Ellie is Walking and Talking and Riley is Surviving it All

Ellie just started walking a couple weeks ago. It started with balancing on her own for a few seconds, progressed to moving up and down the edge of the sofa and then came the daring first steps. Now, she won't stop moving and is having even more fun following Riley around. There have been lots of bumps and bruises along the way, her newest one is smack in the middle of her forehead but she is determined. She falls, she may wimper a little and then she is moving again. It just seems impossible that Ellie is at this stage already. Life is just moving too fast and I can't possibly take it all in. It is amazing and kind of sad all at the same time. The day is full of hundreds of sweet sweet memories that I know my mind will not remember ten years from now, let alone ten days from now. Hopefully this blog will help a little, memories saved in the cyber world. So, in an effort to document and remember things... Recently Riley had his first big boo-boo. I was snapping the double stroller into place and his left pinky finger got caught in the process. Riley is usually a very strong boy and gets over things pretty well but not this one. I picked him up quick to see it and he said, "I walk. I walk." So I put him down to walk but the pain just made th little guy crouch on the ground holding it once again unable to just walk this one off. He doesn't want anyone to touch his owies or even look at them so I held him as Griff pushed Ellie in the stroller. Griff tried to get glipses of the sore finger and make sure there wasn't blood and it wasn't broken, and it is neither. Riley has also discovered how to use the water hose outside and last week I found him in the backyard "watering" the flower. This would be a huge blessing but the windows were wide open and he was spraying a lot more than just the flowers. And Ellie, besides walking, can now say the words:"please", "no-no", "bye-bye", "hi", "doggy" and "shoe". Yes, I know that last one sounds crazy but she really can say it. She just started making the "sh" sound this week and the other morning when I told Riley to go put his shoes on she said it as sweet as could be, "shoes". This may be a foreshadow of a shoe obsession to come, we shall see. And this morning I went in to get Ellie out of bed and she handed me the speaker from inside one of her dolls. Apprently she figured out how to open the velcro and take our the noise maker inside...oh the things she gets into. :-) She has also started pretending to burp, cough and just yesterday learn to bark like a dog.

Learning

As I sit here with Riley on my left and Ellie on my right for snack time I realize there is a lot going on in our family and I am learning a lot, about myself, my kids and Griff.

I am learning that even if Riley didn't get much sleep during the night and the clock says 5:30am the sun is up and that means Riley is up and ready to play. I am learning that he can't read the clock I put in his room yet. And I am also learning that since Riley and Ellie share a room the excitement of being up can't be contained to just him sitting on his bed but MUST include Ellie as well. I am learning that I am not very loving, gracious, or awake at 5:30 in the morning and do not always respond the best to my early bird. I know that mornings are the best part of the day and I do love the morning but I really just love it when I can get up to my natural internal clock and spend it in peace and quiet while drinking an ice chai.

I am learning that even though Riley can pee on the potty it doesn't mean he is completely ready to potty train. I am learning there is no need to rush him and if he is 4 and still in diapers I will be concerned but right now at 2 1/2 I can enjoy him wearing diapers and the reality I don't have to ask him every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom or be concerned when we take trips or run errands. There is a blessing to diapers and I will enjoy it for a while longer.

I am learning that Ellie is going to be a bit dramatic. If she sees me leave the room she sticks out her lower lip and throws herself to the ground. It is cute now but could become a little extreme if it continues into adolescence. She favors me more than Griff, which I think is normal. She knows that if Griff picks her up and and turns and says night night to me that is bad news and also evokes tears and crying, sometimes even wailing. But, I'm learning I gotta let her cry it out and she will soon fall to sleep.

I'm learning that if I'm getting frustrated with the kids a drive in the van is a great break for the three of us. Riley loves riding on the highway and looking at all the semis, Ellie is content doing just about anything and it gives me enough peace to collect my thoughts and refocus. And a drive proves a little break in an otherwise semi quiet morning at home.

