Little Artist

(Sorry for the blurry picture... I was trying to capture the moment before she saw the camera)

It's happening already! Daddy's trying to teach Lizzie how to draw. She's not the most patient of students, (and she likes to eat her medium) but she sure gets a kick out of her creations. The other day we taped some paper down onto our coffee table and busted out the crayons just to see if she would even be interested. Lizzie was excited and into it for whole minute, and then it was on to something else. She's not a big crayon fan yet. I think they're a little too small for her tiny fingers, but she sure loves daddy's magnadoodle. It has become a permanent fixture on our table now, and she practices her "artwork" everyday. I love the fact that she thinks the magnadoodle is so cool. I don't have to worry about crayons on the walls, or up the nose (at least not yet anyway). Lizzie carries that pen around with her everywhere she goes too. It's really funny the things she has become attached to.

We're having a heat wave...

Today it's 103 outside. Our poor, tiny, old air conditioner. I hope it can survive the rest if the summer. I'm very thankful we actually have AC, we didn't in the last place we lived. It's crazy, I've never been in a place where the Nation Weather Service has issued a heat advisory. To add to that the state of California has issued a mandatory water conservation program, so there's enough electricity for all the air conditioners. I guess it takes a lot of energy to pump all that water everywhere. This is what the rest of our week looks like...


I love living here because of the consistently nice weather, but this is a little excessive. I don't like being stuck inside all day, and neither does Lizzie. Our deck is constantly in direct sunlight, so we can't go play in her little pool (You really wouldn't want to walk on the deck anyway, you'll probably burn your feet). And we can't go play in the sand box either, because the sand is extremely hot. I'm starting to run out of ideals to keep her busy and myself sane. I'm hoping this outrageous heat wave will calm down soon, and we can start going to the park again. The weather man says it's "suppose to" get cooler later in the week, but they said that about last week too.

We'll I'm going to go run a couple loads of laundry... Oh, wait I can't! It's not after 7pm yet. Here's hoping their ideal works. I'd rather monitor my use of water than have no electricity! That would be awful!

Kissy Face...

Kissing... kissing everything and everyone. It's her new favorite thing, and it's incredibly adorable. She goes around giving kisses to anything and everything she comes across. Her stuffed animals, puppets, pictures of people, the TV and of course mommy and daddy.

Ben somehow always gets more than I do though. Lizzie's a little possessive when it come to her daddy (I really didn't think that it would start this early). I always get a hug and a kiss when Ben comes home from work, and every time without fail, Lizzie is climbing up his legs, pouting and objecting to what she sees. Then after she get more hugs and kisses from daddy than I did she's fine. She's such a daddy's girl. Ben loves it of course and even encourages it to a certain degree. He definitely milks it for all it's worth. His justification for it is that once she gets older (10-11 years old) she won't want to have anything to do with daddy. Which is true, kind of. She'll think that he's old, uncool, and completely unfair, not to mention a little stupid. But what kid in their teens didn't think that of their parents, and besides it only lasts for a little while and then daddy's cool again.


I can't complain. I get to see her and play around all day, while Ben has to go to work. He really only gets to see Lizzie on the weekends. So, Lizzie can be a daddy's girl. That's fine with me, because I know that nobody knows her better than me, not even Ben. He'll be trying to figure out what she's been fussing about for the last 20 minutes and I'll walk into the room and know right away what it is she wants. I have to admit that feels really good! And even though daddy gets more kisses than me, I still get a ton of kisses!

The hidden playground...

So, Lizzie finally figured out that there was all this fun stuff I was hiding from her in the kitchen. She was hilarious crawling around extremely excited about all of her new "toys". She's in the kitchen all the time now "helping" mommy out with the dishes and even cooking. Her ideal of helping is a little skewed though, but it's fun to have her there with me. Lizzie's favorite find in the kitchen is the tupperware drawer. For some reason it's incredibly entertaining to take everything out and spread it all over the floor. She'll put things back if you ask really nicely, but that's not as much fun!

It's Saturday...

I so do love it when the week decides to turn into Saturday. Lizzie normally sleeps in, so we all get to sleep in. Ben's in a good mood, because he doesn't have to leave for work. And most important, I get a little break. There's someone else to be entertainment director for the day! Don't get me wrong, I love playing with Lizzie, but being the only one all day long for 5 days in a row is exhausting.

