Chocolate Milk

After visiting Utah, we were missing pre-made chocolate milk, my parents always have it in their fridge because my grandmother loves it. It's so ubiquitous with their house that when Allie was just 2 and Jenni said they were going to grandma and grandpa's house, she shouted out "Grandpachocolatemilk?" The name has since stuck. Well, when we returned to Michigan I bought a half gallon on a whim. But, ohhhhh dear. Little E wanted it anytime anyone opened the fridge. One day she was being such a drama queen about it that I took a few pictures.

After being told "After dinner".

Trying her best sad-eyed expression. My parents would have sooo caved by now. Note she got the container out of the fridge to help me.

Working on tear production and spit bubbles. I realize in pictures she looks downright tragic, like she could be a little Cossette on stage, but if you saw the work behind the tantrum, you would've laughed and grabbed your camera too.

"Oh Moooooommmmmm!"

Here is where she starts talking really fast, only you can't understand her because she has worked up real tears by now over her heartache. "...butmomIreallyreallywantsomeandIjustwantsomeandyouneedtogivemeitbecauseIreally- reallywantsome..."

Fine.

Worth it for this shot.

Lesson of the story- I don't like drama, I am the weakest link in family discipline and tears and manipulation will totally work to get what you want from me. Please don't manipulate me now that you know my weakness.

Early August 2011

I am nice and behind on blogging again. Grrrr. Life has been busy, but nothing much has happened. Do you know what I mean? Days on end where the laundry is barely getting done, but you have no idea why. Yes, I have two kids now, and it's an ever changing adjustment, but still. What have I been doing? I think I am biding the time since my parents left until my sister in law Jenni comes. Did you know Jenni was coming?!?! I know! Get excited, because I am. Oh the treats I have planned, she wont know what hit her. P.S. By the way, I will get this excited for you to visit too, whoever you are. I will make you awesome treats for anyone that wants to buy a plane ticket to Michigan. Anyhow, here are a bunch of shots and tidbits from my parent's visit. They got to come out for Winston's blessing. I posted his blessing, but here are a bunch more from the visit.

Winston's blessing outfit, I'm kind of a snob (you all know that) about kids-wear. So I was more than kind of obsessed with getting him a perfect little church outfit to be blessed in. I didn't want all white, or girly or a lot of things. Luckily, I found the blazer for like $3 on Old Navy clearance ages ago, the shirt was there also for a few dollars and the tie was about 50¢ at a thrift store. Sadly, I could not find little khaki pants to save my life. Well, I could find them for $25 dollars, but I don't spend that much on my pants, so I'm sure not going to spend it on something he might wear once. In the end I found a pair for $15, it still kills me, but oh well. He looked darling.

Guy Smiley.
(P.S. My mom once told me that if I had been a boy they might have named me "Guy". Seriously mom? Thank heavens you had a girl.)

His whole outfit makes me laugh. Some people think that grown-up clothes on babies is a ridiculous idea, and they're right. But come on! How freaking cute is he? Little tie? Button up shirt that will never stay tucked in? It kills me!

One day my mom flagged down the Schwan truck to buy a bunch of ice cream bars. I love my mom. Eleanor has been enjoying them ever since. As usual, we barely have any pictures of our guests of honor. We tried to get one with my parents, Winston and Eleanor, but she had other plans.

A cute shot of our increasingly smiley baby. He's at such a sweet stage right now. I love when he coos back and forth with us.

Grandpa and Eleanor one morning. (Please excuse my craft area disaster behind them.) My parents introduced Eleanor to Slim Fast. For them, a sensible breakfast alternative, for Eleanor, CHOCOLATE DRINK! I actually feel ok about her having it on occasion. It beats mornings where her breakfast consists of licking a banana.

Cute parents on the blessing day with Win.

After 8 or so shots, this is the best "smile" E would give me.

Their necks must have hurt by the end of the trip.

Us again.

My mom and E holding W. Yes, it is as precarious as it looks. But look! He's smiling!

And now E is too.

