Purity of Two

Two and a half has brought this creative and imaginative play that is an absolute delight to watch. It is pure, it is funny and sometimes even a little mean. It is fun watching her learn and grow and seeing her mind work. The things this little girl comes up with make us laugh and smile every day.

She loves to put her babies "night-night" and when they don't listen - they often go to time out. Here is bunny in a time out. Her new thing is to bring the baby to us afterward to say "sorry" and have a hug. She even takes their hand (or paw in this case) to rub our arm like she does to us when she says "sorry". So precious.

She is really into clothes and shoes... She has the "taking off" part down - for the most part. I found her like this after a nap with her shirt partially off her head - like a shrug. This picture was too cute not to share - but I did a label for modesty. I have to say, it took a little creativity on my part to get it off!

She was not happy I was taking pictures instead of getting her out of her crib.

 

More loving on babies. She had a whole system set up in her play castle tent. She'd even yanked her quilt and pillow for her bed. She had Caillou all swaddled and was so proud. Who knew her baby burp cloths would make good baby blankets one day?

Speaking of play tents... This was a cell pic I captured one day at playgroup. Elyse, Gabby and Lucien - a pile of sweet kiddos.

And, the morning she was really quiet... Window painting with my moisturizer.

From the sweet moments of a toddler's day to rainbows. I remember I saw a rainbow in the sky the morning we drove to Seattle to get a second opinion on my Mom's terminal diagnosis of ALS.

I saw that remember and thought - for sure it must mean it can't be true. But, it was. The diagnosis was correct and we lost her a year and a half later. Sue, Elyse and I saw these amazing rainbows on our wet drive back from OJ's house. I couldn't help think of my Mom. And now, I can't help but think of my Aunt who just learned of a new cancer diagnosis. I am so afraid for her and our family. But, I think of the hope in that rainbow and am reminded to pray and love.

My cell phone couldn't come close to capturing the beauty of these rainbows - can you see the second one on the right? God is amazing and even through what we went through with my Mom, I experienced blessings that I never would have experienced. My love and prayers for Vickie.

Lastly, I leave you with my sweet girl. She loved her hair this day and I thought I'd share a closer look.

And my, is her hair getting so long!

May you experience the blessings of today. Love from our home to yours.

Elyse in Action - April 2013

I strung a few videos shot from my cell phone together from the last couple of weeks.

1 - a tantrum at the end of playgroup. She makes it real clear when she is D-O-N-E.

2 - Singing and dancing to some of her favorite songs - draped in one of my clean tank tops from the laundry basket of course.

3 - One of her performance nights. I wished I had grabbed the camera earlier. She was dancing and singing and just having a good old time.

If you have three-ish minutes of your life to spare and enjoy watching the world of a 2-1/2 year old. Enjoy.

Elyse April 2013 from Courtney on Vimeo.

Easter 2013

Easter snuck right up on us this year. It does that from time to time. Things have been a little hectic for us at work and we've been pretty distracted. When Marcie asked us a week before what our plans were, we happily said NOTHING. Nothing felt pretty darn good. We decided to have her come over and we'd catch up on HBO shows and other such crazy fun.

Saturday, Bill and I took Elyse down the street to our neighborhood's first Egg Hunt. I was very impressed with the organization of our neighbors. They did a great job!

So cute. Elyse got a big smile when she recognized our friend, Kim!

Love.

The local firefighters were awesome. They blew their sirens to launch each age group's hunt. You can tell from our clothing it was a chilly morning. However, the sun broke through the clouds as you can see by Elyse's squinting below.

It got very warm! Elyse and I headed over to the mall where a local church hosted an egg hunt. The family next door were there and Jordan even painted Elyse's face.

Later that evening, Daddy was upstairs watching soccer and Elyse and I watched the Fox and the Hound (Seriously, I am not a fan of Disney. Why is every movie so heartbreaking??!!) Elyse had wandered down the hall and all of a sudden I heard her come peeling down the hallway shrieking, "UM-BWELL-WA!!! MOMMY! HELP!! CAN'T REACH! UM-BWELL-WA." My heart sunk. I raced down the hallway and sure enough... she found her Easter Basket. For whatever reason, the umbrella is the only thing she noticed in it - maybe because the girl is OBSESSED with umbrellas. I went ahead and let her have it. We ran upstairs and showed Daddy and explained.

The Easter Bunny was so smart this year. He nailed it with the umbrella. Here she is watching the movie with her umbwellwa.

Speaking of the Easter Bunny. I forgot to mention we tried to go see him at the Mall. It was a major fail. She started crying. "No bunny! No pictures! Scary bunny." I didn't make her. On the way home from the mall she asked if we could find more eggs. I told her the Easter Bunny was coming tonight and we'd find more eggs the next day. That didn't go over real well.

Another recent obsession of Miss Elyse's. Clothes and shoes... as in putting them on and taking them off. Often when left alone when going to sleep/waking up, she will strip all of her clothes off. This is her Easter morning on one of those said occasions. Pajamas left by the wayside.

This is the Easter look we call Cousin It.

I had wanted to go to church, but couldn't find a place that really had what I was looking for. I wanted something with a good Easter message that was kid-friendly, where Elyse and I could enjoy it together. I didn't feel like leaving her in daycare and never really settled on a place, so we went and had breakfast with Grandma Jo at Panera instead. We had a fun visit and met her new little dog, Bella.

We headed home and started on dinner. Bill picked up a ham the day before at Western Meats and I got groceries at Fred Meyer to pull together our last minute meal. Marcie arrived and after nap we dyed eggs.

Ryan joined us for dinner too. He was so cute with Elyse - helping her decorate the eggs. If he looks a little dazed here it is probably because I was starving him. According to my lack-of-planning holiday, I hadn't paid much attention to the timing of my meal and dinner was about 2-1/2 hours late. The key to having your guests really enjoy their dinner - starve them!

Stickers!!

The boys hid the eggs (I mean, the Easter Bunny) and we headed out. It took a bit of coaxing, because I told her the Easter Bunny hid the eggs so she did NOT want to go outside. Ugh. She was looking all over the place for that "Scary Bunny".

She really got the whole finding egg thing this year.

Libby "found" some of the eggs herself. Oops.

For a no-planning kind of holiday, it actually turned out pretty great. Low-key day with my sweet family and great friends. After the stress I've been under lately, it was a welcome day. We have so much to be thankful for!

Hope your Easter was sweet!!