elle rese

Life Lesson

2012-02-01T22:20:00.000-06:00

Last week as I (mommy) was getting E ready for school I noticed something amiss about her hair. After a closer look, I realize that it had been cut. In the back. Here is a fairly accurate recount of the conversations that followed:

Mommy: Elle (as she's about to brush her teeth), did someone cut your hair?
Elle: Um. Me & "Jane" (name of child has been changed) wehe pwetending to cut hair ye'tehday at 'chool! (remember, we omit our S before any consonant).
Mommy: honey, I think Jane really cut your hair with scissors.
Elle: But we weh just pwetending!
Mommy: well, she really cut your hair. you have hair back here missing.
Elle (clearly thinking over what I've just said): oh.

We finish getting ready & hop in the car. I'm thanking God "Jane" did not get the front of the hair and stopped at a point that I believe the hair style can be saved.

Elle: But "Jane" said we were just pwetending!
Mommy: Well, sometimes people say one thing and do something else. And for whatever reason, "Jane" really cut your hair. Who else got a hair cut?
Elle: Um, names a few kids (follow by approximately 10 seconds of silence.). Dat 'neaky "Jane"! She told me we were pwetending and she weally cut my hair! side note: Elle was the only child who received a "real" haircut.

Her brow is furrowed, as she realizes the betrayal of her friend. It's a hard pill to swallow and a tough life lesson. But, just as I thought, the hair style was salvageable and we now have a cute bob (that I've only managed to photograph on my phone so excuse the shoddy camera work). I think Elle is pleased with the outcome because everyone who has seen the new 'do tells her how cute it is...and this kid loves a compliment.

Without further ado...the bob.

Christmas!

2011-12-24T20:29:00.000-06:00

Elle is amped up for Christmas this year. It didn't hurt that in October, American Girl started the catalog blitz so she had weeks to really think about it. She decided she wanted a Bitty Baby crib for her Bitty Baby from Santa. Will she get it? She has asked, so hopefully he'll deliver!

and a video of her visiting Santa at our "favorite" mall (is there such a thing?):

elleisms

2011-11-14T20:48:00.000-06:00

yes, there are more.

"yesterday" - this is really just anything in the past. it could be something from 5 minutes ago or 5 months ago. you just have to be aware of everything and everyone from her past. it really keeps us on our toes.
"it's been a long day since..." - yeh. it isn't like she's having long days; she's 3 folks. you & i might say "it's been a long time since". again, you have to really think outside the box of possibilities.
"too much enough". could mean "that's enough" or "that's too much". you just have to know!

so you can see that conversing with miss elle is really a gigantic mind game that forces you to always bring your A game.

Black cat!

2011-10-31T19:53:00.000-05:00

elle decided she wanted to go as a black cat this year ("mommy, i'm going to be a nice kitty cat, not a 'pooky one"). i really wanted to make her costume (in years past, we've always borrowed or just sort of made it up). i knew she wouldn't go for an actual cat costume so i hit the internet (pinterest, sewing & crafting blogs) for inspiration. i was able to take a tramped up version and toddler it down, if you will.

yesterday, we had a fall carnival at the dayschool elle attends. it was a great time and lots of fun seeing all of the kids in costume. there were games, crafts, outside playtime and mr. david with a music & puppet show that the kiddos loved! it was fun & it was a great fundraiser for her school. today she had her class party (the kid put away 2 cupcakes by the time i got there to help). by the time we left, she was jonsin' for a 3rd cupcake (that i did not give her!)

for those of you who haven't seen the creation and our spooky black cat, here she is (i made the tutu; everything else was sort of pieced together).

random bits

2011-10-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

michael & i were talking tonight about all of the funny things elle says/does that don't make it on this blog (let's face it, i cannot blog every single day.). so, i'm putting together a collection of things for you; things she's said over the past several weeks.

random bit 1:
in the car. michael is asking me how i sight read (i'll spare you the music nerdery conversation) - solfege v. singing the note). he starts to sing something using the key names (A, D, E, C...whatever it was). from the back seat elle pipes up: "DADDY! it's ABCDEFG! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU!?". this also happened with a numbers sequence (1 being the base of the chord...so it was something like 1435..whatever) with elle yelling: "NO! that's not right! it's 1! 2! 3! 4! 5!". funny, for a music nerd.

random bit 2:
on the airplane with mommy en route from LA. i'm reading the Lane Smith book "It's a Book". The three characters are: a mouse, a jackass (you can see quickly where i'm going with this) & a monkey. obviously, the jackass is a donkey but they refer to it as a jackass. the book had a good moral to the story: kids/people don't know what a book is anymore, with all of the electronic gadgets we have. even the e-reader craze keeps you from buying a paper-based book. i digress. so the book ends with the monkey, saying to the donkey (after the donkey cannot believe that a book cannot do more than just be a book): "it's a book, jackass". i read the book and we're about to take off. elle looks at me, smiling & says: "mommy, you're the jackass".

needless to say, there was a conversation about the word. i mean, it is used in the bible, i just don't want to have that conversation with everyone we meet when my child calls me that at the store.

random bit 3:
reminded tonight, (upon hearing a van halen song at a burger joint elle informs us that she likes the song) that she's been to a van halen concert. that's right. four and a half months with child, i treated michael to our hometown stop on the 2008 North American Van Halen Tour (aka: last tour with VH ever). there were more mullets and vintage 1980s concert shirts than any one person should ever see in 2008...all in the aroma of cannibus. no lie. the point? 4 hours of van halen live seem to have made their mark on our little gal.

random bit 4:
with food all over her face, elle says "daddy, tell me you can't see my pretty face". not conceited at all.

random bit 5:
this should be prefaced with: we have a photo album that elle likes to look through. the photos are of herself (refer to rb4, above). anyway, they're photos of everything - the hospital, with grandparents & great grandparents. there is a photo of my grandpa buesing holding her. it is one of the few images we have of him holding her she asks about him every single time she sees that photo.

recently, she asked where grandpa buesing was. after having a slight panic attack, i explained that he'd gotten sick and when she was 15 months old, went to heaven and was with Jesus. so, a few days ago, she was knee deep in all of her arts & crafts supplies. i asked her what she was doing and her response? "uh. i making mr. gwampa buesing a card. i tink he'll like it.".

tear, tear.

random bit 6:
this was intended for posting before this post but it somehow fell through the cracks.

this year, we are having elle's first ever friends only invitation birthday party. we (mommy) sent out a load of invites (if one kid from her class is invited, they're all invited...count 23 invites + church friends). which means i had mostly random folks emailing me - but they all had our home phone number. and that brings me to this story. it's awesome.

ACT 1; scene 1:
thursday night, at 9 pm, i'm laying in bed with elle, trying to convince her it's time to go to bed. she's dozing off and the home phone rings. who the heck calls at 9 pm?! my first thought is that it is someone from work. here is how the conversation with michael goes:
me: who called?
m: i don't know someone selling something. it was a florida number (the benefit of both of us working with clients all over the nation is that we know ridiculous information like area codes for every major area of the US). i told them 9 pm was entirely too late to be calling this house and hung up.
***pause. they asked for you.
me: huh? they asked for me & you just hung up!? i hope it wasn't someone from work (haven't you ever had a large scale furniture emergency? i have.).
m: well if it was someone from your work then they needed to hear that.
***he goes to get the phone. i look at the number and don't notice it. besides, my current florida project is not in this area code. whew.
me: i hope it wasn't a parent calling to RSVP for her party. but surely they would know 9 pm is kind of late...
aaaand scene.

ACT 2, scene 1:
e's dayschool. we're both picking her up so we can run some last minute party errands.
dayschool director (to michael): did you get a call last night around 9?

m: uuuuuuuuuum. yes?
me (in my head): oh. my. god. oh dear. oooooooh dear loooooorrrrd.
dd: it was a parent calling to rsvp.
me (in my head): uh, the invite did say tuesday. thanks for waiting TWO WHOLE DAYS WHEN I'VE ALREADY BOUGHT ALL PARTY FAVOR BAGS (i do have extras, but still)
me (out loud): very nice michael (i really used his last name).
m: oh. wow. how am i going to fix this one? i thought it was a telemarketer. oh wow. this is awkward. grovel, grovel.
dd: well, i told her that just didn't sound like you (thank God, she likes us & knows we're nice people...unless you call after 9, apparently).

now, he did call this number back when we got home. but she hasn't called us back...no surprise. and yes, i DID laugh at him all of the way home (and for most of the weekend).

moral of the story for you? if you don't want a quick lecture on calling our house after bedtime and before getting hung up with no chance to respond, don't call after 8:59. unless your guts are LITERALLY somehow coming out of any orifice on your body.

moral of the story for some in our house?: wait to see what they want before giving your soapbox talk.
love you, michael/daddy. :)

open wide!

