My Ellie Belly

I was looking back at my blog from two years ago.  The benefit of having two kids that are exactly two years (and one day) apart, is it's always easy to go, "What was Annie doing at this age . . . " and compare.  I was laughing so hard as I read all of two year old Annie's stories, of all the things she said.  That girl was always so verbal, and she had such an instinctive knack for the language, which almost never steered her wrong.  (But when it did, it was hilarious.) Her precocious insight into every day life were captured in adorable one liners and elaborate stories.

I realized I have markedly fewer such Ellie stories, which makes me sad.  'Cause it's not like that girl ain't funny, 'cause she's possibly the funniest, wackiest, most enthusiastic little girl in the whole world.  I have people constantly telling me how wild and crazy and hilarious and amusing and spunky and amazing and funny she is.  She's not quite as verbal (and we still don't understand a good third of what she says as she quickly rattles off paragraphs of nearly one-sided conversation) but she's smart, just like her sister (I found her today not only writing HER name on something she wasn't supposed to, but Annie's name too -- she's not even three yet and she can already graffiti multiple names in the family.) 

The thing is though, Ellie's a very 'physical' experience.  She tells stories with her whole body, every gesture and expression being what really makes it so funny.  She keeps Greg and I laughing all the time, but when I sit down and try and write out any of Ellie's stories, they just kinda 'fall flat'.  Ya gotta be there.  I should still jot down more of them, 'cause we can look back and remember the exact expression on her face, as she threw her body around excitedly, and be able to laugh about it for years to come; but if you weren't there, it just doesn't mean the same.  Like, the time Ellie sang her entire bedtime prayer (very dramatic, opera-like singing of "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the food, please bless Cody on a mission, in the name, Jesus Christ, AMENNNNN!")  That was funny.  Greg and I could barely show the restraint required of two parents with a brood of young children who are being taught to pray.  But then, when Annie started to pray ('cause Ellie prays EVERY night -- that exact same prayer -- half the time in song, then someone else says the 'family' prayer), Ellie kept peeking up and encouraging, "Annie, pray cra-zy . . . pray CRA-zy!" while making the craziest eyes you've ever seen and doing spastic 'jazz hands'.  I have never started laughing so hard after the word 'Amen' in my entire life.  It is, to this day, the funniest thing I've ever seen one of my kids do during family prayer -- and we have our fair share of amusing family prayer stories.  Ellie is endlessly amusing to everyone in her life.  I just gotta figure out how to capture that better.  (Maybe I just need to run a video camera 24-7!)  :-)

Oh, one quick Ellie story, while I'm thinking about it.  Ellie got a book in her Easter basket that was called, "Ellie's Tea Party."  Annie's coming along amazingly with her reading, so she was reading the title page, but stumbled for a second on the word 'Tea'.  I reminded, "Since there's two vowels, the first one says it's name . . ."  Annie nodded and said, "Oh, it's a silent 'a'!" and read the rest of the page just fine.  I didn't think Ellie was paying any attention to this (since she was repeatedly crashing her new wiggle car into things.)  Later that day, my Mom came by so the girls could show them her loot.  Ellie excitedly came running up with her new book and said, "Look Grandma!  I got a new book -- and it has a Silent A!"  She's beamed proudly ever since, showing everyone her amazing book with it's special 'Silent A', ever since.  :-)

Annieism

Annie was reaching for one of two orange crayons.  After picking up the closest one, she paused, set it down then grabbed the other (a newer one), and explained to Ellie, "I'm going to take this one, okay?  It's better -- and well, you just scribble and make crayons all short anyway . . ."

Do They Plan This?

Last night, I was determined to get to bed early.  I'm beyond tired, and Ellie's been waking up nightly (around 11:30PM) for anywhere from 1-2 hours.  (She's not necessarily awake that whole time, but whimpering and making noises off and on every couple minutes . . . enough to keep me and Greg awake.  I think it's a combination of her skin itching, so she's sleeping lighter, and nightmares.)  Greg was at a meeting I knew would go late, so I was going to get to bed early.  In theory.  Isaac kept fussing from 10-11PM . . . not enough that I ever got him out of bed, but enough to keep me awake.  Then, around the time Greg got home, Ellie woke up just freaking out.  Her eczema has been really bad lately, and she could not stop scratching it and crying, "It hurts Mom, it hurts."  The next two hours were horrible -- we did absolutely every last thing we could think of to try and relieve her pain and itching, but nothing was working.  In fact, the creams, lotions, oils, aloe, everything else we tried were making it worse before they could make things better, so she was whimpering about the added sensations of her skin now stinging.  It took hours of trying everything, moving her from her bed, to ours, to making a bed on the floor in her room, then in ours, stripping her out of her pajamas (since the material was rubbing against her feet -- the most sensitive part of her skin problems.)
Finally, finally, we got her to sleep.  So, of course, Isaac was up 10 minutes later.  I probably got to sleep some time in the 1 o'clock hour.  Then Isaac woke up at 5:30AM and never went back to sleep this morning.  And Ellie, who'd missed almost two hours of her normal sleep (and also, had gone to bed an hour later than normal), still popped up at 6:30AM like it was every other morning.  Seriously -- shouldn't children want/need/automatically sleep better than this!? 

