a.w.e.s.o.m.e

memorial day weekend shopping extravaganza 2010

Jeremy graciously took us to Lincoln City (my favorite city) on memorial day weekend and promptly dropped me off at the best outlet mall in the world...well on the coast. I got the most amazing deals ever- ever. It was amazing. Then he picked me up and all of us went to Tiki's (our favorite hot dogs, we have to go there when we're in Lincoln City) and then we walked down to Eleanor's Undertow (another must, they have amazing food and are known for their shakes) and we each got an ice cream cone and some fresh french fries. From there we drove back up the coast and stopped at Beverly Beach (where all these pictures were taken). We also stopped at Wal-Mart and Ellie used her giftcard from Ma, she got a set of six Littlest Pet Shop pets...they haven't stopped playing with them sense.

Ellie May

My baby girl is three. She turned three on Thursday last week and I still can't believe she's three!!

When we brought her home from the hospital I remember praying so hard that I would close my eyes and wake up and she'd be three years old, wiping her own bum and relatively independent. Obviously I was delusional and perhaps a little overwhelmed (note to self, you're not proving anything to anyone staying for only one night at the hospital). It's been a journey with Elle and I really have enjoyed it, Elle has taught me more about being a mother and a parent, being patient and learning about nature versus nurture. I always thought kids were a product of what you were teaching them and how you parented them...and they are to a certain degree, but they also have their own Spirit and come fully equipped with their very own personalities and there is nothing you can do about that!

We thought for sure Elle was a boy. Everything about my pregnancy was different from Eva, we were all almost positive she was a he. I remember when she came out and seeing her little baby vagina and thinking...that's not a penis. IT'S A GIRL?! I was so happy ( a little relieved...a girl? I totally know how to do that) and it took me about three days to process that this baby has a gender and it's a girl...a girl.
I loved Ellie right away but it took me a while to like her. I think there's some moms out there that know exactly what I mean.
Elle has been a challenge for me and it has been really good for me as a person to learn from her.

She's become a little shadow of Eva, if Eva's doing it Elle is doing it...talking, actions you name it, if Eva is doing something, Elle is doing it too. Everyday people mention that she looks "more and more like Eva" I don't know if she really does look like her or if she's just an amazing mirror of every expression that Eva has.  Elle cracks us up all the time, she's funny, and she's very defiant, she's in her own world mostly and she has a great imagination. When she was born it was in the back of my mind that she would feel inferior to Eva's obvious beauty (does that sound self righteous? I know she's gorgeous...there's no denying it), I worried that there's no way she'd be as cute as Eva and boy was I WRONG! She doesn't look like Eva but she is just as beautiful...I always (ALWAYS) wanted a blue eyed baby and I never thought I'd get one, Elle has the most beautiful blue eyes, they are a soft blue, pure, round and big. She has this crazy thin wild blond hair, she looks like a crazy kid that just got out of bed...all the time.
She's all girl too. She loves being a princess and dressing up, she prefers a skirt or dress...right now she prefers just underwear...just like Eva did at this age. She's a mama's girl she's willing to try anything, she's really good at singing and she never listens to anything I say!
To explain the difference between my two girls I tell people this:
When they are teenagers and Eva gets upset with me she will be angry, cry, scream, threaten but she'll go to her room slam the door and read and listen to music. If Elle get's upset with me? She'll keep herself mostly composed, throw a fit, threaten that she'll leave and go shave her head and pierce her nipples...and then she'll come home with a shaved head and pierced nipples. That's Elle. Eva will get upset but she will be obedient and I can count on that, Elle on the other hand will smile and tell me what I want to hear and then do the exact opposite.
I've never known any child to make such a HUGE mess in mere seconds. She ate one of her cupcakes the other day and within a minute the crumbs were so fine that it looked like chocolate sand...all over the table and floor. In  two minutes! 90% of the time if Elle is quiet she's doing something pretty naughty. Our entire upstairs third bedroom is covered in marker murals by Elle...they are really good too, she's an excellent artist! Oh boy. She's impossible to get and stay angry at. She's got her daddy wrapped around her finger too!
Here are some pictures of her actual birthday.

 It's almost like the grandma's coordinated their gifts without knowing. 

My mom made Elle this adorable bag with this great vintage fabric.

 Filled with alphabet cards and swim suits!

I plan on having Elle live in a swimsuit this summer.

 Then from Grandma Brower, a beautiful homemade doll. I sent her that link (I posted a while back) to those cute dolls and she created this doll OUT OF A SOCK!

It is the cutest thing I have EVER seen!!

 Loves it!

 And finger puppets, that will fit perfectly in her new bag from grandma (my mom)!

This year was harder for Eva seeing Elle get a lot of attention for her birthday

I think the hardest part was knowing she'd get new toys and to have

a party that was everything the Elle wanted.

