The Things Kids Say...

Ella is very creative and seems to have quite an imagination. She is really getting into "playing pretend" and it's very cute watching her make her animals talk and interact. This evening, after Nate was in bed, Joe, Ella, and I were playing with her barn (which makes several animal sounds that Joe likes to imitate) and small animals. Ella has also recently become very interested in her money and piggy bank. (See previous post.) So, as usual, Ella had her money in one hand, while playing "farm" with the other. Joe asked her what the farmer was going to buy with the money. Ella replied, "Piggy poops." Joe asked her where the farmer would buy piggy poops. Ella quickly replied, "The poop store." Duh, Joe. Shortly thereafter, Ella used Joe's back as a trampoline and my legs as a bridge. Hopefully we tired her out a little bit. It poured down rain all day, so we couldn't get outside. Unless Ella is exhausted, she seems to have a little trouble falling asleep. Lately, she has been crying a lot when we leave, but as soon as we go back up to her room, she stops...so she's playing games with us. We decided to try this behavior chart. If Ella can go to bed without crying, yelling, getting out of bed, etc., she earns a sticker. After accumulating 5 stickers, she gets to pick out a prize from the Dollar Store. She did earn a sticker last night, after going to bed perfectly, but lost it this afternoon after she pulled her chair over to the door, took the chart off her door, and ripped it in half. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. We also got her this new nightlight, as she seemed to be frightened of the dark and of shadows. Here is a brief video of Ella counting to 5 in Spanish:

This past Thursday, Joe and I had a night out! Our favorite babysitter, Sam, came over to watch the kids so Joe and I could go out to dinner and to a concert downtown. We went to a new restaurant called Stir Crazy, and had some delicious Asian inspired dishes. Afterwards, we went to see one of our favorite groups, "Girlyman." Funny name, I know, but AMAZING music. Click here to listen to a sampling of their songs. I first discovered "Girlyman" when they were the opening band for the "Indigo Girls" about 5 years ago. I bought their CD and got Joe hooked, and we've seen almost all of their Wisconsin shows since. And to top it off, we got home to 2 kids sleeping, a clean kitchen, and a babysitter doing her homework. Great night!

On Saturday, we took a little day trip to Madison to visit our friends, Scott and Jenn. (They are the ones responsible for Joe and I meeting.) They are expecting their first child in September, so I hauled a large tote of my maternity clothes for Jenn to sift through. She took a lot off of my hands. Yay! We got to see their house for the first time and had lunch there while we waited for the rain to stop. We were finally able to get outside and despite the cold, rainy weather, we headed over to the Henry Vilas Zoo. The best part about this particular zoo? It's free! Many of the animals were hiding due to the bad weather, but Ella still enjoyed running around. We didn't have a jacket for her, so we had to purchase an over sized sweatshirt in the gift shop. Whoops.

This morning, I met my sister-in-law Liz at a church to participate in a clothing exchange. Basically, you just bring in a bag or two of children's clothing, and leave with a bag or two of different children's clothing. I found some cute things for Nate for this summer and some things for Ella for next year. Not a bad deal! I met Joe and the kids at our church, and then we had a typical Sunday afternoon...lunch, laundry, naps, errands, the usual.

It's really amazing the people you can connect with through blogs. I have been following a couple different blogs lately. You can find links to those blogs on the left hand side. Many blogs are written in order to keep people updated on the health of a child, or maybe the health of the writer. Some are written to update family and friends on a pregnancy or the road to a pregnancy. Lately, a particular blog I have been following, Kayleigh's Story, has really touched my heart and has made me re-examine my faith. I can't even find the right words to describe the way I've been feeling about it. All I know is that I've been thanking God, every chance I get, for my two beautiful, healthy, amazing children. How did I get so lucky?