I'm learning how to stretch a dollar at the grocery store, buy generic, use coupons, and hunt for sales. But, I'm also learning with two kids under 28 months sometimes it is easier on me and worth the money to by the name brand regardless of price and give myself a little grace; saving $3.50 at Giant just isn't worth it some weeks.

I'm learning that I really struggle with discipline, not discipline of myself and life but disciplining Riley and beginning to train Ellie. It is an exhausting task. No one ever told me how tiring and trying it would be. If they did tell me I was too prideful to listen to their advice. I'm learning how consistency is extremely important but so is grace and patience. I can't expect Riley to behave like a perfect gentlemen. He is a two year old little boy and he is going to throw things I would prefer weren't thrown, and break things I wish didn't break.

I'm learning that all it make take for Ellie to go from sad to happy is sing the alphabet or playing peek-a-boo and it helps my attitude as well.

And I'm learning a smile at the door to greet Griff at the end of a hard day goes a long way in his heart.

Snack time is over, off to play.

So far in June...

Ellie can now climb to the top of this slide and sometimes get herself down safely. When she gets to the top she laughs, I think because she is so proud of herself and she knows her mommy is completely freaking out.
They LOVE books! I don't even bother picking them up till the end of the day because it is a guarantee Ellie will tear them all down again. I don't mind. I love that they love to look through books.
She just gets sweeter by the day. Some day little man you will fit in these shoes.

Birthday Cupcake

Last night after dinner we gave Ellie her first of many Birthday cupcakes! She love, love, loved it! We laughed so much and and we got to see the personality differences between her and Riley, maybe you will notice them too. :-)

1 FULL weekend

This weekend Griff's middle brother, Andy, graduated from Cornell University with his PhD in Nutrition. The whole Jones family was traveling up to Ithaca to celebrate the momentous occasion. It officially started for us with Chris and Sarah's family driving here Friday and enjoying time together before we all made the 4+ hour trip up early Saturday morning. We arrived in Ithaca and met us with the rest of the family for an amazing lunch. Ellie had her first pickle and she loved it! I missed her initial sour face but this is better than nothing.
After that there was a little time for naps and then off to the graduation ceremony. He is officially a doctor everyone! All the long hours of traveling, gathering research, crunching data, writing, re-writing and defending has finally paid off! Way to go Andy...I mean, Dr. Andrew Jones. :-)
Then, with all the hard work out of the way, it was time to celebrate, not only Andy becoming Dr. Andy but Ellie becoming 1! I can't believe our little girl is now a one year old. She has gone from 6 pounds 4 ounces to over twenty pounds. She crawls, pulls herself up, plays patty cake and peek-a-boo and is starting to stand on her own. She is such a happy girl and has a smile for almost everyone, unless your a little suspicious. She "talks" a lot though we haven't been able to make out a clear word yet. She loves to crawl around in only a diaper and pat her tummy. And she is strong, the girl can not only crawl up the slide (as evidenced by a previous video) but she can pick things up that shock Griff and I and have us looking at each other in amazement. We are excited to see how her little (or big) personality continues to develop.


Finally, the party really picked up when Andy brought out Rock Band, a game for PlayStation 3. Riley was on cloud nine getting to play the drums (he calls them boom-booms) and the guitar (he calls a dee-dee). We had so much fun with the grand kids and Jones boys playing songs and all of us singing in the background. I know some people say video games are a waste of time but this was one of my personal highlights from our trip. We played until almost 9:30 at night, way past Riley's bedtime and the final picture shows how dazed and exhausted this little boy was. At one point he just turned is back to all of us and hugged the guitar. He was so tired but an amazing trooper through an incredibly fun but busy day.



Now, we sit at home, thankful for the trip and the memories made and also thankful tomorrow is a holiday and Griff gets to stay home all day! I am also thankful for those in the military past and present that serve this country and make Memorial day even possible.

Unbelievable!

By 9am

Today is is raining so that leaves us with few options of entertainment, so today became baking day. We started with yummy blueberry muffins and then we moved onto brownies. By 10am everything was out of the oven and the house was smelling amazing but at 9am this was the scene in our kitchen.