hard to post when

you sick.
coughing, teary  burning eyes
burning lungs...
and wanting to sleep non stop.
yup...they say i have bronchitis...but the antibiotics dont seem to be kicking in. bummer.
up all night hacking, NO FUN.
ellie is good though, yay and today is her first day back.
when she woke up i said "yay today is school."
and sicne she has not been in 2 weeks i knew she might resist a bit, "i dont want to go." she said sort of half heartedly. 
then i said "yay, you get to see sammy, bailey, ryan, liam, Khalil."  and she brightened up and said "and bailey..."  and then i said some more names and she goes "yea and  bailey..."
might be time for a playdate with bailey:)
she walked in totally fine, there is a new system with the snow and all.
we leave the boots in the little vestibule room, and then put on slippers and in she goes.  while i was getting her slippers, she was anxious. ":come on mom, let me in!"  she was into it. 
she did her wander thing and then hopped on the couch to read with one of the teachers.  she almost forgot to give me a hug, which is really a good thing, boy do i love that little girl.  even if half the time she saves a terrible whine for me and an inability to hear "no", or a  "later" from me.  what a nightmare...but the more energy I have, the more I am able to divert the attention and get her onto some other thought...but that takes energy folks...it is NOT easy.  always thinking on ones toes to try and avoid meltdown but also not giving in. whew.  exhausting. 
i now think that a work out daily when i am healthy again will give me the strength i need to be centered.

kicking snow off stuff with your poles

to me this is a pasttime that all children do, kick snow off trees and brush and anything with their poles...for that matter all adults do it too...it is just what you do. 
I love that ellie instinctually skiid over to the bush, making fresh tracks in our little bit of snow, and reached out to kick the snow off.
she skied all around our yard, i was stoked, she was amazing and really was so much better than last year but a HUGE part is last year her feet were too small to really be starpped in...this year they strap in perfect.  and she was good!  our main issue is bad mitten sizing...she ditched them, i was hoping she would not fall, which she did not *whew* cause that might have been a deal breaker with cold hands and all.

she woke up all stoked we were going to  a holliday party...she got dressed and started spinning super fast on our sit and spin, she is good!  it was a good start to the day...

then we headed outside so we dressed her in her snowpants, which we got her patagonia snowpants at the outlet for cheap cheap cheap and THEY ARE WARM WARM WARM...they blow away our other llbean or hannah ones, they are sooo warm!  yay.  and they zip up and all around, so she could go potty without taking everything off, which ROCKS.

before skiing we made snow angels and made a snowman, which her first thought "can i knock it down?"  i told her no, i am hopping she can learn to hear no, and she did hear it, and instead patted the little guy on the head.
OUR FIRST SNOW AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL...windy but sunny bluebird day...NICE

the work party was nice aside from my health declining at an all time speed...but ellie was a star, she acted so well, i was really stoked...i say act because lately i am not sure that is her normal disposition anymore.  she was sweet and pleasant, and fun, and cute...

she did decorate cookies and she did not totally get the handle on "sprinkling the sprinkles..."  maybe thats cause she lives in new england and they call them jimmies here, and who would know you need to sprinkle jimmies?  justa  thought. or maybe she is 2.5 years old and a little young for decorating cookies?  hmmm...but since she never has sweets at home...she was stoked on eating the cookie.

when we did get home, bath time for ellie while daddy cooked, it was perfect teamwork, and then we all sat for dinner in the dining room.  after dining room she asked for four more minutes to play...i timed it, which really works with her for whatever reason and i am going with it, and she had this whole setup with her baby where she made a bed out of two chairs...she told me how it was cozy and her favorite, can't you tell in this picture she is really telling me? when we went upstairs, she got al;l panicky that her baby had woken up...and i think to her it is really real...(of and she was doing bouncy bouncy bally with baby as she sat on the ball and bounced baby before bed)  anyway i told her i went down and checked on baby and she was alright. i know that if i did not, the temper tantrum woudl have flared up and she would have never slept...so that worked out well, i think in some ways I am dialing in on the imaginary play and how realy it is.

fantasy versus truth tellling

so there are things ellie has picked up along the way that i am not so stoked about.
one is when she is throwing a tantrum or resisting (like standing up as straight as she can, locking her knees when she does not want to try and go potty...love that)  she says "stop it."  but she says it a lot...enough to drive me crazy...Me:  "let's go night night"  ellie "stop it."  etc...just now listening in on the sound monitor she is in her dream going
"stop it."  she can't be stopped on the stop it.

the other thing she said at dinner tonight when her and i were eating was "you are mean to me."  and she was saying this in her mischevious little smile voice.  I asked, "Oh, how am i mean to you?"  and she goes "you hit me." still squirmy and smiling.  I cannot even imagine where she got this from?  I mean we have never even I dont think said the word hit?  Maybe in her on goings with toddlers, maybe someone hit...but really they dont hit, they pull, grab, bite, tackle, but hitting is not even part of that repitoire.  so where woudl she get the word, no less say i hit her...so aside from wondering where the word came from and wondering if she really even knows what that means to say that...I wondered what i was supposed to say to it.  Clearly she is fabricating up a story...
which minutes ahead of this she made up this whole elaborate story about a grasshopper...and boy it was like it really happened.
so the dilemna: encourage fantasy and imagination, but also encourage truth telling?
I wanted to address how she was not telling the turth about me being mean or hitting, but i also want to encourage her to make up her nutty stories about grasshoppers that sounds completely real.
I had to address the lying though.  I mean it is not right to make up stories about what other people do.  I guess that is the approach.  any suggestions?  I took her down off her stool (of course she said stop it) and spoke to her eye to eye about telling the truth about what people do.  I told her you cannot make ujp stories about what other people do, because we want to believe you.  (lilke if she said a friend did blah blah...I want to know that what she is saying is true)...
this is a hard distinction...any suggestions are very welcomed.
my new idea is to have a moms book club of mothers of toddlers and we read toddler books, and then meet and talk about being a mom to a toddler and share n ot only the bliss, which we always share, but the moments of just difficluty.  i appreciate my ftriends all can eb so honest with each other about how hard it can be. sometimes venting is just the thing you need and then you can reboot to deal with the non stop factor of it all.

