Big Girls

Ellison had one of her little friends, Anna, over for a playdate one day. Anna is in Ellison's preschool class and Sunday school class at church. Her mom happens to be pregnant and due 2 weeks behind our little babe. She was in need of getting many things done before the holidays and the baby arrive, so we invited Anna over to help her out AND because Ellison has wanted to have her over for quite some time now.

The girls having a tea party with Cheez-Its and water.

Check out these chicks. Grooms beware...
[December 9, 2010]

Caroling

Some of our Monday playgroup gang went to the Friends Home West nursing home to sing some Christmas songs. The kids came all decked out in Christmas attire and a little attitude. ;-) Notice Ellison is holding her little Rudolph reindeer. It's been almost as much of a staple as Teddy ever since he/she was uncovered from the Christmas boxes this season. Ellison does not care for her turquoise Christmas dress at all, but unfortunately her wardrobe didn't include many festive outfits this year. After arguing about it the first time I made her wear it, she finally looked in the mirror and said, "Mom, I guess I'm getting used to it."

L to R: Kennedy, Sam, Ellison, Laila, Mason, and Claudia (Riley and Mary Kenzie walked in right after we snapped these photos).

Our rambunctious little crowd with their jingle bells.

So, it pretty much turned into several little performances by the mothers, as the kids mostly either stood there, or mouthed the songs, or would only jingle their bells, or would walk away. The residents love to see the kids anyways. But that meant they had to put up with our voices. I did discover that I don't know the correct words to "We wish you a Merry Christmas".

Afterwards, we all went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

[December 7, 2010]

Visit with Santa

Everyone seems to be catching on to the Bur-Mil Santa. We first went 2 years ago, and it was so quick - hardly a line. This year we went again, and the line has grown considerably. :-) It was a great set-up, though. While Jonathan stood in line, I fetched hot cocoa and apple cider and some cookies for us. After having our little refreshments, I went and sat down while Ellison ran back and forth between us, burning off some energy. During one of her "visits" with Mommy, we went into the room where they had some dogs and cats for the kids to pet. We also ran into the Poindexters and Campbells, too. At first Ellison was talking about how she didn't want to get a picture taken with Santa. :-l I thought, well, this should be interesting.

But by the time we made our way up there, she was all good to go. They have the best Santa there - he looks awesome, and he's very sweet with the kids.

I have no idea what they talked about, except I did hear Santa ask if she was going to have a baby brother or sister, to which she replied, "sister". :-)

After visiting Santa, we headed to the craft area, where Ellison chose to decorate a little reindeer ornament.

Upon leaving, our impeccable timing led Ellison to unfortunately spot the hayride wagon. It was VERY chilly that evening, and we hadn't dressed for a hayride, but she begged (and apparently her parents give in easily), and we agreed to it since the driver said it was only a 4 minute ride. One of her 4 "Daisy dolphins" had to join us.

Is Jonathan cold?

While the boombox played Christmas carols during the ride, I frantically tried to get my coat to zip up over my ginormous midsection without busting.

[December 5, 2010]

A Snow Baby

The day before, when it started snowing, Ellison excitedly announced she wanted to make a snowman, with which we responded, "No, honey, there isn't enough snow yet." On this morning/afternoon, after coming home from church, Ellison hung her head as she shuffled through the garage and got tears in her eyes. "This is the worst day. I didn't even get to build a snowman, and the snow is melted!" OK, why don't you just rip my heart out and stomp on it a few times? Her awesome Daddy said, "You know what? Come on, I'll take you out real quick to make a little snowman." So out they go, in their church clothes still, freezing their cajubies off, onto the deck where they made little snow babies. :-)

[December 5, 2010]

Bryan's Surprise Party

Ellison was excited to hear that Kathryn, one of her babysitters, was going to be paying her a visit for the evening while Jonathan and I attended our friend's surprise tacky sweater party. Happy Birthday, Bryan! It was fun seeing all of the stylish attire donned by our friends.

Sexy men Dave, Tripp, and Jonathan

And go-geous ladies Morgan, Megan, and Alisha (did I hear that you actually cut your bangs for this fine event, Alisha?)

Those bells will be ringin' tonight, folks...

Bill & Morgan

Jonathan sported a lovely women's sweater, while I was forced to wear a cardigan half open to allow the bump to pass through.

Jonathan, the birthday boy Bryan, and Bill

Morgan, me, Bryan, Cameron, and Bill

I ate a little too much...

We had a fun time! Hope it was a great birthday for you, Bryan!

[December 4, 2010]

Christmas Parade

We decided to have a festive Saturday and take Ellison to the Greensboro holiday parade downtown, followed by ice skating at the new outdoor ice rink. Ellison loves pretending to ice skate ever since she saw "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" (on a side note: she tells everyone we're going to name our baby either Annika or Aiden - both are the main characters from the very same movie. And no, we're not.). Anyways, we thought it would be fun for her to try out the real thing - with Daddy, of course - while I watched. So we headed to part I of our festivities...

