Evolution

I believe that we, humans, were created by God as humans. I dont believe that we evolved from lower life forms as science claims. But, if I did believe in evolution from lower life forms, I think I have found the missing link!

RUTHIE!!

I am telling you, this girl has got to be part fish!

I have yet to find her gills, but I think they will show up in this next growth spurt.


And, no, that is not her swimsuit. It doesnt matter what she is wearing, if the pool has water in it, she just dives right in with whatever she has on! She LOVES swimming!

While Ruthie lounges the day away in the pool, Maddie prefers to just play with water in her buckets.

She pretty much empties out the entire pool by the end of the afternoon, one bucket at a time.

Rub A Little Dirt On It

My kids tend to be slight drama queens. Especially when it comes to being "hurt". I put "hurt" in quotes because I dont consider it truly hurt if they stop crying when I offer them a snack or turn on Elmo. If Ruthie as much as brushes by Maddie, Maddie acts as if Ruthie has just punched her in the face. Because of this, I have picked up a few tricks.

#1. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, automatically turn away as if you didnt see it. This works 85% of the time in preventing the crying from being "hurt"

#2. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, act like they have just won the Super Bowl by jumping up and down and clapping. They will think it was a fun game that they fell flat on their faces 85% of the time.

#3. When witnessing something that looks like it has the potential to be an injury, but no blood, get them to rub a little dirt on it. Not literally, but get them to buck up. I usually say something like, "She barely touched you, you are fine", etc. This one is not always as effective as the previous 2, but sometimes I am just so frustrated with them for being so much drama they get spoken to like I would an adult that was whining about something.

With all of this in mind, I will continue on to our afternoon yesterday. Both of the girls were a little fussy from not having a great nap. There was drama in every little touch, trying to share, etc. I had them outside on the deck playing in the kiddie pool and the backyard. Maddie tripped over one of the buckets and immediately began the crying drama. I went straight to #3 because I was at the end of my rope with them. This was one of the cases where it didnt work effectively and the crying got worse.

Then I saw it. Blood. Blood all down the front of her shirt. All tricks go out the window once blood is involved. Turns out that little Miss had landed face first on one of these baskets (Exhibit A)

and the plastic edge of the basket cut her all the way across her chin from cheek to cheek. Here are a couple things I learned from this injury.


#1. Wounds on the face are impossible to get to stop bleeding


#2. 20 month olds wont keep bandages on


#3. There is no good way to bandage a wound under your chin that goes cheek to cheek


So this is what we ended up with.



The child went to church looking like she had plastic surgery earlier that day and was taped up for recovery. We had to tape on the band aid so she couldnt pull it off. We went out later and got some liquid band aid and put that on, so she looked like this today.

That liquid bandage stuff is amazing!

So, maybe not my most shining moment as a parent, but I take comfort in knowing I am not the only one out there that it has happened to!

Turning a mountain into a backyard

This is our house.

To say we live on a hill would insinuate that it is a casual walk up to our front door. That would be a lie. I firmly believe that the contractor that built this house 20 years ago looked for a mountain, excavated a piece out in the middle and built our house. I am honestly shocked we dont have to follow the baking instructions for living in higher elevations sometimes. It is a cardio workout just to get the mail. Dont even get me started on mowing the front lawn.

When we moved into this house, there was a family of 5 living there. They even had a swingset in the backyard (they took it with them when they moved). Mark insisted on only buying a house that had a garage basement, which limited us in our selections. We loved the inside of the house and we were just married. Kids were not even in our discussions. Kids lived here already. It must be a kid friendly house.

I know now that we have a driveway of death if our children ever try to ride their bikes, big wheels or rollerblade down it. It will result in an instant trip to the ER, guaranteed. Didnt think that one completely through either.

Now, onto that backyard with the swingset that was "kid friendly". I have no idea how in the world the family before us anchored that swingset down. Remember how I said we were built into a side of a mountain? Well, the mountain continues upwards to the heavens in our backyard. Exhibit B, ladies and gentlemen.

and Exhibit C.
The dead grass and erosion is due in part to the 2 boxers that have run havoc back there for the past 5 years. Needless to say, no place for a swingset or even a viable place for my toddlers to go in the backyard without tumbling to their certain deaths.