2011-10-17T21:45:00.000-05:00

today elle went to the dentist. outside of visiting our friend dr. kesa, this was her first trip to a dentist for a teeth cleaning/x-rays. this pediatric dentist came recommended to us by our pediatrician. he sends his children to her and, well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. turns out, dr. k delivered big time! pediatric dentist (dr. c) was awesome!

no matter how much we built this up and read to her about visiting the dentist, elle was not loving the whole experience. elle eventually came around and the visit ended well & with an x-ray (she did really well with this!). when we walked out elle had a beautiful tiara, ring, bag full of dental treats, a sticker chart - when it's full, she mails it in for a prize!, a balloon with her name and flowers drawn on it, along with a distorted view of how fabulous she did in the dental chair. if she weren't 3, my response would have been something like: "um. do you not remember the colossal meltdown you had for a solid 15 minutes? and then the one you had 10 minutes after the first one ended?" but since she's 3, my response was: "you were such a big girl!" (read: "you didn't sound half as horrific as the kid in the next room, thank you sweet Jesus").

you're probably wondering how her teeth are. they look good. she has one tooth that has no nerve vitality to it so there is a slight discoloration (due to one of her many face plants...we think the most recent one at the stock yards). there is nothing to worry about and the dentist thinks it won't affect the permanent tooth. in the x-rays, we could see one of the permanent teeth hiding out. pretty cool!

the girls took some photos of the whole hour and a half (that's right!).

vaaaaaaaaaaacation!

2011-10-13T16:58:00.001-05:00

we recently took a nice family vacation to california. it coincided with a conference for daddy so we figured we might as well hop on the flight out there and get some R&R at the happiest place on earth.

it's important to note that recently, elle has started a shy phase. people & places we know are now cause for a mini-panic attack. and if she doesn't want to do it, she doesn't. want. to. do it. sound familiar to anyone? no? moving on...

so we went to d-land. i'm telling you that place is magic! everyone is so friendly (i know, they're paid to be that nice), the weather was amazing and i think disney has some contract with the stress gods to not enter in. even though you know you're being raped and pillaged for a coke (and let me tell you, i've never had a more perfect coca-cola), you don't care! you happily fork over the money. genius! anyway, it is true. it is the happiest place on earth.

our first travel day, we landed at LAX (which is a super easy airport to get in & out of, in my opinion), we went to Downtown Disney. for those of you unfamiliar in the disney way, it is just what it sounds like - it's a downtown district outside the park but within their resort confines. there are different stores (a huge disney store, several other disney-themed stores, lego store, book store, etc.) plus a handful of restaurants. so, we had pizza. then we reminded elle that she had some money to spend. she found a few things (including that lollipop in the photo). mommy found a latte (i'd been up since the ungodly hour of 4.45 am) and daddy found a mickey mouse cakepop, which you can see elle happily hijacked (she does this often).

the next day, was our disneyland day. we rode rides, saw our disney friends (but not too close, thank you) and she shopped on Main Street. Disneyland was decked out for Halloween!

wheeeee!

i am sure mulan & tiana weren't at all creeped out by this frizzy-haired-been-at-the-park-all-day-long mom in the photo with her 3 year old. (note: this is where they shy thing comes into play).

elle meets belle!

and since there are hardly any photos ever on this blog with yours truly & elle,

i'm posting a bit more than usual.

no, i'm not being vain, just trying to prove that mommy exists in a form other than words on a blog.

we rounded out the trip with a visit from some friends in pasadena. then went to huntington beach, for a birthday party for 7 year old jack, son of our sunday school teacher/elle's music teachers/our friends (last but not least!). and if you're wondering, elle did not care too much for the water but was so excited about the 'eagulls (we omit our S before many phonemes). and she loved the seashells.

saturday fun

2011-09-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

it seems we've kicked the ridiculous hot weather to the curb and now we're enjoying pleasant mornings doing things like going to the zoo (gotta use the annual pass!).

putting them in their place.

2011-09-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

tonight as daddy & i were making juice in our new juicer (delicious, by the way), we hear a door opening followed by the pitter-patter of elle-sized feet, i turn to see elle walking out of her room, into our dark hallway & headed straight for our bedroom.

naturally, i go to investigate and this is what follows:

elle, through squinty eyes & the sleep-scratchy voice: "mommy? are you and daddy talking?"
me: "yes, we are. we're making juice!"
elle: "well i'm trying to sleep". (she turns toward her room and marches in)
elle: "i am trying to sleep and you need to be quiet so i can sleep."

huh. well, she told me (us, i'm totally bringing daddy down with me as he was my partner in conversation).

exciting stuff

2011-08-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

we like to live on the edge. you know, we're really crazy people when you peel away the don't like crowds-wallflower-Type A personality traits we have. yeh. we're really, crazy, livin' on the edge type of people.

no? don't think so?

thursday, as i was watching my new favorite show (rescue me) on netflix instant stream and michael was watching scarface (isn't that the name of it?) in the other room....all was peaceful. until we heard a loud boom!, followed by pretty instant flickering of our lights. we run to the back door to find one limb of our beautiful 50+ year old oak tree lying across our backyard. then we notice sparking...from the roof where the electrical wires feed into our house. then small flames. of course, our electricity is out so, no land line. and we can't find our phones because we can't find flashlights. michael quickly gets his phone & calls 911. our doorbell starts ringing and our wonderful neighbor is slightly freaking out "your house is on fire! your house is on fire!". of course, mr. cool (aka daddy) is calming everyone down. and in what was only seconds but seemed like several minutes, i've changed from my pajamas, grabbed elle & have headed next door....all with the sound of fire engines in the background.

did you know with a house fire, the city of D sends 3 fire engines, a chief and an ambulance? and let me tell you, they move quickly. they were there in what seems like less than 2 minutes. amazing.

yep, we were those neighbors. it was quite the spectacle. there were people standing in my driveway i've never even spoken to. i finally got elle & jack calmed enough to go back to the house to see a slew of firemen watching as two others went to my roof with a chainsaw and ax. nice. but, at least our home didn't burn to the ground.

when the light of day hit on friday, we were able to see a little better what happened. the crazy thing is that the tree didn't look nearly as rotted as we were expecting. we're really not sure what exactly caused it to come crashing down but our guess is the drought conditions mixed with what rot we did have (which really wasn't a lot) was just too much for our tree to bear.

we have a hole in our roof, about 2-3' square-ish. we have zero electricity (of course) & our house has a lovely fragrance of...smoke. i'm so grateful that our insurance company has moved quickly on this situation. they got us into temporary housing the very next morning (a hotel down the way...elle thinks we're on vacation...that takes dogs (yay!)). we've had the restoration crew stop by early friday morning. those two guys are my heroes (besides the firefighters). no electricity meant no garage door opening, which is the only way into our garage. they were able to macguyver the door open so we could get our cars out (which meant we were able to get to school by 9). they secured the hole in our roof so none of our 200 squirrels could set up home in our attic, they got a tree crew out to remove the tree limb & they got an electrician out - all before 11 am. amazing. granted, it will be a few days before we hear from the insurance adjuster...which is the one person we need to get the ball rolling.

it's an adventure i don't care to ever experience again but it's safe to say we're beyond grateful we were home & awake when this happened so we could call 911 quickly.

heavenly

2011-07-20T11:04:00.000-05:00

although i can't confirm, i think this is a bedtime song between daddy & elle. a few weeks ago, she was walking around the house singing this and since then, when we've asked her to sing this, she refuses. already a singer worth her salt - refusing to sing on command or without pay. finally, with a little coercion, we were able to get this out of her. i assure you it's a one time deal.

eat your heart out, harry connick jr.!

and without further ado, i present to you:

birthday bash!

2011-07-20T10:18:00.019-05:00

july became a bit of a nearly month long celebration for elle. her actual birthday - july 1 is just too close to independence day to have her birthday party. and because mommy & daddy were out of town the next weekend, her birthday party was pushed back to july 16.

this year was the first "all friends" birthday bash. we opted for a mid morning party at a splash park. the kids had a ball! and luckily, it didn't get super hot until halfway through the party. but there was shade and a slight breeze...so we all survived.

elle got a lot of great gifts. thanks to kaka & cc and a few friends, she's loaded up on "arts & cracks" supplies as well as play-doh sets. she has all of the "bitty baby" (american girl doll for those of you not in the know) loot - feeding chair, stroller, diaper bag, clothes - she could ask for.

fwee. or three.

