Once Upon A Time...

On the way home from dinner, Ella asked us if we wanted to hear her story. We replied yes of course. Here is mostly how the story went:

Ella: Once upon a time, there was a little old man who was walking with candy canes.
Tonya: What happened next?
E: The ducks took the candy canes. And then the mean cat took them.
T: Did the mean cat take the ducks or the candy canes?
E: The candy canes.
T: Then what happened?
E: The little old man tried to catch them.
T: Then what happened?
E: The ducks threw them in the water. And the fish got them.
T: Then what happened?
E: They went in the fish's belly. Then, the fish gave them back to the little old man. He gave some to the ducks and some to the mean cat. That was 'berry' nice of him to share. Then, they were happy.

Ella was a crack-up all day. Whenever I am looking for something to wear, Vic tells Ella that there is a raccoon in the closet. So, when she was going potty today with Vic supervising, I peeked in. Ella said in her silly voice "There's a raccoon peeking in."

As we were leaving the restaurant, Ella says to no one in particular except for maybe the nice strangers holding the door "Daddy has a boyfriend." This is absolutely NOT true and here is where she picked up on this. As we arrived at Thanksgiving dinner at Vic's parents' house, Vic commented that Amber had brought her boyfriend, John. Ella had never met John before and she rarely sees Amber. So, somehow she is convinced that Daddy has a boyfriend.

Over the weekend, we ventured to the mall and unexpectedly had their pictures taken with Santa. We anticipated huge lines, but there was none. Ella was excited and talked and smiled to Ho Ho. Carson did not cry. He looked up at Santa's face and then watched Ella to decide what to do next. The usually cheerful Carson didn't even crack a tiny smile, but he did manage to look at the camera. After this excursion, Vic is now convinced of my need for a double stroller so we are making that purchase very very soon. We also decided on Carson's bedding (yes, he's in a crib in our room still) so we'll be putting his room together in the next few weeks. I'm actually not looking forward to my trek upstairs for his naps and wakings at night. And what did Ella ask for - an expensive kitty cat. You know, the FurReal white cat that meows and moves... We saw it at Wal-Mart and played with it in the cart. Then mean mom told her we couldn't buy it because it was too expensive. I know that kitty cat will make my Ella one happy girl on Christmas Day : ) thanks MawMaw!

Carson continues to show his strength. He is sitting for longer periods of time and can prop himself. Today he transitioned from sitting to laying on his stomach smoothly while on our bed. He loves to kick in his bath and makes quite a mess. Tonight he splashed with his hands and thoroughly enjoyed himself. His flexibility has improved - he now eats his toes. When we first started physical therapy, he did not bend his feet/legs toward his mouth. I could stretch them there, but he resisted. He enjoys removing our glasses and rubbing our eyebrows. We've started giving graham crackers to him and he would shove them whole in his mouth so this is closely monitored. He is chewing/crunching them. He is excited to drink water from a glass. He opens his mouth, grabs the rim with both hands (fingers inside the glass, palms on the outside of the glass) and pulls it to his mouth. He has a tight grip and you have to wrestle the glass away from him. He is still putting everything in his mouth and I do mean everything.

Time to go to bed.... good night...

Watch what you say!

The pictures above are from our family outing to Daniel's Petting Zoo. We fed the animals took a hayride, picked out pumpkins and Ella had her first pony ride. We had so much fun, but unfortunately, I let Carson get sunburnt. C'mon - it's the middle of October. You can see his red cheeks in the close-up below; he's wearing a navy shirt with striped sleeves. Dumb Mom! I felt awful.

Ella is ever so amusing and she cracks us up everyday. Here are a few of our favorite stories:

• Ella and Carson were monkeys for Halloween; however, we did buy a kangaroo costume from Old Navy. She did not wear it and the tags were attached so we returned it on Nov 1. Ella goes into Old Navy with me and I sit her on the counter. She likes to pay. And as the associate is processing the return, she asks Ella what she was for Halloween. Ella confidently replies "a kangaroo." And I wanted to hide under the nearest clothing rack.




