Halloween interruption

I completely meant to post fantastic Halloween pictures (you know I have them) but something more important happened. Addie took her first steps on Halloween! Go Addie! CHECK. IT. OUT!



I always find myself at a loss for words when it comes to significant moments like this. I will point out, though, that I love how she had to be holding pencils in her hand, as if they gave her just as much stability as holding my fingers. Too cute.

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!!!