My Mother....the day after Mothers Day.

I do realize that most of you check this blog for updates on E Squared. We appreciate your loyalty and love keeping you all updated...that is one of my two major reasons for keeping the blog up to date. My second reason is to have it for Ella and Edie to look back on...their baby book! That being said, my post today is to document for them something that I hope they will look back on and well.......I don't know what I hope they will think but I want to make sure they are aware!!!
Many of you (anyone who knows me in person) know that I am adopted from the foster care system. I have been VERY VERY fortunate. I did not bounce from home to home. My foster family is still MY FAMILY! They love me and I them. That story is long and I won't go into it here because that is not the point of this post.
I had a tumultuous relationship with my biological mother...she was in and out of my life as a child. She lacked direction and support in her younger life...none of this was her fault but she did allow that to guide her adult life. I struggled and struggled with our relationship for a very long time. I am not sure when but somewhere along the way to where I am now I was able to let my expectations of her go and we began to have a tolerable relationship. It even bordered on good for what it was anyway! Many in my support system had a difficult time understanding why I continued the relationship after all of the disappointment but the reality of it was once I let go of my expectations there was no longer disappointment. The fact remained that she was my mother and that is a bond that CANNOT be broken. The connection is there. She was so very proud of me! And honestly, it made me proud to make her proud. I like to do nice things for people! I haven't done anything extraordinary in my life....graduated high school, went to college, became and RN. Basically got a career...that's normal for us. Right? Well to her that was amazing! NOONE in her family had ever done anything like that. The process of my becoming the person that I am made her happy and for that I am grateful. I'm nothing special but to her I was. She always wanted to come to California to visit me. She probably never left Louisiana...I don't know. She died July 17th. Three years ago this year...2009!
I got her ashes in the mail today! It's harder than I thought it would be. Maybe it's because yesterday was Mothers Day. Maybe it was the lightness of her bag of ashes. I don't know. Maybe it's just the connection...still not broken. The package even smelled like her...smokey! Stale cigarette smoke. Her husband is in poor health...he always has been. I worried that if something happens to him she would get thrown out with the trash. So I asked my dad (my foster father for those of you who may be confused by that) to pick up her ashes and send them to me. Being the person that he is...he did it, gladly.
I hope that Edie Claire and Ella Grace never question the love I have for them. I know how that feels as a child and it's terrible. I am very grateful though that when my mother died I no longer had to question whether she loved me or not. I know she did!

Mostly Edie......with a touch of Ella!!!

Normally once Edie is put down for the night she is out. Well tonight I heard her crying about an hour in so I went up...gave her some teething tablets and tried to put her back down. Typically this works...(FYI...teething tablets are freakishly successful). But tonight little Miss Edie Claire was not having it.....well, I am a sucker for crocodile tears....and these girls KNOW IT!!! So I brought her down with me and we played! Even though I feel a little bit of mommy guilt even saying this..it's sometimes nice to just have some one on one time with each girl!!! Here are some pictures from our playtime...

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!!!

I found her like this.......

Here is Edie sampling something her sister whipped up.....

"man this needs some salt Ella".....(that's a plastic salt shaker in her mouth)

A little prelude to THEEEEEEEEEEEE...........

With E Squared being mobile now......and hungry....it's very hard to eat ANYTHING without them needing some. Jon and I often try to hide things that we eat...by hide I mean eat with our head in the fridge and the door closed as much as possible, hide food in our palm only take a bite when they aren't looking, etc... (we only hide things we don't think they should eat, ie...skinny cow ice cream sandwiches....)! More times than not we get BUSTED!!! It's as if they have tiny hidden food sensors or something.....and they always want some! So yesterday I had to have a skinny cow......you know......my time of the you know what.....the time when chocolate is my BFF. Oh who am I kidding chocolate is always by BFF!!! I attempted to "sneak" a skinny cow and Edie needed some...she would not let me hold it......she insisted on doing it herself... complete with the back arching and high pitched screams. So I reluctantly chopped it up and let them have at it in their high chairs......it was too cold for Ella but here......

Edie LOVED it!!!

Here is Edie in her 12 month sized (too small) PJs........

remember the prelude before..........well.......here it is!!!

We have moved up from a bucket to a sink..........

Ella loves loves loves this thing........

Nite Nite...........

We may be a little trashy.......but we have fun!!!

