Dew! And One...Two...

When E and I are ready to lure Jay out of bed, we can always do so with his favorite first-thing-in-the-morning carbonated confection... Diet Dew! Elle can spot the logo a mile away (as the incredulous Sheetz employees found out), and loves nothing more than pursing her lips in somewhat of a howling wolf fashion to say "Dewwwwww!". Don't worry, if you ask her if the Dew is for Elle, she says "Nooooo, milk for Elle!"
She then proceeds to count the stairs-- I've always done this counting to 5, but recently when I got to 5 she said Six! So I guess now she's graduated to 10. For reasons unbeknownst to me, she is not a big fan of 9. Ready to get on to 10, I suppose. Sorry for the poor filming-- lovely footage of the stairs! It's hard to hold a toddler's hand, count, and make sure the Dew doesn't become an explosive device upon opening!

Hippety Hoppety!

A slightly belated Easter post, but my goal was to get this done within a week (can you tell how low my standards have become?!)-- so enjoy the prolonged Easter celebration!

On Easter Eve we visited Nana and the doggies in Reidsville, and had a visit from Grampa and Mimi later in the day.

Elle awoke to find that the Easter Bunny had visited and laughed herself silly watching the pastel slinky descend the stairs. Apparently Slinky doesn't have to hold a hand for such things. She displayed rockstar egg hunting skills for the roughly 43 seconds the activity held her attention, then we were off to church. Afterwards we headed to High Point for lunch with Jay's family. E delighted in having bubbles blown at her feet (at her request, no idea why), visiting the turtle, and being loved on by family. Thanks, Bolicks for teaching her to announce "Butt!" at an extremely socially unacceptable volume when you ask her what "this" is and point to your rear.

After blessing meals or bedtime prayers, Elle sweetly says "Amen", and we were just waiting for her to do this when Bill finished the blessing for Easter lunch. Of course she was perfectly silent. But about an hour later as we were finishing up lunch, she ran up to Bill and said "AMEN!" I think I'll give her more credit for remembering that he had said the prayer than be disappointed in her delayed timing :-)

What a fantastic weekend spending time with family celebrating that He is risen! Happy Easter!

The neighbor's pickup truck makes for a festive background, don't you think?

Why oh why is it physiologically impossible for us to take a decent family picture? Sigh. I also noticed recently that there are very few pictures of Elle with her Mommy-- as Mommy is always the photographer. So E, when you grow up please don't be too psychiatrically traumatized because there is no photographic documentation that we spent time together... I promise I was always right there, clicking madly away on my fancy Nikon Mom-Cam. One of these days I may have to sell it to pay for the therapy sessions...

Buh-bye Ocean...

We spent a wonderful week at the beach, with perfect weather, plenty of relaxation, good food, and of course the obligatory (several) trip(s) to Costco. Elle loved the concept of the ocean, but was quite vehement that her bare feet not touch the sand. She did find great joy in my running from the waves while carrying her. "O-shun coming! O-shun coming!"

Grampa came to visit for the last few days of the beach trip, and E absolutely loved having him entertain her in the car, saying "Again? Again?" as soon as he would finish reading a book. Once he pointed at a picture of a rabbit, and in a remarkably accurate Elmer Fudd voice said something about a Wascally Wabbit. E gave him a somewhat stern look and enunciated perfectly "Rabbit, Grampa". You could almost see her rolling her eyes. Hilarious.

There is a little door to a cubby hole under our stairs at the beach that Elle loves to hide random things in, including her borderline-doesn't-fit self. She puts the hippo in, says "Bye-bye Hippo", closes the door... dramatic pause... flings open the door and says "Peek-a-boo! (sounds like Bugaboo)" and dissolves into rampant giggles. Over. And. Over.

3 years of radiology residency have given me the eagle eye necessary to spot the baby in this picture. Now if only the pulmonary nodules were as cute...

We had a blast-- I could fill pages of cyberspace with stories, but will keep in mind that there is likely a daily recommended allowance of Other People's Kid/Family Stories and I'd hate to overload any unsuspecting readers. Stay tuned for the Easter post, for which I lack the energy to tackle at the moment. I suppose I should focus that energy into driving to the hospital where I will spend the (hopefully uneventful) night on call.

Buh-bye ocean, buh-bye.

Half-Naked, but Well Accessorized

She has good taste, I must admit.

I later unearthed from my purse: A large container of bubbles, a sippy-cup, and a plastic mound o' peas. Guess she wanted me to be more prepared.

Spring!

