Potty Update

I haven't mentioned Potty Training in a while, have I? Well, here's an update:

Ellie is doing quite well. She usually goes pee pee on the potty at least a couple times a day at school. They put the kids on the potty once an hour and apparently Ellie is one of the few kids who does so without complaining and is excited about it.

She's gone poo poo in the potty at school once.

At home, we're not quite as consistent. I try to ask her often if she wants to go potty, but I'll be honest, it's hard to remember to do so. Having said that, though, she usually sits on the potty at the same time I do 2 or 3 times a day.

She's gone poo poo in the potty at home three times now. One time, she even initiated it herself during dinner and we jumped up to race to the bathroom. She thought that was fun and was disappointed that she couldn't go poo poo when she tried to repeat the fun a couple minutes later.

In public, she tried to go pee pee on the big potty once but I think the size of the toilet was a little intimidating. None-the-less she was proud that she tried.

Last night she was getting ready to take a bath and I was downstairs amputating another Bun Bun. I heard her start to scream bloody murder and I thought for sure that she slipped and hurt herself. Either that or she was pissed that Daddy was trying to wash her hair. When I asked what happened, I was surprised to hear the answer "she accidentally went pee pee on the floor." Poor Ellie. She was so devastated that she accidentally peed on the floor. We tried to tell her it's ok and that accidents sometimes happen, but she was so very upset. Maybe she was disappointed that she couldn't celebrate the success like she could have in the potty? Maybe she didn't like how unexpectedly she had to pee? Maybe she didn't like the feeling of it running down her legs? Maybe she was just upset at herself, feeling like she could have, should have been able to sit on the potty?

Either way, I'm guessing it's a good sign. Heartbreaking yes, but good in terms of potty-going.

Bun Bun Amputation Update

Well she went through her first night without Bun Bun's arms. We were unsure of whether or not we wanted to start it last night because Ellie was fussier than normal to begin with, but we were strong. I should correct myself - Michael was strong.

Of course, she insisted on having another Bun Bun, one with arms. But Daddy explained to her that the dentist said Bun Bun was hurting her teeth and so we need to use the armless bunnies until she's no longer needs to have them in her mouth. At that point, the other Bun Buns can come back from vacation. This seemed reasonable to Ellie and she said "OK" but never asked about Bun Bun again.

It was harder to put her to bed, but she ended up going down around 8:15 which wasn't too bad. Then she woke up again around 11:30 and was quite difficult to put back to sleep. Michael commented on it being the hardest time he's ever had.

I thought for sure that she'd wake up upset once more before the night was through, but Ellie ended up sleeping until a decent time. She did wake up before I went in to get her, but she didn't cry so I guess that's a plus. When I went in, she told me about how the Dentist said Bun Bun hurts her teeth and how she cried when he looked at her mouth. I'm sure she's trying to figure out why this Mr. Dentist guy is so important and why he sent Bun Bun away on vacation.

Anyway, considering it was our first night without sucking on Bun Bun, I don't think it went too bad.

We're oh so tired, though. Especially Michael. Poor Michael has been through a lot with his schedule recently. Hugs to Daddy.

Big Old Butterfly

We recently went to the Butterfly Pavilion with Ellie and she had a blast finding butterflies for us to look at. She was actually quite good at it.
Eventually we came across this guy. When asked if she saw the really big butterfly, she responded with "No! Tis a BIG! OL! BUTTERFY!" Silly Mommy. It's not just any big butterfly. It's a big OLD butterfly!

Bun Bun Amputation

We've decided that the time has come to deal with Bun Bun, but I just don't have it in my heart to go cold-turkey. As a compromise, I came up with the idea of amputation. It's the paws that Ellie sucks on and if it weren't for that, we'd have no problem with her keeping Bun Bun around. I'm still concerned about how it will work out because she not only sucks on a paw to put herself asleep, but she strokes the other paw with her fingers.
How do you decide which BunBun to amputate? Do you sacrifice the oldest one with the assumption that it's the grossest? But it's also the most loved. What about the one with the blood stain on it? But Ellie is so cute whenever she points out that Bun Bun has an owie. What about the one whose head has always been a bit deformed? Or maybe one of the bunnies whose noses are coming undone? In the end, we chose to amputate the Bun Bun that was falling apart the most. The other 6 were very relieved. Little do they know that they might be next.