2011-07-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

friday, elle turned 3. can you believe it?! i cannot. i also cannot believe how much she's grown and changed in a year. i'm not going to tell you how darn smart she is; you already know that.

she:
*can express her opinion (it's a recessive trait, we think)
*can negotiate (bites of food, tv time, play time, bed time, whatever).
*can throw a fit (y'all just think she's soooo cute and sweet. mm hm.)
*is fully potty trained (ok, has been)! hooray! do you know how much diapers freed up that bank account?!
*knows what "download" means...or at least what it gets you. (when i told her i didn't have a particular game on my phone she said "well you can just download it").
*knows how to work a room. and her daddy. but, i'm all over her bag of tricks.
*loves to do arts & cracks ("elle, can you say craFFFFts?" to which she responds "cracks" with a very assertive head nod)
*loves to read.
*loves to sleep. that's a mommy trait (every morning: "da light ih too bwight. tuhn ih off!).
*tells people she "has a furry brodder named jack".
*might be a little bossy. that totally came from her daddy. totally.
*thinks eleven is "eleventeen". and it is followed by 18. then 45.
*is always on the go. always. her pediatrician recently told us (upon observing her): "guys. this one is not going to have a desk job. she just won't want to sit still".

photos to follow.

While mommy was away

2011-06-20T11:50:00.000-05:00

Mommy was in Chicago so Daddy and Elle spent some quality time together struggling to get dressed and out the door without the well oiled machine (mommy) there to help us. Since we made it to school two days in a row fully clothed and semi clean Daddy decided to reward Elle with a trip to the Dallas Zoo (despite the brutally hot temperatures).

Elle was over the top excited about going to the zoo and was surprised when one of her classmates from day school was there (total coincidence). Elle and Lola had a good time playing while we waited for the zoo gates to open. While at the zoo Elle got to pet the goats, feed the giraffes, see the penguins, see the lions and lionesses, see the real elephants, ride the fake elephants, ride the carousel, play in the children's zoo playground and ride "her" pony Scout. See a couple of pictures and a video below.

-daddy

Elle petting the sometimes cranky goats in the children's petting zoo

Here is Elle on her elephant (we had to sit on this elephant every time we walked by it).

Elle feeding the giraffe

smarty pants

2011-06-02T12:25:00.000-05:00

this morning, as i was rushing around making elle's breakfast, feeding jack, getting myself ready for the day and getting my work ready to go...i hear "mommy! i wrote my name! come see!"

and she sure did.

we'll be submitting her application to MENSA very soon.

bad influence

2011-05-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

last month, we traveled to oklahoma for the bedlam baseball game (OU-OSU for those of you not up to speed on all things bedlam). of course, we packed elle's crimson OU shirt, practiced making the letters O & U with her arms, fed her lines of "boomer sooner"; the whole bit. she was AMPED.

we stayed with my brother & sister-in-law. this is an inter-collegiate marriage. kyle (kaka) is a big OU fan, born & bred, as we all are. casey (cc), on the hand. well, she's all about pistol pete & the orange pride (or whatever it's called...i still didn't get sucked in, even after getting a degree there).

friday night, very delicious brownies were made by cc with elle as her sous chef. here is a watered down conversation that occurred on saturday, before the game:

me: elle, what team are you going to cheer for tonight?
elle: um. da cowboys.
me: what? the cowboys?! (this cannot be! we've been so successful with pumping her full of crimson & cream! she's clearly confused).
me: ok. well, what color are you cheering for tonight? RED or orange?
elle: orange!

well, imagine our confusion. how could this have happened?

may i present evidence to the court of my readers:

exhibit A:

cc & elle so sweetly posing for the camera while making brownies. aren't they cute? elle loves her aunt cc so much and could probably be greatly influenced by anything cc said to her.

& exhibit B:

cc feeding elle spoonfuls of brownie mix (and now we know feeding her other things...things about OSU that no little girl should have enter her ears & thoughts).

we're on to you, dearly loved cc.

spring flowers

2011-04-28T09:35:00.000-05:00

spring break!

2011-03-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

last week was spring break for us - just the last 3 days of the week. michael & i took the time off so we could do stuff that we've not made time to do up to now.

we went to the zoo & arboretum - and became members of both (moving forward, you can find us at one of those two places for the remainder of the YEAR).

the zoo.

elle loved the zoo, of course. the children's petting zoo was a big hit for her and well...not so much for mommy. luckily for elle, her daddy will pet anything with 4 legs on it...regardless of potential allergic reaction...so he was game to go in with the goats & pet the pig and he walked with her on her horse ride with scout (who was really cute). there were lots of monkeys (complete with monkey fight) & the savannah exhibit was really great - the lioness walked right up to us in the cafeteria and looked right at us (all that separates the diners & the cats is a pane of glass)! the elephants were out, as were the giraffes. our city zoo is nice and the people watching is always a guaranteed good time!

the arboretum currently has an exhibit of princess castles. seven local architecture & design firms created child scale castles based on various children's stories (think: beauty & the beast, the little mermaid, rapunzel a la brothers grimm & hans christian anderson...not of the disney variety). an added bonus is that the arboretum currently has 500,000 spring blooming bulbs planted right now. i know, i know, you're thinking allergies. and yes, we all showered when we got home and it wasn't nearly as bad as we'd prepared for. and it was really quite beautiful.

we had a great time and while i've always said a 4 day work week is the way to go, i'm thinking a 2 day work week would be even better!

today

2011-03-01T22:28:00.000-06:00

this day is just too bizarre to not share.

3.30 am (yes, that's right): through the fog of my deep slumber, i hear elle "moooommmmmyyyyyyyy! daaaaaddyyyyyyy!" michael rolls over to tell me he's already been up with her for an hour & a half. ugh. stumble out of bed (and fumble to the kitchen...sorry...couldn't resist) to go see what's going on. she's up and wants to be held. toss & turn with her. michael finally says to bring her to bed (something we just don't do often but i do at this moment because next to God & family, my bed is a very close 3rd on my love list).
~3.45 am: e is in bed with us. no one has really gone back to sleep but not for lack of trying. e uses this moment to tell us she needs water. get water.
3.47 am: e says she needs to potty. holyfreakingcrapareyoukiddingme?! i got the water, so m got the potty job. turns out, she really did need to go. now, we're all WIDE awake. go back to bed & turn on sesame street. have a brief moment of insanity where i think "i might as well get up and clean house". don't act on insanity. at some point, m turns off the tv & takes e to her room. i've fallen asleep.
7.30 am: wake up to jack whining because the spoiled rotten dog thinks we've neglected him & forgot to feed him. whine. whine. whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. look at clock and flip a little because we're usually out the door at this moment in the morning. feed jack. nudge m to tell him the time.
8.30 am: finally leave house. hey! only an hour behind after all of that! get elle to school & head to office to pick up a few things. get trapped at office.
10.00 am: stop at grocery store to pick up a few items since my morning is already shot to hell; might as well make it where i don't have to get out again, right?
10.30 am: see her day school calling my cell. oh crap. crap crap crap. hesitantly pick up phone (if i don't answer, then nothing bad is happening, right?). elle has fallen. off a slide (a 36" high slide, but still). took a face plant in the ground has some scratches on her face. they're "worried only because she takes hits harder than the boys and gets right back up but this time she isn't getting right back up, she's really clingy and says her head hurts". side note: school cannot administer any medications unless prescribed by a pharmacy. try to get a game plan together...determine that m can pick her up & i'll wrap up whatever work i can.
11 am: m gets to her school right as they're about to each lunch. e seems to be doing ok, wants to play but her teachers are scared senseless. m waits for e to eat at school. m finds out from teachers that e's equilibrium seems "off". call doctor for appointment to check ears. get one at 1.50. start to make lunch for m & me.
12.45 pm: the gang gets home. jack freaks because of course, everyone is here for him. feed e banana. adults eat lunch and come to grips that any possibility of working "normal hours" is not happening.
1.20 pm: get out door for the doctor. discover that the fisher price doctor's kit paid off big! e is a model patient while doc looks in her ears (previously, this resulted in blood curdling screams). e tells him how she fell of slide, hurt her head...blah blah blah. have ear infection but everything is is good. whew.
2.30 pm: head to disney store. you can read about that here.
3.30 pm: finally get home and e takes a nap. i go for a much needed run and m works (i think).
that should be enough excitement for 12 hours on a tuesday!, no?
well not at casa sheaffer.

while i'm giving e a bath (which is always an ordeal) m gets ready to go for a run. i hear cries of "ow ow ow!!! oh! ouch!". by the time i turn around, he's at my bathroom sink with blood pouring out of his nose. while he was putting on his running shoes jack managed to excitedly crank m on the nose, which we now believe to be broken.

