elsie says

Elsie:  "Oh man, there is a stain on my pillow case!"
Me:  "It's ok, I can throw it in the wash, it'll be fine."
Elsie:  "Mom!  You know what you need?!?!"
Me:  "No, what?"
Elsie:  "Oxi Clean!  It can get ALL the stains out."
clearly my child has seen too many commercials

I know I had another one I wanted to share, but I can't remember what it was.  So I'll throw in this little Elsie story for good measure.

The other day I had taken off my wedding rings and put them on the counter.  While I was cleaning up from lunch I saw Elsie pick them up and put them on.  "Elsie, please don't play with Mommy's rings, put them back for me ok?"  "Ok Mama."  But, I didn't watch to make sure she did.  A little while later I went to put them back on, but they weren't there.  I asked Elsie and she said very confidently, "I was wearing them upstairs.  I put them on the toy shelf in the playroom by the little bucket."  So I went up there, and nope.  No rings.  Elsie swore up and down that is where she put them.  We picked up all the toys, looked under the toy shelf and quickly checked her room, but no rings.  I had to take the girls to dance so I just left it at that.

When we were back from dance we started searching the house.  Chris and the girls went back over the playroom again.  He dumped out every toy bin in there.  I looked all over downstairs, in cabinets and drawers, everyone's backpacks, in my purse, in the pantry, all over the study, everywhere that I could think of, but no rings.  When it was time for bed we gave up for the night.  The next morning my mom joined me and we went through the playroom yet again.  I moved every piece of furniture, every bin of toys, checked the pockets of the pretend aprons, looked through some of the bins in the closet, everything.  My mom moved on to Elsie's room, emptying most of her bins (anything that was within reasonable reach), took the sheets and stuffed animals off her bed, moved all her doll furniture, everything.  Still no rings to be found.  I debated moving to Ryann's room, but figured Thea's was smaller and easier to look through in the time I had left.  I looked in the bins on the floor of her closet, under her crib, behind the rocker, through her drawers.  Nadda.

Just before I decided I was done in Thea's room, I decided to pull out the glider for good measure.  And there they were, underneath the back portion of the glider.  Oh Elsie.  She runs up there to hide sometimes if she beats me upstairs.  When I picked her up from school I told her to guess where I found them.  She had no clue.  I told her under the glider in Thea's room.  Her response?  "I wonder why Thea would put your rings under there!"  Really Elsie?  Really.  She still claims she had nothing to do with it.  Silly girl.

spring break in Georgia

We had plans to go to Georgia over labor day weekend, but then a hurricane went and rolled through, and Christopher's grandma passed away, so we postponed our trip.  Thankfully because of the hurricane we were able to change our flights without any fees, and got to use the tickets to get away over spring break.

I'd have to say this was one of the more relaxing trips we've taken to the island.  I'm not sure why, but it just was.  Travel went pretty darn well despite having to leave for the airport at 4am.  Our days typically went beach, home for lunch, pool while Thea napped, shower and head out to dinner.  Certainly not a bad life to be living.  Things to note, as usual I had a couple of non sleepers who were up before the sun, so Ryann, Elsie and I walked the beach one more to watch the sun rise.  They weren't as impressed as I hoped they would be, but it was fun and beautiful!  Also, the last time we were in Georgia Thea was a total beach lover.  This time she absolutely refused to walk on the sand in her bare feet.  She kept walking around saying "eeew! eeew! eeew!" and crying until I put some shoes on her.  We grabbed a pair of water shoes at Target, but like almost every other pair of water shoes we've ever tried (with all three girls!), they gave her blisters.  Oh and feeding the birds was a new one this time, I hated it, the girls loved it.  Surprise surprise.

Tried really hard for a good sister picture in their mermaid suits.  This is as good as it was going to get!  Thea was absolutely not having any of it.

They're still pretty dang cute though.  :o)

 

Someday I hope we'll vacation other places than just Georgia.  But we certainly love going to the island, and have such a good time when we're there.  Thea found a bucket in the garage recently, and has been walking around the house 'looking for seashells'.  I can't wait to go back again this summer!

elsie jo is four!

Miss Elsie Joann turned a whopping four years old on February 8th.  I feel like we went from saying 'she's only three' to having a full blown big kid on our hands.  Of course she still seems much younger than Ryann did at four, but still.  She can be pretty independent, she's witty, a fantastic little artist, and one heck of a funny kid.

