Grandpapa & Grandma Arrive!

We were SOOOO excited that Grandpapa and Grandma were coming for a long visit, and to join us for a beach trip. Besides the 2 hrs they got to see us during our flight layover this past November, it had been a YEAR since they've gotten to be with us! Talk about change when they saw Ellison. With Ellison being a cautious little soul, I thought it would be hard because Grandma would want to moosh her up, and I assumed Ellison would be super-clingy with us. We were thrilled to see her warm up to them in a matter of minutes! She was a little shy for a few minutes, but Grandma & Grandpapa brought a TON of suprises for Ellison, so she was in hog heaven, and they quickly became her friends.

Grandpapa playing with her beloved Teddy.

Opening up one of a thousand surprises. Her Great Aunt Betty sent her all kinds of fun things - all things that Ellison quickly became attached to. Namely, lipstick. She got 3 different kinds of Hello Kitty lipstick, and we couldn't pry them out of her hands for about a week.

She kept asking Grandpapa to help her with her new surprises.

They brought some toys that I used to have when I was a little girl. Do any of you remember Smaller Homes and Gardens? Loved that dollhouse. I'm still enjoying rearranging the furniture in it.

If you look closely, you can see the pink lipstick smothered all over her lips and the immediate surrounding areas of her little face. We joked throughout the week that she had a spare set of lips: her real ones, and the ones that remained even when she would purse her lips together.

Getting to have Grandma read her a bedtime story, and Ellison had to have it done on the mattresses that arrived in her bedroom. G & G brought a "big girl bed" (toddler bed) and another twin bed. Until we decided which to set up, both were in her bedroom. Ellison thought the plain mattresses were the coolest.

[May 20, 2009]

We'd been talking about getting the big girl bed for months. She had been so excited for it and would ask about it all the time. Most recently she started to get concerned little looks on her face and say, "But where my crib gonna go?". She actually was ready to try out the toddler bed after we set it up next to her crib. The first night we ended up putting her back in her crib, after repeated scoldings for getting out of bed at bedtime. We had to cover up our snickers. We'd shut the door, then after a few minutes we'd hear her little lamp turn on. You gotta give it to her - the girl found her way to the lamp without banging herself into anything. As soon as we'd bust her, she'd go running back to her bed quickly saying, "Sorry! Sorry!". Another time, I stood outside the door, only to have little miss open it, startled to see my face, and run back to bed. On the 3rd or 4th time, I listened outside the door as she got out of bed, opened her purse, and proceeded to walk around, then quietly open the door again - and yes, she was startled to see me again. Many cries followed as she was then put into her crib and told we'd try again the next night.

The next 2 days and nights, she slept great in her big girl bed, without any of the previous naughtiness. However, the first night of being in the bed, she woke up suddenly crying loudly. I ran in there, but had to feel around for her, and somehow the majority of her body was underneath her crib. (?). It didn't scar her too bad - the next day was great for a nap. That night, she woke up twice screaming. I can be a little slow at times... especially in the middle of the night - it took both times for me to realize that she had been falling out of bed. So we explained what a big girl she wass and how great she was doing, but that we'd wait until we got the siderails so she wouldn't fall out of bed in a dead sleep anymore.

Where are we now? Well, we just got the siderails a few days ago, which she was begging us to put on immediately, but now we lost our little window and she doesn't want to sleep in the big girl bed. She loves that I'll read her a story in it, then she quickly starts whining that she wants to sleep in her bed. So for now, the big girl bed is simply a decoration in her bedroom.