Ah, The Mind of a Child

Since Ella doesn't stop talking, she says so many things that I just want to capture for a life time. I am constantly amazed at how her little mind works and how she puts things together. I can remember when she first started talking really good, she would say the first few words of a sentence 3 or 4 times before she finished the rest of the sentence and you could just see her little brain working behind her eyes to try and figure out how the rest of the sentence should be said.

I have middle eastern in my heritage and I have always wanted to learn Arabic. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away this year. I always wanted to talk to him in Arabic, but I never jumped on learning it before he passed. My mom can remember when she was a little girl, all the men would gather and speak to each other in Arabic and I wish I had that experience too. So I just started taking Arabic courses through our school districts adult learning courses...for myself and to expand my mind. I'm sure those of you who are stay at home mom's can relate to having your brain feel like mush and the need to want to do something to exercise your brain. Well, that is what I am doing with these classes, and I am really enjoying it.

Trying to learn another language has made me more aware of what it is like for a child to learn to talk for the first time. How everything sounds like gibberish and you try to collect all your thoughts together to make that one sentence come out correctly.

Here's a few of the silly things Ella has said to hubby and I. The funny thing is, some of the things she says make sense to her.....but I cant say the same for the rest of the world! Other things are just plain cute.

When she is trying to poop she says, "My bum bum wont open!"

"My Daddy puts too much food in his mouth."

She filled up a bottle with water and said, "This is time in a bottle." She poured some in a cup and said, "And this is the seconds."

"Mommy, will we ever be able to go to the moon? Maybe we can go play on the moon and dance with the stars?"

"I love my Daddy, Do you love my Daddy? He is one of a kind."

I said to her, "Excuse me. Did you toot?" She said, "No, I just burped. Its nothing to worry about."

Hubby and I were going back and forth about Ella's cute little bum bum saying, "That's my butt, no its mine, no its mine." Ella chimed in and said, "Hey, you have to share you know."

Ella was reading a book and we were talking so she said, "Be quiet please, I'm trying to concerate." (concentrate)

We had hamburgers for dinner one night and hubby asked Ella, "Do you like your hamburger?" Ella responded, "Mmmmm. Ya, it didn't taste this nice in a couple of years."

We had boneless buffalo wings one night...the next day we went to the zoo and saw buffalo. My mom said to Ella, "Look at the buffalo!" Ella responded, "I don't like spicy buffalo."

Hubby forgot to put underwear on Ella when he put her jammies on. I said to her, "You have no undergarments on." (not that I ever use that word regularly) But Ella said, "Daddy, we forgot armor garments."

Ella drinks a small glass of water before bed. As she ran down the hall to her bedroom, she yelled to hubby, "Get me some water, big guy!"

Best Shot Monday

Christina over at Momology did a wonderful tutorial on Enhancing the Light of your photos in Photoshop. She also mentioned an action pack for Photoshop that she got from Pioneer Woman that included an ethereal and lovely action that gives your photos a wonderful angelic glow.

I had alot of fun playing with that action last night...Especially using it on my Ella's beautiful face. When I get a shot like this, I just cant take my eyes off of it. Its not the actual picture that I am in awe of though. It is the perfection of my little girls face that takes my breath away.

I bought a figurine while I was pregnant with Ella and it sits on a shelf in her room. I am always trying to find my inner peace, and having Ella in my life has helped me succeed in a part of that. On the back of the figurine is a poem. It reads:

I may never paint a masterpiece,
write a novel, sing on stage, or orchestrate world peace.
But when I look at you, I know that you are my masterpiece.
You are music from heaven. You are my peace.

Here is my best shot. My masterpiece.



To see more BSM's, head over to Tracey's.

Princess Car Wash

Do you ever have the feeling that the evening is going to be a long evening before your child goes to bed? One that you don't know if you are going to be able to get through because if one more thing goes wrong you are going to scream? I had one of those evenings the other day. Hubby made himself busy by sanding an old desk that we are trying to refinish and I thought....What are the kid and I going to do?

How does water and bubbles sound?

There are just certain things that I try with her and ask myself why I didn't do this sooner. Washing a car....What could go wrong with that? Actually nothing! It worked out great. She stayed busy for hours. And the best part, is that the evening turned out to be the perfect evening. How could it not be perfect when you get a royal car wash?











