Ellie's First Husband

Ellie: Mommy, guess what!
Mommy: What?
Ellie: See my wing? Brynn gave it to me.
Mommy: Oh, it's very pretty and it fits your finger just right.
Ellie: Yeah and guess what! I have a secret to tell you.
Mommy: Ok...
Ellie: It was my ring for to marry me today. I goed to get married today.
Mommy: You got married today?
Ellie: Yep.
Mommy: Who did you marry?
Ellie: Brayden.
Mommy: Really? Did you wear a fancy dress?
Ellie: Yep. I was a pwincess and Brayden was my pwince and now we're married.
Mommy: Did you hug him?
Ellie: I hugged him AND kissed him!
Mommy: Oh my! What did you do after you got married?
Ellie: We went on our first date and watched a movie! We watched Tangled!


My mom tells stories about my sister in Kindergarten, chasing down the boys. She'd have her friends help her catch the boys and then she'd come along kissing them. When asked how she held the boys down, my sister said "I just sit on their heads." I'm guessing that Ellie did not actually kiss Brayden and I'm guessing that it would come as a complete shock to him if you informed him that he has a wife, but it occurred to me that the age is approaching.

At the very least, we might be witnessing Ellie's first crush. After all, last night when we watched Strawberry Shortcake videos on Youtube, Ellie informed me that Strawberry Shortcake's prince was Huckleberry Pie and that she was Strawberry Shortcake and that Brayden was Huck. That's two days this week she has mentioned his name. And from the looks of it, her style is just like her Mommy's. I was always a sucker for the nerdy smart kids with glasses.

Tid-Bits

I love how Addie pats you on your head to tell you that she wants to ride on your shoulders.

When putting flower barrettes into my daughters' hair, it is required that I use every flower barrette within sight at the same time. I have to hide them ahead of time if I want to limit the number used at a time.

I love how Addie "spits" after brushing her teeth. She lays on the floor while I brush her teeth, swallows the tasty baby toothpaste, then stands up to the sink, leans over and makes a "pa" sound to spit. Good job, baby!

I love how when Ellie was telling me about how much fun it was to help Gramma plant strawberry plants, Addie just nodded her head in agreement with every sentence her big sister said.

I love how Addie will play hide and seak in a restaurant, while holding a balloon. the result is that she hides behind a booth and you can still see her balloon floating above her. You say "where is Addie?" and you can hear a giggle coming from beneath the balloon.

I think it's hilarious that my girls love to wear hats. As long as they're my hats. They refuse to wear hats that actually fit.

Both of my girls LOVE to eat ice. They get it from their Daddy.

I love how as soon as you get a child naked, they can't help but run around squeeling with delight.

I love how brave Addie is. She even goes head first down the slide with no second guessing. Ok... perhaps that's not the best thing after all. But she's brave!

I love how Ellie will offer to let you wear her super soft shirt with her. We haven't figured out how to accomplish that yet, but at least she's nice enough to offer.

I love that when Addie is all tucked in for bed, you can ask her "Can I have a kiss?" and she nods her head, removes her pacifier and puckers up for a kiss. Afterwards, she plops her pacifier back and and closes her eyes.

I love that after falling from a swing Addie, while crying, decides she knows the solution. We walked across the park to get Bun Bun Bear, walked back to the swing, crying all the way there and back. But then she stopped crying, and got right back on the swing, only this time Bun Bun Bear was with her. And she was ready to go.

I love how whenever Addie sees a dog or a cat, she quietly (and with a sing-song voice) says "Hiii!!!" and waves.

Wordless Wednesday

I may hold you to that offer

Ellie loves the movie Tangled. Really, who doesn't? And it comes as no surprise that she has decided she wants to be Rapunzel when she grows up.

Mommy: We need to cut your hair soon.
Ellie: But why?
Mommy: Because it's getting so long!
Ellie: But I want to grow it ree-ah ree-ah long so I can be Rapunzel!
Mommy: Oh you do? Ok, then let's just cut the front part - the part that sticks in your face.
Ellie: Ok. And den I can grow my hair ree-ah ree-ah long like Rapunzel?
Mommy: If that's what you want.
Ellie: I do want dat, and den when it is ree-ah ree-ah long, can you lock me in a tower so I can not leave?
Mommy: I'm thinking that ten years from now that might be a good idea.
Ellie: It is a good idea. Can we do dat please?

Word Games

Addie is starting to enter that fun stage of toddlerhood where she is just barely starting to talk, and I'm so excited about what's to come!

However, the girl still doesn't use her words very often. Her most common words are probably "sdis" (this) and "mo" (more), which by the way always gives me instant flashbacks to when Ellie would say "mo" - I think they must both have the same voice! And then there was the time when we watched a Celtic Women concert and she said "pincess" two or three times. Princess? Really? You can't say Mama or Papa but you can say "Princess?" Come on!

Addie still doesn't call me "mama" or Daddy "papa" even though she knows how to say those words. The closest we get is when she plays the pointing game. She will go around the room and point to each person, saying their name. Pointing to me, she says "Mama." Pointing to Daddy, she says "Papa" and pointing to Ellie, she says "Lala." But get her to call use by name any other time? Good luck with that.

