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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Yes, Mother!  Yes, Phil!  Yes, friends!  I'm blogging again!  Geez!  

We have had a wonderful vacation!  We finished school on the 23rd, and Elliot came to the sing-a-long at my school.  She was a pure delight, dancing and high-five-ing anyone she could find.  My principal April was great - she had a small Elmo in her office, and Elliot saw him.  She immediately yelled, "Elmo" and April gave the doll to her.  Now we can barely leave the house without her Elmo.  (Which Monty proceded to tear into overnight; Daddy, handy with a needle and thread, fixed him up before I could see, because he knows how I'll react!)  I was sad to see, however, that her jeans (my faves) were too short and so was her striped green SO CUTE jacket!  On to 24 months we go!  (Now, the 24 months are WAY too big.  What to do?!)

Christmas Eve we spent wrapping gifts, running out for last minute items, and baking.  Then we went to Dave's Uncle Tom and Aunt Laura's.  It was Grandpa J's birthday (59!!!) so we partied hard and sang Happy Birthday.  Daddy and Grandma played at Christmas Midnight Mass at Christ the King Church in Commack, and Grandpa went along.  Mommy would really have liked to go, but it turns out that Elliot's bedtime is before the 2AM when Daddy got home.  Instead, Mommy stayed home and put presents under the tree, filled stockings, and enjoyed a little quiet time waiting for Davey.  

Christmas morning was wonderful!  Elliot was WAY more into it than I could have hoped.  She loves identifying Santa everywhere she sees him.  She's obsessed!  Some of her big ticket items were a tent, a tunnel, mega legos, the Little People house, baby strollers, and Elmo Live.  She got puzzles, books and clothes, as well as other small toys.  Davey got lots of clothes and TONS of video games including Rock Band 2 for PS3 and Guitar Hero World Tour, too!  I got cooking things that I asked for, sweaters, picture frames, and an AMAZON Kindle!  

Christmas afternoon went to Grandma and Grandpa J's where we had Christmas dinner with Aunt Mary Jane and her family and Great Grandma J.  More presents after dinner!  Elliot got a GIANT teddy bear from Great Grandma that she LOVES!!!  When I asked her a couple of days later what his name was, she said "Doo DOO!"  So now he's DooDoo Bear.  

The following morning, we hopped in the car at 6:45AM and headed to Christmas in Ohio.  We made record time and got there in 8 hours, 45 minutes.  We had Christmas there with Jamey, Constance, Jed and Molly; Phil and Claire; Nana and PopPop.  What a lovely time!  Jed LOVED his new camera from Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Phil.  Elliot got her picnic table from Santa Mommy and Santa Daddy there.  She loves her grocery cart she got from Nana and PopPop, as well as the tricycle which she has a love/hate relationship with - she loves it and wants desperately to ride it, while hating that she can't make it work yet!  She looks darling in her new nightgown matching Molly's and the kind that Nana wears!  We were in Ohio for 5 days, then home again, home again, jiggedy jig!

Since we've been home, we've put together the rest of the toys, gotten her new chair from Grandpa and Grandma J, gotten more toys from private students, and put away all our new clothes.  We've been having lots of fun together as a family.  Elliot is getting a little clingy, perhaps sensing that this vacation is coming to a close?  

She had her 18-month (Dec 30) appointment on Jan 3.  She weighed in at 22 lbs, 6 oz and 31 1/2 inches.  She is doing very well.  The nurse asked if she knows at least 6 words.  When she left the room, Daddy joked that Elliot says more than 6 words every ten seconds!  She is talking in full sentences already like, "I want to see it!" and "Mama, eat, please!"  Today, in her new obsession with calling Nana on the phone AND video phone, she brought me the phone and said, "Call Nana!"  Her new favorite word is "No" but its so cute, we just giggle (certainly prompting more "No's!")  She also now tells us, "Poop," which, if you are a parent, is thrilling!  The first step in a lot of steps to potty training!  

We have had a wonderful vacation!  We are sad that its coming to an end really soon!  Here are some pics!

Elliot and her new drum:

Mommy and Elli opening presents:
The Christmas spread:  (The Jak's helped the economy this year!)
Sleepy on the way home from Uncle Tom's:
Hey, Ella Santa!
Nana, PopPop, Elliot, Jed, and Molly:
What a happy family!
Ella's stinky heiny, Jed holding his nose, Molly oblivious to it all:
Pretty girl at Grandma J's:
Elmo!!!!!
Reading in her new chair:
Vacuuming with Nana, her new loves - vacuums and Nanas:
Uncle Phil (the Godfather) and Elliot putting a rack together:

I........LOVE..........YOU?!

We sing Elliot this song that just goes "I......love.....you" over and over. Tonight, I was singing it, and she filled in something new...
Mommy: "I...........love........."
Elliot: ".....ELMO!!!"
We laughed hysterically and now can't sing it right, because she always fills it in with Elmo because of the reaction.

Also, she was sorting out a new bag of bath toys from a student of mine, and was repeating the names of the animals. Here are a few examples:
Mommy: "Shell"
Elliot: "Sell"
Mommy: "Dolphin"
Elliot: "Salsa"
Mommy: "Octopus"
Elliot: "Offices"

Oh No P!

Last night when Dave and I were rocking Elliot to sleep, as we try to do whenever we can, we were singing to her.  This kid loves singing.  While we were singing the alphabet song, we heard this:

D & S: abcdef

Elle: G!

D & S: hijklm

Elle: OH NO! P

D & S: qrstuvwxyandz...

It was so very cute that she put OH NO in instead of N O.  We had just been singing Little Fish, which has a few OH NO's! scattered throughout and Elliot loves to sing.  What a silly monkey!

X is for Xylophone

Yay!  My xylophone came today!  It is set up already, of course.  Thanks, Neil Grover!  What a deal!

I played it already, no surprise, then Dave and Elliot played it.  We have pictures.  I'll post them as soon as I can!

A Wonderfully Productive Weekend

Friday night I taught a lesson and we relaxed around the house as a family.  I seem to recall crashing fairly early, after such a long week and knowing I had to be up with the baby in the morning.  Saturday morning, Elliot and I went to the library to do a movement class with the toy parachute, and were the only ones to show up.  No class.  But we did come home, work on Christmas cards (check your mailboxes!), and wrap some presents.  David and I taught all day, but still got good Elliot time in.  She napped 3 hours and 15 minutes, and we finally ended up waking her up.  We called Nana on the video phone to show her that Elliot now says "Nana" and "Santa" (which comes out as "Sassa").  

Today we planned to do nothing but stay home and prep for Christmas.  So of course there were really good sales and we had to run out to get those.  Off to Target and Toys-R-Us.  Lots of playtime with our silly girl, whose favorite game is currently taking every marker out of our drawer one-by-one and handing it to us.  We got TONS of gifts wrapped, a couple dozen more cards done, etc.  We baked a tart (note to self: no clementines in tarts in the future...) and baked ziti.  Elliot went to bed like a dream both nights.  Tonight she whined "Love you..." sadly as I put her to bed.  Nice to know that even when she's disappointed with me she still loves me!

The Busy Family

Wow!  I cannot believe how busy our family is!  Last week was Dave's concert, this week I have four.  We're desperately trying to get Christmas decorations up, pictures taken, cards together, lights up, house cleaned, baby cleaned and fed (she requires so much!).  Sometimes we even dress her!  Yikes!  Blog more later!