I let Elsie call the shots as much as possible on her birthday.  For breakfast she picked donuts, and we let her open a present.  Pokemon cards started the day off right.  After a couple of cartoons we dropped Thea off with Grammy and I surprised her with a trip to a local kids craft place.  Naturally she chose to paint a kitty.  I should mention, Elsie is so incredibly timid in new places without Ryann around.  She wouldn't talk to the woman working at first, and it was a struggle to get her to pick something to craft.  But after a while she warmed up, and walked out with 'Rainbow Sparkle Kitty' and two glitter tattoos.  We picked up Grammy and Thea and headed to Chili's for lunch.  Elsie ordered grilled cheese and corn on the cob with strawberry lemonade.  The server brought her out a cup of ice cream and sang to her, but the second they set the ice cream in front of her she didn't give them a second glance.  When we got back home Elsie and I baked brownies together.  Grandma 'Nita came over, followed later by Grammy and Papa, and then she got to open presents.  She requested Chinese food for dinner, capped off by ice cream, a brownie and the last Pikachu cookie from her birthday party.  She went to bed a happy girl!

At her four year well check Elsie weighed in at 38 pounds (75th percentile), and was 41.75 inches tall (88th percentile).  She continues to be on the tall side of things for now.  She is wearing mostly 4T clothes, but can easily pull off the big girls XS as well as 5T tops and pajamas.  Seriously stuff pretty much goes from Ryann's closet straight into Elsie's, despite their three year age gap.  She seems to be growing out of her size 9 shoes, and can definitely keep 10's on her feet.

Elsie goes to bed anywhere between 8pm-9pm.  Yikes.  We started to have so many fights about bedtime, that we said she could stay up in her room by herself for however long she wanted, as long as she got herself tucked into bed.  There have been a few nights that I realize it is close to 9:30 before I go encourage her towards her bed.  As long as she gets a little alone time she doesn't really fight bedtime too much, unless she is working on coloring or drawing a picture.

Right after her birthday I asked her a few questions, and here are the responses:

What is your full name?  Elsie!  Elsie Junior.  Junior Shades. (what?!?)
How old are you?  4!
When is your birthday?  I don't know, tomorrow?  It already happened.
What is your favorite color?  Red.  I mean, all the colors of the rainbow.
What is your favorite animal?  A kitty and a puppy.
What is your favorite breakfast?  Chocolate waffles.
What is your favorite lunch?  Fruit cups.
What is your favorite dinner?  Chicken nuggets.  And Chinese rice!  It's my favorite too.
What is your favorite sweet treat?  Popsicles.
What is your favorite movie?  Moana.
What is your favorite TV Show?  Paw Patrol.
What do you like to do outside?  Swing.
Who is your best friend?  Harper!  And Charlee!  And Quinn!
What do you like to wear?  A shirt.  My kitty shirt!  The one we got at Walmart.
What is your favorite toy to play with?  Playmobils.
What do you like better, dance, gymnastics or soccer?  Soccer!
Why soccer?  Because I get to kick a ball and I like balls!
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mommy like you!

I had to go back and read Elsie's 3 year post for good measure, and it sounds like not all that much has changed.  Haha, she still loves kitties and pink and red, idolizes Ryann while also trying to drive Ryann absolutely mad, is like a sour patch kid in that first she is sweet, but then oh man, she can be so sour!!  Really, I won't go into too much for her own privacy, but when she decides she isn't going to listen... Oy.  We don't have any bathroom issues anymore, so at least that has changed, thank goodness.

Despite her short fuse, Elsie really can be the absolute sweetest.  So many times a day she is talking to me, jabbering about this or that, and sometimes I'm only half listening.  And then she'll say, "Mommy.  MOMMY!"  "What Elsie?"  "I love you."  It still stops me in my tracks on the regular.  And she really tries to be so sweet with Thea 80% of the time.  "Come on Fee-uh!  Come play wif me!  You're my buddy.  We're sisters forever."  Or things like, "Great job Fee-uh, you're such a big girl!" I love it so much.  Sure they fight like crazy.  But they really are starting to become pretty good little buddies.  And absolute partners in crime!

