The Scary Tractor

Pea and I made an unplanned visit to the playground today. We were in the garage deciding which "outside" toy to play with when Jason started the tractor mower. We assumed this would be pretty exciting for the little guy since he loves climbing on the mower and "driving." Well, it didn't go very well! The mower freaked him out a bit and he started crying. So, Pea and I decided to go for a little walk to the playground while Jason mowed the lawn. Pea kept saying, with the most serious look on his face, "scared of tractor." I think he will get over it quickly once daddy takes him for a ride. ;)

On another note, is there some sort of crazy, emotional switch that is activated once our kiddos turn 2??? These days, Pea seems to have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows...and sometimes all at the same time! He has perfected the word "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and has the most pathetic pout, sticking out his lower lip and teeth while huffing and puffing. He has also mastered the art of whining. Oh, I hate whining! And, he only does it at home! WHY?? He is a perfect angel at the babysitter's and at my parent's house, but he saves all of his best tricks for home!

Super Saturday

Today was such a BEAUTIFUL day!! Mid-70's, blue sky, and nothing on the schedule. What a perfect combo. Even so, we were full of energy and managed to pack our day pretty full.

We started off at our local YMCA. They were having an open house which included FIRETRUCKS! You know we had to check that out. (Never mind we see the firetruck everyday beside our house! hehe!) Pea LOVED it. He literally ran circles around the firetruck. It was great.
Riding shotgun in the firetruck.
Next stop...the ambulance. Then we headed indoors for a little 1:1 basketball.
After lunch, pea decided we needed to go visit the neighbor...AKA the firetruck. We typically walk to the station and he has to look in the window to see the firetruck. Today we were invited inside for our own personal tour. Of course, I did not have my camera! But, he was so excited! He got the firetrucks all to himself. He even helped the firefighter clean the fire truck. Too cute. We are now on a first name basis with our neighbor firefighters!

We also decided to clean out the garage this afternoon and pea found my very old bike helmet. He wore the helmet for a couple hours. And, yes, he was wearing the helmet when we visited the fire station!

Time for a juice box break.

"Driving" daddy's tractor.

And...back to "cleaning" the garage. He enjoyed sweeping the dirt back IN the garage.

Look Who's Two!!

Little Pea turned TWO on Saturday and celebrated his first birthday at home! We had such a great day and it was so special to be sharing this day together as a family. We celebrated with a special breakfast, a visit to the park, and then a family party in the evening. I think pea had a lot of fun!

I tried my hand at a 3D firetruck cake. It was really cute until gravity started taking affect! I just didn't set it right, but it lasted just long enough for us to sing "Happy Birthday!" Pea loved it and that's all that matters! He woke up this morning saying "Firetruck cake gone?"

Cake and "cream."
Our little birthday clown!
Piñata time! Have you noticed a theme, yet? Seriously, I never thought I would be one of those moms that did themes, but...well...it just happens! Pea loved the firetruck piñata. Waiting to do some smashin' with his cousins.

Ready to go.
SMASH!! He did such a great job smashing the piñata. Should I be worried? :)
His new "big" firetruck.
Pea and his cousin playing with his new Little People garage.
Finally, his "cachow" face. Pea just recently discovered the movie Cars.
Happy Birthday, baby! We love you so much!!!

The Next MVP

Take a look, baseball fans...the next MVP!

Walkin' to the plate.
The warm-up
Swing!
It's outta here!!!!!!!!7th inning stretch? How about the 7th inning bubble chase.

One Year Ago...

We received that long awaited call that we had finally been released from PGN. A day I will never forget! All day I had the urge to call PGN, but resisted. Finally, at around 2:30, I broke down and called. I couldn't believe my ears when Francesca (I think that was her name) informed me we had been approved and our file was ready. I asked her several times, "Are you sure? Are you sure?" She was sure. Of course, we had been told this before only for it to be another kickout. But, I was amazingly calm. I called our adoption coordinator and she promised to follow-up with our attorney. I did not expect to hear anything for at least a day. Around 3:00pm, our coordinator called me back and said "There is just one more thing...I am looking at your PGN approval right now." Of course, I instantly burst into tears and, again, kept saying "Are you sure???" It was real this time. By the time I hung up the phone, my office was full! It was incredible! Our baby was finally coming home. Here is my post from last year:

http://journeytoeli.blogspot.com/2008/04/do-you-believe-in-miracles.html

What is this thing, mommy?

