See that smile?

Oh yeah, there is still some love for mommy in this little guy : )

Ellen's First "Major" Accident

Our lady had to go the urgent care last night to get a cut under her chin worked on. They ended up using glue instead of stitches, which I imagine made it a lot less traumatic for Ellen.

She got the cut by falling in the bath tub. She and Lucas were clowning around, like usual, and we think she just hit her chin on the side of the tub, but it could have been a toy... it happened so fast. Jeff was able to stop the blood by holding a towel on it, and five minutes later she was playing like it hadn't happened. But the cut was more of a gash, so it still looked bad to us. It was about an inch long and was 1/4 cm wide at it's widest point. The internet said that one doesn't need stitches unless it's 1/2 cm wide, but we thought it was best to call our ped. He didn't hesitate in telling us that she needed a stitch or two. Luckily it was 8:45 at that point and the urgent care was open until 9:30, so no ER trip for us.

I took Ellen so that Jeff could get Lucas in bed. You never would have known that Ellen had just been hurt. She treated it as if it were a fun adventure. First of all, this is what she looked like. She had on her footed pj's, with no shoes. Her purple coat and her favorite blue hat. Her pacifier, since this was a "special" event. And in her hands were her bunny, doggy and some random children's magazine that she was calling her book. She insisted on walking from the car to the building, and she insisted on carrying everything herself. I had told her on the drive over that we were going to see a doctor to look at her chin.

There was no wait, so we were quickly assigned a room. When the male doctor walked in she immediately pointed to her chin and said, "See this? Man." That's how she talks. Her three word sentences turn into two separate sentences.

He wanted to look at the cut, so we had her lie down on her back on the chair and look up at the ceiling. She may have been the calmest two year old in history to lie their, showing no emotion, as the doctor messed around with her new wound. So then he decided he'd use glue instead of stitches. As he was holding her cut closed he noticed that the sucking motion she was making with her pacifier was making it difficult. So I took it out and he tried again. This time she started to open her mouth and we both thought that she was going to protest, but instead she YAWNED! Let me repeat. Two year old on examing table, stranger poking at her, an hour past bedtime, deep cut on her chin, pacifier just taken away... and she yawns! The doctor had to stop what he was doing he was laughing so hard : )

After she was all glued back together, he wanted to do a quick check to make sure she didn't have a concussion. So he asked her about 10 questions... where are your eyes, nose, ear, etc. She thought it was a game and began to giggle at him. Then, about 5 min later, as he was giving me the discharge papers and about to leave the room, she jumped down from my lap, ran to him and wrapped her arms around his leg! She had totally won him over... he was so tickled that he picked her up and she proceeded to plant a binky kiss on his lips! He said she was the cutest thing and he'd almost be willing to trade his 5 year old for her : ) Then she gave her princess waves to all the ladies as we were leaving.

So, Lady, years from now when you ask how you got the (hopefully small) scar onyour chin, know that you were very brave and strong and had the entire night staff of the urgent care office waving to you as you left :)

Blane and Karis Visit

Blane is a week older than Lucas and Karis is 5wks older than Ellen. We love it when we see them!

Oh, and I finally got a shot of Ellen smiling. Lately I've only been able to capture her serious look or her fake smile...

Saturday

Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL. The skies were blue, the temp mid-60s. Pretty days like this, especially the first of the season, brings some pressure of how we can enjoy it to the fullest. Should we go to a park? Should we go to a lake? I don't want to waste the day. And, lately I've been reading about how hard it is to live in the moment and just "be", so I decided we would work on this yesterday while we made the most of the day (can you say type A?). My goals were to not get in the car and not be rushed or be on a schedule. We ended up having a really nice time, taking our time. Our "adventure" last 4 hours and was awesome until the last 15 min when Ellen had reached her limit and let us all know.

We began by walking to a school playground that is probably a mile and a half away. It would take me about 15 min to walk it, but yesterday it took us an hour longer than that because Ellen and Lucas wanted to walk too. Here is the lady at the beginning of our walk. Oh yeah, the lollipop. We made our first stop at the "treat store" - a convenient store around the corner from our house.

Not far into our walk we met a lady who was planting rose bushes outside of this retirement home. Lucas asked A LOT of questions about what she was doing. She didn't seem to mind answering them all : )

Then there was just more exploring and walking...

Lucas decided that this was a cookie that a giant left on the ground.

