Fabulous Imaginings

My girl has a wonderful imagination. She loves to pretend things, and comes up with things that I often don't know where she picked the ideas up. Like today, for example. We were running some errands. She sits in her car seat in the back, and often will talk or sing to herself. As I listened, she pretended that all the fingers on her hand were a family. They sang a song together, and gave hugs and kisses to each other, and then she named them all. There was a dad and mom, and even a baby. I'm not sure if the other fingers were just ignored, or maybe friends that come over to play. She sang the "I love you" song from Barney, which includes a hug and kiss, and had to sing several verses to get enough for each finger/person. It was VERY cute to listen to her playing all by herself. Then we stopped at a store where her Daddy went in, while we waited in the car. Elise decided it was the perfect time to sing the wheels on the bus song. At first, she wanted us each to do our own verse, which she assigned, and take turns singing. Then, instead of singing about the regular people and items that are on the bus, she added some new ones. Her bus had the baby, a mama, the wipers, the doors, the money, the horn, and even some veggies going 'hoing' (from the VeggieTales version of the song), but it also had an 'elphalant' that was trumpeting, and a mouse that was squeaking on it. This made for a very exciting song, because there were unusual visitors on the bus, and you never knew who would be there next!

This great imagination is also a bit of a challenge to predict sometimes. We got her some special things for Christmas/birthday presents, and have taken them out of their packaging and are letting them air out and get put together when we have a moment when she is doing something else. I got several things all put together, and put them in the back of my craft room, and then had to think of what to put in front of them that would be large, and not easy for her to get around or see over. We are airing out our pillows as well, and Elise likes to play with them sometimes. There were about 8 of them in this craft room, so I piled them strategically in front of the gift items, so from her height, you can't see over this pile. Later that day, she came into the room. She saw this great pile of pillows, went over to them, and started climbing them in an attempt to get behind the stack. I asked her to not climb on them but to play with something else. She turned to me, and said, "But Mama, I'm the green Care Bear, and I need to take a nap in my rain cloud." This was tough to reason her out of.....Luckily, Daddy told her we could make a rain cloud bed out of blankets on the couch in the front room! She thought that was pretty cool. We came out front and talked about Care Bears. We had read a Care Bear book that day, and she saw some old Care Bear cartoons in Oregon. She asked if we could watch some more Care Bears, especially the train one. I told her those movies were at Grandma Sue's house, and she responded, "Let's get on the airplane, go visit Grandma Sue's house!" I don't think she really gets the whole distance thing yet, but it is good she remembered it takes a plane to get there. So, periodically since then she has told me she is different colored Care Bears, and wants to go climb on the pillows......I'm thinking it may NOT have been the brightest gift hiding idea I've ever had, and may have to be modified before the next two months are over.....

Meeting Great Family...

As part of our trip to California in August, we got to visit with my grandparents in southern California. This was a really special experience, partly because I hadn't seen them since the Christmas before I got engaged, partly because they hadn't met Logan or Elise before. My girl is very shy, takes a while to warm up to people, and even to new places. She was a bit shy at first, but gave her big smile (that's what she's decided she can do if she feels shy). She warmed up though as she got to explore the toy closet - she especially liked the bucket of marbles. She wanted to toss them by handfuls, which we put a damper on, and instead tried to pick them back up and put them in the bucket. We got to hear all the updates on our family, which was really great, as I haven't really been in contact with most of those branches of the family tree. I remember, while growing up, as we would visit Grandma and Grandpa Parker, that they would have pictures of their various trips to places all over the world on their walls. This visit, instead of pictures of places, there were pictures of all their kids and grandkids, and great grandkids. It was really fun to see pictures of cousins I haven't seen since we were all kids, and to hear the neat things they have been doing since then. My grandparents are cool people, with great stories and experiences to share, and it was really cool to see their love for their family as they talked about what all their posterity is accomplishing. Towards to end, Elise got over her shyness enough to give and recieve kisses from her Great Grandma Parker, although she was a bit shy with Grandpa still (men take a bit longer for her to warm up to), and only consented to hugs with Great Grandpa Parker. We got a picture, which I think was so great, especially as it will help Elise remember them, and that they are an important part of our family, even if we don't get to see them very often. WE LOVE GRANDMA AND GRANDPA PARKER!!!!

Ring Update

Hooray!!! My finger, and the rest of my hand, felt a bit funny without that little thing for a few days. The good news is they could fix it!!!! The even better news is that 5 more of the diamonds were loose and ready to fall out, which isn't really good news, but it is good that they were only loose and not lost. It was incredibly fortunate that we took it in when we did, so we didn't have to pay the $107 per diamond to replace and re-set them, but only the $15 dollers per diamond to tighten them. They got my ring back to me on Friday, and it is amazing to see how bright and shiny it is now, especially compared to the plain wedding band that goes with it, but which we never got attached to the engagement one with the diamonds. AND the jewelers told us some useful information, which they failed to mention when Logan bought the ring originally, or any of the times we had to take it in those first few months....you should have a jeweler look at your ring about every six months, to make sure none of the gems are getting loose, and to fix them if they are loose. This helps save on the cost of replacing lost gems. That would have been good to know, but we are also very glad that in four years only one stone actually got lost, and they were able to make the whole thing like new! Hooray!!!!!