Though we plan on enforcing the arm-less Bun Bun in the next couple of days, I accidentally gave it to Ellie once last week for bedtime:

Ellie: Oh oh, Mommy! Mommy! Where did bun bun arm go?
Mommy: Oh no, is Bun Bun missing her arms?
Ellie: (with great concern) Yeah!
Mommy: What do you think happened to her?
Ellie: Bun Bun fall down and go boom. He as no arms!
Mommy: Bun Bun fell down and went Boom? And her arms feel off?
Ellie: (very sad) Yeah!
Mommy: That must have been a big fall!
Ellie: YEAH! Wea-y wea-y big fall! You ok, Bun Bun?
Mommy: I think this Bun Bun needs extra love. She's still soft and lots of fun to hug.
Ellie: (Gives Bun Bun a big hug)
Mommy: Can you give her lots and lots of hugs tonight?
Ellie: Yeah. I need odder Bun Bun too.

She ended up sleeping with two Bun Buns. One in her mouth while she hugged the poor armless one with lots of love. Maybe there's hope?

While Daddy and Mommy were on the Metro in Paris (pictures to come soon, I promise), we discovered the real story behind what happened to Bun Bun's arms:
Wish us luck with the transition!

Wordless Wednesday XII

Flowers and Pepperoni

Ellie spent the day with Aunt Erin and Grandma up in Estes Park and when I showed up for dinner, she showed me a bottle of wildflowers that she picked around Grandma's house. She apparently was very excited to give them to me and even displayed them prominently so that I would notice them quickly. I did not. However, when they were pointed out to me, I certainly made a big deal out of them. They were a big deal. They're so pretty and Ellie picked them just for her Mommy! She was so proud.

We brought the flowers home and she likes that we have them on display. One morning we sat and ate breakfast at our new Ellie-sized table that our neighbor Olivia gave us. We put the flowers on the table and she liked it. She smelled them and made sure that I knew how pretty they were.

Then she started talking to the flowers. "Hello fowers! How. Are. You?" so I had to take a picture. Or two. Or three. Why stop there?

After just a few pictures:

Mommy: Say cheese!
Ellie: Mommy?
Mommy: Yeah?
Ellie: I tired of cheese.
Mommy: You're tired of saying cheese?
Ellie: Yeah.
Mommy: What do you want to say instead?
Ellie: Ummm...
Mommy: How about pepperoni!?
Ellie: Yeah!
Mommy: Say pepperoni!
Ellie: Pepperoniiiiii!

The next few minutes were filled with tons of giggles and laughter because we both thought it was silly to say pepperoni, but I got a few great pictures out of it.My favorite picture, though, was when she said "Hi fowers. I lou you fowers!"

It took some convincing to get her to agree to leaving Mommy's flowers at home instead of bringing them to school. As sweet as it is that she wants to show them to the world, I'm being selfish and keeping them to myself this time!

Creepy child

I think I caught Ellie sleep walking last night. It gave me nightmares. Seriously.

I came upstairs to go to bed and I saw her standing in front of her bed, with Bun-Bun in her mouth. However, she wasn't saying anything and wasn't upset. I went to the door and asked her if she was OK. She just stood there like a zombie. I told her that I was about to go to sleep and would she like to get back into bed. She just stood there like a zombie. I went into her room and asked her if she wanted a hug, and she looked up at me but continued to stand there like a zombie. I gave her a hug and she was non-reactive. She was cold and life-less. You know, like a zombie. I asked her if she wanted to go back to sleep and she turned around, very zombie like and put her head on the bed. Her legs were still on the floor but her head was on the bed. Like a zombie. I'm sure that's how zombies sleep.

