Valentine Surprises

Ellison has totally been hitting the jackpot with fun packages arriving in the mail.  Grandma & Grandpa sent some Valentine goodies in the mail, which excited the pants off Ellison.

He little Valentine bear that came on her heart-shaped box of chocolates.  Doesn't it look like she just gave birth to him?  That look of pure joy, love, and adoration as she cradles him in her arms.  Hee, hee.

Man, she's likely thinking Valentine's Day needs to come more than once a year.  I mean, how cool is it to have a candy ring that dips into tasty purple sugar?

So the pics are a little backwards.  Here is thrilled Elli opening up her goodies.

Mr. Clean's Offspring

Well, I decided one day that I wanted to remove the ugly wallpaper from the half bath.  I didn't even care if the walls were left bare for a while.  So of course my plan snowballed - my last name was really meant to be "Murphy".  There was a law named after me.  We discovered that the wallpaper actually ran behind the sink and toilet.  THANK GOD I have such a handy hubby who can do almost anything.  He removed both fixtures (and the hanging cabinet), and we realized we'd need to prep the walls and actually paint if we ever wanted to use our bathroom for its intended use in the next few months.  Well, we may as well change out the sink fixture, light fixture, and big mirror so we can call it done, right?  Ahem.  My small project became a little more expensive than I had planned on, but again, I THANK GOD for my husband who is able to find any deal out there - I swear he gets Thank You cards from eBay and knows the Craig from Craigslist.  All this means that our downstairs is lacking a little bit of tidiness, and hence, the bathroom cabinet now has a temporary home under the island overhang in the kitchen.  The other day, I looked to see what my quiet toddler was up to, and found that she removed all of the items from inside the cabinet and was wiping off the shelves with a Clorox wipe.  When I asked her what she was doing, she looked at me like, "Duh", and said, "I'm organizing!" in her high-pitched happy voice. 

On a related side note... wanna know where the toilet is calling home these days?  The garage.  I told Jonathan we're going to pull our lawn chairs out in front of the garage (with the toilet in full view) and start sucking down a couple of 40s wrapped in paper sacks.

[February 1, 2009]

Enjoying the Outdoors

Hanging out at the park at the first sign of warmer weather a couple of weeks ago.  Not a bad way to start February.

[Februrary 1, 2009]

Ellison LOVES the swings.

Ellison and Mommy feeding the ducks and geese.

Surprises

Mookie LOVES to get packages in the mail.  Whenever one is delivered to the door and she spots it, she squeals and become quite animated, saying, "A suprise!  Let's open it!".  Often times, I have to explain to her that it's Daddy's and that she needs to wait until he gets home.  It takes a lot of coaxing, but usually she finally gets that she has to be patient since it's not hers, but Daddy's.  Well Little E thinks she is on to me.  After one such explanation the other day, she dropped the conversation, then came up to me about 10 minutes later, hung her head toward the ground while looking up at me, and muttered, "How you know it's por [for] Daddy?".  Hmm.  My little nugget thinks I'm yankin' her chain.  So now, I have to show her that her daddy's name is on the box, and not hers (she recognizes hers).  Man, 2 years old and this is where we are already.

OK, so Ellison was thrilled when I was able to tell her last week that the surprise package was indeed hers this time.  There were all kinds of goodies in there from her cousins in Michigan.  Here are just a few pics of her new loot.

Though Ell's feet have lots of growin' to do before she can fit into her cousin Emma's cowboy boots, she still had to wear them around the house, albeit carefully.

Her little indoor sandbox!  This is so freakin' great!  This means I won't get bugged to go outside to play with her big turtle sandbox when the weather's not conducive.

And her very own little camera.  She walks around saying "Cheese!".

[January 30, 2009]

Fairy Princess

Ellison woke up one day, and the first thing she said was, "Wanna play dress-up".  After trying on a couple of selections from her Fall 2008 line, she finally decided she wanted to be a fairy princess for 1/2 the day.

I need to note that our floor is not USUALLY this trashed.  It's actually a "get rid of" pile in the spare room.

What?  Fairy princesses pick their nose, too.

[January 30, 2009]

Piggytails - Take 2

Ellison was due for another haircut (the plan has been to keep trimming 'til it all fills in), so I wanted to see if we could get piggytails in again (for only the 2nd time in her 2 years) before chopping off her locks.  That, and she has been asking for ponytails.  She was so proud of the outcome.

