Breakfast Fun

For the most part, it was a normal morning. Andrew was up first, followed almost immediately by Ella. As I was getting them out of bed, Sam came home from work.

Sam recapped her night at work with me and the kids were taking turns being in her arms. During this time we asked what they wanted for breakfast. We offer them a few choices each day. Today, it was pancakes, waffles, or French toast.

“Waffles!” Ella said!

“French toast, actually sounded good,” Sam said.

I was thinking the same thing, but I figured waffles would be easy for the kids to eat. They usually just hold them in their hand and walk around eating them. Sam reminded me that we had blueberries in the fridge and I would add those to the batter.

I reached up in the cupboard and grabbed the Bisquick. I could tell by the weight of the box in my hand that there probably wasn’t enough for waffles – or pancakes for that matter. So, French toast it was!

Ella always wants to help, so I cracked the eggs into a bowl and had her shake some cinnamon in. She helped me mix it up as the griddle warmed up.

“Do you want smiley face French toast or bear French toast?” Sam asked.

I looked at her puzzled and asked what she meant. She told me that you cut up bananas and can use them for eyes, ears, and a mouth. The kids were excited to help with this step, too.

Ella has a step stool, which Andrew has been using to get to things on counters and why have you. He was standing on it, so Ella needed something to stand in. Sam brought in an laundry basket and turned it upside down. So the two of them were standing on their “stools” and helping mom cut bananas

Once the French toast was done, she dished it out and made bears or smiley faces. Then she cut it up in small pieces for Ella to dip in her syrup, and in slices so Andrew could hold it in his hands.

They both stood on their respective stools and ate as I finished fishing out French toast for Sam and me. After that, we all were just standing in the kitchen, plates on various spots on the counter and each of us eating our breakfast.

As silly as it sounds, this was one of my favorite family breakfasts to date. I shared French toast with Andrew, Sam and Ella were sharing bananas, and we all just enjoyed the moments together as a family.

What a great start to the day!

Do Kids Need This Crap (Pun Intended)??

The above picture is a poop emoji. For those who have never seen it before, it is part of our pop culture now. You can literally type “poop” in a text message and this emoji becomes an option for you to insert into your conversation.

I suppose I understand certain scenarios where this emoji would be what some people deem a necessity for their messages. I don’t think I have ever used it.

Poop. Let’s talk about it for a minute. We all do it. Animals do it. But does it need to be in a kid’s game? I really don’t think so. Let me explain.

Remember back in the day they had those digital pets that you were supposed to take care of? You have to feed it, give it water, put it to bed, etc…. I never had one, but many of my friends did. Personally, I don’t remember if you had to let your pet go to the bathroom. Maybe you did. If you did, however, I doubt they showed you the poop.

Today, I guess it doesn’t matter. Ella has a game on her kid Kindle Fire where you have a dog. You feed it, pet it, play with it, dress it up for pictures and such, and you let it outside. The first dog she had would find a batch of flowers and roll it them. Then it would dig a hole revealing something it had buried before.

I guess I should have expected that the dog would do its business out on the lawn. I was not surprised when the dog assumed the position to pee or poop, but when it left a pile of poop behind, I couldn’t believe it.

Ella was laughing and saying, “Daddy! That dog pooped!!” She found it to be hilarious. There it sat on her screen for like 5 minutes because I didn’t know what the next step was. I eventually figured out that the black doohickey at the bottom of the screen was actually a pooper scooper. Once you clean it up, you can make the dog continue to walk around the yard again.

It did bring a big silly laugh from Ella. Andrew laughed too because Ella was laughing so hard. Both of them laughing led to me laughing. I can only hope that when we eventually get a dog that this game will remind them of the importance of cleaning up after it!

Taking “Elf-ies” – Part 2

When we first got Twinkles, our Elf on the Shelf, from Sam’s mom, I wasn’t sure that we’d be up for creating something new for it every night leading up to Christmas. Over the last month, I discovered an Elf on the Shelf Facebook group with ideas and stumbled across many on the internet as well.

I won’t lie, it has actually been very fun to do every night. Ella loves waking up and searching for her elf. Twinkles will be heading back to the North Pole on Friday night to help Santa get ready for his ride and deliveries. I’m sure next year she will have as much fun or more!

We may or may not have to recycle some of these ideas in years to come. Here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks.

Twinkles the action hero! Zip lining to the tree.

TPing the tree! Festive, right?!

Sam gave her some wings!

Ella had been talking about paper snow flakes. I got to make a mess and she loved it!