Elsie is turning into quite the little artist.  Following in Ryann's footsteps of course.  Ry and her spent a lot of time watching drawing tutorials on youtube, and now Elsie can rock almost anything I ask her to draw.  Especially Pikachu.  Both girls became obsessed with Pokemon last fall after Chris showed them one of the old school cartoon episodes, and Elsie is quite smitten with Pikachu.  Her love is so deep that we had to have a Pokemon birthday party, but more on that another day.  Oh and at her preschool parent/teacher conference they told me that the other children have noticed her ability to draw, and will sometimes ask her to drawn them something that they can then color in.  Is that not the cutest?

a recent self portrait

Academically-ish speaking, Elsie knows all her colors, shapes, and count pretty high, can recognize all the letters of the alphabet (except sometimes she confuses C and S), things of that nature.  She knows the sounds that all the letters make.  Occasionally I have her watch the sight word DVDs that Ryann used to watch, and I know she has picked up some words, but doesn't seem to apply it all that much outside of the DVDs.  She can also write almost all the capital letters of the alphabet.  She can also spell her and Ryann's first names and write them.  As lots of children do, she regularly writes things backwards.  But what is a little crazy is that she usually mirror images everything.  It isn't just a letter here or there that is backwards, it is all of them written as a perfect mirror image.  Maybe a left handed thing?  Who knows.  If I remind her to start on the correct side of the paper she writes them regularly.  It is interesting.

We've had a speech therapist coming to our house once a week since October.  Initially they worked on s blends and Elsie picked those up rather quickly, with little instruction.  In the last six weeks or so, they've gotten into the really difficult sounds for her, the K and the G.  Especially an s blend with a K sound, tough stuff!  The term they used for Elsie's, delay I guess?, is fronting.  She doesn't properly use the back of her tongue when trying to make the noises.  So currently we're making a ton of hacking sounds whenever there is a 'cuh' noise.  Lol.  But she definitely seems to be improving.  There have a been a few occasions that she has made the K noise all on her own in conversation and it always catches me off guard/is pretty exciting.  I will be surprised though, if she graduates from speech by the end of her year in October.  It is still a ways off, but I think they're shooting for something like 85% accuracy, and that just sounds so hard for my sweet girl!

 

Speech therapy has absolutely nothing to do with her vocabulary.  Elsie uses so many words and phrases and is talking pretty much all the time.  It is so fun.  Let's see, recently she told Thea "Don't panic!  I've gotcha!"  One day she dropped a pencil sharpener into the trash while trying to sharpen something.  Her immediate reaction was "Oh shoot!" followed by "oh gosh.  It went way down there.  I can't find it.  Ey yi yi!"  And this was a while back but I don't think I've share it on the blog.  One time Elsie was trying to say the word 'crystal', but I could not for the life of me understand her.  She started describing it as "a shiny rock that is kind of clear that can make a rainbow if you shine light through it."  I was definitely impressed with her ability to come up with that description!

Some of my favorite phrases though, are her little self affirmation ones.  We've been working on riding a bike with training wheels, and while she is pedaling she'll say "If I try hard I can do this!  I'm not giving up!  I can do it!"  I love it.  You go girl.  You can do anything if you try hard.

Other random things about miss Elsie... she is our little foodie.  She loves to eat and she loves to help in the kitchen.  For the most part she'll try anything and likes lots of different foods.  She also loves to tell secrets.  She grabs you by the face and tickle whispers in your ear something you probably can't understand.  Cracks me up every time.  She is still absolutely fabulous at pretend play and can entertain herself for long periods of time in her room.  She also loves building with duplos and shapemags.  She enjoys dressing up her American Girl Doll, but also swipes Thea's bitty baby a lot to play with her.  She love love LOVES to 'craft'.  Especially if I sit with her and do whatever she tells me.  Typical.  Despite being completely crazy and rambunctious at home, in a class setting (school, gymnastics, dance) Elsie can be very quiet and generally follows rules rather well.

My Elsie girl, I love her, she drives me crazy, and I'm so happy I get to be her mommy.  Can't believe you're four girlfriend!

elsie says

I love three-year-old's interpretation of a joke...
Elsie: "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
Me:  "I don't know, why?"
Elsie:  "To get away from cookie Valentine's Day!"
uh, what?

Me:  "You're full of bologna."
Elsie:  "No I not!"
Me:  "Then what are you full of?"
Elsie:  "Bones!" touche

after giving her a push on the swing
Me:  "Ok now pump your legs! Back and front and..."
Elsie:  "I know how to do it by myself.  You don't need to remind me."