That's how I left her. Standing on the floor, with her head on the bed. Like a zombie. I went to bed myself and proceeded to have nightmares about my child being infected by some kind of zombie-inducing flu. Like in the movies. The zombie movies, of course. I've only seen one, but I'm sure they're all the same. Anyway, needless to say, I was a little relieved when she woke up screaming for Mommy at 6:00. She woke me at a point where I was about to give someone permission to rid the world of all zombies, including my precious little girl. I'll take screaming over that dream any time.

I could do without that particular z word. Creepy.

Girls like trains too!

A friend of mine in MD wants to do her daughter's big girl room in trains but is having problems with the fact that trains are "mostly for boys." I love her idea, though. I think it would be fantastic if she could pull off a cute train room in pinks, purples, yellows and greens. I wish I was there to help her!

And how cute would it be if she put flowers in the cargo train cars and had butterflies coming out of the engine instead of smoke? Oh, I have such a cute picture in my head.

I just wish it were easier for her to pull off! Good luck and I'll try to help as much as I can because I love what the image I can see in my head!

Teaching Manners

Upon our arrival back home from Paris, Daddy was trying to track down the source of the absolutely awful smell stinking up our house. In doing so, he found himself gagging at what might be living in our garbage disposal. Ellie, reminded him "cova your mouf, Daddy!"

While eating breakfast, Ellie proudly stated "I eat wif my mouf closed." Mommy and Daddy agreed that chewing with your mouth closed was a very polite thing to do. "Just like Cinder-ey-a! Good job, Daddy. Daddy eat wif mouf closed like princess."

We're all so proud of how far Daddy has come.

The magic joy of spinning

Ah, shucks. Look at this. Sometimes it takes very few words to describe a feeling. Iman's words were perfect.

More correct than you think

Daddy: What's your name?
Ellie: Law-ee-elle.
Daddy: Do you know Mommy's name?
Ellie: Yeah?
Daddy: Mommy's name is Jennifer.
Ellie: Was Daddy's name?
Daddy: My name is Michael.
Ellie: Daddy name Michael an Mommy name Niffer.
Daddy: Exactly!

Tid-Bits II

I love how, when paying our bill at a restaurant, Ellie needs to sign the check just like Mommy and Daddy. We usually give her our copy of the receipt, and she scribbles on it, then we leave both for the waitress.

I love how Ellie is a hair detector. We have lots of hair around the house (two long haired cats can do a number on a place) and Ellie can find them all. When she finds one, the alarm is sounded. "HAIR! HAIR! HAIR!" until you come to take it off of her fingers.

I love how she needs to have soap on both hands when washing them. It's not good enough to rub the soap from one hand onto the other. She needs soap squirted onto both hands.

I love how we can often catch her singing songs but often forgetting some lyrics. Somehow, she still doesn't miss any of the melody and it flows smoothly none-the-less.

I love how she plays the following game with Mommy: Mommy makes a funny sound and flops a body part into a different location. Ellie repeats sound and appropriate appendage flopping. Repeat with a different sound and different body part.

I love it when she uses incorrect words that make just about as much sense as the correct version. Gummy Bears are "Nummy Bears," BBQ sauce is "Barney Que" sauce, door bell is "ding bell" and oatmeal is "oat milk."

I love how Ellie strokes my hair and my face when she wants me to lay down with her. She smiles and says "Lay down" and reaches for my face. She knows what calms me down.

I love how when someone leaves her sight and she wants them to return, she'll say "Granma! Where! ARE! You!"

Ellie Reads

We recently got a couple new Mommy and Daddy books. Ellie really likes "I Love My Daddy Because" and seems to really connect with it.

After reading the book a couple times, she started pointing to the words:

Ellie: What's dat?
Mommy: The words?
Ellie: Yeah.
Mommy: It says "I love my daddy because he plays with me."
Ellie: What's dat?
Mommy: I love my daddy because he brings me food.
Ellie: What's dat?
Mommy: Do you want me to point to the words as I read them?
Ellie: Yeah! Yeah!
Mommy: Ok.

As requested, I started pointing to each word as I read the book. When I do this, she watches closely and then says "Ok" after each page.

Then she wanted a turn.

