Smartypants

Elliot is growing up so much lately, I just wanted to get in writing the things that she is doing, so that someday we can look back.

She knows her uppercase letters with about 90% accuracy.

She is learning her lowercase letters. (She was getting frustrated one night, while trying to point out letters in a book to me, that she didn't know the "other" letters.)

She can count to 20, but typically leaves out 14 and 15.

She sings many many songs like ABC's, Twinkle, Jingle Bells, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Teapot.

Right now she is way into babies. Baby dolls, diapers, feeding them, etc. Santa will surely bring her some things related to that!

She LOVES books. She reads more books than I can sometimes handle. And we read the same books for about a week or two, then we're onto something new for another week or two. She has two sets of 12 Winnie the Pooh board books that are teeny tiny that she plays with and "reads" daily. She has most memorized.

She loves to jump.

She loves playing music of any kind. (Not at all surprising!)

She can spell her first name, knows her full name and our street address. She can also tell you the name of all her family (Mommy is Stephanie, Daddy is David, Grandpa is Bill, Nana is Karen, etc.)

Gingerbread House

What Christmas would be complete without a Gingerbread House? (All of mine, by the way, this was my first!) But still, it seemed like a really fun craft to do with Elliot!

Christmas 2009 Pictures of our Family

Christmas Card Photos - Take 1 & 2

We took Elliot to the mall all decked out in her Christmas outfit to take a beautiful picture of her sitting on Santa's lap. *ahem*



After sitting on Santa's lap:
Oh so sweet?

Tree Huggers

We had a big beautiful tree out back when we moved into our home four years ago. As the years have gone on, the tree lost branches here and there in various storms. For safety, we had the tree taken out today. What a difference it makes in our yard! How sad that our big old tree is gone!

Before and After pics:

Trick-or-Treat!

Boo at the Zoo!

We went to Boo at the Zoo yesterday with Vikki and Dennis (Aunt Vik and Uncle the Fuzz). We had a great time seeing all the animals. Elliot adores the zoo and seeing lots of animals. She tells me that her favorites were "the monkeys who were jumping a lot and the turtle who was eating the pumpkin-jack-o-lantern." Elliot got to wear her Raggedy Ann costume all day, too, which she loves!

Elle sitting on Daddy's shoulders to see the lions:
Riding the bug carousel (if you remember our Sesame Place trip, the carousel is an Elliot favorite!):
Vikki and I with our big listening ears:
Elliot peeking out of a log:
Vik and Fuzz and a rhino:
Elle and Daddy with a bird that tried to attack us (not really, but I was worried it would!)

Long Island Children's Museum

This summer, we took a day to visit the Long Island Children's Museum, which we haven't done before. We had a nice time and got some great photos out of it!

One of my favorite shots ever: Elle in the silly mirrors

Mommy and Elle play with blocks:
Daddy and Elle ride the motorcycle:
Bubble girl:
Sliding in the toddler room:

Elle's Summertime Playdates

We were quite busy this summer with playdates, vacations, trips, and home repairs. It still managed to be a wonderful and relaxing summer! Here are some pics of Elle and her playmates on her summertime playdates.

This is our Terryville Tots playdate at Hoyt Farm:

This is a really small picture of Elliot and Ryan, who is the son of Jeannine whom I worked with at JFK. They were due within two weeks of each other, but ended up being almost 2 months apart!
This is Elliot and who I think she would consider her best friend, Brian.
Another small pic of Brian, Elle and Brian's Mommy Jen.
Elliot and Ava - Ava's Mommy is the art teacher at Clinton with me.

Dancing School

Elliot is signed up to take ballet class this year. She has had three classes so far, they meet on Saturdays from 10 - 10:30. She wears her black leotard, pink tights, and ballet slippers for class. They do all sorts of fun things like singing, dancing, learning left and right, jumping, and skipping. Here are some pics!

Before class:

Elliot's "New" Bed

Last Friday, September 25, Elliot got her "new" bed. We took the front off of her crib (it will later be the footboard to a full-size bed), and added the toddler rail. She transitioned really well to it, because it is virtually the same bed she was in before, she can now climb in and out of it on her own! What a big girl!

Elle's bed before:


Setting up the new bed:

Elle's new bed now:

A Few Elliot-isms

After crying, throwing terrible tantrums, and having MAJOR separation anxiety for the first 7 days of school, Elliot rolled over this morning and said to me, "Mommy? Today, I'm ready." And no tears when I left her at Ronnie's!!!

Yesterday, on the way to Ronnie's, I said to Elliot, "You get to play with Mason today!" (Mason is 9 months old.) She replied, "Mommy, he doesn't do anything!"

As we left Ronnie's that afternoon, she said in the car, "Oh no! I didn't say goodbye to Mason! He's probally sleeping."

Embarkation Day! (a.k.a. Cruise Day 1!!!)

These are shots from the day we left for our cruise. They don't actually consider the first day a day, which is nice because you get on the ship as early as 12:30 in the afternoon. Elliot had a long day of car (driving to the airport), then the plane, then a train (to baggage claim), then a bus (to the ship), then the ship.

Towel Animals on Carnival Cruise

We took a Caribbean Cruise from Aug 15-22 to Nassau, Bahamas & St. Thomas & St. Maarten. We ended up in Grand Turk instead of St. Maarten thanks to Hurricane Bill. I have tons of pics to post, so I'll do a few at a time!

Each night that you go into your cabin on the cruise, there is an adorable towel animal awaiting your arrival!

Mommy's 30th Birthday - August 25

Well, Mommy has hit the big 3-0! Dave got me a Canon T1i Digital SLR camera for my birthday. What a great husband! He smartly gave it to me before our cruise, so all our cruise pics were taken on it. Elliot used to tell us that Mommy is 29, Daddy is 29, and Elliot is 2. Now we tried to teach her that Mommy is 30, but when she says it, it sounds like "furty." Too close to forty to me!

We went to Maureen's Kitchen for brunch on my real birthday. Here are some pics!

Oh yeah! Elliot has been without diapers during the day at this point for about 5 days now. At Maureen's Kitchen, she had an accident. Don't know if we're welcome back there again :)