Easter

In what has, apparently, become my signature move, I am going to blog about Easter...three weeks late.  But I think it still warrants a post, mostly because I took so many good pictures!

 

 

So, I know religiously-speaking, Easter is one of the big ones.  Like, possibly the biggest.  He is Risen!, after all.  And for that reason it has always been meaningful to me.  The season of Lent, associated with deprivation and sorrow, bursting forth in a glorious celebration of triumph over death.  It's powerful stuff...but not what this post is about.

 

No, I bring it up because I never really got into the secular side of Easter.  Yeah, the egg hunts were kind of fun as a child and a Easter baskets packed with tasty treats were awesome.  My family never participated in the farce of magical creatures like the "Easter Bunny." (Side bar, regarding mythical, magical creatures:  To give you an idea, my Mom told us there was no tooth fairy, but for a while had us participate in the whole production of putting our teeth under the pillow and then she would "sneak" in and leave a couple bucks, unless it slipped her mind, at which point we would present our tooth to her in the morning and have her fork over the cash on the spot.  And don't even get me started on Santa.  We were the kids other parents feared would break the news to their gullible offspring.  Don't worry, we were instructed not to, and I never did.  We simply looked at the other kids in pity when we heard their parents say something outrageous like "Santa knows if you are misbehaving!")  Anyway, the point is that Easter was never that cool or fun to me outside of church.  And I could never put together how one fit in with the other.

 

Until now.

 

I am convinced that secular Easter was created so that parents can watch their toddlers have the time of their lives.  Last Easter Elliot was 10 months old and barely walking.  We kind of forced the egg hunt on her, and she definitely did not get it, preferring to play with the grass around the eggs, rather than the eggs themselves.  This year was another story entirely.  It was like egg hunt Olympics and Elliot was going for the gold.

 

We started Easter weekend off with an egg hunt at our church on Saturday.  This was where she got her feet wet on the whole concept of egg hunting, which was good preparation for the rest of the weekend.  There was a special section roped off for babies and toddlers, and she owned it.  (Not in a bully kind of way.  After it was all said and done, meaning all the toddlers had lost interest, there were still probably 20 or so eggs left hidden spread out in plain sight in the grass.)  Once she realized they had candy inside she started getting selective.  She would only accept the ones with chocolate, so immediately after finding the egg she would open it up and say "no chocolate" and throw it back on the ground.

 

After the egg hunt at church was over she sat down with the other kids and colored a picture, like a big girl.

 

 

Later that day, we colored eggs at home.  Instead of the traditional egg dye we used Kool-Aid.  I highly recommend this.  You just take a packet of Kool-Aid and add 2/3 cup water, and voila!  Bright eggs that smell fruity rather than like vinegar.  I thought Elliot would not really get into it, doing one or two before she got bored.  Nope!  She did every single egg and was disappointed there were not more.  She was very gentle and was so proud of her.

Blowing them dry.

Proud of a job well done.

 

 

Easter morning, after a breakfast of hot cross buns, we went merrily off to church to celebrate.  Then the partying continued!  The first stop was my aunt's house with my Dad's side of the family.  There was another egg hunt, and this time Elliot knew exactly what to do. 

Showing Poppy how to hunt eggs.

Taking inventory.

Comparing notes with cousin Lorelai.

 

 

Finally, we ended the day with Easter dinner at Mom's.  And, yes, this meant yet another egg hunt.  But girlfriend was more than up for the task.

Elliot and her pretty Grandma Gail.

This face pretty much sums up her feelings on the whole event.

 



 Now every time she goes to Grandma's house she thinks there should be an egg hunt.  And I finally understand what makes it special: that it doesn't happen every day and it is something to which we look forward.  That's the common thread between the religious side and the secular side.  The Easter season is all about anticipating joy.