So, what was our solution?

DIG, DIG, DIG!!!

1 Bobcat, 2 workers that didnt speak a lick of English, pallet upon pallet of retaining wall block and a month later.....


WE HAVE A BACKYARD!

Because the grade from one side of our yard to the other was so different they had to terrace the backyard into 2 levels. It worked out well for us since we have the "upper lawn" for the kids and then the "lower lawn" for the dogs to run around. That also means there is no dog poop up where the kids play, which is a huge bonus. Blow is a picture of the "lower lawn" for the dogs. We are still in grass growing mode on that section.


This backyard has changed my life. I am a new woman! The girls and I are out there all the time as long as it isnt raining. I can not even imagine what my summer would have been like without being able to let them go out there and run around.

Now building the playset...that is another post in itself!

My future is so bright...

I have to wear shades!

Summer has finally arrived here in Middle TN. With summer comes some pool time and summer treats. I bought a little kiddie pool for the back deck, which the girls love. I have found them in there several times with all of their clothes on. This will be a little of picture overload, but this was from the first day we were out in the pool, and they both were looking so cute! I was shocked that they both kept their hats on, but they both loved their hats this year. Big change from last year!

I decided to brave the mess and let them have popsicles since they were already going to need a bath from the layers of sunscreen I had put on them. It looks like they have inherited Mark's skin type and not mine, so they actually tan...even with 70+ SPF.

I am so excited about nice weather and being able to get out of the house them! If for nothing else at least for some interesting blog posts!

Hoffman's Playland....Year 2

You may recall (I know you probably dont, unless you pay SERIOUS attention to this blog) that we took the girls to Hoffman's Playland last year ( http://simplysullivan.blogspot.com/2008/08/hoffmans-playland.html ). They were way too young, and I knew it, but I didnt care. "How young?", you may be thinking. This was our carousal photo from last year

and our photo from this year
Amazing how the time flies!

The girls actually enjoyed themselves on the rides this year. Thanks to my Aunt Linda coming to visit we had enough people to go with all 4 of the kids on each ride.






Unlike last year, which was probably a little traumatizing for the girls, they held on to the carousal horses themselves and smiled as they went up and down.






We were even able to fit in a train ride around the park with everyone!


For Maddie, none of the rides were as big of a hit as the helicopter ride though. I couldnt get a picture of her on the ride, but this is what it looks like.




We had to ride this bad boy several times to appease her. She would have a complete meltdown every time we tried to take her off of it. Thank goodness my mother bought 2 books of tickets!

SportsCenter

Back in the day, Mark and I were both actually very athletic. I played volleyball in high school and part of college and Mark was all into soccer. I was even known to visit the gym pretty regularly in college. Granted, all of that has changed now, and the ever-increasing clothes sizes are evidence of that. Mark and I have both pretty much expected the girls to be interested in sports, and hopefully at least be good at one of them. Otherwise we'll be sitting at sporting events where our children are not gifted at all and trying to be supportive parents. Mine did that for me in regards to softball and I have never heard the end of it. Thank goodness I was good at volleyball so they could at least not sit in shame through the millions of matches I had.

My nephew, Jamison, turned 2 while we were on our trip to NY. As fitting for a boy of 2, he got EVERY possible piece of sporting equipment in the plastic form, of course. Some of the dad's busted out the brand new t-ball set and the girls were hooked.

Ruthie even helped by putting the ball back on the stand every time. As you can see, Maddie had to be restrained as to not hit Ruthie in her eagerness to swat at the ball.

Back in the house, Ruthie discovered a trampoline. Her interest was peaked.

Then she figured out how it worked.

The above picture could quite possibly be my absolute favorite picture of her.

I have included the SportsCenter reel of the girls and their sporting adventures with all of Jamison's cool stuff.

If I was really talented at video editing I would have added the SportCenter theme to it. Instead of putting all of that time and effort into it I decided to just clean my kitchen floors. I think it was an appropriate use of my time. It would have been cool though.

Cousin Lovin'

Ruthie was not in the sharing mood with her cousin, Jamison.

But that didnt stop him....