yay snow!

when we left nolan's house for our liil' afternoon playdate, ellie took off...(like she did last night also...) she ran, but this time, into grass covered with snow. it was cold and wet, but her joy was contagious and DELIGHTFUL...

it was a quintessential toddler moment, i wish i ran in and got nolan, cause ellie was a gleeful little girl giggling and screeching "yay" as she ran in big circles in the snow as the snow fell and there was this wet coat of snow on the grass, and she then ran away from me giggling and giggling...
it was so sweet.

at nolan's they tried out nolans new skiis, ellie's new rides are in the shop getting fitted to her boots. they walked around in boots. they felt sooo cool.

it was fun to all be together again, i feel so blessed to have a ncie circle of friends who make me laugh and feel good. yay

another funny thing was how they both wanted to watch the snow fall.  it actually was a bit of a tantrum causing thing.  at home when ellie woke up and realized the snow was fallling she came into the bathroom where i was and because the lower sash in the window is frosted she could not watch the snow fall...yup tantrum...then when we got to nolan's and they wanted to watch the snow fall ity caused a similar thing, except then they figured out to pull their chairs up to the window and sit and watch...whcih of course were too low, as they sat and watched the wall, so ellie then stood on her chair and watched the snow fall.  i don't know why, but the joy and wonder in a toddlers first real cognizant snowfall is really cool to me.  I did not know how stoked they woudl  be on this phenomenon.  this age is really cool, minus the tantrums.

cheerleaders?

so there are ways alicia keeps me in check. the whole jumping off the couch thing is hard to resist as it really si so fun for the gals, esp now that we dont go out as much. so i let ellie yesterday so it...today when others were over she tried jumping off the couch on top of trains and so I told her to go jump off the coffee table. Alicia and Stacey did not look thrilled by this prospect, so they tried al they could to divert zan's attention, but zan's buddy ellie was calling her "zan! zan! zan!" so zan went in, and ellie was sure enough jumping off the table and so zan got up and tried.

it became a really fun cheerleading dance kind of show of sorts...they were so into it. but i know deep down having her jump off furniture is not the best idea, since we dont want her to go to other people's house and jump off theirs, and if their parent says can you do this at home?" she willsay "yes." (alicia reminded me of this, it does make me feel like it is not a good idea...- oh what to do? what to do?)

the two of them really make me laugh!

post traumatic sick syndrome

yes this I have discovered is a seemingly common phenomenon. After a child is sick for many days, the day they get better they become a nightmare! Ellie was beligerant, tantrum throwing, srying and whining non stop, demanding, yelling "stop mom" no matter what i did type of toddler yesterday and it was really really hard.
the worst is, "I want tssee tsee in the crib..." I might even get her to say it nciely, with please...then i go get it...and the screaming begins "I dont want tsee tsee in the crib, i dont want tsee tsee in the crib..."
and imagine that being screamed 20000 times, with no matter what i do to calm her down...and then the next thing starts..."i want..." get it, and then :i dont want..." over and over...this type of thing IS AWESOME...(note heavy heavy dripping sarcasm)

it is tough to keep an active toddler mello when they are recovering from being yuckified. in the house she found any thing to make her active...
1. bouncing balls around the house
2. jumping off the coffee table
were among the big ones.

so yesterday to keep her mello i put her in her stroller and then walked downtown, where she had my old phone (i recently upgraded to a fancy pants phone with a PDA) and she "called alicia and zan"
here is her mommologue with them...(the phone is not hooked up...FYI so this all is imaginary

"Hi...HI...Hi aunty alicia is zan with you what you doing?" (noticed little hand turns up..she talks that way)

"uhhh we going on a little walk to downtown, whats your doing alicia and zan?"

"Ok. something something...ok"

I was able to start off the day mellow: with looking at her first year photo album which she loves, and also dressing up in princess outfits.

The day ended with a gtrip downtown to midnight merriment to purchase a dollhouse for bubba and bapa to give to ellie...we have been waiting for this night forever to buy it since there are sales...ellie was so excited to be OUT that she saw the big closed down main street to car traffic, and it was still early, so it was empty, and we ran into alicia stacy zan and their sitter tory, and ellie saw them, and bloted straight down main street, running.
we did then stand on a short line to get a pic with santa, and that was fun...

the night ended with a party with some of our buddies from around our town...i have not laughed so hard in forever, i think i was tearing from laughter like 10 times, it was great. I love our friends, it is a really nice feeling to be part of a good community of just beautiful folks...

this one is named stinky...stinky is flying in front on Mike as he tries on the jacket jason gave me from his 1980's collection of ski gear that I am supposed ot wear this winter...yes a neon ANORAK...which i believe went by the wayside as bad ideas...but it is RETRO!

longest running fever

Ellie started her fever Friday night, or saturday morning, however you look at it.  Still last night she went back up to 102, 6 days running.
When she takes motrin it actually brings it down a bit to a reasonable level and in fact the past day she went all the way down to normal, but once the drugs , as as she calls it "the orange medicine"  (which BTW she LOVES- scary), wear off, the fever is back up.
Two morning ago she woke up spiked to 103 and threw up all over me this liquid junk.  She was so miserable.

