Girls Night In

Ellie and I are having a Girls Night tonight. Tom has track meets today, tomorrow, and Saturday which means Ellie probably won't see him until Sunday since she is asleep when he leaves in the morning and asleep when he gets home. Ugh, I hate track season. But I do enjoy my alone time with Miss Ellie. We are in our pajamas already and planning a night of movies and mandarin oranges. Those are Ellie's new obsession. I usually have to cut her off at 4 because I worry about her overdosing on Vitamin C or getting a tummy ache or some other nonsense.

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Last night I discovered that Ellie can sing the whole "WonderPets" song word for word. She was taking a bath and said that Diego needed to be rescued and then busted out with the song. So cute.

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Ellie is queen of stalling at bedtime. Last night, I was getting frustrated and I said a little impatiently, "Ellie, Mommy is really tired and I need to go to bed!" Then she proceeded to make me feel awful:
"You are mad at me."
"No, I am not mad, I am just really tired."
"You don't love me anymore."
"Ellie! Of course, I love you!"
"No, you don't love me. You don't want me anymore."
Of course then I spent the next 20 minutes cuddling her and smothering her with kisses and assuring her that she is my baby and that I will love her forever. Most genius stall tactic ever.

Weekend recap

Tom had a track meet on Saturday so Ellie and I were left to fend for ourselves. Ellie had been invited to a birthday party for one of her classmates. It was at one of those jumping places. She had never been to one and I am so glad I took her to the party because I have seriously never seen her so excited and happy. For 90 minutes straight she ran from one bouncy thing to the next, squealing with glee. I loved seeing her have so much fun. Of course, I only brought my old digital camera so my pics all turned out crappy and I was frustrated how long it took for my camera to "come back" after I took a picture.
Sunday morning and we were running late. Ellie was insisting on wearing her pink cowboy boots and packing yogurt in her church bag. I managed to take the boots off and switch them for her dress shoes in the car, but the yogurt made the trip.
After church we went to dinner at my old former Young Woman's leader's house whom we haven't seen in a few years. That's what I love about blogging...it keeps you in touch when you haven't really been in touch, if you know what I mean. Anyway, dinner was delish and seeing their teenage daughter gave me hope for Ellie. Maybe I won't be shipping Ellie off to Preston, Idaho when she hits puberty after all (because there is no way you can find trouble in Preston).

Life is an adventure

My favorite time of day is picking Ellie up from school and going for an "adventure." I know that if I just come straight home, I will be too tempted to plop on the couch and put Noggin on for her. So, we usually go to the park, or to the library, or to Target. What? She loves Target! Today we chose Target because we needed to get a birthday present for a girl in Ellie's class. Ellie is going to her first non-family birthday party! She was really excited to pick out a present for Hannah. Once we got home, we went for our daily walk around the block. I grabbed Kali and Ellie grabbed her Lego car with her little Lego girl sitting atop of it. Off we went and we were making good progress when Ellie started freaking out about her "princess." Yes, she calls her Lego person a princess even though it seems to be wearing blue jeans and a green shirt. Anyway, we had somehow lost Princess along the way so Ellie made us turn back and she kept yelling, "Princess, Princess!" the whole way. I am sure everyone thought we were looking for our lost poodle or something. I was half expecting Princess to answer. Finally, we located Princess in the street near the curb. Then, for the rest of our walk I had to listen to this:
Princess was in the street.
She got all dirty.
I found her.
Her needs to stay on the sidewalk.
And that was our adventure for the day. Shopping at Target and rescuing a Lego person.

Weekend recap: Valentine edition

Okay, fair warning, this is going to be long with LOTS of pictures! What can I say? It was an eventful weekend...at least eventful for bums like us.

My Valentine weekend was off to a rough start Friday when I attempted to take Ellie to the grocery store on the way home and she had a total meltdown. I am talking tantrum of epic proportions here. It was so bad that we had to leave...no, really leave, like leave my cart full of groceries. I was pretty angry. Both Ellie and I were really cranky and not feeling well so we took a nice long nap together once we got home. I'd like to say the nap improved our moods, but no, we stayed cranky the whole night.
On Saturday, Tom had a track meet all day so I escaped over to Sabrina's house where the kiddos made Valentine cookies and played outside. The pictures make the kids look a lot more entertained than the actually were. Making cookies, I mean. They loved the whole outdoor thing. Tom didn't get home til late Saturday evening and he was so exhausted that he crashed on the couch. I spent my Valentine's eve watching TV all alone. Sniff.
How can I stay mad at such a good daddy? And so cute, too!
Sunday was much more promising. Ellie and I were invited to Tara's baby shower. Ellie was so excited to go to "Tara's birthday party" but I had to make sure to remind her in advance that the presents were for Tara and not for her. I think she did really well at the party considering it was her nap time.
After the party, we left Ellie with Nana so Tom and I could go see Joel McHale. Confession: Tom and I really like the E! channel. We watch E! News, The Soup, and Chelsea Lately. So when I saw that Joel McHale was coming to Houston, I just had to get tickets. It was so awesome just getting out together and doing something different, even though Joel McHale isn't as funny in person as he is on TV. I mean, he was okay, but he was a little hard to follow at times and he would often stall in between jokes. Whatever, still love him!

Don't even breathe near us

Tom took Ellie to the doctor this morning. Apparently, she has the flu and bronchitis. I find this so surprising because she hasn't been coughing and she wasn't running a fever until yesterday. In fact, she has been really fun and playful! I mean, my gosh, if I had known she was that sick I wouldn't have had her outside yesterday riding bikes, drawing with chalk, and playing with the neighbor's kid...which is a whole other story. Our neighbors let their 3 year old run wild without even watching him. So when I am out, I feel obligated to entertain him and keep him out of the street. I guess I shouldn't criticize their parenting since I can't even tell when my own child is sick. The only thing I noticed different this week was that Ellie seemed a little more congested. Anyway, she is now on two antibiotics and a steroid. Tom was doing our budget today and felt the need to call me at work to discuss how much we have spent on doctors, prescriptions, and over the counter drugs over the past few weeks. It is crazy. Just that time of year, I guess.