hobbit style

We are having eating issues lately with Ellie. Meaning, she wants to eat junk, all the time. Or she wants to not eat dinner and have a "snack".

Um no. You eat dinner. Period.

So last night Chris and I made a stand. I made meatloaf, broccolli, and cresent rolls. I know she will eat brocolli and rolls and if I could get a few bites of meatloaf in, bonus. She ate 2 bites of roll and was all done.

Ok, fine.

So I told her she could be done but under no uncertain terms was she to ask for a snack. I gave her a choice. Eat your dinner and have a snack later, or not eat your dinner and no snack.

She opted not to eat.

Again, ok, fine. Off she went to play. And Chris and I enjoyed a nice (somewhat) quiet dinner.

10 minutes later: "Mom? Can I have some m&m's?" Hell no. She whined a little and continued to play.

20 minutes later: "Mom? I want some ice cream"

"That's nice honey, but no dinner, no snack, remember?"

Then she got crafty.

"Mom? Can I have a banana? A banana is a nice healthy snack that will help me stay healthy!"

"Stay strong," I told myself. "No honey, you can't. We made a deal. No dinner, no snack."

"But I'm hungry mommy!"

Too damn bad!

"I am sure you are, but you should have eaten your dinner. Then you could have had m&m's and banana. You can have breakfast in the morning."

"That's just not fair!!"

Really? Already with the not fair? She's three!

She did have a little water before bed. Drinks don't count, right?


Fast forward to this morning. She gobbled down her turkey sausage, waffle, and strawberries. She came over sheepishly with her empty plate and goes:


"Mommy? Can I have more of all of it? I am sooo hungry!"


"Sure you can honey, but maybe tonight you will eat your dinner so you won't be so hungry in the morning."

"I will Mommy. I will!"

So we are currently having second breakfast, hobbit style.

Lesson learned? We shall see.

right now

my husband is out of town til further notice due to illness in the family
my kid is screaming because she doesn't want to nap and hit me when I put her in bed
my house is a mess
i have to wash the car because it is getting inspected tomorrow
my kid is still screaming
and there is nothing good here to eat.

I need some encouragement!
or reinforcements.

a little golf

It was a glorious weekend. We did a little golfing.

E lining up her putt.

A little adjustment.

and her stance. It went in, by the way.

She even had an audience. There were these lovely ladies.

and these guys.


I hope her love of golf sticks around...

a little montage

A collection of my favorite pics of the last year. Just click the pic to play. Hope you enjoy!


Ellie P. from 2 to 3!

ellie p is 3!

Yep. Hard to believe, but 3 years have gone by already. I am trying not to be too sad. We went to the local Chic-Fil-A for a little party with our friends this morning. It was a nice, low-key event. They do a great job there. I was very impressed!

Here she is waiting for her friends!

Her birthday cookie.

Just one little taste. She is the birthday girl, after all.

The kinda lame party favors. Hey. Times are tough!

The Ellie's sharing a moment.

Enzo just chillin'.

Playtime!

Lunch!

That's a big cookie!

Trying her hardest to blow out the candle.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl. Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

you know you live in an older home when...

you have to move your toaster into the living room to toast an eggo so it won't flip the breaker.

scenes of a sunday

We started with a little breaky.

Then decided to spend a quiet afternoon at the zoo...or not. It was "Earth Day 09 Day" and there were thousands of people there. If we had known, we would have done something else. Even Ellie goes "who are all these people?" After having the zoo to ourselves all winter, it is hard to share.

However, we managed to have a little fun. We kaiaked.

Watched a belly dancer.

Saw some rhinos.

Played on rocks.

Smelled some spring.

Got our hand painted. It's the earth. For Earth Day.

Slid.

Played a rousing game of "which hand?"

And met Colonel the Police Horse.

Then we headed home where we napped. I didn't want to get out of this spot when Ellie woke up. There was even a gentle rain tapping at the windows.

And folded laundry.

And hugged our baby.

I love Sundays like that.

guest post from C. Beth Blog!

Earlier this week, a blogger friend of mine asked for help. She needed some guest posters on her blog while she was on vacation. Given the fact that I love this blog, and that she offered to guest post on my blog as well, I jumped at the chance.

You can check out her blog here: C.BETHBLOG!!

I highly recommend you check it out. Her blog is terribly entertaining. My post will be over there sometime next week so be sure to check that out as well (wink wink!!)

So, without further ado, a guest post from C. Beth!



I was looking through Tia's blog, trying to get some inspiration so that I could write a guest blog post for her. I came across a post (link: http://teeteewouldbeproud.blogspot.com/2009/03/er.html) about the TV show ER.

Now, I have to admit, I'm one of the ones who stopped watching ER a couple of seasons back, when every episode made me consider going on antidepressants. But I'm a pretty big TV junkie. So I thought I'd share with you five of my favorite TV shows (current and from the recent past. ) The list is pretty eclectic. (That's the nice way to say that my taste isn't the most discriminating.) Here we go:

1. Battlestar Galactica (the new series): We don't have the SciFi channel, so we watched this on a combination of DVD, Hulu, and Amazon Video on Demand. It's one of those shows that's hard to describe. I mean, if I say, "Humans are running from a race of robots called Cylons, after the Cylons killed most of the humans," you'll roll your eyes, and say, "Come on, robots gone wild? We've seen this before."

