Life’s Little Moments

We’ve had a lot going on over the past week. I feel like I am just getting around to settling down.

Easter

I hope you had a good Easter, if you celebrate. My wife’s family did all the Easter stuff on the Friday before. I had to work, so I missed all the fun. They had an egg hunt for the kids, and Nana and Pa got each grandkid a little something. Andrew was in his glory!

He got his very own tool box! It is similar to Pa’s, and is better than mine! He told Andrew that he could come over and collect some tools to put in it later in the week.

My wife worked Saturday night, so Easter for us was Saturday Morning. The kids were excited to get their baskets.

They each got some cool loot this year, including special drinking cups – a princess one for Ella and a Paw Patrol one for Andrew. We spent the day playing and cleaning.

On Easter Sunday, I was told to cook the ham that was in the fridge. Honestly, I don’t know how many people my wife thought we were feeding. She bought a 13 pound ham! Andrew had some, my wife and I had some, but Ella is not a fan. Needless to say, there was a lot left over.

On Monday, I ran to the store with a crockpot recipe I found for ham and potato soup. I bought the ingredients we didn’t have and made it up. My goodness, it was delicious! It was so simple, too. I like simple. We’ll be doing that again.

Back to the Diamond

Last year, Ella said she really didn’t want to play T-ball again. Then she said she might. We signed her up and she’s already had her first practice. I was at work, but my wife said that this year, she is rocking it. Last year, she had trouble hitting the ball. I guess she nailed them all at practice.

Her games are all on days I work, so I’m going to have to figure out how to get to a couple of them.

Outdoor Play

With the weather warming up, the kids can finally go outside. They love riding their scooters and bikes. Ella, however, still wants to play with her Barbies. So this week, Sam told her she could bring out one of her Barbie houses and she could play with them outside. I think she liked the idea.

School Silliness

It is hard to believe that school is almost out for the summer. Ella has loved preschool. I have loved having mornings together. We all pile in the car and enjoy the drive to school. Sometimes she will talk about her classmates and sometimes she wants to listen to kids songs on the radio. When Andrew comes with us, it is always a hoot to listen to them talk about stuff in the backseat.

Ella mentioned while waiting in the car this week that we hadn’t taken a before school selfie in awhile. Usually, when we all try to get one, it comes out wonky because of movement or something. We had a magic moment this week …

Gee, Thanks, Dad

Andrew stayed at Nana and Pa’s house yesterday. Pa was putting in a new toilet. He was drilling a hole in the floor and that was all Andrew needed to see. He was going to stay and help Pa. At one point, they had to run up to Home Depot for something. Andrew LOVES tool stores! I can only imagine what that had to be like for my father-in-law.

At any rate, while they were there Andrew asked for something. Pa, naturally bought it for him. When my wife went to pick him up, she gasped when she saw him.

Pa bought him a REAL STAPLE GUN! Thankfully, there are no staples. The first thing my father-in-law said was, “Don’t worry. I made sure it was safe for him!”

When Sam did our nightly video call, she said, “Show daddy what Pa got you.” She turned the phone to show me him and he had it plugged in and he was pulling the trigger on the hardwood floor! I started to freak out until she told me that there were no staples! It just makes noise. He is in utter heaven!! He told me to wake him up when I got home so he could “show me how to use it!”

There truly is never a dull moment at my house!

Cinco de Birthday

Ella had a fun birthday! She thanks everyone who sent birthday wishes.

She had really hoped to go to the Children’s Museum, but it was closed. So we decided to take her down to Build a Bear where she could pick her own animal, stuff it and pick an outfit. She loved every second.

Despite the many bears, she chose to Build a Cat! The lady at the stuffing machine had her step on the pedal to shoot the stuffing in the kitty. She then got to pick a heart and put it inside the kitty. After she was stuffed, Ella went and got her a rainbow tutu and rainbow shoes to match!

Andrew got Chase from Paw Patrol. He had to get the uniform, the boots, and the hat and “pup pack.”

You can’t put a price on fun or kid memories. But this was an expensive trip! I can’t imagine my folks ever spending almost $200 on two stuffies!

They loved it, though and they will always remember that! On the way home we had to stop by Nana and Pa’s house to pick up her “Mermaid tail” cake. Nana made it out of cupcakes and she was thrilled with it.

After dinner and cake, Ella finally got to open her gifts. She got a huge box of beads and such to make necklaces, rings, bracelets and more. She also got a princess game.

Basically, the game is like the game Cootie. You spin the spinner move along the board and collect your earrings, your ring, your necklace, your bracelet and finally the crown. Collect all of those without having the “cursed ring” and you win.

When your birthday girl asks you to play … you do!

