Justified

Zoie's nickname is "The Beast". People tell me that I should stop calling her that soon as it will give her a "complex". However, after this next incident, I believe it still fits her quite well....

Berns and I decided it was time for Zo to get a "big girl bed". Transferring her from a crib to a toddler bed had me worried. Keeping her in the crib had her contained. I was afraid she would wander in the middle of the night, not go down for her naps, fall out of bed, etc etc etc. Not to mention I'm soooo not ready for my baby to be big enough to sleep in a real bed.

Regardless, I gave in and bought a cute little bed for the little one. Zoie's excitement and pure enjoyment for her new bed was just priceless. She runs around the house telling all that will listen about "Zozo's big girl bed".



And to my amazement the first night and the first couple days she went right to bed. Never got out except when she was done sleeping. She came and joined Berns and I in bed the first 2 nights, but no roaming the house, no getting out and refusing to go to sleep...nuttin like that.

UNTIL.....

we had had the bed a few days. It was nap time. I put Zo to bed and went about my business. She stayed uber quite, and she had proven to us that she would go to bed nicely when we put her down. A few hours later (after Riley came home from school), we heard the Beast stirring. I thought to myself what a fantastic nap she received! Riley went in there and came back saying, "MOM, Zoie drew ALLLL over herself. I can't find the pen that she used....go get her".

So I meandered into her room not only to find some colored legs, but this as well:






Yes, she did that beautiful mess all by herself. Don't get me wrong...it's nice that she still got a good nap--she just had to make things a "little" less organized before she did so. I'm pretty convinced she had emptied every drawer in her room...and then more.
But then the little peanut looks up and gives me her sweet little look so disciplining her and telling her no is so much more difficult.
Instead she got a laugh and a snuggle. I made her help pick it up. She hasn't done it since....but we will still call her The Beast...justifiably so.

Bad Timing

What's worse than having to bear the heat of a Vegas summer?

Having to bear it without the use of a swimming pool....

Poor Miss Rooster will be spending the next month swimming in her own sweat. The poor girl broke her elbow at school on the playground. She did it on a Friday late afternoon. Just as luck would have it she wasn't able to see an Orthopedic until the following Tuesday to get it casted. The entire weekend the rascally little 7 year old had to be tamed by lying on the couch in excruciating pain.


Berns and I spent those 4 days explaining to her that casts are not waterproof and the poor girl would not be able to partake in diving and cannonballing at our pool until the cast was gone. Being that Ri just finished her swimming lessons and has become quite the fish, this ruined her.


When we got to the doctor on Tuesday he delivered many splendid bits of news.
1. The break in her elbow missed her growth plate (huge sigh of relief--no surgery!)

2. She would only have to keep her cast on for a month, meaning it would come off right before we had to travel to Durango for auntie Damon's wedding.

3. THEY NOW OFFER WATERPROOF CASTS!!! WOOT WOOT WOOT!! and I'm not talking about a little water resistance--she could full blown submerge the thing in the water. This stuck a huge permanent grin on Roo's face. (not to mention swimming with a bright pink cast is super stylish)


Well...some things are just too good to be true. Wed night Riley joined me to watch the show Cinderella that I had been directing. She had been complaining that her hand was hurting. It had been swollen since she broke it, but the doctor didnt seem too concerned. After the show that night she just moaned and moaned about her hand. I decided to call the doctor the following morning because it was MASSIVELY swollen, and she screamed bloody murder if you just brushed by it.
After convincing the doctor and nurse that I was pretty sure it was more than just a little swollen they told us to come in.
They ran some xrays and couldnt find any more broken bones. Doc said that her nerves had been bruised--but was stumped as to why it was hurting so much.

Regardless, he decided that she needed a full length cast to include her hand to protect it a little better. Sad thing was...he couldn't make that one waterproof.
Riley was relieved to have her hand feeling a little better, but super disappointed it meant she was no longer allowed in the pool. Doc told her to come back in a week to reevaluate her hand to try to figure out what is wrong with it.

I've tried to make light of the situation with ice cream, telling her how cool it is that she gets 2 colors of casts, drive in movies, and theater performances--but the poor girl wants to swim.


On the bright side...we've only got 3 more weeks. Grandma Nisey--you better have a blow up pool for the girl to jump in when we get there.

I'm pretty sure I bought it for the kids.

I found a superb little train table for the kiddos for $20. Being that my house is anything but extravagant and elegant, I decided it would fit nicely in place of our living room coffee table. (That's right kiddos...party at Shea's house...I have otter pops too).

Zoie jumped right on board with the idea and played and played. Riley played "cool" for the first little bit (you know....7 year olds are much to old and cool for this)--but then she too was engulfed in building new train tracks.

And then there was the third child in the house...no not the one in my stomach....I'm talking about Mr. Bernardo. I would find him at the train table playing and making sound effects long after the kiddos had moved on to a different project.

Well, at least I got my money's worth!

I take full responsibility

for these amazing little people.

I like her....

.....lots.

Her father's child

Well friends. I've said it time and time again. But here is even further proof that Zoie is practically ALL Berns:




yes, the child did this by herself. I was folding laundry on my bed and she was helping. I left the room for a wee minute and came back to find her looking like this. She had put socks on and then put her flip flops on top---something you will find Berns doing on a regular basis...
She was quite proud of herself--so was her daddy....

Camping?

Memorial Day weekend we had grand plans to go on a lil family camping trip. We packed up all the shenanigans--tent, sleeping bags, camping food, portable stove with itty bitty propane tank, fire wood to build a fire, bug spray...the whole shebang.
Well, as luck would have it, when we arrived at the camp grounds they were completly full. Berns immediately felt defeated and got sad. I tried to pep things up a bit by saying we could still grill by a fire, roam around, and then we could go home when it got dark. After a few minutes of pursuading Berns that this would still be fun, we parked the car and started unloading the goodies.

Well, we soon found out that the only place we could build our fire was in the little grills that were by some picnic tables. Berns found that pretty pathetic--but that didnt stop us! We built our ghetto fire and grilled our brats and hot dogs and roasted our marshmellows.
Dinner was delicious--the girls loved digging and playing in the dirt (that was as soft as beach sand mind you) and climbing around on the rocks.
We even got to see some wild life roaming around.

We will attempt our camping adventure yet again in the near future--but until then, it's fun little mishaps like this that make memories so much more enjoyable.

My Green Thumb

I received plenty of laughs when I told people that I was going to plant a garden. Not only were the laughs about me planting a garden--but more so me attempting to grow anything in Las Vegas. I'll give it to you nonbelievers---for being a first time gardener with intense heat, it has proven quite difficult.

However...I planted the first part of April...now it's June....take a look. Those of you unbelievers and mockers--you owe me apologies as well as a smoothie (I'm hot.)

This is right after we planted in April...not much too see

The girls helping me spread the seeds. Let's be honest--it's probably because they planted them that anything is growing.



Miss. Roo has to look stylish at anything she does....garden gloves never looked so good.



The garden currently...uh, wait, what's that? OOOOH...stuff grew!? Booya.




Scrumptious tomatoes



Juicy ripe strawberries



The girls displaying some of the "fruits of their labor"--they tasted delicious in a salad later that night.

Everything has sprouted except the cilantro...but I can live without that. We've got lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, jalapenos, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, watermelon, onion, and snap peas....Uncle Brent would be so proud :)