Another game that Addie loves to play is the bye bye game. Mommy loves this one too because it requires very little effort on my part. Here are the rules:
1. Mommy sits on the floor (this is the best part).
2. Addie walks away saying "Ba ba!" and waving "bye bye" with her hand.
3. I say "Bye bye Addie!" and she leaves the room.
4. Addie returns, only to walk past me in the other direction saying "Ba ba!" again.
5. She disappears only to return and repeat in the other direction.
The best part of this game is that I get to just sit and say "Hello!" and "Bye bye!" over and over again. It's only icing on the cake when Ellie decides she wants to play too and we discover a good 20 minute game where they're both happy just walking back and forth and waving.

So... word games are hit. Princesses are a hit. More is a hit. Mama and Papa not so much. At least we get hugs.

Three girls in the household...

... and Daddy recently realized he's never going to be able to wear his own jacket ever again.

My Little Sisters

Have I mentioned lately just how much I enjoy the fact that these two absolutely adore each other?

We recently discovered something wonderful when we go out to eat at restaurants. If we put the girls on the opposite side from us (we used to each sit next to one of them), then we can sit back and relax. They entertain themselves much better than we can. It's a wonderful thing, really. You have no idea.

And I loved their reaction when they walked into a restaurant and had a couple older ladies Ooohh and Awww at their matching dresses...

Ellie blushed and said the obvious, "Dis is my baby. She's wearing the same dress as me."

And Addie stuck her foot out and twisted it from side to side until one of the ladies commented on her pretty princess shoes. Then she stuck the other foot out to show that she had a matching one too. Where did she learn that one from?!?

Wordless Wedneday

A girl and her friends II

Even at this age, friends come and go. Comparing friends from last year, only one friend remains the same... and it comes as no surprise that she is still tops. Ellie sure does love her Brynn. It's so wonderful to see my girl have so many friends.

Ellie's Party (THEN and NOW)

It was a good birthday weekend and Ellie was such a sweet birthday girl (more on that later).

Two years ago Ellie had her birthday party at Bounce Town, and that was where she wanted to celebrate this year. There was no talking her out of it, but I didn't try because I wasn't sure I wanted to take on another big party like last year's. Click on the photo to enlarge it. You might get a kick out of the comparison of Ellie THEN and Ellie NOW. I know I did - especially the method of going down the slide!

Ellie has gotten so big it seems like there is no mountain she can't climb. Ok, that was a little cheesy, but the photos of her and Gramma could not be passed up.

Bounce Town is fun for the whole family! Lucky me, I was the one behind the camera.

Though a dozen of Ellie's friends came to celebrate with her (more photos later), I have to say that it's much harder to take photos of them at this age than when they were only two. Four year olds are MUCH faster and impossible to keep up with, so you'll have to excuse the fact that I'm brushing past the whole "party" thing and moving on to the little sister. How did Addie do at Ellie's Party? Much to my delight, she held her own!

The delightful little girl tried so hard to keep up with her big sister. She loved to bounce with all the big kids around her. But then they'd suddenly decide to go to another bounce castle and POOF! They were gone. She'd try to follow but often by the time she finally caught up to them, they were ready to move on. It was funny to watch and Addie didn't seem to mind because she just liked being amongst the chaos.

And when it was time for food, she out-performed any of Ellie's big friends. She, alone, ate 2.5 pieces of pizza, which was easily 2.5 times the amount that any other child ate.

We love our birthday girl. She had so much fun and was so proud to be four years old. She loved passing out the party favors to her friends and telling them thank you for coming. She was a very polite birthday girl.

It wasn't until her actual birthday that I realized just how sweet this birthday girl was. We decided that the house needed some de-cluttering so we went through Ellie's old toys and picked a bunch to give to "another little girl who didn't get many birthday presents." Much to my surprise, Ellie was completely ok with the concept of donating her old toys. We went through them and she'd consider each one before making a decision and though I would have been happy with getting rid of 1/4 of the toys, she ended up willingly parting with nearly half!

We made a game out of choosing the stuffed animals. We piled them all into the middle of the floor. ALL OF THE STUFFED ANIMALS WE OWNED IN ONE BIG ANIMAL MOUNTAIN. Then we went through and each of us picked one animal that we wanted to keep. We told Ellie to be sure she picks her most favorite ones first. And Daddy and I were sure to pick the ones that had sentimental value to us and we helped Addie pick the animals that were hers. Then we went through and we each picked an animal to give away.

That was the hard part. Ellie did fine, but I think it was more difficult on Mommy and Daddy. Ellie picked to donate some animals we loved and chose to keep some that we thought were obvious "trash." But alas, that's the point right? It's a difficult thing for a child to give up some of her old toys, so why should we expect it to be easy on us? Anyway, I was proud of the birthday girl. She done good. She done REAL good.

So, of course we went out to celebrate! Nana, Grampa, Uncle David, Haydn, Brandy, Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin all joined us for a dinner celebration. Gramma had the wonderful idea of having us all dress in funny hats for the special occasion. I was surprised that everyone played along. Needless to say, this girl is loved by a lot of people, and it's no wonder why.