Cowgirl Boots

This girl of mine loves boots. I mean, L O V E S boots. When the county fairs (yes, plural--she went to all three in the area) came around this year, I went into the "shoe stash" (thank you big sister) to look for boots that would fit her. I didn't really care what kind. I just wanted to find some so that she wouldn't ruin her good tennis shoes in the mud at the fair.

Unfortunately, all of the boots were too big (although a couple of pairs may fit later in the winter). B had to run to town that day for something, and when he came back he had a bag from James Family Outfitter's in hand. Inside was a little box that held a little pair of pink and brown boots.

Since then, she wears them day and night. She spent some time yesterday at B's parents' house and wanted to wear her boots. All her pants were dirty, so I pulled this dress out of the closet. She thought she was gorgeous. (And I have to agree!)

She was so happy with her attire that I was able to talk her into pigtails. No small feat.

Please ignore the mess in the living room behind her. It is Labor Day weekend. I'm trying not to labor :)

Bedtime

It seems as though I only have time for this after bedtime. Which presents a problem... This is also the only time I have to [peacefully] talk to B, [peacefully] watch television, [peacefully] read a book...

And although I love the time I spend after Ella's bedtime, I love bedtime, "the ritual" all by itself.

First, we run to her room to get undressed. Sometimes she and I race (I usually let her win). Other times I carry her and we let B chase us. No matter how we get there, we always her get undressed on her changing table. She likes to throw her clothes on the floor herself. Miss Independent.

After that, we head to the bathtub. There is usually a whole family of little people, a couple of cups, and any other random thing B has found to throw in there. We wash her, brush her teeth and then it's time to get out!

Getting OUT of the tub is a whole ritual in itself. First she picks something to "drop". When B picks her up, he holds her above the water long enough for her to drop the chosen item(s). This usually produces a big grin and a giggle. A few months ago, this is the only way we could even get her out of the tub without screaming. Now it has become part of the routine.

I scoop her up in the hooded towel that my eldest sister handed down to us, and carry her back to her changing table. We have time to sing one round of "Rock-a-bye Baby" on the way. (This is a very new addition to the routine, but I love the love on her face when I sing it. I hope she never stops asking for it.)

Once she lays down on the changing table, she throws the towel off and announces, "ready for bed!!" Diaper, socks, undershirt, pj top, pj bottoms, always in that order. We are such creatures of habit. Then I comb her hair.

Hugs and kisses for Mommy. Daddy has been putting her to bed for the last couple of months, so I get my hugs and kisses first :). Then as a family we sing and dance (slow dance, if you will) "Ring around the Rosie". This is also new.

After the song, it is time for books. Our favorites are Max Lucado's Hermie The Common Caterpillar, Mike Jolley's I'll See You in the Morning (I bought this in the Seattle airport this summer), various Caillou books, and a 50 cent book I got at Grandview Outlets.

I find a lot of comfort in this routine. Possibly more than she does. I know that over the years...and even over the next few months, this routine will change dramatically. I probably will never remember most of these details, which is why I've chosen to put them here. Forever etched into a nook in cyberspace.

County Fair

 

Look at these lovely people! I can't believe they're mine sometimes :). This picture was taken right before B and E headed off to the fair where B's dad was doing the livestock sale. They had a great time (of course). I went down later to take her home (B had to catch bids in the sale ring unexpectedly). When I pulled in, she was in our car (playing with B's mom--not by herself, duh), which was park next to a minivan FULL of rodeo cowboys. Her "I love cowboys" t-shirt was all too appropriate.

I'm wondering if I could possibly write this post with any more parenthesis...

Wisdom

Today Ella said, "Don't worry Mommy. You'll see." I don't know where she got it. I don't really care. Sometimes people just say what you need to hear! My heart is so big I think I might burst. Seriously :).

This picture is from July 25th, just as we were leaving for a birthday party. So fun! Oh...I just realized I've already posted pictures from that party. Oh well. Enjoy this one too. It's one of my favorites.

Well-fed artist

Starving artist doesn't really seem appropriate, since my girl usually has a decent appetite. "Artist" is debatable as well...lol

This past Wednesday we were going about our day pretty normally. We had eaten breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, and gathered up the laundry.