I am so freaking tired.  I don't think I've slept an 8-hour stretch in five years, and at this point in my life, I'd give my right arm for a regular 5-6 hours or so -- I'd even happily take that broken into two stretches . . .



(If you have any magic bullet ideas on eczema, feel free to share -- but please know, if you can buy it, make it, back alley deal it from a witch doctor, get it prescribed, buy it over the counter, slather it on, ingest it, do a magic voo doo dance around it, sacrifice small animals to it, we have probably already tried it.  I'm still happy to hear any ideas,  I just want you to understand that we really have tried everything we could think of.  Diet changes worked the best -- for about a week, then it came back with a vengeance, even though we were still dairy/sugar/yeast free.  She sometimes sleeps with expensive ultra-super-amazing-moisturizer caked on heavily and covered with socks at night.  Other nights we use almond or olive oil mixed with some oils and cover that in socks.  We use steroid creams when it gets at its worst, but I hate using them more than absolutely necessary.  We've tried about 15 different essential oils for both the rash and the itch, but nothing has really worked.)

Easter Eggs and Other Art

I used all the Ellie pictures from the other day in the 'Wild Woman' post, but here are a few pictures of Annie & Isaac from the same day -- and some of Annie & Ellie's latest artwork . . .

Annie showing off our Easter eggs -- from Monday night.

Isaac and Daddy making faces at each other.

Could this kid be any cuter?!  Seriously?!

Annie enjoying a robin's egg.

Annie's latest painting.  It's her and Daddy playing.

This is Ellie's painting.  It's called, "Little Monster".

Wild Woman

What's that you ask?  Do I have one child who is far more expressive, outgoing, loud, energetic, destructive, demonstrative, cheesy, attention seeking and gregarious than the others?

Why yes.  Yes, I do.  :-)

 

 

The good news is . . . even a wild child has to sleep every now and again.

 (This is actually the FIRST time she's ever fallen asleep sitting up on the couch (heck, the child's never even fallen asleep lying down on the couch!)  It was miraculous.)

Easter Weekend Part the Last

OK, I promise, this is the last of the Easter pictures.

I told you, holidays are big deals in my family.  We drag 'em out as long as possible.  :-)

Last, but not least, was Easter afternoon at my parent's house with my Mom's side of the family.

As well as one last Easter egg hunt.

Without further ado, the last of  the Easter pictures:

Easter Weekend Part 3

After shopping with my sisters, and never getting around to dyeing Easter eggs (whoops, we now have to do that on Monday night) we got to go to Greg's parent's house, where everyone who lives in state was able to make it!  We had an Easter egg hunt, the kids got even more presents (matching swimsuits and cover-ups -- perfect for an upcoming California vacation!), and then a super tasty dinner.  Followed by strawberry shortcake, which means the girls got to lick the whipped cream beaters -- it was just the latest of super awesome things they got to do all day!  :-) 

Easter Weekend Part 2

So, after we had the kids go through their Easter baskets, my parents came over to see the loot, and to get to work with Greg on the swing set.  These things don't put themselves together you know.  :-)  My siblings came by next to play with the kids, and we got to see what Grandma Karine got the kids for Easter.  They had a lot of fun searching for their baskets and getting even more loot.  And begging to know when the swing set is gonna be done already, Dad?!  :-)  (It's almost done -- we just have to put together the slide and get that attached).  Then my sisters and I went shopping.  'Cause that's how we roll.

Pictures from late morning/early afternoon on Saturday:

Easter Weekend Part 1

Easter, like most holidays in my family, is a pretty big event.  Saturday morning the girls came down to check out all the loot the Easter Bunny had brought during the night.  (I was in straightening my hair in the bathroom when they woke up early, and I didn't know both girls were awake yet -- nor did I realize they'd ran downstairs and were happily playing on their new Wiggle Cars and going through their baskets.  Dang it!  I missed it!)

I did get to see Isaac's reaction to his new school bus though -- and I was very pleasantly surprised to find he LOVED it and could happily sit in the driver's seat and play with the steering wheel for long stretches of time.  The girls had fun playing with their wiggle cars, until Annie backed over Isaac and I banished them outside.  

Here are pictures from Saturday morning . . .