How Young is too Young to Wear Makeup?

If you ask Alena, she'd say that she's ready. In fact, her mother has given her a "tickle tickle" of blush or eyeshadow from time to time. Not that her mom wears makeup much at all these days.

With the heat and, moreso, the humidity lately, we've been firing up the window air conditioner in our bedroom (the only window we could fit it in) and using a fan to drive the cool air down the hallway toward Alena's room at the other end of the hallway. Last night was the first night that we left the fan running and AC on a less intermittent setting. So, we opened her door so that she could partake in the luxurious goodness of sleeping in a cooler room. Eric said he'd close the door when he got up at 5:30am, so it should be no trouble, and she'd probably sleep better. She never really gets out of bed before I get her up, anyway. At least that I am aware.

I woke up around 7, thinking I was mildly surprised that Levi wasn't up yet. I listened carefully and heard a muffled cry over the noise of the fan! It seemingly drown out any noise that the kids made during the night. When I left my room, I noticed that Alena's door was still open. Without my glasses on, I peeked in, but didn't see her in bed. I thought she might have been in the pile of covers toward then end of her bed. I glanced into the kitchen, living room, and down the stairs just in case. Nothing. I responded to Levi's call, and brought him to bed with me to feed him. While lying there, I thought it was odd that Alena wasn't in her normal spot in bed. After Levi was done, I got up and checked the one room that I hadn't earlier. We usually leave the door closed in the bathroom so that the cool air will pass right on by and on to the other bedrooms. It was still closed.

I opened the door, and there stands my little mischief-maker, a tube of Daddy's toothpaste in one hand, his head for the electric toothbrush in the other, and mascara and lip gloss smeared on her face! Busted! Alena must have thought that this was her chance to sneak out of her room and into the bathroom where all kinds of forbidden toddler treasures lie! She even ensured that she closed the door behind herself (luckily didn't lock it)!

After the inital shock of being caught red handed, and frantically replacing the toothbrush and toothpaste to its rightful spot in a drawer, she knew she was done for! Being the mean mom that I am, I took photos and messaged her daddy. After an obligatory spanking and time out, I washed the adult makeup off with a baby wipe. Ironic, I know. She really did do a pretty good job considering she couldn't see herself in a mirror at all. She managed to coat her lashes and get black in generally all the right areas. It's hard to miss your nose with the tip of the mascara brush unless your experienced (I daresay she's still a novice)! I can only imagine how many times she must have poked her own eye! I'm thinking of throwing the mascara out since I really don't trust where the brush may have been :p

What a great expression in the pic! Classic Alena!

Another new motherhood badge: Makeup Defender? (I'm open for suggestions on this one :)

Alena Sings The ABC's

A Visit From The Poop Fairy

Eric was hesitant for me to post this, but I really felt like I needed to document this. Eric, however, came up with the lovely name for this post. As you can tell, it deals with poop. Yes, fecal matter. If that grosses you out in any way, you'd better just skip this post and surf on over to another post or another website altogether!


Here's the story:


Last Thursday was pretty much just like any other. Crying baby, potty training toddler. Alena had one accident that morning, but pooped in her potty after the accident. Sweet :) So I put a diaper on her, and sent her off to bed for naptime. Often, she lays in her bed and talks to herself before actually falling asleep. That day was one of those days, so I didn't think anything of it. I went about cleaning up from lunch, eating mine, and fed the baby. Levi fell asleep, so I decided to lay down, too, and catch a much needed nap. I didn't sleep much the night before because Levi was up so much!


No sooner did I lay down than Alena starts crying and didn't stop. I went in her room and I immediately smelled an overwhelming poop smell. I knew that it could only mean one thing: she had dumped in her diaper. She's done it before. So, I go to her bed to get her up and take her to the changing table when she says something about "poo poos" and holds out her hands. All I saw was a dark color, and my kid is white. Then, I turned on the light:

Yes, she had pooped. And, somehow it got out of her diaper and managed to be smeared all over her pillow, sheets, and herself. She even got some on the wall. I'm not sure how she did it, but she did! I was in shock, and, luckily, started laughing! I'm so glad I did that because I could totally have been super duper mad! I had to leave the room because I was going to pee my pants!

Anyway, this photo was taken after I started to strip the bed of things that I deemed unscathed by the disaster. I just had to take photos. I anticipate that these will humiliate her at a later date, but she's a Cerkas/DeNamur, so she'll have to get over it. There will be much worse things that she will see, hear, and experience by being part of the family.

With that in mind, I took a few more photos to really capture the gravity of this situation:

She is amazed at what happened...

Yes, that is poop hanging off of her cheek. We suspect that she may have ingested at least a little bit, which it totally not cool :(

With no other real option, I picked her up, asked her not to touch me or anything else, and ran for the bathtub! Of course she starts spastically kicking her legs as we go down the carpeted hallway, spewing a couple of little nuggets helter skelter. I threw her into the tub, hoping that she wouldn't touch much, and turned on the shower. I am that mean mom. I let her "soak" and told her to get the poop off of herself while I carefully put her sheets, pillow, Lamby, and blankets on the porch. Then, I stripped her clothes off and added them to the pile. She got an impromptu bath/shower, and then back to a freshly made bed! And she slept! And so did I... finally!