The nice thing is the day before she wanted to go outside and it was kind of nice out, so we packed up and I went for a run...ahhhh to go out.  It was heaven.  she took this process seriosuly doing flip flop over the top with her jacket and finding her sunglasses (that was a first, she wore them the whole time)...she looked quite styly. 

i of course cramped her stle by putting a big old jacket over her vest to keep her warm on a colder day.  i also made her go potty before we left...ahh moms!  she ended that day good too with coloring and painting and getting into every mode of color display on paper...it was acually fun to see her so into something again...ahh my gal is coming back...

and yesterday she played inside but very actively, so thats good, i think, on the other hand her fever came back up and one has to wonder if we shoudl force her to do nothing so she kicks this thing, but how do you do that to a toddler, plus when they look all stoked, it is really nice.

today we were supposed to have our friends come over and have a little pre party to downtown midnight merriment and we had to bail on the kid play part, what a bummer...poor ellie has not seen her buddies in a long time!

still sick...102.5

sick ellie

so sad

never been a mama bear to such a sick little bear.  she is so sick.  puffy red dark eyes, (kinda like, hmm, adams family look) streaming liquid out of her eyes, and just wants to snuggle  and lean on me..."i love mommy" and snuggling my arm..."i am snuggling you"

to top it all off, ellie's room had to be dismantled today so that the plumber, this new guy Dan  who rocks..., anyway he redid the heating in her room since i was afraid of lead dust in her heater, so she got all new heaters in there, and it cost us 300 less than the original quote.  he was so clean and respectful.  and ellie has new heaters in her room yay!  now we can turn in the heat upstairs, which we never had really, and so last year we slept in oh 41 degrees...so this will rock..(ellie had her own electirc heaters always)

i put her room back together, with poor ellie crying and whining about this that and the other thing.  but it had to be done, and now she is fully sleeping...she went down with a 102.8 fever and now it is down to 100.1, hour later.
whew...

we have a tree!

well we packed ellie up in her seemingly better health...and headed to go chop (saw) down our tree.

jason likes big trees, and really in the end so do i, it is so nice in our living room right now.

ellie was not herself, her eyes were a constant stream of liquid, she sort of got into the whole tree cutting thing, but woudl not walk really and was not running around. (in this picture, she is not sleeping, she is moaning)
then she went downhill from there, her fever went up again to 102...nothing a little tylenol did not help...
and then her eyes were not just tear tear tearing, but also snot was coming out of here eyes...not like junk of pink eye, but like a runny eye?

finallly by the end of the day, her eyes were like puffy red bags, i decided to call doctor...and to my amazement, they took her in on a sunday night, and let us know she has a virus of sorts that might end wednesday.  i SOOO hope it ends earlier, for her happiness, for my work, and really for my own sanity.
she is so needy, needing me by her side at all moments.
she wanted to watch braddah iz, and she had me sit right next to her...finally i was able to put lights on the tree...then sit right next to her...if i got up to go out of the room to wash my hand or soemthing, her little body would follow me around.

then if she did not get what she wanted she woudl whine, but really not even if she did not get what she wanted, more like a constant whine.  and sort of whimper...she obviously feels awful, it is so sad.
really heart breaking, but i have to say by 5:30 i am pau...it is tough.  the whining, the neediness of 24-7./..on one hand it is sweet because if she has me all to herself, she is so cozy and yummy, and teary and snotty too...but it is hard to do nothing all day.
[insert pic of tree up]

i am so stoked our tree is up though...and the house is getting christmas-y...yay...i LOVE this holiday...even though i am not really christian.
we have had nothing but luck with our trees, always beautiful and perfect...
since 2004 we have gotten our trees on thanksgiving weekend, since in Hawai'i trees ran out...so we would get them that early, then we stuck with that plan because you really get to maximize your tree vibe in your home...yahoo...last year we pushed the envelope and kept it till valentines day!  the only year we did not get a tree together was 2007 because ellie was a baby and we moved into our new home, and sora gave us a loaner fake four foot tree, which was perfect:)
2003:  tree at kings hway in hampton, nh that we bought in a side of highway 1 lot, perfect tree
2004: i think we did not do a tree?  maybe bought a norfolk pine...and decorated it in hilo, HI
2005:  tree from wal-mart in hilo, HI
2006: tree from wal-mart in hilo, hi
2007: fake four foot tree since we just moved in.
2008:  cut tree from scammons tree farm, beautfiul full tree
2009:  cut tree from rossview farm

a day in hiding

last night at 3 am, i had been sleeping in ellie's room, first time in a long time, due to jj's "digestion issues" :) anyway LUCKY i was on there cause she was whining, and then she sort of liquid-y burped...then later whined and whined.
when i went over, her tsee tsee was wet and smelly...so i took that and her pillow out, both wet, asked her what happened (I was thinking maybe her water bottle, i was half asleep too) "I don't know, i hiccuped...or...no, i don't know what happened."
so i held her and realized she WAS ON FIRE.  so hot, amazing how a fever makes a child so hot to touch. 102.5 fever.  among her highest.
what is amazing is how FAST tylenol brings a fever down...and by morning gone...only i dont know if it takes a while to wear off, cause by 11 ish she was back up to 99.9.
she was so liquidy in her eyes today and her nose was a constant stream of liquid...
we watched a lot of milo and otis and sesame street, read six million books (a lot of her new ones from the scholastic order, yippeee, fun to have new books and seasonal ones:))

among the whining and wet nose and eyes she played a little with all her new toys from isabelle and griffin, like her new cool plastic vanity thing, where we put her brushes and bracelets etc into and redesigned her dress up area...yay.

thanksgiving

family hug!
when we left tonight and left everyone, bapa, bubba, omi, giulio, uncle stef, auntie sara, hudson and tucker, ellie could not stop hugging everyone, she kept going up to each leg of an adult and hugging it...at one point she was hugging tucker under a bunch of adults, and she looked up and said FAMILY HUG...tucker cruised, but she got to be in the middle of a major family hug.

she loves her family...and her friends for that matter.  we had breakfast this morning with the kim and jeff clan and in the middle of her seemingly seventh clementine, she was all "this is our whole family..."  It was sweet, and griffin initiated a go around of all of us saying what we are thankful for...and i said "to being together AND finishing the race."

Thanksgiving morning kim motivated me to register for our third year on a row to run the turkey trot in port.  the first year isabelle joined us for the last third mile, then last year she ran the last mile with kim, and this year she did the WHOLE THING..she is 8 years old and ran the 5 miler in under an hour!  way to go.  me, well i ran in 10:16's...but i thought i would walk it, so i was feeling stoked...of course back in the day i placed in this thing...but no more.  i am ok with it, sort of.