All in a Day's Work

 

Hooray for weekend projects!  For a while now I have been thinking of making Elliot a sandbox.  We had the perfect spot for one in an area right under her swing set that was really doing nothing except serving as a gathering spot for fallen leaves and stray grass.  Well, yesterday I decided to make this thing a reality.  So before church Elliot and I ventured to Home Depot in search of landscaping fabric, play sand, and some plywood.  To give you a visual, picture me pushing a regular sized shopping cart with Elliot in the child seat in the front, both of us in our Sunday church dresses, trying to lift and load six bags of sand into a cart that was clearly too small for the job.  Yeah.  I had no idea how big and heavy bags of sand are and I certainly didn't know how many bags I would need.  To my credit, the guy there tried to convince me I needed ten bags, and I knew that was too many, so I got six...turns out I only needed five.  Meanwhile, when I told Elliot that morning I was going to make her a sandbox, I think she was confused and thought I was taking her somewhere to play in a sandbox.  So when we arrived at Home Depot she was pretty sure there was a giant sandbox in there just waiting for her.  She kept looking around saying, "Mommy, sandbox?"  Eventually, we got it sorted out, and thanks to the good people at Home Depot, who brought me a cart appropriate for the job, loaded it up for me, and then loaded it into my car, we were on our way!

 

During girlfriend's afternoon nap I got to work on my project.  

 

 

Step 1: Clean out the area of all debris, including random grass clumps, leaves, roots, and, as the case was, wayward golf balls.

 

 Step 2: Cut the appropriate length of landscaping fabric and pin it down with some fabric staples.  Your dog can help.

 

 Step 3: Fill the sucker with sand.  (Actually, Step 3 should be carrying the bags of sand from your car to the sandbox, which was, by far, the hardest part of the whole project.  But as it was just me and those bags of sand were 50 lbs. each, there was no way a selfie was happening.)  Once all the sand is dumped in, rake it out so it can remain pristine for 30 seconds before the dog runs through it.

 

 Step 4: Insert ecstatic, post-nap toddler.  (Me: Do you love it? Elliot: I LOVE it!)

 

I am proud to report that this is a success story!  It turned out well, didn't it?  And I earned some pretty big Mom Points.  She has played in it pretty much non-stop, insisting she go out first thing this morning in her jammies.

 

Oh, and did I mention that in addition to making a sandbox yesterday I also made a pie, entertained my in-laws, cared for my toddler, and took care of my sick hubby?

 

Supermom out.



Adventures in Potty Training

Warning - Despite the beautiful pink potty chair with a dancing Disney character depicted on it, shown above, there is nothing pretty about potty training.  If you find any of the following words/phrases offensive, I recommend you read no further: potty, pee, poo, poopy, giant log, deuce, farted, explosion, yuck, yuck is right, turd ferguson, naked, butt cheeks...ok, ok I am not actually going to use all of these, ahem, expressions, in this blog post, but if you were to come around to our house these days I can't make the same promise.

Ok, so a couple months ago we embarked on what I now refer to as "it was the worst of times and it was the worst of times": potty training.  Elliot was starting to show signs she was ready to use the big girl potty, and let's be honest, diapers are freaking expensive, and it seemed like a win/win.  I decided it was time.  And it was exciting!  We made a big show of going out to pick out her potty.  We went to the potty aisle, laid out her options at one end and then set her at the other end and let her walk up to the one she wanted.  She picked Minnie, unequivocally.  Then we got to move on to the big girl underwear section!  Dora, Princess, Elmo, flowers...too cute and fun.  We paid for our items and headed home, excited for what was to come.

When we got home, we unloaded our purchases, set up the Minnie pot, and then I did what any well-researched, highly competent, potty-training mama would do; I called my Mom.  I believe my exact words were "Ok, we got a potty.  Now what is step 1?"  To my relief, step 1 was getting the potty, so we were already headed in the right direction.  (Side bar: For some reason, early on before we had even decided to start potty training, I decided I was going to do one of these "potty training boot camps" that guarantee your child is potty trained in one weekend.  Great idea, in theory.  However, when I actually looked into it, it sounded like a lot of nonsense.  First of all, one of the instructions was to get a potty chair for every room in the house.  What?  Those things are like $20 each.  If I was made of money I would have paid someone to potty train her for me!  Then, it said to go to a furniture store and buy some kind of special fur covering to put in the car seat.  No thank you.)