i'm not even going to share the bit about e thinking she can get herself out of the tub, only to slip & fall (she catches herself) on the floor.

you can't make this stuff up.

britches

2011-03-01T17:46:00.000-06:00

i've been off the blog scene for several days and for good reason!

we took advantage of the president's day holiday to start potty training. a friend told me about the "potty boot camp" and it was available on kindle e-reader. so, i bought it. the author basically lumped several "techniques" into one and published a book about what worked for her. and now schmucky parents like us all over the US are hanging on her every word.

but let me tell you, it was worth the $6. granted, we have a pretty flippin' smart kid so that helps. i kid, i kid. but in over a week, she's had only 2 days where she was sent home from school in a different outfit (and neither were her fault!). ...

the concept is that you pump your child full of liquids then take them to the bathroom every 10 minutes. the idea is that by the end of that evening, the child will self initiate because they're so sick of the parent asking them "do you need to go..." (insert endearing word for "urinate"...which i'm told isn't a natural word for a 2.5 year old to use even though it's my term of choice). by sunday, she was telling us she needed to "go". it helped that for every 10 minutes she was dry she got an m&m. and when she did go to the potty, she got a prize...like a disney plush toy. on sunday, i had the genius idea to let her see who all in the disney gang was waiting for her and when she saw goofy, she really wanted him. and when she found out what she needed to do to get him, she was on it! we also told her that when she told us she needed to potty - or went by herself - and actually did something we would take her to the disney store (or disneyland as she calls it) and she could pick out whatever she wanted.

over the past week, we've had several instances of successful self-initiation so we took her to the disney store. to say she was excited is an understatement. we reminded her that she could get whatever she wanted. i show her some disney princess dress up kits which i was sure would be a ticket item. nope. michael showed her some princess figurine play sets. no dice. mickey mouse cash register complete with play money, scanner, microphone, basket, a few cartons of milk, scale. uh. no thanks. dress up outfits, minnie mouse marker/color pencil sets, princess dolls. no, no and no. so i remind her again "you can have whatever you want!". all she wanted to do was sit at the table and color while watching sleeping beauty on the big screen. she just loved being in the store (she really thinks is like the disneyland trip we took last june)! we ended up talking her into a big mickey mouse, a small mickey & small minnie (to match her other clubhouse friends she got as potty training prizes & a $2.50 minnie mouse bag). pretty funny.

she thinks she hit the jackpot. but trust me, the fact that we're not shovelling out ridiculous dollars to huggies anymore is proof that we've hit the jackpot.

snow!

2011-02-05T23:38:00.000-06:00

rule of fashion:

always look fabulous, no matter the weather

ice queen

2011-02-03T23:44:00.000-06:00

no, not me, mother. elle.

elle is rockin' the ice. she doesn't seem too upset that she's not going to school. and...why would she? cartoons. snacks. basically, whatever she wants. see, mommy & daddy still have to work in this "weather". yep. that's right. we're not just enjoying a cushy (what is now 4 day) break.

day 1...started with michael taking the reigns a la michael keaton turns jack in mr. mom (although my michael is a much more competent version). his offices were closed so he was on a "stand by" sort of work duty. we finally broke out of the house for dinner and trekked to a tex mex restaurant that, i swear, was the only place in the metroplex opened. thank goodness the food was good!

day 2...included a trip to our beloved good 2 go tacos & the new coffee shop that they share space with - stir. good 2 go started as a taco stand inside a "green" gas station/convenient store. they outgrew the tiny space and have since reopened their own place. our trip included elle looking at her scrambled eggs & yelling "they have glitter them in them!". the glitter? was black pepper. what can i say? she's a purist when it comes to her food. mommy is still working. daddy works a bit too, but his office is still closed.

at some point in the day 2 afternoon, i realize it's very, very quiet. soon, elle comes marching into the living room, "daddy, i need help getting up there with bitty ("bitty" is her bitty baby)." curious and always obliging to the tasks the ladies in his life set before him (ha!), he goes back to elle's room to find that she has decided it's bitty's nap time and she's going to read to her.
note the stuffed animals she shoved onto her 3" window sill. we're still not sure what that's about.

day 3...today starts with michael looking at me saying, "pigpen, you need to get your butt in the shower". where's the love, people? perhaps it was frozen with that gecko on our back sidewalk. that's right. the little green fella got stuck in the ice.

believe it or not, elle is still being near perfect while both mommy & daddy work. because she's been so good, we decide to take her to target & let her pick out something. here's a synopsis of that conversation:

mommy: "elle, because you've been so good, we're going to take you to target and..."

elle: "ah! taaawget!!" (maybe i should've stopped there).

mommy: "yes. we're going to target & mommy & daddy are going to let you pick out one thing as a reward."
daddy: "you can get a book or a toy or...whatever but you get ONE THING" (really in hindsight, this could've been dangerous; we'll work on that).
elle: "i get a toy?! i get a toy for meeeeeee!!! igetatoy!igetatoy!igetatoy!"
...a few minutes go by...
elle: "mommydaddy? (that's what she says when she wants both of us to answer)when i go to tawget, i get to pick out a toy and a book! da ellie belly gets a toy and...and...and...a book!" you read that right. she often refers to herself in her 3rd person gangsta alias "da ellie belly"
***pause***
elle: "and a colowing book!"

so no, we didn't get everything she wanted. in the end, she went for the board game candy land and a dinner trip to chik-fil-a (cleverly placed right outside this particular target) and all was right in her world.

also from day 2: s'mores. she like the components on their own

but not as a single serving dessert sandwich.

and the gooey marshmallow? was not a hit as it was getting her hands dirty.

day 4: that's right. day 4. doomsday. you're walking on thin ice (literally) day. i'm not sure what day 4 will show us but here's what i do know: my church mother's group was cancelled due to weather. the marriage 1:1 where they offer 3 hours of free - free - childcare (you know, so you can have a meal with uninterrupted adult conversation) was cancelled tomorrow evening & when i called her dayschool tonight, i could hear the snarky smile on the school director's face as she was sing-song taunting us "hello parents. we will be closed friday due to weather. have a good weekend".

oh, dayschool? monday you will hear my tires peeling out of your parking lot as i send my pent-up-with-6-days-worth-of-energy child back to school. so, the joke's on you PCDS. the joke's on you.

weekend recap

2011-01-30T18:04:00.000-06:00

yesterday, we had some great weather & we took full advantage of it!

we decided we'd make a trip to the park so miss e could run out some energy (ok, and to insure an afternoon nap). turns out...everyone else had the same idea. but, we hung around & elle navigated her way through all of the other kids (and moms in 4" heels...really? at the park?!).

first stop: the slide. elle loves the highest, twistiest & turniest slides at that park!

after one round being spotted by daddy, she was all about climbing. she made it to the top then would climb back down the same side.

this is what 45 minutes at the park does to a girl's hair.

and now we're left with the teasing the weekend did to us. tomorrow, it's back to reality of the workweek & winter temperatures.

Little Miss Independent

2011-01-18T21:09:00.000-06:00

Mommy is in Philadelphia this week so Elle and Daddy are getting to spend some quality time together. This evening after her bath Elle informed me (daddy) that she can put her pajamas on "all by myself". After several attempts (one resulted in the pajama pants put on inside out and backwards) I thought to grab the camera and snap a couple of shots of our independent Elle.