 Jeff ran with isabelle...so most of us ran in a few years i would love it if ellie and griffing joined too...jason will always be support.  he is no runner, and he really is ok with it:)  we saw pete at the end of the race, and his brother won the whole thing, pretty awesome!  then he was like "lets go get a beer" at 10AM...funny...love NY.

our trip to NY rocked...and we had a great time with friends and family...it was super relaxing and a time for jj and i to get back on track..which is really nice.

being with family was awesome too, ellie and tucker played really nicely together...and Omi set up a really nice little baby corner of dolls, and kim handed us down a baby bath and changing table..

she had that tackling issue that they just did not want to be tackled and she thought, "big boys...tackle!"  she often calls them tucker and hudson, but this trip she started with "the boys"  "will the boys be there?"  "Bye boys" she said as she headed out with us...and she really just adores them, she just wanted to be around them all the time...and the cute thing was there were a lot fo times she would be doing her own thing and we would here tucker "Ellie!"

seeing bubba and bapa was the best. 

Bapa read "monster at the end of the book" with grover...and ellie was a little young and got scared but it was really cute seeing bapa and all the grandkids...it was awesome.

 BUbba and ellie continued their awesome bond too, when ellie was supposed to nap, she asked that bubba put her down...and while ellie did not go down (I forgot our trap...i am going to have to figure out how to travel as she really does not fit in the pack and play anymore) she got all this special time with bubba snuggling...which just was awesome for her.

After thanksgiving dinner we took a whole family nice walk to the town docks.  it is sort of tradition in our family to go for walks after we eat, or ast least be outside.  actually riht after dinner we kicked and sort of watched football and ellie fell asleep on my lap while we played UNO...there was a lot of UNO playing.  it was so sweet to have her sleep on me.  I tried to transfer her, bad move.  oh well...then we all went for a walk.  daddy and ellie had a really nice time in the sunset...it was beautiful out...

we don;t have many pictures of Omi because she really did a lot to make this weekend work.  she cooked and cleaned constantly, alkways putting stuff away, making sure everything was just so.  she slept on a small twin and gave us her bed so we could all sleep together under one roof, which really meant the world, because often it is that quiet time down when the kids play and we all connect, like playing UNo a ton.  it really was nice how she made this all work.  Thank you Omi...I fee like the backdrop to the whole weekend was OMi and her cozy home and her hospitailty..but i just don't have many pictures of her.  I did not get a lot of Thanksgiving pictures because my camera disc broke and i took pics with sara and stefs, but i forgot to download them...oh well...so sorry Omi, but I want you to know we are beyond grateful you made this work and happen, and thanks Giulio for also sharing your home with our whole big crazy family...YAY!

generous moms

last week i noticed a kid who had this farmer john shortie wetsuit.  it is awesome with adjustable velcrov...
i figured out who the mom was, (this kid was in a sans mom in the pool kid as he is older) and approached her and asked about it.  she told me about it:  http://warmbelly.com/..i went and it is really cool this mom who also had a kid who was not liking swimming because he was cold...just like ellie!  the pool is cold...and half way through gets cold...it sort of is a buzz kill.

today ellie was all set up in her suit...but when we got out to the pool deck... this woman said she had a smaller one...and she brought it in!  and she gave it to us!  I want to get her a gift to thank her because this was such an act of kindness...really nice.  the thing rocks...i do wonder if it adds a bit of bouyancy that might end up not being good for ellie...but hopefully it is fine and she is warm and stoked...

so ellie's swim successes.
SWIMMING ROCKS and the perch class is really awesome.
I am really stoked for ellie, she is learning.  she swam today with her bubble all over the place...she swam from the deep end after jumping off the swim block (see in background of ellie's pic grinning) and I swam infront and had her trying to reach me, and she kept laughing and swimming toward me...and we made it to the short oend of the pool FULL LENGTH...coolio.
she jumped off and then asked tyo jump and go under...so i said "hold her nose.."
then ms suzanne told me not to tecah that and teach them to blow, so they have both hands...
that was cool and ellie did it...she jumped in solo and got wet etc...it was awesome.
she also paddled today, not just kicking..she did such an amazing job swimming.
she also jumped into  a pile of spaghetti...tons of noodles in a pile...fun!

Ellie wanted to wait for ms suzanne before she jumped in and always wanted to make sure that we were doing the "right thing" so she went up to her and asked if she could jump in...
like ms suzann was having this thing where they chose a fish and then jumped in as a fish and swam to mom...i was all ready to do it with ellie...but ellie had to wait for ms suzanne...and find out that she could do it and jump with ms suzanne watching.

she is a rule follower.

hair, green princesses, car seats and party

gals love pigtails...zoe, lizzy and ellie showing off their pigtail hairdos.

daddy worked on windows today...ellie dressed up, in her new green princess dress we scored for 1$ at a yard sale...and she put a hat on her head and she looked...beautiful:)  heh heh.

new car s eat!  Ellie grew out of her car seat, so she had to get the next one up...the five point harness which switches to the lap belt, and then a booster without the back...graco nautilus...it is rated high on safety in side impact etc...179.99 later...yikes.  but i guess safety is really one thing i am not skimping on...and it seems perfect. zoe gave her a christmas monkey...

we spent the evening at kaydens for her dinner party...it was awesome meeting her community.  cool cool people who all just seem awesome...kids thrown in the mix, a toddler 17 months...and it just was fun to be there...and hanging out...and kayden made AWESOME food..YUM...we ate soup, spanikopita, etc...YUM...ellie ate bread and fed the other toddler food...cute.

"where's that one going?"

"ellie, what was your favorite part of today?"
"hiking!"
"which hike, the first one or the second one to the waterfall?"
"waterfall..."
minutes passed as we drove home
"both, actually."
minutes passed...maybe like ten...silence with night night music
"mommy? 
Yes
where's my birch bark?"
"the birch bark from auntie heather?"
"I wanna hold it now..."
At 6:15 am when it was dark out, i heard "mommy, I'm awaaaaake."

