Birthday Project

Amelia has been very much getting into the arts lately. So loves to draw, loves to color, and especially loves to paint. So I figured she would love an art easel. I shopped around for a few, the ones I could afford were all out of stock, the ones I couldn't afford I didn't like quite so much, so I decided to make one. After scouring the web for a few ideas I finally settled on this one, and set off for Home Depot for supplies. I didn't quite follow the outline perfectly, I had to make a few alterations here and there, but after a few very late nights this is the result:

The wood of course was bought from Home Depot and luckily they cut the wood for you for a very small fee. The chalk board is an old picture frame that I had that I just painted the frame and then spray painted the plexi-glass with that chalk spray paint stuff. The art supplies are all from IKEA. There is a roll of paper on a dowel in the middle of the frame that we can just pull in front of the chalk board.

She loves it!! She's had quite a few hours of fun with it already, plus paint on the couch and carpet...we might need to set up some rules. :)

She's "free"!!

Our sweet little girl is now 3 years old!!! Gosh, it's hard to believe. It's sure been a fun few years though. And to celebrate all our joy, we threw a party! Amelia said she wanted a dinosaur party, I wanted to do something more feminine, so we compromised with this:

Dinosaurs and pink frosting!!

Ring-around-the rosies...

The kids had a hard time bringing themselves to hit the pinata, after all, we do all try to teach our kids not to hit. But once the candy fell out, everything was cool again!

All the fun birthday guests. Thanks for coming and making her day pure bliss!

Good Morning Sunshine!

You could probably ask any parent and they would tell you that when their kids wake up it's the best time of day. They are happy and excited to see you, all smiles! Well, that's my Joel. He loves it when Amelia and I barge in when we hear him squirming after his morning nap. This is how that usually goes:

Good morning sunshine!!

Love those red rosy cheeks!

Amelia gets so excited to see him, she's just gotta climb in with him.

And he loves it!

(I love this photo, classic in our house at the moment.) Amelia yelling a song and Joel blowing raspberries. Yep, that's my kids.

And then, this happens. You know the saying, "It's all fun and games until some one gets hurt."? Yeah, well, that usually happens about this time.

But Joel is a good sport.

Making a visit to John Rogers State Park

A friend of mine told me about this great state park up near Santa Monica that had proper polo games. Well, anyone that knows my daughter knows that she is fascinated, no, obsessed with horses. She LOVES them. So, of course he had to go and check it out. My brother and sister-in-law came along to explore. Warning: To anyone that may come and visit us in the near future, we just might take you here. We thought it was awesome!!

Proper Polo Game!! This was pretty cool to watch.

After the game, we followed the hiking trail, and this is what we found. Isn't that view awesome?! And the trail was stroller friendly (thanks for being the muscles Brad! :))

This is how getting Amelia to take a picture goes:

"Amelia look at the camera."

"Come on honey, just smile."

"Don't make me count to three!!"

"Forget it, go play with Josh."

Joel was happy to be along for the ride.

"I think, if you squint real tight, you can almost see our house."

"I love my food!!"

Now that Joel is into solid food, this is a common site around our house. He likes to spit/do raspberries and food ends up EVERYWHERE!!! I'm not kidding, EVERYWHERE!!! He's spit food on the wall, across the table, all over the person feeding him (Amelia tried to feed him once, he spit on her, now she won't even go near him when he eats. :))

Beach Fun

This is how we spent Brad's birthday...way back in April!! He was home sick with a sinus infection and trying to sleep so i took the kids to the beach. Hey when you got kids, sometimes sleep is the best celebration of all. :)

Starving Experiment: Day 3 and beyond

So, yes, I'm sorry I left so many of you hanging. I guess I didn't realize so many people read this blog. I'm glad you do. :) I also have two kids, a husband, and somewhat demanding calling...shall I go on?? I can't seem to make it to the computer as often. Oh wait, don't we all. :)

So the experiment has been going incredibly well. Day three found her having handful after handful of broccoli and watermelon for dinner. I was and still am so very excited about this!!!

We are not to sushi yet, but this little girls diet is getting better everyday. Little by little. Instead of crackers, we are switching to nuts and fruits, you know, the healthy stuff. Instead of just taking "snacks" when we go out, I now pack a proper lunch...with no snacks. And a dinner time, well, if she doesn't eat what we eat, she wakes us up extra early in the morning asking for breakfast...but that's OK! We're getting there.

I'm embarrassed to have admitted that we let it get this bad, however, I am so excited at where we are going. Doing the three day "starving" challenge really has been a turn around for us. I have found that you really have to PLAN for meals with kids!! I mean I always new this, but now I KNOW it. I guess it's just another one of those things that parenting drills into your head. You always hear the experts saying over and over, "if they don't like it at first, DON'T GIVE UP!!" I think I had given up on many things because of various situations in our life we just resorted to whatever was easiest. Well no more. From this "three day" on, IT'S ON!!

Starving Experiment: Day two

So we are on day two of this "change your diet starving thing," and you know what? It's going pretty well actually. It was another day of not eating much. She had breakfast like usual, had some string cheese for lunch, and yet again, by dinner she was starving!

But you know what, we had a miracle at dinner. You wanna know what she ate? Broccoli!!! Yeah, that's right, she ate broccoli!! I'm not even kidding. I am so over the moon about this. Her entire dinner was broccoli, watermelon, and some buttered bread. I'm happy. No, I'm ecstatic!!! Things are going in the right direction. Bring on tomorrow!!

Starving Experiment: Day one

So this is how today went. Amelia woke up and had her breakfast, like always, and I decided that I just wouldn't give in when she asked for fluff food. When she asked for juice I gave her water. She could earn her juice by having something nutritious.

Needless to say, she went all day on just water. Water! That is, until dinner time. By this time she was so hungry she was begging for a hot dog. I didn't give in, as hard as it was, I didn't give in. I put dinner on the table and you know what? She ate watermelon!!! That's right, SHE ATE WATERMELON!!! Whoo hoo!!

This was a good first day.

Starving Experiment

Anyone who knows my daughter knows that she is an EXTREMELY picky eater! And I mean EXTREMELY picky!! We're talking like juice (diluted of course), hot dogs and gold fish...all day everyday! Yeah, I know, shame on me for letting her do it. I have had many a sleepless night worrying just about this. I worry that she's not getting the nutrients that she needs, I worry that she's not going to grow and develop like she should, I worry that maybe her diet is affecting her attitude.

So needless to say, I have spent lots of time on my knees praying about this. Well, today I think I've gotten my answer to all those prayers. 3 days!! 3 days!!

The first 3 days after getting rid of the pacifier are the worst. The first 3 days of sleep training are the worst. The first 3 days of a diet are the worst. So, this is it. My 3 days! I think we are taking the first step of rounding the corner. Here goes nothing.