Elle was so proud when she got her pants on

After I helped her (only a little bit) she got her pajama top on and was beaming with pride. See for yourself.

holiday recap

2011-01-17T16:37:00.000-06:00

i like to string you along...just long enough for you to think "well i thought she'd for sure blog about the holidays but i guess she isn't going to". and then, like a surprise attack, bam! a blog about the holidays.

so, here's your recap:

elle referred to all of the family gatherings as her "Christmas parties". and really if you think about it, she's not far off. ridiuculous amounts of food, cookies, cake, pie, presents & gift wrap out the wazoo. she had a really great time with everything and everyone.

elleisms age 2.5

2011-01-12T13:26:00.000-06:00

first, can you believe elle is 2 and a half? wow. elle's speech is pretty clear but there are some things she says and if you're not in the know, you might be confused.

so...here's a list.

gwama beezy: grandma buesing (bee-zing). actually, i kind of like "beezy".
kaka: uncle kyle
cc: aunt casey
soccabaw: any ball oriented sport on television
rapes: yeh, this one is awkward. it's grapes.
kafwyn: her friend, kathryn, from church. they're tight.
nomi: her friend, naomi, from church. also, apparently tight.
makeups: this is elle's word for hiccups...she also uses this word when she wants facial cleanser while mommy cleans her face.
he got the ball: proclaimed when she notices any sporting event on the television
lady bugs and grasshoppers: these are not what you think. in elle's mind these words represent what other kids may refer to as boogers and ear wax.
i am not ready, here i come: this is what elle exclaims after she has counted to 5 and is hunting for you in a rousing game of hide and seek.

whoops

2011-01-06T21:07:00.000-06:00

i honestly meant to blog after every family holiday but i haven't even gone through the photos! oops! i suppose i'll add this to my weekend "to do" list.

anyway, elle had a ball during Christmas. she was a champ with the travel (we didn't do too much) and was such a good girl.

but since then?
we've discovered our child likes "time out". that's right; she has asked us if she can go to time out. what the?! go figure. so...we're trying other disciplinary action - which is something we're doing a lot lately.

it seems that miss e has an independent streak of sorts.
and selective hearing.
mix that with her very sensitive side and it is a recipe for disaster.

so that's what we've up to since the holidays. maybe i'll make my way through those photos and get something posted this weekend.

ask and you shall receive

2010-12-18T23:02:00.000-06:00

due to the several families we work into our holidays, we had our Christmas today & santa visited our house last night (which worked out well since we saw him just shortly before!).

when we returned from visiting santa, elle helped make chocolate chip cookies for him & got the carrots for the reindeer on the plate.

then we put a tired little girl to bed (who, on schedule, woke up at 6.30 the next morning...how did i get an early riser?)

santa brought;

a guitar!

an art easel with all the accoutrements necessary to create a masterpiece

a doctor's kit

mr potato head

& lots of surprises in everyone's stockings!

and now, the masterpiece!

all i want for Christmas

2010-12-18T22:39:00.000-06:00

last night, we took elle to see santa. i teased michael because he said that this santa was "legendary". well, turns out (if you read the article), he really kind of is.

we weren't really sure what to expect. most of you know that elle can be a bit of a sensitive sally. and it's a mystery as to what might set her off. but she was too jacked up to see santa & not go the distance.

so how'd it go? surprisingly well.

santa: what would you like for Christmas?

elle: um, um, a guitar.

santa: a guitar?! i think everyone should have something so they can play music. are you going to leave me some cookies?

elle: yes. and milk. and carrots for your reindeer!

even santa said she did really well for a 2 year old!

Mozart in the making?

2010-12-14T09:37:00.001-06:00

I (This is Dad typing) was out of town for the weekend and missed out on some of the festivities/fireworks that result in Elle not taking her naps at her normal time.

Dawn did manage to get some video footage of Elle composing at the piano and matching pitches AGAIN. Enjoy the video.

absolutely positively.

2010-12-11T21:39:00.000-06:00

when miss e knows something, there is no arguing otherwise with her...sounds like someone else i know (you know who you are).

so, here is a bit of wisdom stowed upon me today:

me: elle, mommy wants to run to hobby lobby & target. can you do both stores?
e (reading her bible in the car): um. yeeeeeh!
me (after deciding that 2 stores with a no-nap nelly & no parental backup is overly ambitious): you know, i think we'll just go to target. i'll wait until monday to go to hobby lobby.
e: nooooooooooo! i want to go to hobby lobby. hobby lobby is in the bible.
me: uh, i don't think so. it isn't in the bible.
e: yes it is!
me: elle, hobby lobby is a store. it isn't in the bible.
e: YES! IT! IS! MOMMY! it is! in! the bible!
me: then what is it about (really, i'm not sure what i was thinking arguing with a 2 year old)?
e: um, Jesus.
me: hobby lobby is about Jesus?
e: yes & it's in the bible!

and scene. next, we pull into target. i tell elle that she has to leave her bible in the car while we go inside.

and this? this, folks ends with me carrying that sweet face into target while she's screaming "i need my bible, i need my bible". you would think i was beating her.

you can't make this stuff up, folks.

good tag, bad tag

2010-12-07T12:01:00.001-06:00

silky. too silky would probably be the correct way to describe the action (i'm not a grammarian) but if the noun form of "silky" is "silkiness" and the adverb is "silkily" i propose we modify that to a verb,"silkying". that would simply be the act of rubbing two silky objects together. and that's what we do in these parts.

as many of you know, elle has a standard position: left index & middle fingers in her mouth (or is it right? i can never remember...bad mother?, no it's her left. for sure, her left.). the right hand? is down the back of her pants.

so, here's how she rolls...

*she has a very specific way of doing this; i once overheard her tell michael "no, you use this finger". uh oh. we're in trouble here.

*not any tag will do. not even any silk or satin or polyester tag...anything silky, just won't do. there's a specific construction to it.

*fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, SHAME ON YOU! little gal has been known to throw a tag right back at you, while saying "it's NOT a good tag!" a beast in the silkying world, for sure.

*a good silky tag? cures all ills.

what has been an endearing act of toddlerhood, passed down through generations on her mother's side of the family has now become a problem: she's currently boycotting ALL pants that don't meet her tag approval. seriously. did uncle kaka (kyle for the blackwell folk) ever go that far? not to my memory. eek! this morning we went through three pairs of pants before we settled on the fourth (i think she could sense my panic...all other "tag approved pants" were dirty).

good tag

bad tag

as she was throwing each of the three pairs of jeans (pictured above) back into her drawer, i said "do you need mommy to sew a silky tag into your jeans?". i'm not sure if in that 20 second lapse i thought she'd say "no, i'll wear them tomorrow...i'll get over this" or what but she responded "YES!".

so here we are. thank goodness my Christmas shopping is done because tonight? i'll be sewing satin ribbon strips into every. pair. of pants. with elle's approval, of course.

saving grace

advent days 3 & 4 (on day 4!)

2010-12-04T16:51:00.001-06:00

see a pattern? my goal to post her advent treat daily is not happening. but let's face it: every day, she gets a piece of milk chocolate so...there's nothing really to show off!

advent day 3

last night we went for pizza at grimaldi's and then drove through highland park to look at Christmas lights. we're talkin' grotesquely large blow up holiday lawn ornaments. apparently, money doesn't mean you're not tacky. ha!

advent day 4 (today)

i started the day off right...4 stops (3 stores + vet) in about 2.5 hours with miss elle. and NO meltdowns! it's a Christmas miracle!

after nap time, we let elle get her advent treat early. a gold foil wrapped piece of chocolate! elle has been ready to watch the sooners win another big xii championship! we're very excited that we're even in the game!

advent days 1-2 (on advent day 3, no less!)

2010-12-03T08:48:00.002-06:00

ok. so december 1 & 2 flew by without getting my post on advent. oops!

i love advent. i suppose that it began when i was a little girl at my church. it transformed into a sanctuary decorated with greenery, poinsettias & different Christian symbols. so when we attended our first hanging of the green service last year at wilshire, i was very pleasantly surprised! but, enough about me (hey! i write, maintain & design this thing; i figure i can talk about myself on occassion. did i mention i cook & clean, too?).

anyhoo, i started a quest for an advent calendar so that elle would have a fun way to count down the days to Christmas. i couldn't find a reusable calendar that fit the bill (pottery barn kids & target be damned!) so we settled on this cardboard cheapy from world market for $6.95. i've resolved myself to making the advent calendar for next year. i figure if i start now, it'll be done by 2011. ha!

so we did days 1 & 2 last night. oops again! wednesdays are just too hectic for us. elle was intrigued by the doors & the foil wrapped "presents" (later revealed as chocolate). she wanted to open all of the doors!

the lone ranger

2010-11-30T23:02:00.000-06:00

...or the lone post in the month of november. embarrassing! i know i do have an uncanny resemblance to wonder woman, but even she lets things slip through the cracks.

so i said i'd get a blog in for the month of november...nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?

i meant to post this photo on halloween. meant to.

and now to christmas. that's how the stores do it, right? we're not ones to have the holidays throw up in our house but we do have a few festive additions.

elle has been helping daddy get the lights ready to put on the house.

and to celebrate? chocolate pudding, of course!

whoopsie.

2010-11-28T23:43:00.002-06:00

hey...i still have 48 hours to get in a november blog.
for shame, for shame.

trick or treat!

