Procrastination Pays Off, Sometimes.

I borrowed some swim gear from a friend of mine for our Mexico trip back in July.  We never ended up using any of it, and I have been carrying it around in the back of my car since then just waiting to return it to her. I have seen her a good 7 or so times, but always forget to give it to her.  Every time I am in her neighborhood I think about just dropping it off on the porch, but its easier to just assume I will do it next time.

Well, on Sunday, I took the boys for our usual run, and I was kind of anxious to just get it done. The original plan was to run to the finish of the marathon.  When I was getting the boys loaded up into the stroller I noticed Owen making a funny face. I put him down in the stroller and to my surprise I found three days worth of poop that he had been storing up all up the front of his tummy.  Ever since we started solids he has been having some difficulty in the department.  Not today.

I held him out at arms length and laid him down on a blanket in the back of the car to try and clean him up.  Thank goodness I had enough wipes and diapers.  At least I thought I did. I took off his pants, poop everywhere. I was crossing my fingers that somehow the poop missed his onsie all together, not so. It was one of those poops where taking off his onsie over his head would have caused him to have a poop mohawk, so I pulled it down, got out my wipes, and OH NO! I only have one wipe left! Not even enough to clean up half this mess.  I did the best I could and thankfully had a towel in my car that finished off the job. 
Then I realized I didn't have a change of clothes for him! I was determined to get in a run, and I had loaded them all up and drove to the lake, I was not about to turn around and go home. 

It was chilly that morning and he was shivering while he was laying naked in the back of the car while I was trying to come up with a solution, so going completely naked wasn't really an option.

Voila!  Dirty swim clothes that have been in the car for months to the rescue.  I slipped on the swim top, wrapped him tightly in his blanket and we were off . I was praying we wouldn't see anyone we knew, he looked absolutely ridiculous (bright orange spandex swim suit top, no bottoms, just a diaper)!!! Part of the reason we didn't use it in the first place was because it isn't the most fashionable stuff, it kinda looks like it was made in the 80's.  Just call me vain.  At least he was protected by UV rays.  Half way through I thought he may so still be cold, so I did what every good parent would do.
I let Eli loose, let him run around, and around, and around until he was red in the face and nice and warm so I could steal his hoodie from him and put it on Owen.

Note to self: Go refill wipes and diapers and pack a clean outfit!!!
Oh, and return those swim clothes to Traci!

New Puppy!

No, we didn't get a new puppy.  In fact, we made the decision that we wouldn't get a dog until all of our kids can wipe their own tushies.  There is only so much poop I can clean up on a daily basis!

Eli now has a litter of puppies he calls 'his buddies' that sleep with him every night and sometimes come out of his crib and hang out with us during the day. 
He started out with just one puppy that my mom bought for him that stayed at Lolli and Pop's house.  Then Puppy started coming home with us. 
Then he found Baby Puppy in Rachel's room at our parents house and he joined Puppy (just to be clear, their names are Puppy and Baby Puppy, very original).
Then Eli had his birthday and received New Puppy and then about two weeks later he reconnected with Big Puppy, he sometimes goes by Sparky, who he has had for a while, but I guess he had forgotten about because he had been stuffed at the bottom on his toy bucket. 
Larry is still the leader, but now has a few new best friends.

Here are Puppy, Baby Puppy, New Puppy and Sparky:

Little Puppy was looking out the window to see if Dad was home yet.

So many friends to keep up with!

Valentine Cheer

Eli really doesn't get the concept of Valentines Day yet, but it is still fun to do things with him to gear up for the holiday.  We started off by making some heart shaped waffles.  He liked making the batter more than he liked eating them, but its all part of the fun, right?  On Sunday after breakfast and Owens first nap, we headed to the trail for our run, and to 'feed the ducks breakfast.'  We took some leftover heart waffles so the ducks could enjoy some Valentine cheer also.

Eli headed off to school on Valentines day wearing his red shirt and Valentine friend in tow...(of course he had pants on for school!).
His class is focusing on colors everyday and the kids are supposed to wear or bring something of the color of the day.  Today was pink.  Being a boy, he didnt have much anything pink, so I went out yesterday afternoon to find something he could take with him.  His name is 'Pink Friend.'

He came home wearing this...

(Please excuse the giant thing of paper towels and huge box of diapers in the back, we made a Costco run).

And in honor of Owen's first Valentines Day, we snapped a few pictures.

With the weather so nice this last week, we have been spending a lot of time down at the lake.

And, we don't always make it the whole way awake...

We always stop at the bridge so Eli can show me how fast he can run across it, and how he can point out all the canoes and ducks. I must be on the same running schedule at Lance Armstrong because we saw him three times last week. Eli just doesn't share in the excitement with me though. We must also be on the same schedule as the man who without at doubt is always there, standing by his car talking on his phone wearing some totally inappropriate very tight, very white stretch pants, showing a little too much of the goods. Gross.

Skipping Rocks

And sometimes we are lucky enough to have Rachel join us on our runs.

The kid can run!

(Dont know why its sideways or how to fix that!!!!)

We also were lucky enough to help my great uncle celebrate his 95th birthday this weekend.  It wasn't so easy to get a good picture with all the commotion going on over there, but we did our best.

Happy 95th Uncle Leon!!!!  We love you!

Good Morning

Choma Milp

With a 1/4 inch of snow, the city is shut down, roads are closed, all schools, business are closed, we have are pipes wrapped, our faucets dripping, our kids in layers of clothes and are stuck inside--you just know that other cities are laughing at us!

When I got Eli out of  bed we went straight to the window to show Eli what was out there...."snow!!!"
We are clearly not equipped for this kind of weather. We were getting dressed to play in the snow, and I realized that Eli doesn't own one piece of clothing appropriate for the cold. So, we just layered his pants, and shirts, threw on the warmest jacket in the house and a beanie, and out the door we went.  He was thrilled to wake to snow on the ground this morning. The only reason he even knows what snow is is due to the fact that we have watched the Mighty Machines episode about snow plows oh, i don't know, 52 times.

We put his snow plows to the test...

He was so cold but wouldn't admit it because he knew that meant we would go inside. He was shivering and I could tell his little fingers were about to become icicles!  He loved watching the drips of water fall onto the ground from our neighbors gutters as the snow was melting and trying to catch the freezing cold droplets...no wonder his fingers were freezing!

As soon as he realized he could see his footprints in the snow,  he couldn't believe how cool it was.  We tracked footprints all though our yard  and driveway, the driveway of three neighbors and down the sidewalk all the way down the street.

"More footprints Mommy?"

The only way I talked him into coming inside was for hot chocolate with a special chocolate straw and marshmallows. "Choma milp Mommy?" is how he asks for chocolate milk.  The kid has a few of his letters turned around with some of his words (foop=foot, milp=milk, stut=stuck, opatus=octapus, tars=cars, otay-okay).

He didn't take his lips off the straw until he was done.

Oh no, is it almost gone?

How can I get those marshmallows out of there?

Oh right, just ask Mom for some more.

Owen was inside during all the fun napping, but was up soon after we came in to hang with us the rest of the day in our pj's.

We were back to normal Austin winter weather on Sunday with all the snow melted, the sun shinning and warm enough to run in shorts.  Whats up with these crazy changes in temperature?