Haircuts for Dogs by Ella

Ella was home sick today from school but was feeling much better after she started on antibiotics so this afternoon she had enough watching Curious Geoge and decided she needed to get moving. She was all fired up because she was feeling better and bored and ready to burn off some energy. I had taken off for the morning but was working in the afternoon so I told her she needed to play by herself for a bit.

She went upstairs and played with Cory for a little while in her room and then gave Cory some treats from the kitchen, and then came and asked me to write a note that said "Haircuts for Dogs" on it. She usually asks me to write words so she can copy them, and I figured she was doing this for her game with Cory. She stayed downstairs this time, and was bustling around in her playroom and the kitchen and told me that she had a surprise to show me and she'd tell me when she was done.

About 10 minutes later she brought the note back in and said I needed to write on it "by Ella" or else no one would no who was doing the haircuts. And then she said "oh - and write 'open today' so they know that I'm open!" I thought this was for some imaginary customers so I said "ah, that's really neat, who is coming to get their dogs haircuts?" and she said completely seriously "our neighbors, once they see the sign."

I told her that I was really excited to see her dog station, but I didn't know if the neighbors would be coming over because they may not know about her services. She said "well let me just put the sign on the door and we'll see if they come."

I realized then that she was completely serious and really hopeful for some customers. It was a mix of heart breaking and heart warming because I didn't want her to be disappointed when no customers showed up, and heart warming that she's just so sweet and adorable that she expects by making a note and taping it to the front door that clients will be ringing our bell for her dog grooming serices.

So she taped the sign to the front door and then was very excited to show off her handiwork.

This is the dog haircut station she had set up - she had gotten all her supplies together and organized them on this table, filled her spray bottle with water and even towels. She told me that she set up the picture of Cory because it would make the other dogs happy when they saw it.

 

 

Then, she took me into the kitchen and showed me all the snacks she had set up for the guests who would be coming over. She had bowls, water bottles, crackers and chips, salt and pepper, coffee cream, splenda, peeps and milk all set out for her company. Talk about heart breaking! - - I couldn't even stand her cuteness and just scooped her up and give her a giant hug and told her what a great job she did setting everything up. (I was this close to texting the few neighbors that I know to see if they'd be willing to come over, but my better judgement prevailed).

Unfortunately, the sign on our front door did not do the trick, and no one showed up for her reception or dog grooming, and she kept asking me why no one came. I said that next time we'll need to make sure everyone knows in advance and we can invite them, and hopefully she'll have better luck next time.

 

She asked if we can make flyers for people's mailboxes, so I'm hoping she'll have forgotten about that idea by tomorrow morning...

Pete the Cat books

A few cute videos of Ella reading from her Pete the Cat books --







She is just so adorable!!

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!

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!

Where's my goody bag?

I took Ella to her 5-year doctor's appointment this morning and she kept me entertained the entire time.  She views everything as an opportunity for fun and adventure, and this was no exception.

Some highlights:

- The doctor let her listen to own heart (which she LOVED) and then she let her wear the stethescope for the remainder of her appointment, and spent most of her time trying to listen to the doctor's heart
- She asked to keep the disposable piece that goes on the ear-light (yuck, but I figured at least it's her own ear germs on there...)
- She asked for some tongue depressors to take home
- She told the doctor that she wishes her playroom had more of the things in the doctor's room
-She was not impressed with the sticker selection and settled on some train stickers that were not her favorites

But my favorite moment came after the appointment; we were in the parking lot, and she had her hands full with stickers, tongue depressors, ear-light thing, and a few other treasures she had brought in to the appointment.

She says to me very enthusiastically "well, that was great - but I do wish they had given me a goody bag for all my new stuff!"

Always an adventure with this one :)