Happy 1st Birthday Ellie!!!

Ellie turned 1 yesterday, February 27th!! She has had a big birthday weekend! We went to Edventure Children's Museum yesterday and ate lunch at LePeep with Gammy and Sissy. She and Emmary had a wonderful time playing and learning at the museum. Ellie's favorite was shopping and pushing the grocery carts. She also loved sliding down the ice slide. Emmary liked everything but the moo-ing cow.

Today we had a family birthday party for Ellie. We had a giant cupcake cake which was super yummy. Ellie had a great time opening presents and playing with the balloons. Emmary was a great big sister and helped her blow out the candle and open her presents.

Shopping!

Ellie Sliding on the Ice Slide!

Emmary the Dentist

Fishing

Emmary Playing "Ice Hockey"

Birthday Girl!

Opening Presents!

Ellie's Birthday Cake!

Lost

We had to go to Target to pick up prescriptions today. Well, while we were waiting Gordon went to look at CDs and I had the girls in the stroller looking at the Valentine's stuff. Emmary loves people who work at Target. She can spot them a mile away. And they are all her friends. There are about 10 people at Target on a first-name basis with her.

Well, she spots one (a new employee, I believe) and hops out of the stroller and says "Hi- we have lost our Daddy- have you seen him? We need help." I am right behind her and say no- we haven't lost Daddy he is in the CDs. She is greatly relieved (Emmary and the worker.) And we go to the CDs. On the way up the aisle I tell her she did a very good job finding a Target employee and telling them she was afraid she lost her Daddy. We talked about how if she can't find Mommy or Daddy she should find an employee and say, "I can't find my Mommy or Daddy and my name is Emmary."

Of course, she had to practice. So, as soon as we get up the aisle she hops out of the stroller and runs as fast as she can to the pharmacy to "find an employee." I run after her pushing the stroller and Ellie is cracking up at going so fast- not fast enough though. She has already told the three pharmacists and employee checking out at the pharmacy that "she can't find her Mommy and Daddy and that her name is Emmary." Thankfully, she is "friends" with two of the pharmacists and they already know her name and that I am coming up behind her.

Dress Up

Emmary knows how to dress herself- she just prefers not to. Well, I have been thinking that she is almost 3 1/2 and should be dressing herself everyday now. Yesterday she was ready to get dressed and wanted me to dress her and I was doing 30 other things and she did not want to wait- so I decided it was time. I told her she needed to get dressed by herself. A huge tantrum followed and a speech about how she was not big enough. I explained that she was big enough and that all her friends dress themselves and that if she did not start dressing herself she was going to be developmentally delayed and we would have to tell the doctor. Of course she dressed herself perfectly and beautifully.

Today we took her to the doctor to check her cough and runny nose to make sure it wasn't anything more serious. She had an ear and sinus infection- but most importantly- everyone at the doctor's office knows she can dress herself. We walk in to the two receptionists "My name is Emmary and don't worry- I can dress myself." The nurse calls us back "I can dress myself- I am big enough now- will you tell Dr. Cabiness?" We wait and Dr. Cabiness comes in "Do you know what? I can dress myself- see!!! (as she proceeds to undress herself to demonstrate her dressing abilities.) Thankfully, Dr. Cabiness says awesome and gives her a high-five so she is ready to move on. The check-out ladies also know that she can dress herself and that Dr. Cabiness said that was great.

So- if you didn't hear- Emmary can dress herself. Now we are working on what to do about the outfits she picks out. (she only likes leggings)

Walking!!

It is official- Ellie is now a walker! She has been walking a little since before Christmas but has been pretty much only walking for the last week or so. She now prefers walking over crawling! She is now working on running. Well- not quite. But I am sure before too long- she is following Emmary around everywhere! Her favorite thing to carry around? Shoes. She likes them more than purses.

The Bookshelf

Emmary has a really bad habit of pulling all of the books of her bookshelf in her room before she goes to sleep. Every night we hear them falling to the floor. And there are lots of them. I love books, espescially children's books, so we have an abundance of them. I have to pick them up every morning and get them in the right order because I am obsessive about books being arranged in like groups and can't stand for them to backwards on a shelf. Well, she pulled them all off the shelf during rest time yesterday and had them thrown everywhere and had ripped pages out of several of them. I got mad and told her that I was taking all of her books out of her room. So when she went over to Pop and Ma's house that evening we moved her bookshelf out of her room into the hallway. And once again, my "punishment" backfired. She ran down the hallway to get her bath and she saw her bookshelf. She was so excited. She ran to tell Daddy about it and said "Daddy- my bookshelf has been moved to exactly where I have always wanted it. I have dreamed about having it in the hallway. I love it!!" Foiled again.