[January 28, 2009]

Snow Day in NC

Our first official snow this season in the Triad. Despite grass sticking through everywhere, school was actually cancelled! I still can't get over that... We've come a long way from Michigan, New York, and Colorado I tell ya.

Ellison was so excited to see the snow when she woke up that morning. She was plastered to the foyer, where she just watched all of the older neighbor kids sledding down the driveway. So I bundled Ellison up into a little pink marshmallow, and we headed out to play in the (scant) white stuff. She loved being outside, but she did not want to touch the snow with her mittens, and she would not walk on the grass areas of snow. I think we're raising a true southern belle here. At any rate, it was nice for us to get some fresh air, and we had all the entertainment we wanted across the street.

Ellison and Alyssa

The big kids (all boys except for Alyssa) were so sweet to Ellison. They would clear the slippery hill of a driveway and give up a sled so she could try it out with Alyssa, but at the last minute Ellison kept deciding she didn't want to try it after all. She just loved watching all those crazy kids.

[January 20, 2009]

Hiding Spot

One day, Jonathan couldn't figure out where Ellison ran off to. When he called for her, he heard her little voice inside the lazy susan. It's now an often-used hiding spot for Mookie. Pretty crafty, silly girl.
[January 16, 2009]

Oops...

It's been brought to my attention by a couple of people that I haven't given any updates on Papa since his last hospitalization! Praise God - he is doing SOOOO much better! He's been doing great, and we thank you for all of your prayers and concern. We have no doubt it helped get him through all of his health challenges. He has said he definitely has changed his priorities in life now - a good reminder that good things can come from big challenges. Thanks again for all of your concern!

Journaling for Mommy

Some of this may have been mentioned in previous entries (I think I've mentioned before how much my memory stinks), but here are some of Ellison's little tidbits that have been going on...

She absolutely loves helping me organize. I was cleaning out the linen closet a few weeks ago, and asked her if she would like to help. She squealed, wrinkled her nose, got a big grin, and jumped around and said, "Oooh, organizing! So excited!!!".

She has a new laundry responsibility. She took it upon herself, people. She folds all of the washcloths and neatly puts them in a pile, and does a darn good job if I do say so. I hope I never forget the way she says "washcloths", 'cause I think it is so darn cute. She says something along the lines of "clopf-clopfs". :) She wants to hang up her own clothes in her closet, too.

When she sees a commercial on TV for some cool kids' toy, she says, "Want to buy that (insert whatever the object is)". The one she says regularly is "Want to buy that Dora & 3 Little Piggies" (a DVD).

No idea why this is, but she is always putting socks - whether mine or hers - (or slippers) on her hands, and then actually plays like that for a while. I guess it goes without saying that she loves mittens, too.

EVERYTHING is "by myself". She wants to put on her own clothes, pick out her own clothes or shoes, take off her own clothes, etc. She becomes easily frustrated sometimes and whines or kicks her legs, but if I offer to help, I still get, "By myself!". Once again, my mother quickly giggles and says it brings back memories. Surely she's speaking of my sister...

We go through about 10 diapers a day. OK, not on her, but on her babies and animals. Every single day she changes some diapers. I must say, she actually gets them on perfectly. As soon as it's on, she then says, "Oh, poopied!", opens up the diaper, lifts their legs, and either wipes them and starts over, or she'll say, "No poopy" and gently replace the diaper.

Several times throughout the day, Ellison can be found hiding out in the pantry. Usually it involves some form of sneaking a snack, but she does all kinds of things in there. As soon as we open the door to spot her, she gets a silly look on her face, and quickly shuts us out.

She loves watching her Veggie Tales (thanks, Lindsay!) "DVDVD". (That's what she calls them). Still Curious George, The Wiggles, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Max & Ruby, Wow Wow Wubbzy, and Toot & Puddle (sounds like a big accident if you ask me). Interestingly, if I happen to have on the adult shows, "A Baby Story" or anything similar, she's totally glued to the screen. If I try to change the station to a kid show, she asks me to turn it back to the babies.

Ellison still does her "ballet dance" throughout every day, and is ever the singer, talker, and whisperer. She thinks it's funny if we have a whispering conversation. Still loves doing dishes, helping cook, and just about any other "chore".

She still colors and draws up a storm ("happy faces" are still her specialty), which is difficult for her sentimental Mama. She started tearing out the colored pages in her colorbook to present her creativity to me, and I can't bring myself to throw any away! She's really into Play-Doh, too.

