Writing

We have not practiced writing very much but I have shown Elsie a few letters with straight lines. Today I got her to write her whole name for the first time. The s is a squiggly line but everything else works. The first e and l are easy to see the squiggly then a lower case i with a dot on top and another smaller capital e. I was very impressed.

A crazy day

So two days ago Elsie had quite a devious day. I only got a picture of one of the thing she did but I can tell you all about the other. While I was vacuuming and cleaning up the studio I left her with some dry erase markers playing on her easel. I walk by a little while later and there she is fully colored...face, neck, hands and tummy. I stopped her of course and then asked her why she had done it. The first thing she said was bear. Then I got out of her that she wanted to be a Care Bear. When Will was sick this weekend we watched a lot of netflix. One of the things Will played for Elsie was Care Bears. She is now hooked. She had a fit when I said we had to wash her up. I had to tell her we could get a Care Bear costume for her some time. Well now that has turned into a Care Bear costume for each of us mommy, daddy and Elsie. Luckily I splurged and got the washable dry erase markers at the store. I would say it was well worth the extra buck.

A little while later we were upstairs but I was still vacuuming. Elsie had been coloring with crayons on the table. I came out to see what she is doing (it was a little too quiet) and she was under the table. She immediately tried to hide what she had done...which tells me she knew better then do it. She had taken several crayons and drawn on the tile floors and in the grout. I used a magic eraser for the the tile and it came off easy but the grout has taken some scrubbing!!

It makes me feel a little better that both times she got into mischief I was busy cleaning not checking my email or blogging!

Surgery

Surgery is Elsie's new favorite game. Her aunt Julia helped her invent it and it is now a family favorite. The game uses a small puzzle she got for Christmas and her tools from her tool box. The puzzle is placed on the belly of the sick person and then the patient is put to sleep. Once asleep the puzzle is cut off with the saw and then the other tools are used to cut, scoop, pinch, pound and rearrange the tummy area. Of course all the actions are done pretend so there is not any touching except for light taps. Though there is a little sawing action that usually makes Elsie squirm and giggle.

Sugar Cookies

We do not make sugar cookies very often but we did last week. We tried a new recipe and it is by far the best one we have used so far but I am still open to new suggestions. The only thing is it was a hard dough to work with because it was so sticky. But they tasted yummy. Below you will see a typical photo shoot with Elsie. She will not pose any more and often she will scowl at me then act silly and finally I catch a smile. It is a lot of work though. What happened to the days of a loving and willing participant?

Charity's wedding rception

Elsie got a second chance to wear her fancy flower girl dress and wreath. Charity had a beautiful wedding reception out here since none of her relatives here were able to go to the ceremony in NYC. They rented an old mansion down town for the event. Lots of friends and family came and we had a great time. Elsie kept me running so much that I wish I had worn flat shoes! Elsie was not stopping to pose for anyone so these are the best shots I got. Sadly I never took any of the bride and groom...but I guess I have some from the wedding.

A good friend

Elsie and I were watching a little friend of hers one afternoon. They decided to dress up not too strange right. Then they posed for the picture bending down don't ask me why they just did. Three year old kids are strange sometimes.

Friends from Kansas

We are so happy we live in a place where lots of people come to visit. Our good friends Sadie and Samantha or "the twins" came and went to the children's museum with us! They have a little sister now and I was so excited to see her and their mommy. It was so fun to see them all. It took a little bit for the girls to warm up to each other but once they did it was like old times. I only wish our other friends from Kansas could have been there too.

Birds

I am not sure what kind of bird these are but about a month ago they all landed on our back yard. They were only there for a few minutes but there were so many of them. It was amazing to see them all take flight at the same time. I guess those flocks of birds that swoop through the sky together have to land some time right. I have just never seen them so close.

Four generations of Shumways

We finally got a picture of the four generations of the Shumways. Grandpa is 92 (I think) and still doing great. Will and Elsie go out to breakfast with him and Larry and Steven most Saturdays. It is so fun living near family.

Christmas at Grandpa's house

After we spent a little time playing we headed off to Grandpa's house. The first thing to do there was open presents. It was a fun time and we all got such great stuff. Will's favorite was from his 13 year old brother...a tool belt with chocolate ex-lax in it. There is a lot of bathroom humor going on between them so it was just another joke. Elsie got lots of fun dishes and food for her toy kitchen and I got a great new cook book and some lotions. I made Elsie's two grandmas aprons with her hand prints on them....I will be making my mom a bag. I hope to keep adding Elsie's hand prints to them as she grows. The only flaw is we should have started it 3 years ago. Will's dad and Mary prepared a delicious turkey dinner for us all. I wish I had taken a photo of the table it was so pretty. We spent the rest of that day and night there. We had fun playing games and watching some of the new movies they got for Christmas.

Will's present

Will loves hoodies and so this year I decided to get him and Elsie matching hoodies. For those of you who know what this shirt is all about you probably spend way too much time in front of your TV. But of course so do we because Will has every episode of MASH practically memorized. This is from an episode of MASH where the doctors are trying to teach some Korean people to speak English. Frank Burns is just getting done teaching and Hawkeye has come to step in and the first thing he teaches them is "Frank Burns eats worms". Frank gets all upset and leaves. Will was very happy to get a new hoodie and I think I did a good job picking one that fits him.

Christmas morning 2010

We had a great Christmas! We started out the day by trying to keep Elsie in bed with us so her aunt and uncles could get a bit more sleep and grandma could shower. She did a great job just hanging out with us in bed and singing songs. Unfortunately the song I recorded did not come out so we will have to try again sometime soon. Once we all were up Elsie helped grandma pass out all the presents and made a huge mound of her own presents in the middle of the floor. One of Elsie's presents was a tool box. Will and I worked on it together and made it just like the one Will's grandfather had made him as a little boy. It was fun to make and I was so excited to give it to her. She loves to use the tools in her new game surgery. The one gift I had Elsie pick out for Will was band-aids. We were in the store in the pharmacy section and I asked her what we should get for daddy and she said "band-aids I think...we need to get the scary ones." So she picked out spider man band-aids. After we were all done with presents we opened our stockings. Then we had a yummy breakfast of french toast and bacon.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was a lot like last year. We had all of Will's siblings over and his mom and grandfather. We did have a change of menu with BBQ pulled pork instead of ham and mashed potatoes. It was great though and there were still plenty of leftovers. We tried to get Elsie to help tell the story of the birth of Christ but she was a little shy with all the people there. She did get to open one present though. As I ran down stairs to get a few for her to choose from she picked one her cute friend from Kansas had sent her. She loves her snail puzzle which now plays prominently in her new favorite game, surgery (I'll tell you more later). After Elsie was in bed and Grandpa was taken home we played several games of Settlers and then went to bed. Over all it was a fun night.

Making Lemonade

When we go to the grocery store I am often asked if we can buy lemons because Elsie wants to make lemonade. She watches a show at her grandmothers house that has an episode where they make lemonade and have a lemonade stand. I usually do most of the work but here she is trying to squeeze the lemons. Add a little sugar and water and we are done. Then we get to play lemonade stand.