Writey McWriterson, Mayor of Write-town

Ella likes to practice writing letters. Sometimes she does pretty well. Here's her attempt to write Aunt Annie's name. Pretty good, huh?

Ballet Girl

Ella and I went to pick up the some ballet gear at a dance store today. We went to the store the dance studio recommends. 15 minutes and $53 later we had "the essentials" which included tights, a leotard, skirt, and ballet shoes.

She also smiling, happy girl in photo.

Cute Luke Pix

Quote of the Week-Ella

"Mommy, when you drive it makes my neck hurt."

This time I'm serious, she is the dancing queen

Ella has officially started dance classes. I have to admit that I've been a little less than thrilled at the idea of Ella doing dance classes. I know, I know, it's great exercise and she'll meet new friends, etc, etc. I'm a little worried about the other things that go along with dance class like the gallon of thick makeup they put on and those revealing outfits. I just don't want Ella to turn into a Jon Benet, ok? There, I said it. It's on record.

I also don't like the fact that I was at story hour this morning and I heard one of the other Mommys talking about how her daughter was doing tap dance class. I know, I shouldn't be eavesdropping but it was hard not to overhear. She was complaining about how fat her kid looks in her leotard and about how she needed to lose some weight. I checked her kid out when she came out of the story hour room and she is not fat-she just has a belly that pokes out like a lot of little kids have. THE KID'S THREE YEARS OLD-cut her some slack! This is how eating disorders start, people!

Despite my reservation(s), I have to say that she really enjoyed her first day. She's in a really small ballet class (just 3 other little girls). The instructor takes the girls back to the dance studio and they do their thing for 25 minutes. After that, the instructor comes back out to show us what they've learned for the last 5 minutes of class. I think I'll let her do it until at least May when they have a recital.

Aunt Tori says I have to wait at least that long so I will.

One Sweet Ride

Here's a good one of Luke and my third child

AKA Aron

I have no more witty Kenny Roger's tunes to entertain you so I will now will just flood your senses with cute pix of the kids

Know When To Run

It's time to run when your sister's trying to eat your head, Luke.

Know When To Walk Away

I've had a request by Granny Lanny (aka Tori's Mom) to see Aron's creation. He started to try to build a 2 story gingerbread house but it fell over (as you can see). He left the table in disgust after that happened. Crybaby.

Know When To Fold 'Em

After she told me what happened with the cell phone, it was like a little dam burst. She wanted to tell me all the things that worried her--like what would happen when we move away from our house. She wanted to know if she would be bringing her stuffed animals, her bed, even the folded load of laundry that happened to be sitting in her room at the time.

She wanted to know if her best buddy, Jane would be coming along, too. I told her that Jane would be sold along with the house but that she could walk by any time she wanted to see if Jane was in the window.

Kidding. Kidding--Does no one have a sense of humor?

You Gotta Know When To Hold 'Em

Ella and Luke went to hang out with Myles and Aunt Robbie last Thursday when I went to work. Aron dropped the kids off at Robbie's house at 8:30. I worked from 6 AM to 12 PM that day so the kids got to spend a few quality hours with their fave cousin, MyMy. Thursday night, Aron took Ella up to bed but she started flipping out when he took her up about how she wanted Mommy to take her to bed. He put her in bed but told her I would be up to tuck her in after a couple minutes. She continued to cry so I went up pretty quick. I asked her what was wrong. She told me that MyMy was being a bully to Luke that day. I asked her what happened and she said that MyMy took Luke's Nemo cell phone away from him and Luke started crying (taking away the cell is a tragedy for both kids. TRUST ME). I asked her what happened after that. She said that she walked over to My and told him that it wasn't right for him to do that and he needed to give it back and he needed to quit being a bully. I asked her what happened after that. She said she took the phone from him and gave it back to Luke. This is rather ironic because if it was just Ella and Luke at my house she would have no qualms about snatching Luke's phone away from him and being a bully to him. I guess nobody's allowed to bully her baby brother but her!

Luke's development

Luke continues to grow by leaps and bounds. He's such a little cutie pie. He's picking up on new words all the time and his baby babbles are getting clearer. Over the weekend, we pointed to Myles and asked him who it was. He replied "Myyyyy My." He also knows my Dad's name (He says "Paaaaaah Puh" instead of Poppy but it's close enough). I think he can say Granny Lindy's ("Lynn-eeeeeee") name now.

He enjoys reading books with me now and likes to point to pictures when I ask him where things are. He's tries to be very independent at meal times and insists on holding his own spoon/fork while trying to scoop food in his mouth. Some body parts are identified like belly, nose, mouth, ears, hair.

My little big boy.

The Flu: Round 2

I have the flu again. I think it might be a distant cousin to the flu I had a few months ago but I feel much better tonight than I did earlier today. Whew! Hopefully, I'm on the mend.

Ridin the Range

Luke spent most of the gingerbread house making time trying to ride Ella's horse. As you can see, he was not very successful.

The Gorgeous Houses

My creation
Tori's creation
Ella eating her creation

T time, anyone?

