Snapshots of the day

We had nice weather today for December, it was sunny and I don't know how warm but the girls and I spent quite a bit of time outside playing with the dog and cleaning up the yard and chicken house. I set the baby on a sheet and she happily scooted about (she doesn't crawl, she scoots) while I moved chicken litter from the hen house to the garden beds and raked leaves into the pen. I think I'll do fine this winter if we have lots of this kind of weather!

At one point I overheard Ellie calling Julia "Baby Chestnut" as part of some game they were playing. Sophie told her that was a weird name, to which Ellie replied "what else do you want me to call her, Baby Chester? Now THAT would be a weird name!"
Ah, the impeccable logic of the 6-year-old.

Anna now has an imaginary sister named Daisy that rides in her flower car and follows us as we drive around town. Anna has taken to shouting to me at regular intervals as I'm driving, "I see her, Mom, look, it's my sister right beside us in her car!" If I don't acknowledge Daisy, she'll just keep screaming at me until I do, which can be pretty distracting in heavy traffic. She (Anna) also refused to get into the van today until I pretended to take Daisy's hand and help her into her car. Just add that to my list of things to do.

The day was pleasant considering we started the morning with a fire in the living room. Tony got up early, and went into the living room, and screamed "Fire!!" which woke us up pretty fast. It was a mess. I guess I left a candle burning and it ignited the plastic tray of Julia's high chair which was for some reason sitting on top of the bookcase next to the candle and some papers. I could have burned down the whole house had it all ignited sometime earlier in the night, or had Tony not decided to get up early. It has made me painfully aware of our lack of emergency planning, so we're making a fire safety plan right away. I'm also going to get a fire extinguisher and replace batteries in the smoke detectors.

I leave you with a several months old but really cute photo of Julia.

Highlights from conversations with Eleanor

I haven't posted many of these stories lately because I began to wonder if our beloved readers would rather just skip the stories and look at pictures of the kids, but I really love telling them and it occurred to me that the blog is also for me to enjoy, so here goes:

This one is from dinner last night, when Tony and I were discussing the new handwriting books that the girls are working in and how they will correct the problems that the little girls have with letter and number reversals.
(this from Ellie:) "Well, I can't reverse the number 8! But I can reverse 2, and 4, and 3, and 5...."
As her doting parents we of course see this as evidence of her budding genius. :)

And another from a few days ago, when Ellie was doing her characteristic wandering around the house and talking to herself, she came into the room and said to me "So mom, if I'm not Good, and I'm not a Jerk, then just what am I?"
I don't actually know who told her she wasn't good, but I'm afraid it's mostly true. ;) She also isn't a Jerk, so I guess she's just a funny little kid.

Ellie's New Toy

Here we have the cute little girl pushing something in her stroller...





What could it be, that beloved toy she's playing so nicely with?



Why, it's Log!

Eleanor

This child is a bit scary. Here's evidence I found under the table this afternoon:


I wasn't sure at first whether it was Sophie or Ellie who drew it, but Ellie took credit and explained to me that this is Hello Kitty and her little sister, who turned into a mermaid, and also happens to be bleeding. She wouldn't say why the little sister was bleeding, she just is and you can tell by the red dots where the blood is. Hmmm.

Overheard from the bathroom...

at dinner this evening, from Eleanor, who left the table to go potty,

"Alas, I peed on the floor by accident!"

What a kid. Questionable potty skills but extensive vocabulary. Oh well, I guess the one will catch up with the other eventually.

Random Silliness

We have been joking about making a music score for our 'Jacobs Circus, the Musical'. Ellie makes up so many little songs, it gave us the idea to do a musical of our life.

The list of songs so far:

• 'Lets Walk to Bed', in which Ellie sings of bedtime,
  

• Chuggy Chan, an ode to Maggie the bear-dog (this is one of her silly nicknames),
  

• Chubbly Bubbly Boo, an ode to Anna. Chubbly Bubbly Boo is one of Anna's silly nick names.

• The Rain Song. Ellie sang this song when she played in the rain a few days ago, which goes like "When you get in the rain, you are wet! You're not dry! You are cold! You're not warm!" I wish I filmed Ellie singing that one.
• I Do Believe In Sandwiches. In the newer Peter Pan, they have a part where they bring Tinkerbell back to life by saying "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!", Ellie randomly started singing "I do believe in sandwiches! I do! I do!".
  

Ellie reads a book

Edited to Add:
Ellie didn't know I was filming her until right at the end. The book she's "reading" is Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton.

Four at Last

Ellie is now four years old. Her birthday (today) was quite an affair. We progressed from happy surprise as she woke up this morning ("You mean I'm four right now?") to telling everyone what to do because she was the birthday girl ("Sophie you can't wear that today because it's my birthday") and on to shrieking meltdown whenever anything happened that wasn't to her liking ("She cutted in front of me, I was walking there!") and using the threat of no cake to try and manipulate ("That's it, Sophie isn't getting any of my cake.")
By this evening she was a complete mess. All of my attempts to get her to take a nap had failed. Her birthday dress was filthy, her hair was falling out of her crooked birthday pony tails, and she was oscillating between a melt down state and a whiny repetition of "When do I get to eat the cake? When are we opening my presents?"

