Frog and Fairy Birthday

Here are a few images from the "Frog and Fairy Birthday Party". We had fun.

Update

Okaaaay, so we are kind of switching again. I (ian) taught ESL this summer at a private school, and I was going to switch back to homemaker extraordinaire, but I got a call from my former boss in Torrance Adult School, and they wanted me to teach for about 16 hrs/wk in the morning. The night before, Erin and I had been talking about the fact that it would only be worth working if I worked in the morning (while Ella is in preschool), if I worked at a site closer to home, and if I worked for Torrance Adult School. I didn't think I would get a call because of the recent cutbacks. But lo and behold, I got what I wanted!
We will have to put Judah in day care for 4 hours a day. That will be the 1st time we've done that, so we're a little unsure about it. It is difficult to find good day care that is not too expensive.

Erin is back teaching at Centennial High School in Compton. She is teaching reading again, and not doing too much admin stuff (although she still is doing some). She is glad to be back with students again. That's the haps.

Sorry, more Ella

While watching Judah getting changed: "Daddy I think he has a bigger one than yours."
(I'll leave that one to your imagination)

Mama's smarter than Daddy, but Daddy's stronger than Mama, and God is smarter and stronger than everybody."

"Mama is sometimes silly, but I still love her."

Ellaisms

At breakfast: "I'm a rice-crispy girl. I'm a hungry little caterpillar!"

In the car:
Aunt Susie: "You're a goofball."
Ella: I'm not a goofball, I'm an animal."
Aunt Susie: "What kind of animal are you?"
Are you a lion? A sheep? A cow?
Ella: I'm a princess!

In the car: Judah: "Waaa!"
Ella: "Judah! Be quiet!"
Waaah!
Be quiet!
Waaaooh!
Judah! I'm right here!

A la playa

Judah has 4 teeth right now. 2 more are pushing in on top. It makes his smile look really different. Here he is enjoying the beach in summertime!

Wade Jr.

Here's Wade's baby picture. He won a beautiful baby contest (but he says there were only 2 babies in the contest and the other was pretty dang ugly).

So... does Judah look like Wade?

Wade Jr.

Everyone says that Judah gets his good looks from Opa Wade. He definitely didn't get them from me.

If it drinks like a dog...

We have been dog sitting sometimes for a great dog named Barney. The kids love it. The other day I went to the grocery store with Ella and gave her a sample drink. She was lapping at it like a dog. I said, "Ella don't lick it, drink it." and she said, "That's what dogs do." I told her she wasn't a dog and she laughed and drank it.

Preschool!

Our little fairy is in preschool now. She LOVES it. I really like the class. She goes for 3 hours in the afternoon so we have kind of retired the afternoon nap thing. I am mourning that, but she seems okay. I have a little more energy during the day, from fewer demands for my attention.

Sittin' Bull

Judah's sitting now, we are not in a hurry to teach him to crawl, but he's starting to grab for things and roll around on his fat tummy. He's getting restless.

Cheekies

This picture was given to us by Aunt Susie. Judah is fatter than Ella ever was. We love it. The other day Ella said, "Judah and Mama and you have a big booty, but I have a skinny booty."

Update

So. I am now home dad again. I am teaching at night in Torrance for 12 hours a week. Erin is back at Centennial High teaching reading for 3 periods and being the resident reading specialist and reading coach. Pray for my patience with Ella and internal motivation. :-) It's nice to have a job 3 nights a week to keep me sane.

We are also trying to put Ella in some kind of preschool situation, even if only for a few days. She is itching to go. "preschool" is a constant part of her vocabulary and she often is in some kind of imaginary world called preschool where she goes and learns new things, makes friends that we've never heard of and does fun stuff. She has some close friends that are already in preschool.

Kissmass

Grammie and Ella

Uncle Chris and Ella

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta tickle.

Sister Susie and Judah

We had a spread out Christmas. We had Olson Christmas before Christmas, Batstone Christmas on Christmas Day, and Wintz Christmas (my mom's parents) after Christmas. It was a lot of Christmas. Then we went out to Phoenix and celebrated the new year with Erin's friends from college. It was uber-fun. Now we're back and I (Ian) will be the home dad, Erin is going back to work at Centennial High in Compton, and I will be working at night with Torrance Adult School supervising online learning for English as a Second language. We both start the 5th.

Cousin Natalie.

Tummy Talk

Ella: "My tummy says he's hungry."
Tummy:(voiced by Ella) "mmmm... thank you Ella"
Me: "Are you talking to your tummy?"
Ella: "Yeah, he says he likes the yogurt"

Halloween ESL

I am teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) almost full time now. I work in the morning for Torrance Adult School, and drive to Redondo Beach for work at a private language school called EF language school. I love my job. We got to have costumes and parties for Halloween. It's lots of fun.

big little girl

Ella always talks about how she is a big girl. Understandable of course because we often reinforce positive behavior by calling her that. It's just kind of annoying when she objects to being called a little girl. The other day I asked her if she wanted to change Judah's diaper. She said, "no, I'm just a little girl." Apparently she is when it is convenient.

Cuties

Ella logic

Our friend Geoff Gross asked Ella:
"Do you sleep on your back?"
she said,
"No, I sleep on my bed."

Ella: "I have white eyes behind my brown eyes."

Halloween

Oma givin' candy.

Dressing up for Halloween. Ella peed in her ballerina outfit, but Oma washed it and dried it in time to take pictures.

