Bedtime Ups and Downs

Success!!! She finally slept in her big girl bed again!!! I won't mention the fact that it's never happened again since. Nor the fact that it took mega-coaxing, a bribe regarding a new princess pillow, back-scratching "under my dress, Mommy", 16 sneaks out of bed, a frazzled mom, and 1.5 hours to actually get her sleeping.

[August 21, 2009]

I've since changed my frame of mind regarding the whole bed issue, and I'm just not bringing it up anymore for a while. What do I care what kind of bed she wants to sleep in? As long as she's sleeping. It broke my heart when she was trying to be strong as she layed in her big girl bed one try after this - she said so quietly as she was wringing the snot out of her La-La: "But I really miss my crib...". Then your crib you shall have for a little while longer, my princess. So you may see Ellison hauling off her crib to college one day...

Another Day of Fun

Yes, the day was spent doing even more shopping, then we ran to the Farmer's Market to pick up some fresh peaches to make peach crisp. Ellison and Emma had fun making a giant mess!

Then bathtime for the girls in the evening.

And storytime with Grandma (for a short bit, anyway).

[August 17, 2009]

Grandma and Emma were slated to leave the following afternoon. After dropping them off at the airport, and returning home to put Ellison down for a nap, Grandma called and said there were storms in Atlanta (their layover), and that they were told it was possible that they could be stuck there for hours if they got there. With that, Grandma had them book them out for the next day. We were thrilled to get a bonus day! Thankfully, Emma was happy to stay another day. It worked out great, because I had an all-day class to attend for work, and we had a sitter lined up. Grandma got to watch Ellison instead, up until naptime. Grandma was in pure heaven to finally get to rock Ellison before her nap (if we're there, Grandma doesn't get to rock her, per Ellison), and Ellison even fell asleep on her. Then they were off, and Lucy came to watch Ellison until I got home...

[August 18 & 19, 2009]

Pool and Scooter

Saturday morning started off with Ellison and Jonathan letting Emma in on their weekend tradition - making pancakes.

Then we all headed to the pool, which Emma was dying to do since day 1. We had a great day, and the place was amazingly not busy.

So then Ellison got to open up her new set of knee and hand pads, in preparation for...

her new scooter! For weeks she had been eyeing the princess scooter in the Target newspaper ad, saying "Look! It's just my size! I want wun-ba (one of) dose (those)". She'd just periodically start looking through the ad in search of it, and would quickly summon our help if she couldn't find it. So you know her Daddy... He came home with it one day.

She loved it! It stayed in our house for quite some time, and her and Emma would take turns cruising around the lower half of the house. On a side note, the princess scooter has been replaced with a much more stable pink Radio-Flyer scooter, which doesn't tip over NEARLY as easy as this one did. Poor Teddy doesn't have his own little ride on the newer one, and there aren't the fun little pom-poms dangling from the handlebars, but she thankfully went with it.

[August 15, 2009]

Day at the Museum

The four of us ventured out to the Greensboro Children's Museum. Ellison still asks if she can see the Easter Bunny when we go there. Though I only have a video of it, Ellison always has to do the hopscotch thingies before we head inside. We were cracking up at how darn cute it is when she tries it - it's hilarious.

Grandma, Emma, & Mookie

Strangely, Ellison walked right into the little "theatre" section as soon as we arrived. I say strange, because she usually wants to spend zero time in there. Well... that was until she turned into a little performer. This time, it took LOADS of coaxing to get her OUT of there after we spent a good little chunk of time being the audience. She found a WAY-too-long-princess-skirt that she felt was simply an appendage she had been born with. Our usually shy (around strangers) little girl was putting on ballet performances for all of the adults seated in the audience, just dancing her little heart out, even taking a bow/curtsie at the end.

All I could think of while she was pirouetting was the broken arm she would have tripping in the skirt and falling off the stage.

Poor Emma was patiently waiting in the theatre for Ellison to get her fix, so that we could head over to the giant bubble. This was Emma's favorite thing.

The girls could've spent all day long in the craft area, if it weren't for Grandma's and my growling stomachs. After painting, and making a butterfly, they discovered the "Floam" table. Had it not been for the lunch interruption, I think they would've been at it for 6 hours straight. Guess what Grandma bought for them???

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Natty Greene's. Makes me hungry just reminiscing...