I plan to get E Squared a water table for outdoor summertime fun......we won't do the sand/water one because I am sure I will forget to cover the sandy side ......and the cats......well you know!!! GROSS!!! I know they will love to have a water table because anytime they have access to water they splish splash away.....be it the cat or dog bowl or the toilet........they don't care. Water is water in their book.....so today I thought it would be fun to fill a bucket with some ICE cold aqua and let them have at it.....shirtless. Outside. In the wind. Cool wind no less. In the middle of Swine Flu season. Seriously.....if you need my address to send me that mommy of the year award just email me.......... whitetrashmommy@blabla.com ..........just kidding that's not a real email address.........I don't think. No...it wasn't that cool......and they had fun!!! SEE.....
We are trying to teach the girls values early...we feel that an important part of learning values is to have chores......so we let Edie mow the lawn since she likes to push things........

Ella is the official "flower picker"......notice no shirt, no shoes (which you cannot see) crawling in the gravel.........HEY!!! I grew up in a trailer park........she can have a taste of my medicine...she's got to learn people!!!

Since it can't be all work and no play.......there are child labor laws you know...we took a few spins throughout the day in their new birthday ride.........SWEET!!!

I have to show you guys our awesome blooming yard........it seems like every day there is a new bunch of flowers somewhere back there.........beautiful!!! We have a house guest from Louisiana ...we are trying to show him around but are so busy......here he is when we gave him a tour of our back yard......

He's a little weird.......afraid of the dog.......look hard and you can see him in the tree......

Look at these awesome irises........and more poppies......

I know I have mentioned my black thumbs here before.......well this yard is kill proof with all the hearty plants and trees and the auto irrigation.........plus we hired a yard guy.......it's too pretty to let me loose on it........but I did have every intention of planting things in the 3 raised garden beds......it seems wasteful to not grow stuff there. No? But the more I look at the beautiful wild flowers that have consumed them the more I think......NO NO NO. I would essentially dig these pretty flowers up to plant something that we all know I will kill.........so this will be my raised bed this year......maybe next year!!!

OH YEAH........the Coach goodie.......

Sweet thing about this little nugget......Jon thought I already had a Coach purse.....so he thought he was matching my purse.......which "technically" he was EXCEPT my Coach purse is a knock off and this thing isn't.........I won't dare mix them because.......well that would be a dead giveaway that my purse is a cheapy.....

If you are on the cusp about whether or not I deserve that award.....this will be your clencher! Edie and Ella have been a bit whinier than usual lately......maybe teething? maybe they are cold (*see water bucket story above)? Well this morning after a couple of hours of Ella whining...almost nonstop....I decided........hhhmmm maybe........well let's see.......

So I fed her (novel idea. I know!) ......she was starving. STARVING!!! She ate 2. TWO. T!W!O! eggs, grapes (sliced of course) strawberries and canteloupe.......bless her little heart! There. I WIN!!!

The whining.......MUST. STOP. WHINING!

Things are pretty even around here. Babies producing lots of whine. Mommy drinking lots of wine! I am not sure if it's teething or delayed reactions from vaccines at their 1 year appointment. I realize it's pretty far out since the appointment was 2 weeks ago tomorrow but Edie has little red spots here and there over her body.......Dr. B said for us not to be alarmed if that happens.....so we are not alarmed. But we do NOT like it either!
Jon came back from Vegas last night. He came bearing gifts! He got these adorable black and white kittens for Edie and Ella. Stuffed kitties! They both immediately grabbed their kitty and placed it in their mouth.....seriously? STILL? Everything in the mouth. When do they grow out of that? They loved them though.....unfortunately so did Rubi so I had to put them away.
I knew my (unexpected) gift was going to be G!O!O!D! for 2 reasons.
1.) It came in this bag.......
and let's face it......ain't nothin bad ever came out of a Coach bag......unless of course it was something that wasn't bought at Coach. In this case said gift WAS purchased at a Coach store.
2.) As I prepared to open the gift my lovely husband said......."the girl that sold it to me said she just puts her ID and money and stuff in it and carries it when she goes out".......now you may be wondering why this statement would make me KNOW whatever was inside the bag was GOOD! My lovely husband has a weakness for hot chicks..he would buy thousand pound blocks of lard if the chick was hot enough!!! No.....he did not admit to me that she was pretty nor did I ask........I just know!!! I am sure the Coach store in the middle of all the fancy Caesars Palace Forum shops in Las Vegas has a bunch of hotties working there........it's business people!

Speaking of hotties........

Don't look at me.......BOB did it!!!

