the mr. coffee is a wonder. not only does it work, it makes the coffee good and hot, and the simple design makes it easier for stig to not spill coffeegrounds all over the counter every day. a plus for me, since i am the one who ends up cleaning it up. the only njegative thing about the whole coffeemaker-buying experience? i bought mr. coffee at bed, bath, and beyond and wouldn't you know it... the 20% off coupon came in the mail TODAY! ah well. actually i found out that if you buy something without the coupon, you can later take the coupon in with your receipt and they will refund you the 20%. pretty nice, huh? but is it actually worth it just to get $6 back? let's see... this morning was co-op, and i had three hours all to myself! what did i do? ran errands, of course. i basically tortured myself by going to the yarn/craft store, the bookstore, and home depot without spending any money! browsing is fun, but not as satisfying as actually buying the wonderful things i find. adella had a great time at co-op. the weather is so beautiful today, the kids played outside almost the whole time. kim lives right across the street from a little playground, so it was perfect for keeping 6 kids busy and entertained for three hours. once she gets up from her nap, we're going out to play in our yard and i'm going to try to get some work done. some serious raking needs to happen before the leaves kill everything underneath them.

we bought a new coffeemaker today. this makes #4 in the past 12 months. let's recap: #1 we got a free gevalia with a trial membership and quickly decided we the coffee was overpriced and didn't taste good anyway. meanwhile the coffeemaker broke, so we had the company replace it free of charge. #2 while waiting for the replacement to arrive (10 days!? a true coffeelover could never wait so long...) stig went out and bought a black and decker model. B&D? what was he thinking? #3 when the replacement finally arrived we put it on standby in the basement. the B&D had recurring episodes of malfunction, during which gevalia #2 would act as stand-in until B&D decided to start working again. which brings us to coffeemaker #4... stig spent his first waking hour this morning wrestling with both coffeemakers, neither of which would produce any coffee. not good at 5:30 a.m. finally, out of desperation, he sorted through the small appliance cabinet and dusted off the little cappucino machine. it would have to do, for now. so adella and i went shopping for a new coffeemaker tonight while stig was at his class. our final decision was a cute black Mr. Coffee. i was very tempted to buy the fancy Cuisinart $80 model, which would have gone along perfectly with my new plan for buying new things: only buy nice good quality things; stop buying crap. unfortunately the $80 didn't go along with my plan for buying groceries and other important things. so we went with the trusty Mr. Coffee. it seemes like if anyone should make a coffeemaker that works, it would be the one with the word "coffee" in the name. we shall see.... i rewarded adella for her patience during the shopping trip with a visit to the thomas train table at the bookstore. she played a cute little game of peek-a-boo with the train engines as they went through the covered bridge. each engine and car has it's own name, but she calls all of them 'thomas'. there is blue thomas, orange thomas, green thomas, black thomas, and so on... right now the favorite is 'green thomas'. it had been a long and caffeine-free day. almost time to go to bed so i can wake up to test the new coffeemaker...

the queen of cuteness

here are a few pictures from the past couple days... so cute you might think that we set her up to pose like this. trust me, it's all her. the little diva. she's quite a stylin' little girl. i'd better start working on my "you're not leaving the house dressed like that!" speech now...

so stig took adella back to the super-fun gym this morning, where they both jumped in the foam pit and crawled around on squishy foamy blocks. i instructed him to take the camera if they went, but he forgot... so, no pictures today, folks. sorry. i was working all day, and it's really stig's responsibility to capture adella's cuteness on the weekends anyway. as many of you know, i have to literally place the camera in stig's hand and say, "take some pictures!" for him to snap off a few (if you notice, there are hardly any pictures of me - i'm usually behind the camera). he is also not onboard the blogger train yet, so he and adella's weekend adventures will not be told. sorry folks. you know his email address... maybe a few threatening - oops, i mean - encouraging messages will motivate him to start posting.

random acts of cuteness:

