Pre-school Sounds Like Fun

Today's one of Ellie's teachers wrote:

12-12-08
The class went ice skating in the room. We put shaving cream on a mat and took off the kids' shoes and socks. Eliie had a wonderful time! At first she just wanted to watch. Once we got her going she loved it! It was a very active day. At the end you could tell she was tired. Great day. P. Russell

That explained the wet pants! And her request to take a nap.

Another Photographer in the Family!

Ellie and I are Nathan-less for the next couple of days. He left this morning for some meetings in IN so Ellie and I are enjoying some special time together. (We miss you, Babe!) I thought we might get a few photos of ourselves to send Nathan and it turned into a really fun, memorable moment to share with my daughter. The first batch are us laying on the bed, holding the camera above us (keep scrolling down for what unfolded)....

(above) The camera started to get heavy so I put it on the bed and we knelt on the floor.

Where did my daughter learn to do this?

She soon wasn't content to have her picture taken, but kept crawling up on the bed, looking through the viewfinder and saying in an adorable singsong voice, "SMILE!" to take MY picture! I didn't have to show her a thing! The girl even found the shutter button! AMAZING! (you wouldn't believe the number of adults who can't find that button)!

Here are some of the photos she took of me (I won't hold it against her that she hasn't gotten the knack of autofocus yet)

Not too bad for a three year old!

Yep, I let my daughter handle a Canon 40D (no way was she touching my baby, the 5D, though I think it's safe as I doubt she could lift it!)

I had to get some photos of her in action so I ran to get another camera-- it was so funny I wish I had a video camera handy. While I was gone she evidently snapped a few photos of our closet, which I found when dumping these pics to the computer. She was even trying to get Reagan into the act hollering, "Reagan! Smile!"

check out that right index finger -- right on the money. She's my girl!

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that Ellie would know what to do on the other side of the lens.

After all, she's spent two years watching me!

Pajama Day

Friday was pajama day for Ellie's class. And, she woke up Friday with particularly bad bed head. The kind that has a life of it's own; no hair spray necessary. You see, one of Ellie's remants from orphanage days is the ability to rock herself to sleep when her eyes won't shut of their own accord. If she's not completely worn out at bedtime, rocking on her side in bed is her ritual to put herself to sleep. To tame her 'do to more normal appearances requires a quart of detangling spray and a gentle hand from Nathan (and three sizes of combs from wide to fine tooth and one in between) whilst I distract her with a story, singing, or (worst case scenario) M & Ms.

Nathan had the bright idea to not touch her hair on Friday. After all, it was "Pajama Day." Let me note, we did insert a headband to keep the stray hairs out of her eyes -- the resulting look was something sort of like '60's bouffant meets punk rock chic.' I still felt it necessary to let her teacher know we were intentionally letting her attend school this way and that we don't let her sleep in 'til 11:30 and wake her just in time to catch the bus. Here is the excerpt from Ellie's communication notebook that day:

[Me]: 12/5 Since today was pajama day we thought her 'bed head' completed the ensemble. You can see what we contend with each day in the hair dept. (smiley face)

[Ms. K] 12/ 5 We loved it! It looked so cute! I can't believe you all have to control that every day! She walked up to the principal today and gave her a hug and got in her lap! Then Ellie started identifying the shapes in her sweater! It was SO cute!!! Ms. Sampson was so impressed! Have a great weekend! Ms. K (smiley face)

I was horrified.

Wilmore's Old Fashioned Christmas

For those blog readers who have never seen charming little Wilmore before... this is the most activity it sees at night all year.

Our friends (sisters) Holly & Faith live above one of the storefronts downtown and invited us up to their cozy, warm apartment for hot chocolate and cookies (which Ellie was happy to devour). It was a treat to see our Kenyan friends Reuben and Michael (left)! Our conversation wandered to some interesting topics (as conversations are want to do in gatherings of internationals) -- we were trying to figure out how we could come up with some "cows" for Drew (2nd from right) to present to Faith's parents (missionaries in Kenya) at Drew and Faith's wedding this summer (a Kenyan tradition). Apparently the Chick-Fil-A cows don't look 'Kenyan' enough.

Last Post-Placement!

Here's Ellie, with our social worker, Anne at Thursday's last meeting!

Here's Ellie watching the snow fall this morning. She kept saying over and over, "It's snowing!"

12/3

I just had to share this excerpt from Ellie's Communication Notebook today:

She is doing SO well at school! Today she tried almost everything on her plate at lunch, fed herself and used a napkin to wipe her mouth! She was like a little lady! I am so proud of all her accomplishments! Ms. K

2nd Family Anniversary!

In adoption circles, many families celebrate 'gotcha day' -- the day they were given their child and became a family. For us, we technically didn't 'get' Ellie until nearly a month after visiting her daily in the orphanage. We consider the day after Thanksgiving to be our family anniversary of sorts -- the first time the three of us saw each other and started developing family bonds that can only be created from time together. Above are photos taken on our 'family anniversary'. This year we were a few days late -- this particular photo was taken after church Sunday when we were privileged as a family to provide the Advent reading and candle lighting (we were afraid Ellie would want to blow it out, but she was good!).

We celebrated by taking Ellie to see her first movie at the theater (Madagascar 2) -- though we had to take turns holding her seat down so she wouldn't get folded up like a letter in an envelope, she was great! (um, except for tossing two pieces of popcorn on the lady in front of her... at least that's all that we know of...).

Thanksgiving Weekend Pics

Ellie hamming it up for the camera -- eating mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner

Ellie recently started doing this particular finger 'trick' again (she used to do this frequently when we first brought her home). As someone who is not double jointed in any joint, this makes me a tad squeamish but I thought I would catch a picture of it to share with you.

We enjoyed our long weekend and took the opportunity to relax and be with friends. Here we are with Viktor and Kristen playing the new game they taught us this fall (and which has become our new favorite game), Settlers of Catan. (Think, 'Monopoly' meets 'Risk'). We've invented our own 'teams' version. Sidenote, I think it's funny how Reagan snuck his head in trying to get a quick snack while we're all looking elsewhere.

In other Ellie news... she continues to grow taller and leaner. She runs and bounces around everywhere. Her vocabulary grows daily. If she hears a new word that catches her fancy, she will practice saying it over and over. Some of her new words are 'handbag,' 'delicious', and 'sofs' (instead of soft -- by the way, everything is 'sofs' and she will stroke it over and over while telling us with raised eyebrows). Instead of 'ta da!" she says, "ta lah!" Today while waiting for the bus she was excited once again (after a very long break) to see her 'pack pack' (instead of backpack, which she used to say correctly) and then she told me that she would "see ta friends." Sunday she was giving her teddy bears some much needed medical attention and Reagan was apparently wanting some attention too because the next thing we heard was, "Don't bite da bears, Reagan!" Sentences or phrase chunks like this are not commonplace, but we are beginning to hear them more often.