Past bedtime

Tonight I walked by Ella's room long after we'd said good night and caught a glimpse of her standing by her bed, bedside lamp turned on, poring over a pile of books.  As much as I believe that she needs to get plenty of sleep, I think I will always find it hard to ask her to stop reading at night and turn off the lights.  Finding magic in books is such a gift and I hope she'll always be tempted to stay up just a little later to keep on reading.

Nothing sweeter

Nothing sweeter than two kids fresh from the bath, cozy in their jammies, and reading with each other before bed. 

Bragging

Yesterday morning, the kids and I were at our local Museum of Life and Science (hands down, best place to have 5 minutes from your house).  We were in the Butterfly House with one of Ella's friends and her mom and little brother.  Ella and her pal L were walking around finding butterflies and matching them to the pictures on the placards describing all the varieties in the house.  As Ella matched them to the pictures, she also read the names of most of them.  I don't think she knows them by heart - we don't do that much butterfly identification - but was really reading the names.  Her friend's mom said to me, "You know, if that were my daughter reading, I'd be pointing it out, braggin about it, telling everyone who is around.  Hey look, people, my four-year old is reading!!"  I have apparently not been shouting this from the rooftops nearly enough.  So consider this a bit of bragging.  Ella is really starting to read, and as a vociferous reader myself, I am so thrilled for her I could burst every time I come across her reading a book to herself.  Hear me world?  My girl is READING!

Broccoli Conundrum

When Ella was a little thing, maybe a year or so, she started eating broccoli ground up in the baby food grinder with olive oil, salt and pepper, and parmesan cheese on top.  She would eat bowls of the stuff, even as she stopped eating other vegetables.  Fast forward and she is now almost four and a half, and she still loves broccoli ground up with olive oil, salt and pepper, and parmesan.  To this day, though, she refuses to eat steamed or grilled or roasted broccoli even with the same additions.  Most of the time we just make her a big bowl of her favorite ground broccoli and don't even offer her the big pieces because we want her to eat it and the 'grinded up broccoli' (as she says) is a sure thing.  I am torn between wanting her to start eating the pieces, darn it, mostly because making the ground broccoli and grating the cheese gets to be a real pain, and just being really glad she'll eat such a big serving of something so good for her.  I don't know what to do about this broccoli conundrum with her, but you can bet your last dollar that Dash gets his broccoli in pieces, straight up so as not to create another broccoli monster in our family.

Big! Huge!

Dash continues to be a verbal whiz kid which these days means he repeats pretty much everything we say in two words snippets.  He has also taken to describing everything he sees with his two favorite words, big and huge.

This is cute and sweet when he sees, say, a dump truck.  "Truck!  Big truck!  Huge truck!"

This is cute and slightly gross when he describes his diaper contents. "Turd!  Big turd!  Huge turd!" 

It's downright hysterical when he describes his anatomy.  When given the opportunity, he will grab at his own, um, boy parts and squeal with glee: "Peecee!  Big peecee!  Huge peecee!"

Boring

Sometimes kids have such knack for calling a spade a spade.  This weekend, we were swimming with my parents.  Josh and my dad were throwing Ella up into the air and letting her land on her tummy with a giant thud and a giant splash and then having her swimming between them.  They all thought this was really fun.  I could barely stand to watch it because it just seemed too dangerous (they were throwing her really high, OK?!).  Finally, not being able to take it any longer, I asked Josh to go play with Dash while I let Ella swim between me and my dad.  I told her that the flying fun with daddy was over and she was now stuck with boring old mom.  Her response?  "You aren't OLD, Mommy."

Guess what that must mean I AM?  That's right.  My four-year old just acknowledged that I am in fact rather boring.

The Olympics

This year's summer Olympics has proven to be very fun to experience on many levels with Ella.  First there was the fun in explaining to her that they only happen every 4 years so we got to count by 4s as we figured out how old she'll be at the next several Olympics.  Every few days, she says to me "Will I really be EIGHT when the Olympics come again?"  I think the idea of being as old as 8 kind of blows her mind.

Then there was the fun of watching the Opening Ceremonies together.  We promised Ella she could stay up to watch the parade not really realizing that it would be hours into the whole extravaganza before the parade of athletes started.  But she waited patiently with her globe to look up all the countries as the athletes marched in.   Once they started, it was a lot of fun to try to find all the countries on the globe especially the little ones she'd never heard of.  And, bonus, I felt all smug and mom-of-the-year-like for the great educational experience I was giving her even if it was 3 hours past her bedtime. 

Ella, globe, and the aptly named Kenya Lily Te

(don't ask, I still don't get her naming choices either)

We've had fun watching the competitions in the evening and the recaps over breakfast.  Ella says her favorite sports are the swimming and the gymnastics.  I haven't managed to catch the nutso synchronized swimming yet with her but I think she'd dig that.  She also likes soccer and quite enjoyed the US Women's big win over Canada. 

We turned on the games one night to see the Italian women playing volleyball and when I told her it was the Italian team, she said "Oh, goody, I hope T is playing!"  T is our friend who just spent the last year studying in Italy.  She is talented in many many ways but I am pretty sure she is not an Olympic athlete except in Ella's eyes.

Today I told Ella that the Olympics will be over soon and she said she was very sad about not watching them again for four more years.  "When I'm 8, right, mommy?" It's hard for me to believe, too.