taking duck for a stroll

joke

after the shrek incident, i started talking more about jokes with ellen. and now i think she might get it! we went to a friends house last night and every time we laughed about something she would look over and say "joke! laugh! ha-ha" today in the car she said - "mommy' (yes, ellen) "laugh!" (tell me a joke.) "joke!" and then she started laughing. it's funny to me because its obviously a fake laugh - she literally says ha-ha, but she's smiling while she says it so it comes out like she's almost laughing for real.

ellen playing after church in her easter dress

she's trying to get me to put barrettes in george's hair also.

we went to the city's easter egg hunt this morning...

the pre-hunt pep talk

it's kinda hard to see - but you can almost make out ellen's happy shrieking face.

granted it doesn't look like ellen is having fun, but she absolutely loved this 'firedog' (the hunt was sponsored by the fire dept) she gave him a high five and wouldn't quit talking about until she fell asleep. as she was going down into her bed she was still saying "fife! dog!"

forget this one egg at a time business!

jo-ah

ellen has become obsessed with the name jonah. absolutely everything is jonah nowaday. today we named her absolute favorite animal, her black dog. at first i thought she wanted to call him dirt, but turns out she just saw some dirt on him. she decided to name him jonah. i'm thinking wonderful- since she obviously loves the name we'll name the dog jonah so she will call her brother by his real name (yes, we have chosen a name, and no we're not yet telling). but then tonight everything was jonah. we have a little tradition of having a family hug before she goes to bed and we talk about who is in the family. usually she'll answer, mom, dad, ellen, baby. tonight everyone's name was jonah. on another note - i don't know if i've ever mentioned this but i tend to dislike adding y's to the end of words when we talk. so a dog is a dog - not a doggy. etc. and i think ellen has started messing with me about that. (sorry if this grosses you out - but i'm going to use the word poop more than once). she tends to tell us when she's 'going to the bathroom'* and when she get's her diaper changed she frequently says poop, even if its clean. anyway, she's started saying poopy. she also really likes (demands) that i repeat whatever she just said most of the time. so in this case, i tend to change it to poop. she keeps up with the poopy over and over until i finally say it and then she laughs! i think she's messing with me. :) (* i know, i know, you moms out there are thinking hey ! time to potty train the kid! uggh. excuse me - toilet train...but i've decided we're waiting until a while after the baby is born because she'll probably just regress anyway and i'm not yet in the mood to deal with accidents while we figure that out.)

ellen eating an oreo cookie

ellen realizing her hands are a mess and she's not happy about that

we've put out a lot of the baby stuff for ellen to play with now, hoping that maybe she'll be sick of it by the time the baby wants it. she's been having a great time with this "thing" (what do you call it??? Kim, you probably know), kicking at the windchime and the hanging animals and wanting to cart it all over the house. she also begs anyone who is close by to come "sit, sit, sit" and play with her.

ellen was being awfully quiet - so i went to see what she was doing...reminiscing about her old car seat.

dave and ellen's potatoe head creations (respectively). ellen did hers completely on her own except dave helped her put the shoes on rightside up.

Shrek 2

alright - here's my own movie review...on the first movie we've seen in oh about forever it seems (that statement of course does not include sesame street movies - we watch those just about everyday). Since we've all been sick and not really doing anything i rented us a movie. and since i had ellen with me as dave was finally getting a much deserved nap, i got the first one i saw that i thought ellen might possible at least partially sit through. Shrek 2. I can't tell you a whole lot about it since it turns out ellen gets somewhat offended (understand that means starts crying and sorta freaking out) if there is a joke made and people laugh but she can't figure out why. and believe it or not,she didn't get the jokes in shrek. she also doesn't like it when the movie is dark - like it's night time or whatever. so we had to stop it and finish it after she went to bed. but dave kept laughing a sort of suprised "Ha! that's funny and i wasn't expecting it!" laugh which was cracking me up because while he was working so much he was too tired to actually make it through a movie, let alone laugh at it. so we decided we'll have to watch it again to get the full effect and decide if we actually like it or not. the one thing i didn't get was why that cat converted to shrek's side so fast - i kept expecting him to turn traitor.

