Sunday Best: All about Ellie edition

Ellie has recently started yelling "cheese and crackers" whenever I take her picture. I prefer this to her old method of running away whenever I would try to take her picture.

Her favorite color is blue. She will always pick the blue barrette, the blue crayon, the blue plate...whatever the blue option is in front of her.

Her favorite animal is an elephant. That is what she most wanted to see at the zoo and at the circus. She has a big stuffed elephant that used to be Tom's when he was little. She always makes me help her rescue it when we are playing Wonder Pets.

This past week, she told her first joke. And then continued to tell it several times a day. It goes like this:
"Mommy, I sorry I got carried away." Slight pause. "Get it? Carried away?" And then she laughs and laughs. I don't really get the joke, but her delivery always makes me laugh, too.

She is really, really into princesses. She wants to read her princess books and dress up like a princess. Somehow, she has decided that when you get married you become a princess so she is a little obsessed with getting married. I tell her she has to finish college first.

Ellie weighs 37 pounds and recently hit another growth spurt, making her a very tall 3 year old. I realized it was time to move her to a booster seat. Following my sister's lead, I let Ellie pick it out by herself. She chose the bright pink, rock n roll design from Target. It is awesome. Of course, if there was a blue option, I am sure she would have chosen that one. I get a little misty eyed about her moving from a car seat to a booster. I wonder if this new baby will make it easier for me to let Ellie grow up?

Knives are bad

I was just in the bathroom talking to Ellie while she was taking a bath. She had made me a birthday cake out of bubbles and then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. Then she held up an imaginary knife to cut the cake.
"I have a knife. You have to be careful with knives."
"No, you can't play with knives. You do not hold knives."
"But I need to cut the cake."
"No knives. Make it a fork."
And with a shake of her wrist she informed me, "There. It's a fork."

That's right, I don't even let her play with imaginary knives. Overprotective much?

Pregnancy Update: Growth Ultrasound

Today was my growth ultrasound. I kept wavering back and forth about whether I should take Ellie with me. I wanted her to see her baby brother, but wasn't sure it was worth the effort of keeping her under control in the waiting room. She isn't bad, per se, but she feels the need to strike up a conversation with everyone. And she gets right in their personal space to do it. In the end, I took her with me. I was so happy to see we had the waiting room to ourselves, but soon a husband/wife team walked in. Ellie practically climbed on top of the guy asking him if he was the daddy and telling him that she was going to see her baby brother. I was trying to get her to come back to me and she just shushed me and said she was talking. I said, "Ellie, you don't know him. Leave him alone." As sassy as ever, she said, "I do know him! What's your name?" "Rodney," he replied. "I talking to Robbie, Mommy." Sigh.

Finally, they called us back (Tom still hadn't shown up, being late as usual). Ellie kept a running commentary the whole time, but luckily the ultrasound tech also has a three year old so she didn't mind. She kept trying to get a good picture of the baby's face, but he wouldn't move his hand. We caught glimpses of his really chubby cheeks and that's about it. The tech kept commenting on what a fat baby we had. I wasn't surprised, since Ellie and I were both over 10 pounds at birth and Tom was almost 10 pounds. At 32 weeks, this little guy is already over 5 pounds and the tech predicted he would be 10 pounds at the very least. I love me some roly-poly babies.

First day of school and an Ellie update

Well, I survived the first "official" day of school. I borrowed a stool from a fellow teacher. It helped some, but my thighs were still burning/tingling by the end of the day and my back was killing me. I try to never judge my classes the first week of school because the students are usually too tired/nervous to show their true colors. However, I will say that my 3rd/4th period block is definitely going to be a challenge! I only have 3 classes a day, but each class is with me for 2 full periods. So when you get a tough class, you are stuck with them for a loooong time. Many of my students from last year found time to come visit with me and it was fun to see them again.

Ellie is doing amazing at preschool. She really is loving it this year and it makes it so much easier to leave her when I don't have that abandonment guilt hanging over my head. I will be pulling her out in 7 weeks, though, when I go on maternity leave. That should be interesting. She seems to be really excited for her baby brother. I have tried really hard to make her feel involved. Like when I got out all the baby stuff, Ellie was right next to me with a rag, helping wipe it down. She still says she has dragons in her belly. She told me the other day that her back hurt and when I asked why, she blamed it on the dragons. She also pointed out that the dragons are pushing out her belly button. She says the dragons will hatch when her baby brother does, so I am interested to see how she will make that happen.

