3 1/2

Lizzie B is three and a half this week! What a little personality is she! Never a dull minute - in the best way. She can play Star Wars with her brother one minute, and be dressing up and accessorizing the next. Her favorite accessory by far is the pink Minnie Mouse ears from our trip to Disneyland over Christmas. She wears them most days of the week wherever we go - school, errands, playing outside. She loves Minnie. Last night, she told me that she are her sister were going "somewhere." I responded, "Who is your sister?" She answered, "Minnie." We were working in the yard last week, and I said soemthing to the effect of, "Hey Elizabeth, let's go inside." She responded, "No Elizabeth. Minnie." She asked me multiple times recently when we are going back to Minnie's house and if she can sleep over there.

Speaking of dress up, Elizabeth changes her clothes multiple times each day. I can't figure out why, but I really notice the laundry increase!

Elizabeth enjoys school, and her best friend is Travis. She has even begun speaking like Travis, pronouncing her "r's" as "w's." She likes to wear a necklace, bracelet, or her Minnie ears to school to see what the other teachers will say about it. Although, we were growing her hair out and had to cut it because she is not interested in wearing it up out of her face when she was out of the house. She loved getting it cut and sat so still looking in the mirror.

With Daniel's focus on letters and sounds in his class, Elizabeth is keeping up really well! She can recognize letters and mimic their sounds. She can write her initial E and loves elephants, I think because they start with the letter E, too! Her favorite clothes and pajamas have elephants on them. Right now, her favorite CD (She says it makes her "happy.") is the alphabet CD. It is 15 different versions of alphabet songs! She knows every word (along with CD's like Daughtry, Taylor Swift, Colbie Callait) and can sing right on pitch!

Elizabeth really wanted a big kid bike like Daniel's after he was speeding ahead of her, so I found one at a yard sale. We cleaned it up, and she jumped right on and took off! It was heartwarming to see them pedaling alongside each other. Daniel was so reassuring and carefully maneuvered around her. She was quite the daredevil saying," Let's go faster!" and tearing down the sidewalk.

In the last few weeks, she began taking ballet and swimming classes. It is so exciting to see her advancements every week and her pride in her achievements. She really likes wearing her leotard, tights, and ballet shoes. In each week of swimming, she has progressed and become more comfortable in the water. Yesterday, she fully immersed her face! She and Daniel celebrate their achievements together in the class. I am so glad for their relationship and the fact that they are there for each other. I hope that will always be the case!

Elizabeth has a fabulous sense of humor. Today, she began speaking in her own language while we did some puzzles. She loves to tell jokes and make up stories and then say, "I just joking you!" She throws her head back and squeals with laughter!

The biggest change in our lives in the last few months is that I am working full time (with flexibility in my office hours) now. I miss Elizabeth and Daniel so much it hurts every day that I am away from them. I can't say enough about how well they have adjusted to our new schedule that involves longer days at school and new babysitters. I'll share more about that later.

Happy half Birthday, Lizzie B! I love you!

FIVE

Daniel turned FIVE today. Wow! I have been thinking about this day five years ago. The awesome experience of bringing a child into this world - it is the biggest accomplishment of my life. I have never felt so strong and vulnerable at the same time. Five years ago today I learned what the condition "neonatalaltoimmunethrombocytopenia" is and how it affected my son. I immediately identified with the quote equating parenting to having your heart walk around outside your body.

Daniel has been so excited about turning five. It is a landmark birthday for him, for some reason. He feels big. He feels in control. He is so rational and quite the problem solver. He is a caring and sympathetic person - especially to Elizabeth. He has learned to calm her down and reassure her when she is nervous.

He is sensitive - in a good way. On the way to the first day of school, he told me he was a little sad. I said something like, "Yes. What are you thinking about?" And he said, "It's hard to be alone...without your mom." He was talking a few nights ago about his birthday and turning five. He was excited, and then he kind of stopped and his eyes filled with tears. He said, "Mom, I don't want to go away to college." I told him we had thirteen more years in the same house together before he had to worry about that.

Our sweet boy.

We had a great day today. He woke up to a new bike, which he immediately started to maneuver around the house. We went to school together and celebrated with shark cupcakes (that took me four hours to create), but the look on his face made the lower back pain and carpal tunnel worth it! His favorite lunch at Subway and then celebrating with Scott, Grandad, Grammy, Nana, Brad, Toni, and E. Gigi and Gramps gave him a guitar that he took to bed with him. He had me sing his books while he strummed along! I really hope he will be interested in some lessons next year.

When Scott went in to check on him after I tucked him in, Daniel was laying in his bed quietly strumming. He asked Daniel what he was singing about, and Daniel said, "Love." (He often asks what the songs mean that he hears on the radio, and we tell him when they are love songs.)

Pre-K is Daniel's favorite year of school. He has such a sense of accomplishment each day - he loves learning and from what I saw today, participating in class. He still loves the Washington Nationals. We went to several games together, and he and Elizabeth did great! Clapping and dancing and enjoying themselves, EXCEPT for fireworks. He'll tell you his favorite team in the Richmond Spider because you can't get traded in college. Daniel has embraced more fruit - apples and watermelon, and I nearly fell over the other day because he asked to have one of my carrot sticks! He favorite dinner is turkey smoked sausage and mac-n-cheese. It's really a family favorite.

