Baby Loves Disco

Today we took Ellie downtown to her first disco! Yep, she went to a real dance club today. Chris, Ellie and I had so much fun dancing around the club to our favorite dance music. She ran around for 2 hours straight and had a ball. She even participated in a dance contest and did a great job. Chris and I were amazed at how well she followed the dance teacher’s instructions.



In between dancing, we went over the “chill area” where they had lots of healthy snacks for the kids, juices, books, and toys. What a great way to spend a morning with our little dancing queen!

Ellie's Birthday Celebrations

Ellie’s Sesame Street Birthday

Yes, I say “celebrations” because like her mother, Ellie celebrated her birthday all week long. First we started with her BIG Sesame Street theme birthday party. Our house was converted to Sesame Street. We had about 60 of our friends and family come over to help us celebrate in a BIG way. Starting with Big Bird foot prints all the way up the driveway, the Sesame Street & Ellie’s Street signs all over the house, the big crayon bounce house in the back yard, the face painter that painted lots of kiddos (and adults too) faces and the adorable Sesame Street character cupcakes…it was ALL Sesame Street. Ellie knew that all of this was for her special day. She had a blast and enjoyed every bit of it, especially jumping around with daddy in the bounce house. Our favorite moment was when she joined us in singing Happy Birthday and had no problems blowing out her candle. She was so cute.

It was also extra special because Ellie was able to celebrate her birthday with both her grandmas and her papa too. Also, thanks to Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jason for making the trip down from AZ. A lot of hard work went into this party for Ellie and we want to thank everyone who helped. Below is a link to some of the pictures from the party. Enjoy!

Click Here

http://picasaweb.google.com/scowdenfamily/EllieS2ndBirthdayParty#slideshow

Ellie’s Birthday Celebration at Preschool

Well, we thought it would be fun if we celebrated Ellie’s birthday with her friends at school too. Her teacher was great and allowed us to bring goodies to her class the day after her birthday. Mrs. Kristen had made her a special birthday crown and the kids enjoyed their cupcakes and grapes. It was a short and sweet celebration but I’m so glad we were able to have it for her.

Playgroup Birthday Celebration

Every month our playdate celebrates the birthday’s of the month. Since Ellie shared her birthday month with 6 other kids in the group, I decided to host a playdate at our house. We had a cupcake theme playdate and the kids decorated their cupcakes with lots of sprinkles, M&M’s, Skittles and more. Although it was a messy playdate, it was do fun. She loves cupcakes so it was a perfect ending to ALL of the birthday celebrations.

We had so much fun celebrating Ellie's 2nd Birthday. I can't wait to do it again next year!

XOXO

Michelle

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!

Ellie is 2 years old today and I just can’t believe it. These past 2 years have absolutely flown by. She is a fantastic daughter and everything Chris and I wanted-and more. We are so proud of her and feel blessed that God chose us to be her parents.

I thought it would be fun to share some things that make Ellie so special.

Ellie’s Strengths
She’s definitely a social butterfly and always brings a smile to your face. She has a personality that can fill the biggest room. She is also really good at following directions and doing what she is asked to do.

Ellie’s Learning Style
Ellie is probably a little bit more like me in her learning style. She definitely learns more by playing with her hands and singing songs. She isn’t too keen on flash cards, but will tolerate them if you put in some sort of songs. She also loves playing on the computer. All these signs point to her being more of a visual learner.

Ellie’s Socialization
Are you kidding me? This girl is a social queen. She just LOVES being around people!! Although she likes being around kids her age, she prefers to be around adults…maybe it’s because she gets more attention. Her best friends are our neighbor, Marin (she wants to do everything Marin does), and her cousins Peter and Andrew. We have been pretty active in our play group since she was about 1yr old so she is very comfortable being around kids.

Ellie’s Communication
Ellie has come a long way in her communication skills. We understand about 80% of what she says. We can pretty much carry on a conversation with her now. Some of the cute things she says are “Aw, man!!”, “I’m fine.”, “Whatcha doin?”, and “Thanks Mom”. It’s so fun to experience her learn new words every day.

