Flingo the Flamingo

I am ashamed that it took me so long to write this post. It is long overdue as the pictures were taken in the beginning of September! Shame on you Niffer!


In September we went with Daddy to Virginia and Maryland (he had to go there for work). It was nice to see some of our old friends, but it was especially nice to see Grandpa Lou (formerly known as Grandpa Blue) and Grandmommy Jeanne. We don't get to see them nearly enough!
I'm always surprised at how different all the grandparents are with their "grandparenting skills." Grandpa Lou's style is laid back. If the girls want to come up to him and talk, that's great. If not, that's ok too. He loves to just watch them as much as he enjoys interacting with them. As you can see in this picture, even though he's holding Addie... he is not fussing over her. What's fascinating to me about it is that by not fussing over the girls, they actually feel quite comfortable around him. It's as though they understand the vibe of "It's cool. All is calm." It's wonderful to witness.

I love this picture. He's showing Ellie a picture of some ponies he saw at Chincoteague Island, and Ellie is holding up toy ponies so that they can see their friends.

As much as I know Grandpa Lou loves Ellie, I especially enjoy watching him respond to Addie. Maybe it's because she's the second grandchild and so, in general, everyone is more at ease with her, but I think part of it has to do with Addie being named after his mother. I see a deep natural connection between Grandpa Lou and Addie that is a beautiful thing to see.

Have you ever looked at two different generations and thought "Wow! They look EXACTLY alike?" Never? I don't believe you. Well, that's exactly how I feel when I see Grandpa Lou. I look at him and I can see what Daddy will be like in the future. It's incredible. And I think the girls pick up on it too. I wonder if they look at him and think, "He's just an older Daddy. He must be special."

Grandmommy Jeanne was meant to be a grandmother. You can just sense it. She seems to encourage the silly side of childhood without making it *feel* silly. I'm not sure if that came across quite right, but take Flingo the Flamingo as an example. Ellie wanted to put sunglasses on him for the picture and Grandmommy Jeanne wasn't phased at all. She just acted as though that would be something anyone would do, let alone a child.

And she loves to hold Baby Addie. This particular trip, Grandmommy Jeanne was wonderful by offering to help with the girls often. She even offered to let us go out for dinner on our anniversary, which was a nice unexpected treat. Thank you, Grandmommy Jeanne!

Grandmommy Jeanne showed Ellie the proper way of playing with a barn full of horses. They eat over here... and they drink over there... and they run around like this. I'm sure Ellie now wants a pony and would ask for one if she thought it was anywhere close to possible.

And I know Addie loves Grandmommy Jeanne already. This is one of my favorites.

I can already tell that the girls are going to always love visiting Grandpa Lou and Grandmommy Jeanne. They're the ones who like to go to the beach and they're the ones with a fun swimming pool close to their house. Not to mention all the fun stuff to see in Washington D.C.! Just check out Ellie's reaction to the neighborhood slide! This girl LOVED IT! Over and over again she'd pop out of the slide and say "I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do... I wanna do dat again!!!"


So there you have it... a much belated post about grandparents we love dearly. They are going to open up a world of experiences like none other for our girls. It's a shame they're not closer.

Rainbow

The other day I left to go to work and I saw the most beautiful bright rainbow. Not only was it a full rainbow, but it was a full DOUBLE rainbow! The thing was HUGE and so very bright! It looked so close that I swear I could have jumped over my fence and found the pot of gold in my very own backyard. I didn't, though, because I can't jump that high. But I'm sure the gold was there.

I wish my daughters were there to see it with me. I wish my Niffer Boy was there to share it with me.

I got in my car and drove half way to work before I turned around convincing myself I really needed to take a picture of the rainbow. I so badly wish the colors showed up in the pictures as bright as they did before my eyes, but alas... I'm sure I lack the talent or equipment to do that.
The rainbow was so big and so close that it was impossible for me to get it all on one photo, so after taking a few different shots I hopped back in my car.

I drove half way to work before I turned around again, convincing myself that I really needed to take a video of the rainbow. I kind of felt silly doing so. Did you ever see that crazy rainbow guy who went on and on and on about how pretty a rainbow was that he was videoing... for like 30 minutes! I laughed at myself that I now totally understood his excitement. I don't think I have ever seen a rainbow so bright and so close. It was like the rainbow was right over the top of me.

Anyway, enjoy...


Life is beautiful. Colorado is beautiful. I love it all.