I went into ellie's room and she was already to go downstairs..."is zannydoodle awake?"  i had to tell ellie that the sleepunder ended early as zannydoodle needed to go home. (we ended out week with a fun playdate where the girls pretty much played solo with babies and then jumped in the playpen and played and played...and did awesome!  then we had a pre t-day feast with 2 chicken roasts mashed potatoes...YUM...it was really really aawesome to hang and kick, we are so blessed to have good friends.
the best was when zan girl said the prayer...in a tiny tiny lil voice...and since we were all holding hands, ellie whipped into "ring around the rosie..."
clearly the child has not had a lot of prayer.
anyhoo so in the dark in the morning after i broke the news no zannydoodle... i asked her if she wanted to drive to uncle donny's and pack up and hustle out and drive to conway...or stay home and kick...
"i wanna poack up and go..."
thattagirl.
i packed up all her stuff...a lot of stuff...just in case we were staying there...and for nap time and everything...

so ellie packed up two bags for babies...with bak up clothes, blankies and diapers and "fajamas" I love the mimicry.

so we headed up to conway...it is only a 1.5 hour drive...amazing. 
we had a morning hike and an afternoon hike to diana's baths...
then dinner at flatbread after a cool toystore excursion.
it was really nice to spend more time with the twins and the two of them.

ellie got to hold baby charlotte...who they call charlie...and ellie called zsa zsa...and she was all about her baby too...and "playing with winnie.." and "helping" as she got their sippy cups and bottles and paci's.

i dont know why but it was just awesome to be with them, hanging out in a place i have spent a ton of really fun times, and with such awesome friends.
it is funny how they are four people and i think the names got overwhlmeing so she referred to everytone as that one...when donny move his car "where's that one going?"

and ellie had such a nice time.  i love that heather gave her the birch...and hope tomorrow to color on it...and i love that they engage ellie, who looks 4 and is only 2...it was nice to have a fun mommy ellie day on a weekend even when daddy was hunting...it felt like a real adventure.

of course while at dinner out, my first time in a restaurant without daddy with me while with ellie, and ellie had to poop "I need a diaper."  i know that ellie poops in her diaper and then needs to kind of hang out for a while before she is pau...so thinking fast, where to go where to go...and i thought behind the couch!  donny thought...quite reasonably..."the bathroom."  so in this picture ellie is hiding...

ever wonder how fast a baby grows into a toddler?

we visited with lara and baby elias, who borrowed ellie's bassinet co-sleeper. ellie had to climb in it, not that she knew that this was hers, she just loves to climb in stuff...and baby stuff especially.  elias is no longer in it, as he is now in his crib..this bassinet rocks...look at how much ellie has grown from april 2007 to nov 2009, wow.

baby elias and ellie played really sweet together, considering the age differnece of a year and a half, but it was super cute.  they just seemed super sweet together...it was really nice to be together...little elias is really emerging into a little boy!  he is sooo cute.  he looks a lot like al i think.

baby bears! on the loose!

today, among my sore throat and never ending illness, i ventured out for an hour to the playground...I feel badly ellie has been in clamp down, aside from school.  we have not seen zan girl in over a week, a first, like, ever.

so we met them for a brief playground excursion.
and it was sunny, and frosty...(17 or so last night) so they slipped and slid on some of the frost...but then ellie got this idea in her head that she was a baby bear and she was in her cave...then she wanted me to come in.

The cave: I wonder about this often when we are with other kids, she often asks me to play with her or follow her or play chase, but i wonder if she knows she can ask kids...so when in a play date type scene i try to deflect and ask her if she wants to have the kid we are playing with play instead...and often she says no...
but when we roared and all that, zan got into it...and then the two little bears ran around, and back to their cavem roaring...
then ellie started calling zan zanny bear...

they ran, laughed, at one point zan girl actually tackled ellie, and ellie of course tackled her back, but they were happy being a bear pile...
then they played chase, which is ellie's way of instigating playing together rather than just parallel play.
they are really beginning to play...
it was fun to watch them, and just pure joy and delight
aside from ellie pushing zan away from her swing and trying to grab her food...all was good with the baby bears.

i'm sitting like buddha

ellie has some serious odd leg directions, we saw an orthopod about her knock knees and so forth and it turns out that she might or might not have a long lasting gig with her legs...this knock knees and weird directions of the femur and knee etc (if left her knees touch...but then the bottom of her legs turn out)  tends to peak at age 3 and then by age 6 disappear for most.
apparently sitting in the W form is NOT good for kids...and especially ellie with her disposition of her legs...
so we are supposed to correct her...which mean all the time.

now she is 2.5  and i am constantly correcting her right now on whining...yes whining, it is like a phase...i hope. is this developmental?  or what is the deal, but i am constantly dealing with whining.
so with that constant correction, then having to correct her on her legs is just not fun.

so while she was in the bath tonight "ellie, make sure your feet are in front..."
and ellie turns her feet so she is sitting cross legged, and she looks at me and says "I'm sitting like Buddha."

this little belly girl sitting cross legged in the tub, saying "I'm sitting like Buddha..."

she said and claims she got that from Omi?

friends

sometimes old freinds, the people who you have known for so long, the people you went through a zillion experiemces with, can just lift your heart.  their smile you know so well...the things that make you laugh...its just lifting.
Being sick and a bit stressed, donny coming by was a JOY.  and ellie is sort of funny around new people, and does not always warm up...and boy, she warmed up to donny INSTANTLY.  she like loved him so much that she was like "LOOK AT ME..."  "look at me..."  she just wanted him to compliment her on everything...

