Happy Dance

Ten things that are making me deliriously happy today.

1. I cannot get enough of summer. It is beautiful outside. It is just the tiniest bit breezy, it is hot and dry, and the sky is the most perfect cloudless blue behind the bright vermillion mountains.

2. This amazing veggie sandwich from The Grind.

3. Thanks to a brilliant effort by Team Einfeldt, my house is miraculously clean (for a few minutes, anyway)

4. The sound of my daughters singing the Star Wars theme song at the top of their lungs.

5. A summer full of Blair. I really, really like having him around this much.

6. Extra ice in my beverage.

7. My nerdy anticipation for Harry Potter, Midnight in Paris, The Muppets, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and the Hobbit movies.

8. Sore muscles. Nothing beats the feeling of knowing that you worked hard.

9. My almost-5-year-old asking for a backpack for her birthday, so she can take it to Kindergarten.


10.  Anything by Mo Willems, Mercer Mayer, or Arnold Lobel. My most favorite children's authors/illustrators. (Especially Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp, and Frog and Toad are Friends.) I have to read Liza Lou in the most ridiculously fake southern accent I can possibly manage. It's basically required.

P.S. Are we friends on Goodreads yet? If not, find me. It will be lovely.

My Two Year Old

This is my Astoria. She is 2 today!

I love love love this little girl.

Even when she gives me death glares (often), and responds to every question with "NO!" Well, she is 2. i should give her a break. Besides she ate every bite of eggs off my plate at her birthday breakfast at the ihop yesterday. Can't complain about that.

Here are some awesome things you should know about my miss Stori-pie:

• She is a marvelously artistic dancer. Not just simple kicks and turns, she rolls on the floor, makes pretty poses with her arms, and even throws some yoga poses in the mix.
• She used the potty for the first time yesterday (all by herself) this is a big deal for me. Elliot is still struggling with this concept. So yes, a very big deal
• Astoria is named after the little town of Astoria, Oregon. Which is where The Goonies was filmed, and also sung about on the album So Long, Astoria by the Ataris. It's also one of my favorite places on the planet.
  
• She is left-handed, which I take a strange kind of pride in.
• Her favorite thing in the WORLD to do, is take all the sippy cup lids and put them in rows and circles. I need to get a picture of this.
• She loves to sing pretty songs. My favorite ones she sings are the "Pick it Up" song from Yo Gabba Gabba, and "You've got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story

Happy Birthday!

My Little Lady

It's only 8:30 in the morning and it's already shaping up to be an eventful day.

First things first.

Three years ago today I became a Mamma for the very first time. Happy Birthday my sweet Elliot! I love you so!

some fun things about Elliot Anberlin:

• She was named after the musician Elliot Smith, as well as the poet T.S. Eliot, and the band Anberlin
  
• When she was little she would watch Winnie the Pooh and grab her head on the part where Pooh bear bonks his head on a tree.
• Elliot is SO incredibly thoughtful. She always gives me hugs and kisses when i'm feeling down and is eager to "kiss it better" if someone gets an owie.
• Elliot may be diminutive in size, but she has a personality (and a temper) bigger than most adults i know.
  

For her birthday my bff Katie and her two precious daughters are coming up to play, as well as my parents and sister.

OH... and i'm making these. :)
http://conversationswithacupcake.blogspot.com/2009/05/split-personality.html


In other happenings. I put my jeans on today and found 8 or 9 Hungry Hungry Hippos balls in my pockets. I think one of my favorite things about mommy-ness is finding random things in strange places.

I once found my cell phone in a box of Frosted Flakes. That is not even a joke.
:)