September and October 2012....ooopppppssss

OK.... September and October have both come and gone and no posts have been posted..... Well, life happens, ya know?  Here are updates from the last two months, in no particular order....

E with her pumpkin she picked out from Grandpa's Garden.

Daycare Update:
     Elizabeth is still adjusting to daycare but I would say it's going very well.  Seems like it took about 2 months, of her going 2 days a week, for her to stop crying when I dropped her off, or we were driving up there. Yep, some days she'd cry the entire way up there!!! I was always about .5 seconds away from calling off work and taking her home, but of course I knew she needed to go.  Miss Melissa is her teacher and Elizabeth talks very fondly of her.  "I wanna show Miss Melissa.  Miss Melissa give me a hug.  Miss Melissa read to me." so I know she's being loved.  She's also pretty easy going for other people so I think she's very easy to love : )  She kindda quit eating for them for awhile, but lately it seems like she's doing better.  She talks about her friends and sings the songs they practice for me.  I think it's good for her to be with another adult and with other kids..... WITH THAT BEING SAID...... I STILL HATE IT. Mommy is still adjusting.  She typically is challenging at home on daycare days so that makes it even worse.  I'm sure it will continue to get better.  She still continues to say "Mommy gone at daycare"........ (can you hear my heart breaking?????)

One of mommy's birthday presents. I think Elizabeth has claimed it!

E still loves playing the piano!

Balloon Affair!

Birthday Party:
     So Elizabeth turned 2 in October and she was so excited about her birthday party. It was Mickey and Minnie themed and everything turned out wonderful.  She was so excited to open every present, genuinely liked every one, and thanked all her gift givers!  The kids played bowling and found Pluto's Bones (Nathan is still playing the game a month later : )  Elizabeth was so excited about her chocolate cake with pudding in it!  She loved it all and even told Mommy and Daddy thank you. Of course after she opened the last present she said "I wanna do it again!"  I mean she does get it honestly!!!!!!

 Halloween:

      Elizabeth insisted on dressing up like Snow White for Halloween.  I was hoping for some cute animal or something, but no she wanted a real costume, even when I enticed her with many other cute ones.  She of course ended up super cute!  We had fun at trunk or treat even though it rained and momma got soaked on the hay ride.....

 We also went to Kings Way farm and had a blast!  Elizabeth loved the animals, especially the bunnies! 

Talking:
      We think she says the most funny things, of course : )  She makes up imaginative stories about animals following her, her catching them, and her taking them back to their home.  She pretends to be a fairy and turn me into things....she waves her wand and says "momma's a frog"...... She loves to sing, right now we're singing the Hello, Mr. Turkey song.  She just giggles and giggles at it.  Her giggling cracks me up because she literally puts her hands over her mouth and giggles into her hands like you see on TV. Too cute!  She loves to hook "all day long" onto something she wants...."I want apple juice all day long"...."I want mickey mouse all day long".....

Prayers:
      At night when we pray there is never enough time.  She insists on naming every person we've ever met or saw on TV..... Can it be any sweeter.  So I'll say "Thank  you for Landon" and she'll say "And Brandon, too" and I'll say "Thank you for Aunt Kay" and she'll say "and Aunt Sara".  Eventually we get to Mr. Noodle from Elmo and the elephant from the hardware store : )  Then she recites the Lord's Prayer after me and it just chokes me up how precious she is..... "R Fodder, who art hevn"  Speaking of God...... Mommy and Elizabet had to have our first talk about heaven in October.  Boy, was mommy not prepared for that!  Tang, Grandma and Grandpa's dog, passed away and I had to explain to her that she was happy up in heaven playing with God now and we wouldn't see her for a long time.  That's how I meant for it to go...short and sweet, and I would keep reiterating that part.....She had other plans.  She wanted to know all about this 'heaven' and when she could go see Tang, and if Grandpa could go with Tang, too.  EEEEEKKKKKKK, no child, no one is going to see Tang FOR A LONG TIME! 


Misc......
      *I finished my master's at the end of October (another reason I haven't been posting, I've been finishing up homework.
       * I have 25 K students this year so I've been busy with them as well!
       * Elizabeth had to have her hearing checked again and unfortunately she failed the same ear again.... so...... they said since her language is obviously not being affected yet we can wait 6 months and redo the testing, it is possible she is just too young to complete all the testing properly so they'll give her another chance.  It was frustrating because I 100% thought they'd say "oh yeah, she passed it this time" when we went in September......but no, she failed her left ear again so we'll go back to Children's in March to see what these tests show.  We do not notice any loss but it is concerning when two separate tests show the same thing. So we'll wait and see!
      * We got tickets for Polar Express soon so we can't wait for that!  I hope she loves it as much as I will ; ) 
       *October 6th was the 5th year anniversary of Ben's death.  We had a concert in the park which turned out great.