And we always enjoy running up these church stairs...

And my kids can never pass up a good wall to balance on...

The bird looked so tiny next to this tree : )

There were a lot of walls to practice on...

And yards to trespass in...

Oh, and lots of stuff to collect for our nature bowl that we are going to keep in the kitchen... mostly pine cones from this trip.

We saw this tree that was starting to bloom...

A little tired, the kiddos took a break in the stroller.

This is where Jeff and I had dinner the night he proposed, over 9 years ago. We didn't live in this neighborhood then and didn't even know about it in 2001. Now we pass this spot every day!

Finally, our first destination.

After playing for an hour or so we made our way to the pizza place. There is a barber shop nearby that occupies the basement of this building. He puts little figures in the windows that the kids like to admire...

After pizza we treated ourselves to ice cream! It was a good day.

One of THOSE phases

I wish I remember how hard it was to be almost five years old. According to Lucas, it is very tough! The poor guy has a very mean mommy and daddy that won't give him candy for breakfast. I tell him that if I didn't love him I'd let him eat candy all day long, but I don't think he hears me say that because he's usually stomping away, huffing and puffing : )

Blue

We've been meaning to have a talk with Ellen about Blue for a while, but have put it off because we were expecting a week of crankiness and didn't have the energy to deal with it. But we decided that enough was enough and told her when she woke up on Monday that Blue had to stay in her bed. She can have Blue if she needs it, but she'll have to go get into the bed.

It has been a breeze! It was like all we had to do was tell her the rules and she adapted. We've had a few instances of her asking and not being happy with our response.

- In the car, on the way home from preschool yesterday she asked Jeff, "Where's Blue, Dada?" And Jeff told her it was in her room. Jeff said she asked again and again and again and each time Jeff said, "It's in your room, Ellen." Finally, instead of asking again, Ellen got mad and screamed, "NO DADA!" Even when Ellen is mad, she is cute : )

- This morning she and Lucas were playing a game of chase when she tripped and hit her head. It wasn't serious, but she was crying for a few minutes. I was holding her when she decided to get out of my lap and march upstairs without saying anything. I knew what she was doing. She felt since she was hurt that she was entitled to some extra comfort, so she went and got Blue from her room and marched back downstairs, happy once again : )

Happy Valentine's Day!

We surprised the kids with pancakes and small gifts. Ellen is so sweet - she has been carrying the stuffed doggy around with her since she got it. And Lucas was excited to wear his new shirt to school.

Lucas's Valentine Prep

Lucas was excited to work on his Valentine's this year. He had to write his name 15 times and did a great job! The one shown here is one of the last ones that he did. At the beginning he would write the first three letters and then run out of room, so his name looked like:

LUC

AS

Part of the fun for me was watching him figure out that he had to make the letters smaller.

After the cards we made the heart shaped rice kri*py treats for both of their classes. Such a fun and easy thing to make.

Ellen's Valentine's Day Prep

Ellen goes to preschool now, so she got to participate in the card making activities this year. She chose cards with doggies and kitties on them, since she loves doggies and kitties. She even marked a few of them with a drawing of her own. Then she made this pretty art with the remaining heart stickers.

A visit from SaSa and Uncle Scott

Sandy and Scott paid us a visit this past wknd since we didn't get to see them over the holidays. While getting ready to leave for the airport to get Scott, we decided to pack him a lunch since we were sure that he'd be hungry and we were off for a busy day after picking him up. Ellen was involved in the process, but didn't seem to enthused at the time. So fast forward to when she saw Scott coming down the escalator. She sprinted towards him with enthusiasm, but then stopped short, froze, and hid behind my leg as he approached. She warmed up within seconds, but didn't spend much time on hugs and kisses - she wanted to know where un-ull Scott's nack was! She talked about it all the way to the car and wasn't satisfied until we got it out of the car and she was able to give it to him. Mission accomplished my sweet Ellen!

After the excitement with the snack, we visited the planetarium for a show on astronauts and a good lunch in CH. But first, Lucas and Ellen pretended that they were blasting off into space...

And Lucas decided to hang out on the moon for a while...

Then it was back home for a relaxing evening of puzzles and books...

The next day we wanted to be outside, so we headed to a nearby arboretum for a while. We thought this was pretty cool... the sign says "Ellen's Blue"... the name for her beloved pacifier!