Ellie

Would You Like to Take a Survey?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:38:17 -0500

Lisa belongs to one of those survey panels where you fill out surveys and they give you points you can redeem for valuable prizes. Or something.
So the other day she gets a survey about toys, and it asks her to have a child come and help answer the questions. The very first question was: "What is your favorite toy?" Ellie's answer? "Daddy's Wii."
She definitely likes doing the Wii Play cow racing game. And I already pre-ordered Guitar Hero World Tour, which has a new beginner mode, described here by the creators:

Why did you add a beginner level?

KH: Our whole objective with "Guitar Hero" is to make it as broadly accessible as possible. By adding this beginner mode, we can get even young kids, who are 5, 6, 7 and who maybe can't coordinate pressing a button on the guitar and strumming at the same time. . .to make it really easy for them. All they have to do is strum.

CH: My 7- and 9-year-old daughters play. And there are times when my 70-year-old dad plays. You want to give people of all ages and all sizes the ability to play "Guitar Hero" and have fun.

We are SO going to be rocking out to "Livin on a Prayer!"

First Day of Kindergarten

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:54:57 -0500

We walked Ellie (and half her class) to school this morning. She actually did very well, getting up with her alarm, eating a good breakfast and getting dressed and everything. She was ready to go 20 minutes before we had to leave! Evan, on the other hand, was more than a bit grumpy. It's going to take him more adjusting.
Ellie knew right where her class was and hung up her backpack, walked right in and found her seat. I took many pictures, but didn't get the chance to load them up quite yet, so we'll post again tomorrow. I'm planning on getting home early to pick her up, so I'll have a first-hand view of how her first day went. I have a feeling she might be a little tired after the long day, but I know she'll do well.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:42:39 -0500

Our little girl is turning 5 today! Wow, time flies. She is starting kindergarten on Tuesday and is very excited. She went to the open house today and met her teacher and knows at least 3 other kids in her class, including her best friend Stella and neighbor from across the street Brendan.
Happy birthday to Ellie.

Word to your mother.

Ellie=Jason?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:56:22 -0500

I was out getting the paper this morning in the dark and a light rain and had just turned back toward the house when I was scared out of my wits. The light in the dining room was on, and I saw the curtain in the front window move, and a small figure appear in the window. I half-expected it to be wearing a hockey mask! But no, it was just Ellie, woken up by the rain at 5:30am, who must have heard me opening the door to go get the paper.
Nothing like a little adrenaline to get you going in the morning, no coffee required!

Daddy-Daughter Date

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:06:55 -0500

On Sunday, Ellie and I went to the movies together. We took the Metro up to Silver Spring to watch a special presentation called "Muppet Fairy Tales." The Smithsonian is doing a tribute to Jim Henson, and the AFI has been showing some of Henson's work at their Silver Theater. We rode the Metro up and walked the two blocks up to the theater to pick up our tickets. After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed into the theater for the show. Ellie really enjoyed it! Usually she just sits there kind of comatose watching the screen, but she was actually laughing along with the rest of the crowd.
We had a nice relaxing ride home, and Ellie even fell asleep on my lap for a little while. I couldn't ask for a better day.

Ellie Swims!

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:56:13 -0500

Ellie went swimming yesterday at her friend's place in Annapolis. She did really well swimming with the life jacket, even better than she does in the regular pool!

Let me know if you can't view the video above, I may have to invite you since it's a "private" video.

May Day pictures

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:19:10 -0500

Finally getting around to putting up pictures from Ellie's May Day performance of "Bananaphone." Plus one extra of the kids at the truck open house. If you're reading this in a feedreader, you may have to click through to see the slideshow, sorry.

Best Weekend Ever?

Tue, 20 May 2008 09:26:31 -0500

Quite possibly, if you ask us. Lisa's mom came into town for Ellie's "May Day" performance at her school. Lisa and I naturally took advantage of the babysitter and went to see U2 3D, the concert movie on Friday night. While Lisa was especially frustrated that it was taboo to stand up and dance and sing along, it was a pretty damn cool show, almost as good as the real thing, minus the dancing and the sweatiness (and binoculars, since we can't afford the $300 floor seats).
Saturday was May Day, and Ellie did a great job performing "Banana Phone." She was very shy during last year's performance, but this year, she pretty much thought Banana Phone was the funniest song ever, and got into it. She has since been performing the other classes' songs for us as well, especially one class' version of Laurie Berkner's "I'm Gonna Catch You."
Finally, Sunday was the day of the long-anticipated Dan Zanes concert. Yep, the one I bought tickets for last August! Ellie took a while to warm up, but once we got her to do the train during "Catch that Train!" she was bouncing along to "House Party" and every song after that. Thankfully, dancing was very much accepted at this concert (the special guest was tap dancer Derick Grant), so Lisa got to dance her heart out. The show was shorter than we would have liked, but probably just about right for the kids. Ellie and Evan both got their very first ridiculously overpriced concert t-shirts to wear as well.
And of course, we ended the weekend with a BBQ feast at Famous Dave's. Evan loves his BBQ, and he's looking forward to sampling some of KC's finest when we visit in August!

