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29 January A Very Busy Week!This has been an extremely full week...let me hit the highlights!
Friday - We went to the Homecoming tailgate (pizza indoors) and basketball game at Jeff's school. We had fun watching the coronation ceremony, the cheerleaders, the band, etc. The actual game isn't that exciting to any of us, of course, so we left after the first quarter of the varsity game, but we were glad we went!
Saturday - I took Ella to her friend Hannah's 7th birthday party at a pottery shop called "Fired Up!" All nine little girls got to paint their own tiles, which are sent off and "fired" over the week, and then given back to them the next weekend to keep. Ella was the youngest girl at the party (aside from the birthday girl's little sister who is 3), so hers didn't quite look like the rest. While most drew pictures and wrote words on their tiles, Ella's was a beautiful collage of every color they had to offer. I made sure she knew how beautiful it was, and I do think she was proud of it. Every girl got a High School Musical sweatshirt at the end, which has now become Ella's favorite article of clothing. None of us had even seen the movie at that point, but since then we borrowed it and watched it yesterday. It's a cute film. I think 4 is still a little young to get all caught up in it, but I had no problem with her watching it.
Sunday - Ella was so excited to go to church wearing matching dresses with some of her friends. My mom bought this candy dress several weeks ago for Ella, and when she wore it, her friend Annali liked it so much she wanted one, too. Her mom, Kris, decided to buy her one, and at the same time, bought one for Hannah's birthday present as well, and then bought another one to match Hannah's sister, Emily. When they wore them Sunday and the other little girls at church saw them, Kris was moved to buy three more for those girls! So in a few weeks, they'll wear them again and there will be 7 matching girls! I'll have to take another picture!
Sunday night, Lucy reached the moment we'd all been waiting for...she got her 35th potty sticker (in only 2 1/2 weeks!) and filled her chart! So Monday right after naptime, we drove to Chuck E. Cheese's and met Jeff there. Both girls were giggling with glee as we arrived. Lucy kept saying, "I love him. I'm going to hug him," and the first thing she did when we went in was go straight up to him and hug him. The cutest part of the night was after she finished going potty in the restroom there. She said, "I went potty in Chuck E. Cheese's bathroom! I go tell him!" And she did, as shown in the picture. So sweet. Now we're trying to come up with her next goal. Probably something to do with staying dry longer.
Thankfully, we were able to get our CEC's dinner and one last grocery store run in Monday night before the big winter storm hit. It started late Monday night and wiped out the rest of the week for us! I enjoyed a beautiful, snowy birthday on Tuesday with the whole family at home for the day. That was really nice. We had talked about going out to eat, but with the threat of inclement weather, Jeff decided to buy the needed groceries to make my meals on Tuesday while we were out Monday night. He made birthday pancakes for breakfast, these yummy chicken/cheese/broccoli things for lunch, and tortellini for dinner with corn and cheese-filled breadsticks! Plus, he and Ella spent some time that morning making a secret for me, which turned out to be a Reese's chocolate-peanut butter dessert that we used as my birthday cake Tuesday night. It was all very sweet and I appreciated it so much.
On Tuesday night, we got a whole lot more snow on top of 2 inches of ice, and unfortunately, lost power somewhere between 1-3 a.m. It was a very cold and anxious morning around our house as we heard on our wind-up radio that half of our city was without power and it would be into next week before it was all restored. We started trying to make plans for what we would do when night came, as the overnight low was forecasted at 14 degrees. Praise God we did not have to find out, though, because our power came back on at 1:45 p.m.! We know this is a huge blessing and that many, many people in the area are still without power. At last count, it was 75,000 people. Jeff has been home from school the past 3 days and tomorrow has been cancelled, too. We're still hoping to make the trip to my parents' house this weekend to celebrate my birthday there as planned. It looks like there will sledding involved now, too! What a way to begin year 33! 22 January Ella's New Dance Class - Fun in the SnowAs I mentioned last week, Ella attended her first dance and tumbling class last Thursday night. It was a huge success! It was so cute to see the six little 4 and 5-year-olds tapping, bopping, twirling, and tumbling around. It's going to be a great outlet for all her kinesthetic energy! Of course, Emily and Ella came in their "street clothes" and socks this first time, but after seeing the other girls, Ella couldn't wait to go shopping for all her gear. We spent the better part of Saturday shopping around for the best prices for the required attire and shoes. We ended up getting her tap shoes and ballet shoes at Payless, and her leotard and footless tights at a dance specialty store. Ella's enthusiasm has been bubbling over all week. Every day I hear, "How many more days until Thursday? Is tomorrow Thursday?" She begs to wear her loetard and tap shoes around the house (and we've let her a few times). I hope it continues to be a good experience for her and I think it will. We go back in full dress tonight!
Sunday night we had our first measurable snow of the season. Only 1.5 inches, but enough to play in! It probably would have been a snow day for Jeff, or at least a delay, if it hadn't already been a holiday (MLK, Jr. Day). I figured we would spend a long time getting all dressed for it and then be ready to come back in after 5 minutes, but the girls surprised me! It was a full 30 minutes before Lucy asked to go inside, and Ella wanted to stay out even longer! I was glad they had a chance to wear their cute snow boots at least once before the winter is over! Make that twice...they wore them to Walmart that night!
