]

By now it's 3:45 and I'm too tired to take any more pictures. A day "off" is often more exhausing than a day "on" but totally worth the bad pay.

A Town

We have been trying to teach Evy the name of our town. She knows the name but the concept of a town is still a little bit hard for her to understand. She wants the town to be a tangible thing like a cat or a mom or a car. Our conversation in the car today went like this:

Evy: Where we Live?

Emily: You mean what town?

Evy: Yes. What town?

Emily: South Town*

Evy: South Town? Where?

Emily: Right here. All of this area is South Town.

Evy: Huh?

Emily: Everywhere you can see is South Town.

Evy: Are you kidding me?

Emily: No response. Too busy laughing.

*The name of our town has been changed to protect us from lunatics and serial killers.

Shake Your Tail Feather

We have an NCAA national championship program in our backyard so we enjoy attending at least one match a year to cheer on our Hawkeyes. Last Sunday we took Evy to her first wrestling meet. The weather was finally warm enough to brave parking a mile away from the arena and making the trek with a two year old. She did amazingly well for the two hour event. Here's a video of her dancing! She liked seeing Herky, the band, and the cheerleaders. I've also included a picture of her Herky toy and the injuries he sustained after two hours of play.

Change of Scenery

The thought of spending one more day at the library, the children's museum, Tot Lot, or the Mall
did not sound thrilling. We needed a change of scenery so Evy and I took off for a last minute trip to Grandma Joan's and Papa Jake's. We made Valentine's Day cookies, played in a fort, spent time with both great-grandmas, took an adventure to Papa Jake's office and had a snow ball fight. A welcome change to our winter-day routine!

Her Royal Hiney

Just 5 days after we embarked on our trial run of generic diapers Evy got diaper rash! Now we're rotating between generic and "the good stuff" to try to cut costs a little bit. What I really need to do is get my lazy hiney in line and get her potty trained. All of the two-year olds in the blog world (Veda, Molly, Gavin and Ella) are potty trained. Evy goes on the potty when I ask her, I think she's ready. I'm the one dragging my feet. Having her go in a diaper just seems so much easier! Ha!

Sledding and Super Bowl

Our friends hosted a sledding party followed by a super bowl party. They live on a large hill and Evy wasn't really into the sledding part. She liked the super bowl party a lot. While most of you watched the Black Eyed Peas perform at half-time we watched the Blue Eyed Evy. She wasn't satisfied with shaking her groove thing on the living room floor so she moved the performance up to the ottoman to ensure that everyone had a good view. Watch out Fergie!

The Most Powerful Woman

My mom and I are supposed to be attending a taping of the Oprah Show today. Not happening. Oprah might top the list of most influencial and rich women in the world every year but Mother Nature wins the prize for most powerful.

I know you're wondering how I scored tickets--One of our college friends works at Harpo Studios and can occasionally secure two tickets to a show. He was nice enough to hook me up. Mother Nature was nice enough to tear me down.

Craft Time

The Parenting article is entitled, "Fun for All!" "Kids will love to string o-shaped cereal onto string to make necklaces" I was thinking, that's pretty simple. We have string and we have cheerios. Sounds like a great activity. Well, it held Evy's attention for about 5 minutes. The string I had on hand was too thick to easily string the cheerios on. So I had to do most of the stringing. Thread would have been too weak. I think you would need to use fruit-loops to make this work. After I made the necklace I put it on Evy and that lasted about 5 seconds. Next idea please...