The mop made a rare appearance today and it didn't take pea long to figure out what to with it. He immediately picked it up, said "clean," and off he went. I think he has heard me complaining about our nasty, ugly kitchen floor and thought cleaning it would be the solution! (at least the really ugly wallpaper is now gone!)

Doesn't everyone wear snowboots to mop?


And, despite our ugly kitchen floor, we have a potential buyer for our house. It's not even on the market, yet! We're just working on an offer. Fingers crossed.

One of those evenings

Tonight was one of those evenings that started off feeling a bit hectic, but ended perfectly! Hubby had some school work to do so pea and I spent the evening hangin' out together without a care in the world. Aren't those the best?

We started off playing outside. I noticed that our first daffodils bloomed! Spring is near! Of course, it's April and snow is in the forecast for Monday. BOOOOO
Trompin' around the yard acting like a goofball.
Back inside to play trains. He is really starting to get the whole train track thing and putting them together.

Next stop, doodling. Look at my little leftie! He even has his hand curled over! Pea now makes doodling requests of mommy (yes, he is starting to call me mommy instead of mama) and daddy. The most popular requests include a fish, house, and bus. Lucky for me, he thinks my doodles are fabulous!
Lastly, a banana snack before bedtime. Yum!
These are the days and they are going way too fast!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

I have so much on my mind right now and so much I could blog about, but all of my focus has been on getting our house ready for the market. We have been painting, organizing, cleaning, and still have much to do! I didn't think we had that much crap until I really started going through everything! It's amazing all of the "stuff" we carry around...bits and pieces of our lives represented by things like a book, a little note, pictures, music, etc. Some of it is easy to get rid of and some of it I will never be able to get rid of. So, I feel like I have been in that place of "taking stock." (Grey's Anatomy reference!) I have also been thinking A LOT about Guatemala lately with Eli's upcoming birthday and our upcoming first family day. So many emotions.

In the midst it all...we have still mananged to appreciate life's everyday adventures!

Eli's FAVORITE place: the fire station right beside our house. He has already been invited to the station by our neighbor fire fighters several times and I think we will all be on a first name basis very soon! I swear we talk about fire trucks all day. One of the first things he does every morning is run to the window to see the fire truck. He loudly announces every morning: "FIRE TRUCK! FIRE TRUCK!" We have 4 fire stations in our town and he knows if we are getting close to one. He has this super fire truck radar! It's very funny!
Enjoy the first soft serve ice cream of the season! We are ready for summer.

Having loads of fun with Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head.

Helping daddy in the kitchen. This is minutes before pea picked up a compact flourescent light bulb and chomped down. Needless to say, it shattered in his mouth. It was a little scary! Luckily, Jason saw him just in time to get all of the pieces out of his mouth. Of course, the other scare with CFL bulbs is mercury so we had to open all the windows and stay out of the kitchen for about 20 minutes. It is amazing how quickly accidents can happen even when we are right there.

My two fave fellas. Aren't I lucky? :)

Lastly, I am still in awe of how fast my little pea is growing. He was so excited about his new table (thanks to craigslist!) and insisted sitting there for dinner. Where is my baby?

Birthday Wishes

Can you believe my baby is going to be TWO in 2 weeks? Wow! I think pea also knows his birthday is fast approaching. We received a Little Tikes catalog in the mail last week and he has been pouring over it ever since! I think he is starting to narrow down his choices...maybe.

Carefully considering the swingset with the "curlie slide."

Then and Now...and a request

Here is another "this time last year" post! Last year at this time we were celebrating my birthday in Antigua during Semana Santa. It was AMAZING!! It was our 3rd visit trip and we were so incredibly lucky to be spending several days in Antigua during this time. Most hotels in Antigua are booked up to a year in advance for this celebration. Our dear friend, Kimberly, was living in Antigua fostering her son and she so generously offered to let us stay with her. At that time, we had never even met one another other than through blogging. This is, yet another, one of those very special connections we made through our journey. Kimberly was such a wonderful hostess and helped us celebrate my birthday, Eli's 1st birthday (we celebrated a couple weeks early), and gave us the opportunity to experience Semana Santa.

