Birthday Round Up

The birthday extravaganza began Friday night with pizza and birthday cake with Bubbie and Dadaddy. She opened her presents from me - a silver tea service for "fancy" tea parties, some wipe off alphabet and number books and the Princess and the Frog on DVD. Then she opened her presents from Aunt Georgie, Uncle Harry and cousins Christopher and Suzanne, which included what has turned out to be her favorite present so far - binoculars



Not sure where she got the idea, but she actually requested these for her birthday a couple weeks ago. She's enjoyed wearing them in the car to monitor rooftops and traffic lights as we drive. They also came in handy at Central Market to see things on the top shelves.

Saturday afternoon our friends the Rileys came to town. Ellie and Jackson and Alice Anne played with pretty much every toy in the house and enjoyed their sleepover. I have no pictures of them, because I'm lame and often forget I have a camera when there's something special to take pictures of.

Sunday we and the Rileys enjoyed lunch at Kincaid's and then headed to Little Gym for the party. Ellie got a little more adventurous than the last time we were there, and decided to try out the uneven bars and the balance beam. Her favorite was the bouncy bridge. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of renovating a room in our house to install something like this. I think it could guarantee an early bedtime on a regular basis.





Ellie thoroughly enjoyed her party, with the exception of one crying jag after she blew her candle out at the beginning of everyone singing Happy Birthday and then got embarrassed when we relit it and told her to blow it out again. The combination of overstimulation, no nap and a long, tiring weekend of celebration was just too much for the poor bunny. She rallied and enjoyed the rest of the party, although in the parking lot she told me she was "big tired" and needed to go to bed. Once we got home she got a second wind and we snuck in some outside play time before crashing into bed. All in all I think we made a pretty good first birthday impression on this little girl!


And so begins her fourth trip around the sun - enjoy the ride, kiddo!

Four Years and One Day

Ellie has a large and colorful collection of "Chucks" for school - Converse tennis shoes with laces. No velcro, no elastic laces, real old-fashioned laces. Which means I tie shoes a LOT. A few months ago while tying Ellie's shoes, I told her that she needed to watch how I did it and practice, because when she turned 4 she would have to learn how to tie her own shoes to get ready for kindergarten. She showed little to no interest in learning the "bunny ears" tying method, so after a few tries, I told her she'd have to start trying again after her birthday.

On Saturday - one day into her 4th year - I asked her as she was getting dressed if she wanted me to come tie her shoes once she put them on. She said "No - I did it." I went to her room expecting to see a mess of knots and found this:



Now if only my little genius could learn her colors we'll be all set.

Happy Birthday Girl

It was a wild birthday weekend. More tomorrow, but I loved this pic. And that face.

.

You Say It's Your Birthday

Someone turned the big 0-4 today.



Happy birthday my sweet girl.

Signs of Spring

Daffodils blooming:


Grass greening up:


Enjoying the benefits of daylight savings time on our new swingset:

Sunday

It never gets old...






Yo Gabba Gabba is a very unpredictable show. Best to take safety precautions before watching.

My Curly Girl

I knew when I decided to adopt an Ethiopian child that the hair thing would be a learning curve for me. I have fine, straight, uncooperative hair that defies most attempts at styling beyond consenting to be dried, so the prospect of learning how to properly care for and style Ellie's head full of curls was a little intimidating. She didn't have much hair to worry about when she first came home, so we pretty much stuck to a routine of wash-condition-moisturize-headband and let her curls do what they wanted to. With the exception of the occasional ponytails, we haven't strayed much from that - the headbands help frame her fabulous curls as they grow longer (and taller) and she likes matching them to her outfits for school. Recently the ends had gotten really dry and prone to tangles (leading to tears and drama most mornings), so last week off to the beauty salon we went for a trim.

Our day before picture:

Ellie was such a good girl - in addition to everyone commenting on what "good curl structure" she had, everyone commented on how well-behaved she was since she sat perfectly still and didn't say a word the whole time. I smiled and nodded and wondered if she was undergoing some kind of emotional trauma causing her to withdraw (this is what all that adoption training does to your brain.) In reality, she was having a fine time. She got her hair washed in the "special chair" and then sat under the bonnet dryer for a while for a deep conditioning treatment. Chocolate milk and the Wonder Pets on my phone made the time fly by.


After drying her hair, the stylist trimmed it a little (a lot less than I expected) and then used the blow dryer and a tiny flat iron to straighten it out and style it. Here was the end result:

Is it just me or does she look like Michelle Obama?


Here's Michelle Obama with a bow.


And here's what Michelle Obama hair looks like in the morning when she won't stop playing with it and refuses to sleep in a scarf:

We aren't giving up the headbands yet.