Then where did we go, you ask? Shopping! And check out what Grandma bought Ellison (though I would totally claim these as mine, they're so cute!). Have you ever heard of Kitchen Littles? I spotted them at TJMaxx one day and FELL IN LOVE. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love tiny, miniature things. So it was no different when I spotted all of these little sets. The tiny food and kitchen utensils are so stinkin' great! I checked them out online (knowing I HAD to get some. For, um, Ellison.) and on eBay and discovered how pricey they really are, and what an incredible deal TJMaxx was selling them for. I had to show my mother, also a miniature lover. She said she would buy Ellison a few of the sets, and I was going to buy the other few that they had (though I know there are a ton of different sets they make). Call it great timing, but when we were trying to get up to the checkout line, Ellison threw a giant tantrum, to the point I finally had to take her outside. In true Grandma and Grandpapa style, Grandma went and bought every stinkin' one while I was practicing great self-control ouside with my little kicker-screamer. Ellison LOVES playing with them! Thanks, Gram!

Ellison had received some new musical instruments from her Soto half in Buffalo. She formed her own band - Daddy on harmonica, Grandma on tamborine, Emma on flute, and Mookie on castanets. Me? I got to do the noodle dance to the music. It was in honor of the Woodstock anniversary.

[August 14, 2009]

Shopping and Family Visit

After doing some more shopping (I had no idea how much I missed having no one to go shopping with!), the evening brought us some more visitors. We were thrilled to have some of Jonathan's family stop in to visit for the evening. Ellison's Tio Joe and Titi Margarita (Tato's parents), and one of their other granddaughters, Genesis, were visiting Tato and Nilda in Concord (from Buffalo). Margarita's sister and brother-in-law (ya following me yet?), Iti and Tito were also visiting them from Florida. They were all SO very kind enough to drive the couple hours up this way so they could see us before they all headed back to their homes. It was GREAT seeing them, and we all had a great evening.

Tito and Iti - they hadn't seen Jonny (yes, that's what his family calls him) for MANY years, and me and Ellison had never met them. Very sweet people!

Nilda

Tato, Margarita, and Joe

Being the kind mother that I am, I had to snap this pic of Ellison having "Pout-Fest 2009". I can't even remember what idea of hers I shot down, but the child hung her shoulders and head so low as she draged her feet into the kitchen, where she and her princess tutu (courtesy of Grandma, of course) plopped down onto the floor to lay on some THICK pouting. One of those moments where it's hard not to bust out laughing in the midst of trying to be firm...

Jonny coming home from work and greeting everyone. (Check out that skinny buff bod of his!)

All the little girls, who were great playmates for the evening: Natalia, Emma, Genesis, Ellison, and Bianca.

Grandma and Nilda

Margaret and Joe delivered a package to Ellison from Abuela and Abuelo, Titi Ana, and Titi Marie from Buffalo. This is a beautiful blanket made by Abuela - Ellison immediately took it out and snuggled it to her face, grinning ear to ear.

And her new silver shoes, which I'll save describing in another post. One word: obsession.

Laying on her blanket

Tio Joe, Daddy, and Tato

Bianca

Nati and Genesis

The older girls completely hit it off. You would've thought Emma and Genesis were long-lost twins.

Singing "Las Manitas" with Titi Margarita and Daddy. Ellison has loved that song for as long as we can remember. We've always sung it to her from the time she was a baby, but unfortunately we don't know all of the words like Titi Margarita does!

Another prelude to the big "shoe" post. She had to wear them in the bed. She seriously was not willing to part with them...

Elli and Emma watching some TV before bed.

[August 13, 2009]

Shopping and Natural Science Center

The next day was off to a great start according to Mookie and Emma. They both were having a field day experimenting with Grandma's make-up.

After doing some quick shopping (and Grandma did some grandkid spoiling), we were then off to one of the token Greensboro family hotspots - the Natural Science Center.

The first place Ellison begged to go to before anything else was the water fountain area. She was dying to show Emma how the big one "startles you" when it goes off to the music.

The girls squealing while they were getting a little bit of the spray off the fountains.

Both making wishes while throwing pennies into the little wishing well.

Seeing Emma pet the goats and sheep made Ellison finally give it a shot this go-round. She usually wants nothing to do with them. She did sink her fingers into the sheep's wool, but wasn't terribly fond of it.

Since she saw Emma brushing the goat, she had to try that, too. :-)

Emma said this pic was for her mom (it's a rat)...

And we especially took this one for her dad! Ellison's Uncle Josh HATES spiders! He's been known to hurl a magazine across a room after stumbling upon a pic of a spider. Kinda funny for a 6'3", 200+ pound guy.

[August 13,2009]