"Mom, what's your name today?"

Here's our Eleanor Elizabeth, almost four years old.  I love this picture because it captures all of her energy and personality.  She's quite a chica these days!

I love the way she takes care of Matt.  When this tired Momma is fighting the battle of the bedsheets in the early morning, I can sometimes hear Miss Ellie over the monitor in Matt's room, reading him stories and talking to him until I get there to bring the kiddos down for breakfast.  Sometimes she even helps herself to the Cheerios in the pantry and carries them up the stairs for a pre-breakfast snack.

Lately, she's big on pseudonyms.  She generally chooses Meredith or Akrisa (?) or, simply Big Sister.  Then I have to choose Holly or Kathleen or Ellie.  Sometimes she uses my pseudonym, sometimes she just calls me "my dear" or "sweetheart."  Then she pretends that we are taking naps, going to the parade, visiting relatives, or making food.  Sometimes her imaginary friends and sisters come along:  Daney,  Riley, Laney, and a few others I can't figure out how to pronounce or spell.

Here are some other things she likes:

Working on her computer alongside Rob

Being Doctor Princess Ellie.  I am a very good patient.

Wearing her heart-shaped pink sunglasses. She earned all the money for them by potty-training.  The Family Home Evening where we counted her pennies and quarters and turned over the sunglasses was, in her words, "The Best!"  By the way, Rob subsequently took the bag of change to work for his afternoon soda fund, and thought that was The Best.

Riding her bike.  She's learning to pedal and is quite proud of herself when she can do two pedals in a row.  She informed me yesterday that she needed a helmet to be safe.  Hard to argue with that one, so off we went to Wal-Mart to find one.  Amazingly, they had one with all her favorite princesses on it!  Whew.

A few other things:

• She will only wear twirly dresses to church
• She has all kinds of t-shirts with flowers, turtles, and other cutenesses (including my personal favorite - a white t-shirt with a map of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on it).  But everyday she wants to wear a plain brown short-sleeved t-shirt that I bought at a consignment store for $3.
• As soon as she walks in the door from anywhere, she immediately takes off her shoes and puts on a pair of purple and gold dress-up slippers.
• She told me recently that her three favorite songs are "You Make Me Feel So Young," by Frank Sinatra, "Human," by The Killers ("Except I don't like their scary name"), and "You're Not From Texas," by Lyle Lovett.  I'd say that's a pretty good cross-section.
• She loves the feel of the wind in her hair when we drive in the Jeep with the sunroof and windows open.  My thoughts exactly, babe.

Here she is overlooking the Ohio River and feeling the wind in her hair.  We love this chica!

Believe the Hype

I'm not usually one for kids' clothing with phrases, but I couldn't resist this one in the Gap outlet yesterday:

BELIEVE THE HYPE

It's exactly how I feel about my little boy!  I just can't get enough of him.  Those big blue eyes, just like his Dad.  That light hair, the giggle, the way he signs "more" and "milk."  The way he pats the sofa and pulls out books and invites me to read to him.  The way he chases Ellie around the house.  How he wants to wear his aviator sunglasses and sit on Ellie's little potty.  How he climbs up the climbing wall and slides down the slide on our backyard swingset.  The way he swings his blow-up plastic baseball bat at the blow-up plastic baseball and claps his hands when he hits it.  How he looks up at me intently at bedtime when I talk about all we've done that day and all we're going to do tomorrow, nodding his head and saying "Yep" at each thing I say.  Yes, indeed, believe the hype.

I put him in his new shirt first thing this morning.  He spilled his lunchtime apple juice all over it and we had to change clothes before naptime.  Oh well.  Rob is worried that the shirt is in University of Michigan colors and, combined with its enthusiastic statement, implies that we're rooting for the Wolverines.  I assured him Matt wouldn't wear it on any game day.

Believe the hype, everyone.

Our Matthew Bryant is something incredible.

My Loofah Attacked Me, and Other Tales

Once, several years ago, I went to three different stores with my father to find the exact brand of shower loofah he preferred.  I was amazed that my low-maintenance Dad was particular on this matter, while his high-maintenance daughter bought her shower loofahs for a dollar at the grocery store.


My current loofah is large and pink and round (nothing like Dad's), pretty basic Target variety.  The pink loofah generally does its job adequately.  But one morning last week I felt something uncomfortable while loofah-ing.  Something sharp.  Loofah?  Later, in the mirror, I noticed a very long pink scratch all the way down my arm.  Loofah!  A few hours later it started hurting.  A day or so after that, during the healing process, it started itching.  Yes, my loofah has betrayed me.  It's still sitting in my shower, but I usually just give it an angry stare before moving on to the bar soap.  I'm looking for a loofah that won't betray me.  Any ideas?


A few other things that have been going on lately:

• This morning for breakfast I ate half of a Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie.  My friend Monica can recreate them perfectly.  Baking is a two day process.  Eating can take as long as a minute.
• Rob and I set a goal to watch every episode of Chuck before it comes back from a three week hiatus.  We finished season 2 last night.  Just 13 episodes of season 3 to go before Monday night at 8:00.
• I finished reading Mark Kurlansky's wonderful book about the world history of Salt this week.  I insist that I am not obsessed with salt, but Rob counters that during the several weeks it's taken me to read this book, I've purchased numerous jars of "gourmet" salts as well as a salt cellar. We now have 4 varieties of salt in the house, including a pink-ish Himalayan salt that you have to hand grate.  But that's not enough to count as an obsession, is it?
• Rob and I took an Operation Strengthen Marriage/Recover from Winter vacation last month. We spent three days on a cruise ship through the Bahamas.  We highly recommend it.  Maybe I'll blog about it sometime.
• Ellie is potty-trained.  She's three and a half, so it was beyond time.  I also realize that it's not exactly the sort of glamorous news one shouts from the rooftops, but it feels like a major accomplishment in my life (and hers, obviously), and I just can't stop talking about it.
• Sleeping in and leaving Ellie in charge of Matt is seldom worth it, because it takes longer to clean up the mess they made while unsupervised than the time I lingered in bed.
• Leaving Ellie and Matt in the bath for 45 minutes while I do laundry and vacuuming is almost always a good idea.

