Category: Ellie

We walked Ellie (and half her class) to school this morning. She actually did very well, getting up with her alarm, eating a good breakfast and getting dressed and everything. She was ready to go 20 minutes before we had to leave! Evan, on the other hand, was more than a bit grumpy. It’s going to take him more adjusting.
Ellie knew right where her class was and hung up her backpack, walked right in and found her seat. I took many pictures, but didn’t get the chance to load them up quite yet, so we’ll post again tomorrow. I’m planning on getting home early to pick her up, so I’ll have a first-hand view of how her first day went. I have a feeling she might be a little tired after the long day, but I know she’ll do well.

Our little girl is turning 5 today! Wow, time flies. She is starting kindergarten on Tuesday and is very excited. She went to the open house today and met her teacher and knows at least 3 other kids in her class, including her best friend Stella and neighbor from across the street Brendan.
Happy birthday to Ellie.

Word to your mother.

I was out getting the paper this morning in the dark and a light rain and had just turned back toward the house when I was scared out of my wits. The light in the dining room was on, and I saw the curtain in the front window move, and a small figure appear in the window. I half-expected it to be wearing a hockey mask! But no, it was just Ellie, woken up by the rain at 5:30am, who must have heard me opening the door to go get the paper.
Nothing like a little adrenaline to get you going in the morning, no coffee required!

On Sunday, Ellie and I went to the movies together. We took the Metro up to Silver Spring to watch a special presentation called “Muppet Fairy Tales.” The Smithsonian is doing a tribute to Jim Henson, and the AFI has been showing some of Henson’s work at their Silver Theater. We rode the Metro up and walked the two blocks up to the theater to pick up our tickets. After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed into the theater for the show. Ellie really enjoyed it! Usually she just sits there kind of comatose watching the screen, but she was actually laughing along with the rest of the crowd.
We had a nice relaxing ride home, and Ellie even fell asleep on my lap for a little while. I couldn’t ask for a better day.

Ellie went swimming yesterday at her friend’s place in Annapolis. She did really well swimming with the life jacket, even better than she does in the regular pool!

Let me know if you can’t view the video above, I may have to invite you since it’s a “private” video.

Finally getting around to putting up pictures from Ellie’s May Day performance of “Bananaphone.” Plus one extra of the kids at the truck open house. If you’re reading this in a feedreader, you may have to click through to see the slideshow, sorry.

Quite possibly, if you ask us. Lisa’s mom came into town for Ellie’s “May Day” performance at her school. Lisa and I naturally took advantage of the babysitter and went to see U2 3D, the concert movie on Friday night. While Lisa was especially frustrated that it was taboo to stand up and dance and sing along, it was a pretty damn cool show, almost as good as the real thing, minus the dancing and the sweatiness (and binoculars, since we can’t afford the $300 floor seats).
Saturday was May Day, and Ellie did a great job performing “Banana Phone.” She was very shy during last year’s performance, but this year, she pretty much thought Banana Phone was the funniest song ever, and got into it. She has since been performing the other classes’ songs for us as well, especially one class’ version of Laurie Berkner’s “I’m Gonna Catch You.”
Finally, Sunday was the day of the long-anticipated Dan Zanes concert. Yep, the one I bought tickets for last August! Ellie took a while to warm up, but once we got her to do the train during “Catch that Train!” she was bouncing along to “House Party” and every song after that. Thankfully, dancing was very much accepted at this concert (the special guest was tap dancer Derick Grant), so Lisa got to dance her heart out. The show was shorter than we would have liked, but probably just about right for the kids. Ellie and Evan both got their very first ridiculously overpriced concert t-shirts to wear as well.
And of course, we ended the weekend with a BBQ feast at Famous Dave’s. Evan loves his BBQ, and he’s looking forward to sampling some of KC’s finest when we visit in August!

That’s not really fair to Ellie. She has legitimately been sick of late. The problem is we can’t figure out what it is, and neither can the doctors. First, she vomited and spiked to a 104 degree fever, so they tested her for flu (negative) and a urinary tract infection (looked positive at first, but ended up negative). Then, we saw white spots on her tonsils, so they tested for strep (negative). Finally, yesterday her eye was red, so they checked for pink eye. This time, it actually was pink eye, but it’s viral, so there’s no antibiotics for it. She got a prescription for eye drops, but that’s about it. She did seem to finally be feeling better last night though, so hopefully we are finally out of the woods. It’s still frustrating to not be able to figure out what’s wrong with her though.
Ellie, in between her bouts of general whininess and miserableness, definitely knows how to milk the sympathy. Early on, we let her have Jello to help with her throat, and we pretty much let her decide what she wanted to eat, because we just wanted her to eat something. One night, we asked what she wanted for dinner, and she deadpanned, “I guess I’ll just have some Jello and then ice cream for a treat.” Yep, that’s us, wrapped around her little finger.

The KidVid Tournament is back with 16 new kids music videos, including my suggestion of Andre 3000. Ellie and I will be picking our favorites, and we’ll see if Evan wants to watch this year. At least it’s easier than drinking 32 beers in one sitting.

“Mama, don’t forget that we need to watch the barrettes tonight.”
“The what? What are you talking about?”
“The barrettes, you know, like the things you put in your hair? The clips?”
“Oh, you want to watch the eclipse!”
“Yeah!”

And that was your latest lesson in Elli-nese.