• I don't remember what Vic did, but it wasn't what Ella wanted him to do. She looked at him and asked "what were you thinking, Dad?"
• When we were eating out, Ella requested Sprite so they brought her a paper cup with a straw. Strangely, Ella turned it up and drank from it like it was a sippy cup. Of course, she got wet. After telling her that we don't drink from cups like that and this is how you do it, she stated that "she wanted to drink it like a beer." Vic & I did our best to not laugh and she added "I wanted to drink it like the armadillo." Texas Roadhouse has a stuffed armadillo laying on his back (upside down) drinking a beer. That's what I get for explaining too much to her.
• After preschool, Ella informed us that Grace was missing. I asked where she was and Ella replied "she was on China." Having met Grace's mom a month ago, I knew she was travelling to China to adopt a sibling for Grace. I told Ella that she was right - Grace was going to get a baby sister. And Ella said, "no, that's not right. a baby brother." I can't honestly recall so we'll wait and see.
• And this last one is strange... as we were leaving for preschool, she asked "Mommy, did our house burn down?" We have not discussed that with her, but I am sure it has been discussed with family and friends in her presence. After taking a deep breath, I explained that it had burnt down, Daddy built us a new one, and that it happened a long, long, long time ago. And on a different day, she said "maybe our house will burn down again. That would be fun." She has never used "fire" and "burnt" in the same conversation so I don't think she completely understands, but she definitely picks up on more things than I had thought.

After attempting another parent/child class with Ella, we decided to hold off on gymnastics until she was 3 and could attend without a parent. Ella wanted to do the big equipment and not the Wiggles dance and obstacle courses. But after hearing one of Ella's friends attending a dance class, we started looking into that opportunity. Vic's friend from high school has her own studio and she agreed to let Ella try the three year old class. We observed the first class and Ella was dying to join the girls. We bought tap shoes and ballet shoes for the second class and she loved it. It's a 45 minute class with tap, ballet and tumbling. She had so much fun, but it's obvious she's the youngest. We pay monthly so we'll see how it goes. The downer is that parents aren't allowed to watch, but if you watch from the window outside the studio, you can sneak a peek. Of course, we did that! Tomorrow, we are headed to a dance supply store to pick up a pink leotard and pink tights. I'll post pictures soon. Ella's in blue in the pic; they are doing ballet butterfly stretches.

Carson had his 9 month doctor visit and the doc was pleased with his growth. 14 pounds, 15.8 ounces and 26 1/4 inches in length. He is still not on the chart for weight but falls in the 8th percentile for length. His iron level was good so we can stop the multi-vitamins (one of the reasons for his constipation). He is starting to sit on his own for short periods of time, rolls everywhere every direction, starting to prop with his arms when sitting, bangs toys against the highchair tray, can pick up cheerios and place them in his mouth, pivots on his stomach and is starting to pull his knees underneath of him and move his legs to move towards an object (the beginning of the army crawl). He visited the eye doctor and this visit was much less stressful (no flipping of the eye). He looked great and we don't have to go back for another year - yippee! He had his follow-up with the NICU at Good Samaritan Hospital and he was on target for his adjusted age. He'll visit again at 15 months of age. Carson is making great progress with the physical therapist and he is starting to be more expressive. Although he uses consonants and vowels like ga, ba, da, he doesn't babble (babababa, dadada). He is starting to show different inflections when excited. He cried today when I took a tag off of his zebra because he wanted to eat it. Did I mention he mouths everything? This is so different than Ella. He has no teeth but has swollen gums so maybe soon. I think he's starting to play the pick up game. He drops a cup from the highchair and I'm supposed to pick it up... maybe Ella will want to play.

Ella had her first dentist visit this past week and she passed. I was honest and confessed that we brush her teeth once a day. Of course, he would like to see her try it in the morning on her own (at the very least) and then we should do it at night. He suggested I do a better job at the gum lines in the front by pulling her lips out. She always giggles because that part tickles. The bad news is that her thumbsucking (only when she sleeps) is affecting her bite; I could see the impact. The good news is that it is self-correctible. Dr. Bert told Ella that she needed to stop sucking her thumb and she still likes him. She has a security blanket and if she holds it, she sucks her thumb so we have new rules about Toodle-Doo:

• He can't leave her bedroom because he might get lost.
• He can't nap with her because he's dirty and needs a bath. He might get muddy footprints in her bed.

So far so good... she fake cried yesterday at nap time, but not today. I'm not forcing anything overnight because I don't want to regress on the potty training. We'll take it slow, but hopefully thumbsucking will stop before age 3.