Elsie:  "I stracted Thea.  I was keeping her stracted so she don't touch your fings."
Translation: I was keeping Thea distracted so she wouldn't touch your things.

Elsie:  "I love dose (those) wittle bugs.  Them are so cute and friendfull."  I about died when she said friendfull.  Such a cute attempt at friendly!

Miss Elsie has also started, well, not exactly telling the truth, when she thinks she is going to get in trouble.  The other day we were in my bedroom and I told her I was going to use the restroom.  She jumped up first and said she needed to potty too, and that she could do it all by herself.  Which she can.  She came out and went to the other bathroom (where there is a stool) to wash her hands.  I then went to the bathroom.  When I went to grab the toilet paper it was, wet.  And yellow.  We have yet to install a toilet paper holder in our bathroom, we just keep a roll on the back of the toilet.  So apparently she dropped the roll in the toilet, fished it out, and put it back like nothing had ever happened.  I asked her if she had dropped it in there, "No mama, you did."  PUNK.  We're going to have to work on telling the truth!

And a couple of other little things I'm not sure I've ever written down but now she isn't saying them as much and I don't want to forget.  Elsie used to say Old McDonald's instead of McDonald's.  She calls bananas bee-nanas.  And gymnastics is also bee-nastics.  Honestly I hope that she always says bee-nana.  I know she won't, but I really think it is the cutest thing.

elsie says

Elsie:  "My back hurts."
Me:  "Why?"
Elsie:  "Cause I'm not pushing on it, and it's got a lot of energy in it?"

Grammy:  "Elsie, you sound a bit hoarse today."
Elsie:  "I'm not a horse, I'm a unicorn!"

Elsie: struts out of my room in heels and a belt "Ok I'm the mom.  We're going on an adventure today.  But only if you turn your listening ears on!"

Now, I went back and forth on sharing this last one.  But ultimately I find it hilarious and don't want to forget so, sorry Christopher (he voted no), I'm writing it down.

I was making lunch and Elsie was crawling the kitchen.  I wasn't paying too much attention to her jabbering, but then she got louder.

"Mama!  Mama!  I'm tinky (stinky) cunt! I'm a tinky cunt!"

What the hell?  What was my child saying to me??  She said it a few more times.  Then she said she 'paid' me.  A stinky cunt that paid me?  Oh my gosh what?  Then I figured it out.  She was pretending to be a skunk.  But it sounded nothing like skunk.  And she sprayed me.  I could not stop laughing.  I'm not mature enough for this parenting thing.  And no worries, she decided she didn't want to be a skunk anymore.  She wanted to be a titty (kitty).

Oh Elsie girl.  She is a character like nobody else. 

elsie says

I wish I was better about jotting these down.  Because Elsie says something absolutely adorable or completely ridiculous every single day.  But here are a few I did manage to remember.

Me: "Oh my word Elsie, your diaper is disgusting. Why do you poop so much?"
Elsie: "I'm Poopalicious!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that one.

running through the Target parking lot with a recently potty trained toddler...
Me: "How bad do you have to go potty?"
Elsie: "Bad.  Like two weeks ago!"

Ryann:  "Why can't she wear underwear on Tuesday?"
Me:  "She has school on Tuesday.  We should probably get a day under our belt before we send her off to school."
Ryann:  "Under our belt?  I don't even have a belt."
Elsie:  "Me either!"

Elsie:  "Honeydew? I don't like honeydew! I tried some, and it was good, but I don't like it."

Elsie:  "Oh hi Fee-uh! (Thea) Did you wake up from a beautiful nap?  Oh oh, don't cry sweetie.  I'm here.  I got ya." yes, my heart exploded from the sweetness

from the mouths of babes

Coming up with a title for this post was too hard for my tired brain.  Because how do you title a post in which you talk about your kids talking about poop without it being really awkward or really dumb?  That and I felt like several of the titles would encourage hits from people searching weird things and I just don't wanna go there.

SO!  Yes.  This is a post about things my kids said about poop.

A couple of weeks ago I was e-mailing back and forth with Ryann's teacher, because apparently my child talks a lot in class.  Is anyone surprised?  No?  Didn't think so.  But yes, we're hopefully working on talking when it is appropriate.  One of her e-mails came before Ryann had gotten off the bus, and she let me know that she didn't think Ryann was feeling well because she said her tummy hurt and just wasn't acting like herself.  Over the last week Elsie had a cold, and I knew Ryann's nose was getting runny so I assumed she had picked that up.  But the second she stepped of the bus I could tell it was more than just a cold.  Girlfriend looked completely wiped.