 

       *  Happy is a senior now!!!!!  Elizabeth loved going to the fall concert and seeing 'happy singing on the steps'  (she means risers).
       *Daniel has his temps and went to homecoming (so did Rachel).  So hard to believe how old and 'grown up' they are..... how is it possible I am only 27?

 

 

       *Elizabeth had her first hair cut from Aunt Sara for her 2nd birthday!

1st Hair cut!

  

There is never a day that I am not amazed that we are so fortunate to have such a wonderful angel.  She makes me smile each day and I love reading, chasing, cooking, playing, and pretending with her.  Hard to believe my baby is 2!!!!!!

August 2012

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..... Ok, that might be a tad over dramatic....but August is typically a tough month : )  Elizabeth helped me out by coming to my classroom and getting it all ready for the new school year.  She loved it because it meant she got to play on the iPad for hours...... I don't let her play on it much because she throws the fit of the century when I take it away.

Grandma Dills came out to see us!

E showed off her bike!

Her sleeping has improved a ton for both naps and night time.  She's not eating well at all.  She's still at 26 pounds : (  Her outfits from last winter still fit and I thought they were getting too small then..... She's in a 2T right now.  Her hair is getting so long and light.  She still has those bright blue eyes.  Seems like most people comment on them!

She loves to say "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" to people in the store...She'll keep saying it until they say it back.  She now wants her own 'cards' so the Giant Eagle card is hers.... She holds it up to the lady and says 'here's my card, too'.  Typically, they take it, even if it's not Giant Eagle : )

She knows most of her shapes and loves point them out.  She knows all of her colors and loves her 'bunny game' that matches objects and colors. She knows the letters B, G, E, M,  and D.  She says the name of the letter when she sees it and 'who it belongs to'.  Her favorite is the B.... "B is for Brandon" she yells!

The traumatic thing that happened this month is that Grandpa took off his glasses.... Yep, you read  that right... Grandpa took off his glasses.  She literally had a melt down about it... I'm not sure if she thought they were attached to his head, or if it brought back terrible memories from grandpa going under water or what.....but she had a hard time with it.... and of course she obsesses on it and can't let it go, even a month later.

We went to the Fair.  Elizabeth loved looking at all the animals... We even got sneezed on by a sheep!  She rode the ponies with Grandpa and the helicopters with Grandma. 

The most traumatic thing this month is............. DAY CARE!!!!!  Traumatic for all involved... Mommy and daddy for sending her (although we know it's best for her and she needs it, and daddy needs a break, and blablablablabllablb) and Elizabeth for going (even though she has fun moments there).  With all that said it's still so hard on us.  Her quote about day care is 'mommy gone'.  I say "how was your day" and she says "mommy gone".  I say "what did you eat at day care?"  she says "mommy gone"...... I think she's adjusting in a very typical way, I just wish it was easier.

1st Day of day care.... family pic, plant to keep at day care, blankie, bear, book to donate to class, and candy bar for the teacher...... I should have packed tissues : )

I probably should say that she's only going 2 days a week (but I realize the way I talk about it sometimes it sounds like I'm shipping her off to a 3rd world country for the year).  Her teacher is very nice and they do fun stuff and blablablablablbal mommy hates it.......  So hard to leave your baby yelling "no momma, no go work" and then go take care of other people's kidd-o's...... 

Enough about that.... before I know it this will all be a distant memory and she'll be begging to go to day care.... right? that will happen, right?????

E waking up from nap time at day care!

Some of our favorite Elizabeth quotes this month are:
'good girl, boy' (she said this to Nathan when he did something good : )
'here momma, want to hold it' (when she's done with something and wants me to take it....)
'elizabeth backfire' (daddy taught her this one for when she farts)
'baby have diarrhea' (she says this even when she doesn't.... always nice to yell that....)
'I wanna watch Mickey' (we literally hear this all day long... she loves Mickey Mouse)
'I did it' (she loves to show off her art work or anything else that she can do)
'Hawk-eyes' (french fries)
'chicken butts' (donuts)
'Elizabeth's turn'  (it is always her turn!!!!)