Justin Roberts Concert

Last Sat. we went to the Family Museum in Bettendorf, Iowa for a concert for Bella's favorite band, Justin Roberts Ok... so it might be her favorite band because it is about the only music we ever play for her, but there is a reason - it is children's music that doesn't get annoying to listen to. The songs are cleverly written and the tunes are good. We've posted videos before of Bella dancing to his music before.

The event was a concert with other bands for the afternoon, so our plan was early lunch, nap in the car for Bella. (1 hour drive to get there) We were planning to meet our friends Jesse and Michelle there (Michelle's kids got sick and couldn't make it though - big bummer!). Bella slept in the car, but Evelyn hates her carseat and screamed the entire way. We pulled over twice to comfort her, but that would only help for a few minutes. We went to Jesse's house and picked up her and Elliot and headed to the museum. Bella enjoyed playing with Elliot and doing some of the activities they had at the museum while the other bands were playing. She really liked the water stations they had out back - it was a good thing I brought her a change of clothes since she got soaked.


Looking at a recycling truck is always fun!


Look at Bella sticking out her tongue as Elliot helps her fill up her pail of water
Justin Roberts and the band had some difficulties setting up, so their show started about a 1/2 hour late (4pm) and most kids were getting pretty tired and hot. (Elliot had skipped his nap). The second song played was Pop Fly which is Bella's favorite and the look on her face when he started playing it was pretty funny. She must have started putting together what a concert was and who was playing. From there on out she started dancing to all the songs. Sort of half dancing - half running around. She kept going and going and going that after a while I began to wonder if she was getting delirious. It was pretty hot out and her cheeks were getting really rosy. But, she stopped for water and was fine. She fell down and skinned her knee which ended the dancing for the day which was good.

Waiting for the concert to start


This girl is the Queen Bee...

Dancing action shots.....

And videos of her - couldn't decide which ones I liked best so I just posted them all. The last one is where she falls and the dancing ends for the day.








Evelyn hung out in the moby wrap for most of the day, which is what she basically does every single day. Jeff had her in it first and two different people approached him and asked him about it - they were intrigued. Evelyn cried the whole way home again - poor girl.

I noticed that Justin Roberts is playing soon in Powell, Oh - where Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jack live - really strange - of all the places! Bella will be so jealous!
http://tinyurl.com/yas9koy

Mother's Day Weekend

My first Mother's Day weekend with 2 children was actually quite difficult, to say the least. Isabella got sick the week before and needed to stay home from daycare on Thursday and Friday. She had quite the fever and drainage from one of her ears, so I took her to the doctor on Friday. He prescribed an antibiotic for her and said we could start it in a couple days if she wasn't feeling better. Friday night all hell broke loose. Isabella woke up around 11pm and I tried to comfort her back to sleep. She ended up screaming and it didn't get any better from there. She had an all out tantrum and we could not console her at all. She was delirious/hysterical and screaming/biting/hitting. We'd never seen her like this. It lasted quite a while before we decided Jeff would take her in the car and drive her around. Isabella eventually calmed down on the drive, which is good because we had discussions of driving her to the emergency room if she couldn't calm down. Her tantrum lasted over and hour and a half. After she was somewhat calm (she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs) Bella kept asking for her teddy so Jeff drove home and picked up teddy. Bella was wide awake and wanted to keep driving so they drove to Walgreens to go ahead and fill her prescription (we had to figure it was her ear that was bothering her). Jeff gave her the antibiotic (in the Walgreens parking lot) and slept in her bed with her that night. We had two more minor tantrums Saturday morning before another huge one that afternoon. Bella woke up from her nap screaming and crying uncontrollably. Once again we were unable to console her and she kept trying to bite and hit us. Jeff restrained her after she bit me (I still have a purple teethmarks from it), but she continued screaming for over two hours. We even called the Dr. to ask him what to do, he didn't have any ideas for me, but said we could take her to the ER but he doubted they would find anything. After 2+ hours Bella was able to finally calm down, this tantrum was worse than the one the previous evening.



It was kind of a sad end to my mom's visit from Florida. All day on Sat. we were walking around in a daze, not sure when Bella would erupt again. Luckily, on Mother's Day, things seemed to be getting back to normal. Bella and I took Grandma to the airport. Bella was really sad to see Grandma go and wanted to get on the plane with her. On the way home, Bella fell asleep, it was only 9:30 in the morning (sleep would be all messed up for her over the next few days). She looked like a mess when we got home, she had just eaten some mini-cookies, tried to take off her shoes and discovered she can unsnap her own pants.



Since there were no tantrums on Mother's Day and I got to be with my own mother on Mother's Day (even though she was leaving) I couldn't really ask for much more.