Preschool Turkey Day!

Last week I got to volunteer in Ella's preschool class for their Thanksgiving party. It was fun to see all the adorable things they do and get a feel for some of the other kids I hear about all the time. Those teachers have their hands full but it was fun to help out in the controlled chaos that is 14 3-4 year olds!


Ella kept turning around and waving to me during circle time

The kids made a ton of crafts! Door hangers, Turkeys, Squirrels, a headband with feathers, and wrapped bread dough around ice cream cones to make cornucopias to hold their snack in! I was impressed.



I got to be in charge of helping each kid make their Squirrel craft. It was fun to interact with each of them and get to talk about the little sign the squirrel is holding and how Thanksgiving is all about saying thank-you to Jesus!

Before snack the kids had a little music/dancing time and Ella got really into it! It was fun to see Ella in her environment especially because though she's always loved school, she LOVES it this year and talks about her friends from school so much more than before. I hope I'll get to go back and visit again soon!

Pie Night 2009!!!

Tonight was Pie Night! It's an annual family tradition started by Chris' mom and loved by everyone. There are usually about 30 people and about 35 pies get made in the course of the night. Nancy (my MIL) prepares everything so people can get to work making apple, sweet potato, pumpkin, and cream cheese pie (it's sort of like cheesecake). This year butternut squash pie and a chocolate pie were added into the mix. I'm all about extending the holidays so starting to celebrate Thanksgiving the night before is perfect! Thanks Nancy for all the work you do to make this happen every year!

PS-if you notice any difference in the picture quality it's because we finally decided on a dSLR and it came in the mail yesterday! We still have a lot to learn but I'm already really happy with the purchase.


Ella was really excited to help cook this year and did a great job. We brought home the pie she made (almost) completely by herself!

Lau-Lau is my SIL Ping's mother and she was able to come to her first pie night! Nancy was showing her how to make pie crust and then Lau-Lau took the rolling pin and schooled us all! She's quick! Decades of rolling dumplings comes in handy! (by the way, Ping was in labor at Pie Night and will probably have the baby tonight or tomorrow!)

Ella and Hannah were chatting away like teenagers while they got some food. It was like a vision of things to come. How fun to have a cousin who is only 9 months younger!

I mostly worked on apple pies. They're my favorite :-)

Ella did help but she also got pretty excited about licking butter off every single finger! And sugar...and eating apples...and pie dough...

It was a really fun night. You can check out more pics here

Behavior Modification Part 2

So, Ella would live on carbs, sugar, and milk (which has both!) if she could. I've been feeling frustrated lately with her lack of interest in vegetables and fruit and the battle it is to get her to eat them. And, I've decided 4 is too young to get away with eating what you want because you wear Mommy out. So, we're going hard core. Chris and I decided that we are going to assume our rightful roles as the ones who determine if our child is healthy or not. So, Operation Fruit and Vegetables is in full swing. Here's the plan.

Ella needs to eat a serving of fruit (at breakfast) and vegetables (at lunch and dinner) first. That's all she will be served when she sits down to a meal. If she eats ALL of it (no more bargaining with "3 more green beans!!) she can have the rest of the meal. If she doesn't eat it, she gets nothing else to eat. We feel confident she will not starve if she misses a meal (although this does pull on my heart strings) so we're going to hold our ground.

Drinks are another issue because since birth Ella has been a milk lover and would gladly consumer all her calories in liquid form. So, we already limit her milk and (diluted) juice intake but these will also be saved for after veggies/fruits are consumed so she can't fill up on them. Plus, if she eats more healthy stuff she may not need her regular prune juice to keep her "regular" (she's also been constipated since birth-sorry if that's TMI but come on, this is a mom blog).

So, we started yesterday and she's doing GREAT! I'm sure rough spots are around the corner (and this is much harder to enforce if we're not home) but so far she's been a hero! I must confess she did cry the first morning and said through tears "Mommy, it will hurt my feelings if I have to eat vegetables every day." I validated her feelings of sadness (I am a therapist after all) and then we talked about how Mommy and Daddy are in charge of helping her grow up healthy so we're doing this to make her healthy not sad. She got over it and ate her oranges :-)

Today she ate a bowl of peas at lunch and didn't even bat an eyelash. Last week she probably would have eaten 3 peas after whining about it and then fed them to the dog while I wasn't looking or just eaten all her sandwich and said she was too full for peas. Well girl, I'm on to you. The dog is in her crate for meal times and you can't be full because you can't eat anything else first!!

So, we're excited and perhaps naively hopeful, that she'll develop a like for more fruits and vegetables through this experiment. I really do love most vegetables so I'm hoping I can model that. We've told her that when she starts to eat all her veggies without complaining, we'll know she's ready to have them served with her other food. So, wish us luck! We're psyched!

Behavior Modification Part 1

I promise I'll post about Ella's birthday soon but that involves looking through 400 pictures (literally) so it'll have to wait.

I did want to document some new "behavior modification" measures we're starting this week. If you remember, we've used the school bus for a REALLY long time. It worked well but the novelty wore off and wasn't specific enough (she got kids on her school bus for any positive thing, lost them for any negative thing). So, we borrowed an idea Amy (my SIL) who borrowed it from another friend: a sticker chart where Ella gets stickers for certain behaviors. Here's the list (the ones with stars are the ones that have recently been causing a lot of problems):

I obeyed right away! *
I got dressed without whining! *
I fed Raleigh!
I stayed in my bed at night! *
I stayed in my room for rest time! *
I ate a serving of vegetables! *
I ate a serving of fruit!
I drank a cup of water!
I cleaned up my room!

Then it has this verse as encouragement for Ella and for us :-)

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up”.

Galatians 6:9 (New Living Translation)

We started it Saturday and right now Ella has 9 stickers!! The rewards are as follows:
10 stickers: piece of candy
20 stickers: a little toy from a treasure box (this box is still in the making)
30 stickers: gets to go to/rent a movie or get ice cream

I'm a little uncomfortable with food as rewards (especially in light of Beh. Mod. Part 2) so we may rethink that but for now I think it's ok. It makes her really happy and reinforces the idea that treats are "sometimes" foods not things we have every day (thanks Sesame Street!).

So, we're excited about the new chart, Ella's psyched about it and is doing pretty darn well. I hope this builds into her a sense of responsibility and respect for authority and self-control. I also hope that our responses to missteps give her a solid understanding of grace.

I'll let you know how it goes!

New Hiking Spot!

Last week we were introduced to a great new spot to hike that is kid-friendly (lots to see and touch but a nice wide, paved path!). There was a really impressive waterfall (complete with signs letting you know "people have drowned here") and a cool suspension bridge we got to walk over. While we were there Amy got some great pics of Ella. We are TOTALLY in the market for a nice camera like hers!






And finally one horrible sad one :-( I think she was crying because I wouldn't carry her. What a horrendous face!! Way to capture the moment Amy!