2010-10-30T20:56:00.000-05:00

make that trunk or treat & a day early. e's school had a trunk or treat at a park & it was a hit. so many kids showed up...yet we still managed to bring home loads of candy.

anyhoo.
heeeeeerrrrre's minnie (and the ears lasted all of 30 seconds)!

morning routine

2010-10-28T19:21:00.000-05:00

this is usually how the mornings are at casa sheaffer...one child with food & drink, the other watching for that one...dropped...cheerio.

red & blue

2010-10-28T19:15:00.007-05:00

did i scare some of you into thinking this was an entry on politics? you won't find me talking politics with you...other than for me to say, "psst...they're all liars. even your favorite politician". but i digress...

so, it happened. the post season finally happened near my zip code & i didn't go to one game. the idea of paying $80 bucks to stand for 9 innings just didn't get me all jazzed. so i watched it at home & i'm glad i did.

and here we are with rangers in the world series for the first time ever.

to make matters worse, as i watched game 6 being ripped from the pinstripes (frankly, the yanks gave it to texas on a silver platter), i woke up the next morning to find out my daughter - my own flesh & blood, the child i carried for 38 weeks - requested to eat her cereal...out of "her red hat".

gasp. i was afraid i'd failed as a parent.

but, when her daddy tried to sway her to the texas side of things with this pretty red shirt, she said "where my yankees shirt?!". deep down, the girl knows.

postseason

2010-10-18T21:23:00.002-05:00

we may be the only folks in the DFW rooting on our yankees this october.

let's go yankees!

jack is too exhausted for baseball.

sous chef & taster extraordinaire

2010-10-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

at least once a weekend, michael makes pancakes. perfecting the pancake has become somewhat of an obsession for him, with no bisquick involved. that's right. pancakes from scratch. they're not that much more involved than your good old bisquick cakes but they taste so. much. better.

anyway, whoever is cooking/baking, always has the help of our little sous chef. elle loves being in the kitchen with us. and she almost always insists on "helping" us with whatever we are making. when pancakes are involved, it usually ends with her dropping the bottle of vanilla in the batter. so if you're pancakes ever have a little red tint to them, it's probably just the ink from the label. otherwise, they're perfectly edible.

as you can imagine, a pancake breakfast usually results in a very shiny child. elle somehow manages to apply a thin coat of syrup all over her head, arms...really whatever part of her body isn't covered in clothing. this morning, she proceeded to rest her arm in her plate...which lead to finishing her pancakes with one arm up in the air (her doing, not ours!).

pumpkin

2010-10-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

elle is over the moon that mommy bought this pumpkin for her. it's the little things in life, right?

2010-10-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

we're finally getting fall (for texas, anyway) weather, complete with cool mornings & pleasant afternoons. so we've made our way outside whenever possible.

elle insisted on helping with the laundry. we're not dumb parents - of course we let her help!

peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies? yes please!

pudding!

2010-09-14T21:16:00.002-05:00

we went against everything we believe in & allowed elle to have some pudding after dinner...even when she didn't eat well. i know, go ahead & judge. i don't care.

and while you're scoffing at our poor parental judgment, look at these cute photos.

i ceam, i ceam

2010-09-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

we thought we were going to get away with "white" i ceam but in the end, the little misses wanted "the rainbow i ceam".

i'm amazed she was even this clean.

it rained!

2010-08-21T13:41:00.000-05:00

michael stayed home with elle while her school was closed the past three days. two of those days we finally got some rain at our house & she insisted on running around for awhile.

exhibitionist at large

2010-08-19T15:37:00.000-05:00

those would be her brown shorts and diaper. and yes, she disrobed herself & went running naked through the house.

books & cookies

2010-08-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

elle took a break prepping for football season to have a sweet treat!

ta-da!

2010-08-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

july 19, huh? well that's slightly embarrassing. and now this post isn't really about elle at all. unless you count that she loves to play sous-chef while mommy is whipping up dinner!

and now, for the long anticipated photos.

hot hot hot

2010-07-19T00:20:00.001-05:00

it's been hot hot hot in the D! saturday, elle was such a trooper with the home improvement errands so after her nap, we packed up and went to a nearby spray park. do you know kids act like rabid dogs when they think they're unsupervised running through a million little sprays of water? it was like a scene from cujo.

but our little ellie belly calmly assessed the situation & took it all in stride and had a big time.

when she had her fill, we loaded up & came home to sit in the calm, safe waters of our own kiddie pool. with no rabid animals.

2!

2010-07-02T12:07:00.001-05:00

yesterday was elle's 2nd birthday! i cannot believe that it's already been two years! with year one we saw amazing change and growth. so what did year two bring?

*lots of chatter. elle definitely has her own language yet can be easy to understand. and she is very serious about what she is telling you!
*the two finger suck. apparently, the pointer & middle fingers on the left hand are tasty.
*the two finger suck is nearly always accompanied by her hands down the back of her pants "silkying" (it's a verb, folks) the tag in her pants. watch out of she's wearing a dress!
*secretive vegetable eater. she won't eat her veggies for us, but apparently, she mows them down at school. whatever, as long as she's getting them in her diet.
*elle is curious! she wants to know what everything is and what it does.
*we have a reader on our hands. many times when the house is a little too quiet, you can find elle at the bookshelf reading book after book.
*other times, when the house is a little too quiet, you can find that she's decided to add her own artistic touch to your walls. or cabinets. really, wherever she thinks color needs to be!
*elle is active. she is almost always on the go and if you think all of these photos i post are easy to take you are mistaken!

we're always getting glimpses of what elle's personality will be like. she is very sweet and always makes our day with an "i lah loo" (i love you). but watch out: one false move from you & she let you hear her disapproval! i think it's safe to speak for michael - she has definitely been a nice surprise!

here's to 2!

it's my party

2010-06-30T22:58:00.000-05:00

balloons! bicycle! "abby dabby" helmet!

we had a little lemon cupcake from edmond's cupcakes to go go for elle to blow out a candle. the guests had sugar cookies from eileen's colossal cookies (delicious!) & pizza for the guests. elle wanted none of it...the water in the pool was enough for this little girl!

the kids had a ball (or so it seemed)! elle nearly lost it when we made her get out of the water. she would have shriveled like a prune if we would have let her!

nice little getaway

2010-06-20T23:37:00.000-05:00

i thought i should post some photos of our trip to california. first, let me tell you that God was on. my. side. during this trip. how so? allow me to share:

*a not full flight = an entire row to ourselves
*elle couldn't not have been more perfect on both flights (and really, the entire trip)
*even though the flight back to dallas was full, someone didn't board which meant: the row all to ourselves! score!
*my "lost" blackberry wasn't lost...it just made the entire flight home wedged somewhere in our stroller in the guts of the plane.

so. back to the trip. we had a really nice time and i think michael checked his blackberry for work purposes maybe only once a day. progress, i say!

elle loved disneyland. side note: it looks the exact same as it did when i went in 1987; which was very comforting. we rode the carousel (on the bench, elle's orders), dumbo the flying elephant, the teapucks (not a typo) & the many adventures of winnie the pooh (which struck both michael & me as a bit...psychedelic. what was in pooh's honey that made it so addictive?). we spent a lot of time in toontown at goofy's house, mickey's house & chip 'n dale's treehouse. elle loved the whole bit. we did discover there is a love-hate relationship with the disney gang. perhaps if their heads weren't so out of proportion to their bodies, elle would have wanted her photo taken with them. she loved mickey, minnie, goofy & pluto from a distance but wasn't too jazzed about being up close.

i'm going to share this little story so it's cemented in the archives of elle. we get to minnie's house & elle is trying to cut the line to get to minnie. once she realizes that isn't an option, she rushes to the front gate where she stands at & yells, flapping her arms - for a solid 10 minutes - "minnie! minnie! minnie!! hi, minnie!!" over & over again. we get up to the line to have a photo taken with the adored minnie and elle freezes. then the corners of her mouth turn downward & we can't get her to budge. we finally get the photo, and on our way out elle turns and says "minnie! minnie! minnie!! bye minnie!". minnie was so sweet she blew elle a kiss & what did elle do? blew one right back at minnie. i'm telling you, this girl can work a room. look for her as early as the presidential election of 2048.

so, the photos:

and at the aquarium of the pacific...

manners

2010-06-01T11:47:00.000-05:00

the scene: dining table.
elle has eaten her breakfast & now wants to mooch off the closest sucker. she chooses daddy.

elle, sitting on daddy's lap: "bite. cereal!" (he's eating raisin bran, by the way...what 2 year old likes raisin bran?)
mommy & daddy, in unison: "what do you say?"
elle: "bite, please" (she gets her bite)
mommy: "elle, what do you say when you get what you've asked for?"
elle: "more, please".

i suppose that's one way of approaching it. although, i was hoping for "thank you", which we eventually got.
this right here is why i'm considering eating in secrecy.

the artiste

2010-05-27T10:58:00.000-05:00

elle is very serious when it comes to her art. she is very proud of her creations and always has a very bold declaration regarding her latest & greatest creation (generally followed by "i did it!"). she really might be the cutest nearly 2 year old in the solar system.

the theme at school for the month of may is "oceans".

