Ellie Update

There have been several comments asking how Ellie is doing since her accident on Monday.

She is fine. She was immediately better after seeing the doctor Monday afternoon and hasn't complained about her arm at all. She is also back to using it normally.

Now this is the conversation she and I have.

She points to her elbow and says "bobo."

Me: That's right. Elbow. You got an owie, didn't you?

She nods her head, "Ow."

Me: Is your elbow owie or is it better now?

She smiles and says, "ba-erd." (That's the closest spelling I can come up with for what she actually says.)

We've Entered the Barbie Stage

Makayla is really into Barbie right now. Whenever she sees Barbie anything, she thinks she needs to have it: Barbie toothpaste with the matching toothbrush, Barbie panties, Barbie plates, Barbie blankets, Barbie alarm clock, Barbie movies, etc.

This morning when Makayla woke up, the first thing she said to me was, "May we go to the movie store and get that Barbie mermaid movie?"

I figured since yesterday was such a rough day for us (hence no post yesterday), it would be nice to just relax a little and have fun today. So, while Makayla was at school, I stopped at Red Box to pick up a Barbie movie. Of course Red Box didn't have the Barbie mermaid movie, but there was no way I was going to pay $4.50 at Blockbuster. So I got the Barbie butterfly movie. (I'm sure they all have more specific names, but I don't know what they are.)

After lunch, I told Makayla that I rented a Barbie movie for her to watch while Ellie took a nap. She was so excited that she immediately changed into her "Beautiful Barbie Dress" so she could get ready to watch her show.

"Look Mom! I have Barbie hands!"

These last three pictures are of Makayla giving me her best Barbie poses.

She cracks me up!

It Must Be Monday

I always think it's so sad when my kids get hurt. We've never had any major trauma, just a few bumps and bruises here and there.

I cringe whenever I hear about the battle wounds acquired by my sister's two little boys. Um hi--reconstructive surgery on her baby's nose when he was not quite 2? A 3-year-old with a seizure? Yikes! I always wondered how I would react in a situation like that.

Well, I guess today I got my chance to find out. I was walking into our apartment this morning, holding Ellie's hand. She caught her toe on something and fell. The problem is, I was still holding onto her hand. I heard a loud pop, and she started to cry.

She continued crying and whimpering for the next hour until she eventually fell asleep. I noticed in that time that she wasn't using her arm. So, I called the doctor's office. They couldn't get her in until tomorrow. Ugh!

Luckily, I have a friend who is a nurse. I called her to see what she thought I should do. Her advice was to take her to an orthopedic doctor today, if I could. Her reasoning: the pediatricians in this area would not treat her if it was a break. I might as well save myself some time and an extra doctor bill and just take her to the surgeon in the first place.

A break??!! Aaaa! How could my baby have a broken arm!

I have to confess, I went into panic mode a little bit when she told me that was a possibility. I, thankfully, was able to schedule an appointment for this afternoon. Kasey came home from work to hang out with Makayla so I wouldn't have to take her with me. (Fortunately, he wasn't working on location today.)

After lunch we drove over to the doctor's office. Poor little thing had a dislocated elbow. OUCH!! The doctor popped it back into place, and now Ellie is doing great! Of course, the sucker that she got from the doctor didn't hurt things any.

If You Haven't Laughed Today. . . .

Last week, I was digging through the change in my wallet. Makayla said, "What's that?"

"It's my change. It's money."

"Show me the money."

I started laughing and said, "What did you say?"

She shouted, "Show me the money!" in a very Tom Cruise kind of way.

But I swear, she's never seen Jerry Maguire before.

Learning New Words, Saying Cute Things

Ellie's vocabulary is really taking off. I can't believe how fast she is learning new words. I'd forgotten about this stage, I guess.

Now, that I'm sitting here typing, I really can't remember anything specific that she says (of course), but it's all very cute.

She is a little crazy about shoes right now. She loves to put her shoes on, take them off, put them on. . . . you see where I'm going with this. She also loves to sit in Makayla's closet and pick up each shoe, point to it and proudly pronounce "shoe."

Today was the best, though. I took her to a friend's house while I got my eyes checked. When I came back, Ellie and little Sydney were "playing" or in other words, trying to trade binks and poke each other's eyes, noses, etc. During this little baby bantering, Ellie stopped to examine Syd's shoes. She looked at my friend and said "Cute Shoes!" It was so adorable! We just laughed.

I'm sad that she is growing up, but I absolutely love this stage (18 months - 3 years). They learn so much so fast, and it's entertaining to watch it all happen.

One Tough Critic

I love American Idol. Unfortunately, I don't have cable, so I have to settle for watching AI clips on YouTube. I guess that's okay, though, since I get to watch my favorite people sing over and over.

This afternoon I was watching clips from last night's show. This video is David Cook singing Music of the Night from The Phantom of the Opera.



Makayla heard the music, ran into my room and exclaimed, "He's singing Phantom of the Opera!"

This girl LOVES The Phantom of the Opera. She waltzes around the house singing it. She hums it while she is eating dinner. She begs and begs her daddy to let her watch it. She knows every word to the entire opera. She likes to pretend that I'm the Phantom and she's Christine, and we act it out. She is obsessed!

So she was listening to David sing the song. When he was done, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Hmmm, I like the Phantom" and walked out.

I guess we'll stick to the original version.

Weekend Getaway

We went on a mini vacation over the weekend and got to see some of our good friends. We had so much fun. It was really nice just taking a little break from life to recharge and spend time together as a family. I could have sworn I took a lot more pictures than I actually did. Oh well! Here are a few of the ones I did get.

feeding the geese & ducks

Sofia & Ellie

Peyton, Makayla, Halle & Brian

Makayla leaving a bread crumb trail for the birds

Ellie with Patty, her namesake

The amazing view from our hotel room

This also seemed to be the week of hometown reunions for me. In addition to the people we meant to see, I ran into 6 other people from my hometown, none of whom I have seen since high school. It was a little weird, but at the same time cool to see what different people have been up to since graduation.