Food Dog

What a character!


She is not pretending they are boobs... sometimes in the video it sounds like she is saying boobs but she is saying food. She says "Per food" which means Cooper food, one of our dogs... and she also says "Nattie food" which is our other dog.

When she emptied her dress she nicely put it all back into the dog dish.

Then she picked up the dish and dumped the food all over the floor...haha!

Ellie gymnastics

This is Ellie doing some gymnastics in our living room in June, a back-bend and then a kick over, then a handstand into a back bend.

We are changing studios this year and I hope that she will learn much more than last year. Last year the gymnastics class was mostly for recreation and while she learned she could have learned a lot more.

We Did It!

I took several video's just sharing one... watch it all, she's so stinkin cute.





This Dora was Cassie's, she got it when she was about 4 or 5. She played with it some, Ellie played with it some.. but we have our biggest Dora fan ever now, Elyza, and she loves it!

She pushes through the buttons to find her favorite, swiper, "we did it" song and talking about the color Rosado.

34 seconds into it you can hear her say "Did it!" right after she claps.

And she answers Dora, shakes her head when she can see anything else Rosado.

And puts her hand out to stop Swiper.

C-U-T-E!

Ellie Singing

These were from Christmas...

Jingle Bells for... Elyza



Deck the Halls for... Dad


You better watch out... for Mom

Lilkittyy

Lilkittyy is 13 years old and I have started to notice that he's aging. There is nothing overly noticible but I can tell he's becoming an old man and that makes me a bit sad. Hes been with me since he was a little guy, since 1996, and I love him dearly. He's a beautiful, smart and loving guy and I wanted to share some photos of him that I took recently.

Reptile Zoo

Ellie loves this place, Reptile Zoo/Serpentarium in Monroe, WA. She loves to hold snakes and has no fear of them. On this visit she held 5 different snakes and finally they had to tell her that the snakes needed to rest :) She wanted to wait until they were rested so she could hold them again!

Alligator Snapping Turtle

Albino Rattlesnake
Ellie holding another snake
Iguana

Albino Alligator

American Alligator

Florida Soft-shell Turtle

Sausage and Teeth, yum!

Monday the 16th Ellie was in the bath, I was nursing Elyza and Doug was in the kitchen. She starts calling for me so I told Doug to go check on her. He comes into the bedroom with a tooth. She was trying to pull a suction cup off the bathtub wall when her tooth came out. It was loose but not quite ready. After the bleeding stopped I could see that it would have only been a matter of days anyway as her second adult front tooth was coming up under that one and was pushing it out. So now she has lost 3 teeth, one bottom adult tooth is in, the other coming up quickly (you can barely tell she lost any teeth!) and they are taking up all the room.

The second part of the story is that she really wanted the Barbie Thumbelina movie but it was not out until the next day. So she thought if she saved her tooth until the next night the tooth fairy might bring her the movie. Her tooth went into a baggie and put on a shelf in the kitchen that is up high from little sister hands.

Tuesday night she went to get her tooth and it was gone. GONE. Seriously how did her tooth disappear? So we called Dad at work. He asks where the tooth was, I told him. He thinks for a second and says: "I think I put sausage in that baggie this morning." So I look in the fridge and there is the baggie of sausage, and a tooth.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie is SIX and I can hardly believe it! She has started to read, she's lost 2 teeth and she's just growing up too quickly!

I tried to convince her that it would be a great idea to skip her birthday this year so she could stay my favorite 5-year old. She wouldn't have anything to do with it. She KNEW that she'd be my favorite 6-year old when she turned six. She also knew that even IF we skipped her birthday she would STILL turn six and still grow smarter and bigger. I told her we could have cake and presents but just pretend it was a regular day, nope, too smart for her Mama.

She had a great birthday, we had lunch, she went to a class with Gavin, played at the park and went to Jungle Playland.

Six has been hard for me, I think because it really sets in that she IS growing up and there is nothing I can do about it.