"pish!"

"it's the sun!"

"opatus!"

yuck! dirty...continued.

2010-05-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

yes, another non-elle related post (unless you look at it as: another bath & another meltdown in the kitchen sink then yes, this is totally elle related). if you felt the earth move today in your neck of the woods, trust me, it was worse in my living room.

michael basically jackhammered (for lack of a better word) the tile floor in my bathroom. the funny bit is that every time elle walked by, you could hear "yuck, dirty" coming from her little mouth.

ps.

2010-05-21T22:17:00.000-05:00

matching pitch: when i sing a note and you match that note.
and michael really didn't cry. apparently my humor is lost on even my own family. :)

tears?

2010-05-21T17:08:00.000-05:00

we were on our way home wednesday night when from the back seat, we hear "bibuh. song.". it isn't as much as request as a demand and we have no idea if she wants to hear a specific song or just something in general from church. side note: my helping in 3 year old music has been incredibly beneficial to us in this department. so, we (i), break out the classics: jesus loves me, jesus loves the little children & a new (to us) one:

i open my bible & what do i see?
God loves me.

elle mimics opening her bible with her hands & then squeaks out "God...loves...me".

upon hearing this michael says "i think she just matched pitch." and then i saw a tear roll from his eye. people, i've never witnessed this in nearly 11 years of marriage...not at our wedding, not when i gave birth (ok, had her cut from my body in a drug induced haze, not when we brought our little jackers home...not when he heard elle say for the first time, "cleaning up", "yuck. dirty". never has he cried. ever.

but we may have had tears on this one.

yuck! dirty...continued.

2010-05-17T21:22:00.000-05:00

in case you were wondering...

my old vanity & bathroom tiles are on the lawn...hence we look like sanford & son on the boulevard. thankfully, so does the rest of the zip code - it's our big trash pickup week!

and yes, there is one felt moving blanket separating us from the scary things that live beneath our house. oh, and the mesh screen.

God help us all.

cleanliness is next to Godliness.

2010-05-14T08:23:00.004-05:00

we've always wondered what traits of ours elle will have. a big concern is what if she's a complete slob!? because we just don't roll that way. this week, we found out.

michael started the demolition work on my bathroom (no turning back now! mama needs her own bathroom stat!). however, the bathtub is still usable so we're bathing the ellie belly in there for a few more days.

upon seeing this:

all elle could say was "yuck! dirty!". and trust me, that's the clean version.
rinse & repeat...4,389 times.
she's our child after all!

playdate

2010-05-11T12:02:00.000-05:00

we recently played at the park with elle's friend, kinley. i have a feeling these two could get into a lot of trouble together.

mother's day

2010-05-11T11:53:00.003-05:00

hope you had a great mother's day (even though it's a huge marketing ploy)!

a suit for all occassions

2010-05-04T21:59:00.001-05:00

today michael & i scored at baby gap. i won't tell you what we got this swimsuit for because it was so unbelievable i'm still pinching myself on the deal!

we had miss elle try on her new swimsuit (after various facial expressions of excitement & surprise) and she wouldn't. take. it. off. when i say this i mean: she went on our evening run - in her swimsuit. and with her silky.

i have a feeling she'll be in this suit a lot this summer.

baby baby

2010-05-04T21:41:00.005-05:00

a few days ago, i pulled out elle's baby clothes so i could sort through all of it. daddy thought it would be "fun" to show elle all of her baby clothes - with which she's since become mildly obsessed.

case in point: she likes to walk around with the pacifier clips (which she broke herself of at 3 or 4 months) in her mouth and she loves to wear the "baby hat".

i deam!

2010-05-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

i deam! it isn't a misspelling, it's miss elle's way of saying "ice cream!" and the girl loves it.

saturday in the park

2010-05-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

oops! i've been caught - twice! - without a camera.

after lunch on saturday, we stopped by a new (new to us) park so elle could play. thanks to our trusty blackberries, i was able to snag a few shots. you'll just have to accept the low resolution.

also, saturday was elle's "22 month" birthday. can you believe it!? our little love muffin will be two before you know it!

somersault!

2010-04-23T08:24:00.002-05:00

sharing with elmo

2010-04-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

chatty cathy

2010-04-11T08:50:00.000-05:00

i decided i would write down all of the words elle can say. but, miss smartypants knows a lot of words. so my plans have changed. she can say most animals & the sounds they make (although, sometimes she calls the animal by the sound they make), she knows most colors. she can say "thank you" (which is also "you're welcome") and please. she can say apple & banana, eat, drink, milk...the list goes on.

my favorite word to hear her say? well...for that, you'll have to click play.

Easter Sunday

2010-04-11T07:48:00.000-05:00

war wounds saga: part 1,548

2010-04-11T00:08:00.000-05:00

ok, so it just seems like we've had 1,547 previous accidents. but we hit the jackpot friday with our first pediatric ER visit. actually, i suppose we're lucky it's taken 21 months.

not 10 minutes into my work day yesterday, elle's school director calls & tells me i need to come look at elle's lip & that she might need to see the doctor. to shorten the story, after michael described the cut to the nurse, we were advised to visit the ER (doc doesn't suture in-office). the good news is that stitches (and sedation) weren't necessary & will heal nicely. the bad news is that she has a lovely gash in her lower lip and it's ugly.

cut to: later friday afternoon. michael is home with elle and they're taking out trash. somehow, she managed to fall (she wouldn't nap & the girl gets CLUMSY when she's tired) flat on her face & scrape the side of her face...cheek to eye. you can see all of her war wounds here.

note the "ankle bracelet"...

shiner

2010-04-10T23:42:00.005-05:00

i've said it before: elle is a daredevil. probably not anymore than any other nearly 2 year old but more than her mommy would like! in the past two weeks, elle has: hit her head (think eye level) on the desk (result? bruise), shortly after that incident she busted it again (causing us to not know for sure which bruise was from which fall) & at school, she fell with a toy in her hand which resulted in a niiiice bruise on her forehead (now green).

in the past three days, elle has busted her lip (bleeding involved), fallen down hitting her nose on the ottoman causing a nose bleed & yesterday she fell at dayschool with a toy in her hand and got this...(update on 4.10.10: friday, she faceplanted off the little "push car" at school and busted her lip open [blog to follow] & if that wasn't enough, fell onto the concrete later that SAME AFTERNOON!), scuffing up the side of her face opposite her ginormous bruise.

so, you can see the bruise, the strawberry from her friday fall & on the bottom lip in the middle is a nice little gash that is now healing (Thank God!). i suppose the bright side is that the new bruise covers up the old bruise (that was turning green).

happy easter!

2010-03-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

egg hunt

2010-03-28T15:34:00.002-05:00

today, our church class had an egg hunt for all of our kiddos at a park near the church. elle had such a good time. since she enjoys picking up stuff (seriously, did you think she wouldn't enjoy a clean space?!), it was a lot of fun to watch her.

we had to convince her that the goal is to get more than four eggs, but i'm glad my little gal has a spirit of contentment about her...she was perfectly fine with just a few eggs.

cheese!

park fun

2010-03-28T15:13:00.001-05:00

elle recently discovered the park and she loves it. through the park, we've learned that we have a little daredevil on our hands. she loves the highest slide with the most twists and turns. climbing up the stairs doesn't scare her the least bit and i'm certain as soon as she can, she'll be telling us "higher, higher" while we're pushing her in the swing.

if i hadn't carried her for 38 weeks myself, i'd question if this were my child. i'm sure i have time to instill all of those "first born", cautious tendencies.

angel, princess or both?

2010-03-15T22:32:00.009-05:00

a few weeks ago, our church had their old fashioned preschool game night. there were different "booths" with different activities. one booth that didn't make elle cry was the dress up booth. she fell in love with some sparkly pink shoes that were way too big and loved this little crown.

of course, the fingers were in

pudding!

2010-03-13T08:40:00.004-06:00

dancer!

2010-03-06T20:26:00.005-06:00

tonight we were watching a show about a cover band of the beatles. all of a sudden, miss elle decided to abandon her coloring book and show us her moves. it might be slow in the beginning, but i think you'll get a kick out of the end.

breakfast in style

2010-03-06T14:53:00.001-06:00

tickle monster!