Ellison loved the parade and was totally into it.

And thank God for Daddy - he brought a chair for Mama and some blankets, which I totally didn't think we would be needing. WRONG. It was SO cold!!! Shortly after the parade started, flurries started falling, which quickly turned into a beautiful snow! It was a nice touch for a Christmas parade, but bloody cold and wet!

Ellison kept sticking her tongue out to catch the snow, and after we and our belongings were getting covered with the stuff, she started licking her coat, her mittens, the stroller, etc.

We jetted with just a few minutes left, and on the trek back to the van, we had to stop into Ganache just to thaw ourselves out! That, and bathrooms need to be frequented with a pregnant lady in the caravan. It was a good excuse to pick up some cookies, too. I swear I heard a host of angels singing as we approached the van; it's silhouette even seemed to be bathed in a soft light. We felt that miserable and wet and cold. Did I really grow up in the midwest and Jonathan in Buffalo? Mookie zonked out quickly thereafter, just a drooling away.

Besides the cold, it was a really fun afternoon. :-)

[December 4, 2010]

Ella's Birthday Party

Ellison had a great time attending Ella's 3rd birthday party at The Little Gym, while Daddy was en route to Colorado. She kept asking if she could go back in after we left, and when I told her they were closing, she kept asking if we could come back another day. Perhaps she would like gymnastics???

Balance beams - her fave. Everywhere we go in various parking lots, she's always having to walk the lines and balance.

The birthday girl who is "3, and next year I'll be 4!" So cute!

It takes Ellison about 4.75 hours to eat dinner, so after I was finished eating I ran upstairs to grab something and to check my email. After about 5-10 minutes, I thought it was awfully quiet down there. I came down to find Mookie curled up in her signature ball on the bar stool, fast asleep, with her "chicken meat" still sitting in her mouth. I KNEW it would happen one of these days.

[November 28, 2010]

Baby Doll

Ellison's totally getting into baby mode around here. After she saw a commercial for a doll that goes in her diaper or something like that, I reminded her of a doll that we got for her when she was turning 2. It's been long since shoved at the bottom of a toy bin, but I told her how you feed it real food and water, then she'll poop & pee either on a potty or in her diaper, and you play with her, etc. She was all gung-ho to try it. She was entertained for the longest time! She was so sweet with the baby. I think (and pray) it's a sign of things to come. :-)

[November 28, 2010]

Another Update on the Soto Children

Ellison had her 4-year check-up today, and seems to be doing great. She weighs 32 1/2 lbs (25th percentile), and is 40 inches tall (50th percentile), which is on track with what she was at last year. Everything else seems to be checking out A-okay! We had a big discussion about our food issues, but I was basically told to keep doing what I'm doing... so keep getting frustrated and angry??? ;-)

As for our other little Soto, he/she is worrying his/her parents already. :-) Sunday night (AFTER Jonathan left for Colorado) was a bad night here. After losing power for 5 hours in the evening, having the weather alarm going off 4 times during the night with the little princess asleep next to me, I was having some SERIOUS low abdominal and back pains. Could not sleep well all night, had a death grip on the pillow when the pain became intense, the whole nine yards. I just kept praying over and over that it was digestive, but who knows what it was. Being the bad nurse patient that I am, I kept thinking I would just wait it out - time would tell me, right? It's not an easy decision when you have only neighbors to call on in the middle of the night. At any rate, by morning after I was able to walk around more, they went away. After speaking with my OB Monday, they told me to come in Tuesday to do a fetal fibronectin test. It appeared I hadn't dilated past the 1cm I was already at (thank you, Jesus!), so I kept thinking the FFN would be fine. Wrong. Wednesday we got news that it was positive, so my OB decided she wanted us to go ahead and do the steroid shots at the hospital to help develop the baby's lungs quicker. (Sigh). So our chances of having a baby sooner rather than later is apparently high. However, we COULD go to term, too. A positive test is less conclusive than a negative test, or so I'm told. Only God knows this baby's birthdate, and He loves him/her even more than we do. We're trying to hold on to that knowledge instead of freaking out. We just don't want our poor baby to struggle in its first days of life, we don't want it in the NICU, we want to bring it home with us, we want Ellison to be able to hold him/her in the hospital. But, time will tell. So our bags are packed, in the hopes of jinxing us into not needing them for a long while yet. :-) Thankfully, they haven't placed me on bedrest, I just have to continue decreased activity & staying off my feet as much as possible. So poor Jonathan is working my Target shopping list. I have to admit, it's hard giving up control of that! ;-)

Overheard in the Soto Household...

Ellison: "Whoa! Mom, my 'gina is falling off your lap!"

Ellison (looking at my body after getting out of the shower): "Mom, your boobies are starting to fall down." (As she's attempting to push them up).

Ellison was explaining something to me, and I said, "Oh, I see." Then she says, "Are you processing that?"

I was asking Ellison to be careful coming down the stairs since she had on slippery tights and her hands were full. "Mom, I'm very sensitive."