We had a nice dinner in spite of it all (just the 6 of us) and ate some of the cake (with sprinkles and blueberries, according to Ellie's specifications) and opened presents and everyone was happy for a few minutes. When Anna saw the cake she said "Yeah! Coo-kie!"

the cake:


the three littles:


Ellie with her new shirt, necklace, and doll:


We took a short walk after dinner and when we got home Ellie was so exhausted that she collapsed onto the floor in her anguish, yelling "I'm not going to bed! I'm not tired! You go to bed! I'm not going to bed!"

Five minutes after this tirade I found her asleep on the floor. Maybe she'll be a bit calmer tomorrow. (sigh) Four is supposed to be easier than three, isn't it?

Another quick Ellieism

I have lots of things to post, but I had to add this first. This from Ellie this morning at breakfast after Margaret said she was very ANIMATED today: "I'm not animated. Anna is animated. I'm ELLIMATED."

Ellieisms (or random funny Ellie stories)

The other day we were looking for the DVD remote, and I asked "Has anyone seen the remote?" Eleanor answered "Yes!" and then said "it was on the sofa, then it was in the kitchen, then it was in the bathroom, and now it's lost."
At the Jacobs Circus someone is always trying to locate something they've misplaced. I've posted before about Eleanor's less than helpful input when we're looking for something. When she did it again the other day, I realized something. When asking Eleanor if she knows where something is, never ask "Have you seen X", rather ask her directly if she know where X is right now. Because if you ask her if she's seen it, the answer is likely "yes," she has seen it, many times, in fact. When she gives a list of all of the places she's seen it, "on the sofa, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, under the bed," and then ends the list with "but now it's lost" she's only answering the question she was asked.

I haven't posted before about Ellie's embarrassing fascination with the names of body parts and with bodily functions, because they're usually too gross to mention, but this one cracked me up.
We were visiting at the house of some friends who were hosting a celebration in honor of their son's 16th birthday. Ellie was seated next to the dad as he was busy putting candles on the cake, and she leaned over to him and said "Hey, listen to this" (pause) "PP and Jam!" and then she just cackled so loud everyone around was laughing with her. Get it, not PB and Jam, but PP and Jam. I don't even know where she got that one.

OK, I have one more that might not translate well, but I'll give it a try. Ellie frequently, when asked to do something, will invent some reason why she can't do it. I've come to expect it, so when I say "Ellie, it's time to clean up this paper mess" I expect her to immediately say "My arms hurt too bad" or something of the sort. The other day she had a bunch of toys all over the living room that she was finished with and I said "Ellie, it's time to pick up this mess." She immediately said "Ummmm" as she was trying to decide what excuse to use, then said "I'm so embarrased." (pause) "And, I have a tummy ache."

Eleanor

is now 3.5 years old. She is quite the little character. She looks so much like Tony, that we aren't all that surprised to hear stories of his behavior as a small child that remind us of her. She is, as Tony says, like a ping pong ball. She bounces from one activity to another, from one person to another, rarely pauses to look around, and rarely listens to instructions. We call her the "Ellie alarm" because she wakes up promptly at 6:30 every morning, and once she's awake she pesters everyone in the vicinity until they get up. The Ellie alarm has no snooze button.
Eleanor is also a talented artist and she produces many, many, projects each day. She looks to Sophia for inspiration, and it becomes more difficult all the time for us to tell her drawings from Sophie's. Sophie is nearly 7, by the way.

Here are some of Ellie's recent drawings:


(she even cut this girl out by herself)

(this is a squirrel)

Last night Ellie cut her finger somehow and it was obviously really bothering her. She was tired and whiney already, so it was quite a production. After a bit she came to me and said "Mom, I think I need Jesus to start all over and remake me."



Isn't she cute?

The Monday After

We finished reading the Deathly Hallows yesterday, I enjoyed it immensely, and I think we all feel better knowing what became of Harry! This morning it's back to life as usual after several weeks of crazy. We re-arranged the bedrooms so that the girls now have a "dormitory" where they will all sleep and a "playroom" where they can spread out and do their thing. We have before and during pictures, but no after pictures yet because the work is still in progress. We also spent a nice week at Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jo's house where we visited with Aunt Lena and Baby Katherine.

This morning Sophie and Ellie had a snack outside on the grassy knoll.

And Ellie made this picture of Harry Potter (in the center), and his friends Ron (on the left) and Hermione (on the right, wearing her "time stopper" around her neck.) The squares at the bottom are the steps, according to Ellie, I think this is a scene from The Prisoner of Azkaban movie. I thought it was remarkable for a just barely 3-year-old.

Here I go to try and clean up the house!

Eleanor is three!

Eleanor's birthday was Monday, but due to the yucky cold we're all passing around I didn't get this up until today. Happy Birthday, Ellie, we love you so much!