A ghetto carnival

A parking lot carnival was erected not too far from my house this weekend. On Thursday and Friday of last week, Ellie and I would pass by it as we drove to and from school. Ellie was so excited about it and kept asking of we could go. I told her we would go on Saturday if it was open. Well, Saturday at 5:40am, Ellie comes barging into my bedroom asking if it was time to go to the carnival yet. And she continued to ask every 10 minutes until we drove over there around noon. I called up Rosie and Sabrina to bring their families to join in our our little ghetto carnival. And it was ghetto. The metal on many of the rides was too hot for the kids to go on, the workers were all pretty sketchy, and the equipment was old and creaky. But the kids all loved it (except poor Olivia who found herself too short to go on most rides and was in tears). Some of the rides required that Ellie have an adult escort. Mark was the only adult who had purchased a wristband so he ended up going on several of the rides. Unfortunately, he gets motion sickness. No, he really gets motion sickness. By the time we loaded him up on the Tilt-a-Whirl, tucked safely between Ellie and Aidyn, he was positively green. I watched as Ellie and Aidyn screamed with joy and Mark leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Next thing I knew, he was throwing up all over himself. Sorry, Mark, had to share since it was one of the more exciting parts of the day. Rosie ran over and had them stop the ride. Ellie and Aidyn were oblivious and were demanding to go on another ride, but we were done for the day.To cap the evening off on a more positive note, Rosie invited us all over for a back-to-school pajama movie party. We chowed down on lots of yummy snacks and watched 17 Again while the younger kids played upstairs in the toy room. It was the perfect way to end our summer.

A little of this and that

Wow, I can't believe this week is over. It just flew by! It was difficult for me to go from the relaxed schedule of summer to the strict schedule of school. Seriously, this week exhausted me and the students haven't even started yet! Last week was all inservice meetings and getting my classroom ready. I can't imagine how exhausted I will be after adding teenagers to the mix.

My C-section has been scheduled for 7am on October 15. Just under 8 weeks to go. All the teachers are eyeing me like I am about to go into labor any moment. I have decided to use my ominous size to my advantage...whenever my students are really acting up and I am just going to grip my stomach and pretend to have labor pains.

Ellie is doing wonderfully at school. She hasn't cried since the first day and seems to really like her new teacher. She was lecturing me yesterday when we were at the store and I wasn't paying attention to her. She informed me, "You are being very rude. Miss Amanda says you need to listen." Nice.

Last night I left Ellie at home with Tom so I could have some girl time with Rosie and Sabrina. We went to see Julie and Julia. I read the book quite some time ago and loved it, but wasn't sure how it would work onscreen. I was very pleasantly surprised. Just don't go watch it hungry.

Back to school

Ellie survived her first day back at school. Last night, I told her that if she was a big girl and did not cry when I dropped her off, then I would take her to the store after school and she could pick out a toy. She told me she wanted a little blue car that she could push around. I inwardly heaved a sigh of relief that my child has such inexpensive tastes and agreed. This morning, I continued to be all rainbows and sunshine about going back to school. She seemed to be falling for it until it came time for us to walk into the breakfast room. One of the teachers greeted her enthusiastically and the next thing I know she is screaming on top of her lungs and telling me that she wants to "stay with me forever." My heart broke as they pried her off of me and I walked away.

At my school, all the teachers were getting their classrooms ready for students. The preschool area was getting rid of their old books and puzzles to make room for all the new stuff so I was able to snag some giant floor puzzles and several books for Ellie. When I picked her up today, her teacher told me what a great day she had. However, I still didn't feel like I could take her to the store to pick out a toy since she did throw such a fit this morning, so instead I told her about her new books and puzzles. She saw her books and exclaimed, "Oh, thank you, Mommy, thank you! They are so beautiful!" And then she proceeded to read them out loud to me the whole way home. Once we arrived home, I gave her a puzzle to put together. When I attempted to take a picture, she started screaming at me, "Not yet, not yet! I not finished! You have to be patient!"Of course, she was more than happy to pose once she had finished her puzzle.

