Milestones...

We have been entertaining Gene's mom and stepfather these last few days, and Nash really "stepped" up to the plate...




I'm so glad they were around for this first.

Success

"I did it! I go-ed to da potty in da toilet! I wait and listened to da pee-pee spill in da potty!" ~Eleni

Leni Quote for the Day

Eleni: Mom, what's Leni eating?

Mom: Um. I don't know. What are you eating? (I look in her open mouth and don't see anything, so I ignore her because I'm going through papers.)

Eleni: Whats you eating, Leni? What's in yer mouf?

Mom: I don't see anything Eleni. What are you eating?

Eleni: Yeah, it's a booger!

Leni sends her yummy smooches to everyone!

Ow-wooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'm so going to the midnight showing of New Moon! Have fun sleeping!

Leni's Art Gallery

The artwork of Eleni Corson typifies the style of her contemporaries with subtle hints of creativity and imagination. Her masterpieces are found randomly throughout the house as pictured:

While rubbing dirt on her tummy, Leni calls this particular piece "Wotion"I've come to call this one: "Leni Found My Toothbrush" (It's wedged in the windowsill)This reminds me scarily of the Joker's (Jack Nicholson version) artwork on that girl.
Leni no longer has any use for paper with crayons and markers. All she ever wants to do with them is paint her toenails and fingernails. Thanks a lot, GMA! ;)My personal favorite. Those are magnets on our faces. Leni calls this one,
"Look! Glasses!"

Son-shine on my shoulder...

... makes me happy.Little Nash has been a momma's boy for quite some time, but he recently fell in love with his Daddy all over again. He lights up when he sees him and wants to roughhouse! He loves to feel his scruffy chin and get tossed around by his Papa!

A Sweet Ride

I am shamelessly back-blogging here, but I just couldn't miss one of the funnest things I've done all year!

Gene's little brother and sister visited in August and I wanted to make sure they got a good taste of what Ohio has to offer. Where better to start than King's Island in Cincinnati?! This amusement park is legendary in our family. In fact, my first roller coaster ride EVER was in 7th grade when my oldest brother took me on THE BEAST. I've been converted ever since.

So, in like fashion, I took JD and Addie for their first coaster on the one and only BEAST, arguably the best wooden coaster in the world. This 4 minute coaster winds for 1 and 3/4 miles (the world's longest) through the trees so you can't hardly see what is coming next.

These two unsuspecting kiddos have no idea what they're in for.Downi kept warning me that they were a little young to frighten so early in the day, but the twins LOVED it! They'll never see those pathetic carnival rides the same again.So of course, I dragged JD onto the park's newest coaster, the Diamondback. Of course, I was a fan (thumbs up), but I thought JD was going to cry the entire time (thumbs down).Downi took the girls to some fun rides while I took off with the older boys, running from ride to ride like the good ol' days. The lines were short and the rides fantastic!White Water Rapids was an easy favorite for this kiddos. Who doesn't love to get soaked? I remember riding this as a kid and believing for a long time that we actually tubed down the Ohio River.These kids were TROOPERS! They were a bit nervous as we would try new rides, but they stuck it out.I think JD, Addie, and Davin rode the Canyon Falls at least 6 times in a row.

The night ended perfectly. We were the VERY LAST people in line for the Beast, and there's nothing like the Beast at night.

What incredible memories of "Boo! Boo!" and dancing to the DJ as we waited in line, running to get in extra rides, starving ourselves because no one wants to take time or money to eat at an amusement park, going "Woody" style and "Superman" style on the roller coasters, and doing brain teasers while we wait for hours in line.

Gene still hasn't had a chance to go. Anybody wanna join us next summer?

Swing Kids

Hope you all had a swingin' Halloween!Daddy-O, his Doll, and the tikes.

Leni working on her shimmy.

Nash prowling for his next dance partner (or whoever will pick him up at least).

Too much jumpin' and jivin' for this little tike.

But not for this one. She was on a sugar high for quite a while.

Cledi was the supplier of tunes. She's jammin' out to the Statler Bros.

man·age·a·ble

~adjective 1. capable of being managed or controlled 2. my constant goal that consistently steps beyond my reach [syn: achievable] [ant: my life]

Ew.

I went to fax something today. I plugged the cable into the fax machine, but it just wouldn't click in like normal. I decided to investigate.

The culprit: a dead ladybug in the cable outlet.

Gross.

Seeing Red

They were cute exactly 2 days ago. That was before I woke up to 20+ ladybugs in my bedroom next to the patio door. And the 20+ more that showed up a few hours later. And they haven't given up yet.

They were cute. But now I'm starting to see red.

Leni Quote for the Day

We pulled up to the house and I unbuckled Eleni from her carseat. She springs out of her carseat, picks up her purse on the ground, and says, "Say goodbye to me!" and makes her way to the driver seat and starts pretending to drive.

Totally random.

Few Quick Clips

We thought you might like to see what these krazy kiddos are up to most recently, so here are a few short clips:


I told Eleni it was her Grandma's birthday and she wanted to go to her house (2000 miles away) for the party.



Cledi was having her own party.



Nash is just around for the food.

Mommy's Timeout

Eleni put me in time out today. I dropped a bowl of soup, so she sent me to the corner, monitored me for what she considered an acceptable time, and then released me.

"You all done time out. You say sorry you spilling. That's a no-no!"

For the record, Leni only goes to time out for spilling on purpose, but apparently she hasn't learned to differentiate that.

It starts...

With Nash's mobility comes a whole new world of messes.
I'm enjoying it for the first week... but I'm pretty sure it will get old fast.

No Sweat

Ha, ha. Yeah, right!

