Weekend recap

Elle had a blast playing with Olivia and was graced by unlimited refills at the tea party.

Thankfully it was imaginary tea, because Elle's unabashed posing for the camera meant her cup was not optimally positioned beneath Olivia's pot. Which is good because my hardwoods can only endure so much toddler love. Between the mega-Tesla magnetic pull that floor has on any sticky, slimy, or vibrantly staining substance and the recent discovery of a protruding nail on the bottom of one of my high heels, I'm starting to consider resurfacing the entire downstairs in astroturf. Or Brawny paper towels. Moral of the story? I need new shoes.



We also made a brief appearance at the pool, dodging torrential rainstorms interspersed with deceptively promising bouts of sunshine.

Elle had an opportunity to model her swimsuit, and scored off the charts in the categories of paleness, age-appropriate thigh rolls, and fashionable protrusion of swim diaper from the confines of one's suit. Extra points for uncanny ability to disrobe Mommy Janet-Jackson-style repeatedly during the short aqua adventure.

We did some housework.

Which, of course, meant that I cleaned up E's mess while she maintained a death grip on the broom/dustpan and sang at the top of her lungs the "Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Clean Up" song while perched on the couch. Apparently she has a very loose understanding of the word "everybody".

We tried (and failed) to get some video of E doing the adorable and supersmart things she does all the time until we try obtaining any sort of physical documentation. Typically she ends up with the camera and I'm lucky if I can find it at the end of the interaction.

Finally we continued our constant public service of ensuring that all household baby dolls have their diapers changed on a q30second schedule. An exorbitant amount of wipes, cream, and fanfare are inevitably involved.

Elle-isms

Over the last couple of weeks Elle has started talking in full sentences which has completley revolutionized her ability to communicate with us (for better or worse!). She is absolutely hilarious and we just roll in the floor laughing at some of the things she says. It also makes me realize how often I must say certain things that I hear her repeating-- e.g. "Here you go, Mama" when handing me something, and "Holy Cow!" when she sees her plate at Cici's Pizza or Moe's. I am completely amazed that she understands so much. I've said a thousand times I need to start writing down things she says, so here is a sampling of Elle-isms that I've recorded over the past 24 hours:

Baby lay down I need to change diaper (followed by forceful laying of baby down on changing mat)

Mommy strap da baby in (after I buckle her seatbelt thingy in the wagon, with baby sitting across in the other seat)

Sit up Baby! (when the above activity fails to hold Baby in an upright position)

Mama show Nanny da button (when Nanny gets to the page with light-up fireflies in the Bug Book)

Look baby, airplane! (Like her mother, E narrates life... most recently preceded by the statement "Look, Mama/Daddy/Sandy/Kelly/Baby, or my personal favorite, Look elephant, Peee-nuts!"

Medicine make Elle all better (this one brought tears to my eyes... after being such a trooper taking nasty medicine... such a trusting little one)

Baby chicken egg (no idea where this came from. I assume someone somewhere taught her that baby chickens come from eggs... that or this was a completely serendipitious combination of words)

Look Mama, no battery! (After looking at the bottom of many animated toys and me telling her that was "the battery", She picked up a simple plastic car and showed me the bottom. No battery! Seriously, Elle? Pretty clever.

And my favorite perfectly Elle comment: We were driving around downtown Gboro looking for Mellow Mushroom and E kept saying Pizza, Pizza!... Jay told her we'd be there in FIVE minutes, and to be patient, he'd tell her when it had been a minute. Well we got distracted looking at street numbers and we hear her pipe up from the backseat, "Daddy, been a minute!" Love. Love. Love this little smarty pants :-)

Of all the years I've wondered what would make the perfect Mother's Day gift...

If only I'd known...

How any gift or card...

Could so pale in comparison...

To the flinging of these sweet toddler arms around my neck.

My, how the bearing of offspring changes everything. Happy Mother's Day!

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.