I put in a load of laundry and started walking back through the kitchen and into the laundry room. In hindsight, I think I might have heard the "act in progress".

When I made it to the living room, Ella jumped at the sight of me. This is what she does when she is doing something she's not supposed to be. Actually, she does that even if it's something she not SURE she should be doing.

It took me about .02 seconds to realize what she was doing--coloring the doorway. Below the yellowish-orange "art" is a lovely shade of bluish-purple (not shown in the photo).

To beat all, about one laundry cycle later, I caught her coloring on the top of the tv stand. At that point, she got ALL of her crayons taken away.

I gave them back the next day, but I'm still a little nervous... I have a feeling this won't be the last piece of "art" she chooses to share with us!

Where's Ella???

Yup, that's my baby standing on her tip toes looking in at the lizard game at Mr. Gatti's. We went to a birthday party here last weekend and Ella had a blast. Really, she just loved pulling the tickets out as I played games. Win-win for both of us!!

Really, the birthday party just got me thinking about what WE are going to do for Ella's 2nd birthday. I have less than 3 months now. I have in mind to have a get-together here at our house, but I'll have to run that by my other half. We were at the start of a (LONG) build-on last fall, so having a party here was impossible at the time.

This year I think we can manage it. We may have to have 2 parties because B's family is so big. I really enjoy all of them, so leaving any of them out is unthinkable. Having both B's family and my family can be a bit overwhelming, especially with the size of our house.

No matter HOW it gets done. I know for sure it will be a blessed day because I get to celebrate the birth of my sweet sweet baby girl.

Shunshy-y Day

"Huh?" You say?

Well, I finally added that word list I promised. You can get to it here. There's even a nifty little link back to this page so when you're done translating the title of this entry, you can come comment :).

These arrived at school today with a card that read "Sending you shunshy! Love, Ella and Britt". Nice!

Since it is Friday night, and we are such an exciting family, we headed off to Walmart earlier. While Ella and I were looking at curtains, Britt went to the next aisle over (but still in view) to look in sporting goods. Ella kept peeking around me, trying to play peek-a-boo with her dad. She got so mad when he wouldn't play peek-a-boo with her. He, of course, was oblivious to her game because he was surrounded by hunting equipment.

On a completely separate note, I was shopping at our school's spring Book Fair this week and found a "Dora goes to the doctor" book. I thought it might help us (meaning Ella) approach the whole 'doctor thing' with a little less threat. Apparently books about doctors and plastic toy vacuum cleaners fall into the same category--smaller versions of the big scary things we hate. I opened the book and read the first page. When I turned to the second page that shows the waiting room, she said, "No, no, NOOO," and jumped out of my lap.

Oh well. At least I got it on sale...

Well past due

Okay, we'll not even talk about how long it's been since I updated. I do know that it was before Ella's birthday. Since then we've had a party, built on to our house, missed two weeks of school in a row for snow and ice...and a million other things I won't list (because I know you don't want to hear about those things).

We took Ella to the doctor last week for her 15 month checkup (even though she is just shy of 16 months). She weighed 26 lbs 6 oz, and was 32 inches tall. That would be 75th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. WOW. I feel every pound of that.

She freaked out at the new doctor. Separation anxiety is in full swing. Although...she's fine with pretty much everyone except at the doctor's office. Maybe because everyone else isn't approaching her with needles and those big scary stethescopes.

I should mention, just for fun, that she totally freaked out at the guy at the UPS store when he taped up our box a few days later. But he was big. And hairy. And had thick glasses. And the tape gun was unusually loud. He kinda freaked me out until he graciously waived the $1.06 they charge for taping up boxes because I had left my wallet in the car. (Charging for tape. I seriously have so much to say about that...but I digress.)

I want to post a list of words that Ella knows...but I think I'll do that on a separate page. I'll be back to post a link.

I'm making Britt remind me to update. So if I'm not back to update for a while, it's all his fault. :)

Oh, and the picture was taken on Valentine's Friday (the 13th) at Britt's school.