Elsie at school.

Clean up girl.

Twenty minutes after putting Sylvie down for her nap, I hear singing coming from her room...

"Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere!

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!"

(Or rather, "Keen-up, keen-up, evy body evy where!

Keen-up, keen-up, evy body do or tare!")

 

When I open the door, Sylvie smiles and yells, "Mama, it's cleaning time!  I clean up!" 

She'd picked up all the books on the floor and stacked them into a huge tower on her stool.  

I lean in to give her a hug, and she says, "Mama, I clean up.  Now pizza time?"

We compromised on a bagel.

And here she is, thirty minutes later.  Notice the half-eaten bagel clutched in her hands :)
 

Poop, belly buttons, and other New Year miscellany.

The scene:  Two girls, a large amount of poop floating in the tub, and Elsie isn't 'fessing.

Mama:  Elsie, I'm not upset that you accidentally pooped in the tub, I am sad that you lied about it.

Elsie:  But I didn't poop in the tub!  Sylvie did!

Mama:  Well, there is A LOT of poop in here for Sylvie to have made, plus it is full of clemetine pulp.  Sylvie didn't eat any clementines today, but you had two at lunch.  It just makes me sad when you lie to me.

Elsie:  But, Mama, YOU lied to ME! You said you LOVE cleaning poop, and now you are pretending you don't like it!

Mama:  I don't remember every saying that I love cleaning poop...

Daddy:  Elsie, I am sure Mama didn't say that.  No one likes cleaning poop.

Elsie:  Yes, mama did say that!  Mama lied to me!  That's why I pooped in the tub.

***

The scene:  Elsie and Mama learning Spanish together on the computer.  After approximately 20 minutes...

Elsie:  Mama, when we are done learning this, then are we going to be Spanish?

"Chasing" around the empty stairs and halls of the mall over the Christmas holiday.  The mall walkers found them very entertaining!

***

The scene:  Elsie removes Mama's socks for no apparent reason, then leans in close...

Elsie:  Mama!  Your feet DON'T SMELL!  Did you know that?

***

The scene: eating scrambled eggs for lunch, with the promise of three chocolate chips each if they finish their protein.

Elsie:  Mama, my tummy is all full.  It says it doesn't have any more room for eggs.

Mama:  Oh, that's too bad.  If it doesn't have any room for protein, it must not have any room for chocolate chips, either.  

 Elsie:  Oh, no, Mama!  I put my eggs in my stomach, and it doesn't have any more room.  I put my desserts in my belly button, and THAT still has lots of room!  If I ate the rest of my eggs, though, then my belly button would be full, too, and I wouldn't have room for dessert!

Elsie teaches Sylvie (and Rover) about headbands.  Sylvie is not impressed.

Twinkle

Much requesting, ridiculously hard to catch on film!  Enjoy!

Holiday Fun

Playing Ball with Pop

Sylvie had a great time with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course grandparents, she is still learning to throw but loved playing ball with pop!

Family Movie Night

A quick photo from one of our favorite family traditions, Family Movie Night.  It usually involves an animated PG as entertaining to adults as to littles, and some homemade pizza.  Though in this case, How to Train Your Dragon was accompanied by Andy's famous Flat Pancakes, per the 4 1/2 year-old birthday girl's request!

A new farm!

On one of the last beautiful fall days, the girls and I adventured to a new (to us) local petting farm.  Elsie insisted we all wear overalls and stripes, because "That's what farmers wear."  All right, then!

We loved the new farm!  We enjoyed a walk through a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, a tour of the animals, a hayride, and a picnic lunch at the playground.  Our morning in pictures:

Elsie and little B, a friend practically since birth.  Aren't they cute together?

Traversing the "small" corn maze with Miss A and B.  We had to find pictures of five birds before exiting.  It was way too hard for Miss A and I to figure out while trying to keep three little kids from disappearing into the rows of corn!

We finally found them all, AND found the exit!  Sylvie leads the way!

Sylvie had trouble remembering not to climb into the animal pens.

Luckily, the animals all seemed very pleased to make her acquaintance!

Sylvie especially loved the goats..."Hello, goaty!  Goat!  Goat!  Hello! Pet me?  Pet me, Goat?"