And for a pottytraining update on Lucy...after only two weeks, her sticker count (read last week's blog) is up to 22! Only 13 more to go! She does pretty well during waking hours, and has even gone in public restrooms twice. She still has not told us BEFORE she needed to go, gone #2 on the potty, or had a dry nap or nighttime. All those things will come in time. For now, I think she's doing great. 15 January Two firsts for LucyThis past week has been a week of excitement for Lucy! For the past few months, we have been introducing her to the idea of using the potty, letting her sit on her own little potty with her clothes on, talking about it a lot when we go, showing her "big-girl panties," reading her the "potty book" we got her for Christmas, etc. Then during diaper changes, we started asking her if she would like to try sitting on the potty without her diaper on. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn't. But finally last Thursday it happened! She wanted to sit on the potty...and something actually came out! We put her "potty chart" on the wall in the bathroom (which came with the book) and told her she gets a sticker on it every time she goes. And once the chart is full, we're going to go to Chuck E. Cheese's! (35 stickers...it will be a while!) She has four stickers so far, and we are very proud of her. Twice recently, she has told me she needed to go and was dry when we got to the bathroom, but before I got her diaper off, she started going and it didn't make it into the potty. So, today I got down the leftover pull-ups from when Ella was potty-training and Lucy has on her first pull-up! Hopefully, that will help us get her there faster so she can have more successes. Once she starts getting the hang of telling us ahead of time more often, we'll move up to underwear part-time. We're going about the whole process much more gradually than we did with Ella with the hopes it will be less frustrating for everyone involved.
Another first for Lucy was her first Daddy-Daughter Date on Saturday. Jeff and Lucy went to McDonald's for a pancake breakfast, to the pet store to see all the puppies (her favorite) and other animals, to the toy store (where she got to walk instead of ride in a cart as usual, and was able to go wherever she wanted and play with whatever she wanted), and finally to the library where she chose a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD to check out. They had a great time together and Ella was only a little jealous. Her turn is next!
Next week I will have a first to report on for Ella...she is beginning dance lessons tonight! It is to be a 1/2 hour of ballet and tap and a 1/2 hour of tumbling. My parents have always paid for piano lessons for their other grandchildren, but since I am teaching Ella piano myself, they offered to pay for a different kind of lesson for her. She is such a kinesthetic little girl that we all think dance will be perfect. What's even more exciting for her, though, is that it has worked out for to take the class together with her "old neighbor Emily." (our next-door neighbor last year before we moved) Emily is 6 months older than Ella and they play really well together. They used to play together often when we lived next door to each other, but since then only see each other once every few months. I am thrilled that this has worked out for them and I'm looking forward to having the time to visit with Emily's mom, Jenni. Emily's little sister, Annie, is about 7 months younger than Lucy, so they will get to play together, too! Check back next week for a report! 03 January Christmas 2008 - Part IIWe arrived at my parents' house late Christmas Eve and quickly got everyone settled into bed, only to be awakened a few hours later by Lucy throwing up. The next day Lucy seemed to be back to normal outside of a cough, so we all went to Todd and Lisa's house to hang out and play the wii. I especially love any of the music-related games where I play drums, keyboard, guitar, etc. SO much fun. On Saturday, I broke in Jeff's new hair clippers and gave him a haircut. It actually turned out okay, I think! We started with the largest attachment, just to be safe, but I think next time we'll go even shorter. I was surprised at how easy it was, and I think it will be a nice way to save a little money. Sunday morning was very exciting as Ella played the piano at church for the very first time! It was her first public performance anywhere outside of playing for family members. We were at my parents' church, which is a small, country church with a very casual atmosphere where anyone who wants to can get up and do "special music" on any given Sunday. It was a great place for her to start! She was nervous and excited and I really didn't know how it was going to go, but she played so well! We were very proud of her and we hope to see her play in church many more times in the future! Here's a video, but it's really for audio purposes. You can't even see Ella behind the piano, but at least you can hear what it sounded like! (That is me playing the accompaniment in the bass clef.)
As a reward for getting up and playing, I painted her fingernails for the first time on Monday morning. She thought she was really big stuff. Monday, we drove to meet our good friends, Russ and Dana, and their boys Elijah (3) and Isaac (10 weeks) at the mall for lunch. They live in California now, but were home visiting family. We were thrilled to get to see them and meet their new baby. We only wish we could see them more often. After our time with Russ and Dana, we drove back to Jeff's parents’ house to finish up the last few days of our trip. We went out to eat with them for New Year's Eve and then stayed up to watch the ball drop. Twice. I should mention Lucy's cough continued and even got worse throughout the week. We returned home Thursday afternoon, and took Lucy to the Doctor on Friday. She was diagnosed with a chest cold (which he said would take 2-3 weeks to go away without medicine) and an ear infection in her left ear. The antibiotics she's on now will hopefully clear everything up. And then today, Ella started in with a runny nose. At least we had a good month or so there with nobody sick! That's a lot better than last winter! We had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' birth and spending time with our families, but we are happy to be back in our home and sleeping in our beds and playing with all our new Christmas treasures. We wish everyone and Happy and Blessed 2009! |
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