I Didn't Know...

- I would be her chocolate pusher.

- that she could eat that much fish in such a short amount of time.
 
- that she would be fearless in the water and teach herself to swim.

- that she would push off from the top of a tall slide just so she could go faster.

- that she would love long airplane rides and wearing socks and playing in the rain.

I didn't know

- that she would love singing at the top of her lungs and sing in tune.

- that she would pump her arms when she runs.

- that she'd be so ticklish.

- that she would make me laugh so much.

I also didn't know what loving her would feel like or how she would meld so perfectly into our family.

Our girl turned three on Friday. On her second birthday, we hadn't met yet and we knew very little about her. Nearly a year later, we have a healthy, thriving, happy, adventurous and lively three-year-old. She is so closely knit into our hearts and lives it is difficult to imagine what life was like before she was ours.

Happy Birthday, Michella!

Play kitchen and a Potty

It's time to play catch up again. Here is a slice of life the past few weeks. 

I had this great(?) idea to fill a basin with navy and mung beans and let Ella play. The thrill has already worn off but she did enjoy filling and scooping and stirring and getting them all over the floor and helping mommy sweep them up for at least several weeks. When the scooping fun began to wear off she got creative and started to pretend the beans were water to be bathed in. Here she is washing my hair. Notice me trying to extract the navy bean from my nostril before it was lost in my brain somewhere. I found the annoyingly tiny mung beans in my hair hours afterward, not to mention all over the house for weeks.

Sure, Dad... I'll help you wash the car!

We have been swimming like crazy these past weeks. I think we've gone six times in the past two weeks thanks to two long weekends in a row and some great weather. Never a bad time for some goofy family shots... 

 

Admiring our friend, the bear (towel, that is). Andrey chose to buy this towel AWA (against wife's advice) many years back and has a weird special affection for it. Now Ella loves it too.

Ella's kitchen is coming along slowly. I just put the fridge door on today. I was able to cut the sink and faucet holes and the oven window successfully with a drill and hand saw. I was feeling pretty awesome about myself after accomplishing those. I'm having a ton of fun doing it, despite me having to adjust my expectations of how much I can get done at a time. I am so task-oriented it's so hard to stop once I get going but Ella can only entertain herself for so long. I have to do little bits at a time and then leave it for days till another chance comes around. I learned early on that using her nap time to work on it is counterproductive since the sound of the drill is not compatible with sleep. Like duh! I'll post photos once it's done.

Ella tells us when she's feeling tired or scared. We think it's great that she is able to identify these feelings and share them with us. The tired word has come up a lot lately due to all the swimming! She has learned some other emotions as well...

Hey Ella, show me your surprised face!

Okay, how about your happy face?

Sad face? (she's trying not to laugh here)

And your mad face? (Still trying not to laugh.) She usually does mad by putting her hands in fists on her hips and growls... very cute.

Who knew motherhood would make me so crafty? I just finished Ella's birthday invitations and I think these came out kind of cute. For someone who typical does not enjoy such projects, I had fun planning and making these. I got some ideas off the internet, and then one trip to the bookstore and less than $5 later, I had lots of cutting and gluing to do. Ella's really into Curious George and all kinds of animals these days so I thought this paper was perfect (it's actually wrapping paper). It has pink elephants and giraffes on it, too, just not shown in this one.

And last, but not least... The Potty. Yes, folks, it is that special because it has been the missing piece in our potty training attempts over the past six months. I will spare you all the details but suffice to say it is going well. We are seeing success at home the majority of the time and last weekend even saw a bit of success while out and about. We still have days when I feel we're not getting anywhere and then there are days when I feel like we've arrived. We are trying to follow Ella's lead so it is a gradual process with many fits and starts but I'm feeling confident enough to say now that things are coming along. It has been a practice (for ME mainly) in going with the flow, so to speak. :-)

Our Little Fish

Last weekend was a four day weekend. The weather was fantastic. After a few weeks of almost daily storms, we decided to capitalize on the hot sun and took Ella swimming three days in a row. We had a blast. 

Ella's skills in the pool have continued to improve. She amazes us with her mostly self-discovered abilities. It's so fun swimming with her because it is her absolute most fun thing to do and she goes at it with such gusto. People often watch, ask us how old she is and then comment about how good of a swimmer she is. We happen to think she is quite remarkable!