Don't you hate it when you spray the hose and the mist comes back at you?

God Bless America?

These are some of the other pictures I got the other night when Ella was so patriotically playing with the American flag.

My mom taught Ella her prayers at night time..."Now I lay me down to sleep"...and at the end of the prayer she says, "God bless Mommy, Daddy, Lulu and everyone else I love". Then she taught her to say God bless America. But when we took Ella to the Mall of America on her birthday in June to go on the rides....God Bless America turned into "God bless the Mall of America"!

She laughs and laughs and thinks its the funniest thing in the world. Ah, the things these kids come up with!

Best Shot Monday

We bought this flag at a store on September 11th. The perfect day to be sporting this beautiful symbol. She saw it and she had to have it. Everywhere we went that day she had to bring it with her. In the car, the window had to be open so it would blow in the breeze. There's just something so sweet and innocent about a little girl and her American flag.



To see other BSM's, head over to Tracey's

Little Perspective Friday

I am beginning to look forward to "Little Perspective Friday's". Ella is enjoying taking pictures (even if it is a just a phase in her ever evolving childhood) and it is so cool when after a few days, I load the pictures on the computer and get to look at them. It just makes me smile. I cant get her to focus properly, but its her perspective that matters.

Ella and I went with my Mom to the Minneapolis Institute of Art the other day. They were having an exhibit on Presidential items called "Hail to the Chief". My Mom is a wicked history buff. I knew I would have to keep Ella occupied and quiet, so I brought my p&s camera for her to play with. Everyone who walked through thought she looked so cute holding the camera and taking pictures.

This painting of George Washington was beautiful. It of course was larger than life but the colors were so rich and beautiful.


Once we got to this point, which isn't very hard because it was just a one room exhibit, one of the security guards came over and told me that the huge flag of the presidential seal was not to be photographed because it belonged to an outside collection. It made me wonder how they can control that if they allow cameras inside the museum? In any case, she had already taken pictures of it so we said ok and moved on to something else.


Its great. I have a whole little library of Ella's pictures now for weeks to come!

Playing in the Rain

When my mom plays with Ella, she's told me that she enjoys it so much because she is trying to recapture her youth. And of course being a grandma, she also is not as strict with Ella as I am. One of the things her and her 'Amu' like to do is run in the rain.

It rained here for quite a few days in a row and Ella seemed to ask me alot if she could go run in the rain. Each time she asked, it was either nap time, dinner time or we were heading out somewhere and didn't want her soaking wet. I'm a stickler for schedule....can you tell? Anyways, Christina also made a post quite a few weeks ago about playing in the rain and it inspired me. It made me question how she took her camera out in the rain and got the shots...but also thought it would be fun for Ella and I to do it too.

For the most part, I stayed in the garage and didn't get out in the rain as much as I probably could have. Like Christina told me, she tucked the camera under her shirt and would take a few shots before hiding it again. I tried doing that a couple of times, but also had hubby over my shoulder yelling at me to get back in the garage (since I basically begged him to let me buy the camera just a couple of short months ago. He knows how happy it makes me so he reluctantly complied). ;0)




Could you have guessed that you would see pictures of Ella dancing in the rain since that is how my child goes through life?!




And then there is "Keep Away" from Lulu. They seemed to both have so much fun running around with the Frisbee.





Ella finally looked at me and said, "Mommy, Lulu can have it now." I told her that was a very nice idea.




Ever picture how a photo should look before you even get to it and then you start to get excited to get that one shot that's perfect in your mind? Well, my grandmother sent Ella a rain coat a while back and I could not find it for the life of me! That coat is what I was envisioning when I was going to tell Ella what we were doing. I mean, I looked through her room 4 or 5 times before we went outside! I can remember it vividly. It was a bright yellow with all sorts of colors on it and it would have been so perfect for our little time in the rain. I was so bummed that I couldn't find it.

So after a while, she wanted to wear Keith's raincoat we had out in the garage. She started running around and we laughed. She looks like she belongs in the Wizard of Oz as a Lollipop kid or in Star Wars as a little Ewok from the planet of Endor or something. A good time was had by all.

