Girly Girl

Rich didn't realize the happiness Paige would have, not to mention the hours of fun, when he gave her a bunch of Mardi Gras beads. They are a little big for her, but she doesn't mind--the flashier the better. I don't know when she became such a girl, but I have to admit, it's really fun. We'll see how I feel about this when she is 15.

Totally unrelated to the bling, I discovered another tooth in the back of her mouth. That makes 7 now, and also explains her crankiness and sleelessness. I took her binky away from her about 3 weeks ago, but now I see that she may have been working on this tooth the whole time.

The Eastland's Sweat Shop

Rich and Jamie put the kids to work on our front lawn. Rich raked up the dead grass and aerated pellets (could easily be mistaken for dog poop), and the kids put it in buckets, and then dumped them into the big trash can. It actually worked really well, and the kids had fun and got nice and dirty!

A little teamwork

Shirking her duties--Get to work, Paige!

Fellow "blogger" Jamie and I will have competing posts this week.

Paige's 15 Month Checkup

Miss Sassy Pants!

Give me that camera!

Paige had her 15 month check up last week. She now weighs 20 lb 15 oz (15th percentile) and is 29.5 inches tall (2oth percentile). She is still a little peanut, but I think it's because she is so busy that all of her energy goes to getting into trouble, that she just doesn't have time for growing much. She also got a chicken pox vaccine and didn't even shed one tear! I was very proud of her.

Backyard Fun

Rich pointed out that Jack looks mad in this picture. He isn't: he's just showing me his car and talking about it.

Spring is in the air, and the kids are antsy to be outside!

Missing Daddy

After the St. Paddy's Day 5K on Saturday, I took the kids up to visit my mom, Steve, and Deni (and of course forgot the camera...urrgh!). We had a fun trip to the zoo, went to the park, and got a good visit in. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short by a day when my mom had to be quarantined to her room with a horrible stomach bug. On our way home (which takes about an hour and 45 minutes), I heard three very loud exaggerated sighs from the back seat. I asked Jack if he was ok, and he said that he NOT ok because he missed his daddy. After the chicken McNuggets from "Donald's", Jack climbed into Daddy's lap to snuggle and watch Bob the Builder.

31 Minutes and 24 Seconds

This was the picture taken before the race when we dropped the kids off with their Grandma Rosie. The race was tons of fun and a super easy course, and it was made even better by Rich, who vowed to stay by my side the entire time. At first I was hesitant about his decision because I'm still a slow runner, and I was just sure that it would be hard for him to go at my pace (he easily could have finished 5 minutes earlier). After a few minutes when he was still having fun and not frustrated, I just let go of my pride and enjoyed spending that time with him (and 1600 other festive people). Even though we didn't break any records, I am really proud of our time, as it's been years since I have been in a race, and I have been running that same distance at home in about 40 minutes (to prevent injury, of course).

Pooped, but Happy!

My shins are killing me though, and I am living on Ibuprofen! Ahhh, back to spin classes for now.

Anticipating the St. Paddy's Day Race

Rich and I are going to be running in Colorado Springs' St. Paddy's Day 5K tomorrow morning. I'm mostly really excited because I've been working really hard since Christmas to get back to my Pre-Paige shape, and I just really want to be a runner. I'm a little apprehensive at the same time because I had to take almost 8 weeks off from running because of shin splints (that have probably turned into stress fractures due to me being stubborn and running through them). I have been cross training, though, including Spinning, weight training, and the elliptical machine. I've been "running" for the last few weeks, but I'm keeping my speed at such an embarressing slow pace that I don't think I movement I am doing would be considered running (but I really don't want these stupid shin splints anymore!). So we'll see how it goes; it will be fun no matter what.

Self Feeding

Paige is just starting to use a spoon all by herself! I am really excited for her next step in independence, as it means I will be able to eat my own meal at the same time as the rest of the family. Even though she will be messier for a while, it is well worth the extra clean up time so that I can eat my food while it's still hot. She is very proud of herself and I can already for see the "Me-Do" attitude in the near future.

Girls' Great Getaway

After a very stressful week (see previous post), I had the opportunity to escape to friend's house for 24 hours. It was basically like a grown up slumber party, minus the angry father yelling at us girls to keep down (sound familiar, Dad?)

Me, Jenn, Buffye, and Kim

Jamie

Jenn and Sylvia

Swiftly Taken Down!

Well, it finally hit each and every one of us (twice for one little girl). After Paige's bout with the stomach flu on Friday afternoon, I know Rich and I were worried about who was going to get it next. Turned out it was Paige--again! Rich and I got very little sleep Sunday night because we were listening for every little sound she made...which was silly because she was done before we even went to sleep. Then Monday afternoon, Jack started up, and lastly in the wee hours of Tuesday morning Rich and I both got it. I am so grateful for my mother-in-law for dropping everything Tuesday morning to pick up the kids, so that we could get some sleep...I don't even want to think about trying to recover while taking care of them!

Wanting to Play Outside

We are stuck inside today, even though the weather is fairly nice. It seems Miss Paige has the stomach flu, and we don't want to get our friends sick. Jack is longingly staring at the kids having fun across the street.

Material Girl (and Boy)

We usually keep Valentines Day pretty low key since our wedding anniversary follows this romantic holiday two days later. Our traditions include ordering pizza (usually heart shaped) and giving little gifts to the kids. This year, because Paige is so into the bling, we got her a jewelery set including a tiara, necklace, earrings, and a ring (the latter two will be put away until she is past the stage of swallowing them). Jack finally received his "Red Ramone" that he has been obsessing over since Christmas evening (and hopefully I won't be hearing about Santa coming everyday).

I did not forsee the issue of sharing the tiara. Jack even offered to trade Red Ramone with Paige so that he could be a princess for a while. Miss Paige is quite unwilling to even negotiate this trade. Needless to say, there has been a whole lot of crying in this house since the presents were given.

Missing the AM Nap!

This past month Paige has been showing signs of not needing her morning nap anymore. When she was getting her morning nap, she was waking up super early and also skipping her afternoon nap, which I consider more important. Now that she doesn't get two naps anymore, she is sleeping in until a more reasonable hour, and she gets a very good (and long) afternoon nap. But sometimes she sneaks in a little snooze when she can.

I thought she was searching for food in her highchair, but she actually fell asleep.

Not Much Going On

If you are a follower of my blog, you may have noticed that I have not posted anything in quite a while. I think we must be going through the January/February doldrums because nothing is going on, and I keep forgetting to take pictures (bad Mommy!). So these are a few random pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

Baby pushing her baby

Stoic Jack

Tummy

In the cupboard

First Haircut

Today Miss Paige had her very first haircut. Wendy didn't take take off too much: just kind of cleaned her up. After Jack's first haircut, I learned a few things, such as give your kid a lollipop before the crying starts...and that's what I did. Paige wasn't even aware that she was getting a trim because of her fixation on her first candy. (She even ate some of the paper.)