The Baddest Word

A funny story from tonight --

Ella asked if something was happening at school tomorrow and I said it wasn't, and she said "oh man, that shocks!"

 Me: "What did you say?"

 E: "That shocks! that means you don't like something!"

 Me (Knowing that she's meaning to say 'that sucks', and torn between giving her correct information and not wanting to give her the ammo of the real phrase):  "hmmm, I've never heard that one before"

 E: "oh it's true, I heard it!"

Me: "Well, I think I know what you're trying to say, but 1) it's not a nice thing to say so you really don't want to repeat it; and 2) that's not really the saying anyway."

 E (with her eyes getting bigger and becoming very excited) "Oh! well tell me! Is it the baddest word there is??"

Me: (laughing at this point) "No, it's definitely not the worst word there is."

E (so excited she's ready to burst): "Tell me, tell me, tell me the baddest word there is! Mommy - It's okay, tell it right into my ear, I won't tell anyone, I promise!"

Needless to say, she didn't get any new words out of me tonight, but her powers of persuasion were quite impressive!

Catching Up

Trying to catch up on some of what we've been up to lately!

Ready for bed with all her animals

Making an enchanted fairy garden

This is a great little garden, we planted grass and beans and they grew really quickly. 

Catching up on her reading at the library

I finally got my TX driver's license at the end of December, so was able to get a library card. Ella had a great time the first time we went, and she ended up checking out 12 books - of those, 9 of them were books about Halloween, one of her very favorite topics. When we got home, Steve said, "Wow, you really found a lot from the Halloween. section." The funny part? There is no Halloween section, she just managed to find her favorites from among the thousands of books in the kids section!

Beautiful pink sky one evening

Playing with Addison, pretending to "sleep in the time machine"

Princess birthday party

Steve and I went to Tampa together for the weekend before his birthday, and Mom came to stay with Ella. Here are some pictures of their weekend together - 

Making lemonade

Mom took Ella to the aquarium at Moody Gardens, here she is stamping her passport

Sleeping with the Sock Monkey made by Grammy

Steve's birthday was January 30th; and as usual, Ella was feeling very festive and excited to celebrate! 

A very funny story about her card for Steve --

Ella picked out the card herself and it had to be this specific one. She is always pretty insistent about the cards she chooses for people and always has a sincere reason for thinking a card is "the one", and she was sold on this one because of the cake on the front. 

The card made me laugh and laugh because it was just so inapplicable --  it's along the lines of  'I wish we could see each other more', 'even though we're separated by the miles', etc - -definitely not appropriate for a 5-year old that lives with her dad...but, it's the thought that counts, right? 

And the picture under the heart? ...It's BATMAN! Because as Ella says "Daddy loves Batman!"

The night she was making the card, we saw Steve pull up in the driveway and Ella was like "quick, quick, hide the card before Daddy sees it!" I said "Just go put it on my desk in my office, he won't see it there." She was really frantic and said "no, I know!" and she grabbed the cushion from our papasan chair and folded it over, trying to hide the card in there. She stood there holding the cushion folded over and heard the garage door and said "Mommy, quick, quick, come hold this cushion!" - HA! 

 Ella and I made a cake and I let her do most of the frosting and decorating. It wasn't the prettiest cake but Steve liked it, we had fun making it, and it tasted very good, so I'll count it as a success :)

The night of the Superbowl - asleep wearing the glow bracelet she got from the party we went to :)

Hot tub play date on a warm Saturday afternoon

Valentine's treats from Grandma and Grandad!

Looking very adorable on class picture day

Hello Kitty bubbles from Grampy

Decorating Valentine's Day cookies 

 Ella decided that it was picture day for "the babies", and took this picture of them

So cute sleeping with Cory 

And a close-up of the book we made that she was sleeping with

Very spooky, right??

Ready for gymnastics on Valentine's Day

Words of Wisdom

Last night I loaded my arms up with way too many grocery bags to bring them into the house because I only wanted to make one trip in from the garage. Ella wanted me to carry in some of her stuff and I told her I couldn't because my hands were too full.

She looked at all the groceries, shook her head and said "Mommy, you probably need to make two trips." (...which I say to her all the time when she tells me she can't pick up all her toys because there are too many to carry.)

I said "yep, you're right, I should have but now that I have them all, I'm not going to put any of them down and just want to get them into the kitchen."

Then she said, "Okay. Well, now that you've tried it once and didn't like it, you probably aren't going to do that again." (...it's like listening to a tape recording of my own advice - that I'm not following!)

Ha!