The day began with doll time, endless baby time.  in her bedroom she woke up with them and sat in the rocking chair, then she put raggedy ann in the rocking chair night night and "big baby" (the one aunt lizzy gave her) in the cradle...and then she covered each with a blanky (tsee tsee)  and then she gave each a doggie, swami and roo...

when i did her hair for the day, i gave her real pigtails, a first.  amazing how long her hair is growing.  it was fun.  and i love how she still sucks her thumb and she still does pinchy pinchy...really she does "belly button."  here she is eyeballing my belly button.

kick, paddle, jump, swim!

ellie's swim class pretty much rocks.
today she swam like 5 feet from me to the wall SOLO with her bubble.  she mainly kicks, VERY VERY little paddleing.  and when she does there is no reach, it is like little fists.
then we swam to the deep end and there are the race block and the teacher had them touch them and walk on them, and then if anyone wanted they could jump...and sure enough, ellie was stoked.  she walked right up on the thing, and when i asked her if she wanted to jump, she was like "yea!" while other kids would not even touch the block, ellie was pro...she jumped off into my arms...and was so into it.
at one point she said "I want to go under..." so i put her under and she was not itno it and said no more...but i think it is her eyes that freak her out.
but she blew bubbles, she really swam a lot, and the whole time was laughing and having so much fun...it was awesome.

when francis got there ellie was stoked, afetrwards we had a little playdate which was fun too.  they played nicely together aside from ellie's tackling issue. lots of dress up, and the sorts.

cuz's birthday

ellie's first cousin on her daddy's side had his fourth birthday party.  ellie and cam play nicely together; cam has this camo army truck bunk bed thing, it is pretty wild. 

the bottom is like a fort which ellie wanted to play night night, i dont think cam got the gist of what playing night night means...they climbed to the top and played together...he ahd a game set up there with lilttle marbles and dragons...

it was nice to be with ellie's family. daddy almost did not come because he was going to hunt, but he came and i think it all meant so much to ellie.  i have to remember that no matter what, jason's family is her family, and always will be,  are  forever important to her.  it is amazing to watch how well her and cam play together...and how she looks like the people there, like cam, and grammyS.  family is a wild thing.

and cam has first cousins on the other side, and so ellie cousins were there through marriage and that was fun too.  it was cool to see so much family together. OHANA.

on a side my health is so poor going was a real push...i need to take another day completely off and sleep  my throat head lungs...taking a beating.  yuck

bita bug

the imaginary play is on the up and up with ellie.
she fully plays with the kitchen, and this day she was getting baby some food, sushi...

she ran to her kitchen to get his sushi and ran back to put it on ellie's high chair...

this morning she was somehow in her tunnel and decided she was a bug in her nest...she kept saying she is a bug...etc..then ellie went in the nest and she was pointing laughing "bita bug!"

tonight she wanted to comb my hair and she had this little brush...it was killing my scalp...then ellie comes back with this whole bag of brushes and combs for dress up that isabelle gave us, and she had a beauty salon and combed my hair, then she gave daddy one. 

random

i leave in two days for atlanta GA for a conference.  It is the first time I am flying without ellie since she was born, and I don't want to go.  It is a real fear, and I remember LIz always saying she would not fly without her kids, and now I get it.  I also have not ever been away from ellie and not seen her for more than 22 hours.  I will not see ellie for 48 hours. Tomorrow am till saturday am.

the past week seems sort of timeless and sort of blendy...like yesterday blended into today and so forth, aside from some work trauma...anyhoo notes of mention:  ellie and raggedy ann, who she today loves more than any other baby.  Woke up with her, when i put her down raggedy ann also had to hear the books i was reading, she had to put her down, etc.  i also had to witness her meltdown that raggedy ann had to come for her bath, then when i took her from her crib to the bathroom she melted down because I forgot raggedy ann's bedding.
BUbba gave her this doll because she loved her when she was young, and ellie now loves her.  its really sweet

speaking of metldown...awesome time at the playground today, we had our first public metldown...it was AWESOME.  yes i had to clamp down and leave.  I was mortified as through the silent fun laughter ellie's screaming echoed through the playgrouynd, it rocked.

also, just as a note:  ellie has a  nice nose.  I hope she does not get mine, one of my features i have never been totally fond of.  and hers is slopy and nice.

being in a hood

we, J and I, was reflective people, who always wonder...and one of the things we wonder about is:
home.
where do we belong?  rural or urban?
Currently urban, and often long for the big lawn and stone wall beyond that and woods beyond the wall...
right now,tiny, yard, fence beyond that and someone else's yard...
but today was a day that made me truly stoked to be in a hood.
ellie did NOT nap long AT ALL...(typical culprit...the whole diaper not peeing thing before hand...its not even worth putting her down if she does not go potty first...cause then she can't really fall asleep or she does but it wakes her up.

anyway...so i heard her say "I'M AWAKE..."  and then zan boy called and asked if ellie could play.  I don't know what gets him to think "ellie..."  but when he does, ellie is THRILLED.  so i asked him if he wanted to come over or if she should come over...he thought about it and said "I'll come over..."
they played outside the whole time cause IT WAS ALMOST 70 OUT...SO NICE...
the timing was perfect, and the best was covering the slide in leaves and they slid down it.
ellie was so happy to play with him, it was so nice he could just walk over for 45 ninutes...easy.

ellie also was so stoked to have a buddy to tackle!  she loves to tackle...and a big boy...as she said "he's a big boy."  so she went for it.  he was gracious enough to let her tackle her and win a few...
the best was putting all our dry leaves up on the slide and having them slide down and just have a blast with leeaves...it warms my heart ellie is loving fall. she already wants to trick or treat again and have another halloween party...

i'm just the little girl who holds her

Today ellie was carrying her baby up to naptime.  (she basically packs up a bag or backpack wih blankie's, back up pajamas, and diapers wherever we go).
She walked into the room before we climbed the stairs to her bedroom and she said "I am sad..." I asked why and she said "because abby was hiting my belly"  so I said  "baby stop hitting (i paused not knowing what she thought her role was, but then took a stab) your mommy in her belly, it is hurting her."
ellie looked at me and said "no..." and she was searching for words, her mouth was doing that moving thing without words trying to let me know she wasn't hitting me, but her...
so i asked "are you the baby's mommy?"

"no...I am just the little girl who holds her."

babies and friends

heron came over and the gals played.  The toddler factor was sort fo high today needing a  bit of intervention of the grabby grabs and the sharing thang...but all in all it worked out well and they actually interacted a bit in that parallel kind of way...mainly lets do what each other does but not really together kind of way.  They had to have what each other had, like here each had to have a spreader knife...but they couldn't put it down the crack of the table, which is of course all they want to do...so they incited each other on that while us moms tried to stop the madness...fun.