Budding Hypochondriac

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:17:48 -0500

That's not really fair to Ellie. She has legitimately been sick of late. The problem is we can't figure out what it is, and neither can the doctors. First, she vomited and spiked to a 104 degree fever, so they tested her for flu (negative) and a urinary tract infection (looked positive at first, but ended up negative). Then, we saw white spots on her tonsils, so they tested for strep (negative). Finally, yesterday her eye was red, so they checked for pink eye. This time, it actually was pink eye, but it's viral, so there's no antibiotics for it. She got a prescription for eye drops, but that's about it. She did seem to finally be feeling better last night though, so hopefully we are finally out of the woods. It's still frustrating to not be able to figure out what's wrong with her though.
Ellie, in between her bouts of general whininess and miserableness, definitely knows how to milk the sympathy. Early on, we let her have Jello to help with her throat, and we pretty much let her decide what she wanted to eat, because we just wanted her to eat something. One night, we asked what she wanted for dinner, and she deadpanned, "I guess I'll just have some Jello and then ice cream for a treat." Yep, that's us, wrapped around her little finger.

Yet Another Tournament

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:20:34 -0500

The KidVid Tournament is back with 16 new kids music videos, including my suggestion of Andre 3000. Ellie and I will be picking our favorites, and we'll see if Evan wants to watch this year. At least it's easier than drinking 32 beers in one sitting.

E-Clips

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:18:29 -0500

"Mama, don't forget that we need to watch the barrettes tonight."
"The what? What are you talking about?"
"The barrettes, you know, like the things you put in your hair? The clips?"
"Oh, you want to watch the eclipse!"
"Yeah!"

And that was your latest lesson in Elli-nese.

Eh?

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:41:28 -0500

Ellie was upset over the dinner choices given to her by Lisa last night (this happens quite frequently these days: if it's not pizza, she's ticked). So what's her form of protest? "When I get big, I'm moving to Canada!"

How to Please a Toddler

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:25:07 -0500

Get a new phone for your house that has ringtones, then set it to play "Jingle Bells" when someone calls.

Ellie's First Sleepover

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:38:09 -0500

Ellie had her first sleepover last night, and she did great!
For the past few years, we've been doing Thanksgiving with our surrogate DC area family, the crazy Cajuns. Yesterday, we had dinner over there as usual, and somewhere along the line Ellie and her buddy Claire got it into their heads that they were having a sleepover. We did bring Ellie's jammies with us, mainly because dinner tends to go late and we knew she'd probably fall asleep in the car on the way home anyway. All through dinner and afterward, they were tag teaming us on the sleepover issue. First Ellie, "Can I have a sleepover?" Two minutes later, Claire, "Can Ellie have a sleepover?" Finally we talked it over amongst ourselves and with Ellie and Claire, and we decided that Claire (and her parents Matt and Mary Beth) was probably as good a friend as any with whom to have a sleepover. So we got Ellie into her jammies and switched car seats around, said good night, and off we went.
And apparently, unless our friends are just too nice, they did great! Ellie slept the whole night and had no complaints. She even wants to tag along with them while they go watch the LSU football game this afternoon. And here we were worried that we were going to get a call at midnight saying Ellie wanted to come home. Not our big girl. "Bye Mom, bye Dad, see ya later!"
As a bonus, Ellie not sleeping in her room meant that we could try harder to get Evan to sleep in his crib, which is located in Ellie's room, though I guess it's now the kids' room. He did pretty well, and slept for a couple of hours before waking up and being very confused about where he was.
I tell ya, these kids grow up so fast!

First Haircut in Pictures

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:28:36 -0500

I mentioned last week that Ellie had her first haircut at Cartoon Cuts recently. I finally got around to getting the pictures uploaded, so here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

First up was washing her hair with the elephant. She thought that was pretty hilarious.

Then it was on to the cutting. Her hair was pretty long, as you can tell.

The cartoon of the day was Diego. She never watches it, but I'm pretty sure she could sing the theme song, and she was obviously zoned into it during the cut.

A little blowdrying. She wasn't so sure about that part, because it was noisy, but she stuck it out.

Can't forget the curling. I think her hair looks a little retro, like Farrah Fawcett on Charlie's Angels or something.

Ta da! All done, and looking sharp. The curls were pretty much gone by the time I got to see her, but that's what happens when you're four and running around all day. Ellie was very good about the whole thing, and I'm fairly sure she won't be so intimidated the next time we go.