Wordless Wednesday LXIII

Ellie saves the world

While eating dinner the other day, Ellie picked up a piece of junk mail that had a picture of a girl hugging her cow and asked me to read it to her. It was a brochure for a charity I once donated to. In a nutshell it's a charity that allows you to buy animals for families in third world countries. The animals change their lives for the better, allowing families to provide more for themselves than before.

Mommy: You can buy a girl a cow!
Ellie: But why?
Mommy: So that she has milk to drink because she doesn't have enough money to buy milk from the store.
Ellie: Oh. And what's dis? A chicken?
Mommy: Yep, if you buy a chicken for a child it would give her family eggs to eat. See here? It says this girl has NEVER had an egg before. Can you imagine???
Ellie: No! I just had an egg yesterday!
Mommy: So is this something you'd like to do? Would you like to help another little girl with something she doesn't have enough money for?
Ellie: I sure do want to do dat! I RE-AH DO!!!
Mommy: That would be such a nice thing for you to do!
Ellie: I KNOW!
Mommy: Ok... look at all these pictures of animals and you pick which one you want to buy.
Ellie: And I buy wif my own money because dis girl doesn't have nough money, right?
Mommy: Right. Do you want to get her a cow so that she can drink milk? Or chickens to give her eggs? Or a donkey so she can have a ride to school?
Ellie: Ummm... let me see... Oh I know! I want to buy one of dese! We have one of dese in our classroom and his name is Cocoa! He's funny and soft and squeaks!

I looked to see what she was pointing to... guinea pigs. GUINEA PIGS!!!

Ellie: Can I buy one of dem for a girl who doesn't have nuff money?
Mommy: Sure! That would be super nice of you!
Ellie: And den she can take it to school wif her and show her teachers!

Then Daddy came in...

Mommy: Look what Ellie wants to buy for a child in need...
Daddy: A guinea pig? What's that for?
Mommy: (points to the words in the brochure)
Daddy: Oh! Protein!?
Mommy: Yeah, isn't that nice of Ellie?
Daddy: Umm... yeah.
Ellie: And den dey can hold dem in dere hands and take them to school wif dem!

We didn't have the heart to explain it to her, so we're buying guinea pigs! Guinea pigs to save the world from lack of protein. Yeah, baby!

Sleepover!!!

Not long ago, when asking Ellie what she wanted to do that weekend, her response was "I wanna go swimming! Wih Brynn! And I want to go to da farm wif Brynn... and have a sleep over wif Brynn... and go to Bounce Town wif Brynn... and go to nastics with Brynn... and go to da zoo wif Brynn... Hey, Mommy? I have someping to tell you. I want EVERYTHING to do wif Brynn!"

And so this weekend we crossed another item off the list... with her very first sleep-over! After telling my coworkers that I was nervous about hosting the first sleepover, they actually had the nerve to ask "How many?" HOW MANY? HOW MANY? Isn't one more enough to tackle for the first time?? How many? Humph.


But no, it was just Brynn and Ellie this time around. After we ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A (safe-bet, where BOTH girls ate ALL their food, mind you), we came home and put on our PJs. Sleep-overs are always done with PJs on as soon as possible. I just love the feet PJs combined with the princess high-heels. These girls know how to start a sleepover with class!


And ask these girls how excited they were to sleep together for the ENTIRE night? You get something like this - a little crazy with a few giggles and LOTS of jumping.

After the jumping craziness calmed down a bit, we played hide and seek. It's always fun for me to watch the girls play because every time they get a slightly clearer understanding of how the game works. This time they picked different hiding locations from the one I chose, but they always hid together. When I commented on it, they would look at each other and insist "But we are best fwiends and so we get to hide together, right?"


Though Brynnie brought her own bunny, she did not hesitate at Ellie's offer to have one of her Bun Buns. I'm telling you, only the cool girls get to have Bun Bun. And these girls are COOL, with a capitol K!


It probably comes as no surprise to you that I had to take a lot of photos of my daughter's first sleepover. So, it would be expected that some of those photos show off the girls' fantastic fake smiles. Ha. Fake smiles make me laugh. At least they humored me and smiled for the camera...


... only because I bribed them with dessert (frozen yogurt... Yummy). Even with sleepovers, you have to make the most of the saying "you give me what I want and I'll give you what you want." It works like a charm. A fake smile charm.


After dessert we set the girls up on the pull-out bed in the basement and watched the movie Shrek. Brynn has never been one who can sit still long enough for an entire movie so we did other activities too...


... like painting their finger nails (matching colors, of course)...

... and decorating piggy banks.