Ridiculous!

Tuesday morning, she couldn’t wait to show her class her cat! Her teachers were nice enough to let her sit up front and tell her story about building the kitty and she passed it around. I was there because she wanted me to make sure that the cat made it home safe. She wanted her to be ok when she got home from school.

Five years! Wow. It is so hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday that I was posting about her being born.

I am so glad she had a good day and I hope she’ll always remember it!

Spring’s ETA – 6 Days!

Today was one of those days I wish I could have stayed home with the kids! It was such a beautiful day. Spring is straight ahead and today was a small tease for us.

This morning, we got up and had some errands to do before I had to head to work. The kids saw the neighbor girls out last week on their bikes and roller skates. Neither of the kids has a bike, and they asked about them. While we were out, we picked them each up one with training wheels.

Before work, I grabbed the tools and began putting them together. Andrew got a cool Paw Patrol one that I have to add a couple pieces to.

It didn’t take him long to figure out the pedals. I think he’s going to be doing a whole lot of riding this spring and summer.

Ella got a Frozen bike. I felt bad because I got the whole thing together and there were two “left” pedals in the box instead of a left and right. So I called the store and asked about just swapping out one of the pedals, but I’ll have to return the entire bike and get an entire new one and rebuild it. Of course, she still had to see if she liked it.

I’ll head back to the store in the morning and get hers all set!

With the nice weather, Sam and I were already talking about things that need to be done in the yard. I have to re-do the stone walkway to our front door because the construction fools did a shoddy job putting them back in place. Sam wants to do something with the flower beds in the front yard, so I may have to look into some sort of barriers for that. She’s also wanting a garden – she will find out how NOT green my thumb is!

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If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my son Andrew is all about tools. He’s always right there with something to help me and my father-in-law when we work on a project. He still carries around one of my cordless drills (with out the bit, of course).

He has a few “tool boxes” but my father-in-law has a tool bag. I guess He was trying to put the cordless drill in his boxes and it won’t fit. So he asked his Pa about a tool bag. You can only imagine his excitement when Sam’s folks dropped by the house the other night with a nice new tool bag for Andrew’s drill and other tools!

We had quite a few people at the house this week to look at his education plan. We’re hoping that he will be ready for preschool (and they are ready for him) soon. We were going over speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy goals and how to best get what is best for him.

Our Ella turned four last month and we were a week or so late in getting her four year old pictures. We once again took her to see our photographer friend, Beth, at Enjoy the View Photography. This time I did not go with them when the session happened. So they were a surprise to me when I finally got to see them.

This session truly showed her personality. There were pictures of her making silly faces, laughing out loud, and even sticking her tongue out. I joked that we paid for her to make silly faces, but I love that we have them. It is really what she is like right now – silly and sassy. At the end of her session, they had her sit on a swing. There were some fantastic photos there. This one is one of my favorites:

I am such a blessed man!

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!

A Mood Changer

Pardon me while I become “toddler dad” for a minute…

When you become a parent, you lose the option to watch TV … at least when your kids are awake. Most days I watch all the PBS shows (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum) or the various stuff from Nick Jr. or Disney Jr. (Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Peppa Pig). My favorite is Bluey.

I blogged about the show (and primarily the dad – Bandit) here:

One of my favorite episodes is entitled Bad Mood. In the show, Bluey’s sister (Bingo) is in a “bad mood.” Bandit, Bluey and Bingo’s dad, IS the bad mood. It is signified by him wearing a Viking Helmet and walking with Bingo standing on his feet. He grunts and stomps through the house destroying block towers, ruining drawings, and throwing things.

Now there have been “a few” times when I have been at work and I’ve been in a “not so good mood.” I have joked with my co-workers that I need to get myself a Viking hat. No one really knew what I was talking about, so I showed them clips from this episode. Whenever a computer would crash or something didn’t work, I’d say something like, “This is when I need my ‘bad mood’ hat!”

One of our crew is transferring to another department and tomorrow is her last night here. Tonight, she said she was going to run out to her car for something. She came back in and was holding this Viking hat, which had two blonde braids hanging down from it. She told me that she wanted to get something to thank me for all the laughs we’ve shared working together.

It made me laugh out loud when I saw it. It also made me sad. I really have come to enjoy the nights that we work together. She loves music and we’ve shared a great many stories about songs and artists. She is also very funny and there are times I am laughing so hard my sides hurt. I am certainly going to miss having her in the building.

I told her when she gave me the helmet that it really won’t be a “bad mood” hat. Mainly because when I go to put it on, I will think about her – I’ll laugh – and that will put me in a good mood.

Thanks for your friendship, your conversation, and the many laughs, Laura! You will be missed, especially by me!!