How does this make sense?

Nick is going to stay with us during the school year!  We're very excited and think he's going to thrive in CCISD.  However, never having to deal with school registration before I didn't realize how ridiculous it is.

To register Nick, we had to provide:

Deed to our house (if we were renting, we would have had to provide the lease)
Electricity bill
Immunization record
Birth certificate
Social security card
Previous transcript

Which I know, doesn't really sound like a lot.  But if you're dealing with exes, it can be hard to come across paperwork.

But my problem is this.  If you are homeless or illegally in the country, guess what documents you have to provide:

None

Zero, zip, nada.  So are immunizations important or not?  Because if they're not, then don't require documents.  But if they are (and I think they are) require docs from everyone.  If birth certificate and ssn card aren't important, than don't require them of anyone.  But why do some have to jump through hoops and not others?  And if proof of residency is important because tax money goes to the school then everyone should have to provide them.

To me it comes down to this - if rules are important, everyone should follow them.  If some don't have to obey them, none should.  And I've yet to hear a reason why that's wrong.

Happy 22 months, Elayna!

Another month come and gone.  It feels like I'm updating every few days instead of every month.  Crazy how quickly time flies!

At 22 months, Elayna is:

Still in size 3 diapers
Wearing everything from 12 months to 24 month clothes
Won't sit in her highchair anymore :(  it's all big-girl chair now
Uses real silverware (when not using her hands, that is)
Obsessed with Dora.  Tries to imitate Swiper with the "oh, man!"
Hair is almost down to her butt.  She rarely lets me comb it but comes home with a cute 'do every day from daycare
Loves water.  Pool, bathtub, doesn't matter.
Jabbering up a storm, says lots of words - Dora, bye bye, Herro (Hello), Hi!, 'Layna, Bubba (brother, Nick) , Memma (Emma), Daddy, Mommy, Daynel (Daniel, mimicking me when I called Daniel), Nana, Papa, birds, moon, clouds, uh oh (this is her new favorite), hep (help), boppy, kiyyi cat... I know there are others I'm missing.
Very stubborn.  Shocking, I know.
Still in her crib.  I have no desire to get her to a big-girl bed, she's still so small she has growing room.
Still rear-facing in her car seat.
24 pounds
~30 inches tall (she's squirmy)

Daniel took a bunch of picture while I was at work but he's cleaned them off the camera to an unknown location :(  I will add once I find out where they are, he took some amazing pics!

Pinterest strikes again!

Above our fireplace the wall is longer than it is tall.  Which has made decorating up there challenging.  We couldn't put the painting we had in our old house up there, the dimensions were wrong. So I put the picture of our feet up there, and it was dwarfed by the space, but I wanted something, anything up there :)  Free-standing frames, candles, coasters, etc, were also added to the mantle.

On pinterest the other day I saw a beautifully done mantle that I want to replicate.  It had a large black and white photo of an adult holding a child's hand.  Layered in front of that was a smaller piece that just looked decorative, not a picture, and then a small medallion.  There were tall black candlesticks to balance it out.  I don't want to do exactly that, but pretty darn close.

So what to do with all the pictures that were collected on the mantle?  Put them up the stairwell, of course!

Before, boring white stairwell...

Using newspaper cutouts to arrange the pattern...

First photo goes up, our feet from above the fireplace...

All done...for now!

As I went to hang some of the photos, I realized not all of the frames were able to be hung.  But I love that I'll be able to add onto it as the years go by.  We can change out photos as needed or just hang more frames.  

Zumba!

So I went and did a zumba class today and it was so much fun!  I was worried about looking like a complete loon but I don't think anyone was paying attention to me.  It was a great workout and so much fun.  Wish I could do it more often!

It was also for a great cause, the instructors donated their time so all money raised is going to send a kid (hopefully more than one) with MS to camp.

Happy 21 months!

Holy cow, I can't believe Elayna's 21 months already!!  At 21 months she:

Has all her baby teeth (except two year molars)
Is saying a ton of words (mama, dada, Dora, off, bye bye, Hi, lizard, dog, cat, Emma, bubba, night night, boppy, poo poo, and Layna!)  I know there's more I'm just not thinking of right now.
About 23 pounds
Can open doors with the lever handle
Likes using real metal silverware
Loves the pool
Loves Dora the Explorer.  Slightly obsessed. I found the theme for her second birthday party
Likes purses and shoes
Still size 12 month - 18 month clothes
Size 3 diapers
Size 4 shoes moving up to size 5
Loves being outside
Her hair almost reaches down to her butt.  Almost.
Babbles a lot
Still rear-facing in the car seat

Warning, she was grumpy during these pictures because she didn't want to take her Dora pajamas off:

Holding her Dora pajamas.  

I know I say it over and over, but she just keeps getting better.  Elayna is so funny, smart, pretty, amazing, etc, and I just wish she's stay this way forever.  But I also know it keeps getting better every day.  I love you, Ellie belly!

Menu board

Let me give a shout out to Pinterest for this idea!  Love love love that website. 

So I had a frame that I had tried to make magnetic and chalkboard.  It worked okay, but has been sitting in my kitchen for months unused because it didn't meet the needs that I originally created it for.

So I pulled out a bunch of my scrapbooking supplies:

And agonized for about an hour over which papers to use.  Serious decision to make!

After I got that done i put it back in the frame and put the glass over it to help protect the paper.  Don't want to have to go through that decision making again!

Then I cut out paper to cover the paperclips, put the days of the week on them, and hotglued them to the frame.  Ahhh, how I've missed my hotglue gun.  Need to find more excuses to use it.

 (BTW, very impressed with my moving photos ability at this moment :))

Then I created two boxes out of scrapbooking paper to hold the recipes. On Pinterest, I've only seen this with one box, but I wanted to make one for main courses and one for sides.  Of course, once I was done I realized maybe I needed a third for dessert.  So....dessert is now considered a side item.  

 The menu cards are unlined index cards.  I need to find my sharpie to write the names of the meals on the front, right now they're just penciled in.  On the backs are the ingredients.  And I mean all the ingredients.  For example, if we're having tater tots as a side, I need to make sure we have tater tots, ketchup, and sriracha.  Trying to take the thinking out of my grocery list!

It's hard to tell because of the glare of the glass, but on the top middle to right is MENU.  I also got to break out my cricut for this, which excited me as well.  

But most exciting is now, when I'm asked that ever-so-lovely question we all love to hear (what's for dinner), all I have to do is point at the board!  

Spin off blogs

Check out my blgs I follow list for links to my new blogs! First, I decided to separate my blogging about life from my blogging book reviews. So courtneysbookreviews.blogspot.com was born. Then I got to thinking about Elayna. She's quite the picky reader already, so I created elaynasbookreviews.blogspot.com, for her book review voice (interpreted by me :)) to be heard. I've got several books that I want to write about, but I would also love suggestions. I promise to read all books my readers request of me. Please go check out the new blogs!!