Life has been busy and we have been focused on enjoying this busy life and have not blogged or really taken many photos.  

Elizabeth's language and imagination have exploded.  She will literally spend thirty minutes telling us a tale within her world of imagination.  I don't even know where she comes up with some of the vocabulary she uses.  

We are partially to blame for her whacked out mind bending tales.  Each night we read three books and tell two stories.  Originally these stories were summaries of days past or days to come but have now evolved to what she calls 'stories I have not heard in a whhhilllle'.  This means a made up, silly story that is outrageous and funny.  I tell you it is a challenge to come up with two new stories EVERY NIGHT.  Every once in a while you are allowed to repeat one that she particularly likes but that is not often.  

Below are a few photos we have managed to take the past month of so....

She still cuddles.  Thank goodness.

41st Birthday celebration back east.

Riggor... the only dog Elizabeth likes.  Mostly cause Riggor does not lick.  Fair enough.

This is her performing a 10 minute song and dance routine for relatives.  It was only 10 minutes cause I cut her short

Kathryn comes!

Kathryn flew to Seattle on her 9th birthday by herself! We were all very excited to have her arrive and thrilled to know that she loved the solo flying. Were not sure what we would have done if it had gone badly as she was going to have to return in a few days.

They slept together in the bunk bed and the first night neither really slept well as both were beyond excited. I checked in on them at 11pm and found Kathryn asleep and Elizabeth just sitting awake. Around 3am Kathryn woke and colored for an hour or so before finally passing out again.

Kathryn loved reading to her at night and it was so cute watching them cuddled together. One morning while playing in the room they came upon the books that grandma recorded. They both sat together listening while Jeff and I teared up in the hallway.

We spent the next few days running them ragged and both passed out for naps and bedtime. There was a Purim fair with face painting, bouncy machines and crafts.

We also spent tons of time just playing around the house and yard although Kathryn deemed Seattle 'FREEZING'.
I hope these girls continue to find a friendship as the years pass. I love thinking of them together as adults sharing their lives.

Just a Day

She is just fun. She is our little buddy. She has funny things to say. We need to be better about recording this time as it is just sailing by so fast. We have also been slack about taking photos lately so today when the sun broke we headed out to capture the afternoon.
She still has fun ways of saying things.

Poop - poey poey

Beginning of something is referred as end (she just can't get this right but somehow uses 'end' appropriately)

Elizabes, basroom, kashleen - the 'th' is not happening

She has two imaginary friends. She doesn't really play with them but talks about them frequently. Alecea and Josie. Josie is a boy. We don't know anyone with these names. Just something she came up with in her little head. Often times she will report that Josie has taken something from her or has forgotten to share. She wants me to intervene. I remind her that she has a strong voice and can tell Josie herself.

My mom also had an imaginary friend whose name was Simra. I love that Elizabeth is following in her lead.
She has a couple of funny noises. When she eats something she really likes she will hum and hum and hum throughout the meal (my mom also did this).

Elizabeth also has what we call her 'thinking' noise. It is hard to describe but sort of like a blowing of air through her teeth. She makes this whenever she is concentrating or deeply involved in an activity. She has actually made both these noises since infancy. I hope they don't go away but I imagine it may get annoying to others when taking the SAT.

At the end of our photos today she then sat quietly and fed her baby for quite some time. As she will say "I am such a good little mommie". I hope I am also.

A Trailer pull

Skiing at the end of the earth part II

We spent the last week with the Corvalis crew in the Methow. It is the same place we went last year with our friends Kyle and Ann . We actually rented the house next door. We missed them desperately this year!

The little town of Mazama where we stayed is just that... little. There is one small store, a place to rent skis, 200 km of cross country ski trails and a boat load of snow. Our house did not have cell phone coverage, no cable and nothing to do but play in the beautiful wilderness.

Lucia and Elizabeth had an incredible time together and would go hours without needing anything from us grown ups. Oscar mostly just watched the fun.
Jeff was the primary Elizabeth pack mule although we were particularly impressed with Scott lugging both Lucia and Oscar along especially when on skate skis.

We had a home made sledding hill from snow that fell off the roof. There really was an incredible amount of snow and even bright sun each day.

We got the girls on skis. Elizabeth was so proud of herself and keeps saying "I'm a skier now".
Elizabeth and Lucia mostly played babies all day long. Here they are both "cooking babies in our bellies". So cute!!

This is going to have to be an annual trip. Next year we'll try and wrangle Kyle and Ann out this way again (a test to see if they are one of the 6 folks reading this blog).

The Sun will Come out Tomorrow

There is an obsession in our house with all things Annie. Was cute at first but we are getting quite sick of the soundtrack. She sings, hums and talks about Annie all day long.

Stuff

She says things daily that make us stop and laugh. She announced one morning "Momma chocolate make my belly feel good". She has fallen in love with the movie Annie but wants to make sure that 'Ms. Hannigan won't come here will she'. When asked about Annie she will declare 'I would actually really like for Annie to come to my house'.

The other morning with Jeff she wanted to eat breakfast on our high bar stool but he also needed to take a shower. She promised she would be fine so he reluctantly agreed, set her breakfast up, placed her on the high stool and went off to shower quickly. When soaped up he heard her screaming hysterically of course thinking she has taken a digger he ran in the kitchen where she immediately stopped screaming and calmly said 'I need a napkin'. She can be a wee bit dramatic at times. No comment on where that trait comes from.