Finally when it was time for bed, they had a very difficult time falling asleep. I KNOW! I was shocked too! If there was one thing I learned, I think I will put the girls to bed a half hour earlier during their next sleepover. I actually finally ended up having to lay between the girls, and once I thought of that brilliant idea, both girls were passed out within minutes.

I was actually a little nervous about bedtime because Brynn had never slept away from her parents AND her house before. If she slept elsewhere, her parents were with her and the one time she slept without them was at her house. After my first attempt to get the girls to sleep, they were actually quiet for about 5 minutes AND I was sleeping in a different bed, but then Ellie spoke up and said "Mommy? Ummm... Brynn is sad" in a very worried tone. I got out of bed and asked Brynn why she was sad but she said she didn't know. I then pulled out my magic weapon - a felt heart filled with lavender. I had gotten two from Etsy (I am so addicted to that site it's not even funny), one green for Ellie and one blue for Brynn (they've practically defined themselves by their favorite colors). I told Brynn that the heart would help give her good dreams. Ellie was nice enough to confirm that what I said was true and Brynn seemed to believe her. I ended up staying until they both fell asleep and then they slept until about 6:30 in the morning. Not too bad. Go Niffer!


So Ellie's first sleepover went well (perfect if you look past the being tired from going to bed so late part). Both girls were pretty well behaved and they spent quite a bit of time confirming that they are indeed best friends and will be forever. Whenever either of them wanted to do something that was opposite of what we requested, they'd gang up against us. Brynn would say "We're best friends, right Ellie? And we don't want to stop playing yet, right?" or Ellie would say "We're best friends, right Brynn? And we don't want to go to sleep yet, right?" Though they were all talk (and ended up listening to us anyway), they were definitely right about the best friend thing.


And Addie??? She had her first sleepover too! She slept away from us for the first time on Saturday. Both girls went over to Gramma's house (she's a brave woman) to spend the night. And with the exception of Gramma not knowing that Addie still takes two naps a day, I think it went pretty well. The detail you should remember is this: Daddy and I got to sleep in until 7:30 Sunday morning AND then we stayed in bed until 8:30. FANTASTIC.

If these guys don't make you smile...

Over all tonight was a good night. I only hesitate slightly just because Ellie has been challenging us on a daily basis lately. Considering we never had much of a bout of Terrible Twos and my friends claim the Threes will give you nightmares for years... we've been pretty lucky. But she does challenge us and though it's rarely something big, it can still be exhausting.

That being said, though, she still fills my day with such joy. Tonight she wanted to play with our next door neighbor (Olivia) and we let her. She was so happy playing Hide and Seek and coloring with chalk that we didn't really have the heart to tell her that dinner was ready. She even asked to go for a bike ride with "Livia," to which I found myself saying yes (SHOCK). They went all the way around the block. WITHOUT ME. ACK!!!

She really is so grown up and it's hard for me to watch her be so independent, yet it's such a form of relief to me too. It hurts to try to explain it, but I'm sure fellow parents know exactly what I'm saying.

But the highlight of the night was when we decided to draw! Unlike previous times, it was ME who requested what to draw and it was ELLIE who drew it. Usually I instruct her, but NOT THIS TIME!!! I asked her to draw smiley faces and she said she didn't know how. All I did was tell her that she needed to start with a circle. She took it from there. Without a word from me, she drew eyes, smiles, hair (including the rainbow hair on the last guy), arms, legs and feet. I just sat back and offered her different colors.

I can not describe how happy these drawings make me feel. There is something about funny smiley people with arms and legs sticking straight out of their heads that makes it impossible for you to not smile back at them. Don't they just make you realize how good life really is? Don't they just make you feel all goofy inside?

Shrek is sad

While listening to the Hallelujah (from the Shrek movie) on my newly beloved CD from Aunt Erin, Ellie asked me why Shrek was sad.

Mommy: He's sad because Fiona is going to marry another prince.
Ellie: Does Shrek love Fiona? And he's sad?
Mommy: Yeah, he loves her but is sad because he doesn't think she loves him back.
Ellie: But why? Why is Shrek sad?
Mommy: Hmmm... Mommy loves Daddy very much but if I ever thought he didn't love me back, I would be very very sad.
Ellie: Yeah! Yeah! And if you love Daddy and Daddy loves you back, but if he didn't love me, den it would be REE-AH REE-AH REE-AH sad! Right, Mommy?
Mommy: Right. It's a good thing we don't have to worry about that, though.
Ellie: Yeah because Daddy loves us very much and because Fiona loves Shrek back and dey will get married. Shrek will say "Stop da wedding! And he will kiss Fiona and dey will be married and he will know dat she loves him. Just like we know dat Daddy loves us. Right Mommy?