Kids say the darndest things

One morning at breakfast Ella pulled up her shirt and said, "I have a little chest, but Mommy has a big chest...a giant chest."

Elbow foot

"I hurt my elbow foot."
"Where's that?" I asked.
"Right here." she said pointing to her ankle.

Grandma B

Ella pointed at a picture of our wedding today and said, "Hey, there's Grandma!". Grandma B is what she called her. She died a few months ago, and it is good to see that Ella remembers. I'm glad that Grandma met her first great-grandaughter, even if she didn't remember because of the Alzheimers.

Grandpa Brennan and Judah Brennan

Wintz Ranch pics

Judah Bhudda in Nirvana

Dress Up!

Webcam pic

He urped up a little after this shot.

Ella antics

We went down to San Diego to see "Tio" and "Tia Kimberly", which is what she calls Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kimberly. "Uncle Ethan" was also there (Kimberly's brother). Kimberly told her to go kiss Tio, so she went and kissed Nathan. Then she told her to kiss the other Tio (Ethan), so Ella went and kissed Nathan's other cheek. Quite logical I thought.

The picture is from Ella's 3rd birthday.

Ella speak

Erin was feeding Judah, and Ella said, "I wish I could feed you Judah, but I don't have any milk in my chest." She then raised her shirt to show her lack of mammary glands.

Feetsies

Mo Judah

Send up Judah!

We had our baby! July 22nd at 7 in the morning Erin gave birth to Judah Brennan Batstone, after about 12 hours of labor. No C-section! He was 7 lbs 4 oz, and 20 in. long. He started eating right away and slept soon afterward. He's been doing a combination of the two ever since. He is a genius. Just like his father. He is also extremely good looking like his father. Ella is excited, "I'm being a big sister, RIGHT NOW!" she said, when we walked in the door.


Judah means praise or thanksgiving, and we are very thankful for this baby.

Brennan means "smelly hair" and has some other better meanings, and it is my Grandfather's name which we really liked.


Okay, I'll shut up. Here are some pics. First Pic of Judah, ever.

We think his eyes are lighter than Ella's.


At the hospital. We are taking votes for nicknames. We like Judah by itself, but we are also batting around: Baby J, Jude, JB, Jew, or just duh. What do you think?

"Our boys all grows up"

Nathan Olson (Erin's brother) graduated from Warren High in Downey this year. Grandma Eleanor, Nathan, Kimberly and Natalie came to town. I got to see my 1st niece for the 1st time.

Pirates

Ella put her hand over my eye and said, "you're a pirate." Then she put both hands over both my eyes and said, "You're two pirates."

Eating cake

Today I gave Ella some cake. She was incredibly grateful for it. She touched my back ever so gently and said, "thank you so much." She was in rare form as she chatted up a storm and talked about the cake and how nice it was and how she liked that Lara (Erin's friend) had a birthday (actually a shower). She then put her hand up to me and said, "stop talking, and eat your cake."
I asked her if she was ever going to stop and eat, but she never did. She didn't eat the cake either.

The Final Ultrasound

We finally got a good look at our modest little baby. It is a boy! I'm excited. I am looking forward to raising a boy. It will be fun. I called a bunch of people to tell them. It's just good to finally know what it is.

So, a bunch of people kept saying they knew it was a boy because of the way she was carrying. My thing is that, I've never seen any study done on gender being determined by how the baby was being "carried". If anyone knows of any study please send it our way. If anyone knows of a study disproving this theory please send it our way.

Phone camera pics

Shhh!

Ella passed some silent gas on the toilet yesterday. She said, "My booty went, 'Shhh!', just like Mama!" Either that means Erin farts silently a lot or she says 'Shhh' a lot to Ella.

I can't put my arms down!

Natalie is coming to visit (with Tia Kimberly and Tio Nathan) for Little Nathan's graduation from high school. we are looking forward to seeing her (them), and they will also be coming back in the fall for Big Nathan to go to school.

booty-burp

Ella passed gas one day and called it a booty-burp. We of course have encouraged this now, because we think it is hilarious, and it somehow seems more polite to us than "fart". Being home with Daddy probably means she burps with her booty more often than other girls her age, but she always says "excuse me".

Foiled again!

So... we tried again to get an ultrasound and find out what the baby is. Apparently we can convince the doctors to do it again. Yet again, the friggin' cord was in the way. When Erin moved and the cord was out of the way "mini" clamped his/her legs closed with determination. So keep voting. So far I think we have boy: 4 and girl:2. The pool is getting bigger.

Miss Priss

Ella is a girl. A very girly girl. It must be genetic, because I know she didn't get it from our behavior. Every morning, about 5 minutes after she wakes up, she asks to wear a dress. It got so ridiculous that we had to institute a rule of 1 dress a day.

The other day she wasn't wearing a dress for a while at the beginning of the day. She even let me put shorts and a shirt on her. Then she started asking, and I said no, because we had to go soon. I went to get ready and she went into her room and quickly came back into my room wearing a dress. I didn't know she could change so fast. She saw my expression and quickly raised one finger and said confidently, "One dress, daddy". Geez, what could I say.

She spends about 10 minutes twirling in front of the mirror every time I do put a dress on her. And her dolls or animals often tell each other, "Oh, I like your dress", "Thank you".

Visit to Minnesota

Erin and Ella went to visit Tio, Tia and cousin Natalie (Ella's only cousin so far). They had fun playing in the snow, hanging out,


and reading on the throne.