Here we are in Antigua on my birthday last year.



Me and my Pea at home on my birthday this year.

We not only connected with Kimberly that week, but also Brittney, Danny, and Kinsey. At that time, they had only been in PGN for about 3 weeks. Well, it is over ONE YEAR later and they are still waiting for their daughter to come home. They have endured so much and their hearts are very heavy right now. Please take a moment to stop by their blog (click on their names above) with some words of support and encouragement. We all know how much that means.

Dinner with Daniel, Brittney, and Kinsey in March 2008

Spoiled...YUM!!

So, my birthday is coming up and I decided to spoil myself a teeny bit. I stumbled upon this site that makes homemade Guatemalan sweetbreads and delivers them right to your door! Oh, my mouth started watering instantly and I just couldn't resist. Check out the site HERE. I just HAD to order the Champurradas and the Pan Mixto. We were spoiled with Champurradas on our first visit when we took a day trip to Antigua. Our wonderful guide, Alfredo, bought all of us a half dozen or so Champurradas from a local bakery and we thought we had died and gone to heaven! Delicious! We were also spoiled on our pick-up trip because our apartment in Antigua was right across the street from a bakery. We typically treated ourselves to a daily dose of deliciousness! Believe it or not, I didn't even get a picture of the bakery! Shameful. But, here is a picture of our street and the bakery is on the lefthand side.
My order confirmation stated that my goodies will be baked and shipped on the same day. YUM! I can't wait!!

Pea Hugs

Awwwwww...I LOVE my Pea Hugs!!! Pea gives the BEST hugs! He usually gets a running start and then just jumps into my arms squeezing as tight as he can. He has almost knocked me over a couple times! But, I love, love, love it! I can't get enough of my pea hugs!!

Spring Forward

We are ready for SPRING!! This winter has just been ruthless, hasn't it? We have definitely been enjoying our little heat wave over the last couple of days. It has been sooooo great to finally get outside without the fear of frostbite!

Spring is by far my favorite season. I just love that the world seems to come alive again. Spring brings a sense of renewal and new beginnings. This spring is especially special for us as we have much to celebrate! Eli will be celebrating his first birthday at home, we will celebrate our first family day, and we will hit that very important milestone in which the scales will tip between the time he lived in Guatemala and the time he has been home.

And, as I have alluded, there are other changes happening for us as well. We are getting ready to put our house on the market! Now, I know most of you are thinking "big whoop!" Well, the big whoop is we are not exactly sure what will come next, but we are planning on some big changes. It is something we have been thinking about for quite awhile, but the time was never right...until now. We have no idea how everything will unfold so right now we are focused on getting our house sold, especially in such an uncertain housing market. Needless to say, this is a very transitional time for us, which is very exciting and also a little scary! But, we have faith that everything will fall into place, knowing that this is our heart's desire.

With that said, we have been busy with projects around the house to get it ready for the market. We have LOTS to do over the next several weeks and we have quickly learned that nothing happens fast with a very busy toddler around!

Goin' Crazy!!

I wasn't kidding!! Here is my first digital scrapbook page. So fun! I used a tutorial on The Shabby Shoppe, including the free scrapbook kit. If you are interested in giving it a try and you have some version of photoshop, just click on the shappy shoppe link and go to tutorials. You will be addicted!

Technical Difficulties

Soooo, some of my peeps are having some technical difficulties accessing the blog since I went private so I switched back to public for now! In the meantime, check out this other cute photoshop creation that I, again, stole from Pineapple Princess! Isn't this cute?!?! This was FREE. Check out her blog for the link and you can have your very own desktop calendar!

Pea Faces

My blogger pal, Pineapple Princess, inspired me to play around more with Photoshop. I have been trying to figure it out on my own and I just don't have the patience! For one, I am not a techy so it takes me a little longer to figure out "techy" stuff and two, I just hate reading directions! Not a good mix! So, Pineapple Princess posted an excellent tutorial on creating collages. So I decided to give it a try. It was SUPER easy! So, you may be seeing more experiments as I navigate my way through all the bells and whistles of photoshop. Woohoo!