I'll sign off with a few confessions:

• I take an afternoon nap almost every day.  Recently, a guest blogger on Apron Stage wrote about the joys of naps.  My favorite comment came from a woman wrote that all the women in her neighborhood take naps.  I want to move there.
• After 6 and a half years of folding Rob's dress socks, I still can't tell the navy from the black
• Sometimes, like today, I don't get dressed until noon.
• Ellie watches Project Runway with us and can pick the designers that are going to be In or Out.  I justify it as a lesson in what qualifies as modest clothing and what does not.
• I can't remember the last time I bought a new pair of shoes.  That's a major accomplishment in my life.  Perhaps some obsessions can be overcome?

Barcelona!

Christmas in Barcelona:  mostly sunny, some rain, 50-60 degrees, minimal or no coats.  Now THAT's Christmas weather!  Remember - there was no snow in Bethlehem.  White Christmas was the mission obtaining its goal of 400 baptisms this year - a true miracle!  Mom and Dad are amazing.  Where do they get all that energy?  We went everywhere, with and without them.  They took us to their favorite Tapas and hot chocolate restaurants, favorite stores, and favorite sites.  They took an entire day and drove us to the Costa Brava and their favorite beach resort town Tossa de Mar.  Gorgeous.

We went with Mom and Dad and Spencer all over La Rambla (fun shopping/restaurant district), the Maritime Museum (the medieval shipyards!), Sagrada Familia (the Gaudi designed cathedral, still under construction after 150 years), Parc Guell (the Gaudi designed park - you feel sort of like you've stepped into a Dr. Seuss book), the Columbus statue overlooking the sea, the Montjuic 16th century fortress overlooking the sea (where Mom and Dad take all incoming missionaries to give them an overwhelming view of their new home), and so many other places.

I spent an incredible hour in the National Museum of Catalon Art, soaking in the collection of 12th century frescos.  Absolutely incredible.  It is touted as perhaps the best collection of medieval art in Europe, and I certainly agree.  It took me awhile to really be able to process all that I had seen.  The rest of the museum is incredible, I'm sure.  I just spent so much time in the medieval section that I didn't have time to get to the rest of it!

We loved spending time getting to know the missionaries.  Ellie wanted to spend all her time in the mission office following the elders around.  It was cute.  I could go on and on with stories, but I'll let some of these pictures say a thousand words.  We're saving our pennies to go back!

SIX!

January 2, 2004

Happy Anniversary!

We had a low-key day today, mostly trying to get unpacked and recover from sleep deficit after our grand Christmas vacation in Barcelona.  Another post coming with that report.  Today I want to list SIX of the hundreds of things I love about being married to Rob:

1.  teamlesan.org.  Rob is a computer geek, and our home runs without any technological hiccups.  I hear about other people (even in my own family, gasp!) who have periods where computers are broken, data is lost, Internet is down.  Not so chezLesan!  For our first Valentine's Day after we got married, Rob bought the "teamlesan.org" domain name for us.  Awwww, how romantic.

2.  We bought hiking and backpacking equipment at REI with some of our wedding money as an investment in a sport we both enjoy.  We've loved using it in scenic places!  For last year's anniversary, we opted to spend some hiking time in Zion Canyon.

3.  When Rob knows he's facing a busy day at work, he goes in early rather than risk staying late.  He is sometimes at his desk by 5:30 am just so that he can get home at his usual hour (6:45 pm) to spend time with me and the kids.  He doesn't even complain that I am totally incoherent during morning prayers on those days, and I love that he would rather sacrifice sleep than time with me.

4.  When Rob walks in the door after work, the kids go running to him.  Matt points and giggles and squirms away from me to get to Rob as fast as possible.  Ellie yells, "Daddy!" and hugs his legs.  Sometimes she likes to hide somewhere and then jump out when he walks through the door.

5.  Rob is the funniest person I know, and he keeps me laughing all the time.  It was one of the reasons I loved spending time with him right from the start!

6.  Rob loves the gospel and makes gospel living and serving in the Church a priority in his life and in our home.  Even in our very first conversations together, I felt the depth of his testimony.  I'd never met anyone who I connected with so closely on that level.

Sometimes life feels crazy with two active kiddos, and things don't always run perfectly.  Good days or crazy days, I'm so glad I get to share them with my husband!  I love you RCLIII!

Merry Christmas!

A big thank you to Jon Gibson for a fantabulous holiday photo shoot.  We're off to Barcelona to visit Mom and Dad.  There's nothing like Christmas on a mission!  We can't wait!

The Upside of Swine

A few weeks ago, my friend Monica fell ill with the dreaded swine flu.  Fortunately, the Tamiflu kicked in and cleared the sickness before the public school system allowed her to come back to her teaching position. This meant that on a bright, 60 degree fall day, she found herself on Swine Flu Vacation.  We headed over to the pumpkin patch for a photo shoot with her fancy camera.  Here's a sampling: