Swimming

This is Ella and Joel swimming at about 7pm last night.... Yes, that would be swimming at night in the middle of November. That used to be a crazy thought.

What not to do

This is what happens when you leave the room momentarily while your lovely, clean, well-behaved child is left alone with a SMALL container of yogurt. Just a warning for all you new parents out there.

By the way, you should've seen the floor...

Crazy Hair Day

It was Crazy Hair Day at Ella's My Gym class. So mom tried her best with as little goop as possible to make some crazy hair. You wouldn't know it from these pictures, but she wasn't necessarily the most obliging subject.

Dad took the tot to her class, and apparently she was the only student with crazy hair. She ended up liking her new 'do well enough because she kept admiring herself in the mirror during her lesson and would absentmindedly run into (and sometimes over) things. After one such incident, Daddy had to laugh, and unfortunately hurt the little one's feelings... oops!

A-B...P

Those are the letters Ella likes best, although E and I are pretty likable as well.

Ella and I have been working on the alphabet. She's gotten to the point where she repeats each letter as I say it, with a few exceptions: AB tends to be one letter; at I she gets a bit distracted and points to her eyes, then her mouth, nose, chin, forehead, etc.; at LMNO, I pause and she chimes in P; and she completely skips over Z and starts applauding herself for a job well done.

It's amazing to see the changes in her brain... she sings along to more and more songs and does a terrific job with the mandatory hand motions. She has songs she likes, and those she definitely can do without. Whenever we're on the bus "Wheels on the Bus" is forced upon whichever guardian is present (including the aforementioned hand motions), her twinkling "stars" and "diamond" are definitely something to look forward to when chanting "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and it's amazing how many animals (both domestic and exotic) are on "Old MacDonald's Farm".

We've got ourselves a Holy Roller!

One can usually tell when you're doing something well. Case in point, we make sure to say prayers every day with Ella before mealtimes and bedtime. She loves it when we get to the "AAAAAA-min" part; she's pretty good at joining in or sometimes cutting the prayer a little short if she thinks it to be a bit on the long-winded side.

So we tried out the evening service at church yesterday, which I have to admit, we hadn't been to for awhile. Ella seemed to be enjoying her toys when the pastor called out "Can I hear an AMEN?" Without hestitation Ella pipes up "AAAA-min!" and continues playing with her toys.