Passions and Personality

Day 8: What are 3 passions you have?

Right now I don't feel like I have an passions.  In the past I have had several so I will relate three of those.

1. Piano.  There is something about playing the piano.  You can express happiness, despair, love, hate, energy, or even lethargy all with the same instrument.  I can get lost in the music as I play, and I can put sound to my feelings.

2. Dance.  I didn't get to do as much formal dance training as I would have liked, but I did pick it back up in college and take dance almost every semester.  Dance is like piano, but instead of sound, it is with movement.  You can also express, and even feel  someone else's emotion with both, which is beautiful.

3. Books.  See post about dream job.

At school Ella's class made personality maps (or something like that).  They wrote their names in the middle and then surrounded it with things that made up their personality, likes, or feelings.  I loved Ella's and was so glad she thought of so many things that make her who she is!

I've Been Pink Slipped

For some reason my kids are obsessed with Post-It Notes.  I bought the girls each a pack of pink Post-Its as a "special treat" (aka cheap item to stop them whining about buying toys) and next thing I know my house is looking like we cut down all the Truffula Trees.

Ella's notes were EVERYWHERE.  Most had questions for us, sometimes relating to the place she put them, some seemingly at random.  Some were social commentary, and some were philosophical.

Livi's post-its were more colorful (literally, not in social commentary or language)

This one reads "Ethan do you wish you had a brother? Sincerely Ella"

This says "Mom you are the best cleaner.  Love Ella" (poor delusional girl).

Some others I liked:
"Dad how much money do you make?  Is it a lot?"
"Dad do you like being funny, you are so funny."
"Mom likes chocolate."
"The sun is bright in the sky."

I Think I Killed A Little Piece Of Her Childhood

Ella: Mom, time to wake up and do my hair!

Me: Arghflagenpa

Ella: Mom, you need to get up and do my hair. And your flowers look sick. Maybe we should water them!?!

Me: (rolling out of bed and trudging to the bathroom) All flowers are dead once you cut them. We give them water to make them last longer, but they are all going to die anyways.

Ella: (shock on face) Oh....

Yep, that right there is why I shouldn't be allowed to interact with people, especially little princess people who honestly believe in unicorns and Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, before 10 a.m.

Over Thinking Things

Saint Patrick's Day came without as much fanfare as Ella would like. The day before she asked me "Mom, what does The Leprechaun bring?"
Me: "What Leprechaun?"
Ella: "The one that comes at night on Saint Patrick's Day."
Me: ??????
Ella: "You know. Like the Easter Bunny and Santa. What does the Leprechaun bring me."
Me: "Um.....nothing."
Ella looking incredulous: ??????
Me: "Sorry, it's not that kind of holiday. Really, people just use this day as an excuse to celebrate being Irish and getting drunk."
Ella: ???? "What's 'drunk'?"
Me: "ARGH, how about we eat a salad or something and call it good?"
Ella: "Fine." Stomps away.

She was so excited about wearing green we she laid out all her clothes ahead the night before. She made sure her shoes, socks, shirt, and hair dooley had green on them. Livi got in on the action and put together her own green 'ensemble' (as we have to call it with my two girls).

Ethan was a little more analytical about the whole thing. He came up stairs that morning wearing absolutely NO green. I told him to go get some green on and he refused. He explained that the traditional color of St Patrick's day is actually blue so he was going to wear blue. I took one look at him and ordered him to get some green on. He then stomped downstairs. I could only imagine him trying to explain to all the kids pinching him as he walked the halls at school that "blue is really the traditional color," and that they should stop. Yeah, that would go over well.

Singing in the Airport

While we waited at the Burbank airport for 5 hours waiting for our plane to come in everyone got a little antsy. There isn't a whole lot to do there, there is only one place to eat, and one little newsstand. The newsstand was having a sale on neck pillows and since we would be landing about 3 1/2 hours later than we planned we hoped to get some sleep on the plane (no one did. It made the next day really fun) so we purchased a couple. For some reason the girls just thought they were the best toys ever.
Then the lack of decent food and time spent in a tiny airport started to weigh on everyone. Livi started running around people as they came off planes, singing at the top of her lungs. We finally got her to sit next to Ella and this is what happened:

It's not that far to jump to this:

Thanks snowstorm. That was awesome.

Who Likes Pizza?

Pizza night at our house has it's up and downs. 4 out of 5 of us LOVE it! One of us is not so favorably inclined toward the yumminess. Here are two enjoying our homemade pizza: Here is one, in time out for throwing a fit (she decided time out would be under there).