Ellie: (pointing to the words) I low my daddy cuz ee lows me. OK?
Mommy: Ok.
Ellie: (flips the page) I low my daddy cuz ee bring me oat-milk! OK?
Mommy: Ok.
Ellie: (flips the page) Ee teach me brave. OK?
Mommy: Ok.
Ellie: (flips the page) Ee teach me be careful. OK?
Mommy: Ok.
Ellie: (flips the page) Ee pays hide-seek wif me. OK?
Mommy: Ok.

This continued through the whole book, never turning the page until I approved of the words she read. Much to my surprise, though, many of the words she pointed to were actually the real words. I'm sure it's because she has already memorized the book enough to know the words without really knowing what they look like, but it still took me by surprise.

Since this wonderful book, Ellie often asks me to point to the words as I read them. Every time I do so, she acknowledges each page with an "OK" as though to tell me she now understands.

Hide and Seek, Take III

I bet you didn't know that it was possible to play Hide and Seek in the car, but Ellie begs to differ.

Beach - The Sand

In a nutshell, I don't think Ellie is a beach person. She gets that from my side of the family. I hate the beach. Seriously, it's just not my idea of a good time. I don't mind laying around on the beach for an afternoon, but there comes a time (usually sooner for me than for others) when I realize that I'm just hot and I have sand in areas of my body that were not designed to handle sand. It's at this point where I need something more to do, like hiking or site-seeing. Neither of which DE is known for. Add the fact that I'm pregnant to the normal beach experience and I now have more sympathy for those poor beached whales.
Enough about me... let's talk about Ellie. Note the awesome picture - I love the sand being poured. Ellie was terrified of the ocean. The first time we tried to get her to stand in the water (very very shallow), she did not like the feeling of the sand being sucked out from under her feet when the wave went away. From that point on, she declared the water to be evil and would beg for it to go away and leave her alone.
The first day at the beach was a complete flop. It took me forever to convince her to stop playing with the small pile of sand at the edge of the parking lot, only to later find out that we should have stayed there. She let it be known that the ocean tried to eat her alive and as soon as she realized that Uncle David was actually **IN** the water, she freaked out because of her concern for his life. Then she got sun-screen in her eyes and she tried to wipe it out, only her hand was covered with sand. Not pretty. The parking lot would have been more fun.

Sometime during the week, we did convince her to get closer to the water one time and being the stupid first-time parents that we are, we tried to make it into a playful game and said something like "oh, the water's going to get you!" in a innocent playful way. Ellie did not take it as such and firmly concluded that the water getting her was NOT a good idea.
But by the end of the week, she was enjoying playing in the sand (and Mommy and Daddy even tried to pretend to enjoy it along with her). Mommy helped her make sand castles, for which she promptly stomped to smithereens and Daddy helped her dig great big holes. Then, when she was pouring water into the big hole (above), stupid Mommy made the mistake of jokingly saying "oh oh, here comes the water!" Ellie responded quickly by dropping the bucket, and racing over to Mommy, climbing up her back and trying to sit on her shoulders. Literally. It took some convincing to get her to understand that I wasn't talking about the ocean water. I explained to her that we're sitting on the dry sand and the water could only reach the wet sand. We were safe. She hesitated but did continue to play. For the next hour I closely watched the tide come in and silently prayed that it would not reach us and turn me into a liar. It got close, but we made it out alive.

I see the moon

Mommy: Can we sing the moon song because Daddy is so far away?
Ellie: Ok.
Mommy: I see the moon and the moon sees me, and the moon sees the one that I want to see...
Ellie: What ya singing?
Mommy: You know this song. I like to sing it when Daddy is gone.
Ellie: Oh.
Mommy: Do you want to know why?
Ellie: Ok.
Mommy: When you look up at the sky and see the moon, Daddy can look up and see the same moon. When we miss Daddy, we can sing this song.
Ellie: I sing song and Daddy come back?
Mommy: Oh, no Sweetie but Daddy will be back soon - in a few more days.
Ellie: Ok. Sing song Mommy! Sing moon song!

