Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Funny Ellie Sayings

Now that Woody has gotten our blog started I thought I'd add a couple funny Ellie sayings.

So the first official day of Ellie's potty training, I caught her at the bay window in the front of our house with her footed pajamas unzipped yelling to the gardner "Manuel, look I'm wearing underpants". Thankfully he didn't see, but she did try and get his attention for a few minutes.

Ellie usually needs me to lay down with her before her nap. So one day we were both laying down, we hadn't said a word in a few minutes, when all of a sudden Ellie goes "Mommy, when I was a baby I used to love to suck on your boobas". I was like yes, you did, and Jenna did too. Where did she pull that from????

So later that day I was telling Taylor and Ellie was listening because after the story she chimed in with "And when Woofy (her lovey/dog) was a baby, he used to love to suck on my boobas". Too funny!

Several days after doing her first poop in the potty, Ellie all of a sudden told me "Mommy, remember my first poop in the potty, it was so big that they looked like snowballs".

More to come I'm sure....

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Adventures of Ellie and Jenna

In this first post I'd like to give everyone a little taste of what Gretchen and I see and hear on a daily basis from our wonderful kids. Ellie will turn three years old in a few weeks while Jenna is about one and a half.

About two weeks ago we told Ellie she was done with diapers for good and switched to "big girl underpants". We expected a few accidents along the way since Ellie hadn't spent a night without a diaper since birth. To our surprise Ellie woke up the next morning bone dry. And every morning since. In fact the only accident she's had was a few days ago at a friend's house when she made it to the bathroom door but didn't quite reach the toilet before having a pee. Many bribes (toys and candy) later, and still no diapers. Keep up the good work Ellie!

Starting two days ago, Jenna now answers the question "How old are you Jenna?". She always replies with the same answer - "six." perfectly clear. Despite being a few years off in her age, Jenna has an amazing vocabulary. She counts, knows (most of) her ABCs, sings many other songs (Barney, Dora, Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle, etc) and is constantly walking and talking. In fact she never stops talking OR walking unless she's eating (which is another of her great talents).

Ellie loves her cousin Kendall. Every day she is supposed to see Kendall she cries until she gets to see Kendall because she doesn't understand that we're not seeing her until later. And when Kendall leaves Ellie cries again because we're not having a sleepover. But when they're together both girls have fun and love playing with each other!

Ellie also loves her "best friend" Taylor (our babysitter). Unfortunately Taylor now works with Daddy so Ellie and Jenna only get to see her about once a week instead of every day. When Taylor is coming over, Ellie and Jenna stand at the window and yell "Taylor! Where are you?!" - often an hour before Taylor arrives.

Thankfully we have a hardware store again in Alamo (after about one year of nothing). Ellie loves going to the hardware store and pushing around the little kid’s cart. This has become a regular Ellie/Daddy weekend activity. This past weekend we went because Daddy needed a large can of spackle to patch some drywall. Ellie decided she needed a small can of spackle to help Daddy and threw a fit when Daddy tried to explain that we needed only the one (even though Ellie has no idea how/why spackle is used). Luckily the hardware store has lollipops so all ended ok for the trip.

As usual Jenna is a perfect sleeper, loving her crib and always going down quickly and without a fuss. Also as usual, Ellie still has trouble going to sleep. She is up 10 times before finally going to sleep at night. And since Ellie now goes potty on the "big girl" potty, she has a great excuse for getting up many times. The amazing thing is that she manages to squeeze out about 5 pees and poos every night within a one to two hour period. And of course Mommy (Gretchen) is going crazy trying to find a solution to Ellie sleeping problem. Always the problem solver, Mommy doesn't like not having the answer to our sleeping problems with Ellie. In the last 4 months, Ellie has slept in her crib in her room, on Auntie Julie's (twin) bed in her room, in her chair in her room, in the chair in the family room, on her crib mattress on the floor in our room, on Auntie Julie's bed in our room, in Mom and Dad's bed,  and at the moment, on the inflatable queen mattress in her room. No kidding.

Earlier this evening, Daddy (Woody) spend 30+ minutes tonight cleaning out the bathtub thanks to Jenna. I'll let you guess why. I still love being a father though!!

Thanks for reading, more to come.

Love,
Woody