Things Ella knows

One of my favorite parts of parenting my children as they get older is when one of them busts out with some little piece of knowledge or new skill that I had no idea they had mastered.  When they were babies, I knew every little thing they could do and where they'd learned it. But as they get older, they pick up new things all over the place and sometimes they come as a real surprise to me.

Things Ella knows #1:  How to eat with chopsticks.  I took Ella and her best friend L out to lunch last week at our favorite noodle and dumpling restaurant, and Ella ate her entire lunch with chopsticks.  She didn't just use the chopsticks to stab at things but could actually hold them in a reasonable approximation to the right way and get her food into her mouth.  Amazing.

Chopsticks girl

Things Ella knows #2:  The concept of abstract art.  Ella was making a picture this weekend and it was full of very precise squares and lines and dots.  When I asked her what she was making, she said "This is abstract art, Mommy."  She then proceeded to write 'Abstract' on the bottom of the page, just to make sure I got it.

Brave girl

In a surefire sign that my little girl is indeed growing up, Ella has started facing all of her fears at the playground.  Slides and nets and structures that have previously been deemed too scary have all been conquered lately with no prodding from us.  Yesterday afternoon as we were walking to the park near our house, Ella told me she wanted to play on the big structure but didn't want to go on the net because it is too scary.  But once we were there, she asked me to help her with it which I did, just once.  After that, she climbed across it by herself time after time, clearly so proud of her accomplishment.

Net: Conquered.

Best part of my day

There are a lot of wonderful things about working from home.  My commute is short, I rarely have to rearrange my work schedule for deliveries or service appointments at the house, and my work wardrobe can be very very comfy.  Since we started doing a nanny share with the family across the street from us (and my kids go over there), I have discovered a new favorite moment of the day, courtesy of my home office set-up.  I love when our nanny pulls up in the Minivan and all of the children (5 in all! Did I mention our nanny is amazing at what she does?) spill out and run down the front walk to the house.  From my second floor office, I have the perfect view across the street of the all those little legs toddling and running.  They chase each other, they check out the birds and the squirrels, and they just look so happy and carefree as they tumble out of the van and across the yard.  It feels like a special secret treat to get to observe my kids without them knowing I am there and I love every day when I get to see this ten second show.

  View from my desk

Things that are fun: Easter eggs

When I got out the Easter bin from the attic late last week, the kids immediately opened it and spent hours playing with the plastic eggs.  They were also very happy to stuff the eggs for our official egg hunts on Easter Sunday.  And Ella wore the same bunny ears I got her for her very first Easter.  I wonder when her head will finally grow big enough that she can't wear them any longer.  Maybe never seeing as how I just found a picture of Josh wearing them, too.

Discovering the eggs first thing in the morning.

Stuffing candy in the eggs.  Dash was not so good at the 'eat the candy later' part

Ella's bunny ears on her first Easter.

Big little moments

Today I experienced a milestone moment in parenting a daughter.... I got to paint her fingernails for the first time. I have been trying to do this with her for years, and she has been completely and totally against the activity. Once when she was about two and a half, I managed to convince her to let me paint one nail just before her nap. When she got up an hour later, she immediately started crying and asking me to take it off. So lately, I had been starting to hope that Dash might be wiling to join me for funky manicure parties for at least a few years. But in the end, Ella came through for me. I got a bottle of lavender nail polish in my Easter basket, and with little prompting, Ella asked me to to paint her littlest fingernail. She must have liked it because a few hours later she asked me to paint a few more of her nails. After we'd done 3 or 4, I convinced her just to let me do them all. She seemed rather pleased with her purple nails and I loved every minute of painting those tiny little sweet fingers. It's silly thing, I know, but she's my girl and it made me very happy.