2010-02-17T21:06:00.003-06:00

two videos for your viewing pleasure.

elle & the red velvet cake ball

2010-02-12T19:56:00.008-06:00

elle's valentine's party was supposed to be today at school. due to the snow, her school was closed. this presented us with two dilemmas: 1. we both had to work today, therefore tag-team parenting was in order and 2. those cake balls that were for her teachers? are now stuck in my refrigerator. you know they're not going to make it until tuesday. (which, in turn, will create yet another dilemma: making something to make up for the inevitable eating of all of those cake balls).

so, i thought i'd give elle a little treat today.

first, you study your prey.

then, carefully, you go in for the attack.

then you ponder the greatness just tasted.

oh yeh. that was tasty.

so tasty i'll shove the rest of it in my mouth!

snow. texas style.

2010-02-12T19:48:00.004-06:00

this morning, we woke up to a winter wonderland. ok. that was corny. but this snow was really pretty. unfortunately, our neighborhood, flanked by two greenbelts full of mature trees, had several trees down.

luckily, we lost only our cable, internet & telephone for about 18 hours (thank goodness for mobile & data packages!).

looking north from our house.

and south.

snow!

2010-02-11T18:53:00.004-06:00

well, i finally got the snow i wanted. it's just that i wanted it to snow on, say, friday night & saturday so that i wouldn't have to deal with the buffoons in dallas. but, you can't have everything. so i got the snow today - and the buffoons! we've had about 7" of snow as of now - a RECORD for february in dallas!

this morning, elle seemed very intrigued by all of this. even still, on the drive home, there were lots of questions of "whaszat?!" i thought for sure she would want to walk around and kick up her heels in the front yard - what a great photo op! but, elle had other plans and was perfectly content being held the entire time.

this is all i got.

whasat?!

not too bad, considering it's completely by accident.

miss elle doesn't just give away kisses...they're very rare occurrences.

sponge

2010-02-09T22:06:00.002-06:00

we just can't keep this little gal away from her books. the more objects to question & quiz, the better!

new favorite

2010-02-09T21:54:00.003-06:00

i have a few new blogs that i am addicted to. of course, they're food related but that should come as no surprise.

i was on the prowl for something new to bake for all of elle's teachers - dayschool & church - when i stumbled up on this. not wanting to get too elaborate (but aren't those cute?!), i opted to go with the plain jane cake ball and i just finished them.

mine aren't nearly as pretty as bakerella's but it won't really matter because these little puppies? won't be looked at for long. no, these. are. delicious. and what's worse, they're super duper easy (read: if i had an extra hour every night, i'd weigh approximately 1 ton and these would be to blame).

as if elle wasn't already the teacher's pet, she will be once she delivers these yummy little bites!

foodies

2010-02-09T21:41:00.002-06:00

we're foodies here at the reser-sheaffer house. we love to eat it. plan it. bake it. make it. eat it. eat it. but...there is one of us that doesn't always love what's on the table so i'm on a never ending search for a hit at the table.

i've (this is dawn here) had my eye on ellie krieger's blueberry & almond french toast bake (sans the almonds since elle's pediatrician has not given the green light on nuts). since my parents were visiting last weekend, i hopped on the extra guests to help us chow down.

this recipe makes a large amount and a small dab'll do ya. it's delicious with powdered sugar or some added syrup!

einstein...or ellestein?

2010-01-24T20:35:00.013-06:00

do you want to see how smart miss elle is? while you're being amazed by her high level of intelligence, you just go ahead and be amazed at how dang cute she is.

here's our handsome jack, sporting a new green argyle collar. snazzy, huh? you can ignore the layer of dog hair on the area rug. thanks.

making up for lost time

2010-01-22T19:09:00.014-06:00

due to the lack of photo blogs during the month of january, i'm going to make up for lost time. i promise i won't let this happen again.

*****

january 2:

elle loves to get her books & crayons out, sit at her table & chairs and create a masterpiece. she is an artiste. sometimes, daddy tries to stifle our little picasso by allowing her to have only 2 or 3 crayons at a time. what kind of parenting is that? so mommy always comes to the rescue & gives her all the crayons...because you can't squash the creativity of a budding artist, right? who's with me on this?!

*****

january 9:

the mystery of the pink coat. over the holidays, elle outgrew her super cute red pea coat. as in the sleeves were still too long but the body of the coat was too short. anyway, michael was going to order a coat but never did and i had this feeling that i should pull out her winter coat from last year to try it on her. weird, huh? i mean, how could her 6-12 month coat from last winter possibly fit her? well, here's last winter's coat, fitting the ellie belly just fine. i think The Gap mislabeled this particular coat. score!

*****

january 11:

daddy's in trouble because this little girl? loves her shoes, especially these faux Uggs from payless. she cries when we try to take them off.

*****

january 16:

just because she's cute. and really, what's one more photo at this point?

*****

january 18:

elle has been so fascinated by our earmuffs she decided to give 'em a go.

movin' on up

2010-01-21T12:26:00.004-06:00

first, i know it's been awhile (ok...a long while) since i've blogged. i've just been busy and haven't made the time to blog. don't give up on me...i have stuff coming.

until then, today i was informed that miss elle is moving up to the toddler one class february 1.

um. what?!

i'm a bit surprised to admit this, but it took all i had not to cry my eye makeup off on the way to the office. i just wasn't ready for this move.

18 month photo fiasco

2010-01-05T14:17:00.003-06:00

while we were in blackwell over the holidays, elle had her 18 month photos taken. click here to check them out and while you're looking at them, know that we were there for one hour...an hour of which my mother & i spent chasing little miss busy body all over the studio.

as we left, trisha said "i'll call if we didn't get any". i'm grateful we got any worth purchasing because i don't think i could've put anyone through another hour like that.

Christmas photos

2009-12-25T20:13:00.004-06:00

elle has this new...uh...habit of sticking her hands down the back of her pants.

showing off her belly.

i have a feeling we have a daredevil on our hands.

crazy Christmas gal

jack found a cozy little spot to nap.

i love the toe point.

Christmas morning yoga. she's working on her triangle pose!

tushy tush

2009-12-25T20:10:00.000-06:00

the holiday that won't stop

2009-12-20T20:55:00.002-06:00

last week, elle got her gift from santa. this week, she got another little gift to go with the gift from santa: a grocery cart! (ps: she could care less about unwrapping the gift. it was so uneventful i wasn't even going to bother uploading that picture)

it was a hit!

here comes santa claus

2009-12-13T21:48:00.005-06:00

santa came to the sheaffer house friday night. when elle awoke, she had a sweet fisher price kitchen. she loves it and spent a majority of her weekend creating culinary delights for all to sample.

little helper

2009-12-09T07:19:00.006-06:00

michael put up the Christmas lights on sunday & elle decided she wanted to help. i was presented with a dilemma: hear her cry because we weren't outside or go outside & freeze my hiney off.

so i froze my hiney off. but elle didn't seem to mind.

check it out!

2009-12-03T23:40:00.004-06:00

the blog design has been updated (finally). but let me tell you, all of those words were very carefully & thoughtfully placed by yours truly (dawn). it took? forever. so head on over to the blog (for those of you who get this via email) and check it out. www.ellerese.blogspot.com. there. you have no reason to not visit.

can you believe it's december? i can't. the tree is up & gifts are wrapped. so far, elle has done very well with the tree. there was an incident tonight where she thought it'd be fun to jingle the bell while it was still attached to the tree but i was able to intervene before things got out of control.

so, here's hoping your december isn't out of control. and that our tree stays vertical.

sugar pie, honey bunch

2009-11-17T12:27:00.004-06:00

elle loves to dance to this song. mind you, she doesn't really dance to any other song, but there's something about this one that she really loves.

you can enjoy TWO videos this time!

not quite what we were working toward

2009-11-15T21:33:00.003-06:00

for a couple of months now, elle has mastered knowing where her ear is. and she knows where "ellie's belly" is, too.

over the weekend, elle decided she'd let us know where her nose is. that's right. "elle, where's your nose?" now elicits a response of showing us her nose - and not her ear (which was previously the response you'd get). the downside of our smart little cookie knowing where her nose is that now she's discovered there are two orifices there that her fingers will neatly fit!

unreal, i know

2009-11-08T08:09:00.003-06:00

guess who like mommy's spinach quiche!?

i do have to say it was delicious (that's my back i'm patting) and even better as leftovers!

spooooky!

2009-11-01T07:51:00.007-06:00

this is scary stuff, people. i can assure you the only time my child will be dressed under my supervision - or my dollar - in this color combination is when her dayschool says "no halloween costumes, but please dress your child like she's a highway construction worker or like she is preparing to go hunting wild game in a Southeast Oklahoma pasture...um, in orange & black". oops. did i say that out loud? my sincerest apologies to my friends who are flawed with the cowboy fever.

elle was a monkey for halloween (appropriate, given her affinity for bananas). she surprised us and actually wore the costume. but, she wasn't so fond of the trick or treating. maybe next year.