My Brave Day

Last week a friend needed a little help after some surgery so I offered to take her daughter out for the afternoon. I was excited to do it and Ella was thrilled to get to spend some time with Hanna. We had a good time but I'll admit having two 3 year olds in the mall was kind of stressful. I'm just not used to keeping track of two kids at once in an open space. Thankfully it went pretty well (my kid was the one who had fits and made it difficult, Hanna was easy). Anyway, my hat is off to those of you with two kids or three kids or four kids...Wow. As I sat and watched them play I kept reminding myself that when I have two kids, they won't both be three at the same time-that'll make a difference right? If not, don't tell me. I need the delusion if Ella's ever going to get a sibling.

A lady who worked at this store noticed the price tag where the girls were standing and asked me if I was advertising that they were for sale for free :-)

Enjoying a little MickeyD's

Chillin in the play area tunnel

Play Doh once we got home :-) Having two kids at my house is no problem at all, that I'm more used to. I was so excited that we made it home without losing or hurting anyone that I made them an entire play doh zoo and cracked them up by letting them name the animals and then singing a song about each one. Relieved mommies are fun mommies.

Fun Day with the girls!

Getting back in the swing of things...

I haven't blogged in a while and I've been trying to figure out why.

1) I think with the break from school I've been enjoying taking a break from all "work" on the computer.
2)Ella has had a bad behavior phase for the last 2 weeks or so and it's been harder to remember the cute moments and blog about them. Most of my musings about her have been about whether she's ever going to be a contributing member of society if she can't learn to obey me NOW. BECAUSE I SAID SO.
3)We haven't done anything super exciting lately.

So, for those of you who emailed and asked, yes we're all ok and yes, I intend to keep blogging. I have a BUSY semester ahead so not sure how frequent it'll be but I'll try to get back in the swing of things :-) I started my clinical internship today so maybe I'll even regale some of you faithful readers with stories from work-there are likely to be some wild ones (mental health issues are often sad but sometimes really funny). But, for now, here are some random pics from the last couple weeks.

reminiscent of Ella's early love of putting all of her barrettes in her hair at once

with the cousins downtown

Harley Girls!

Ella's first try at roller skating! It lasted about 5 minutes but was very cute.

Hannukah

Because my dad's side of the family is Jewish, even though my parents are Christians, they decided to raise us celebrating Christmas as well as Hanukkah . Chris and I have decided to do the same with Ella. We want her to know about her Jewish heritage and the cool stories of what God did for the Jews long before Jesus came into the picture. We had a Hanukkah dinner at my parents house this year with my mom's Panamanian take on traditional foods like latkes with applesauce and lamb. My grandmother taught us a couple yiddish words and proclaimed the dinner the best Hanukkah dinner she's had in 90 years. Ella was really into it too-what three year old wouldn't love 8 presents and getting to play with fire? Hopefully in years to come the story of Hanukkah will sink in also :-)

Sudds Gone Crazy!

The other day when I wasn't looking Ella decided to add some more soap to the bathtub. I couldn't really tell at first and then we turned on the jacuzzi jets and the bubbles went insane! These pictures are AFTER I drained all the water out because the bathtub was overflowing. It was a FULL tub of bubbles. Ahhhh the fun of being 3 and carefree :-)






Pretending to take a nap

"Mom I'm cold now! Get me out!"

Ella Talk

Me (in a funny voice while dancing around): I Love You!! I love you!! I love you!
Ella (in a scolding tone): Mom. You are being a little too crazy.


E (while we're in the car running errands): Mom can you take a shower when we get home?
Me: Why? I took a shower this morning.
E: Please? Please? Can you please take a shower?
Me: No Ella, I'll take one tomorrow morning.
(lots more begging and me getting frustrated)
Me: Why do you want me to take a shower? I'm clean!
E (quietly): ummm...so I can watch TV
Ahhh, it all comes together now. She had no concerns for my hygiene, it was just a new way to beg for TV time (the begging is the main reason she's been banned from TV lately).
Later she told me "Mom, I won't let it hurt my brain! I promise!" (Yes, I told her too much TV will hurt her brain.)


Ella: Mom? Did you know vegetables are good for my brain, and my tummy, and my poop! That's what they're good for!
Me: That's true! How about some broccoli at lunch? I love broccoli.
Ella: Nope. I don't like vegetables.
(TMI ALERT-she knows vegetables are good for her poop because she's been constipated for most of her life so it's kind of a mantra around here)


Ella: Mom, come look! Come! Now!
Me: What happened? Are you ok? What are you doing? (I come around the table to look and she's sitting there bouncing her leg up and down)
Ella: This is called the hopping leg. Do you like it?


(in the car, both sitting quietly and pull up to a light about a mile from the mall)
E: Oh! We're going to the Alumbia Mall!
Me: We are! How did you know the name of the mall? How do you know where we are??
E: Cause it's the Alumbia Mall! We're near Popeye and Abuela's house too.
Me (seriously incredulous): Wow Ella! You're right! I'm so impressed!
E (to a tune she made up, over and over and over): I'm right, I'm right, I'm totally right!


Me: Ella can you tell me about the Christmas Story?
Ella: Yes! It's about Disney World. There's Mickey and Princesses.