When we were all sick, it only made sense to give Twinkles a cold, too!

Sam grabbed Ella’s princesses and they had a little dessert party.

Twinkles threw “snow balls” at all of us in pictures on the wall!

She obviously had so much fun with the “snow balls” that she challenged one of Ella’s Barbie dolls.

When Ella woke up, I didn’t say anything. I was making her chocolate milk and she looked up and saw Twinkles. She looked at me, then back at Twinkles, then back at me and said, “Daddy! Twinkles is in my chips!” Priceless.

Last night, Sam sent me this at work in a text message that read, “See? I can be creative, too!” I laughed out loud!

I may have to start planning next year’s Elf things ahead! This was fun!

Photos with the Jolly Old Elf

We took Ella and Andrew up to Cabella’s after their dentist appointment to get pictures with Santa yesterday. I thought for sure that I had posted some of my childhood Santa pictures before. However, after glancing through some of my past Christmas themed blogs, I discovered that I hadn’t. For what it is worth, it was a quick glance, so there is the possibility that I missed them. If that is the case, I apologize for repeating.

I thought it would be fun to check out some of these amazing photos from the past –

I cannot be sure which of these photos was taken earlier, but I think it was this one.

My dad wrote on the back of this that I am “about 2 years old.

My all time favorite photo with Santa is this one, in which I am wearing the craziest pants ever.

I joke all the time that the reason I am crying is because of those pants! I am probably 3 here, but I cannot be sure.

After that time, my folks probably decided to wait a few years before trying to get a picture with Santa. The next one that shows up is from when I was 6 years old, and it is with my brother and I.

I’m sure that we probably had more taken of us, but I have no idea where they are. Maybe a family member has a copy of one somewhere, but I don’t think I do.

I don’t know that we really ever took my boys to get their photos with Santa when then were tiny. So Fast Forward to 2009. Dante’ would have been 7 and Dimitri is 2 in this one. My brother actually took the above photo and put it in a frame with this one of them. It’s cool to see just how much they boys look like us.

One year later, we took them again to get photos at the mall. I remember this Santa. He was SO good!

I want to say that this Santa was the same Santa that appeared at an office networking party my morning show co-host, Stephanie, and I emceed in 2007.

He sure looks like it to me. If it is, the picture above would have been taken 3 years prior to the one with the boys.

I found this one after I posted this blog! This must have been a year or two after the boy’s previous picture. They used to like their hair “spiked.”

Some of my favorite Santa pictures were not professional ones at all. Ella was born just before Covid hit at the world shut down. A good friend of mine was out doing an appearance as Santa and stopped by the house. I blogged about it here:

A Surprise Visitor

Jan was such a great guy. He passed away not to long ago. I can never thank him enough for making a special trip over for Ella. I miss him.

Andrew was only about 2 months old at Christmas last year. We went to Cabella’s and Covid was still a worry. They had a bench in front of Santa for the kids to sit on. There was no way he was going to be able to so that, so the entire family got our picture with St. Nick!

Ella knew that after her dentist appointment yesterday we were going to see Santa. She was very excited. We arrived about 30 minutes early for our appointment. I didn’t matter, there was no one there when we arrived and we were able to get right up for pictures. When Ella saw Santa, she yelled, “Hi Santa!” and ran up and gave him a hug! The photographer deserves kudos because she actually snapped a picture of that.

She made sure that he knew she wanted a “princess castle” for Christmas and then she sat on his lap. We placed Andrew on Santa’s knee and the tears started! The photographer snapped a few photos and we got the best one. It’s totally ok that he was crying. Like father, like son, right!? Ella never has cried when she has seen Santa, which still amazes me.

I think it came out cute. Maybe next year, they can talk about Twinkles, our Elf on the Shelf, and about how she reports things to him at the North Pole.

4 more sleeps till Christmas!!

Pre-Holiday Weekend Wrap Up

It is hard to believe that we are just 4 days away from Christmas. Someone observed that time moves a whole lot faster in December if you are an adult. This is so true! As a kid, it seemed to crawl by as we waited for Christmas.

SNOW!

This weekend kept us pretty busy. We got about an inch of snow on Saturday night and when Ella woke up she saw the ground was covered. So after breakfast, the kids and I suited up in snow gear and went out to play in the yard.

It was fun to see Andrew all bundled up. He looked so funny trying to walk in his boots and snow pants. The snow wasn’t “snowman” ready, so we really couldn’t build one. But we did get to run around and throw snow at each other. He really had fun once he got over the “awe” of it. Ella? Well, she just loves to run and jump in the snow.