we got a chance to try out our hospital this week. the flu has been going around up here and we somehow managed to catch it. I got a pretty good case of it and had to be admitted to the hospital so i could get rehydrated (this was only after about 12 hours of it). my veins had shrunk so much they had way to much trouble getting an iv in...i have bruises all over my arms from their attempts. finally an iv therapy specialist (or something) got one to work. the baby's heartrate was up really high for a long time (like in the 180's to 200's when 110 - 160 is normal) but they got it back down and finally let us go home late that night. Poor Dave started feeling it a bit before we left for the hospital, and was desperately wishing someone would look in his direction and do something for him, but unfortunately if you're not pregnant they don't give you any attention in the labor and delivery wing. so he had to tough it out on the couch. we're still not quite up to par, but are all feeling a lot better. good news is we now know how long it takes to get to the hospital and where the right place to park is and all that important stuff. and the rooms are pretty nice too.

ellen has apparently inherited my motion sickness gene. she was dancing tonight spinning herself in circles and got a bit too dizzy. she fell down a couple of times and a few minutes later laid down on the floor like she was going to sleep and threw up her dinner. so no more spinning for ellen after dinner. (this is really a test to see when you guys are gonna start feeling like you're getting too much information) on a completely different note ellen apparently has her own ideas of what her brother should be named. Dave asked her tonight something along the lines of what would you like to name your brother? she paused for a half a second and said jonah (jo-ah) There is a little boy at church named jonah so this didn't come out of nowhere. and when we talked about the baby later in the night she called him jonah again. so maybe we'll have to rethink our plans. :)

bilingual baby ellen

oh! i just wrote that whole big long post and i forgot to even mention the bit i was intending to tell you about ellen. my little girl thinks it is great fun to go through flash cards and learn sign language. we bought a little box of flashcards before she was born so we could learn a few words that would make it easy for her to communicate with us before she could talk. and it worked great. now, she has discovered this box and will sit by herself in her room, looking at the cards and trying to identify the signs she knows. (some she can recognize from the pictures, most she can't). she's also thrilled to death to learn any more we can find to teach her and will practice them over and over (with us) . they're not all perfect, mind you, but she's becoming bilingual! :) i think she's learned about 10-15 new words in the last couple days. i figure we might as well introduce some spanish while she's having so much fun.

pacu for jill

oh yeah - jill i replied to your comment on the pacu but it hasn't ever surfaced for some reason.. we do still have him (anyone want him?) but i don't yet have a picture to post.

da vinci code and what you all care about most - ellen happenings

i'm glad that i took this church history class this semester (i think - i should say, i'm enjoying it), but i am starting to feel like i wish i had no responsibilities. I'd love to just lay on the couch and read my new books after ellen goes to bed (she doesn't allow any reading of anything that doesn't have pictures when she's awake). But maybe instead of wishing these responsibilities didn't exist, i should just buckle down and finish them. instead i'm blogging. :) i just discovered your reply to my da vinci code review, Bryan. I think what you said is pretty accurate. (and I agree that my let down of angels and demons was da vinvi code induced) I' m not sure about the gnostic gospels stuff yet, because i've never really read them (which is why i purchased the nag hammadi and the lost scriptures) but what i have read seemed odd to me. maybe because i wasn't raised with it. so the gospels and the epistles and the bible as a whole might seem odd if i'd just started to read it...? I dunno - but what i have read (which is basically just the gospels of phillip and thomas) felt like they didn't really match up to me. like they just didn't fit somehow. i've also noticed that the gospel of john seems to have a bit of a gnostic bent, but i've always taken it as the gnostics took it to a degree that wasn't intended and that the later letters from john were meant to clarify the misunderstandings. oh! and the bit about the church and the Church - yeah, but that's all of our history. at least until the reformation . i suppose that's a bit cryptic. Historically i don't seperate myself from the Catholic Church. I think a good amount of the atrocities that were committed were committed before the Reformation (or at least I've heard about plenty in this last year of history class) and that's part of my church history too... it doesn't just belong to the Roman Catholics.) And after the Reformation, there were plenty of horrific practices by the protestant group. I agree that Brown definitely targets the Roman Catholic Church, but it seemed to me that his underlying agenda was to discredit the divinity of Christ which is an attack (for lack of a better word) and all of Christianity.) I'm not sure why he just identifies the Roman Catholics - that might be interesting to look into. maybe he just had to pick somebody and they were the most recognizable church-institution. (new topic) ellen has named her baby doll - George. Not quite sure why, but dave and i were suggesting names (his suggestions were China and MadeIn) and I threw out George and she got all excited and nodded and said George a bunch of times. so george it is. ellen's also really enjoying the van. she definitely prefers it over the saturn. sometimes she talks about it and says she wants to go for a drive. I think she might like it so much because she's sitting high enough that she can see what's going on out the windows. At least she's talking a lot more about what is outside. She's really fascinated by the hands on the crosswalk signals. if she sees one we have to spend the entire rest of the trip looking for more. she's also made a new friend. actually, dave and i have made new friends that have a daughter, Neveah, that is the same age as ellen. and, after a about 20 minutes, ellen warms up enough to her that they have a good time playing together. we hung out with them this last weekend and after about 3 hours ellen kept wanting to hug Neveah - which really is an amazing thing, because she doesn't usually actually come close to other people much at all. i should say she's okay with a close proximity (after a reasonable warming up period) but she definitely doesn't usually want to touch anybody - or let anyone touch her. this of course does not include the people that she knows from the pictures on our refrigerator. she's thrilled with everyone on the fridge.) last bit - she's finally seen the baby kicking or rearranging in my belly (he is quite a mover and a shaker) so now we talk a lot about belly's moving. ellen has been working her stomach muscles and now frequently lifts up her own shirt to show me that her belly moves a lot too as she sucks it in and out. i think i actually saw her do a little stomach roll or whatever you call it once.

dave's been trying to catch up on his sleep now that he only has two jobs...

it's blurry, but here's ellen playing dress up with my new hat and scarf (thanks anne!)

ellen with an "it's-early-in-the-morning" face

we had fun talking to the fieldhouses for an hour and 13 minutes. :)

ellen loves to help dave carry these water buckets. anytime she sees one somewhere she carries it to whereever dave is.

more than you ever wanted to read about what ellen's up to

my little daughter is either getting sick or has entered into the 'terrible twos'. she's decided obedience is now optional. it's odd to me because she's been so good about it in the past. she really has been an incredibly easy little kid. maybe even too easy. when she wants to do something you don't want her to do, all you have to do is explain why that's not okay and she's fine. on to the next thing. you could actually reason with her (or maybe she just got distracted by the talking). but today, this little ellen of mine did everything i told her not to do. we went shopping at target and i let her walk around instead of being in the cart. (in the past she's done this very responsibly, staying close and putting whatever she took down from the shelf back) today, however, she took off running "fas" (as she was saying to herself) to look at something on another isle. if this happened once or twice - it'd be no big deal. that's part of learning how to have the priviledge of walking around. but she actually did it at least 4 or 5 times. and everytime she took off i chased her down and brought her back to the cart and she lost her walking priviledges for a bit. i finally gave up and told her she couldn't get down again, she had to stay in the cart. so she broke her first piece of unpaid for merchandise in a store. and i got my first disapproving look from another mother. sorta the "that child is being very bad look" to her own kiddo. the weather has been so nice lately that we've been letting her run around a bit outside whenever we get home and get herself into the house. (meaning she's not carried. she walks from the car to the house making small detours to throw some rocks or walk in the dirt for a quick minute) she's been really good about staying in the drive way and away from the street. so today i got her out of the car and got the bags and headed for the door like always only ellen made a bee line for the street and did not stop when i yelled (rather loudly and harshly) "STOP!" (usually this is highly effective). so my pregnant self went running as fast as i could to get her. we don't have much traffic at all on our street, but she did actually make it out of the driveway and onto the street and stood right by our hedge. she got in some serious trouble - (trouble in our house means we go sit in ellen's room for a certain amount of time and discuss the wrong doing/sit quietly.) it seems to have been pretty effective because she's stayed very close to me every time we've gone anywhere for the rest of the day. i was so worked up though i had to just sit there in my own little time out after she was done and recover. and (yes there's an and) when we went to the grocery store later in the day ellen wanted to throw everything. that seems to be what she's interested in these days. throwing anything she can get ahold of. it used to be hitting. she's progressed. i gave her three seperate opportunities to hold some grocery item (that was unbreakable) and every one resulted in the object being hurtled halfway down the aisle. (she really does have quite a good arm) the last time i spoke to her rather harshly (actually i think i just had a harsh face, when she's "in trouble" we tend to get really close and speak quietly to her) but ellen received her first "oh poor little baby" look from another shopper. so of course i felt guilty and had to be super patient and cheerful towards ellen for the rest of the trip. and of course, dinner was cut a bit short by the flying chicken and water cup and plastic fork. dave handled this one though, so that was nice. :) as i'm writing this it sounds like there is no way she's getting sick - this is the 'time of testing' - trying to see what she can actually get away