Interview With a 3 Year Old

I had seen this interview on a number of blogs and decided to ask E these questions tonight. I typed what she said verbatim.

1. What is something Mommy always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes Mommy happy?
I make good choices

3. What makes Mommy sad?
When I don’t make good choices

4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
When you say silly things

5. What was Mommy like as a child?
Me is a special gift (not sure what this means)

6. How old is Mommy?
5

7. How tall is Mommy?
big

8. What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
Play

9. What does Mommy do when you're not around?
Do her own business

10. If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
It will be for a baby

11. What is Mommy really good at?
working really hard

12. What is Mommy not very good at?
just finding groceries (maybe she is referring to my inability to go to Target and buy only groceries)

13. What does Mommy do for her job?
she orders tote bags (for those who do not know I am an Independent Consultant for Thirty-One)

14. What is Mommy's favorite food?
Broccoli and rolls

15. What makes you proud of Mommy?
for doing her own business

16. If Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
A cheerleader (for those of you who know me really well you will get a good laugh out of this one)

17. What do you and Mommy do together?
we go shopping

18. How are you and Mommy the same?
I’m gray and you are gray, our body (I think we need some sun)

19. How are you and Mommy different?
You have a shirt on and I do not have a shirt on

20. How do you know Mommy loves you?
because I am a perfect gift for you and I love you so much

21. Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
the grocery store and the bathtub

Christmas Gifts E Style

E decided yesterday that she really needed to buy Daddy a Christmas gift. We were headed to Sam.s as a family and I told her that maybe she and I could find something for him while we were there. She was SO excited! Daniel needs a drill and as soon as we walked in there was a really nice one on display. I called E over and suggested that as a gift for her daddy. Her response, "I'm not buying daddy THAT for Christmas! I want to buy him a kid's book." So, while daddy was taking care of something else we walked over to look at the books. With a little help from mom, E picked out the classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We quickly found daddy and hid the book in the cart. A few minutes later E asked daddy, "Do you want to share your Christmas present with me?" Aha...the real reason behind E's gift of choice. Of course Daniel agreed to share his present. E then proceeded to show him what she picked and asked if we could read it at bedtime. A little while later as we were finishing up our shopping trip E spotted a beautiful, large bouquet of flowers and exclaimed, "Daddy, we need to buy mommy some fresh flowers for Christmas!" Thanks to my sweet girl I have a gorgeous table display of flowers. Merry Christmas, sweet E!

What's In Your Fridge?

Yesterday at nap-time we could not find E's lovey. I searched our house high and low. I looked in all of the usual places to no avail. E really needed a nap and mommy really needed her to take a nap but no lovey = no nap. I finally was able to convince her to lie down and I continued the hunt for the missing lovey. I checked the freezer and then decided to check the refrigerator. Something caught my attention in the vegetable crisper drawer and upon opening it this is what I found....

A Lesson in Sharing

This morning E and I were working on our new memory verse, "Do not fear for I am with you" (Isaiah 41:10). As we were driving to school we were talking about what this means. Here is the conversation which followed.

Me: We do not need to be afraid because God is with us all the time.
E: Yes, God is with me and I am not afraid. But what about the other people's god.
Me: We all share the same God. There is only one God.
E: I don't want to share my God.

I think Daniel and I have some teaching to do. HA!

Be Kind

Scripture Memory

I saw a great idea for scripture memorization with little ones on this blog. I have not had a chance to make the cards yet but decided E and I could get started on the first Bible verse. This morning we talked about Joshua 24:15. E had previously made a picture of a house using different shapes while at a friend's house and was wanting to repeat that activity this morning so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to introduce this verse. This activity allowed us to work on shape and color recognition and then we worked on our Bible verse. I am looking forward to teaching E about the Bible and hope that by this time next year she and I will have memorized 26 Bible verses.

I Want to Remember

My MIL gave me a book a while back where I could record all of the funny or cute things E has said but I want to be able to put them in the book in chronological order so until I can find the time to go through all my old blog posts and FB statuses I need to record things here.

While we were in FL this past week visiting family E said one of the funniest things she has said in a while. We were visiting "the cousins" at their house and the kids asked to go play in the front yard. I had just told K that E could go outside with them but that an adult would need to go outside with them. In the kitchen E was talking to Aunt Kate and Aunt Kate said the same thing. E responded, "that's ok, I can be the adult." She is growing up way too fast.

The next morning as we were packing up to head to the airport E was talking about her time with the cousins. She said, "H is the sweetest boy. I just wanted to hug him so much!" She does love her cousins and could not give H enough hugs. So sweet!

When I Grow Up....

This was the conversation E and I had in the car one morning this week while I was driving her to school.

E: Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a doctor, a fireman and a cowgirl. Do you want to be a cowgirl?
Me: I would love to be a cowgirl.
E: OK, we need to get hats and ponies.

This conversation actually made me a little sad. My baby girl is growing up. This is the first time she has ever used the phrase, "When I grow up..." It caught me a little off guard. This conversation also made me smile just a bit because she wanted me to be a cowgirl with her. I guess Daniel and I need to start saving for a horse!

Meet the Teacher / First Day of School

I am quite delinquent in posting on this blog. There are a number of things that happened over the summer that will never make it on here but I need to live in the now so this will be my last "past" post.

E started pre-school last week. She is a Green Cheetah this year and will frequently say she is a "mean, green cheetah!" Funny thing is there is not a mean bone in this little girl. Although E can be a little overly aggressive she is very compassionate and quick to apologize when she has hurt someone.