Sibling Orientation

Tom and I took Ellie to a Sibling Orientation class at the hospital this morning. I was ridiculously excited about the whole thing. The nurse teaching the class happened to be the Lactation Nurse I had when Ellie was born. I don't remember her, but Tom did. He is still bothered by the way she manhandled my breasts. Anyway, let's just say that kids are not her strong suit. She handed out coloring books at the beginning of class and then insisted that the kids all put them away while she was talking. What? Who gives a kid a toy and then promptly tells them they can't play with it? Then, she asked a rhetorical question that Ellie felt compelled to answer. So she turned to Ellie and said, "Ellie, do you know how to zip your lips? You need to be quiet and listen while I am talking." That made me mad because, hello, Ellie is three, but I kept my "pleasant face" on. The class got much better from there, though. All the kids were able to practice holding "babies." Here is Ellie holding her black baby brother:
Then, the kids got a tour of the postpartum unit and were able to look at a real live baby in the nursery. But the best part was at the very end when Ellie was able to make her handprints on the sibling wall. So cute. Um, does it look like Crazy Nurse is gripping Ellie's arm a little tight? Perhaps trying to get back at her for interrupting her oh so important class?

A farewell to summer

As this last week of summer comes to a close, I find myself getting more and more anxious. Some of my worries about going back to school:
-I can't stand for more than 15 minutes without my lower back screaming in pain and my thighs going numb and tingly.
-I also can't stand without feeling like I need to pee. But I can't start out the school year sitting down (or running to the bathroom)...not with the type of kids I teach.
-Ellie gets upset every time I mention her starting school again. I worry about having to peel a screaming child off me each day and then dealing with the subsequent feelings of guilt.
-I worry about leaving my class with a substitute for 12 weeks. Will my teens be completely out of control once I return?

So, yeah, this is what has been keeping me up at night. I just keep reminding myself that I only have to make it through the first 8 weeks of school. Then, Ellie, the baby, and I will have three more months at home together...like a second summer only with less sleep and more stress!

I am happy that we accomplished most of the things on my list of things I wanted/needed to do this summer. I have made a real effort to enjoy my time with Ellie knowing that this is the last summer it will just be the three of us. Ellie is amazing. Each morning, after Tom leaves for practice, Ellie slips into my room and announces, "It's a sunny day!" Then, she crawls under the covers with me and gently strokes my arm with her little hand until I am awake enough to haul myself out of bed. I think I am going to miss that the most.

Celebrating 60 years of life and 40 years of marriage

The Century Party for my parents went really well. They loved it and we had a huge turnout. It was fun to visit with people that I hadn't seen in awhile. The older cousins kind of took charge of the younger cousins in the nursery so I didn't even have to worry about Ellie.
Before the party started, Sabrina presented my parents with this book she had put together for them. It was amazing. It tells the story of their courtship and marriage through pictures. She also had each family member submit pictures along with a letter about mom and dad. My favorite part of the book was my parents' letters to each other. It was so sweet, I teared up just reading it.
This party was kind of like the wedding reception my parents' never had. My mom and dad have spent their whole life putting their kids first. I hope through this party, we were able to show them in a small way how much we appreciate them.
And finally...the grandkid shot. Current tally is 19, but perhaps I should have inserted my belly in that picture. Trying to get all the younger kids in this picture was a feat in and of itself. Two frames from now I have a picture of Ellie walking away on the ledge behind them. You can tell by my parents' faces that they are questioning even trying to get the shot. Ellie was so thrilled being around her cousins. Now that most of them have returned home, she walks around the house playing with her imaginary cousins. It is so sad.

A family affair

My sisters, sister-in-laws, and I kicked off the family reunion yesterday morning with a trip to the spa for pedicures. We enjoyed the last vestiges of serenity before the chaos of Lawton Family Reunion 2009 began. After beautifying our toes, we drove up to the church to set up/decorate for my parents' big Century Party tonight. We are celebrating my dad's 60th birthday and my parents' 40th anniversary (60+40= a century...clever right?).It is always fun when my family gets together, especially when we all try to cram into one house. Last night for dinner, we had my grandpa, my parents, the 7 kids and their spouses, and the 19 grandchildren. You do the math. I'll just say that Rosie is a saint to allow all those people to run wild in her beautiful home. I would like to say the adults all actively supervised the children, but we were too busy playing a rousing game of Mormon Bridge. Ellie was in heaven, staying up late and running free with her millions of cousins. The only time she acted up was when we said it was time to go home.As I drove home last night, I just felt so incredibly fortunate to have such an amazing family. As loud and crazy as it can be when we all get together, there is always so much laughter and fun. I will be sad to see the weekend end and my family disperse once more.