The next song on the CD is "I'm a Believer" (also from the Shrek movie)...

Ellie: See, Mommy? I told you!
Mommy: What's that?
Ellie: See? Shrek is happy now! Dis song is when dey are married and he has his princess now. See?
Mommy: Oh good.
Ellie: Yeah. REE-AH good.

Wordless Wednesday LXII

Our Music

We've never really done much to filter the music that Ellie (and Addie, for that matter) listens to. The result is that Ellie likes a lot of music that we do, which is nice because we aren't forced to listen to the same children's songs over and over again.

However, as time goes on, Ellie and I have found a handful of songs that we both really like. On the way to school, I ask her what song she wants to listen to and she gives it some thought before deciding. Then, almost without fail, she asks for "lots of dem" which means I put it on repeat. Repeat drives Daddy crazy but it makes me happy to know that Ellie loves it.

Anyway, I have Happy Niffer News to share! Aunt Erin has put ALL OF OUR FAVORITE SONGS onto ONE CD!!! Oh my gosh! It is AWESOME! The CD includes Ellie's favorite songs and lots of other songs that simply remind me of my daughters.

Here's the list of songs on the CD (in order of which Erin put them):
1. "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles (aka "sun" song)
2. "If the Stars Were Mine" by Melody Gardot (aka "turkey" song)
3. "Lollipop" by the Chordettes
4. "Say Hey" by Michael Franti (aka "I love you" song)
5. "Hallelujah" from Shrek soundtrack (aka "sad Shrek" song)
6. "I'm a Believer" by Smash Mouth (aka "Shrek" song)
7. "Chatouiller le Ciel Avec Toi" from French Playground (aka "French" song)
8. "Face of a Faith" by Nellie McKay
9. "Dream" by Priscilla Ahn
10. "My Girl" by The Temptations
11. "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
12. "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison
13. "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" by Bill Withers
14. "Smile" by Uncle Kracker
15. "In my daughter's eyes" by Martina McBride
16. "I've Got a Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield
17. "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder*
18. "How Sweet it is to be Loved by You" by James Taylor

I had so much fun introducing the new CD to Ellie (though she has yet to listen to all the songs) because the very first song was one she wanted to listen to "lots of". It just seemed like such an appropriate song because, as luck would have it, that morning there was a particularly striking sunrise that Ellie made sure I noticed. I told her that I thought she'd like the other songs too and after listening to the second song, she wanted to hear lots of it too. Then the Lollipop song came on and her eyes just got big and round and she exclaimed "We just danced to dis song with Aunt Er-yn the odder day!" And when the Say Hey song came on, she got a huge smile on her face and said "Hey! Dis is my FAVORITE song! Do you see, Addie? Dis is my FAVORITE song!"

Reactions like that continued and she was hooked! Each song brought a new smile or excited story from Ellie, but she waited patiently to see what the next wonderful song would be. It was wonderful.

I think we only listened to the first 6 or 7 songs on the CD, but it was a HUGE hit. Ellie is a happy camper because all her favorites are in the same spot for the first time ever. I don't even think she thought that was possible. And Mommy is a happy Niffer because every song on the CD makes my heart sing. Ok, ok... a couple of them make me cry too, but I love it all.

Thanks Seestor!

* This song is going to be replaced by "Loving You is Easy" by Sarah McLachlan and "I Know What I Know" by Paul Simon. It's the one song on the CD that just doesn't feel right and I quickly learned that Ellie needs at least ONE drum song. Why not pick the funny one (the singers do funny bird yelping sounds that Ellie thinks is hilarious)? I can't wait to hear Our Music Rev 2!!!

As if that's not enough...

We haven't slept well in quite some time and it's starting to feel like the universe just doesn't see me being compatible with sleep.

Maybe it's because of...
little Addie learning to sleep through the night...
or Ellie and her nightmares...
Or our two cats chasing a mouse...
Or our dog deciding to eat at midnight...
Or our spouse snoring with a stuffed up nose...

And now... we were introduced to a neighbor dog barking for nearly 3 hours straight.

Ugh.

Universe, if this is how you want it to be, so be it, but I have to warn you... a sleep deprived Niffer is not NEARLY as entertaining as a happy Niffer. Wait... maybe she is. Maybe the sleep-deprived state of complete foolishness is the REASON everyone thinks it's great for us to not get sleep. Ha!

