Oh dear. Look what you started.

My wonderful husband found the following wall stickers. Adorable!



But I don't think he realizes what he started. Not only does this mean I have to re-evaluate what I had in mind for Ellie's room, but I'm also obsessed about finding wall stickers to decorate every room in the house!

Look at this one. I'd love to do a picket fence headboard for Ellie, but I wonder if doing a wall mural would be easier?

Ack! There are so many wonderful ideas! How do you choose?

Wordless Wednesday V

Ellie Funt, get it?

Sometimes I do something that later makes me think "that was not my smartest moment" and other times I fail to notice something that later makes me think "how could I NOT see that?"

Last night was one of the latter.

We recently got a book from Cracker's mom called "Ellie's Tea Party." Ellie loves it.

Basically it's about Ellie Funt wanting to throw a tea party and what all her friends bring to the party. For quite some time, though, I found myself not reading the entire sentences. I thought that it seemed like such an odd name to give the character, so I would only say "Ellie" and skip the "Funt".

Do you see where I'm going with this story? Can you guess what kind of character Ellie might be? Here's a picture of Ellie and her friend Witzy:


Yep. Ellie Funt is an elephant. This I knew. It's hard to look at the picture and fail to notice she's an elephant. But it wasn't until I overheard Daddy reading the book that I realized where Ellie gets her last name. Funt. Ellie Funt. Get it?

OH MY GOD. I'm such an idiot. I think I've read the book dozens of times and always thought Funt was such a stupid last name. Someone, just flick my forehead for me please.

Bedding: The winner

I won't bother to show you all the bedding that I considered for Ellie's room (I'm trying to limit myself to being crazy like that for only baby nurseries), but I will show you the result.
It's not quite our number 1 pick, but when taking into consideration things like price and available stock, this is what we ended up with. I like it a lot, though, maybe even more than the others. I like how the flowers give the quilt a sense of irregularity. I wish there were butterflies on the quilt, but I still plan to add those to the room decor. I also love how many colors there are, so it should be easy to decorate around. I'll be sure to post pictures of the result.

On a related note, we took Ellie to look at big girl furniture. She had so much fun! I think she now believes that a big girl bed is like a jungle gym play set because her favorite beds were the ones way up high, where she had to climb a ladder or stairs to reach the bed. She did a lot of jumping, pretending to sleep and even reading books on the beds in the showroom. It was pretty cute, and for the rest of the evening she talked about her future big girl bed.

I hope she's not disappointed because we're not getting one of those sets. We loved them, but they're so much more expensive. Maybe we'll get her a loft bed when she's older?

We also got her a butterfly pillow for her new room. It's become her new favorite friend and she likes to carry it around by its antenna. I'm hoping that she'll be excited with the room that matches her new butterfly friend.

And since this post really isn't all that cute or funny (it is Monday morning, after all), I will end with this: When we asked Ellie what her butterfly's name was, she said, in as deep of a voice as she could, "Luke Fader." How random is that? Funny as heck, but still random. It reminds me of That's Some Pig's little girl imitating her father when he says "Luke, I am your father" whenever he has something in front of his mouth. These little ones always surprise us with laughter, don't they?

Big girl bedding fiasco

You'd think that the task of finding a cute girl's bed set with flowers and butterflies would not be a difficult thing to do, but it's proven to be quite a hassle. My first sweep of looking I found a handful of bed sets that I liked until my sister pointed out I'd be spending 2-3 times the amount on Ellie's bedroom as I did on my own room. That seems wrong. My second search led me to buy a set from JC Penney, only to later find out that it's back-ordered until June! We're on the third attempt and I finally found the perfect bedding!


Ok, ok. So it's not what I have in mind, but it would have been perfect for me! If I was Ellie's age, this would SO BE MY IDEAL BEDROOM!!! Strawberry Shortcake RULES! Sigh. Keep looking, Niffer. There is no way I am going to convince Daddy that a bright pink Strawberry Shortcake bed is anything but BRIGHT PINK.

Restaurant Physics

There is something about going out to a restaurant that means Ellie can not stop leaning on me. I can only think of three possible explanations for this:

1. Mommy's gravity pull is greater when in restaurants and little objects like Ellie have no choice but to be pulled in.

2. The air pressure inside a restaurant affects Ellie's inner ear, and thus her equilibrium is all messed up and thus she needs to lean on me for support because she's dizzy.

3. The flooring and ceilings inside restaurants are actually slanted. As one grows older, your body automatically adjusts for this restaurant skew, but since Ellie is so young, she has yet to master this skill. While everyone else leans to straighten themselves with respect to their surroundings, Ellie remains in a true vertical position.

Which do you think it is?

Baby's Size Today II

Baby is the size of a lime (about 2 inches long). Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was commenting on how cute my little kumquat baby was.

Old Mac Donald Today

It used to be that Ellie hated the Old Mac Donald song. She would cry every time we sang it. When she was old enough to say "No," she would repeat "No! No! No!" if we started with the whole E-I-E-I-O nonsense.

That has now changed, and since Cracker's Mom recently posted an adorable video that reminds me so much of Ellie a few months ago, I decided to tell you about our recent Old Mac Donald success. Apparently Ellie has decided the farm life isn't so bad after all. I've tried so hard to get it on video, but for now you'll have to settle for the words.

Without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present to you Ellie's version of the classic Old Mac Donald lyrics:

Ode Mc Donna farm.
E-I-E-YO!
Horse neigh.
E-I-E-YO!

Ode Mc Donna farm.
E-I-E-YO!
Horse neigh.
E-I-E-YO!

Ode Mc Donna farm.
E-I-E-YO!
Horse neigh.
E-I-E-YO!

Kids notice everything, don't they?

Last week when I swore I wouldn't write anything other than my "Our story" posts, I read this post from Amalah, whose blog I can't stop reading. It's really the last paragraph that brought tears to my eyes (I've been crying a lot lately, haven't I?). I am not looking forward to the day where Ellie lays in bed, going over the events of her day practicing how she could have handled things differently. I realize it's a step we all have to do and learn, and that it's actually a good thing for a child to do, but it'll still be heart breaking for me.

Bad day - good hair day

I nearly cried today when I picked Ellie up from daycare. We can blame it on the hormones, maybe. Maybe not. But let's explore why Niffer nearly cried, shall we?

Was it the big bruise that Ellie had on her nose? How does one fall so hard that they give themselves a black nose? Ouch! She told me all about the fall and how it hurt her nose and her finger. Then she said "Jana hug Lyla. Bett hug Lyla. Linay hug Lyla." I'm guessing the attention she got after her fall made it much much much more bearable.

Look at the scratches on her nose! And you can kind of see the bruise, but the flash washes it out quite a bit. Alas, it was not the bruise that got Niffer upset.

It was the hair. Ellie had her hair braided! Did you know her hair is long enough to BRAID???? I certainly didn't. Am I the only one who thinks that braids are for older children? Little ones should stick to the Pebbles ponytail look, don't you think? Their hair is just simply NOT LONG ENOUGH TO BRAID. Ellie's included. When did she pass that milestone?

But you have to admit, this little girl is awfully cute with braids. And now that they're in, I do not believe they will ever come out. I don't know how Miss Jana got them in - Ellie certainly never lets me touch her hair enough to do this kind of magic. They're so darn cute that as far as I'm concerned, I'm never taking them out. Let them fall out eventually, but I'm guessing these braids are good for a couple days!