She learned her lesson (over and over) that she

needs to be kind and show respect for others (mainly her sister)

even if they like things she doesn't like.

 Lucky Eva has two grandma's that thought she might feel a little down so my mom made her a special bag too and Jeremy's mom made her this little alien toy (right up Eva's alley) and she

loves them both!

 One of Elle's (many) classic faces.

That little "3" angel is from when I turned 3.

So excited while we sang Happy Birthday to her.

She knew EXACTLY what to do. I thought we'd have to tell her 

"Ok Blow out the candles" not a chance!

As soon as we were done singing she leaned forward and blew them all out!

Elle ate 1 and a half cupcakes and had the frosting off of 6!

That's right, she are the frosting off of 6 cupcakes!

A special birthday ride from grandpa...I'm pretty sure he couldn't get out of bed the next morning!

Eva making clothes for her alien out of streamer.

Passed out before we got home.

Unfortunately she didn't stay asleep, she woke up around 8pm and could not go to sleep,

that would be the 6 cupcake she licked clean.

On Saturday we threw her a small rainbow polka dot fairy party with three of her friends. I'll get those pictures up soon!

THANKS MA!!!!

This is what Elle said when she saw the card:

Elle: "Is this for me? For my bertDAY?

I want to cut it open.

OHHH, for me? For my bertDAY?

I love the turtles, what's this?"

Me: "It's a gift card, you can go and get any toy you want."

Elle: "Oh wow. I love it, I can get any toy. Is that a beaver? 

Oh, hi beaver." "Is that MY bertday cake? Oh I love it.

Mmmm, thank you Ma!"

giveaway!!

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the babe

Finally, some pictures of Eva's giant gaping hole in her mouth

Eva and I went out last night after Jeremy asked if I had gotten pictures of it yet...I still hadn't.
But now we have about a thousand...or 20...
It was the perfect time of day for pictures, so I took a ton of Eva...here are a few of them.

There are about a hundred more of these, some of them are identical and some of them are goofy and hilarious. We sat on the couch last night together totally laughing over this one:

She looks like her eyes are going to pop out of her head...she's funny.

Before all of our photo shoot fun Eva read all of us a book and then read it to her sister.

Part of her new reading homework is that she gets a book and has to read it three times before she can return it. She's really shy about reading, in fact I didn't even know if she could read for sure because she never wants to read with me....but it turns out she totally knows how to read...yay.
I really hope she gets a love of books, right now everything to her is homework and all she wants to do is be outside all. day. long. She counts down the days till the weekend and she absolutely can't wait for summertime. I'm hoping she'll develop a love of learning but right now...it's all torture.

the big cut

I had a feeling it would happen at some point. All kids seem to go through the "cutting" phase.
When Elle was little Eva use to cut her hair...it had been going on for a while until I finally noticed.
Poor Elle, no wonder she didn't have any hair!
But I knew the day would come when Elle would take the scissors to her own hair.
Lucky (or unlucky?) for me she had her hair in a ponytail, so when her hair is down you can't even tell.
I love putting her hair in a ponytail, it's the perfect ponytail, all the right pieces fall out...it's a girls dream ponytail.
I haven't put her hair back in a ponytail yet because I'm afraid of what it may look like.
Here's the conversation and the aftermath:
Me: "Ellllllllllle, what's that noise? What are you doing?"
Elle: "Nug-ging" (nothing)
Me: "Come here, what are you doing?"
-Elle comes around the corner of the stairs-
Me: "What were you doing Ellie?"
Elle: "Umm, I cut my hair." and then points to her left side over her ear.
Me: "What?!" moving her frantically to look at her head, I see nothing.
Me: "Are you sure?"
Elle: "Umm, yes, I need my haircut."
-looking all around her head until I see the right side, with several chunks sticking out by her ear-
Me: "Oh no Elle. Your hair. Oh Ellie...you cut your hair. You cut your pretty hair.
Elle: "Ok."
-I took out her ponytail to see the damage...4 inch locks fall into my hand. 

on a side note: her hair JUST started growing, 

I was sad because I thought 

I was going to have to cut all of her hair off

Me: "Look Elle, your hair."

-the tears just started coming from her, she was so sad-

Naturally the next thing I did was grab the camera and make her hold her hair.

It really could have been a lot worse...if her hair was down it would have been extremely obvious and I have no idea what I would have done...I probably would have to take her to a salon. 

About 5 minutes after all of this we were sitting on the couch together, she turned to me and said:

"I'm sorry I cut my hair mommy."

Melted. My. Heart.

She might be defiant, never listens and is the personality equivalent of a wild boy...but she's also sweet, and very thoughtful. She's my girly-girl, she loves clothes and being a princess and thanks to her big sister she's got a better imagination than most kids her age.

After she apologized I just held her on my lap and cuddled her. It's NEVER a dull moment with Ellie.