Encouraging Words

We unpacked our boxes of games recently. My girl decided there were some fun looking ones, and that we should play one a couple days ago. We pulled out a game called 'Penguin Pile Up', in which you balance as many penguins as you can on top of a wobbly iceberg. She had some trouble stacking them, so she just ended up handing each penguin to me and having me stack them while she watched. Occassionally some penguins fall down. At one point I had all but 3 of the 25 penguins perched on the iceberg, when disaster struck and they all came crashing down. Elise, my wonderful girl, turned to me and said enthusiastically, "Keep trying Mama!" I told her I thought I needed a break, and that she could have a turn. She had decided that what I needed wasn't a break, it was to get back up on the horse that had kicked me off. She looked at me with her big smile and said, "Keep trying Mama! You can do it! Keep trying!" Then she came over, put her arms around me and said, "You the best mama ever! You can do it! Keep trying Mama! Keep trying!"
With all that encouragement, how could I say no? So of course I kept trying to pile the penguins on their iceberg. After a couple more minutes, we decided to change the rules of the game. Each of us got to pick a penguin, then have that penguin hop to the top of the iceberg where the red flag is situated.
We would cheer for the penguin and then it would get to slide down the iceberg while shouting, "WEEEEEEEEEE!!!" Elise liked this game much better, and we had a great time finally playing all together. My girl is so special, and is such a great cheerleader, that she makes me feel like I could do anything, since she believes in me. She is a wonderful girl!!!! I love her loads and loads!!!!!

Talking About Sharing

Our bedtime routine includes reading a story, the scriptures, having prayer, hugs and kisses, and then laying down to go to sleep. As we were all climbing on to the bed in preparation for these activities, I was looking at the paper with flu vaccination information. Elise wanted to read her story, and was getting frustrated that I was looking at this paper. I wanted to see if there were any side effects we should be on the lookout for, as Elise had her first flu shot yesterday. My girl got a bit frustrated, and took the paper out of my hands. I explained to her that it was not a nice thing to do, and that I could have gotten a paper cut on my hand. She turned to me, and calmly said, "I say, 'Please Mama, I have that paper' and then you share it with me?" I agreed that it would be a very nice thing to say, and that sharing and asking nicely are really good things to do. She then said, "Sharing nicely make you feel happy, Mama?" I told her it would, and that it would also make her happy. She nodded her head in agreement, and then held up her story, with a look that said 'ok, enough talking, forget the paper and let's get down to the good stuff!'

Making Cards

We are really enjoying unpacking our boxes, and discovering all the cool things that have been stored away for so long, especially the supplies for making things. My girl LOVES to help! This can seem a little unhelpful at times, and she needs a project to keep her busy while I get the other stuff out of her reach. So, she's been making cards. She gets some stickers, a blank card, and some crayons. She decorates the whole thing beautifully. Then she will show it to me. I asked her to write her name on one. She went back to her little work area, grabbed a crayon, and as she was scribbling said, "To Grandma, love Elise" It was the cutest thing ever! I'm gonna have to write down on the cards who they are for, since she is making several. We will work on putting them with the Christmas cards and ornaments, so they can get mailed to the right people. So, be aware, even if you don't see one for a couple months, my girl is thinking about her family, and making cards for her loved ones!

Birthday Planning

My girl loves the things that go along with birthday celebrations. Every time we go to a store with balloons, she insists that we walk past them, stare at and describe them all, and then when she asks if we can borrow them (this is her way of suggesting we buy one, but she thinks that is called borrowing), I tell her maybe we can do that for a special occassion like her birthday. Then she goes into a detailed description of what she loves to have for her birthday, including balloons and cake and candles and blowing the candles out at a party. She is very excited for her birthday --- and doesn't really understand that it isn't until January!

She is also getting excited about Christmas decorations. Logan put the lights on the house this last week (when we had some nice enough weather, so he won't have to worry about it when it is snowing later in the year....he's so on top of things!) And we have been seeing Christmas trees with lights at Costco for a couple weeks. Today, Elise and I sat down and were talking about Jesus, and how he was born as a little baby and at Christmas, we celebrate his birthday. We talked about the events surrounding his birth, and the decorations we put up to celebrate, like putting lights on the tree, and that we give gifts. She was so excited. All day she has talked about celebrating Jesus birthday as a baby when we will have a tree with lights, and then adds that for her birthday she'd like some cake, balloons, and a tree with some lights! I guess we can keep the tree through the 24th of January, as that isn't that big of a stretch! It is going to get more interesting in the mean time, as she is asking when we are going to start making her cake......