*adella went to the fridge last night and started asking for "horsie milk, horsie milk". i finally figured out she meant cow milk. still, even that is a first - she never really drinks cow (or horsie) milk... *adella standing in the front yard saying, "buddy sha-wish,"(peanut butter sandwich), buddy sha-wish, buddy sha-wish, buddy sha-wish, buddy sha-wish," and then, putting her hands up to her mouth, megaphone-style, "buddy sha-wish! buddy sha-wish!" ?? *adella's old favorite game of 'sleep' has a new twist: fake snoring! sometimes she'll do a few snores and then say, "daddy sleep."

i'll have to post early today, since i will be gone all evening. tonight is the pre-sale of the consignment sale i've been going on and on about. i'm leacing as soon as stig gets in from work so i can be there when the doors open at 6:00 sharp. when i dropped my stuff of yesterday i scoped out the loot they had already put out. the sale is at the ag center, which is huge. i think they use it for monster truck shows or something huge like that. anyway, the whole place was filled with baby and kid stuff - clothes, toys, gear, you name it. and the prices are great, so you can't miss. i'm really going to try not to go overboard and bring home a bunch of things that we don't really need. but i am getting excited! last time, i drank a big cup of coffee to give me the energy i needed to maybe fight off some of the crazed mama shoppers... luckily it didn't come to that. but it can get rough i think. by 5:00, mamas are lined up out the door, armed with giant laundry baskets to use as shopping carts (or weapons, if need be). everyone is after the same thing: cute stuff at good prices. speaking of shopping, adella decided again today that she wanted to go shopping. this could become a very dangerous habit... but she didn't have to twist my arm today. we headed to target to get her some purple sunglasses that she has been asking for for the past couple weeks. i figured if she could remember that she wanted them that long, she must really want them. plus i was going to get her some new sunglasses anyway. on the way out the door she grabbed a little purse and said, "ready! go!" here she is, headed towards the car... doesn't she look like a born shopper? we also picked up a few new sand toys while we were there. once we got home, she was ready to play. after her nap, she rounded up some of her animal friends for an impromptu tea party: i think she is serving ketchup in this picture. wish me luck and good bargains tonight! i'm sure i'll bore everyone with details of what i bought later. ...

adella's latest impossibly cute activity: the 'ready, set, hug game' the game consists of adella backing herself into a far corner of the room, then saying, "ready...set...hug!" and running at top speed with arms stretched out, into my arms for a giant hug. the latest version involves her jumping and digging her knees into my chest, which sort-of hurts after 5 or 10 times in a row.

making progress...

after adella's nap, we were playing happily in the livingroom when she came to me and said, "mommy! shopping!" what could i do? the girl wanted to shop. we ended up going to Lowe's and buying more mulch and some sand to fill the purple turtle sandbox. then we dragged it all home and go to work: we still need more mulch, but for the most part, it's done for now. if you were a two-year-old, wouldn't you love to have this in your yard? me too.

since the community center was closed today, we decided to take the kids to the WEGA Gymnastics place. i wish the pictures showed how cool it was. adella absolutely loved it! the kids basically had free run of the gym, which was filled with giant foamy blocks to climb on, mini springboards, trampolines, a pit of foam cubes to jump in, and the entire floor was bouncy and soft. it was a blast. adella ran around like a madwoman the entire time. i think we will have to go back very soon. once she turns 3, we can sign her up for real gymnastics classes. but that's down the line a ways... climbing out of the foamy cube pit playing 'sleep' obstacle course 'sleeping' again and later, at the playground... i'm afraid my cold/congestion is turning into another sinus/ear infection. please no - not again. and adella too... now that we've been denied for her medicaid health insurance, i'm praying she doesn't get sick. oh, and as we were leaving the gym, someone mentioned that her daughter had had pinkeye. great. guess i'll be brewing up more garlic juice for adella...

the bucket hat finished blocking this morning, and came out very nicely... here is adella modeling it for us:

a few more from this evening... aww.. the genius artist hard at work proudly displaying her picture. it's the letter C! she covered several pages with C's. later i think she drew an N.