Back to work

Today I finish my first week back to work full-time. I was working three days a week so that I could spend some one-on-one time with Baby Addie. That bonding time was nearly impossible to get with Ellie around (Ellie went to school full-time). I wanted to give Addie the same attention I was able to give Ellie.

But my special time with Addie came to end. I never really wanted to work part-time forever. On one hand, the thought of spending a day every week with just me and one of my girls (if I continued part-time, I'd do one day with each), I know the "stay at home" gig is not right for me.

I'm a much better Mommy when I'm not around my girls all the time. Seriously, I feel like it allows me to notice the small things that I love to write about so much. If I was around them 24/7 I think the annoyances of raising small children might over-shadow the great details I want to remember.

But I digress. How was my first week back? Ugh. I don't know. I can tell you that I haven't found that jackpot of motivation to go out and make a great impression. Maybe I'll find that on Monday morning. I suppose it hasn't been too bad. It helps that I updated all my pictures in my cube (yes, it took me an entire year to get pictures of Addie in our house or in my office... but it's done!).

But I miss them. I miss them both dearly. And there was one question that crossed my mind more than once this week... When can this Niffer retire???

Ellie and Audrey

I have been wanting to write this post for a long long time... Meet Audrey!
In all honesty, I don't really know when these two first met each other. April? March? Maybe even as early as February? I can tell you that the first picture of them together dates way back to April of 2010, but that's mainly because it took a LONG time for them to want to sit in the same place for a picture.
That's not to say that they don't like each other. Just the opposite is the case. Ellie has always loved spending time with Audrey and is a little fascinated with her and everything that she does. However, I feel like it took them a while to get comfortable with being friends with each other.
It has been a process that I've found interesting. Audrey is the first friend that Ellie has made who hasn't simply always been around. She's the first friend OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL that Ellie has met.
At the beginning, they would dance around each other and bounce on balls and have lots of giggles and chasing going on, but ask them to give each other a hug good bye and the most you'd get from them is knuckles. But sure enough, Ellie would be asking to play with Audrey again the very next day.
It has been over 6 months now and I feel like the girls have really started to find their niche with each other. And the more activities we do with Audrey, the more I love seeing their friendship blossom.
Watching my daughter develop friendships and have adventures with her friends is definitely an aspect of parenting that I never thought I'd enjoy as much as I do.
So who is this Audrey girl? How do we know her? I suppose I could say... You know that one guy in manufacturing? Well, she's his girlfriend's ex-husband's old friend's ex-girlfriend's son's sister. It's complicated. Or maybe it's not as complicated as I make it sound and I'm just trying to mess with you. Ok, ok. Audrey happens to be my sister's boyfriend's daughter and we have really enjoyed our time with her and her family. Regardless, I think these two have great potential of being very close to each other in the future. And I can't wait to sit back and watch the show!

Wordless Wednesday LXI

Happy belated birthday Addie!

Sadly I have no time to write. On a positive note, the pictures speak for themselves... Enjoy!

Tell Erin too

While driving in the car with Daddy and Aunt Erin...

Ellie: Daddy, I love you.
Daddy: Oh, thanks! Why don't you tell Aunt Erin that too?
Ellie: (After a confused pause) Ummm... Aunt Er-yin?
Erin: Yeah?
Ellie: I love my daddy.

Sisters

Life is good. Very good.

Look at you!

You complete me.

Bye Bye Baby Addie

Today is our last day with Baby Addie. Tomorrow she will suddenly become Toddler Addie. That's not to say she's toddling around yet, but some time ago I arbitrarily decided the label "Baby" was for infants through 1 year. "Toddler" covers years 1-2 and "Preschool" covers years 3-4. So no, Addie is not toddling around yet but she's close. Besides she can't start to walk yet because she's going to be a caterpillar for Halloween and I have yet to see a caterpillar that walks on two legs.

Get back on track, Niffer...

Tomorrow is Baby Addie's first birthday. It's hard to believe that it has been an entire year since we met Baby Addie, yet here we are. I suppose this calls for a summary or comparison of sorts...

Over all Addie has been the easiest baby - much much easier than her older sister was. In fact, because of Baby Addie I now better understand comments I got from other parents when Ellie was a baby. I could totally see wanting to be a stay at home mom with Addie. She is just simply easy and sweet. We just click and always have.