Cookie Time!

Our Elf on the Shelf, Twinkles, had the idea to decorate cookies this weekend.

She is obviously a Sam’s Club member!

The kids had a blast decorating them.

Ella had her “Bucket O Princesses” with her as she decorated hers. Andrew was eating them as fast as he decorated his …

Picnic

Yesterday, Ella wanted to have a picnic. So we put a blanket down in the living room, I whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches, and they had a picnic.

Note the “Bucket O Princesses” are with her at lunch, too! LOL!

I probably should have thought about giving them applesauce pouches. That blanket needed a good wash after the picnic was over.

Say “Ahhhh”

This morning, when Sam got home, we had to take the kids to the dentist. Ella did ok, but there are things that she won’t let them do. Sam went back with her and I guess she started to freak out about getting an X-Ray. We will probably need to see a pediatric dentist who may be able to get her calm enough to get them. Andrew had no issues at all, He was a champ.

After our visit to the dentist, it was time for a visit to Santa. Ella was so excited to go see him. More on that in my next blog!

One Final Story

Last year my dad got us an Amazon Echo. You have to link it to an Amazon account, so I linked it to mine.

Sam and I decided that we were not getting each other anything for Christmas this year. I decided to get her something from the kids. So I took $20 I won on an instant lottery ticket and put it in the account I used for my DJ business (so she wouldn’t know) and ordered her something on Amazon.

She was standing by the fireplace yesterday where the Echo is yesterday. She see’s something that pops up on the screen.

She asks me, “What did you order from Amazon?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“According to the Alexa, you have something arriving Thursday that YOU ordered,” she says.

“Don’t worry about it!” I told her, hoping she would drop the subject.

She didn’t drop it and says, “We don’t have the money to spend. Did you put this on your credit card?”

“No. It’s not anything big. It’s something from the kids to you.” and I explained that it was from the lottery ticket money.

She finally drops the subject, until today.

“By the way, I know what you have coming from Amazon,” she slyly says.

I look at her flustered. “Every time I try to get you something as a surprise, something spoils it!”

She then says, “What made you think to get that?”

I don’t say anything. I told her to just act surprised when she unwraps in.

Then she laughs and says, “Yeah, I don’t know what it is. But I was hoping you would tell me by telling you I knew what it was!”

“Wife Trickery” at its finest!! Man, I almost told her what it was! Somehow I think she knows what it is anyway, but we’ll see.

I Could Write a Book – Using Her Words

In trying to find a picture to use for this blog, the above one came up in a Google search. I could see me and Sam filling up multiple volumes with just the things Ella says. Just within the past 2 weeks, there have been plenty of potential entries. Here are just a few:

Manger Stories

Ella loves Little People by Fisher Price. She has a ton of them. We recently received this manger scene as a gift. When you push the button on the top (where the angel is in the photo), it plays Away in a Manger and the star lights up.

Manger Story #1:

Ella keeps pushing the button and playing the music. I said to her, “You must really like that song. You are playing it a lot.”

She looked at me funny, looked back at the manger, back at me and simply said, “Daddy, I’m turning on the light for Jesus!”

Manger Story #2

You may recall that Sam’s sister, Grace, passed away recently. Ella and Grace were very close.

Ella was playing with the Little People from the manger set. So Sam placed the angel on the roof.

Ella: Mommy why you put the angel on the top?

Sam: So she can watch over everyone and keep them safe.

(There must have been some conversation about angels living in heaven.)

Ella: Angels live with Jesus? Like with Gracie?

Sam: They do.

Ella: Mommy, that means Gracie is an angel too! Oh mommy she has a beautiful crown! And beautiful wings!!

Sam posted this on Facebook with the story: “This girl melts my heart!

She sure does!!

Keeping the Peace

Sometimes, Ella makes me laugh so hard. A fine example happened a week or so ago.

Sam and I were in the kitchen talking while I was making dinner. Ella comes up the step into the kitchen from the living room and says loudly, “Just stay calm, everybody!”

Now, I could see if Sam and I were arguing or in a heated discussion about something, but we were literally just talking. This was so out of the blue and random! Both of us looked at each other and started laughing. We have no idea where she heard this from.

There was no indication that she had done anything wrong, or that she broke something, but we walked around the house anyway to make sure everything was ok!

Please Shut Your Mouth!

