Punked

Dots

Pancake

We haven't taken any pictures of Ella lately, so in an effort to pass the time (not cleaning) while Ella naps, I came across this:




It made my day.

The Help

*this is actually us making black-bean burgers, but same stance*

*more of the b-b-burgers*

*tamed by the kitchen-aid*

*the end result of the flour-throwing*


After completing this thought-provoking book, I decided to try my hand at home-made bread. Someone insists on helping, mostly in this manner:

Ella: [grabbing at chair and pointing to kitchen] "Chair! Stand! See!"

Me: "Okay...yeah?...uh-huh..." [oblivious to the chair grabbing, happily proofing the yeast]

Ella: [dragging/pushing chair towards counter] "Help! Stand! Stand! Stand! Stand!"

Me: [dodging the chair plowing into the backs of my knees] "Oh, you want to help, okay climb up..."

Ella: [grabbing for any/everything in reach, stabbing it into the bowl of flour, exponentially increasing the mess-factor] "Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!"

Me: ***omg, little kids are SO much better than babies!!!***

I lied...

I think I like this one better.

More photos HERE

We're back!

We had a wonderful trip (thanks mom & dad!) and are home catching up on lost sleep. Still going through the photos, but I had to choose a favorite for a quick post. Ella loves the beach, especially playing with buckets of water and sand crabs with her cousins. Even brave enough to play in the 70 degree waves.

Sand between our toes

The girls are off to the beach for a week. Instead of passing the time admiring Ella, why not send Greg an email to help keep him company while we're away? franklin.greg@gmail.com

"Ella"

Workin' it out: two word phrases are starting to make their way into our world, most notably, "Mom, COME!" (if you've heard her say this, you'll understand why come is in caps). Also works great on guests, especially if she gets a name in (Grams and Anne independently almost cried when she put their names in front of that demanding verb, and jumped out of their seats to follow her down the hall). Also "oooo-pa-daaa-dee" (oops-a-daisy), "up-pa-daaa-dee" (ups-a-daisy) "oh no," "I-dun-o" .

Her favorite things that used to be all called by the first syllable of the word, are growing into

multiple syllabled words: "bunny" "money" "baby" "ping-da" (panda) "trouble" etc. Beloved blanket is still just "Bee."

We've got the quadruple-threat these days: blanket, panda, paci, and baby. At (almost) all times.

Homemade play-dough rocks

Today I decided to spend the day at home with Ella, no activities or visits to Gee and Papa's house. Just be fully present with Ella and wrap her doll in the blanket 1000 times, cover her on the bed over and over, read Bear and Kite and Bear and Ball as many times as she asks and laugh and have fun. Well, that got pretty boring by 10:00am. So, we hit the internet and found a recipe for play-dough...and I put on my best Mary Jeffries face, and whipped up some screamin' pink goo for Ella to squeeze her fingers through. So. So. Fun.

1 c. flour
1 c. warm water
1/4 c. salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. oil
food coloring

Dump it all in a saucepan, heat over medium-low, stir, stir, stir, and when it all globs together in ball, remove from heat, knead until smooth...voila! Once it cools, the stickyness factor becomes a nonissue. Cookie cutters and rolling pin optional.

Recently

Doing her best Gertie impersonation

An art table of her very own, in need of some inspiration and spiffing

That girl and her dog