Ellie's Beau Part Three

So last night Gavin was over playing. We started looking at pictures of Ellie from when she was a baby, I was walking down memory lane as her 6th birthday approaches. I told her I had found one earlier that I was going to show her husband when she got married. She wanted to see it so I showed her... it was a really nasty poopy diaper.


Then here goes their conversation...

Gavin: So who do you want to marry anyway?

Ellie: I don't know

Gavin: I know who I want to marry!

Ellie: Who?

Gavin: You! I want to marry you!

Ellie: Why?

Gavin: Because you are like my best friend and stuff

Ellie: Oh


I had to turn my head and try NOT to crack up laughing.

Elyza Braging Time

I have to have a little Elyza brag.

She was 18 months 2 days ago.

Although her words are very limited she knows most of her body parts, Head, Hair, Mouth, Teeth, Nose, Eyes, Ears, Fingers, Toes, Feet, Butt.

The other night I said light and she looked up at the ceiling light. I was surprised, although I should not have been, that she knew what light meant. So I asked her "Elyza, show Mama the light." I was even MORE surprised when she got down off the bed, walked over to where the light switch was and tried to reach it.

She doesn't talk very much and I think this is why I am always surprised when she shows us without words that her little noggin is working. She has 5 words that she uses regularly. Mama, Dad, Hi, Ba (ball) & Dat (that)

She also says "na" and touches her breast or mine for nurse, and she says "Ta" for Thank you (and signs it as well)

She signs: more, eat, drink, nurse, thank you, and shakes her head yes and no. We are working on the signs for please and help.

She closes her eyes for her picture smile :) Shes so dang cute!

Our new bird

She crawled in there by herself and was SO mad when I finally made her get out. She was in there snacking on bird food pellets... what a goof!

If you look real close you can see Kiwi, the REAL bird in the upper left hand corner (he's green)

Photos from January

Miss Elyza with Ellie's underware on her head.

She finds clothes and puts them on, it's really very cute!



Elyza eating tomato soup

Cassie & Elyza swinging


Elyza at the park

Elyza & Kiwi




Ellie & Kiwi



Ellie & Elijah

Elyza "dressed-up" Ellie put the skirt on her to play dress up.

Dress-up sisters

Simon sleeping in my sock drawer

Ellie in Gymnastics

Ellie started Gymnastics in September. The first day the woman who owns the academy said "Her body is built for this." which I had been saying for while now.

She's really good at it, and finally the other day we remembered to take the camera and take some pictures.

She is only in level 1 but will be ready for level 2 soon, but I think we might wait until next year to move her up as we will likely be changing gymnastic academies.

Ellie's first lost tooth!

Ellie's tooth started wiggling in mid December. At first I told her not to wiggle it because she was at Nana's and I didn't want her to loose it there! She wiggled it anyway but soon lost interest. I encouraged her to bite down to loosen it and to wiggle it but she didn't want to.

One day the neighbor girl comes over and says that she has her first loose tooth and that is blood behind her tooth. Ellie, I think not wanting to be beat by MacKenna asked me the next day if there was blood behind her tooth too. I looked in her mouth and there was not blood but there was another tooth! So I told her that her tooth really needed to come out.

So we worked on getting it out. In the photos her eyes are red and that's because she was bawling. She was saying "These are tears of joy!" and "I am so happy!" She is so dramatic.

After it came out she called EVERYONE and told them about it. She doesn't even like talking on the phone!

Minutes before it came out

Once it was out, you can see the adult tooth already coming up behind the hole

New smile

Admiring herself in the mirror

Change

I listened to Obama and Biden giving their oath this morning. When Biden was sworn in I had tears running from one eye. When Obama was sworn in I had tears coming from both. What a wonderful day.

Obama's Oath


Inagurational Speech

And she had a dream...

Ellie told me last night about a dream she had the night before.