The week before school started we attended Meet the Teacher night. We were happy to find that one of E's teacher's from My Morning Out had moved up and is an assistant teacher in her new Pre-K classroom. Several of E's friends from last year are in her new class as well. We have been blessed with a wonderful school and caring and compassionate teachers.

Ms. Toni
Ms. Carolyn, E's teacher from last year
First Day of Pre-K 3

I was looking back at last year's first day of school pictures and our girl has grown so much. I cannot wait to take a picture on our last day of Pre-K 3 and see how much she has changed. Before we know it our precious little one will be headed to Kindergarten. Somebody please slow down the time!

School At Home

I have no desire to homeschool Eleanor. I do not think she needs to know how to read before entering Kindergarten and I am not worried about whether or not she can correctly identify a parallelogram before her fourth birthday. Eleanor on the other hand is very interested in learning and frequently asks me to be her teacher. So....we have recently started having "school" a few mornings a week. We work on a letter of the alphabet and then play a game or work on a craft. Eleanor received a "Big Box of Fun" from some dear friends for her birthday. It is literally a big bin full of all sorts of fun school/craft/learning activities. This box has made "school" so much more exciting. A couple of weeks ago we were reviewing the letter B and here are a few of the activities we did.

B is for beads, bugs and butterflies

sorting beads by color
bug patterns
Handprint butterfly

Just a Few Pictures

Good morning, birthday girl!

Nana and Eleanor

Eleanor with GiGi and Pops

My precious family

One Spectacular Summer

Summer is quickly coming to an end as evidenced by the cooler temps and E's first day of school rapidly approaching. I am sad to see summer go but am anticipating great things this fall.
Our summer was chock full of playdates, trips to the library, trips to the zoo, swimming, splashing, bike riding, outdoor play, family outings and ice cream cones.

Little E is now 3. My sweet baby is becoming a beautiful, independent, strong-willed little girl who never ceases to amaze me. Just this morning after being up in the middle of the night with a high fever and some tummy troubles, she awoke with a smile on her face and said,"Mommy the sun is awake. Time to wake up. I feel so much better!" Her vocabulary is like that of a 5 year old and her reasoning/negotiating skills are not far behind. She will make a great lawyer one day! HA! I know that God will use this little girl in mighty ways and she will go far in life because of her spit-fire spirit and never-failing persistence. E has grown leaps and bounds this summer not just physically but emotionally as well and I cannot wait to see how she continues to grow and develop in the coming months.

E insisted on holding the sign this way. She kept saying it was upside down when it was the correct way. I finally figured out she thought the "3" was an "E"

Wordless Wednesday

Our Little Gymnast

Trampoline

Obstacle Course - Straddle Jump

Low Beam - Jump and Balance

Bars - Pike Swing

Bear Crawl

Backward Roll - Hands in the ovenCome on toesand roll!

It's Soccer Time

We recently enrolled E in a soccer camp. It fell at just the right time with Women's World Cup so E was inundated with soccer. She was watching it on tv, mommy was talking about it regularly and to top it off she was getting to play soccer. We still have two more sessions and I know E is looking forward to them.

Oops, false start! Wait for the whistle.

Run, run , run as fast as you can!
Trapping the ballDribbleHeaded towards goal
GOOOAAALLLLL!

Splish Splash

Today was full of water fun. First we headed to the neighborhood sprinkler park with our buddies Charlie and Ben and then this afternoon E played with Isabella in the pool. I am worn out from all the time in the sun but as I am working on this post E is outside riding her bike while daddy is grilling dinner. Gotta love summer!

Jones Island

Yesterday we headed to Jones Island to swim and picnic with some friends. I am not a big fan of lake swimming but it was a tolerable experience. Eleanor loved her new floaties and the freedom they provided. The water only got about 4 feet deep and she floated and swam all over the place. I have a feeling we will be doing a little more lake swimming in the coming weeks so I am going to need to get over my fear.

Floating
Our sweet friends - Ryan, Amy and John
The lighting is terrible in this picture but I love it just the same
My little fish

I Like to Move it Move it

The park districts in the area where we live are wonderful. They offer tons of stuff for families to do for a small fee but a lot of times for free. One of the free summer activities are concerts in the park. This week we met our friends John, Ryan and Amy for a concert and some playtime. Eleanor, John and Ryan enjoyed dancing and running around.

Things I Do Not Want to Forget

Eleanor says some of the cutest things and I do not want to forget them.

* a skunk is a stunk
* a sucker is a stucker
* she likes to do nastics (gymnastics)
* she likes to refer to things as huge
* fireworks are those lights in the sky
* we take daddy's clothes to the drive-cleaner (dry cleaner)
* cheeseburgers are still burger cheese
* dokie dokie - okie dokie
* Walking Zoo (Milwaukee Zoo)
* Lincoln Parking Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo)
* Guino - Penguino (Spanish for Penguin)

Deep in the Heart of TX

This past weekend Daniel and I traveled to Austin to attend a wedding. It was also the weekend of our 5th Anniversary. We enjoyed a weekend away while E stayed in Illinois with a dear friend and had the time of her life. Here are just a few of the things she did while we were gone...ate McDonald's twice in one day, spent multiple hours at a splash park, went to the Children's museum, had lunch at a certain restaurant that has a scary looking mouse, awful pizza and money stealing games (this was definitely a treat as I try to avoid this place at all costs). While E was enjoying all of these fun activities Daniel and I were enjoying the 107 degree temperatures of Austin, TX. We visited the UT campus, the State Capitol and Star Hill Ranch.

Door Hinges on Capitol Building

Capitol
Rotunda

Longhorn Stadium

Puddle Jumper