Eric thought that it was pretty kind of her to leave a little nugget in the bathtub for when he got home :) So there you have it, the craziest thing that has happened thus far for me as a parent. I realize that it will probably get worse, but this one will always rank right up there for me. Thank you, Alena, for giving me another badge on my mommy sash - poop slayer!

Adventures with the Sprinkler!

Just too cute not to share!

What We've Been Doing

I realize some of these photos were taken prior to some previous posts, but they are things that I want to remember and include here on our blog.

Levi was subjected to his first hairdressing, courtesy of his sister. Back in April, she insisted that Levi needed some extra padazzle in his hair. So, instead of letting her pull his hair, scratch his scalp, and make him crabby in general, I succumbed to her and helped her. I hope he wasn't scarred for life!

.

We made Levi's first cabin run back in the middle of May. The weather was pretty cold, so we had to bundle up!

.

Alena got to hang out with her favorite person, Grandma Cerkas!

.

A cabin weekend wouldn't be a cabin weekend sans a tractor ride forAlena (and Eric).

.

We've been to the zoo many times already this spring/summer. It is so nice that the zoo is so close to our house and that they have such a sweet playground. I took Alena & Levi there last weekend and let Alena walk/run on her own since there weren't many people (we were there in the evening just before they closed). She knows just where to go and can pretty much tell me which animal she will be seeing next. For whatever reason, her favorite is the bison. Here, one of them was grazing very close to the fence. She loved seeing it so much that she peed her pants! Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not ;)

.

In his stroller, moseying around the zoo!

.

Levi recently started eating "real" food. His first taste was liquified bananas mixed with mama's milk. He looks forward to his daily taste! So far he has sampled bananas, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. He's a sweet potato guy for sure :)

.

We've had all of about 1 hot day here on the lakeshore so far this summer. I took advantage of that one day by setting up the sprinkler for Alena. She is like a giddy fish in any kind of water. I've taken her to swimming "lessons" and she was such a guppy! With the sprinkler, she kept on putting her face in it as is evidenced by this hilarious shot! She also took drinks of it, said it was raining, and let the water shoot up her swimsuit! What a crazy little girl!!

.

Alena had her first sleepover when we invited her cousin, Aubrey, over. The play pretty well together, and Alena doesn't abuse her like she typically does with other kids. Aubrey is a tough girl, too :) It's nice to have Alena have Aubrey as an example, especially for things like potty training. Surprisingly, the girls were asleep by 9pm, after about 45 minutes or so of chit chatting. Unfortunately, this was not the case when they were at the cabin last weekend :(


.

Our little guy

And the silly big sister

Cerkas Family Cabin Weekend 2011

As the title may suggest, we were at the Cerkas cabin last weekend. And we weren't alone... all of Eric's brothers, sister, in-laws, niece and nephew were there, too! It was so fun that everyone in the family were able to make it up to the cabin! We totally lucked out with amazing weather, especially considering how crummy the weather has been this spring and early summer.


Eric relaxing by the fire with Levi (monitor showing Alena in hand)

.


Alena, being the adventurer she is, got a chance to wander around in the field.

She wallowed in dirt for portions of the weekend. This pic is cute, despite the lingering dirt on her face!

Finding some flowers!

Holding the snake that Uncle Timmy found

Alena and Aubrey listening to Uncle Timmy (I daresay their favorite uncle) read them Where the Wild Things Are. Appropriate for the girls, I think!

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Wandering around in the woods at Grandpa Cance's house... with his ear protectors on. What a goofy kid, huh. lol


Fun on a stump with Auntie Avery! For a 2 year old, this kind of thing is really cool!

Not surprisingly, Alena was obsessed with Grandpa's tractor! Here, Auntie Avery drove, while Alena rode in the trailer with Uncle Davey.

And here she is after she climbed up all by herself. If she could drive it by herself, she would, no doubt! Maybe we should all become farmers!

Gettin' some love from Auntie Avery!

Levi sure seemed super excited about all of the cars at the annual Mainstreet Memories Carshow in Tomahawk! Being all adorable and such!

Our little adventurer had a blast riding on a horse at the petting zoo at the car show! She kept on saying, "niegh, neigh," "giddy-up" and making a clomping sound with her tongue. She was super duper cute, of course!

Showing some excitement!

Levi took a nap while we were strolling through the car show. We still needed to get a pic with Grandpa, though, in front of the Z06!

Auntie Avery entranced Alena with some bubbles. She kept on trying to catch them, but to no avail.

Yes, Alena wanted in on the photo fun! Levi is pretty used to it, though! They seem to understand each other on some level!

Here he is, lying in Grandpa Cance's backyard, sporting his Corvette shirt :)