We got to hand-feed the goats.  Elsie was very proud that 'her' goat figured out how to eat pellets out of her cup instead of being fed by hand!

Sylvie preferred to feed the goats by hand, one pellet at a time.

Elsie loved the giant slide at the playground.

The tractor-tire obstacle course was also a big hit with both girls.

Sylvie tried to climb the fence between the petting farm and the playground to get back into the goat pen.  Twice.

Elsie preferred to play on the numerous climbers and slides.

We spent at least 40 minutes playing in the gigantic "corn box".

We had a great time, and I am sure we will be visiting often next year!

Winter fun with the girls!

Enjoyed a warmer winter day, made a snowman there

Also had fun getting there and back.

More 2014 Halloween Fun

A picture of the costumes at ballet class...mostly princesses and fairies, but Elsie did mix it up (a little) by being a "kitty fairy."  Sylvie photo bombs the shot to run and get a hug from her big-kid friend, A.

Elsie and I spent Halloween afternoon making gourd people and animals.

These were some of our favorites.

Elsie made a nice pumpkin!

Making the rounds...a giraffe (it was warmer than the princess outfit Elsie picked for her), Andy the Wizard, and Belle (with a warm coat).  The unexpectedly cold weather put a damper on our costumes!

We trekked all the way to a friend's house, then went inside to warm up and meet his son for the first time.  Sylvie liked Justin (the boy), but greatly preferred Purr-purr ("Pooper") the cat.  Bilbo Baggins, Teddy, and Bitty Kitty also made appearances, as did Lila the Dog (Elsie's favorite), but Sylvie seems to like the little Persian the best.

We took a quick family photo before we headed home.  We didn't make too many stops on the way- Sylvie decided after just a few houses that "I no like it" when it came to Trick-or-Treating, so she mostly stayed warm under blankets in the wagon.  Both girls enjoyed handing out candy when we got home, though, and Elsie was very impressed by the pile of "garbage" (candy wrappers) she personally produced in one evening!

Show?

First snow of the season on Halloween morning! Elsie ran outside to play, but Sylvie wasn't so sure...

Sylvie:  "Mama!  Uh-oh!  Uh-oh!"
Mama:  "I see that!  It snowed last night!  That's snow, Sylvie!"
Sylvie:  "Show?"
Mama:  "Snow!"
Sylvie:  "George?"

Yep, I'm pretty sure that Sylvie thinks Curious George painted our backyard white last night.

Some Halloween Fun!

Our holiday season was officially kicked off on Sunday with a neighborhood Halloween Parade with some dear friends.  It was over 70 degrees, making for a beautiful afternoon for a little walk!  

Elsie the Parrot, A the Rainbow Fairy, Mama the Wizard (per Elsie's request), Sylvie the Giraffe, and J the Peacock.

Elsie insisted that she needed her sunhat, but it actually worked out pretty well with her costume and kind of looked like a parrot beak :)

The parade was led by the neighborhood "Walking Band".  They were quite good!

This may be the only picture of J with her full ADORABLE peacock costume.  Sadly, she didn't really dig wearing the mask.

The parade ended at a church park, where Sylvie ran off to play with the "big kids" like she was ten years old.

After everyone in parade arrived, we headed inside to watch a juggling act.  The girls were both transfixed.

Lastly, we all got to share a buffet of Halloween treats!

I think the girls' favorite part was at the end when the stage was cleared and a huge crowd of kids in costume ran around playing "chase".  Sylvie is laughing with glee in this picture!

On our way home, Sylvie decided that she wanted to try the merry-go-round.  The big kids who were playing on it were very accommodating: "Does the baby want to ride?  How fast can she go?  Maybe a 2?  I won't go faster than 5!"  Sylvie loved being a big kid!

The fun continued on Thursday with Elsie's school costume party.  Two hours before school she decided to change her costume from "monster" to "red kitty", so we had to do some creative improvising.  She was very happy with the results of our thrown-together costume, though!

Just for fun, a Halloween picture from exactly one year ago today!  Elsie is wearing her "parrot" face paints, ready to get dressed to trick-or-treat!