Remember how as a kid you would put your fingers in your ear when you didn’t want to listen to what someone was telling you? Ella has no issue just letting you know she’s done listening.

From my wife’s Facebook:

When I’m telling her something she doesn’t want to hear Ella’s new thing is to say “Please stop talking to me mommy!”

So tonight I decided to listen to her. I started talking to Andrew…

Me: Here Bubs, let’s get you some chocolate milk. What a bummer I can’t ask Ella if she wants any.

Ella: Oh, mommy, I want chocolate milk.

Me: Here Bubby. (Hands him chocolate milk in sippy cup)

Ella: Mommy! I said I want chocolate milk too!!

Me: Oh, I thought I wasn’t allowed to talk to you.

Ella: Mommy, I love you so much! You’re so special to me!

As my wife said in her post – We are in so much trouble with this one!

Jewish Italian?

One of Ella and Andrew’s favorite shows to watch on TV is Blue’s Clues and You. Sadly, it doesn’t come on as often as I’d like (Because they play Paw Patrol for HOURS at a time!). We set the DVR to record episodes and watch them whenever we want.

They have been running many holiday themed episodes of the show over the last week or so. One of the episodes (pictured above) is based on the neighbor’s celebration of Hanukkah. Sam and the kids were watching it tonight as I drove into work. Sam calls me to tell me about the following conversation:

Ella: Mommy, where is our menorah?

Sam: We don’t have one, baby.

Ella: Why not?

Sam: Because we are not Jewish.

Ella: Why not?

(Long Pause)

Sam: When Daddy gets home – ask him!

Maybe Josh and Blue can help me answer …

Ella, you are such an amazing little girl. We are so blessed to have you! Thank you for being such a wonderful part of our lives!

2022 Holiday Photo Shoot

We were supposed to get some quick holiday photos last week. The day before our appointment, the kids were still under the weather. I made the call to our photographer and asked if we could either reschedule the session or put the money toward our future appointment for Ella’s birthday pictures. She graciously said that we could move the session to this week if that worked.

I wasn’t sure if this was a possibility because these were what she called “mini sessions.” Basically, it is an abbreviated session of about 15 minutes. For one fee, you get the session and all of the digital photos from the session. It was a really sweet deal and I am glad that she was able to move our appointment.

We’ve been to her studio more than once. When I walked in for our session, I was very impressed with what they did. They literally created an entire room right there. It was the perfect backdrop and the photos were just beautiful.

When we did Andrew’s first birthday pictures in October, Beth’s (our photographer) dog was in the studio. Roxie. Ella remembered her name! When we walked in this week, Ella was on the look out for Roxie. She asked, “Where’s Roxie?!” Beth was so impressed that Ella remembered the dog’s name and told her that she was upstairs sleeping (which seemed to be an acceptable answer).

Our plan was to just get pictures of the kids. Sam and I knew that there was always the possibility of Beth getting us in photos, too. So we both wore sweaters and were prepared to jump in. I’m glad we were ready, as she took family photos right from the get go.

There were so many great photos that were taken. The best of them will go on the Christmas card (if we have time to get them done).

Beth is SO fast! I swear, Ella just doesn’t like to sit still for pictures anymore. She is always on the go. The fact that she was still able to get pictures where it looks like she is sitting still just amazes me! She wasn’t on the couch for long.

You might be able to tell that she isn’t sitting still in the above picture. I was really trying to hold her in one spot for this and a couple other shots in the pose.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this pose, but I really do. I may or may not have needed help getting back up after this pose.

Beth made sure to grab a few solo pictures of each kid. Ella loved the wagon.

Andrew in this little sled is SO cute!!

I think Beth took about 20 pictures of the two of them in the wagon. Most of them probably looked like Ella was choking Andrew, but there were a couple that really came out cute.

The thing that I was very happy about was that Beth got a photo of just Sam and I together. In all the time we have been together, we never really had a “professional” photo taken of us. We had a friend take some engagement photos of us to announce to friends and family that we were getting married. That friend takes photos for fun and she doesn’t own a studio or anything. They came out great and we loved them, but that was almost 5 years ago.

Beth was able to snap a couple of us before the kids were hanging around at our feet. I am sure she had to crop the kids out of the bottom of the photo, but I just love this picture.

Thank you to Beth at Enjoy the View Photography for once again capturing some wonderful photos!

The holidays have always been special to me. I am so very lucky to have such an amazing family to share them with. What do I want for Christmas? Nothing. I already have the greatest gift in the world – my family!