with. but she's also had an extremely short fuse and when she gets upset easily and "makes bad choices" it seems to be related to not getting enough sleep or being sick. so i'm hoping. if it is the "two's" though, i'm rather glad she's started it now, before she has a new sibling. at least that way we don't think it's cause she's hating life since she's not the only budd baby anymore. she has been so incredibly easy and good i suppose i deserve a couple difficult days. on a brighter note ellen seems to be a genius! yesterday she managed to count to ten by herself (no promptings) making only two mistakes!! this has not yet been repeated so it may be a fluke, but i'm going with the "my baby's a genius" idea. she also recognizes the numbers (most of the time - i guess i should say that she's shown that she knows them. she doesn't always give the right answer the first time though. that applies to all these topics - numbers, letters and colors), almost all of the colors (within reason... I'm talking normal colors, no magenta or chartreuse yet) and knows several letters. she can also tell you all the characters in finding nemo and sesame street. and i'm not just talking main characters, but the smaller bit part characters too - bruce (the shark), peach (the starfish), jaques -how in the world do you spell that-(the shrimp), crush (the turtle)... the whole cast. and she can differentiate between marlin and nemo - i can't remember a time she's gotten them mixed up. now that's impressive. i think we may need to be done seeing that movie for a while. and in sesame street her current favorite (besides elmo and slimy the worm, of course) is bert. we have a toy bert that can go in the tub and ever since he got in the bath shes loved him dearly. she has revolving favorites, sometimes ernie, sometimes grover, sometimes cookie monster. not oscar or big bird so far. she also loves to hug and "snuggle". and she's 'recognized the benefits' of hugs as well. when she wants to get out of the grocery cart or she's in trouble she always asks for a hug or a snuggle. always before bed there's one last snuggle (even if she's half asleep). and always when i'm on the computer she comes toddling up saying she wants a hug. now at this point you're thinking that's normal! she's just being loving. but trust me - she's feeling pretty smart. it goes like this - she asks for a hug (and in our house, you always get a hug no matter what. even if you're in trouble) so I pick her up and hug her. or attempt to hug her. it really isn't actually possible because by the time i get her in my arms she's already whipped herself around and started typing at the key board. :) alright, i'll wrap up this marathon post with this - no matter how difficult a day has been, i still think ellen is the best little girl in the world.

dave's company has taken over our garage. thankfully we're having a false spring (it's going to be 70 this week!) so it's no big deal to park in the driveway. and also the van doesn't even fit in the garage so no big deal there. that fish tank on the left dave just bought from somebody trying to get rid of their stuff. we were suprised to learn that the tank came with a fish! a 19 inch pacu no less (dave explained that to me as a highly agressive piranha like fish.) they told us that the zoo wanted it, but so far the zoo has not returned our calls.

we have a van!!! finally!!!! it looks (and feels) pretty massive - but technically it is a minivan. i really wanted one with dual sliding doors to make getting two kids in and out easier, but we decided to go with the "no monthly payment" option instead. :) it seem to work great so far (it's been about 24 hours). ellen is a bit nervous about the fact that we want her to walk around in it (so she can learn to get into her seat by herself) and i can't honestly say i enjoy red upholstery, but dave loves that look so there you go. Now we can fit two car seats in our vehicle and dave can quit borrowing (or renting) vans to do his fish services with. yay! yay!

my new favorite picture

ellen posing in her soft jacket (she looooves this jacket. sometimes she askes just to hold it.

ellen showing off her elmo slippers

elmo close up