I think that Baby Addie cried less in her first 11 months than Baby Ellie did in any given single month. I'm not sure I can say that about this last month of Baby Addie's life... it seems that she has decided that getting teeth is a good enough reason to come down with a bad case of the crummies and a strong need for Mommy's attention. So this last month has been a little draining.

But oh is she fun now! Baby Addie's favorite games are fetch (Yes, we toss a small toy across the room, she fetches it, sticks it in her mouth and returns it to us. Over and over again) and copy-cat (She hits her head. I hit my head. She laughs. You get the point).

But Addie's favorite form of entertainment is her big sister Ellie. Ellie still has the magic touch. We still think that all she really has to do is read words from a dictionary and Addie would laugh. Of course, Ellie can't read yet, so really it just comes down to her having to make any sound come out of her mouth and Addie laughs. Poor Ellie. She knows that Addie gets too distracted when she's around so Ellie has learned that she can't be around us if Mommy is trying to breast feed Addie. I think Addie would prefer to starve and play with Ellie.

As a result, Addie is just barely hanging in there with the breastfeeding. I'm in denial that it's coming to an end, though, so let's just move on. Addie LOVES her food. She eats a ton of food, both mushy baby food and big girl finger foods. She just loves to eat.

And Addie loves to sleep. Or maybe I should just say she loves to fall asleep. She is by far so much easier to put to sleep than I ever thought would be possible for a baby. I practically have to just feed her, sing a song and leave her in her crib, though the feeding is now no longer a requirement. Sing a song and leave. It's THAT simple. Just because I feel guilty spending only 2 minutes with her bed time routine and 45 minutes with her big sister's, I have recently started to read her a few books too (which brings the total time up to 5 minutes - IF THAT). She takes two good naps during the day and almost makes it 12 hours a night (so close... so very close).

She's incredible. I wish I could describe it better. I am going to miss Baby Addie. We really could not have asked for a better baby, for us or for her big sister. That being said, though, I am SOO SOO SOO excited (and Ellie is soo soo soo cited) that Baby Addie is becoming Toddler Addie.

You heard me. I'm done with this whole baby thing. It's over. No more for Niffer. I have confirmed my original theory that I LOVE my sleep. I want it back. All of it. And the only way I can get to that point is to stop dwelling in this infancy/baby stage.

All joking aside, I am excited to continue to watch Addie grow and discover the world... and start to play more and more games with us... following her big sister's footsteps, this girl is going to make my heart expand so much it will physically hurt. Again. Soon Niffer's heart is going to take over her body. Then the whole world. Beware.

Ellie's Art III

It's been a while since I posted anything that Ellie and I have drawn together, but I figured you'd still enjoy it. This bee makes me laugh because Ellie insisted that it needed polka dots as well as stripes. Then she laughed because she knew she was being silly. She drew everything - the bee, stripes, head, antenna, eyes, wings. I colored it in while she gave the bee the appropriate dots.

I am particularly proud of Ellie's Dora (from Dora, the Explorer). Again, I instructed her on what to draw and this is the result (I colored it in). Note Dora even has her purple backpack. And I have to laugh at her hands... I guess we need to practice our fingers a little more. And the eyes make me laugh. I have noticed, though, that since drawing Dora, Ellie's eyes tend to be more equal in size. I wonder if this was the drawing that made her realize what she was doing wrong.

Flowers for Gramma. Ellie drew everything and I helped her color them in. She's getting really good at anything that requires the Niffer patented "whoop-whoop" sound (i.e. the petals).

A penguin that Daddy helped her draw. I believe she drew everything (though I'm not positive about the beak). She also colored it in herself. Note the eyes are the same size!

Ellie's dragon makes me smile too. She wanted to draw a dragon with fire coming out of its mouth (this girl has high expectations for her Mommy's drawing capability). She drew everything (the dragon, hands, legs, claws, scales, wings and fire). I colored it in.

I love this one. Ellie drew a rainbow for Daddy and had absolutely NO HELP from me. I love that it's even in the shape of a rainbow and has lots of different colors. She's getting good. Real good.

Hehehe... our spiders for Nana. Ellie wanted to paint her hand prints so we made spiders. One is happy; one is sad; and one is surprised (she did all the work). Ellie learned that spiders have only eight legs, four on each side... so we only needed four fingers (the thumb is missing). I love how proud she looks when she understands new concepts like that.

And since painting hand prints is so much fun we made butterflies for Gramma. Again, she did all the work.

I think I'm going to need to get a place to start hanging these things... my own art gallery, so to speak.