today i have finally gotten around to taking pictures of the finished knitted things of late. some of you may find this boring, and if so, scroll down. don't worry - i won't be offended. spiral rib armwarmers - they do look a little like wrist braces. i like the rib pattern, though, and next time i'm planning to make them longer and use a more luxurious yarn from the fancy yarn store. bucket sun hat for adella - here it is blocking/shaping... for a co-worker who is expecting soon - a little hat and matching booties! mistake rib scarf for me! also, guess what - stig started the mulch bed for adella's playground! here it is so far: we still need to secure the frame a little more, and add the rest of the mulch. i'm putting adella's sandbox in the corner (upper right) and i can't wait! i was hoping to do it today, but it is rainy. plus i don't feel like lugging 50lb. bags of sand around. adella loves her little turtle sandbox! i am going to get it out ASAP and buy a few new sand toys too! oh - and maybe a nice big beach umbrella. our purple one bit the dust last fall. i can't wait for spring! yesterday i notices one of the little trees in our yard is starting to get little green buds on it.

guess what!!?? the pictures are back! i won't go into the frustrating and ridiculous specifics, but the bottom line is, we can now access the pictures on the camera and transfer them to the computer. thus, they will be broadcast once again on the blog. so here's a few from co-op today: this is the tambourine that adella made today. do you see the circles that she drew? isn't that great? she did it all by herself. and here are a few from the past few days that have been locked away on the camera until now... (freedom!) this is one af adella's favorite new games to play. pretending to sleep. i will look all over for her and finally find her, playing 'sleep' on her bed. when i go in and talk to her, she just lays there and smiles... that's all for now. time to watch a movie and NOT worry about computer updates, drivers, and other computery things that i don't understand. so happy to be able to send everyone pictures again....

USB cord update: all did not go well. apparently i have to buy the cord directly from Nikon ($$$) and the card reader we have is not reading. why? not sure yet. stig is home early so he can fiddle and MAYBE figure something out. any computer-savy people out there who can help? we're ready for suggestions...

good news/bad news... good news: there is nothing wrong with the computer. bad news: the cord that connects the camera to the USB port is not working (i think that is the probem). so it's not really bad news - i just have to go buy a new one. hopefully it will be easy to find and inexpensive to buy. i have lots of cute pictures from co-op today, which went great. we had it at our house and sean's mama, michele, was on duty with me. we had six kids today, and they were wonderful! the three hours flew by...we played, cleaned up, ate a nice snack, did crafts, and then played outside in the yard. for crafts we made tambourines out of paper plates and dried beans. they turned out so cute! and the kids loved shaking them around. adella did a great job sharing her toys and playing with her friends. by the time everyone left, she was ready for a nap. she went right in to her bed and tucked herself in with t-bear. she's still snoozing away in there... i finally finished getting all of my consignment things together for the big kids consignment sale this weekend! i can't wait! last time i got almost all of adella's winter wardrobe there for 80 bucks. and i even made some of the money back by selling some of her old clothes and toys. once adella wakes up, we're going to head out to run some errands. she has been so good about going with me to do errands. sunday we went to 5 stores, all in a row, and she stayed right with me and listened and behaved beautifully! there was no grabbing of breakable items, no temper tantrums over not getting the two stuffed unicorns she wanted, no darting into traffic. it was pure bliss, indeed. now i tell her we are going shopping and she says, "yay! shop-ping!" she likes to help me pick things out, too. anytime i give her a choice to make, she looks very thoughtful and says, "uummm... this one!" very cute. she does it all the time at home too. she really knows what she wants, and is finally able to tell us about it. "eggs or oatmeal?" "umm.... eggs!" "pink shoes or blue?" "ummm... blue!" so wish me luck with finding the power cord. if all goes well, there will be pictures galore.