Big girl underwear!

 

So we started employing what I call the "Gail Method" (my Mom's name is Gail) to potty training.  And it was going well!  There were obviously many accidents, lots of loads of laundry, and plenty of frustrating moments, but for the most part she was getting it.  And let me tell you, even though it is the absolute worst thing about parenting I have experienced so far, potty training has lead to so much laughter in our house, albeit sometimes through fat, frustrated, tears.  (Mine, not Elliot's.)  There is the unavoidable increase of poo and pee related words to the toddler's vocabulary, so we heard a lot of "No poo poo!  No potty!"  My favorite though, is the phrase she really held on to: "Yuck is right!"  The background is, she had a number 2 accident and Erik (or was it my Dad?) was changing her and she said "Yuck!" and he answered "Yuck is right!" and from then on she has thought the name for the actual poo log is "yuck is right."  So whenever she would drop a deuce she would shout out "Mommy! Daddy! Yuck is right!"  In fact, recently we were walking up my Mom's walkway and there was an unfortunately shaped pinecone Elliot spotted.  She stopped in her tracks, shocked, and pointed at it saying "Yuck is right! Yuck is right!"  But I digress...

Anyway, I say it was going well because a few weeks ago she decided she was done.  D.O.N.E.  She had been having a few days in a row where she didn't make it to the potty at all.  Not only that, she made no effort to get to the potty at all, preferring instead to go in her pants and then tell us to change her afterward.  She was with my Dad when it happened.  I guess she was sitting there for a while and then suddenly stood up, slammed the potty shut, and promptly pooed on the floor in protest!  After that, she showed so little interest in the whole process we decided to put the potty away for a while and try again in a couple months.  Was this the right thing to do?  I don't know.  Was it was the easier option for these first-time parents?  Absolutely.  We figured, she's not even two yet, it's still acceptable for her to be in diapers.  Now, if she's heading off to kindergarten and we haven't resolved this yet...different story.  But for now, cost of diapers be damned!

2014 Countdown (It's not too late, right?)

Ok, so over the past two plus years that I have done this blog, I have come to realize you really need a theme to focus your writing.  And I had this one planned out since, well, the beginning of the new year but never got around to writing it.  Today I was signing some documents at work and realized "holy cow, it's the 29th already!"  So, even though it is the end of the month, it is still January, at least for a couple more days, and I am sticking with the plan.

I have never really been a resolution kind of gal.  As a kid the main excitement of New Year's Eve was always watching the ball drop and doing the countdown.  So in the spirit of the New Year's Eve countdown, here are my top ten favorite things about my number one girlfriend this year.

TEN!

 

It's all books, all the time.  For this girl there ain't no party like a book party.  Unless it's a...

 

 

NINE!

 

...hanging out in our big girl underwear party!

 

 

EIGHT!

 

Whenever I dreamed of having a little girl, this is what I pictured.  The bonus I did not even think to dream of: she thinks all my shoes are awesome and tells me how pretty they are when I wear them.

 

SEVEN!

 

Dancing and singing are a very big deal right now.  Whether or not they are a bigger deal than eating chips?  Jury's still out.

 

SIX!

 

 

The promise of "pitty nails" can stop a tantrum in its tracks.  She goes from a screaming nightmare to this adorable cherub blowing her nails dry and then admiring them in a matter of seconds.

 

 

FIVE!

 

She now kisses on demand and even of her own volition.  Sometimes she even demands a pretend moustache kiss.  She has a book about moustaches.  She's pretty into it.

FOUR!

She always makes sure everyone has enough to eat.

THREE!

She exhibits such wonder at new experiences.  Here is her first glimpse of herself after her first face painting ever.

