Practice

Buddies

We got to spend an afternoon in Bisbee with Brooke and Joe. We got some great pictures, and Ella loved hanging out with Brandon. They even got mistaken as twins!

Beware of the Dog

Perceptions of a 4 year old.

Perception of Space:

Ella's friend Paige lives far away.
The mall is far away.
Bisbee is really, far away.
Grandma's house is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY far away.
The moon is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, far away.

Perception of Velocity:

Ella got to ride in Jacobs car (an awesome '91 Plymouth Laser) for the first time yesterday. I think she's the only one who fully appreciates the car.

Ella: Dad, this car is fast!
Jacob: How fast is it? Fast like a jet? Fast like a laser?
Ella: (Thinks for a minute) It's fast like a bike!!!

Perception of Time:

Ella lives within a 3 day span. The past, present, and future each consist of 1 day. Santa just visited yesterday. We are eating lunch today. Tomorrow is her birthday. It makes sense. She can measure a day pretty easily. It starts when she wakes up, and ends when she goes to sleep. Weeks, and months aren't quite so easy to measure, and a lot harder to explain. A year might as well be an eternity, considering she's only lived 4. Things get especially confusing when she mixes up her tenses, but she's starting to get the hang of it.

I'm realizing that perception is a matter of experience, and my daughter's perception of life is pretty wonderful. I think I'm going to try and follow her lead and live more in the present, appreciate the simpler things in life, like bicycles, and put the moon on my list of possible vacation destinations.

Just for Fun

My Balloon! My Balloon!

We had an incident involving a balloon.

It reminded me of a Brian Regan joke.

You can watch it here.
(The joke is about 4 minutes into the clip, but the whole clip is worth watching).

If Ella was involved in Marketing...

Other Ella-isms I love:
When she's really excited she manages to make "yeah" 2 syllables (yea-ya).
Super Hero is Super Heerio.
The hairstyle below is "Giraffe Hair."

We had a good afternoon.

Sophie's Pyramid

If you feel so inclined, you can check out the real food guide pyramid at www.mypyramid.gov.

Please Excuse my "Why?"-ning

I read or heard or saw somewhere a while ago on TV, or radio, or on the Internet (how's that for citing a source) that a typical 4-year-old asks an average of 400 questions a day. When I heard (or read or saw) that I thought "that can't be right?"

Now I have a 4-year-old.

Not that Ella didn't ask a lot of questions before she turned 4, but in the last month her inquisitiveness has been on overdrive. About 250 of her allotted questions start with why. "Why are you doing that?" Why is that blue?" "Why are we going somewhere?" "Why are we watching TV?" About 140 a day are "What" questions "What's that?" "What are you doing?" and my personal favorite, "What kind?"

***Side note: The typical "what kind?" conversation goes like this:
Ella: "What kind of food are we having for dinner?
Me: Cheese sandwiches.
Ella: What kind of Cheese sandwiches are we having for dinner?
Me: Grilled cheese sandwiches.
Ella: What kind of grilled cheese sandwiches are we having for dinner?
Me: The kind that you like.
Ella: What kind of grilled cheese sandwiches that I like?
Me: Go wash your hands it's almost time for dinner.
***

Jacob, and I had a conversation a while ago, during which we decided that we would try to answer all of our kid's questions with real answers. We wanted to avoid resorting to the standard "Because" reply. This discussion took place pre-children, of course, before I realized just how many answers I would have to come up with. I am slowly learning that I don't really have to answer every question. A lot of her questions are just rhetorical musings, and don't really require answers. Or she simply wants me to repeat the question back to her so that she can tell me what theory she's come up with.

"Mom, Why is the sky blue?"
"Why do you think the sky is blue?"
"Because the sun is up, and it's day time."
(Sounds good to me)

Occasionally, I think she just wants to know that I'm listening to her, and a "because," works quite well.

"Mom, why do you like ice cream?"
"Because I do."

Sometimes the hard part is deciding which questions she really wants/needs real answers to. We get roughly 10 questions a day that are pretty insightful, and thought provoking. The kind that require some thought on our part. Most recently these questions have been of the eternally centered variety.

"Why do we pray?"
"It's how we talk to our Heavenly Father."
"But, why do we pray to our Heavenly Father?"
"Because He likes it when we talk to him."
"But, why do we pray before we eat?"
"So we can tell Him thank-you for our blessings."
"But, who is Heavenly Father?"

Jacob, why don't you take that one.

Jacob: Ella, go look at the clock and tell me what time it is.

Ella: Okay. (Short Pause while she walks into the kitchen to look at the oven clock). It's six, five, six-oh wait! Now it's six, five, upside down L.

Our ER Story

I was working on an awesome post last night, and was interrupted by my sweet, adorable, but uncoordinated, now 4-year-old who has a tendency to trip over her own feet crashing head first into our entertainment center. Two bloody wash cloths, a cotton ball of hydrogen peroxide, and a call to the doctor later, we were on our way to Urgent Care to get her stitched up. The cut wasn't too bad (only about a half inch long), but it was pretty deep, and we were worried about it scarring.

For some reason (naivety mostly) we thought it would be a relatively quick, painless trip. But the hospital had to close their Urgent Care, which put us in the ER. We had to wait for a few ambulances full of real trauma patients...so several (six to be exact, but who's counting) hours later, we were still in the waiting room.

Things I've learned...
1. Always take a book (I could have gotten a lot of reading done in 6 hours).
2. Always leave siblings with a babysitter. Luckily we did have the sense to do this one, and I'm sure glad we did.
3. Appreciate what you have. There's nothing like sitting in the hospital ER, to make you appreciate your blessings.
4. Some entertainment can be provided by overhearing funny one-sided cell phone conversations.
5. We humans delight in sharing the gruesome details of our hardships with each other. Case in point: I'm posting this experience on my blog.
6. The longer you stay, the more likely it is that you will meet a real character. For us, it was the guy who showed up to get his stuff that the hospital had lost during his previous visit. He decided to hang out in the ER for 6+ hours (he was still there when we left), and chat with everyone in the waiting room. He was a friendly guy, to say the least, and spent most of the time listening to every one's symptoms, diagnosing them, and offering unsolicited medical advice. (I wonder if he ever got his stuff).
7. Twinkies at 4:00 in the morning make a pretty good snack. *Side note here. I haven't had a Twinkie for a while, but I seem to remember them having more cream.*
8. I would rather spend hours in the ER than be a contestant on
Fear Factor. (Is that show even still airing)?
9. I would rather spend hours in the ER than have to take my kids to the ER.

Once we got back to a room, everything went well, and relatively quickly. Ella did great. She only need 2 stitches. The doctor, and the nurse that helped us were awesome.

So that's our story. I believe everyone needs a good (and by "good" I mean a un-scary, non-traumatic, but terribly inconvenient, and kind-of-funny-when-you-look-back-on-it) ER story, if nothing else so you can share it when someone brings up their ER story. It's how we humans like to bond.

A Peaceful Evening at the Park

Growing Pains

Her blue eyes melt my heart. I can't believe she's getting so big! I love this age. She learning so fast. Yesterday she said "Ella" for the first time. Last night after she was asleep I went in to her room to look at her, and it hurt my heart a little because she's outgrown her crib. Part of me wants her to stay little forever.

Life & Style of Ella

My Little Gardener