Best Buds

Because this week is so busy, I was trying hard to hold off on posting this until next week, but I can't help it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures. So, here you go... Hopefully you can forgive me for posting twice in one day.

Ellie and her best friend are quite something. They have so much fun together. Here are some pictures of their latest game. When they see each other every morning, their faces light up and they can't wait to start see-sawing. It's the most adorable thing I think I have ever seen.

These girls invented a new game!
At school, it's the first thing they do every morning.
They refuse to see-saw with anyone else.
But they have all the kids joining in.
Blah!
Two adorable little girls, both in pig-tails!
They just don't make them any cuter!
Wee!
These girls have so much fun together.
They really are best buddies.

Wordless Wednesday VI

Daddy named you

Last night we were talking about baby names for the new one. It was more like I was *hoping* to talk about it, but at least the topic came up. We were talking about different types of names (unique vs. traditional) and different spellings (unique vs. common vs. ethnic). I told him in general I liked the unique names, but would pick the most common spelling regardless of what name I picked.

Moving on...

I admitted to Michael that I was scared of the baby being a boy because we had such a hard time coming up with a boy's name last time. Yet I am scared of the baby being a girl because I can't imagine finding a name I like as much as Ellie's. I told him that leaves one option: We have to have a gender-neutral baby.

Daddy: I'd rather not go that way, but we should name the baby Mo.
Mommy: Mo? That's horrible.
Daddy: (smiling) And we'll spell it M-A-U.
Mommy: You forgot the "x".
Daddy: (laughing) M-A-U-X. Maux. That's awesome! Can we name the baby Maux?
Mommy: We'd be telling the baby you named him.
Daddy. Maux. Awesome. Let's do it!
Mommy: I'll give you the next best thing.
Daddy: What's that?
Mommy: I'll blog about it.
Daddy: Deal.

Let it be known

I love my little girl more than anyone, including myself, can ever know. I can not imagine how horrible it must be to lose a child - to lose Ellie? I need to leave work right now and give her a big hug.

WHY WON'T YOU JUST SLEEP????

Ok, so this is a couple days old. Thank goodness nothing quite like this happened last night. Actually, over all it went well. Bun Bun went overboard once and then Ellie woke up a couple times complaining about "falling down". I think after Bun Bun fell off the bed she was scared it would happen to her too.

Anyway... from last week:

Up until last night I would say that Ellie is a pretty good sleeper. She usually goes to bed with little fuss and then sleeps through the entire night. We recently started to have to keep her door cracked open, but both my husband and I remember wanting our doors open when we were young too, so I think that's reasonable.

Then last night hit us. It was horrible.

Ellie didn't sleep. Instead she spent the majority of the night saying "Mom-meee. Mom-mee" over and over again for 5-10 minutes straight. Then she'd stop, giving us a false hope of it being over. 15-20 minutes later she would start it up again. It was like she was waiting *just* long enough to let us to almost fall back to sleep. If it weren't for the fact that I was specifically paying attention to the clock, I wouldn't believe she did that for most of the night. We didn't want to go in there because she wasn't upset, but she just WOULD NOT stop!

Tell me - why? WHY? WHY WOULDN'T SHE STOP TALKING???? And tell me I don't have to fear the consequences of her only getting a few hours of sleep (seriously I'm guessing 3-4 hours - tops, instead of her normal 11-12). We're doomed. So doomed. This may be the very last time you ever hear from Niffer. DOOMED I TELL YOU!!!

Big Girl Bed 1

Oh my god. I certainly did not wake up this morning with the knowledge that last night would be the last night with Ellie sleeping in a crib! But alas, here we are. The crib is down. The big girl bed is made. Ellie is ecstatic! She loves jumping on the bed and running around her room. Let's hope that's not a glimpse of what tonight holds for us. ACK!

Mor Dums Pease!

WARNING: If you happen to be Ellie's Daddy, DO NOT continue to read this post!

Finally, Daddy gets a break from his nightmare he's been in for the last month or so. About a month ago Ellie's grandma was nice enough to give us a CD filled with Bear Songs. It's been her favorite since. It has also caused Michael all sorts of torment.

