Family Traditions

This post is dedicated to all my Whiteford cousins... does the Swedish Angel Chime above look familiar? Nana had one of these in her house, and we had one growing up at Mom and Dad's. Then, last Christmas Bug surprised me and gave me one of my own! It was fun to put it together and show Ellie. I guess we've had Christmas on our minds for some time -- having had our tree up for over a week now (we want to enjoy it since we leave on the 19th for Christmas travels)! I will share some Thanksgiving highlights later ... after I get some pics downloaded to the computer.

Waggoner Family Indian Name Book

We thought you might be amused by seeing images below from Ellie's latest Family Activity (aka homework) related to her class's most recent unit about Native Americans. (I presume this was in conjunction with Thanksgiving??). We were to 'come up with Indian names for each family member based on their hobbies, what they are good at, their likes, etc....then make a book with the pages provided using one page for each family member.' Since Ellie couldn't draw a picture or symbol to represent our family, Nathan took the liberty to help her on that count with pencil sketches. Ellie provided the color. Enjoy...

Sorry for the lousy scanning job -- it's supposed to read, "Miss Boogie Beatle" (Beatle is her nickname given to her by Gjyshe)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Ellie, Pre-school: Age 3

I'm probably breaking a copyright law somewhere, but I honestly looked and didn't see one on the back of this image ... but, I just had to share this pic on the blog. I am so proud of our little girl. Didn't she do a great job on her first school photo? I was so pleased because she had JUST learned to smile on command right before this was taken in late September. I had also dressed her in this really cute denim jacket with a ruffled collar, but apparently it was too warm to wear, or the teachers didn't realize it was part of the ensemble... either way, it wasn't worth doing re-takes. ;-) One down, about 15 more to go...

Nonna & PaPa Visit

Here are some photos from last weekend's visit with Nathan's parents (in reverse order). It's always a treat to have company, but family especially. We had a nice time with them and enjoyed their help as we shopped for our first Christmas tree (I'll explain later). We capped off the weekend with Sunday morning church, followed by brunch at O'Charley's, and then goodbye's until Christmas.

Nonna is reading one of Ellie's current favorite books, "The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor." It was read in Ellie's school class during their unit on community helpers and Nonna graciously got Ellie her own copy. We found she really enjoyed the pages where Brother and Sister bear had their examination. Along with them we would act like we were checking her eyes, ears, nose, and throat and then poke her tummy. She in turn enjoyed checking her daddy's eyes, ears, nose and throat. We especially pointed out at each reading that they had to have their temperature taken (something she strongly resists at every doctor's visit) and get a shot. Our hope was that the role play would make her own doctor's visits less, shall we say, traumatic? To encourage this recent interest, Nonna and PaPa even brought her the Fisher-Price doctor's kit and she has had a blast this week giving her teddy bear's their shots (not too interested in their blood pressure, but they all need several innoculations according to Dr. Ellie). After each reading or playing with the doctor's kit, we hear Ellie walking around saying, "Dr. Taylor, Dr. Taylor..."

This week we had a chance to see if all this focus on things medical would indeed would make a difference when it was Ellie's turn to be the patient. She woke up Thursday with a low grade fever and since we already had an appointment that morning with Nurse Elizabeth for her to get a flu shot, we called ahead to see if Dr. Taylor could see her too. Ellie was excited to go for a car ride to see Dr. Taylor, but sure enough, that excitement turned to trepidation as soon as her name was called. Though Ellie was reluctant to leave the waiting area, she did MUCH better on all counts, including asking Dr. Taylor at the end of the visit if she could give her a kiss! WOW! And then she reminded the nurse at check out that she needed a sticker! (Next time I need to remind her to ask nicely -- I was just floored that she remembered that she was usually given a sticker before she left since they never seemed a big deal before)!

One last photo from last weekend...

Playing a matching game with Nonna while PaPa helped Daddy hang some new light fixtures in the student center's basement meeting area (and watching the Buckeyes trounce the Illini). Ouch!

Fall Leaves

I've been suffering from major 'blogger's guilt'-- though I took solace in the fact that my Google Reader page had been pretty light for the past few weeks and figured everyone else was busy like me...until about 48 hours ago when everyone started crankin' out their updates. SO, to make up for my absence, here is not only a few photos, but an entire slideshow!

More Important Than Football

Uncle Jerry just sent me a link to this video today. I know some of those who follow this blog do so from their interest in adoption and after watching this together, Nathan is allowing me to post this, even though it features an SEC football coach. ;-)
You might want to have your Kleenex nearby...

Pumpkin Patch

On Thursday I got to accompany Ellie's class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch on a farm near Shaker Town in Mercer County. The day was beautiful and perfect for a day on the farm! The kids got to explore a maze made out of hay bales, pet and feed animals, and take a hay rack ride down to the pumpkin field (through the horse pasture where they got to see some horses up close). An unexpected benefit was learning during the waiting times (or on the hayride) some of the teaching tools her teachers use in the class that we are now doing with Ellie at home (e.g. they do some really fun signs to practice phonics).

Ellie is with her special ed teacher, Miss Tammy (who also heralds from a farm in the midwest -- so she's cool by me)

Ellie was enthralled with the rooster (see how she's holding her hands? she didn't want anything to do with actually petting the animals)

waiting for the ride to begin

If you ask me, these pumpkins suspiciously appear to be placed for easy finding by the kids. Given that it was the day befor Halloween, I'm sure their fields were pretty picked over by then.

The kids were warned more than once that the teachers would NOT carry their pumkins for them, therefore they were to only select a gourd that would fit in their backpacks (theirs are in the plastic sacks you see them holding). Ellie is guarding the classroom pumkin.