Christmas Eve Park Fun

We spent the holidays in Memphis having more forced family fun then anyone counted on. Between visits to the park (check out the standing and sliding below), games of house tag, dance off parties and learning to ride a bike we remain thankful that there were no broken limbs. It was a bit of a wild ride. Elizabeth has taken 2-3 hour naps every day since returning to Seattle. We'd do it all over again.

Even Auntie Laura got in on the fun, often she is the instigator.

Highlight for sure was Pops and Bill sliding. Complete nut jobs!

Lets go snowing!!

This past week we constructed our annual plan of how to survive Seattle rain. Folks that don't live in Seattle think we all must just love grey and rain. We don't. Some do but they are nuts. The rest of us devise various plans of how to survive the long rainy months. Plans include escaping to sunnier locations, happy lights (if you don't know what these are you don't live in a gray climate) and, for us this year, bi-monthly trips to the snow. Elizabeth calls this 'going snowing'.

She is trying out snowshoes for the first time. The mostly make her laugh. She loves the skiing as this involves her merrily riding along in the chariot sled (you can see it in the picture above). Jeff is a rock star for pulling her along and at quite a good pace. Helps when she is shouting 'faster daddy, yeah, faster'.She loves to build a snowman and was even willing to concede that it can be small as their was no fresh snow.
She did insist that the snowman needed eyes and a mouth. She didn't mind that he wasn't smiling.

We just have to remind ourselves that rain in Seattle means snow less than an hour away!

Diapers be gone

Elizabeth loves her diapers. I'm sorry, that is not accurate. Elizabeth LOVES her diapers. Why do we know that? Well because she says "I LOVE my diapers" and she says it often. We prepared her prior to her third birthday that the diapers were going away. There were previous attempts at saying goodbye to the diapers that failed miserably partly due to her not being ready, partly due to us not having the energy to stick with it and partly due to the fact that she LOVES her diapers.
So over labor day weekend we said bye bye diapers and it went well. Then she went to school and she was devastated to wear panties. She cried and her teachers said 'Elizabeth is a happy girl and we don't want her to be sad so she will wear diapers'. Elizabeth immediately reported to me that 'I get my diapers back at skoolg. I love skoolg. I wear panties at home but not at skoolg.' I was annoyed for a moment but then thought of my mom. How she could never stand for us kids to cry much less her grandkids. All she wanted was for us to feel safe and be loved. How she would be so happy that Elizabeth is loved this much at her 'skoolg'.
So last week, Gui, her teacher, said Elizabeth is now ready and won't wear diapers to school. We told Elizabeth and guess what... she was ready. Not a tear, no sadness, no fits. Guess her teachers were right. So happy they know my little girl this well.

Dinner Time

I swear she has manners. She uses her utensils for eating, napkin for spills and even says a lovely 'may I be scused' when leaving the table. Dessert on the other hand, especially ice cream, allows for deviations from our good manners. Elizabeth, like her mom, does not want to miss even a drop of her ice cream.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Elizabeth went to her first play this past weekend. It was fun talking it through as she didn't really understand what it meant to see a play. In her mind it was something like her dance class. She kept saying 'we are going to a play and momma and daddy will sit and watch my performance. I can't sit with momma'.

I would then try and explain comparing it to a concert but she didn't get it and wanted to then know if she would be able to take a bow at the end. Even though she can now articulate I know there is so much happening inside that little head and I so wish I could see those thoughts. Despite not knowing what was going to happen she was thrilled to just go.


At the end we got to go up front and meet the actors. She told them all 'thank you for the performance'. When asked what her favorite part was she declared loudly 'the dancing!'.

The play fort for the forty year old girl in our family

One of my favorites parts of having a kid is being able to play like a kid. Consequently part of my request as we did the back yard was to add a play fort. I have always wanted a tree house and since we don't really have any large trees in our yard a fort would do just fine.


The back yard has been a wasteland and until this summer I had only ever been back there twice which is sad and time to remedy. We had to haul in tons of dirt and bark to cover up the wasteland and then planted well over 150 plants.


Added a nice little patio and fort construction began. Elizabeth loves to help daddy cause 'girls can be workers'. We mostly do a lot of running around with the tape measure which entertains Jeff as he works.

The bridge is up and functional.

Luckily the three year old finds the fort equally entertaining and I'm just happy that I can keep playing.
Don't be concerned by the lack of sides as it is not quite done yet. Still need to add the ladder, slide, roof and pulley system.

Happy Halloween

Puppy Dog and the Princess

Monsters are funny!!

Punkmen Patch

Elizabeth and I have never been to a pumpkin patch and today Jeff decided it was high time to correct this travesty. Who knew the things that you could do at a pumpkin farm.

Well the first thing you do is take a hay ride then sink in the mud.

Then there is corn to eat.

There are ponies to ride and

bikes for all sizes to ride (well not all should fit but we make do).

There are also crazy hand made cow trains that are pulled at amazingly fast speeds by a mini tractor.

That is enough fun that both mom and dad need to experience the joy/terror.

Oh and there are also pumpkins however I prefer how Elizabeth says it 'I love the punkmen farm!'

Happy Halloween and remember that the mantra is 'monsters are funny'. Much needed mantra for my very concerned three year old.