One thing the Howell side loves is swimming. We decided to try out the local aquatic center in town. Guess who is not loving the idea?And guess who is?Her look of concern here is due to the kid-sized frog slide. We thought she would be going crazy over it, but nope. It took both grandparents, myself and about 80 attempts before she finally went down it. (It's about 3-4 feet down.) Once she did she loved it, of course, but by then it was time to go.

She loves swimming. It's downright criminal that I don't take her more often.

I tried to get W in the water, but what felt perfect to us was incredibly cold for him. He hollered bloody murder. I felt extra stupid as everyone within a three state area turned to look at the fool mom who was torturing her newborn. We got him out soon enough and didn't try that again. Maybe when he's 12.

The only downside to our water day was that in a hand off, I dropped my camera in the water. Nice. Oh well, it was almost 4 years old, and I've been contemplating getting a new one anyways. The lame part was getting all of the pictures onto my computer. I put the old card in another camera and loaded them ok, but my computer kept turning off during the upload. Add into that I also uploaded my parents pictures the same day with the same power problems on my computer, so I have duplicates and triplicates in a thousand different folders on I-photo. So annoying. That's part of what has kept me from blogging. I still have stuff to post from before my folks visit, but it might take me a few weeks to find those photos too. Any suggestions on a new awesome camera? But back to the visit.

One afternoon, Clayton took my parents to MSU to see the campus. Here is a nice picture of him in front of the Law sign. Egads, I need to step it up, I have nearly NO photos of Clayton's experience at school. Need to remedy that.

Eleanor enjoying some ice-cream. If one day, she ever fights her genetics and ends up pudgy, I will have ample evidence as to why. I love how long her cute tongue is.

My parents watched the kids so Clayton and I could go on a date. It was our 5 year anniversary while they were here! Another whole post I plan to do soon. We went to Maru for sushi and then to a movie. Such a needed date night!

As always, it ended all too soon. Eleanor thought so too and hopped in their rental car. She repeatedly asked about going to the airport. Whoops. We didn't remember to prepare her for that. Much like my parents, she loooooves going to the airport.

Soon we get to go pick up Jenni, and soon after that will be our visit to Utah in December! I am dreading the flight there, as I will be traveling with E & W all by myself while Clayton studies for his finals. I figure if I start preparing now, it wont be such a big deal. Can you believe that Winston will be the same age in December that Eleanor was when we moved to Michigan? It's going so fast!

Thank You Grandma Judy!

FYI- this is just for Grandma Judy. This is Eleanor opening a little present that my mom sent her. I just wanted my folks to see her opening it so we put it on here. Fair warning- it's about three minutes long and has no screaming monkeys. So everyone else, feel free to ignore it.

The Last of Utah

Would you believe this is the last post about our Utah trip? Good mother I am awful at blogging. Well, we had a lot of snow while we were there. Little E made her first big outing into it while at my brother's house. Tom and Allie were out shoveling and Eleanor wanted to help.

Here she is all bundled up. You probably can't see in this picture, but the gloves she had on don't have thumb sections, they are basically a glorified sock and it confuses her to no end. This proves to be a problem later on.

The girls working hard. I don't know if you can see Tom on the porch, but he is wearing his usual snow gear of a t-shirt and shorts. Half the time he is in flip-flops as well, but it was pretty deep out there.

After wielding the heavy metal garden-spade, we traded E for a nice plastic broom.

Soon after this she went exploring. I could follow her by the trail of hats and gloves she left behind. She got way over on the far lawn and fell down- hands first. Being only one, she didn't quite know how to right herself so she was stuck there with her hands in the snow. I quickly went to help her out and in scooping her up I did this.

Yep. Scratched her poor, sweet little face. The band-aid stayed on for all of two minutes and she now has a little scar nearly two months later. Good job, Marianne.

One of the best things we did in Utah was go to a matinee of Tangled. I was a little unsure how she would do for two hours at a movie, but oh my gosh. She freaking loved every second of it. She didn't blink the whole time. She sat perfectly on my lap or standing, clutching the seat in front of her the entire movie. It was a hit. It made me deliriously happy to watch her watching it for some reason.