Two songs in particular haunt him in his sleep: "Backpack Tree" (about how backpacks are a bear's favorite thing to eat) and "I can't wait to hibernate" (about how a few months of sleeping makes a bear feel great).

But there is hope. Apparently Ellie likes Paul Simon. Do you hear the angels singing hallelujah? I'm sure Daddy does. Don't you think it's a little weird that the very first NON children's song artist that Ellie likes is Paul Simon? More specifically, she LOVES the drums. Many of the songs on his Graceland CD have great drums and she likes it a lot - especially when we point out the many drums to her by taping along with the beat ourselves. The way we figure it, ANYTHING that can be done to get her to like this music, we'll do it!

In particular, her favorite song now seems to be "Call Me Al." I can't say I blame her. It's a great song.

So... What other artists use a lot of drums? LOTS OF DRUMS! MORE DRUMS!

Please, help us! For Daddy's mental sake!

Baby's size today III

Today my baby is the size of a medium shrimp. They make it sound so sweet. A shrimp, who, by the way, has all her eggs already (assuming it's a girl). I recall that being one of the statistics that blew me away last time too. 13 weeks into the pregnancy and a baby girl fetus already has all her eggs. Insane.

New blog - trial period

I had multiple friends (who, as far as I know, do not know each other) send me a link to a their "favorite mom" blog, where the lady wrote a post about vaccinations. Naturally, these friends of mine thought of me when they read it. LOL. Go figure. Oh, did I tell you that I quit the Boulder mom's yahoo group and started my own? Yeah, that apparently has made me quite the celebrity.

Anyway, here is the new blog. I haven't read enough yet to know if I like it, but I'm always fascinated when I'm introduced to a blog that manages to get hundreds and hundreds of comments on a single post. This one seems to be like Amalah on crack. She actually has to CLOSE comments to any given post! Insane!

If I end up liking the blog, I'll add it to my list on the right. Let me know if you end up liking it yourself.

MOUSE!

Some things are inherited. This I just have to accept, and poor Ellie will have to learn to deal with it herself. The last time Daddy went out of town for business, I learned that I was even more like my mom than I thought I was.

I recall one time when my mom was spending time with us and found a mouse. I don't want to details, but I do recall putting Ellie into bed and hearing Grandma squeal while she was putting the mouse outside. She made the neighborhood dogs bark, and in turn Ellie started barking. Funny stuff.

So, unfortunately I've inherited this trait from my mom, which I only found out recently. Apparently up until this episode, I've been lucky enough to have someone else around to deal with these scary creatures, so I never knew I had a problem with them. But meet Mr. Mouse. We discovered Mr. Mouse when Ellie wanted to take a bath in Mommy's tub. He provided lots of entertainment for Ellie, both in the thrill of seeing a mouse, and in the thrill of seeing Mommy not know what to do about it.

Oh my god! He's looking RIGHT at me! Stay calm. Stay calm, Niffer. We do not want Ellie thinking the mouse is dangerous or anything. There's no point in giving her nightmares yet. But, between you and me, I'm telling you, this guy isn't as cute and fuzzy as he is in pictures.

And here you see evidence that Mr. Mouse is planning how his mission to accomplish world domination. Look at the way he's clawing at that innocent butterfly's eyes! Evil.

If only Ellie was in this picture. I'm surprised she's not. She's leaning over the tub and Mr. Mouse is tricking her into thinking she should reach out and help him escape.

In the end, Mommy put Ellie to bed and captured Mr Mouse to put him outside. The following day Ellie ran to the tub to see the mouse again and came running back to say:

Ellie: Shhh! Mouse seeping!
Mommy: The mouse is sleeping? Show me? (Mommy is confused because Mommy KNOWS she was brave enough to put the mouse outside herself - Daddy wasn't around to do it).
Ellie: Yeah! I see? (leading Mommy to the bathtub).

Sure enough, there was Mr. Mouse (or his friend). Dead. No, wait. Sleeping. Ellie once again reminded Mommy to be quiet so not to wake the mouse. What a sweet little girl. And what a gross dead mouse. I bet he was faking it.

Blech.