She came inside and sat on the couch and I cuddled up next to her.  She felt pretty warm, but asked me for a blanket because she was so cold.  I knew immediately she had a fever.  I started texting back and forth with Christopher letting him know our girlie was sick, and then I found a thermometer to take her temperature.  After confirming she did in fact have a fever (101.3), I got her all settled in on the couch.  We talked about her day a little bit, and then she said to me (and she is going to hate me forever for sharing this, but it is too good not to record), "This afternoon when I went poop it was like brown water.  It was gross when I tooted.  I think the fever melted my poop."

I laughed so freaking hard.  I love how little minds work.

Now with Elsie, we talk about poop a lot.  Her pooping, or lack there of, continues to be a constant issue.  We've resorted to giving her miralax every day to keep her regular.  It is the whole reason I've yet to brave actual potty training with her.  One afternoon before quiet time I sat down on the floor of her room...

Me:  "Elsie, come over here and lay down so I can change your diaper."
Elsie:  "NO!  I still poopin'!"
Me:  "No you're not, you're playing with your kitty house.  Come over here."
Elsie:  "No!  I not done poopin' yet!"
Me:  "Elsie Joann, come over here now so I can change your diaper."
Elsie:  "Hold on!  I not done!  I just gotta poop fer wike, free (three) hours!"

Again, I laughed so hard.

My sweet girls, I'm sorry (I'm not sorry) that I've posted this on the world wide web.  Just know you made at least a few people smile!  Love you!  :o)

elsie says

Seriously.  I have got to get better about writing down what Elsie says.  She is such a character and definitely my 'class clown'.  She makes me laugh so much.

Elsie:  "I like you Ryann.  Can I be your fwend?"
well isn't that just the sweetest?  I'm sure she pulled her hair two minutes later...

Me:  "What did you do at school today?"
Elsie:  "Ummmm, my fwends was cryin' cause they wanted their mommies.  But I didn't cry.  Cause mommies always come back."  you go girl!

Oven timer beeps.
Elsie:  exaggerated sigh "Otay oven, I hear ya!"
I've obviously never been annoyed by the oven before.

Upon going in to her room to get her up in the morning.
Elsie:  "I tooted in my bed last week."

It doesn't matter if something happened two minutes ago, two days ago, or two weeks ago, it always happened last week in her world.

elsie says

Oh man, this girl's vocabulary just continues to explode, and her sentences just get longer and longer.  She still has some words that I have to make her repeat like 10 times before I figure out what she is saying, but hey.  Some random ridiculous (and cute!) things she has said lately...

Me:  "Elsie, what are you doing?"
Elsie:  "Leave alone me!  I pooping!"
Me: annoyed at the thought of changing her diaper for the millionth time "Why?"
Elsie:  "Cause I wuv pooping!  I poop ev-wee day!"

Me:  "Elsie where are your shoes?"
Elsie:  "I don't know.  Dey seem to be hiding!"

Elsie:  "Mama, what doing?"
Me:  "Making some toast."
toast pops up in the toaster
Elsie:  "Whoa.  I better hide."

Elsie:  runs up behind me and grabs my legs "Mama I wuv you so much.  You my buddy."
Me:  melts into a puddle because that was so damn cute

When she demanded braids like sissy one the left, and just a touch of her sass on the right.

elsie says

The more Elsie talks, the funnier she gets.  So I think it is about time to start writing down her cute and ridiculous phrases!

Elsie asks for a banana almost everyday for breakfast.  We cut them up and she eats them with a fork.  One morning I cut them just a little too thin...
"Get on my fork!  Right now!  Listen nana!"

Elsie:  touching her nipples "I got more belly buttons."
Me:  "Those aren't belly buttons.  They're called nipples."
Elsie:  "Belly buttons!"
Me:  "No, they are called nipples."
Elsie:  "No way!  I see your nittles?"
Me:  Dead.

She also regularly says "leave alone me!" and "my do it!"  Not my favorite phrases to come out of her mouth, but ones I don't want to forget.

And to cap off this post, Elsie's first pigtails.  Ryann wanted them to have matching hair, so I pulled E's back for the first time.  It absolutely won't happen often, because it takes more time and Elsie doesn't really love having it pulled back.  But it was super cute.  And her sass.  It's too much.