A "Gwowling" Tummy

The other morning I awoke to the daily, sing-songy voice of my toddler yelling "Mommmmmyyyy, I have to go potty!"  I was especially groggy and not feeling well so I woke Chris up and asked him if he could get her and I'd be there in a minute.  Being a super-loving husband, he obliged and I rolled over for another minute of rest.

A minute or two later I hear them in the hallway
Ella: Daddy, I'm really hungry for breakfast.  My tummy is gwowling!!
Chris: Ok! What would you like?
Ella: How about pancakes?

***I interrupt this story to tell you my thoughts at this moment "ugghhh, I'm going to have to get up now because it's a work morning and we never cook hot breakfasts on weekdays...Chris is going to say "Well, how about we get mommy"  Not because I'm the pancake maker (that's Chris' specialty) but because then I could break it to her that her choices were cereal or a frozen waffle." I took a deep breath and listened to the rest of the conversation...***

Chris: Sure!

That's it.  No "we don't have time" or "Daddy has to work" or "how about a waffle, that's like a pancake!" or even "let's wake mommy up to help us."  I totally underestimated the complete sweetness and devoutely loving nature of my husband.

And it gets even better.  Here's what I came out to find about 15 minutes later.

I live with the best two people in the world.

Unlikely Loveys

Remember this? Back in June Ella found this rock when we went to a farm to pick strawberries. guess what? SHE is still in love with it. She SLEEPS with it. She carries it around in a blanket, sings to it, and has named it "Rocky." She cried the other day because I wouldn't let her take it to school. Chris thinks we should get rid of the rock when she's not looking because it's SO heavy and therefore dangerous. I agree that it's not the safest "lovey" (quite the opposite of a blanket or stuffed animal) but she's only hurt herself a couple times and she always tells us that she's being "vewwwwy cawe-ful." She just loves the thing so much I can't bear to face her when she's searching the whole house wondering where it is. So, as long as I can protect Rocky from Daddy giving it back to nature, he'll be (strange) part of the family for a while longer :-)

Three Cheers for the Letter Factory

I posted a few weeks ago about how Ella had just borrowed the Leap Frog Letter Factory video from Aunt Amy and how she LOVED it. I am here to proclaim the wonders of this video. It's been six weeks and she's probably seen the video 25 times and SHE KNOWS ALL OF HER LETTERS. AND the sounds they make. Pre-video, she could reliably identify "o" and "e" (her letter, as she so affectionately calls it). And, she had NO interest in learning letters. We had talking magnet letters, foam bath toy letters, letter flashcards and she never cared about them at all. We never pushed them on her because she's two so it doesn't really matter if she knows letters. However, it was always in the back of my mind that her friend Lexi has known all the letters for a year! I knew Ella was capable, I just wondered when she'd show enough interest to learn. Well, in stepped Tad, Lilly, and Leap (frogs in the video) and voila...interest galore. Now it hasn't been the video alone that taught her the letters (though I'd give it about 70% of the credit) but it got her interested so that now, she'll sit with me and "read" letters forever.

One of the cutest things about her new found skill is the residue from the video. For instance, she had trouble saying "t" without calling it "tapping t" (it tap dances in the video). And if you ask her what sound "O" makes she'll make a two-pitch "O" sound that sounds like a tarzan yell because that's what O does in the video. She shivers when ever she makes a "C-c-c" sound and says "wuh-wuh-wuh" while bobbing her head like a the Dj/rapper "W" in the video. She's also taken to saying "Okie dokie artichokie" like the frog in the video. It's all just so cute!

To encourage her new learning, we got out our old laptop too and deemed it "Ella's" and she's been requesting words she wants to type, we tell her the letters, she finds them on the keyboard, types them and then gets so excited!! She's typed all of our names and for some reason, always wants to type "tummy" and gets very upset that there's no "E" in it (because it's her letter and I agree, it sounds like it should have one).

So, all this to say, this is my first real experience with an educational video actually educating my child and even better, opening the door for me to teach her. I'm thrilled.

Fun with Friends

We had a fun few days with friends recently. The Kim girls are a BLAST and somehow Hanna and Ella get along without any of the toddler squabbles ("it's mine!" "no, it's mine!"). It's shocking how long they can play together and need no parental intervention...I hope it lasts! Ella also had a fun morning with her cousins (supervised by Chris) while Amy and I had a morning off. Good times all around.

Ella's gaudy-ness was greatly indulged with Hanna's necklace stash

All three girls in the midst of trashing the playroom (they play well but create DISASTERS!)

Little Halle was trying to keep up with the big girls (and she can pretty well!)

It cracks me up that Ella says "we're going to Hanna's new room! Heeeere weeee commme!!!"

Christopher danced all around in this doing his "elephant dance"

Chris made the kids popcorn and let them watch a VeggieTales video, what a fun dad :-)

Yes, that's two kids (one with wings) inside a Doll crib

And finally, a big part of the last few weeks has been visiting Ping and Drew and baby Silas. He's so adorable and Ella had fun getting to hold him all by herself :-)

Dancing videos

One night as we were getting ready for bed, Ella decided she wanted to show Chris and me what she's learned in dance class (which we only got to go to once before they cancelled it-bummer). It was SO cute!