Under The Weather

We’ve had quite the run of germs at our house. First, Andrew had the runny nose, cough, and ear infection. Then Sam got a wicked sore throat that seemed to last for days. Ella has been congested, coughing, not really sleeping and fevers off an on. I have a nasty sinus infection with a cough. It’s not been pleasant!

No parent likes to see their kid sick. Ella has really had it the roughest. She is just miserable. Sam went as far as to say that Ella is like me when I get sick. She’s right. I don’t do sick very well. Ok, honestly, I’m a big baby. All I want to do is sleep. It’s not pretty.

We used real life as inspiration for Twinkles (our Elf on a Shelf) this week.

We were supposed to have some Christmas pictures taken this morning, but with all of us sick, we had to call and cancel. We’re hoping that we might be well enough to do them on Monday, so our photographer moved our appointment. Our fingers are crossed that at least the kids feel better by then.

Rest is best, so I think we’re all going to just hang in pajamas all weekend. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Are We Creative Enough To Do This For a Month?

I swore up and down that I would never do the whole Elf on the Shelf thing. Sometimes, however, circumstances make you go back on your word.

My mother-in-law sent home an Elf on the Shelf before Thanksgiving. So now, we’re in it to win it. Ok, we’ll do the best we can to make it happen!

The story (as I’ve heard it) behind this whole thing is that some kids wondered how Santa could know how kids were bad or good. The answer? He sends these “scouting” elves to the homes of children to watch them. At bedtime, they go back to the North Pole and report to Santa. They return before morning and find a different place to keep an eye on the children. The child cannot touch the elf, or it loses its magic and may not return. This could easily get them on the naughty list!

As a parent, it’s our job to find a creative place to place the elf every night. You have no doubt seen many of the humorous things people have come up with. Some are not very kid friendly.

The story says that once the child names their elf, they get their magic and officially become part of the family. After some discussion Ella passed on Snowflake and instead decided on Twinkle (which has since become Twinkles).

A buddy of mine noted that from far away, you can’t really tell if the elf is a boy or a girl. Close up you can see ours is a girl.

And for those who still want to question it … it says she is a girl right on the box!

Anyway, we watched a short movie on Netflix with Ella and Andrew, read the book that told the story, and then they were off to bed. Day 1 was a simple one. Right above the fireplace on the mantle.

Day 2’s idea was found in the internet. We grabbed one of her mini Nana blankets to make it work. Twinkles camped out in the fridge.

Chilly, but elves are used to that, right?!

Sam worked the next night, so it was up to me to think of what to do. This may or may not have been influenced by an action movie or two. Twinkles was zip lining to the Christmas tree.

For day 4, I wanted to have her hanging from the ceiling fan, but the bucket/cup I put her in kept tipping and she’d fall out. Instead, I used the cup and hung her from the magnetic clip on the side door. It kinda looks like the hot air balloon ride went wrong and she crash landed on the clip.

This morning, on Facebook, my friends Matt and Tricia posted that they got an elf for their son. I immediately commented and told them I was glad that there would be someone I could steal ideas from!

The elf goes “home” Christmas Eve … feel free to share your ideas, too!! Kid friendly, of course.

Thanksgiving 2022 Recap

The holiday weekend is winding down and I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was a good day filled with great food and family.

The day started with a quick game of hide and seek.

We watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The kids loved seeing Josh from Blue’s Clues and Bluey in the parade!

After breakfast, we prepared the deviled eggs to bring. Sam said she didn’t have paprika. She chuckled when I told her I never liked when my mom put it on the deviled eggs! Then we all started to get ready to go to Sam’s mom’s for dinner.

The loss of my sister-in-law, Grace, is still very fresh. It helped to have family together. There was a lot of love and great conversation throughout the day.

We had an amazing dinner, prepared by my mother-in-law: turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and so much more. There was no shortage of desserts either!

The Detroit Lions actually gave us a good game to watch, despite losing in the last 23 seconds. It would have been nice to see them win their fourth in a row.

I got to finally meet my newest niece, Arabella. She is a little cutie! She’s only a few months old, but she’s almost as big as Andrew!

I dropped the ball this year and didn’t really take many pictures. My sister in law snapped a candid of the family as we were leaving which I just love.

I love it because it is typical chaos. It looks like Sam is asking me something and I am oblivious. Ella is waving and Andrew is like, “can we just go home now?”

We came home and relaxed the rest of the night, just enjoying family time.

As I turned off the lights and headed off to bed, I reflected again o just how thankful I am for my wonderful family.