This is what she told me...Ellie, Cassie & Gavin (Ellie's friend) were stuck in a maze in space and they were trying to get out, to get out they had to find a button and push it before midnight. If they didn't push it before midnight they would be stuck there forever. They found the button just in time and when they found it Marcia was there and she old her to sit on the couch and hang on tight for the ride home.

She's so stinkin cute sometimes. I love it when she shares her dreams with me :)

My little Miss Elyza

I am always writing cute things about Ellie I think that Miss Elyza deserves some attention now. She is truely a sweetheart, IF she wants to be!

Lately if we say "Ouch" or if we act hurt she must come over to give a hug and a pat. She is quite darling and often we do it just to get some of her sweet love.

She is not talking much yet, she says Hi, Mama, Daddy, Ellie and That regularly. She has said Nana and Up and it seems like I am missing some other words.

She is walking and running a little bit, she loves her new climb and slide that lives in the living room that she got for Christmas.

She loves loves music. She dances to any beat, it's really cute. She also likes to make music. When she was born her fingers were really really thin and long and everyone said "She's going to be a piano player." (not they are very very pudgy, lol)

Last night i said "Who wants some cake!?!?" And then I raised my arm and said "Me!" And she giggled so Ellie and I did it a few more times and I raised Elyza's arms and we said "Meeeee!" to make her laugh. Then I got the cake and we sat down to eat it and again I said "Who wants some cake!?!?" and Miss Elyza raised both her little arms and said "Meeeee!" I am sure she had no idea what I was saying but still she knew the answer to the question.

Also when I change her diaper I tickle her. I say "Do you want me to tickle you?" And she shakes her head yes so I tickle the low part of her belly that her diaper covers, she's really ticklish there and cracks up. Last night she was walking around diaperless tickling herself making her goofy tickle noise "getsch getsch getsch" and laughing.

Doug always says to her "Hey what's that there on your foot?" And acts like he's going to inspect it and then says "It's a tickle!" and tickles her. So now she does it to herself and to us.

She has these two tiny baby dolls, about 3 inches or so and she loves them, she walks around with them, if she has only one she will often go get the other, she seems to always know where they are. Sometimes she nurses them, sometimes she makes me hurse them. It's really cute but sometimes I get tired of nursing dolls!

She also loves animals. She loves the cats and the dogs. She lets the dogs give her kisses and feeds them her food often! When she sees them she always exclaims "oooohhh" it's really cute and it's like she has never seen them before. She even loves the bird and we watched a turtle for a couple weeks at Christmas and she would often go watch him too.

She mimics almost everything she sees Ellie do. Ellie sometimes acts goofy and bangs her head on the bed and Elyza always runs over and does the same thing. After playing Wii Fit for hours at MIL's house she was Hula Hooping like the big kids. Even now a few weeks later if we ask her to do the hoop she will wiggle her bottom. When Ellie does cartwheels she puts her head on the floor and her hands next to her head and does her cartwheel.

Elyza is a sweet little girl and I am proud to be her Mama and excited to see who she grows up to be.

Cake or Donkey Ass?

Ellie and I tried to make A-Cake-In-A-Mug which I DO NOT recommend.

It was putrid. Ellie wouldn't even taste it because it smelled funny. And when I tasted it I said that it tasted like donkey ass, not that I have ever tasted donkey ass, but if I did I would imagine that it tasted like this.

The next day Ellie asked Doug "Do you know why that recipe is in the garbage?" Doug says he doesn't know. Ellie says "Because me and mom made chocolate cake and it tasted like donkey ass."

I bet you didn't know...

Today we were driving out of our neighborhood when we saw the landscapers and Doug comments on the color of the garbage cans.... yellow. He said that he has never seen a yellow garbage can before.

This is when Ellie said: "I think they are brand new." Then she says: "I bet Obama decided to change them to yellow."

He's going to be in charge of really important things you know, and I bet you didn't know that one was the color of garbage cans.