But we did it! What an awesome morning! Bryce, Downi, and I headed out early for a half marathon at the Air Force Base. We waited on the off-ramp for an hour, and had to hustle like mad to get onto to the shuttle, past the throngs, and to the starting line. I think I was tired before I started...But we all finished! We met our goals (to finish, to not walk, etc.) and enjoyed all of the great sights and sounds of a marathon. It was so much fun to be in an environment so charged with positive energy!I would even go as far as to say that Downi and I exceeded our expectations! We pushed each other through the first 10 miles, and then branched off at the end.

Some friends/co-workers of Downi hooked us up with a sponsor--so we didn't even have to pay for the race. So this is our group of gals.

Proud momma and sick-of-pictures-I-wanna-go-home son!

Bryce did AMAZING! He finished 16 minutes under his goal time! He was feeling great until he got too excited about the free food tent afterward. A few slices of pizza, few bagel halves, and a lot of drinks later, Bryce wasn't feeling so hot. He's going to go home and sleep it off for a bit.
...the very hungry caterpillar...

The Night Before the Big Run

Nothing like good, ol' fashioned rigatoni for carb loading! This was one of my favorite meals growing up, but Gene won't even touch it. Boyce feels the same way. He has nicknamed it "dogfood."

Anticipation

I'm down to 35 hours.

35 hours until I push my body further (pun intended) than ever before.

35 hours until I talk myself into the next mile.

35 hours until I find out what to remember for the next half marathon.

38 hours until I decide if there will be a next half marathon.

Wish me luck!

Leni Quote for the Day

Rachel (one of our helpers): Where's your daddy?
Eleni: Daddy's at wook!
Rachel: What does your daddy do at work?
Eleni: He wants Eleni.

9.9.09

My amazing blogger niece had this idea, and I loved it so much, I'm going to pretend she tagged me.

To celebrate 9/9/09, she listed 9 things she did today, 9 things she'll do this month, and 9 things she hopes she'll do by the end of 2009. So here goes.

9 Things I Did Today:

1. Bought 40 boxes of cereal for approximately $25.
2. Got one of Cledi's care providers hooked on using coupons.
3. Hit a wall by 10:27 a.m.
4. Stole enough time for a 14 minute nap with Gene until Cledi's bus arrived.
5. Pulled out fall/winter clothes from the garage for each kid.
6. Washed fall/winter clothes for each kid.
7. Vacuumed the curry powder out of my bedroom carpet (thanks, Eleni!)
8. Had a phone interview for the State Waiver Program for Cledi (it doesn't look promising).
9. Made each of my children smile (and cry, but I'm not focusing on that...).
   

9 Things I'll Do in September

1. Find a place in my house for 40 boxes of cereal.
2. Run my first half marathon ever.
3. Hire and train a fourth care provider.
4. Make the rounds to at least 8 doctor appointments.
   
5. Be grateful for insurance.
6. Do a trial day of eyeglasses on Cledi so I can officially tell her ophthalmologist that there's no way.
   
7. Fill out more applications for the State Waiver Program for Cledi.
8. Get my two girls all decked-out for a Daddy/Daughter dance.
9. Enjoy Nash's first crawl.

9 Things I Hope I Do by the End of 2009.

1. Have survived 6 months of residency.
2. Find my cookbooks in the mass of unpacked boxes. And my jewelry. And Cledi's iPod.
   
3. Buy a piano.
4. Develop relationships with inspiring individuals.
5. Bring the number of children in diapers from 3 down to 2.
6. Get involved in setting up a preschool co-op for Eleni.
7. Get our family through the H1N1 season intact.
8. Find a way to manage all of the household affairs so that when Gene is home, we can just enjoy him.
9. Survive. I think it may require an extra dose of my attention.
   

Childlike Faith

Leni crawled up next to the picture of Jesus and says,

"I sidding on Jesus wap!" (lap)

A Little Newton

Sure.
Nash definitely looks like Gene.

Doubtless.

But every now and then.... ...I see a little Newton staring at me.

Wish you could see those cute blue eyes.... he looks so much like Skyler at times.

Atta-Girl

I don't do much that makes me proud of myself. But today was different.

Today I'm giving myself an atta-girl.

In preparation for our first upcoming half-marathon, my sister, Downi, and I hit the gym for our long run. I did 10 miles in 100 minutes! That is by far the furthest I have ever run (and ever wanted to run). Granted, it was on a treadmill, so I don't know if it really counts--but I don't really care. I ran 10 miles. And I'm feeling pretty excited about that.

And Downi gets big kudos as well. Thanks for putting me up to this, Downi!

GMA and GPA!

Our three kids could not have been more excited than when Gma and Gpa walked through the door. Frank and Kathleen made the trek up here to visit for the weekend, and we enjoyed their company soooo much! Having them around gave us an excuse to go check out some local parks and to take a little bit of time to relax and enjoy their visit.

There are tons of Metroparks in the area that are free, educational, and a lot of fun for kids! The weather was cooperative for lots of wet activities. Thankfully, Gma and Gpa are pretty used to the water because they have a lakehouse!

Some serious chubbery!Cledi wasn't as keen on getting wet, so she took a nice walk around the gardens and in the "Sound Garden."Kenzi and Downi got in on the fun too!Gpa educates Leni on the finer points of sand castle building.

Leni loves swings of any sortLeni is especially grateful for her new princess pajamas and was doling out the kisses!Nash sporting his new PJ's. He's smiling because he knows as soon as I'm done with the picture, he's going to grab Gma's earring!

Nash and Gma got lots of time together. Gene had to work quite a bit of the time while they were here, and my other care provider was sick, so Gma and Gpa were EXTRA helpful with the kids!

Gma brought bubble toys! Nash and Eleni were in bubble heaven!

Like I said, we spent a lot of time in the water.

Our kids are so lucky to have grandparents that love them and want to come visit!