Sophia and Ella lost a great-grandma this morning.  I've known Violet for nearly 25 years and will always remember her as both funny and fiesty.  Here she is with Ione at Christmas in 2007:


Violet was sweet enough to make both girls beautiful blankets when they were born and, as a result, she will always be a crucially important part of our daily life (especially at naptime and bedtime, but also when someone gets hurt and needs comfort).  Thank goodness she had the common sense to make them different colors so that they don't fight over which one belongs to them!


I'll miss you Violet!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/03/30/how.busy.are.you/index.html
OK, so they don't provide a score per se, but compared to the typical respondent's pie chart of time use, mine is awfully blue and orange.  This doesn't mean that I'm a big UVA fan, it means that most of my day is work and kids.  I wish I could have filled in a number for "hours spent dealing with 2-year-old's tantrums" because it feels like a big piece of my day already today and it's not even noon... {sigh}

"WHOA!!  Mama drive fast!!  Mama slow dowwwwwwn!" 

What can I say?  I was driving Esen's car and it has a little bit of get-up-and-go when you need it.  Why did I get stuck with a kid with a built-in radar gun?  The incident reminded me of another about 15 years ago when I was driving Sally and Katie to elementary school and got scolded for not using my turn signal by a 6-year-old.  Why are kids so darn opinionated? 

One other quote from this week that I simply must share... Sophia was watching a video so that I could get a few minutes of peace to nurse Ella.  She had this glassy-eyed look that made me fear her brain was being turned to mush, so I tried to get her attention.  When she didn't respond, I said, "Hey Sophia!  Don't smile!!  I don't want to see any smiling over there!!"  She immediately looked at me, busted out her best toothy grin and said, "But mama, I'm happy!"  I'll see if I can get a video of that one... it's priceless!

It's like one of those recap shows before the season premier... you know the one that catches you up (at warp speed) on everything that's happened?  That's this post!  When I downloaded pictures off the camera tonight, it was the first time I'd done it in April.  I'm not usually multiple weeks behind like this, so I'm hoping this isn't my new reality!  OK, here's your recap (in chronological order going back to the end of March!):

1. Ella's 6-month check up came and went without too much excitement.  Her ear infections cleared up (after 10 days of antibiotics that made her poop CONSTANTLY and gave her a total body polka-dotted rash on the last day) and thankfully haven't returned.  I promised you stats, so here they are:
Weight: 18 pounds, 2 ounces (90th percentile)
Height:  27.25 inches (95th percentile)
Sophia was a little lighter at 6 months (at 17 pounds, 10 ounces), but taller (at 28.5 inches).  Ella is comfortably wearing 12-month clothes much of the time, so clearly we have another long baby on our hands.  After a few hits of Tylenol, she did just fine with the shots this time around.  Sophia did her best to cheer Ella up that day by giving her a little push in the swing.  Sophia talks about "eating clouds" on the video below, which she revealed during her turn in the swing as the reason that she likes to be pushed really high in the swing.  They don't have swings at school, otherwise I'd totally assume that's where she got something like that.  Who knows.
   

2.  Potty in the house!  We were in Target buying a few things one Saturday and decided to ask Sophia if she wanted a potty.  She's been talking about it on occasion because she's moved up to a classroom that has some three-year-olds who use a potty.  She opted for the pink one and could hardly wait until I got it out of the box before she plopped her naked popo on it.

Nothing happened this first time... or the second, or the third... She has several times asked to go "kaka" in her potty, but then only "produce" once the diaper goes back on.  Oh well.  Here's another attempt where she's clearly enjoying herself:
Esen and I were talking in the bathroom just the other day while she was sitting on her potty when suddenly, WE HEARD THE MUSIC!  Yes, that's right... it has a sensor at the bottom of the bowl and rewards her with a little tune.  I'm pretty sure I could spit more liquid than what she peed out, but it was enough to set off the music and we clapped like happy fools for her.  We're in no rush at this point and are happy to just let her continue exploring.  Truthfully, I'm so used to changing diapers that I could really care less.  I'm also not that psyched to clean "kaka" out of a plastic cup that is singing uber-annoying electronica to me all the way.

3.  Back to the bounce house for a birthday party!  One the little boys in her classroom turned 3 and invited everyone to a party at the local bounce house (which is WAY more than a single house of bouncing enjoyment... it's a warehouse full of inflated, bouncy contraptions designed to exhaust even the most hyped-up-on-sugar toddlers).  Sophia was there once before, as you might recall, for a birthday party with older kids when she was just one and a half.  She was overwhelmed then, but really seemed to enjoy herself this time (perhaps because she also knew some of the kids).  Here are a few choice photos:



I also enjoyed myself a lot more this time around as I was not 9 months pregnant and dealing with a clingy toddler.  Turns out that bounce houses are easier to maneuver when you're not packing an extra 40 pounds (and lord knows how many inches) around your mid-section.

4.  Ilke Amce and Babaanne!!  Ilke was in the States for a conference and stopped by for a few days en route to Australia.  It was great to see him... we haven't seen him since we were all in Seattle for a conference when Sophia was about 4 months old!!  Esen's mom also came to visit and help out at the start of our long stretch without daycare.  Now that we're surviving a full week without her and still without daycare, I wish she was still here!  It was great having both of them!

As usual, I didn't take very many pictures, but Babaanne's full set can be viewed at http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=ujyojip.4dennx1x&x=0&y=2szx2c&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button.  Enjoy!!

Girls in spring dresses... who can resist 'em?


A few fat rolls peeking out!

Maybe it's just because I almost never put Sophia in a dress, but that last picture just makes my heart ache with how grown up she looks. 

We didn't dye eggs (because I'm just not that crazy), but we did color on some hard-boiled eggs with markers and apply some stickers.  I also hid a few plastic eggs with treats in them around the yard so that Sophia could have a little Easter egg hunt.

Suzy was lurking around trying to get some treats for herself...



Here's a video of some of the action (notice that she's not very quick to find those eggs!).  It's important to note that there are some enormous bees hanging out near a flowering tree right next to our back patio (by enormous, I mean ENORMOUS... like flying black and yellow golf balls!), and they were out in full force this afternoon so there were several detours captured on the video.  Eventually the post-hunt snacking moved indoors because we were all on edge after Suzy starting attacking some of the low-flying buggers.
 

Now I know that I've been awful about keeping up the blog these past few weeks and we've had so much going on that is blog-worthy!  I'm going to start working on a catch-up post to share all those juicy details with you guys, but be patient... Passover is still going on ALL this week, too, so we're without daycare and struggling to preserve our sanity.

Some of the reasons that I haven't had time to update the blog... visitors have meant that I haven't been as productive in the evenings as usual (no time for grading and doing taxes).  Additionally, our daycare is closed now until April 20th (thanks to Passover), so we're really on the verge of losing our sanity.  Stay tuned for updates as time (and sanity) permits!