Kyle is Daniel's best friend. They have been buddies since last year in their 3 year olds class. I think they have a great friendship. They "get" each other and treat each other well. Today, when they sang to Daniel for his birthday, Kyle put his arm around him. I nearly choked up.

Time to retire for the night. I promise to catch up on E via the blog this weekend. My wrists are killing me from the shark cupcakes tonight.

more sound bites

E - What she name? (instead of what's her name?)
D - Sweet! (positive response to most announcements involving Wii or TV time.)
E - Daniel, stop yelling!
D - Here Wiz, you can have it.

Potty

Our daughter has announced, "I not wike big girl panties. I wub (love) diapers." This is a challenge because the child is most definitely ready to be potty trained. Not only can she pull her pants up and down, she can strip off her diaper and go play, and then come to us and say, "I need diaper now."

I have told her that if she wants to go to school in the fall like Daniel, she has to use the potty. This usually results in a whimper and, "I wub my diapers. I don't wike the potty."

Whoever said potty training girls was easier never met my daughter!! Will let you know when we lower the iron fist and just make her!

We were just hanging out at home watching the end of the Masters, and she said, "Push pause. I need go potty." So, Scott paused the TV. She got off the couch walked to the middle of the room and paused for about a minute. She walked back to the couch, sat down next to him and said, "Okay, I done now."

Cranky

On Wednesday, we were rushing around running errands, and I found myself feeling short of patience as we loaded into the car after the fourth stop. I apologized to Daniel for being cranky. He responded, "Yeah, mommies are cranky, but daddies are not cranky." So I asked him why he thought that was the case. He thought for a minute and responded, "Because daddies don't do anything."

Scott was not as amused as I!

Spaghetti is swimming and the shark speaks Spanish

Elizabeth was messing around with her food this afternoon, and when I asked her what she was doing with the spaghetti, she answered, "Look Mom, the spaghetti is swimming!" She had dumped it in her cup of water.

Daniel was preparing for his weekly show and tell. He decided to take his mini shark figurines and shark book. He was sitting the floor matching the figurines to the book pages, when he came across a figurine with no book description. The names of the sharks are printed on the bottom of the figurines, so he asked Scott to read the name. "Japanese shark" Daniel thought a minute and said, "Japanese shark. Yeah. They speak Spanish!"

more sound bites from E....

The sun is bright, need sungwasses.

I point it this way. It needs batteries. (R2D@ remote controlled toy, that she would not be allowed to touch if she were not playing with it while Daniel is asleep.)

I have a cracker? Mommy, you want a cracker? Daddy, you want a cracker?

There's new bunny! (The replacement bunny I found on Ebay as our backup.)

That's (Little People) go swimming.

Daniel, I need tell you sumfing (something).

It's my turn to talk.

It's my turn choose music. (We take turns deciding what music to listen to in the car. She almost always chooses Wiggles, and she knows almost all of the lyrics to every song.)

soundbites from E

"Daddy, are you downstairs watching football?" (at the top of her lungs)

"Daddy, you sick? You need medicine? You need drink of water?"

"I want a string cheese and Mommy say no!" (trying to convince Scott to open it, which he probably will. The child would live on just cheese if she could.) "Mommy, how about oameal (oatmeal)?"

Come On! Go Downstairs!

E - Hey Daniel

D - What Elizabeth

E - You eat big cake?

D - yes! It's a big piece of cake!



M - My tummy is hurting

E - You need band-aid?



Playing with Daniel's prized Playmobil horse/chariot.

E - Horse hungry. Eat pizza. (she moves horse across the table.) It's raining. Horse need umbrella.

E- Where's bunny? I lost it!

I ride backwards in the cart. (leans back in the seat)

Daddy, I want go upside down.

Where blue Bop? (We respond. It's broken. Bop's are gone.) Where yellow Bop?

I realized yesterday that we don't have a baby in the house anymore. Our daughter is two! She is conversational, observant, and very, very capable. I am so proud of Elizabeth and how she has developed, but so sad that this phase is over. We said goodbye to Bop on Dec.27th. She let me know she was NOT at all happy about me cutting them apart. Elizabeth has a set of lungs on her for sure. She asked for it a couple of times, but has adjusted very well. Falling asleep has not been a problem...yet. Although she gets up and comes in our room every night. I'd put a gate on the door, but she'd wake the neighbors with all of that yelling!

Elizabeth loves her brother, but not most other kids. She offers him a piece of whatever she is eating, and they spend a lot of time running laps in the living room and hiding under the table. She likes to paint and use markers, play dolls and dress up. Santa brought her a little carousel for her dress up clothes and yesterday morning I looked in her room to see Daniel help her put on a dress up skirt, shoes, and hat. Very sweet.

Potty training will have to begin soon. She talks about it and says she has to go. I've just got to get my act together and do it.