Gorgeous weather this weekend meant lots of outside fun-- Elle befriended the geese in the lake behind our house, and fed them corn kernels. The next morning when she came downstairs, she went to the deck door and said "Geese? Geese?" Not particularly wanting to trudge through the backyard in our pj's and bedheads, I told her I thought the geese were sleeping. She didn't skip a beat, and came back immediately with, "Geese sleeping? Geese wake up!"

We gave the geese a (short) reprieve, and went to see them a little later in the day. At some point a particularly aggressive one decided to charge me with his big scary wide open goose mouth making big scary goose noises... I scooped up Elle, threw the cup of food at him in some absurd form of defense, and bolted. Over my shoulder, I could hear E saying "Bye-bye Geese, bye-byeeeeee...." Oh to have had a video camera.

We also enjoyed many wagon rides... E is obsessed with the thing, to the point that if we are pulling in the driveway and she sees it parked by the house she will Wagon, Wagon, Wagon you to death if you don't oblige. For some reason she only wants me to push, so if Jay tries she'll shake her head vehemently and say "No Dada, Mama push!" So there have been a few times when Mama (in her skirt and heels from work) has pulled Dada and Elle in the wagon up and down the driveway. Neighbors must think we're insane.

Mama, push FAST!

They're always after me lucky charms...

Although she slept soundly through the actual party, Elle had a blast helping with the St. Patrick's Day decorations. She met and embraced a leprechaun, tried on hats and beads, and paraded around in her green sparkly booties. While helping me hang a St. Pat's banner, she accidentally knocked one end down. With big sincere blue eyes, she said "Mama, I fix it". A simple sentiment that makes up for many whiny, fussy, clingy, mischievous moments. It still amazes me that I can actually have a conversation with this Little Person... who not so long ago was this wrinkly ball of newbornitude that ate, slept, and cried. Although to be perfectly accurate (like the nutrition facts that have to list ingredients in descending order of prevalence), I should say ate, cried, and slept. My little leprechaun is growing up.

More Bock-ki?

Ok, so this is why I shouldn't be allowed to blog. I get busy and neglect to post, then when things do settle down I feel like I better have something REALLY good since the ole blog has had on its invisibility cloak for so long, so I delay even longer.... can't make a comeback with some mundane commentary on life or without a super cute picture of the Wee Golding. And the cycle continues.

So today, I return to blog land with nothing terribly clever, witty, or profound. Nothing even that cute. Just mundane commentary on life.

We've had gorgeous weather the past few days, and Elle has developed a new fascination for sidewalk chalk which she calls "Outside Colors". That they are, Elle, that they are. Alas, I didn't have a camera handy to document any of her abstract sidewalk art. Next time.

Pretty sure the kid can read, by the way. She'll bring me the "Hop on Pop" Dr. Seuss book while saying "Hop Pop, Hop Pop", then as I turn the pages, she'll say the words on the page. Not just naming objects, but things like "All Fall" and "Cup Pup". I told Jay I thought she had just memorized what the words looked like, but then it occurred to me... isn't that reading?

Just so no one thinks she is always a Genius Angel Child, today there was a note from daycare saying that Elle didn't want to do what she was told today, and basically threw temper tantrums when asked to oblige. They didn't actually say "temper tantrum", rather a more docile description of the event, but sure sounded borderline TT-ish to me. Luckily we haven't had to deal with much of that at home... Can't believe my baby is big enough to get in trouble at school!

In honor of my friends (ahem, Sarah) who are actually GOOD bloggers, and entertain me with their wit AND culinary prowess, I thought I'd share my go-to recipe in case anyone else has roughly 12 minutes to make a healthy meal for an 18 month old and hubby. E eats this stuff like candy, even the chicken which she normally shuns. You could use any veggie instead of or in addition to the broccoli, just happens to be on hand in our household and E's favorite.

Coconut Chicken Curry:

One pack boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces (I like to do this the night before, just saves a step when I get home)

Broccoli (or veggie of choice- snow peas, peppers, carrots, etc would work nicely)

Noodles or Rice (I use the Barilla Plus angel hair for some omega 3 action)

1 can coconut milk (I made the mistake of trying the Lite version once- just don't do it)

Soy sauce

Ground ginger

Curry

Combine coconut milk and soy sauce in small saucepan over low heat (Use enough soy until it is ummm.... light brown). Add "some" ginger.

Coat chicken in curry powder. Stir-fry in olive oil (with some toasted sesame oil if you have it)

Boil water for pasta

Steam broccoli in steamer basket above pasta

Add broccoli to skillet with chicken, pour sauce over. Drain pasta and toss with the rest.

Smile with maternal pride as your offspring snarfs up broccoli and chicken. Funny how I can spend my entire day participating in quasi-important doctor things, but consider a day truly successful when my daughter says "More Bock-ki?"

Promise more pictures and cleverness next time...