It's official we need another baby, or something else like a puppy, for her to boss around and play with all day. We've been trying for another baby since last Thanksgiving. I guess trying isn't quite the right word, it's more like we haven't been taking anything to stop it. It feels kind of ironic though. We found out about Lizzie when I was taking the pill and had been for a very long time, ever since I was 15, and now that there's nothing in the way, nothing has happened. I don't get it. You're not really thinking about it or ready to have a baby and we do, and then when we want another nothing. I don't like the silence. It makes me uneasy. Maybe it takes a while to get out of your system. I don't know. I won't go into official freak mode, "we're only able to have one kid" until a year has gone by. But if Christmas gets here and I'm still not pregnant I will be extremely nervous.

It's always in the back of my mind that Lizzie is the only one we'll ever have. And it's only because every time I get pregnant something horrible goes wrong. The first time was 4 years ago, and we lost a little girl to a very rare and strange genetic mutation. The second time was with Lizzie, but 4 days after she was born I got a serious infection and almost died in the hospital. It was awful. It's not quite fair. I want to have another one so bad, but at the same time I'd be so paranoid that something would go horribly wrong, and for that I'll never fully enjoy being pregnant.

Well, this has turned depressing really fast. This was suppose to be a happy, Ben's finally home, I have time to myself post. I think I'm going to go cry now, then have some coffee, and then go enjoy my little family.

The Lake House... (no, not the movie)

We just recently got back from visiting my parent's house on Lake Williams in Cheney, WA. It's so beautiful there. I can't believe that they live right on the lake with a boat, jet ski, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff to do in the sun. It's pretty crazy. The weather was absolutely perfect. You couldn't have asked for a better week. It's been way too long since we've seen any of my family.

The first day we arrived my dad took Ben out and taught him how to drive the boat. It was fun. I've never seen Ben drive anything on the water before. You'd think that after you've been married for over 7 years you would have seen almost everything. I guess not.

Lizzie was hilarious every time we went out on the boat. For starters she absolutely hated wearing a life vest. She couldn't move around at all. She looked like a giant wac-a-mole (that's what we called her anyway), because all that was left of her besides the vest was her head. Poor girl. We laughed so hard whenever she tried to clap her hands together, she couldn't quite reach the other one. I know it sounds mean, but it was really funny to watch. She didn't really know what to think of the boat. It was like riding in a car, but with way more bumps. It would make her so sleepy. One second she'd be all excited about the water spraying everywhere, and then the next second her eyes would be all droopy. The boat will definitely be more fun the older she gets.

Good thing my mom was prepared. She had a little inflatable pool for Lizzie to play around in. She loved it. Lizzie was in there every single day multiple times a day. She loves the water. I wonder where she gets that from? :) It was a nice place to cool her off too, since it was so hot out. We took her down to the "beach" one day so she could play around in the lake, but it wasn't really a beach. Not to us Californians anyways. It was all rocks and she was too interested in all the kids playing on the dock to notice any water.
It was a really great time at my parents house. And it was even better because I got to see my Grandparents! I think Ben got his fill of the jet ski too. Every 30 minutes... You wanna go for a ride? You couldn't get him off that thing. I'm glad he had a good time too.

Guess who just turned one...

I can't believe she's already one year old. Sorry it took so long to get pictures in here. It's been a pretty crazy week. Lizzie had her very first ear infection this last week. So much fun (not really). At least we caught it early enough that it didn't have time to become seriuos one. She's still really irritated and cranky though. Today is the last day for her medicince, so she should be all better now. I'm glad it happen now instead of a couple weeks from now when we fly to Spokane. That would have been a nightmare.

Back to the birthday party though. We had it a couple of Sundays ago over Memorial Day weekend over and Ben and Lisa Cox's house. It was good times, getting together with all the people who had helped us with Little Lizzie over the last year. Thank you, by the way, for all of you continued support and encouragement. (You know who you are). It means the world to us. Ben was such an awesome host. Lizzie got to play with all of his animals and even go on her very first pony ride. Well, it wasn't really a pony. It was Sugar who's a big, beautiful horse. There was also the typical birthday stuff... cake, presents, food, family, and friends. It was a very good day.

I've got a lot more pictures and stuff to talk about, but there's a baby calling for me.