Today was such a fall day.  crisp, cold a little windy, you knew you were getting rosy cheeks.  we went for a walk but first they played in the yard and we made a leaf pile the other day at the bottom of the slide, and so the two of them went down the slide like 6000 times into the leaf pile. 

After slide city...they clikmbed the monkey bars...together kind of...

no matter where ellie went today she had  a baby with her.  she is not attached to any one baby mind you..but she took one with her on the walk, to the playground, to the yard, to zan's house...and each time she packed a little bag with a diaper and back up clothes...when we got to zan's house in the afternoon i did not know what the deal was and what she wa ssaying until i realzied she was saying "i want the second pair of fajamas..."  yes she calls pajamas fajamas...and she wanted the back up pair.

Then it was off to the playground, where they played and climbed and ran around...they held hands while sliding...

if ellie climbed something, then heron did...and then ellie followed her...they took turns on who followed who, but the playground was fun...albeit cold. 

I think 2.5  is among the best years for playgrouns, they LOVE THEM. here they look like teens to me hanging out...ellie is chillin.

they left at nap time and after nap time we went up to alicia's for a quick little playdate, they ate and each had babies and played.  (here baby is in her second pair of fajamas...)  cool puppet theatre...at one point alicia had a puppet on a blue alligator type thing and it was asking ellie to say please etc...and ellie was talking to the puppet as if it were totally real...it is so cool where they are at because the puppet is really real to them...i love that.

not exactly

so things about ellie lately.
Today I asked her if she had done something she was supposed to have done, her response:
"Not exactly."

At another point today i was driving and it was getting dark out (time change, whew...it be dark earliiiiii!) she said:
"mommy, do you know i love you?" smiling ear to ear. I smiled ear to ear and was just blown away by her smiling and happiness.

at another point she asked Heron something and Danielle responded for Heron and Ellie said:
"I asked her!"

(gotta watch the 'tude)

Update on potty city:
ellie pees in the potty. after her brief setback along with her UTI, she is rocking.

I have not talked about this:
she got a UTI and they presrcibed spectrum without knowing what the actual bacteria was in the urine. well then a week later 8 days into 10 days of a presecription of antibiotics, they called and told me that she should switch to amoxicillian. While he told me, he also mentioned that the spectrum or bactrum or whatever sometimes catches what ellie had, so i asked if it would be possible to hold off on the second prescription of the antibiotics and see how she was. the only drawback of this plan was that she could not get retested for 7 days after the last bactrum...which what if it did not catch it, then we would be back in he land of UTI.
I went with this risk, and did NOT do the amoxicillian. AND she was clear! NO UTI on her 30 month appt. YAY!
so we had less antibiotics...which is awesome, i am really stoked.

So she pees in her potty...but she holds it all day at school. Sometimes she goes but only during nap time so she does not have to wear a diaper during a naptime... i think it is because she does not want to poop at school, she never has...
otherwise she pees normally etc. she almost always pees on her little potty.
BUT the poop scene:
she has to poop in a diaper still. she sayd "can i have a diaper...a diaper only.." which means that she only wants a diaper on without underwear and pants over it, but just a diaper.
she poops right away and now her new thing is to say "i want to poop and pee in the diaper, is that OK?." (but she still needs to pee on the potty first because sometimes she mistakens peeing with pooping and will pee in the diaper...and she asks if its ok to pee and poop together because she knows she is not allowed to only pee in a daiper...iots a whole scene.)
so when she wants a diaper, i ask her to pee a little and then i will get the diaper...it works well.

While i cooked breakfast ellie pulled her rocking chair into the kitchen and read books...which always ended with "the end..." and then she would run and get more books. You can tell here that she had read many already, as when she is done, she throws them on the floor and does not put them away. i love how at the end she says "i am going night night" and goes "night night"



oh and how she started to try to catch the steam off the eggs...her hands squeezed the air to catch the steam...steam seems so obvious, but to a two year old, they don't know what it is. i know she is beginning to connect the dots that steam is due to foor being hot...but our house is so cold that she often thinks the food is hotter than it is, since the steam shows up even on luke warm food...i guess its time to turn up the heat:)

and when we went to the playground, ellie had this whole store thing set up and was selling fruit...(woodchips)...she had strawberries and blueberries...whicih she told me very clearly were frozen...but she picked them "right over there."

 then she sprinkled cinnamon nover everything...she LOVES cinnamon. what kid doesn't...what adult doesn't for that matter? then as in this movie, she started in on the pancakes...

pigtail braids

I have been waiting for ellie's hair to be long enough so that I could braid it into pigtails.  I did not pick her up at school so i do not know if they lasted, but it looked cute this morning.  I LOVE braid pigtails.
The thing i totally picture (yes this is a mom wants her kid to be something kind fo thing) is ellie skiing with her helmut on and braids flying out from the side.

anyhoo i love the braids:)

PERCH

ellie started her new swim class.  She is finally above the infant class of the hoky poky, and it is so much more fun and we are doing so much more.  I am bummed I did not start this when she turned two, because it really is amazing what they are learning.  I want to stick with swim classes from now on consistently, of course not in summer when it is BEACH time:)
so they learned how to paddle.  when they paddle they stretch their arms out and paddle...in front...singing songs.
they have a bubble and ellie actually at one point paddled, kicked and was up and down and did not go prone and was doggie pedaling...i let go and she floated SOLO...of course with the bubble.
They at one point had the kids sit on the wall and we stood across from our kids not touching them and not in reach...and then the teacher, Ms Suzanne, had them jump into her arms and then they "swam" to us.  On e little toddler girl greta actually swam!  ellie had help and got to me.
it was really awesome. I really feel like this is good...and i am so stoked for ellie to learn.  I would be stoked to maybe do perch now, and then maybe move to pike with parent.  yay!

