A party for two

From May/June2012

Connor is one of Eila's closest friends at daycare, she always has a story to tell us about him and he's the first person she names when she talks about daycare. Since his birthday is May 28th, we had a combined birthday party at the Toy Factory this year.

Eila's favorite activity was the "cars"

From May/June2012

And Connor's favorite was cleaning up

From May/June2012

It was a lot of fun, with a lot of friends.

From May/June2012

From May/June2012

And, because you can never celebrate birthdays enough, here's Eila last Friday at daycare enjoying the ice cream cookies she brought for birthday snack (gotta love the birthday crown).

From May/June2012

Eila's TWO!!

From May/June2012

Happy second birthday, sweet little Eila! After a busy day and an incredible year, it's hard to put into words just how this birthday makes us feel.  How great it is to know that we're starting a whole new year with you. You are a happy, brave, daring, determined, vocal little member of our family, and such a joy in our lives.

-- Mom and Dad

From edits

Team cupcake

Tomorrow Eila turns 2, and we're having a joint birthday party with her friend Connor from daycare (who turns 2 on the 28th). So tonight the girls helped to get 40+ cupcakes ready ...

From May/June2012

Turns out adding sprinkles is a tough job for a 2 year old, but Annikka helped show her the ropes.

From May/June2012

New bathroom

Anyone who has visited our house knows all too well about our "retro" guest bathroom.

From Mar/Apr2012

It's most striking feature was the wall to wall carpeting, even completely surrounding the tub (and no shower) - really, it was probably the worst bathroom in town.

From Mar/Apr2012

Well, we finally updated it, and by that I mean we hired JBD Construction. We moved the tub and added a shower; moved the toilet; tiled the floor; added storage; and "straightened the sinks" (the old ones were mounted at an angle for some unknown reason).

From Mar/Apr2012

From Mar/Apr2012

From Mar/Apr2012

The final change was a stool high enough for Eila to be able to reach the sink all by herself.

From May/June2012

The girls love their new bathroom and would be happy to share it with you when you come visit. :)

3 months post-chemo

Eila was back at Doernbecher today for her 3 months post-chemo check-up. She talked about going to "see my doctors again" for an entire day. She had her usual work-up: an ultrasound [wasn't happy about it, although we know it didn't hurt], x-rays [handled very well], and blood work [short, but noisy].

Everything came back clear, no new growth. Yeah Eila!!

From May/June2012

It was a long morning of sitting, first in the car and then through the appointments, so she had to get some wiggles out before we headed home. She sampled a few hats:

From May/June2012

From May/June2012

From May/June2012

And showed off her arm (with her new balls from the toy chest) in the clinic waiting room:



She won't need to go back again until August.

Beaver baseball

From May/June2012

It was a beautiful spring day, and we were fortunate enough to have baseball tickets. It is always fun (and a bit of a challenge) to squeeze a baseball game in on a week night, but seeing Benny Beaver is always the highlight.

From May/June2012

Go Beavs!

Jimmy & Earl

Our poor daughters are in need of a pet. But since that's not in the cards for us right now, we've "adopted" 2 neighborhood squirrels which Annikka named Jimmy and Earl. (Not sure how she came up with the names, but they've stuck.) We put food out for them on our back patio, and watch them come up to the window.

From Mar/Apr2012

From Mar/Apr2012

This is Jimmy - you can tell because he's chubbier than Earl.

From Mar/Apr2012

The girls are becoming so fond of the squirrels that they will stand at the window yelling at the birds that come to take some of the corn and nuts/seeds. Some day we'll get a cat again ...

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

From May/June2012

There are very few girls in Eila's daycare classroom. In Eila's world, this puts her in some kind of sick position of power. Today the teachers told us the following two stories of Eila soliciting (and receiving) kisses from boys in the class:

 1. Eila and Sam are playing with toy grocery carts. They accidentally crash into each other, and in the process Eila bonks her knee. Eila immediately demands that Sam kiss her on the knee. Sam complies. 

2. Eila and Connor are playing, but Connor is being too loud. Eila, apparently bothered by the racket, asks Connor if he would like to kiss her. Connor says yes, walks over, kisses Eila on the cheek, and quiets down.

SO PROUD?