some of you may have noticed my lack of posting the last few days... have i been too busy? sort-of. i have been working, but that's no excuse. have i been too lazy? maybe. also, there seems to be something wierd going on with the computer. for some reason it is not recognizing the F drive at all. anyone know how to fix this? unfortunately, the F drive is the one that the camera hooks into to transfer pictures onto the computer and onto the blog... stig is at his class tonight, so maybe he can fiddle with it later. for now, there will be no pictures. sorry folks. we had a small and cranky group of kids at knitting this morning. i am happy to say that adella was not one of the cranks today. i hate to admit it, but it always makes me feel better to see other kids going through the same difficult phases as adella. as hard as i know it can be for the parents, it is reassuring in a way to see others sharing my frustration. and a good reminder that these phases are normal and temporary. i was hoping to finish the neverending sweater, but i ran out of yarn! darnit. so i started a sun hat for adella, with hopes that the weather will permit her to wear it soon. *in knitting news, i have quite a few finished projects that i am going to post pictures of, if anyone cares to see them. if not, scroll away.* after naptime we headed downtown for a walk and a bit of shopping. wouldn't you know that the yarn stores had not one skein of the yarn i need to finish my sweater! agk. so i will have to do a little searching around for it before i can finally finish it. maybe by next winter i can actually wear it. we bought a replacement piggy bank for adella - stig accidentally broke her last kitty bank. this time she picked out a green and yellow cow bank, and seems very happy with it. stig gave her two shiny quarters to put in it. then we headed to the library where adella picked out not one, but five thomas the train videos (we only got one). her latest love is thomas. the videos are a little creepy i think, but adella loves them. she also found a thomas book, and i picked out a curious george book and an eric carle book about rubber duckies. oh, and a sesame street video with the cast of S.T.O.M.P. should be good. if you don't know about S.T.O.M.P., google them and take a look - they are amazing and lots of fun to watch and listen to. mix a few muppets in and you have fun fun fun. the thomas theme song is on, signalling the end of the video. gotta run. hopefully there will be pictures soon!! seriously, if any of you know how to fix the F drive problem, help me!

in typical thursday fashion, adella and i went to the community center this morning and played with our friends. i was prepared to leave early if she got cranky due to getting up before 6 a.m. today, but she did great! there were lots of new toys in the gym today. adella's favorites? the pop-up fire engine and the radio flyer trike. she had quite a time on that little tricycle, riding it all around the gym - pedaling, steering, and everything! she did much better on that one than the one we have at home. might be time to upgrade... (she was saying, "see you, mommy!") playtime over, adella drifted off to sleep on the way home... today was another beautiful spring-like day! we are trying to get out as much as we can now - mr. weatherman predicts more snowfall this weekend! boo. we went to the playground this afternoon, right after our super wal-mart adventure. we just went in for cough drops (stig and i are both funky - and not in a good way) and socks, but of course it turned into a super-size game of chase and trying on every hat she could find. maddening, but cute. adella's latet impossibly cute activity: raising her fist in the air and yelling, "yeah!" stig is trying to teach her to say, "power to the people!"

just a few days after our cold snowy weekend, today was 60 degrees and beautiful! adella and i were ready to get out and enjoy the wonderful weather. we spent the morning walking/riding in the stroller downtown and browsing at the children's library, and then back home for a nice long nap. after lunch, we had a pleasant surprise when stig got home from work early! it's not often enough that we have afternoons together as a family, so we decided to go to the playground and hang out there for a while... it's been quite a day. adella just went to bed, and i am not too far from sleep myself. i'm ready to curl up on the couch with stig and get our LOST fix for the week... adella's latest impossibly cute activity: giving stig and i gentle and frequent reminders to be, "careful now, mommy...," or "careful now, daddy..."

happy valentine's day!

adella went to co-op today, and i spent the 3 hours running errands, drinking coffee, and resisting the urge to go to the new old navy that opened last week. amy and fyffe, the 'on-duty' mamas, said she did great playing and sharing with her friends, which is wonderful because she has been a bit....how do i put it... sensitive... lately. she's been learning that it is not always easy to stay calm when she doesn't get her way. it's a hard lesson for sure, and one that some of us never really master. she's doing great though, and i'm sure in a week or so i will look back and laugh about it. when i got there to pick her up, she had a glittery valentine just for me!

michele just emailed me this picture of adella and elijah - from the night of the cookie exchange before xmas. what a couple of cuties!