Aunt Tori came over yesterday for the 2nd annual Gingerbread House Making Extravaganza. Here are pictures of Ella and T making the frosting. Ella did more tasting than making but I don't think Auntie T minded.

I Loves Me My John Deere 4 Wheeler

'Tis Better To Eat Than To Sniff??

We went to Miss Lori's story hour today. Today's letter of the day was P. Miss Lori had tons of P related fun. For today's craft, Miss Lori gave the kids a paper plate with a big purple P glued on it. Then she gave them popcorn and a blob of glue. The craft was to dip the popcorn in the glue then put it on the paper plate. Of course, Ella being the popcorn lover she is wanted to eat the popcorn more than she wanted to craft. I watched her from the window looking into the story hour room long enough to watch her eat 2 pieces of glue covered popcorn. On the bright side--she left her clothes on.

No, I'm Not Getting Any Money For This Endorsement

BUT let me tell you I love the good people at www.melissaanddoug.com They make the best kids toys EVER. I've yet to buy a toy from them that the kids don't like. Their current favorite is Band In a Box. It contains 17 of the loudest, most annoying kids instruments known to man. It has a kazoo, harmonica, xylophone, clapper, recorder, etc. The kids are loving it! Luke is a recorder kinda guy and Ella's a harmonica playin fool. When Aron gets home, he and the kids dance around the house playing their instruments together while I go upstairs and have Mommy Time. It's a beautiful thing, my friend.

Now THIS I can relate to...

So You Think You Can Be Girly?

Ella loves to dance. Scratch that. Ella thinks that dancing is the most fun thing to do in the entire world. Scratch that. She loves to whirl and twirl around the house wearing pretty, lacy dresses while dancing around the house to a Backyardigans CD.

I DON'T THINK I CAN TAKE ALL THIS GIRLY FUN!

Seriously, I don't think I can take all this girly stuff. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a girly girl. I don't enjoy dresses, I don't enjoy lace and frilly things, I never enjoyed sitting down with my baby dolls (well, technically she uses her Backyardigans dolls. See also previous post with the three dolls and her sitting at the little white table) having a tea party. My kid does. Do you know how painful it is for me to sit down and have a tea party? I don't know what to do with a girly girl. I don't understand the basic concept of wanting to be girly. Aron keeps telling me that I need to get Ella into some dance classes and encourage her interests in girly things. He keeps saying that I'm just not happy because she doesn't have any interest in things I was interesting in when I was little. I've thought about it and I don't think that's it. The thing is that I TOTALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. I have no clue how to encourage something that I can't relate to. Maybe I'll try to probe Aunt Robbie or Aunt Annie on what to do. Aunt Robbie got her a new purse and the white tea party table/chairs for Christmas and she loves them. I never would've even thought to purchase either one.

Dress...No Dress...Dress...No Dress...

We went to church last Sunday and Ella was wearing this outfit. At the appropriate time during the service, we sent Ella and Myles downstairs to have children's time with Judy (one of the people at the church). When they came back up at the end of the service, Ella wasn't wearing her socks or her dress and Myles wasn't wearing his socks. I guess at some point during the children's time, both kids decided they needed to strip down a bit. Sigh. Why can't my kid keep her clothes on? I manage to keep mine on during the hour that we're there.

Footy Mc Footerson

Um, where are my feet?

Oh yeah, there it is!

Action photos

Christmas: New Year's Edition

Aunt Annie and Uncle Kevin came to visit yesterday. We had our Christmas celebration with them because they were unable to come during Christmas. Many wonderful presents were exchanged but best of all, the kids were able to enjoy AAnnie and UKevin's presence. We had the kids take their naps extra late (normally they nap at 1:30 but we didn't let them fall asleep until 3:30. For those of you with kids, you know this was not as simple as it sounds : ) ) so they could spend more time with them. Ella enjoyed snuggling between the two of them on the couch. Luke liked chillin out on AAnnie's lap for a while before he went to bed.

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

I guess technically it was 2 little monkeys and a pink, stuffed bear.

Play time, play time

Myles came over for a little play date yesterday. We've meaning to have him over for a little play time for the last couple weeks and it just seemed like something always came up. It was a good time yesterday, though. There was much rough housing between Aron, Myles, and Luke and a ton of jumping on the bed (thanks to Aron). I'll put in some action shots in the next post.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Jenny

Uncle Tom and Aunt Jenny came to visit over the holidays. They brought with them toys, books, and apparel from their work place. Who knew that Catepillar made sippy cups with their logo on it? Apparently, Aunt Jenny did.

Aunt Jenny brought a toy D-6 from Catepillar (I think that's what she said it was) that is extremely loud and annoying. It looks like a big scoopy looking thing. She said she helps design something with it. I don't have a picture of it yet but I'm sure I'll get a candid shot of one of the kids playing with it. It's already caused some mini meltdowns of who gets to play with it during the day. Thanks, Aunt Jenny. Thanks a freakin lot.

For Those Who Have Asked Me...

No, I did not delete someone's comment from the 12/20 post about blog etiquette. If you read it closely, the author of the comment deleted it--not the blog administrator (me).