Beach - The Grandparents

It was good to see the grandparents again. Ellie doesn't get to see them nearly as often as we'd like her to, but I think she enjoyed being around them. Ellie loved Grandpa (no surprise there) and would often give him the run-down on what everything in the house was. She's so smart and seemed to want to make a good impression on the grandparents. She didn't need to try hard, though. I'm sure the grandparents loved seeing her.

Sleep Lesson Review

One thing that I think has really taken me by surprise about parenthood is how often we have to "re-teach" Ellie to sleep by herself. Lately we've been suffering from too much time away from home. We spent a week in Delaware, during which Ellie slept right next to us. After one night at home she spent a couple nights at Grandma's house because daycare has a silly rule saying she had to be quarantined for Swine Flu. Then she spent only a couple nights at home, after which she went to Nana's place for the night. Then my sister came into town and she spent a couple nights up at Grandma's house again. This week, she'll be with me for 3 nights before I head off to Paris for 4-5 nights (during which she's staying with Nana or Grandma).

The few nights she has been at home have been very difficult on us. She likes sleeping with people, especially her Mommy. Whenever she's at the grandparents' houses, she sleeps with them. It's just been a whole lot of sleeping with people going on here, and Ellie is a big fan. That has made the nights at home very long.

The strange thing about it is that she's great at sleeping with people in other places, but at home she just ends up playing with you instead.

Anyway, it's something that constantly takes me by surprise. Before one trip, she'll be sleeping great and completely through the night. After the trip, it seems to take a week (if we have a week) to get back to normal.

But really? Who can blame her? No one likes sleeping alone.

Wordless Wednesday XI

Wordless Wednesday X

Beach Tummy

I got a tattoo! How exciting! Unfortunately, it's not exactly what I wanted, and it has already faded quite a bit, but I still love it. No worries... rumor has it I'll be tattoo-free in another couple of days. It's only air-brushed.
But I love it! And the best part was that it (along with my color-coordinating swimsuit) matched the beautiful hydrangea flowers that scattered the lawns of houses throughout the area we were staying. I have never ever seen flowers that had such a bright blue color. They were gorgeous!
My tummy is bigger than last time I took similar pictures, but I still like the results. I don't think I could ever get a pregnancy picture I like more than this one, but I can't be too picky. I'm glad I got some swimsuit pictures for the next baby. It makes me feel less guilty about being so focused on Ellie. This next baby will get tummy pictures too, I promise!
I love this picture. It was a little less posed and I think it looks more relaxed than the flower pictures. I have been feeling the baby move a lot lately and it's getting me really excited because I know that's the part of pregnancy that I enjoy the most. Baby... I hope you like your beach tummy pictures because I'm sure that the number of beach pictures in your future is limited. Sadly, your mommy was not born to be a beach person, but you can't say I never tried. Enjoy!

Bad Pregnancy Habits

Expensive pregnancy habits is more like it. I lost my phone AGAIN. Ever since getting pregnant again, I seem to be constantly misplacing it. However, this is the second time I can't find it. I lost it somewhere between my office and home, which is even more frustrating.

Anyway, since Daddy is out of town this week, I decided I couldn't afford the luxury of continuing to look for it. So, I now have a new phone. For those of you who think I have your number, you'd be wrong. It's in your hands now to contact me.

Hmmm... I kind of like the sound of that. Less guilt for me for not having the time or energy to contact you. LOL.

Beach - The Vacation

For the 4th of July, we went to the beach in Delaware to visit Grandpa Lou and Grandma Jeanne. It was nice to see them again because we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, but I'll post more pictures of the trip later this week. One thing that we did that Ellie ended up liking a lot was renting bikes to haul us around the town. As with most things, Ellie wasn't sure what she thought of them at first but as long as Mommy was in sight, she seemed ok with the concept. Keeping a pregnant Mommy, walking on foot in sight while riding a bike isn't an easy task, but Daddy seemed to pull it off. It didn't take too long before Ellie decided it was fun to sneak up on Mommy and say hi to her as she was passing by.
The best part about bicycle rides (though not shown in this picture) was the fact that Mommy loves ice cream and the bike rides often took Ellie to an ice cream shop. Her favorite flavor was cotton candy ice cream with "Nummy Bears" on top. She takes after her mommy. Gummy bears are the best!
The three of us slept in the same room and Ellie, for the most part, slept on a twin bed next to Mommy and Daddy's bed. Over all it went well, though we're not suffering the consequences because she loved sleeping next to us. We did, however, stumble upon a solution to her not liking blankets yet getting cold in the middle of the night. It turns out that Ellie LOVES to wear Daddy's socks. Adorable.
Uncle David came with us (but notice the socks again). David is by far one of Ellie's most favorite people, and we're not sure why. It's not like he goes out of his way to interact with her, but she adores him. If David was not in sight, Ellie would often ask "Where's my uncle Davie?" And if he was in sight, she was often giving him the run-down on the status of where things stand. It would go something like this:

Hi David! This is the couch. And this is a basket for the dog. It's not a hat. And this is the clock. It says coo-coo. And this is the chair. And these are my grapes. And this is your pink cup. And this is also David's pink cup (all pink cups belong to Uncle David). And this is Grandpa. Ana is still sleeping. Be quiet. And this is my pony. Pony eats grass. We're going to ride the airplane tomorrow. And play on the beach. And these are Daddy's socks. And this is David's puzzle. Do not touch. And David, is this your puzzle? David, do you like your puzzle? And these are my shoes. I take them off all by myself. See, David? I did it!

Just about every morning, David would wake up to similar status updates. It was great.

Smiley faces

A neighbor girl came over to play with Ellie and was trying to show her how to draw smiley faces. Honestly, I don't think Ellie did too bad. It's the closest she's come so far to drawing something that is recognizable. If you can't tell which smileys are hers, there are two of them. Both of hers are up-side-down so they look more like pi symbols. Not too shabby, if you ask me.

We've been practicing ever since.

When did you get pregnant?

Last time I was pregnant, I got a kick out of people who hadn't seen me in months and then suddenly saw me looking like I was about to pop.

This time, I experienced something similar, but strangely different. I say that because I see this girl at least every other day. However, apparently I just see her when I approach the counter in front of her desk (which is about chest high). Yesterday she saw me in the hallway, apparently for the first time ever because she got a huge look of surprise on her face and asked "Oh my god! When did you get pregnant?"

Who would have thought I'd experience that reaction from someone I see so often. LOL.

Wordless Wednesday IX

Her eyes say it all. I'm not sure any one person is capable of understanding it all, but it's all there.

The meter rolls over

Holy $#!+!!! I just realized that Baby's due date is 100 days from today. That means starting tomorrow we're in the double-digit zone! ACK! It is going by so quickly!

Bye-bye good hair days

Gone are the good-old days when Ellie would come home from school with picture-perfect hair. Above you see how fantastic her hair looked after her old teacher did her hair (and this was even AFTER a nap and jumping on balloons!). Below you see Mommy's sad attempt to something similar. Notice the part - though it may be straight, it is definitely not going down the center of her head (and sadly this is RIGHT after getting her hair done in the first place). Sigh. At least I have photos as proof that it can be done.

Suck it, Daddy! SUCK IT!

Recently at dinner in a very public restaurant, after deciding that the beer foam she dipped her finger into did not taste as good as it looked, Ellie pointed her drenched finger towards Daddy and made a very loud innocent demand.

Splish Splash

It started with helping Dad clean rugs from the car...
But then Ellie realized how much fun the hose really was...
She got a big kick out of getting Mommy very wet...
But Mommy got a big kick out of the great pictures!

Happy Camper - the marshmallows

Ellie's first marshmallows - She loved the concept (who wouldn't love the idea of marshmallows)......, but we're not sure she was too keen on the execution.Here she is, "cooking" her marshmallow, but she's no dummy. She knew that the fire was hot, so she wasn't going to get any closer. Even if we tried to reassure her that she had a really long stick and thus it was safer to get a little closer, she could not be convinced.After observing how we would handle a nicely cooked marshmallow, she declared hers "Just right" and started to eat it. "Mmmmmm.... Nummy!" but she never did accept a bite of an actual roasted marshmallow.