The Newest Member of our Family

We found this sweet little dog in our neighborhood at the end of September, but most people still don't know we have a dog, so I thought I would introduce her here. I never dreamed she would become ours. With found signs put up in the neighborhood and a notice that we found her, at the SPCA near our house, I thought for sure somebody would claim her. We were not looking for a dog, but "Noodle" is the nicest dog we could have ended up with. She is so sweet and is a wonderful addition to our family.

The day we found her

BeforeAfter- The day we got her cleaned up
Romeo got a haircut too.

Tug of War.

It startes off a little slow, but gets funny with Elliot and Noodle playing.

Twilight... My Current Obsession

I cannot get enough of Edward Cullen and these Twilight books. I went on to facebook and almost joined the "I love Edward Cullen and Twilight" group, but I would feel like way too much of a dork with people from high school and my past seeing me in that group. I just read the last 350 pages of this book in the last 36 hours. I just couldn't stop reading. And now I am on a total downer, because I don't have the next and final book of the series. And I have to wait until the middle of the week to get it from my great friend, Kathleen. Although, I am just not sure I can hold out. I may go and spend the money. And now I want to go see the movie again tomorrow. Let's see, what else have I done? I downloaded all three trailers to the Twilight movie onto my ipod and I watch interviews with Robert Pattinson online. Now I don't really care for him, but he is an amazing actor with how well he played Edward. Okay, I am not a dork, I promise. There is just something about these books, that sucks a person in and makes them cry when the main character Bella is sad, and happy when she is happy. I have 4 other friends reading them and they are all just as emotionally attached to the two main characters as I am . I am just hoping and praying the last books ends the way we want it to. If it doesn't it will be worse than the worst broken heart I experienced in High School.





The series by Stephenie Meyer is:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

Team Edward!

He's Not a Baby Anymore

Crazy, how quickly time is passing. I can't believe I have finally made the jump to giving Elliot the freedom of a big boy bed, out of the crib. And oddly he had a harder time than I did. Elliot wanted to go in the crib after we tucked him in. He eventually chilled out and slept until 7:45, with only one minor disturbance. I woke up hearing him cry a little bit, and then rattling around as if he were on the move. Well, he was trying to get up on the twin bed, that is in his room, but it was covered in toys. Note, to other parents, on the first night of your child sleeping in a bed rather than a crib, make sure all toys are put away, so they don't injure themselves when they get out of bed in the dark. Anyway, he went right back into the toddler bed, and back to sleep. So it was a success, and we got rid of his high chair also. So our house is finally moving away from the very cluttered baby mode. Hooray, for less clutter. Boo for more toys than any child would ever need.

My favorite easy going playlist

Being the last person on the planet (I think) to have an ipod, I am finally working out how the system works, and am so happy to have my first playlist.

Kissing- Bliss

I Don't Know You- Kate Havnevik

If We Try- Last in Line

Sweet Sweet Baby- Michelle Featherstone

Ordinary Day- Dolores O'Riordan

New Soul- Yael Naim

L'Odeur- Hooverphonic

In My Arms- Plumb

Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful Life- Aselin Debison

Torn- Natalia Imbruglia

Kiss Me- Sixpence None the Richer

Collide- Howie Day

Waiting on the World to Change- John Mayer

I'm Yours- Jason Mraz

Upside Down- Jack Johnson

Not sure how the flow is, but I like it.

Time Out!

Lately when Elliot is grumpy and winey, we can get him to put himself into a time out. This is how I found him in his most recent timeout.

We miss Grandma and Grandad

I am so lucky to have such wonderful inlaws and Elliot is so lucky to have such fun and loving grandparents. It was a busy 3 weeks which definitely ended too soon.

Grandad helped us clean out our garage and washed every window in our house. That is a big job considering most of our windows are French windows.

We had so many fantastic meals out. We ate at Tony's in Redondo, Parker's Lighthouse in Long Beach, E.J.'s, Natraj, Pei Wei, Fuddruckers and the Cafe at Gene Autry's museum in Griffith Park. Val and I enjoyed a lovely day at Fashion Island, and we only went into two shops. Elliot went on the carousel and threw penny's into the fountain. I must never forget to put a bag of penny's in my purse before we leave the house. Lee and I got annual passes to the Long Beach Aquarium, and we also went to the Huntington Library and Gardens, Griffith Park Observatory and one of the playgrounds, And the boys went to The Los Angeles Natural History Museum to see the Dinosaur exhibit. In between there was lots of playing with trains and animals, playing in the garden and watching movies such as "The Land Before Time", and "Pooh Bear and the Heffalump." Now instead of hearing Elliot say "Grandma will you play with me" it's back to "Mommy will you play with me". So now I am learning the right way to play trains. Which tracks I am allowed on and which I am not. I figure since Elliot is bossed around all the time, he can at least be the boss, when we play with his trains.

We will carry on with our webcam chats, but look forward to the next Cooper visit hopefully before the end of the year.

At the Griffith Park Observatory

Watching the Sea Lions at The Aquarium of the Pacific

Our little Monkey

The little monkey and Grandma Dinosaur

Val teaching Carol to knit, before she had to leave with poor sick Danny.

Danny coming down with the flu.

More Disney Pictures...

Happy Birthday to Me!

It was my free day at Disneyland, since it was my birthday, although between, food, parking and stroller rental it was more of a $40 day. It was Elliot's first time at Disneyland and I hadn't been since I was pregnant with him, almost three years ago. He definitely kept his serious face on for most of the day, but he hasn't stopped talking about it, and he told me, "that was good fun, Mommy," when we got in the car. And I had a fantastic time. I can't think of a better way to celebrate my 38th birthday.

Our first ride was on the carousel.

Next was the circus train, where we sat in the monkey cage.
A few self portraits, that Elliot wanted nothing to do with.

Elliot at around 3:30. I had intended to leave by 3:00, but we were running a little later, and once he fell asleep, I didn't want to interrupt him. It would have been more than I could handle carrying a half sleeping toddler from the entrance to the tram and then through the parking lot to the car. So Elliot slept in his stroller for about an hour and then we hit a few more rides before we headed home. We didn't leave until 6:30. I am wiped out!!!

I'll add a few more pics later!

He did it on purpose...

I love my flip video camera. We are catching a lot of good two year old conversations with it.

A January Heat Wave

We had a fantastic lunch at Parker's Lighthouse in Long Beach, today to celebrate Val's, my dad's and my birthday. It was so yummy and delicious and a really nice 3 hours for us all to hang out. Unfortunately my dad wasn't there to be celebrated. We started outside, but after about 5 minutes we had to request to be taken to a table inside. Next to the glass partitions outside it felt as if it were atleast 90 degrees out, with no breeze at all. I always say we get at least one heat wave in January. My favorite weather, sunny and warm.

The Cooper's Barry, before we headed in to a new table

Ernie and Elliot

He loves to hug us for pictures

Auntie and Elliot

Theresa and Lee

Mommy and Elliot

Lee's Mum and my Mom

We ended the day, with a frantic search around the neighborhood for Romeo. Around dinnertime, we realized that he had probably spent last night outside, and didn't have much hope of actually finding him. Lee and I walked around the block, calling and waiting, and talking to the houses behind us, and when we got home, Barry was on his way out to find him. With another search around our backyard, LEe could hear a faint meowing, and with us both calling , Romeo finally appeared in a tree from the neighbors behind us. Now I remember why we don't let him outside. He really is not a very smart cat. To think he was in the yard behind us for about 20 hours and he never found his way back to our back door.