The Purple John

This weekend we visited the dinosaurs at dinosaur park, made it through the "Co-misery" at lunchtime on a Sunday (non military families do not understand the chaos that is a commissary on a Sunday afternoon, you should get a deployment ribbon for even attempting it), and I painted the bathroom. The house is a wreck, my husband is on crutches (Ava stepped on his foot-she weighs 30 pounds- I don't understand either...), and my sanity is CTD (circling the drain). What can I do but blog?

Chairs are a privilege, not a right.

Here Ava has put together a 50 piece puzzle with only a small amount of help from me- it is amazing how long she will sit and do puzzles...I so love it.
Here is my downstairs bathroom. It is a lovely shade of muted lavender and I can now wash all of the interesting...um...presents that my kids leave me off of the walls. You need two food flinging, smashed cookie welding, covered in "washable" crayola children to truly get this excited about paint...and here I am...

Our Day in Pictures

Just a cross slice of a day in the Conderman household...

Ava can put together her 24 piece puzzle in under 10 minutes. We bought her a new one and I think she figured it out in 8 minutes, without seeing what the picture was. I know I was impressed...
Ava got up early with Daddy this morning to help him change the tire on Little Blue Car. For some reason the whole neighborhood turned out to watch...not really sure why. Maybe there is just nothing else to do on a Saturday morning. I also am not sure why I keep popping the tires on the cars. Ava asked, "Why do you keep breaking the cars mommy- that is just so sad." Thank you Ava.
After a 3 hour stint at the Dinosaur Park, Eli received a golf lesson from his Daddy. Eli lasted about 90 seconds before spotting a plane and forgetting about golf.

Ignore the "I need a nap/I just ate something that tastes bad/my sister made a mean face at me/I am two" face and notice the adorable dinosaur T-shirt. I get so many people that ask me where I ordered it. My sister Emily actually made it- she may want to think about starting a cute kid T-shirt business...
Here we are at the end of the day. Ava is officially the "last kid standing". The kids had an excellent babysitter tonight while Mommy and Daddy breathed a few breaths of pizza infested sanity. We came home an hour early because we missed them...what can I say? The little stinkers kinda get under our skin...

School, blessed school!

Tuesday was the first day of school- Ava begged to leave for school every ten minutes for about 4 solid hours. Here we are finally ready to leave! Eric is very glad to be starting back to work...I think if the kids push him any closer the the cliffs of insanity, he may willingly jump...
Speaking of Eric, he has a new golf buddy: Kenny T. Kate told me that after they played golf together a few days ago, she caught them standing over the kitchen table eating wings from the same plate...
Eli's foot continues to improve, as does his love of reading. The current favorite book is "Everybody Poops". This is a lovely book (voice dripping with sarcasm), that we read several times a day. Ava and I snicker as Eli gleefully shouts, "Yook Mommy! Poot, big Poot! Eh fant Poot!"
We have started putting the kids to bed at 815 and allowing them to "wind down" on their own before falling asleep. Right now I am listening to what sounds like a 40 person marching band with poor rhythm and a pet elephant coming from their bedroom. Somehow that reassures me far more than silence. I'm told that someday I will miss the pitter patter of little feet. I guess I will have to take that one on good faith...never mind that my little owners to those little feet have never "pitter pattered". For now, it is getting too quite upstairs and I think I just heard the words "throw" and "window" in the same sentence- better go!

Selective Hearing Starts Young

We have never been more aware of what we say than now. Ava is like a little parrot that collects emphatic words and phrases that we say and regurgitates them at oppurtune times. Today Katie and I went to Homebase (British for Lowes). As we walked past a bathroom display, I watched my little "mini me" brush her hand lovingly over a toilet and mumer, "Gorgeous, just gorgeous". Yesterday she got into trouble for smacking Eli's behind. When asked why she did that, she replied in a very matter of fact manner, "He was being a little stinker, so he needed a paddle." Ava also likes to shout out "Dog-gone-it!" (or some very interesting variation) when she is frustrated. Eli has also been a bit of a cheeky monkey with his choice of words... If I don't answer by the second "Mommmmmmmy", I hear Neeeeeessss, Neeeeessssss! He even sounds just like Eric when he says it! His favorite "swear" is "Awwww Mannnnn" (think Dora).
Yesterday I let the kids watch Peter Pan for the first time. Afterwards I gave them a very long talk about how they can't really fly by shaking salt on their heads and thinking happy thoughts. I'm not really trying to ruin the childish magic of Disney, I simply have a certain brother that failed to fly when he jumped off the balcony (multiple times) after watching Wendy, John, and Michael do it so effortlessly. I can't remember if that was the third or the forth time he had his head stitched up...

Why I need Tupperware

Yesterday I got to enjoy an evening with the girls at a Tupperware party. I never really thought of myself as the type of person to get excited about plastic boxes... Now that I apparently have a pack of wild wolves that "go hunting" in my cereal cabinet, perhaps I should invest in some of these plastic containers. Which ones keep out the ravenous 2 year olds?