On the potty-training front, we're still not going to try real hard again for a little while, but Ellison's been great with going on the potty here and there, without us even asking.

This week our MOPS class and my Bible study class both start back up, so Ellison's back into the nursery 2-3 days a week. This is good for us - we just signed Ellison up for pre-school in the fall, which is exciting yet scarey at the same time. I just can't believe our little baby girl is at an age where we're discussing pre-schools! It's one of those things that feels like it's so far down the road when they're born, yet here it is... I get a little twinge in my heart, too, since Ellison started once-in-a-while calling me "Mom". Not Mama or Mommy (though I still get those), but "Mom". What -- did she turn 10 overnight?! For the love of Mike, at this rate, I expect her to start rummaging through my closet next week for something to wear and asking to borrow the car.

Random Pics

Ellison's showing more of an interest in Bo now. She just walks up to him and puts her arm around him.

Very sleepy just before bed, sitting on her giant bear.

[January 2, 3, &5, 2009]

Indoor Sunglasses

Ellison has a thing for her sunglasses this past week. She takes them out of hiding every single day, wears them, then puts them on her head.

Thumbs up!

Now all she needs is a pair of skis. Oh, and a mountain.

[January 1, 2009]

Happy New Year!

We didn't have a babysitter for New Year's Eve, so we thought we were going to miss out on fun with others. As it turned out, the Schwankes didn't have a sitter either, so they invited us over for a nighttime playdate and dinner. We had a great evening - delicious food, good wine (good smoothies for the girls), and good company. We all knew the girls wouldn't last til midnight (shoot, we knew the parents wouldn't either), so we let them play til they were pooped out, then we headed home. Mookie rang in the new year dreaming away, and well, so did Mommy. Jon woke me up for the final 5 seconds of the ball dropping, then I fell instantly back to sleep. My, how my New Year's Eves have changed!

Ella James

Ellison, Jonathan, Dave, & Ella James

Ellison borrowed Ella James' cool New Year's headband for a photo op.

[December 31, 2008]

Repeat Request

Prayers for Papa, please... I'm afraid 'tis true. Ellison's poor, poor Papa is back in the hospital again. We'd greatly appreciate it, folks. He sure needs 'em.

Hold the Bus

Heh, heh... We're giving potty training a little break from the Soto household. :)

A Work In (Hopeful) Progress

Yesterday we officially started potty-training Ellison (for various reasons, so stop saying "You're crazy" to the computer screen). She was a willing participator, but it has been a very bumpy road. It is definitely more challenging than one would think. Last night after we put our "big girl" to bed, I started getting very teary-eyed that we're training our baby girl to be a big girl. Even though she's at the age where it's perfectly normal to do this, it comes with very mixed feelings. Just one of those things... I've never been a fan of hanging out in bathrooms, but we feel like we're on bathroom overload right now. This photo depicts Ellison's very first trip to the potty during our boot camp. Notice that beautiful little grin. I wish every potty trip was like this... ;)[December 26, 2008]

Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas Day. After opening a couple of presents from Santa, and some presents from each other & family, we layed low. After Ell's nap we went on a nice walk, then it was off to dinner at the Sbihli house. After Ellison went to bed for the night, Mama & Daddy drank wine & played the Wii. (Mommy's still a little sore).Our little Munchkin checking out the presents under the tree.

Wrestling around with the GARGANTUAN bear Titi Ana bought her.

A new bed for her babies

Mookie picked out matching PJs as a gift for Mommy. We're enjoying tea and crumpets with E's new tea set from Grandma & Papa.

Daddy's turn

I think I gave birth to another child. Ellison got a new baby doll from Santa that you actually feed baby food and a bottle (with real water). She then will seriously poop and pee on the potty, and tell you when she has to go. (We had no idea she was so complicated - there are actual instructions on how to potty train her! As if potty training one toddler isn't enough...). Anyway, Ellison loves her - we haven't done the "real" stuff with the doll yet (not a bad idea when she's a teenager), but Ellison's having a blast changing her diaper over and over, and listening to her talk and suck from the empty bottle.

Ellison enjoying one of Mommy's presents. My sweet in-laws know I love Florecitas, so they sent me a giant container of them for Christmas. It was Ellison's first time trying them, and needless to say, she's a girl after my own heart.

Our diaper-changing maestra

[December 25, 2008]