Francis is in the class and ellie was pretty excited about Francis and Tracy.
When we woke up I was like "its finally swim class today!" then she sat with me while we read and if a car pulled by she would look out the window "maybe francis and tracy are here."
I had to explain that she was not coming to our house before.
Then we ended up having a little playdate with those guys.
It seems everyone in the class is really friendly.
Its funny in kid activties...when you go to them, it is easy to sometimes feel part of it and sometimes feel really otuside of it.  In this class, that day, I felt part of it. and ellie and i had such a good time together...she did awesome.  from start to finish, even peeping in the potty at the Y.  yay for ellie.

fun weekend with friends

we had a great weekend with our buddies up in the country at jj's mom's house.  this weekend was opening weekend for hunting with muzzle loaders, so mike and jj went hunting and jess and i hung with the kids and when they came in we all got to hang out...and kick and laugh and have a great time. 

on our way to the house on saturday we headed over to the childrens museum.  IT WAS EMPTY...which rocked, and this meant that the kids focused so much more and played for a while on everything, they had an awesome time.  they played and played and played...and it was really fun.  ellie at one time at the end ellie did her classic going night night ing the yellow submarine with kids going over her...

the kids played in a big pile of leaves...and played and played.    the fall was really warm actually, 67degrees! wow...awesomely warm...except i guess deer dont move when it is hot, so hunting was not happening, but they got to hike and hunt...

ellie climbed on the tractor behind nolan and kind of crowded him...nolan said "ellie, you're driving me crazy...come on."  it was really funny.

"its hot tub time!" they sang and danced and ran around the house circle thing behind each other, "its hot tub time...ha ha"

halloween howl in our town

i had a little toddler pre party tonight, fun!  it was really awesome to be with our buddies and the kid buddies.  it really was nice to all be together.  I like our friends. 

anyhoo prepping up to the party ellie was all about the balloons, moving them from one room to another...she was so excited to have people come over, when she woke up and came down stairs, she was like "where is everyone?"

then zoe and lizzy came over to help get ready and be there and party!  they were our mothers little helpers.  nice to have them there, although i think they were a little like why do toddlers not have planned events.  this is what i ahve to say about toddlers at parties...they will have fun no matter what, BUT they start off shy, quiet, and sort of weird...and they really don't do great with organized plans, they play freely and really could be entertained from snack to snack.

we have 6 toddlers, and 2 mother little helpers at the party and their families.  right before jason and i decided we better get wine and cheese for the adults...and you know, i think in some ways toddlers have a blast doing whatever, esoecially if well rested, and the adults are just stoked to be hanging out.
we all went downtown after an hour of being together and trick or treated...it was fun to be down there. 

ellie DID NOT pace herself.  she ran from place to place with lizzy and was so excited...
then she got her first lolly pop and she was so into that that really she could not get enough. she would put it in her bucket and then take it out and eat it again, and do this over and over. super cute.
she was so inoto it!
ellie wore her costume all day, to the doctors, to the store...everywhere...fun!

we did go to the doctors:
30 month check up:  2.5 years check up.
she is 38 1/2 inches tall...wow 95%
she weighs 34.25 lbs:  90%
and she got a polio vaccine, her first. 
it is still amazing to me they do all these shots for 2 month olds...whoa.

ellie at school

Ellie at school sick...she does love the train!

tomorrow is a big day for a sick gal

ellie is not all that healthy...sick cough, and out of it.
her daycare folks said she was not herself today, sitting on the bench a lot and most interested in snuggling and reading.
i felt so heart broken dropping her off today as she wandered and could not find her place...ahhh.
but i picked her up and did not do my last class today so i could be with her...and when we talked she said sammy was not there, i think she plays with a boy sammy a lot there.
then she said that she played with ally with the babies...and they shared but not without a little mine action...
and she said she played with all the kids.
i am so fascinated with her socialness.  she is so not concerned about it...there are kids who are so social...i can see it in her toddler class...they notice who comes and goes and say hi and hug and smile and are into it.  ellie is sort of take it or leave it.  not totally concerned.  i can see myself projecting my own social crap and fears onto her.
it is interesting.
anyhoo hoepfully she is  a picture of health tomorrow for her big day out in the world of halloween.

omi improvements

we have our very own handy woman...yes OMI...

she comes and does her biyearly folding of our towels so that we can close the towel door...thats a feat (i do not fold...i am so bad at it i have given up trying...so i just shove...it works...except that no doors close)

She builds stuff...like a closet organizer for ellie's clothes...which is incidentally a HUGE move.  we have moved her  clothes from the downstairs easy access for easy changing, to upstairs..which means when she has an accident, or gets dirty, or whatever, i have to haul my booty upstairs and get new clothes...and in our house, going upstairs is like going to the other apt.  but it is good, no more major clothes tower in the guest room and the guest room resembles more of a guest room, than a baby changing room.

She made curtains for our new kitchen counter for ellie's playroom...
she got us some ikea holders, which rock for her toys being held...
THANK YOU OMI!!! we love all of our improvements:)
(she did a ton more...and our house always feels better when she visits)

fall season weekend, one of rain and one of sun

rainy day activity included some painting...ellie finally has her paint set up, to paint on the easel...it is really fun. and she is into it.  "I want to play paint."  (like I want to play traintracks)  anyhoo she wants to paint a lot, i am going to have to get better at weeding out what to put in her portfolio.

my mom is an artist so she was getting ellie to explore with circles and then dots, and so forth.  it was awesome to watch ellie be able to paint and explore too...only a year ago she did not get the whole thing at all...now she is all about paint.
yay.

sunny day: included a trip out to the farm to see zoe compete...we got to see her in one class and she cantered well and placed decently!  way to go.  and it was great to be out at a farm on such an awesome day to be outside.  zan and ellie walked around the land, looking at horses climbing up walls and seeing goats and chickens and jumping in puddles.  it was nice to see ellie with zan boy as she talks about him a bit and i think she was super stoked.

then after nap we polayed in our yard with leaves and got our compost bin finally up and going.  i need to look up how to do it and everything but i am stoked!

our yard looked so nice with all the colors and then the raked and cut grass...our grass rules..i hope crab grass does not take over cause now i see why crab grass sucks...it gets all weird  and brown...our grass is lush city and green....ahhhh. i like our yard.