The Joys (problems) of Having Two Girls

So we seem to have a problem. The girls are 3 1/2 years apart and thought that would be plenty when it came to wanting each others toys (and in the future, boyfriends). Turns out that is not the case. Livi has REALLY gotten into baby dolls, and Ella doesn't really want to share with her. We have several dolls, but this is a Corolle doll that is the perfect size and squishy enough that Livi loves to carry it around under her arm. While my mom was here it escalated to new heights with Ella asking my mother to "babysit" her doll so Livi couldn't play with it. My mother did what any grandmother would do (okay maybe not, but it totally rocked). She went online and ordered Livi her own. We got the doll today and the girls were so exstatic. I had to tell Ella they were Livi's clothes/accessories because she kept trying to take them all and leave none for Olivia. We decided that Livi could "share" her new things, and that way both girls could play. Here are some videos of the blessed event:

Here Come the Princess Girls

They came in the mail. Ella was so excited! Livi caught the feeling, the fever if you will. They both danced around on their toes as I opened the box, and as I pulled out the silky pink material they both squealed. Then I handed the dress to Ella and Livi collapsed on the floor in a puddle of screams. Luckily there was another, smaller dress in the box. After convincing Livi that the dress would be best put on with help (instead of her preferred method of shoving arm holes over her head) we had two ecstatic (that's a fancy word for happy) little princesses running around the house. It was not fun when I finally made them take off the dresses, and they have asked several times (well Ella asked, Livi points at it and then screams at me) if they can wear them again. I am trying to wait for Julia's wedding so the dresses still look nice, but we will see if my will or my eardrums win out.Here is what the dresses look like with my bridesmaid dress fabric.

The Darker Side of a 4 Year Old Mind, or Just Optimistic?

We were in the car on the way to Ethan's parent teacher conference when Ethan started asking about Heaven. He said "I want to know what Heaven looks like." Ella answered in a cheerful voice, "Don't worry, you'll know soon!"

Thank You "The Rock"

A BIG thank you to Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson for your upcoming film "The Tooth-fairy." My kids have seen the previews and now I have the joy (and Eric has the chagrin) of these wonderful photos of Ethan and Ella dressing up like tooth-fairies (the backpack and pig pillow are their wings):

Videos Back From the Abyss

I've been going through all our pictures and videos, copying things onto our external hard drive, and an online service (no, I'm not obsessive) since our computer keeps threatening to die a horrible death. As I was searching through all the videos I found a couple that I thought were pretty funny and submit them to you for your viewing pleasure.
This first video is from our trip to Disneyland over Thankmus. Mom, Dad, Livi, Ebby and I were waiting for the others as they went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Livi had barely napped all day and was a little slap happy. Poor Ebby is such a good little sleeper...

Next we have Ella and Ethan being silly. Okay, Ella is telling a story and Ethan is doing the silliest dancing ever. (technically this isn't long lost, it was today).

Last we have a video of Livi, who loves to help, but isn't very good at it...

Funny Pictures

Yep, this is how Livi prefers to sleep

Bubble baths rock!

Dancing Queen(s)

...Who just happens to be named, Ella

Ella loves her new tutu/skirt from Thankmus. She wears it at least once a day. Here is one of her "interpretive" dances inspired by her new favorite tutu.

Seriously????

She is seriously asleep. Totally, completely asleep.

If We Only Had A Pool

For Julia- Ella was playing downstairs today while Livi took her morning nap. I told her that when she had finished setting up the playmobil that I would love to see what she was working on. When I was summoned I found that she had created a cute home, full of decorations, a grocery store that the mom of the family could shop for, and a little pond out in the backyard. When I asked about the girl she put by the pond she explained that it was the big sister and she was standing by the water with her music, singing. It reminded me so much of Julia walking around the pool at home singing to herself. I KNOW if Ella had a pool, she would be doing the same thing, and it was so cute to see her position her playmobil girl in that exact pose. In my head I see a little Julia and Ella walking like princesses around my parent's pool singing to themselves. Classic.

Singing Sensation Ella, and Her Back Up Dancer Livi

Livi finally got to turn her car seat around, and thought it was stupid the first time she tried it. She has since found out life is a lot more fun when you can see where you are going. Ella is still addicted to the Twilight soundtrack, and more specifically Muse. Here are my girls enjoying listening to "Super Massive Black Hole" ( a rare treat, because I am a little sick of it after having to listen to it over and over and over and over).