C is for Cookie

The best part of having Aunt Vik watch Elliot during the day is...oh, who are we kidding?! There are SO MANY good things about Aunt Vik watching Elliot for the day!

1. Elliot can sleep in if she wants. (She doesn't usually want, but still...)
2. Elliot doesn't have to get dressed.
3. If Elliot poops out the front AND back of her diaper and needs a morning bath that Mommy doesn't really have the time for today, Aunt Vik can watch her in the tub while Mommy puts clothes on.
4. After school, Aunt Vik stays and we hang out! Tonight we made COOKIES!

Three kinds of cookies in fact! Buckeyes - to celebrate the big win this weekend! MUCK FICHIGAN! 42-7 Buckeyes over Wolverines! And jam fingerprint cookies and gingerbread (dough). We'll be making the gingerbread men, women, and children on Wednesday afternoon before our flight. Yay, cookies! Yay, Vikki!


And Elliot? Absolutely delightful, fun, and silly today. A few crabby minutes here and there, but then again, don't we all have those? This kid is in good mood heaven these days. What a happy girl!

"I'm not saying you're fat, you just LOOK fat!"

Dave, Ella and I went to the Olive Garden tonight for dinner. Going out to dinner lately has been not so pleasant. Elliot has to eat what we're eating, she's often quite cranky, crayons are food for her body not food for her soul, etc. One of us usually ends up walking around with her while the other eats, then we switch shifts. Tonight, though, we had a SUCH a nice time! It was really lovely. Elli was a dream! She was SO well behaved, ate all her mac and cheese and drank almost all of her milk, and was funny and charming and not at all annoying. Yay! There IS hope for the future!
While we were eating, Elle was trying to talk to the folks at the next table. I looked over and smiled an apology, and as I turned, this seven or so year old boy said, "You look fat!" Oh my. Hilarity ensued:

Boy: You look fat!
Pregnant Sister: Um, thanks?
Boy: I mean, I know you're pregnant, but you look really fat.
Prego Sis: Well, that's still not nice.
Boy: I'm not saying you ARE fat, I'm just saying you LOOK fat!
Prego Sis: Wow.
Boy: Seriously! I don't know what I'm saying that is mean!

By this time, Dave and were laughing out loud!


And now some pics of Elliot from recent weeks that I finally pulled off my camera:

Bathtub Mohawk:


Front view - look at those eyes! What a beauty!:


Elliot using a fork on her own:


Elliot awkwardly eating off the fork:


Elliot's new favorite toy - the laundry basket:

Mommy? Who is this guy?!

Elliot, Daddy and I went to the mall tonight to get Elle's pic with Santa. She wasn't too sure about it at first, and by the end her lip was literally twitching and her eyes were filling with tears! Here's the photo we ended up with:



Our Santa is SO GOOD and his background is so beautiful!

Funny Girl

Elliot has become quite the entertainment for Dave and I. She is just SO MUCH FUN these days! Yesterday (Saturday) she had SUCH a great day. This morning, she has been so cute and playful. Its almost like having a new puppy! She climbs on you if you lay on the floor, she kisses all over you, she rolls around on the floor. If you chase her, she screams and runs away, but then turns around and runs into your arms. That's my favorite. :)

She started buzzing her lips into the kazoo, so Davey got a baritone mouthpiece and she had a great buzz. Then, he got out a trumpet, and she made a good sound on that, too. We caught some on video, check out the video bar and our youtube page.

Congrats to our good friends Alison and Anthony on the arrival of their new baby girl, their first child, Alexis Ann. She was born at 2:13 AM, November 14 and was 7 lbs, 1 oz. Congrats to the new Mommy and Daddy! They come home from the hospital today.

Sing! Sing a song!

Elliot is quite the singer now. Sometimes when I rock her to sleep and sing the ABC's, she "sings" along. She also fills in the following phrase, "The Mommies on the bus say..." and she says, "Sh, sh, sh!" But best of all is this:

Mommy: Ring around the rosy!
A pocket full of posy!
Elliot: Ashes! Ashes! (though often it sounds more vulgar than that)
Ah da da DOWN!!!!

Elliot gets on her Fisher-Price pony:


Pretty girl!:


Playing with Monty:

She said "Drink"

This morning, Elliot pointed to her cup and said, "Drink!" I was so proud of her! Just to be sure, I had her say it again about six different times. Of course, when I had her say it for Dave, she refused. Ah, my love. Also, when she says it, it sounds more like, "Krinksch" Close enough.

Elliot's latest tricks

Elliot throws tantrums now. :) I think I'll consider her new talent. Last night, we had a full-blown, 25-minute tantrum. It changed rooms three times. It was because I put tights on her, because her feet were freezing, and she couldn't pull them off. She kept stopping, peeking around the corner to see what my reaction was, then starting up again. In that time, I made dinner and folded a load of laundry. I've been bad about scooping her up during tantrums, so I just let her have it out. She was overly tired, as her first nap was at 9:30 AM at Grandma's, then no more naps all day!

She gives great kissy-sounding kisses now.

She tries to put her own socks on.

She steps into some of my shoes and just stands in them.

She empties her shirt drawer almost daily.

She can use her shape sorter! She can put all four shapes in, manipulating them until they fit. They are a circle, square, triangle, and star. I have to say I'm quite impressed by this new found skill. (She started really doing it on Monday.)

She still LOVES to read books! I got her the book Gossie yesterday, not knowing what a hit it would be! She LOVES that every page has a "Dut-dut" (duck) on it!

Haha! Her most entertaining game is emptying the drawer in our studio, handing the parent of whichever student is there every single item out of the drawer one-by-one, then putting it back one-by-one.

She loves to sit in her kid-sized chair (though its not very sturdy), and she loves to sit on little things like: her potty step-stool, her tricycle seat, and Dave's trombone case.

Oh, and she nods her head. Its very cute! She looks you right in the eye, purses her lips, and does an 'I Dream of Jeannie' sort of definitive nod.

And she loves to talk to her Nana and PopPop on the video phone!

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