Our long visit was sadly at an end all too soon. This next picture makes me teary if I look at it too long. Little E with both sets of grandparents. She is one loved little girl!

This last picture was taken when we were back in Michigan. I had to include it to show what an amazing hair-dresser I am. I butchered sweet E's bangs on accident. To be fair, it is very hard to cut hair to start with, I have no training and she is a wiggly one year old. See the above photo for comparison. I was upset at first, but luckily she is cute enough to pull it off á la Gidget, and it has given me more time between trims- so we might be seeing this look more often. It's only a matter of time before I break out the bowl.

Howell Grandparents Visit Pt. 2

Alright! Part two. We had such a wonderful time, did I mention that? We did something just about every day of our visit and the weather was beautiful. Perfect Michigan summer days, which might be some of the best summer days ever. Seriously people, you need to come see Michigan, but only in the next two years. After that I am sure it will cease to be awesome. But back to the visit.

My dad and Eleanor outside getting ready to go to Hawk Island Park.

Eleanor thinks she is cool beans when she wears sunglasses. She will walk up to whoever is around to make sure they notice and tell her so.

"Baby Benny, I'm not sure if you noticed, but I'm kind of a big deal."

It doesn't always have to be sunglasses.

Happy campers on their way to the splash pad.

1, 2, 3... wheeeee. Guess who never wants to walk normal again? Sometimes when it's just me holding her hand she starts counting. Sorry little one, no dislocated shoulders.

The splash pad was a touch windy and cold.

So she decided to lie down and soak up some sun.

Tanning is hard.

We decided to take out a paddle boat. It was delightful. A bit of a workout, but really neat.

After a few minutes Eleanor lost interest in being stuck on a tiny boat. She then had to be passed back and forth between the three of us. After the boat ride we let her swim in the lake. She loooooved that. I had to trick her to get her out of the water.

Back to the car.

On our last day together we went to Detroit and visited the Henry Ford Museum. It was so cool. There are a ton of things to see there besides cars. My dad is a true Ford-Man and probably knows more about cars than anything else, and he knows a lot of stuff. And he probably knows more about cars than anyone else.
He is definitely the person you want to go to this museum with.

Eleanor quickly found which buttons did things. Like this one.

It makes a train whistle sound. Eleanor remembered her "choo-choo" motions from her train ride back in Utah.

Rally round the mustangs.

There is quite a large aviation section. Here is a display that tells about the first flight attendants. It's hilarious what their job entailed. I suppose it's hilarious what it still entails. Asking and thanking people for trash, cleaning up "turbulence results" and unlocking people out of the bathroom to name a few.

I had to show that I still got the skills. Look, I still know how to hand someone a drink!

We were surprisingly successful at keeping Eleanor off of the priceless exhibits.

It was funny to have my dad start talking about each car that we saw. He would tell me something and then as we reach the car you see the sign and it says exactly what he just told me. I guess he could always get a job giving tours.

Ah. Now there is a family portrait.

Hello. This is the chair that Lincoln was shot in. Yes, the chair. And yes, that is the stain. Bizarro, no? The museum also has the car that JFK was shot in, so if morbid is your thing, stop on by!

Here is something more impressive, Rosa Park's bus. The brighter light on the left side of the shot is over the seat where she sat.

In the bus they play some really cool narratives and stories about the civil rights movement. The light above her seat shines brighter when her recording plays.

I have to say, you feel a little awkward sitting there. Like a little too privileged or white or something. I can't quite express it.
I can only appreciate that we live in the day and age that we do.

After the museum we went to Pei Wei's for lunch and then dropped my parents off at the airport. It was fun to have such a great last day together.

I am almost caught up! Can you believe it? Up next? Not much. We are back to the mundane day to day of Clayton being back in school and me puttering around the house with projects. I hope to post some "after" shots of our house so you can see what I've been obsessing about. Hint: Peacock blue.