Edie has been C!R!A!N!K!Y! this week......must be the teeth coming in. She seems to gnaw ( is that really a friggin word? It looks weird!) on her wrists alot more than normal. Thankfully she doesn't normally gnaw (?seriously) on her wrists. Because THAT would look weird! Man....where did I learn to spell?
Anyway...sometime today I could hear her crying........it sounded muffled...nothinge new lately because the whining DOES. NOT. STOP.......this week anyway!!! You all know she normally is so well behaved and unwhiney that it is embarassing...........yet this week.......the week that her daddy is living it up golfing in VEGAS..........yeah that's right! She lives 13 1/2 months as a perfect child and the week her daddy leaves me ALL ALONE with both babies.......she gets teeth!!! And is PISSED about it!
Don't hate though...........Jon is on a long weekend golf trip.........which is exhausting in his defense....because really 18 holes of gold in the Las Vegas HEAT........he's beat!!! But I get to go on a WEEK long beach GIRLS ONLY.........or I should say girls but NOT BABY ONES!!! June........coming up right around the corner......an entire week......sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, beaching, eating, sleeping, a little (or alot) or wine.....probably alot.....but man I am anxiously excited......I'll write another post on that later........
So back to me hearing Edie crying............
Well see for yourself........
Yeah that's right......that's BOB...........how? when? why? She crawled into the teensy tiny basket under him......and she was M!A!D! So what do I do??? Well of course...........get the camera......here ........need a closer look????

I ROCK at this mommy stuff. huh!

Now back to the teething.........Edie is miserable!!! Bless her sweet little heart. She finally got hungry yesterday and she sat on the sofa and ate 5......yeah that's right FIVE strawberries......see how cute she is........

As I said before...Jon is spending the weekend in Las Vegas.......I'm a little jealous BUT I have a much more fun trip planned.......Florida fun....girls only....middle of June......WINE.......FOOD........SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!! Man the sleep I will have.......phew........

So he was leaving Thursday.......around 10:30 am for the airport........well around 9:00 I was in the kitchen.....washing bottles of course.........and STILL? And all of the sudden I hear this noise.......what? Is that my new Oreck? Why yes it is........

feeling guilty leaving me in the middle of teething hell????? Never mind the crazy toys all over the stupid place.........these girls are MESSY!! And the patches of mismatched paint everywhere...we are having our house painted this week and I have been frantic over finding colors. IT"S HARD.......if anyone has any good colors send em my way.........Rebecca I already have your Key Lime on my list.........SAM

It was bound to happen........

What you ask? What was bound to happen! Well let me tell you where we won't be shopping again!!! Not that I planned to ever go there again....but still! BOB and I decided to take the girls out in the 93 degree heat today.......just as an aside.....they are tall enough now that their little legs hang out from under the stroller visor (is that what it's called) so I have to put sun screen on their tootsies. So anyway.....it was 93 degrees but we have been in the house for DAYS! We just couldn't be a prisoner to the heat any longer. We also needed to pick up some paint samples.....since we are having our house painted next week and have yet to officially nail down colors. As we were strolling along I decided to duck into this little furniture store that we passed.......I need to find a chair that I like AND can afford. As soon as we walked in I knew right away that I wasn't going to find anything but just in case decided to browse the perimeter of the store anyway......just in case! Well as you already know BOB is a little wide.......I mean cut him some slack he's gotta schlep around 2 (not so small anymore) babies, toddlers...whatever...in the 93 degree heat!!! So I had to move a couple of stools, chairs, etc... out of the way to get through a couple areas. Well as I was leaving.....keeping in mind we were the only ones in the store.... the owner/jerk/punk/ugly guy said......"you stroller too big....no come back".........WHA? Are you friggin kidding me? I didn't say that but I did give him stink eye so bad I am sure he smelled it. And just for the record........that thing there on your head...the wrap....sir....looks STUPID! Stupid man!
Now on with the cuteness.........here is Ella Grace.......so disappointed that she can't break through the cabinet locks daddy installed....
Sweet blue eyes.......

Ella posing with our new ottoman.......

self portrait........if you look really closely you can see a back molar on the left (your left) side of her bottom gum...

Jon hates when I don't get their entire head in the shot but I love this one of Edie.....

just plain cute...

I think we are in trouble with this one... she climbed up on this little table all alone......trouble is she can't get down......

Edie LOVES chewing on toothbrushes.......

Seriously......tiptoes!!!

I just discovered google analytics........it's awesome!!! I can look at the stats of my blog...it tells me how many times each day it is looked at....how they found my blog.......even where they are visiting from. We have had almost 400 hits just in the last 2 weeks! E Squared is already popular!!! We have had visitors from Singapore, Canada, Europe....and a few other places that I can't pull from my hat at the moment. It is so cool......
Funny thing......my last post only got me 10 comments!!! Seriously people.....give me a shout out!!! It's fun to get comments..........
I have another option for you if you don't want to give me a comment.........

vote for my friend Shawna.........well for her adorable little boys anyway!!! She will win an awesome stroller.....which is VITAL when you have twins.......

Just go here ...........and they are the 5th picture down!!! It's a close up and black and white!!!

I will post pictures very very soon.........it's been a bit boring around here!!!