Saw this tonight...

I have some fun pics from the pumpkin patch to post and Ellie's costume for school today so check back later this weekend. In the mean time, we shot this tonight on our camera phone after getting groceries. Unbelievable.

Lighting Model

Last night I took some photos for some friends and needed to test my lighting before they arrived. Ellie was a great help.

Note: this is a 'double-poster' day, so scroll down for another photo and mini-update.

Big Girl Bed

Was it a matter of convenience or were we trying to keep our little girl 'little' a bit longer, or a little bit of both? Whatever the reason, we finally got around to taking the bars off of the front of her crib to convert it to a toddler bed on Monday. Ellie has been surprisingly proud of it, which has been cute. Here she is a minute or two before we woke her from yesterday's nap.

Ellie's 'new' smile

Up until recently, one of us would snap a photo of Ellie while the other stood in the back making goofy animal noises to elicit a smile from Ellie. Now she knows when she sees a camera to turn on a smile. I thought these were sweet and funny and show how she's continuing to grow up.

A Visit to Ellie's School

Today, the parents of Ellie and her classmates were invited to their classroom-turned-pizza parlor. Students greeted us at the door and seated us at tables with table cloths and napkins. We'll let you view the pics below to see the rest of the role-play on display below.

The topping station. Love Els' little apron.

Yep. She's munching on the 'anchovies' (goldfish).

This is the sensory table. Every week it features something different related to the week's theme.

Here's Ellie with one of the instructional assistants from her class.

The menu.

Filling our order.

Nathan with his pizza.

After our lunch, we got to watch the kids sing some songs at 'circle' time. They told us Ellie is usually more involved in this part of the class period, but I think she was distracted by all the extra visitors in the room. It was a treat to get to see her in her classroom environment and we are excited to share these pics here with you!

Surprise Company

This photo is for Bug and Seth! You can imagine our surprise when (while waiting for Ellie's school bus) a car with Vermont plates pulled in our driveway! It was great to finally meet Pascal! For those of you who don't know, this is Seth's brother Justin, Justin's wife Nadine, and Tua's 'other' cousin, Pascal. We were pleased they dropped in at the beginning of their weekend visit to Lexington.

Ellie/Reagan Conversation

I wanted to document this little episode from today before I forgot. Ellie's verbal abilities came 'all of a sudden' in February, then seemed (to my untrained mind) to stall, or at least progress in pains-takingly slow steps. She has become quite effective at communicating in one-word, or two-word chunks for quite some time and I've been waiting anxiously for the day when she might finally speak in sentences. We've gotten the idea from the way she babbles to herself that she wants to speak in sentences (almost like she's practicing when she's not on the spot), but still doesn't have the confidence to do this. We have been working on teaching her verbs for quite some time, but using them has not come easily to her.

This afternoon Ellie returned from her first day of school in more than a week (last week was fall break). She seemed really happy, in good spirits. Nevertheless, experience has taught us that in spite of whatever pleasant little girl we bring home, come 5:30, she can turn cranky and UN-pleasant without a brief nap.

After spending about 15 minutes of play time together and reading through the notes in her backpack, we reminded her that it was now indeed naptime. She asked to rock. It's hard to turn down snuggle time, so Nathan conceded. After a few minutes of rocking, when he said it was time to lay down, she announced she had to go potty. Not wanting to discourage this form of communication (in spite of how it seeemed coincidentally like a stall technique), we put her on her potty chair. Apparently needing some form of entertainment, she ended up sitting there with a slinky in each hand. Reagan, not wanting to be left out of the fun, had plopped down on the floor in front of her. She looked at Reagan, and proferred her slinkies to him. She said, "Which one, Reagan? This one or that one? That one? Okay! You're welcome!"

Albeit, there were no verbs in the one-sided conversation above, we were still excited about Ellie saying something more than, "Eat!" or "Baby slinky!" or "Outside!" or "purple balloons!" I wouldn't be surprised if it was something often asked of herself at school.

In other news, we were informed via her communication folder that Ellie's class is learning about people who work in the food industry this week and that on Friday the parents are invited into the classroom which will be transformed into a pizza parlor where the kids will seat us, take our orders, cook our pizza and serve us food. Given that she still likes to do the 'stop, drop, and roll' (all the way across a room) from fire awareness week, how long do you think she will want to make her parents dinner?

We survived another Goat Roast

We just survived the biggest event of our year here at the student center, our annual African Goat Roast. This year Nathan had the brilliant idea to have a photo booth where students could dress up in authentic Maasai clothing and jewelry holding real spears and shields (the Maasai are from Kenya -- remember the tribe from the Val Kilmer/Michael Douglas film, The Ghost and the Darkness?). To see more photos, check out our Facebook page. The zebra skin in the background is one shot by Nathan's dad or grandpa. The first time Ellie saw it she said, "BIG zebra!" The shield was a gift given to Nathan's grandfather in the 50s or 60s and is made out of an elephant ear!

2 years and counting...

Playing with her favorite toy of the past couple of months...her slinky
I love those dimpled hands


(above) Ellie telling me the tree is bumpy
(above) posing by the tree for me (we're practicing for her senior pictures)

This past weekend a little anniversary of sorts for us quietly slipped by. It was October 5, 2006 when we first saw photos of the little girl who would be our daughter. Here are some pictures of her two years later. To see how much she has changed, click here.

For a bit of an Ellie update, we are thrilled to report that just in the last week Ellie now happily allows us to brush her teeth. If you remember our reports of oral aversion during the early weeks and months with her, then you will know what a feat this is. We thank the Lord for helping her overcome another fear and turning it into a 'love.' We are also thankful for sparkly happy face stickers which are finally seeming to motivate her to participate in this important hygenic responsibility.

School continues to serve as a wonderful teaching tool for her. Last week she took a field trip to the Wilmore Fire Station. This Friday she will participate in a walking field trip to mail a letter from the Wilmore Post Office, and at the end of the month, Mommy gets to join Ellie's class on a trip to the pumpkin patch! I promise to take my camera. Thanks to all of you who continue to pray for Ellie's growth and development.

Hammock Time

Our college friends have strung up a hammock in the backyard -- the perfect way to enjoy some of this nice cool fall weather that has finally arrived! When at a loss for blog content, I pull out the camera. Nathan suggested the hammock for today's pics. It certainly beat our crispy dead grass. I'm already craving spring and the chance to see GREEN again. And please forgive Ellie's straight-from-school, disheveled hair-do in need of a trimming.

Speaking of school, Ellie seems to love it. They just finished studying the weather. Ellie loves to be the 'wind' and wave a scarf in the air when we read to her from the book they studied, "Storm is Coming". She comes home less hungry because she's doing better trying new foods at school for lunch, but more tired. We're already seeing improvements in her social skills and communicative abilities. She is also saying 'thank you' more frequently without prompting! I don't know that we have mentioned here that she rides the bus to school. She is one of the, if not the, last stop on the way to school so making the decision for her to ride the bus to school wasn't too difficult for us (we pick her up at the end of the day).

At the top of the bus stairs, she is in the routine of turning around and telling us goodbye, multiple time -- in no hurry to get to her seat -- good thing they have several monitors to give her a few nudges. A few times this week she has boarded then called out for a kiss (stalling?). Today, when Nathan went back to the bus door, leaned in and gave her one, she got the biggest grin on her face, then turned to find her seat. She kept smiling at us out the window as the bus pulled away. It made my heart melt. Other times, like yesterday, when Ellie got on board the kids were singing "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree" and she didn't even look back at us but ran straight back to her seat to join in the singing. So much for mom and dad when there's other little kids and singing.