Magnificent Ellie (July 7, 2010)

A Warm Welcome

This summer I had to go out of town for work not one, not two, but three weeks in a row. It is hard to leave that often when your kid still wants/needs you around. Kevin and Ellie threw me a coming home party with streamers and signs after my first week. I loved the sign so much I left it up and each week I came home they had added to it.





They are easy to come home to!

She makes me laugh...

Some really great comments by Ellie.

This summer when asked where the hula hoop was:

"I put it over there by the mow-lawner."

When Kevin moved in he had some extra dryer sheets - it was not a good change for Ellie:

"When I go to school and smell my socks, they smell like Kevin." (Who smells their socks anyway?)

"Eww - these jammies smell like Kevin."

Last night we were decorating for Thanksgiving so I asked Ellie to bring me the Halloween decorations - she didn't want to and so I said it was part of decorating - her response:

"No mom, that is part of UN-decorating."

She did in the end help with both the decorating and UN-decorating.

Back in August we were driving in the car and we came up to this creepy van:

"Oh - I wish we had a van like that!"

I think it was something to do with the window coverings, but she didn't want the lights on top. Wow.

Some times at night we are in a rush so Ellie has to have a really fast bath. We've timed it before and I can give a faster bath than Kevin. The other night I was doing laundry so Kevin claimed he gave the fastest bath in the west. Ellie disputed:

"No, mom can - because she was born in the wild wild west."

Kevin gave a slow bath because he couldn't stop cracking up.

In the car - we thank Isabel for this knowledge:

"Mom, this is Justin Bieber, he sounds like a girl, but he's a boy - he's just young."

I was out of town for work and Ellie went after school to stay with a friend of mine. My friend had to leave the house for 5 minutes so she left her older kids with the younger ones. Ellie came home and said:

"Mom, you wouldn't even go to the mailbox without me."

Laying in bed one night:

"When I eat a lot, my belly jiggles - it wiggles"

Just wait until you have had years of eating a lot. ;)

Laying in bed another night I said - I didn't shower so I am stinky, Ellie begins the sniff inspection:

"You are perfectly fine."

After Kevin and I got married:

"So will I have three last names now? Heath, Lentz, Davis"

No - but I do. :)

When Ellie went to the bathroom at my mom's:

Last night:

"Mom, I have one good news, and one bad news....you know those poppy things (candy) I got at Kevin's work? Sometimes when I run it bounces up and down in my head."

I started giggling so I had to stop and ask her what the good news was:

"The good news is I am going to read my book to you right now."

These really great comments happen all of the time - she just makes me so happy. These are just a few I remembered to capture. Enjoy!

All I want..

"All I want for fall is my two front teeth!" - is the tune Ellie has been singing. Ellie lost her first front top tooth in June, so on September 13th when she lost her second front tooth, she was singing the tune!


Three days later on September 16th, Ellie lost her 4th tooth on the bottom so she is at a total of 6 lost teeth.


As of today, she has quite an impressive grill...with 4 new molars in the back - three new front teeth on the bottom and one coming in front on the top...but most importantly - NO cavities! Woo hoo!

Back to School -

First grade. It was time for the inevitable - Ellie going to school ALL...DAY...LONG! I am pretty sure I was the unprepared one.

On August 20th, the Friday before school started, Ellie and I went to find her classroom and meet her teacher. Her 1st grade teacher would be Mrs. Wingrove and she would be 1 of 19 children in her class. Ellie was super excited.


The first day of school - all ready:


Eating:


Leaving:


On the way:


Okay - so I realize with all the pictures...I was just preparing myself. :)

At first, I hated not having her afternoon playing sounds - but I've adjusted. And I just enjoy it when she finally does get home.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy all day school was for Ellie. She came home hungry, but not exhausted, and not at all complaining about how long the day was. As a matter of fact she says, "It feels like 2 hours."

School has been incredible for Ellie. She loves recess and lunch of course, but she also loves art, computers, and math.

We quickly decided she should get a new haircut for school - so we did that on the 26th of August.



We also decided together she would have catered lunch. So we went to the lunch website and Ellie picked out her lunch selections for the first couple of months. One day she came home and told me she had chicken and that her friend helped her cut it. Ellie was very unprepared to cut her own chicken! I had failed to prepare her for that! I guess up to that point I had always been around during a meal to cut meat or open the hard things, to tell her to eat so many more bites, etc.

So on September 10th, we went out to dinner and had a lesson on cutting meat. Ellie is now much more prepared and crazy enough, doesn't come home as hungry as she used to. :)




September 9th was back to school night for parents and I was excited to read Ellie's school journal. I was excited that even though she was away all day school made her happy and yet home and mom still entered her mind. She for sure makes me happy.



On September 21st I joined Ellie and her friends for lunch. It was great to be there and to still be wanted there. (I wonder what grade that changes in?) Ellie had the most popular table that day as everyone wanted to sit by a mom. I even got to stay for lunch recess and I was for sure the most popular item as I lifted and pushed them around and around on different toys.




This week Ellie wanted to try packing her own lunch because she had catered lunch the first three months - so in November we are packing a lunch and I think accessorizing with a lunch box has been the exciting part. Much like using the internet to pick her lunch when it's catered. I don't think the food matters to her either way. I really just think she wanted to try lunch both ways.

I was unprepared for first grade, but other than the chicken incident, Ellie couldn't have been more prepared. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments so far this year. I am blessed to have Ellie in a school with such great values and appreciate they let me be part of the day sometimes. With such great things happening in first grade, I adjusted fast and feel like second grade (for me) will be a breeze. (Ha ha...I say that now.)

TV

I'm sure most of you have experienced either as a child or as an adult the effects of television advertising. It starts with the mid-cartoon ads for all of the toys you can't live without. As an adult, it's late night infomercials that are going to enhance your life in every way you didn't even know you needed. As an adult you also experience the other end of it - "I NEED this mom!" "I WANT this mom!".

Ellie doesn't watch very much TV and she really doesn't often WANT or NEED anything from it, but when she does it just cracks me up when she runs upstairs to tell me to go to a website for something she wants..."mom...go to www". The other day I found a paper downstairs with a URL on it written like this "wwwdotnickjrdotcom".

When Ellie does watch TV - I love the shows she chooses so I can't be terribly picky about the ads. She has learned to save water by shutting it off while bushing her teeth. She has also learned a few healthy snacks.

This summer she was watching a show and wrote down all of the ingredients she would need for a tutti fruity snack. She asked me if we could buy all of the stuff because she wanted to make it. Ellie rarely makes anything on her own in the kitchen so I thought it was a great idea and a great way for her to learn to make her own snacks.

We shopped for all of the stuff together and then we brought it home and Ellie strictly followed the directions for her snack, layering fruit, yogurt, granola, and topping it off with honey.

She was so excited when it was done and ate her healthy snack that day and a few other times. I think she was also really excited to do it on her own. It was a great feeling as a mom to see her so excited about something healthy and doing something herself, from the beginning to the end.

So I'll look at a few more www's for her and listen to her toy needs because for us, so far, TV good outweighs TV bad.