Best Shot Monday

This is Ella, fresh off of having a good time while playing with water and flowers outside. She is reluctantly sitting down for me after she told me she was Sad Snow White again. Apparently, Snow White has Multiple Personality Disorder, is a very depressed, emotionally charged, melodramatic princess that Ella taps into when she is trying to express her feelings.....And also trying not to crack a smile because she knows I think she is so damn cute when she plays this card! ;)



To see other BSM's, head on over to Tracey's.

Cousins are the Best

I post alot of pictures on my blog of Ella's cousins Jack and Everett. If I haven't mentioned it before, Jack was born 10 weeks before Ella and Everett is 1 1/2 years old. Ella loves them both dearly and is the closest thing she has to a sibling. Ella was conceived through IVF and though we would like to have another baby, and still plan on it at this point, it is very expensive and we are not sure if it will be financially feasible.

I moved to Minnesota about 17 years ago, so all of my family lives out of state (except for my parents). I am lucky that we are close to Keith's sisters because when I see Ella with her cousins it gives me so much joy. Toddlers having fun together anytime are wonderful to see, but to know that she has a closeness and a bond to them like she may not have with a sibling of her own is comforting.

My sister in law Crystal, is due in November with their first girl. I cant wait to see how Ella bonds with her. Thank you for being in our lives, Jack and Everett. Your Aunty Joey loves you wicked!


All 3 of them love to go on the 4 wheelers with anyone who is willing to give them a ride.

A Little Perspective

Tracey, over at Mother May I is challenging us to see our little one's perspecitive. That means handing my very expensive camera over to my 3 year old to shoot pictures (since all of her cameras mysteriously break. Including the childrens Fisher Price one. Go figure). Surprisingly, Ella handled my heavy camera very well. I stayed close and she just shot away. Besides the focus, I think she did a pretty good job!


My very dirty car.....

Dance, Dance and Dance Some More

Dancing. My child loves to dance. She is a booty shaker, thru and thru. Maybe its because ever since she was a baby, we have squeezed her little butt and told her how cute it was.

Anyways, I decided to have my hand at storyboarding from Stacy's tutorial on making a storyboard. It was fun! But not as fun as doing the fairy wings. ;) I had a great time going to Deviantart and finding brushes. I would download everything if I could. It is my new favorite website! For this, I went with Asian flowers.



Speaking of booty's....My child is backed up! Yup, you know what I mean. We have been having problems potty training her when it comes to #2. She squeezes her butt cheeks together and just does not want to let it out. Whenever we see that, we bring her to the toilet and she immediately tells us she doesnt have to go anymore. The pee thing is fine. Great actually. But when she started complaining of stomach aches, I thought I'd better bring her in to be seen (not to mention, my wise, young sister in law has been telling me for months about the problems she has heard of with her friends babies getting all backed up and telling me I should get it looked at). So Ella got an xray and sure as sh*t (pun intended) she was stuffed! This also lead to her appetite being diminished.....Another little sign that I should have known something was wrong.

The doctor prescribed Miralax, which is over the counter, for a few weeks and to bring her back in for another xray. Well, after 2 days she is doing pretty much hard diarreah (if that makes any sense), and tooting up a storm! My poor little girl. Atleast it is starting to come out. We'll see how the next couple of weeks go. Another thing she said is to lay off the potty training and put her back into diapers (pull-ups) for the time being! Silly as it sounds, I started crying, which was a sure sign that this whole potty training thing is stressing the both of us out. She does prefer to do it in a diaper, and she does prefer to do it in private...but how do you get them around this. Time? How much? Will she be ready for preschool next fall? She cant bring "diapies" into preschool!

In any case, I dont know if I want to go as far as giving her diapers full time again because I obviously dont want her to go backwards as far as peeing is concerned, so we will have to see what happens.

Creativity

Bet you think it looks like Ella is just playing with water. And I bet you think she is just pouring water from one cup to another with no purpose. And I bet you also think she thinks she is just playing with water too.

She's not.

She's making "hot" tea for her and her "guests" to have a tea party.
She's carefully stirring duck soup to feed to our dog Lulu.
She's mixing a mud pie.
She's gently wetting the leaves so that they will be clean.
She's pouring each drop of medicine precisely in the next cup so as to only fill it up until the top bubbles over.

She's expanding her little brain with every second she is playing with that magical water and creating whole worlds and scenarios. Her little brain is amazing. Her her little brain is wonderful. And she's all mine.