But the show is about so much more than humans and Cylons. It's about relationships, about people being pushed to their limits, about what it actually means to be human. It's dramatic, exciting, romantic, sad, funny...and honestly the best-written, best-made show I've ever watched. It's that good, and whether or not you like science fiction, you should at least watch the first, two-hour movie that opened the series. (It's on Netflix!) If it doesn't hook you, you have my permission to stop watching after that.

And since I like the intellectual stimulation of such a well-written series, it of course makes sense that I'd also like...

2. America's Next Top Model: Okay, let's be honest. Tyra is annoying. None of the winners of this show (which is, like, in its 432nd season, I think) have actually become "top models." It's on the CW network (need I say more?). But darn it if I don't just love watching these catty girls take pictures with weird make up, and crying over their makeovers, and pretending to like some designer's tacky clothes. It's not exactly quality television, but I gotta keep watching.

Speaking of reality TV...

3. Project Runway: Now, I loooooove this show. I still haven't watched Season 4 on DVD, but I know who won because the Internet didn't care I hadn't seen it yet. I'll still love watching it. Wannabe fashion designers are faced with crazy challenges, most of which require them to make actual garments in the amount of time it takes some fashionistas to choose an outfit from their closet. There are some just incredible moments of brilliance...along with the requisite disasters. Top it off Heidi Klum's likeability, Michael Kors' rolling eyes, and Simon Cowell-esque honesty from that one lady from Elle magazine, and you've got reality TV that is, dare I say, actually good television.

4. Wheel of Fortune: Apparently my husband and I are seventysomethings in thirtysomethings' bodies, because most weeknights we make sure to turn on the TV at 6:30 for Wheel of Fortune. And we make a great team! We really should be on one of the partner episodes. We'll both be looking at this puzzle, without much filled in, and suddenly I'll say, "It's something STAIRCASE!" Immediately he chimes in, "WINDING STAIRCASE!" And I dream of the thousands of dollars we'd rake in if we were on the show, not to mention the great vacation we'd win. All the while, my three-year-old daughter Chickie is yelling out suggestions for letters: "D! D!" It's good, family fun.

And speaking of shows Chickie watches...

5. Sid the Science Kid: Chickie likes several of the PBS Kids shows, and this is definitely one of my favorites. They actually make science fun. I also love that Sid's mom is African American, and his dad is Caucasian. I want my kids to grow up seeing that as a normal thing. It's got cute little songs, great animation, and fun characters. This one is a winner.

Unfortunately, I watch enough TV that this post could be a lot longer. But I'll leave it at that. Make sure you catch Battlestar Galactica, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Wheel of Fortune, and Sid the Science Kid...but only if you have time after keeping up with Tia's blog. We must keep our priorities straight!

a note of caution

If you post something on craigslist in the free section, for heavens sake, be ready to be innundated (sp?) with emails.

I posted 2 artificial trees and 4 really ugly decorative pillows and I have people fighting over them. I am not kidding, I have gotten over 3o emails.

Craziness.

All I am trying to do is declutter people. This stuff is not that nice.

the list

This is my list, room by room of all the spring cleaning I have to do. It includes things like washing woodwork and curtains. I love the spring, but I hate the cleaning that comes with it.

I should add that the kitchen is done. And already dirty again. Sigh.

What is sad is, I was too afraid to include the outside work on the list. There is so much to do in my garage (a.k.a. the "dark, wet, cave") and yard. And I have to have all that done before I can do the fun stuff like plant flowers because I won't enjoy the flowers if my garage and yard are unspeakable.

Help!

"easter"ly love

Easter morning at our house went a little something like this.

We egg hunted. There's one in the crocs!

And some in the dining room!

And their filled with candy and toys! But where is my basket?

Oh! There it is. The silly Easter bunny hid it behind the curtains!

There's so much good stuff in here. I got a new necklace!

Here is everything else that was in it.

We cheesed for the camera. I can't believe I am putting my early morning, pre coffee mug on here, but there you go.

We took artsy pics of the eggs before we ate some.

Then we breakfasted. I made my very first breakfast casserole and it was heavenly. We are currently eating it for dinner as well.

Ellie cracking her first egg...

just to play with it.

Out cat blending in to the carpet. Yes, she is enormous. I think she has a thyroid condition.

Ellie and daddy finishing up breaky.

Goofy shot.

and finally, an after breakfast treat, because apparently, the 2 chocolate bunnies, and 27 m&m's and 16 jelly beans before breakfast, just didn't cut it.

Happy Easter! Thank you Jesus!

eggs

For the first time ever (don't call CPS please) Ellie dyed Easter eggs yesterday! I don't know why we haven't done it the last 2 years. Laziness? Messiness?

Jeff and Megan invited us over and we went to it!

Ellie watching intently.

Taking a lesson from Megs.

Cheese.

Feeling brave enough to try on her own.

The finished product.

Good times had by all. Thanks for the invite Jones-Peslers! Looking forward to G-Love and the Itchy Bitch tonight!