Hair

Ella and I are having a lot of power struggles about her hair.  She wants to do it herself with no help from me.  And she wants to let it loose or use only a few decorative clips, while I, in stereotypical mom fashion, want to get it out of her face already! 

In an effort to show me that her handiwork is sufficient, she came up with this unique style tonight, clipping her headband to her hair in multiple places with barrettes.  Does it look out of her face to you?? Me neither.

Pizza and movie night

I have been trying, really trying, to get my kids interested in movie night.  They will sit for endless episodes of shows like Dora, but for reasons I don't quite understand, have a very hard time sitting through a children's movie. They seem to think that movies are scary (all of them) and spend much of the time cowering behind the couch waiting for the (nonexistent) scary parts to be over.  I tried again last week when Josh was out of town with Cinderella and pizza and met with mixed results.  They mostly liked the movie but found Lucifer the cat to be way scary.  I don't get it but I'll keep trying.

Kindergarten star

In a sign that things are going well for Ella in kindergarten, she told me that when a new girl joined the class this week, Mrs. A asked Ella to spend her center time playing with the new friend at the dollhouse (a big treat) to help her feel welcome.  And today when Mrs. A needed a book from the media center, she sent Ella and her classmate C on the errand.  And after that, Mrs. A sent Ella down the hall to another kindergarten room to find out the schedule for recess.  I will venture to say that her teacher has quickly figured out that Ella is helpful and trustworthy.  Hooray!

Procrastinator

Dash has become a master procrastinator at bedtime.  One more kiss, one more cup of water, one more book, one more run downstairs to hug Ella.   And once he is finally in his bed, he keeps up a non-stop line of questions that keep you in his room.  Tonight I stood by his bed, holding his sweet little warm hand through the crib bars as he asked me a series of questions:

"Mommy, is it the middle of the night?"

"Mommy, are you going on your trip tonight or tomorrow?"

"Mommy, who is coming to take care of me tomorrow?"

"Mommy, when are we going on a trip together?"

"Mommy, what is today called?"

And on and on he asked.  I kept answering but finally told him it was time for just one more question.  His response:

"Mommy, I have a lot of things to say to you."

Which is true.  And adorable.  And really hard to walk away from.  So he might have gotten to ask more than one last question. 

The restaurant

Making new playdoh in many colors led to the creation of Ella and Dash's restaurant.  The written menu looks good but neither the chef nor the server are wearing pants...

Officemate

Nanny has doctor's appointment, Mommy has conference call, so Dash gets his "listening ears" and as much PBS kids as it takes.

Scared

Dash is terrified of thunderstorms which is kind of a problem in the south in the summer when they roll in many evenings around bedtime.  Tonight we had a particularly loud and long storm, and he was very upset at bedtime with all the thunder.  Ella offered to sleep in his room to keep him company which was a very dear gesture (it did get her out of the thank you notes she was writing, though...).

She brought in her sleeping bag, pillow, special blanket, special puppy, twilight turtle, and 11 Magic Treehouse books, and was ready to take over soothing duties.  I left them with Ella in her nest on the floor by his crib, with her promising to read him a story.  I checked the video monitor a few minutes later and saw the image below. It's grainy but you can make out Dash with his hands over his ears and Ella now IN his crib to keep him company.  Sweet sweet sibs.