TWO!

 

These two.  They make my year.

 

 

ONE!

 

 

She is the silliest, most fun, and lovable girl of the world and every day I thank God for sending her to us.  (Please don't tell her I put a picture of her on the potty on the internet when she is older.)

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



 









Merry Christmas from the Rammelsbergs!

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This blog post is a little different from the others because this year, instead of printing out a Christmas letter and including it all our Christmas cards, we decided to put it up on the blog.  So if you are a regular follower, Merry Christmas to you too, and there is going to be some overlap from previous blog posts.  If you are a first-timer and are here because you received a Christmas card, welcome!  We hope you come back for more all year :).

 

Well, let's start with the star of the show!  Ms. Elliot celebrated her first birthday in June.  It was a beautiful day and we held her birthday party at one of her favorite places: the park at the library, complete with gazebo, cake, and a splash park.

She is now 18 months old and so much fun!  This is my favorite age so far.  She is talking fairly well now and love, love, loves books!  Her favorite activities include being outside (sometimes difficult this time of year because it is soooo cold), playing on Mommy & Daddy's bed, and playing guitar with Daddy.

She recently had her 18 month well-child doctor's appointment and we learned that she is 35.5 inches tall (nearly 3 feet!) and around 25 pounds, which places her in the 99th percentile for height and around the 54th percentile for weight.  In other words, she is built exactly like Erik.

 

Erik is now working as a nurse in the Emergency Department at Trios Health (formerly known as Kennewick General Hospital).  He took that position in October and so far seems to really like it.  Unfortunately, he is on the night shift, so for about 2 weeks per month we don't see him as much as we would like, since he has to sleep most of those days.  The up side is that after he completes his 6 day shift he then gets 8 days off.  As I write this, in the middle of the afternoon, he is snoozing away :).  The other up side, this year anyway, is that since he is still training he gets to have Christmas off.  I guess they don't want to pay someone at the holiday rate that doesn't really need to be there!

 

In January of this year I changed jobs.  I still work for the Yakama Nation, but now I am prosecuting rather than defending.  A job in the Office of the Prosecutor opened up, I applied, they offered it to me, and I was able to negotiate working part time.  It has been wonderful!  I work 30 hours per week, so I still get to spend a lot of time with Elliot.  It's the best of both worlds.

 

This summer we took a family "vacation" to Lutherhaven in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the summer camp where Erik and I met when we worked there in college.  I say "vacation" because it wasn't one in the traditional sense.  Erik actually volunteered to be the medic for a week of camp and Elliot and I got to come along.  It was so much fun!  Elliot lives to be outside, so a full week of being almost exclusively outside was heaven to her.  She got to go swimming and hiking, she got to sit around a camp fire and sing, and she even got to try her first s'more.  She was also quite popular with the campers, especially the little girls.  It will always be a special place to our family, given our history.  And what a beautiful, Christ-filled, alive environment!  We hope to go back next summer.

 

Toast Rammelsberg (the family pup) has had a rough year.  In March, he had a huge seizure that lasted upwards of 45 minutes.  We took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with epilepsy.  He now has to take medicine twice daily and it makes him feel hungry all the time so...let's just say he's a little bigger now than he was at this time last year...haha.  It doesn't help that Elliot is always throwing her food to him.  The two of them are the best of friends, although Toast still gets jealous of her.  Sometimes she gets in his bed and that really riles him up! 

 

Well that's about all the news we have for you this year.  Please check back occasionally to see what we are up to as it is happening!  I will send you off with some pics of our Christmas preparations.  We hope you are all enjoying this time with family and friends and wish you all the best for 2014!  Merry Christmas!

 

Love,

Erik, Jessica, Elliot, and Toast



Checking out the "pitty lights" (pretty lights, in Elliot).

Hanging out around the tree.

Helping Daddy put up the lights and then being silly.

Engaging in Elliot's favorite tradition: 12 Days of Christmas Books!