Conversations with my daughter: Part II

It seems as though my three year old is obsessed with size lately. Here are snippets of recent conversations I have had with her.

While riding in the car...
Ellie: I want to hug a fluffy cloud.
Me: You want to hug a cloud?
Ellie: Yes, I need to get a ladder so I can hug a cloud.
Me: I don't think a ladder will be tall enough.
Ellie: I need to eat more so I can grow taller. Like a tree. Then I can hug a cloud.

***

Ellie: I need to build a machine.
Me: You need to build a machine?
Ellie: Yes, so I can make myself tiny.

***

Ellie (lifting up her nightgown and pointing to her chest): I have tiny boobs. I want big boobs. How can I have big boobs like you, Mommy?
Me: You need to wait until you are grown up and you get married and have a baby. Then you can have big boobs.

A day at the beach

Today, my extended family all went to Galveston to play at the beach. Of course, the news this morning decided to report a drowning that occurred there yesterday and mentioned that they had 25 rescues this past weekend alone. Which is why my daughter wore a life preserver the entire time we were there. She was the only child wearing one, but luckily she is too young to realize how uncool she looked.

Ellie had so much fun building sand castles with her cousins. However, her favorite part was when Leilani would put her on the boogie board and race up and down the beach with Ellie flying along behind. Sometimes Ellie would go flying off, but she would just get right back on again. Leilani amazes me with how much energy and patience she has.

What was I doing all this time? Lounging underneath our $25 umbrella rental, letting everyone else entertain my kid. It's a rough life.

Sunday Best: "This is why we can't have nice things" edition

A few weeks back, it seemed like everything I touched would break. After I accidentally broke the toilet seat with my foot (long story), Tom turned to me and said, "This is why we can't have nice things, Holly."

Well, this morning I was so excited to take my Sunday Best pictures because Ellie was wearing a new dress and she and Kinleigh both looked so adorable. Plus, this was my opportunity to get a picture of them with my mom. I got some great shots using my mom's camera and then I rushed over to my dad's laptop to upload them. Without asking, I just took out her memory card and inserted it into the slot in the laptop. Um, yeah, the card was much smaller and slid right in. I tried to get it out with tweezers, but it just went in further. Then Dianna decided to lend a hand and tried to get it out with a paperclip. The paper clip got stuck in there as well. At this point, we decided that we had done enough damage and would leave it for my dad to disassemble and repair. And that is why I do not have a Sunday Best picture today.

But I am not the only one who breaks things around here. This is what I came home to tonight. A little weedeating accident wherein Tom shot one of Ellie's toys through the back door. The new door we bought does not have glass. And it is not nice. Because we cannot have nice things.

The end.

Baking with Grandma and playing with 'gators

We are on a little mini-vacation at my parents' house in Beaumont. The whole family is getting together next weekend to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary, but my little sister decided to fly down early with her kids. Ellie and her cousin Kinleigh have this love-hate relationship going. They LOVE to play together, but fight over everything. Their personalities are so much alike...probably because Di and I are so much alike.
Ellie and Kinleigh have really enjoyed helping my mom in the kitchen. She is much more patient than I am and let the girls help her make cookies and banana bread.

We also went to Gator Country. Gator Country is pretty amazing, but also kind of backwoods. As my sister in law Sabrina put it, it isn't all polished and fancy like SeaWorld. They kind of just trust you to keep your kids out of the gators' mouths. Ellie loved petting this little snake:

Oh, did I say little?

They also got to hold a baby alligator. This alligator is named Chubs and his jaw is broken so he can't clamp down. They didn't break his jaw on purpose so they would have a friendly prop for the kids....they manager kept saying how humane the place is. Either way, Chubs is like a puppy.