Recent Changes in Ellie’s Life
Mother’s Day Out is the biggest recent change. She is adapting fairly well but we’ve only gone to “school” a couple of times. She is attending Stonebriar Church Pre-School Pals in Frisco. Her teachers’ names are Mrs. Kristen and Mrs. Wendy. There are 10 kids in her class; 5 boys and 5 girls. I know that she is going to learn so much about God here. We are so happy that she is in this school.

Favorite Activities
Jumping on a trampoline or in a bounce house, playing outside on her swings, going to the putting green with Daddy, watching her favorite TV shows (Sesame Street and Wonder Pets), dancing and singing, playing with choo-choo trains, reading or looking at books and getting piggy back rides.

Things that interest Ellie
Horses, books, Shamu, helping mommy cook, and anything that daddy is doing.

Ellie’s favorite ways to be recognized by doing things well
Clapping and saying “Yeah!”, ‘Good Job” and getting a high five.

Ellie’s Fears
Big furry characters in costumes. It also takes her a little bit to warm up to animals.

Best ways to calm Ellie down when she’s upset
Taking her away from the situation and comforting her, holding her and telling her it’ll be okay, and lollipops work well too. :-)

Ellie’s Self-Care

Dressing

She can put her shoes on by herself but they don’t always make it on the right foot. We’re still working on clothes.
Potty

I think she’s ready for the potty but I’m not sure that I am. She’s done the pee pee in the potty a few times but we’ll buckle down and get her potty trained by Christmas…I hope.
Eating

Ellie does pretty well using her fork and spoon most of the time. She still prefers to pick up her food with her fingers especially when she’s hungry. I mean who really needs utensils anyway? We are constantly reminding her to use her fork/spoon but it’s still a work in progress. She recently started drinking water from a water bottle. It can be a little messy but she loves drinking her water that way. I think we’ve graduated from the booster seat and the high chair. Those will go up in the attic this weekend. Her favorite foods are: spaghetti, apple sauce, grapes, cheese, beans, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas and cupcakes
Favorite Drink

apple juice

Other fun things about Ellie:
She can sing her alphabet, count to 10, can recognize a square, circle and triangle, has inherited her daddy’s vertically leaping ability of approximately 3”, she loves playing ring around the rosy, she likes to exercise with dad, she’s very loving, will say “please” and “thank you” most of the time without having to be reminded, and “she likes boys” as she likes to say!

Our little girl is just AWESOME!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!! Mommy & Daddy love you bunches and bunches and bunches!!!!

Ellie’s First Day of Pre-School *Sniff* *Sniff*

I woke up extra early to make sure that we wouldn’t be running around like crazy people at 8:59am to be at pre-school by 9AM. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I got her all dolled up in her new school clothes, which were absolutely adorable, fed her a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and a banana and had plenty of time to snap a couple of pictures at home before we left the house. She was so excited about wearing her Pooh Bear ‘pack-pack’ (as she calls it) and carrying her own lunch box. She also wanted to carry her Pooh Bear nap mat but I thought it was too much so she “let me” help with that. Although we had been talking about school for a few weeks now, would point out her school every time we drove by it (almost daily), and meet her teachers Mrs. Kristen & Mrs. Wendy, I don’ t think that she completely understood what was about to happen.

On the way to school we chatted about the friends she’d make at school, the things to get to do and the great teachers she was going to have. When we arrived our neighbors were just arriving too which is great because she got to walk in with Marin (our 3yr old neighbor who Ellie LOVES!) on her first day.

As soon as we walked in she said, “Mommy, I see boy. Mommy, I see girl”. This was a good sign. Then we got to the class room and as I’m signing her in I told her about the kids that were playing in the room. She asked me to pick her up and said “I wanna see…I wanna see”. Well, once I picked her up she was ready to peel herself off of my arms and jump right in. Without any hesitation she said, “Bye Mommy” and went straight into Mrs. Kristen’s arms.

What? No tears, No “don’t leave me mommy”, No NOTHING! I’ve known for a while that she was ready to go to some sort of school but I had no idea she was this ready! I quickly waved and walked away with a lump in my throat. I’m not sure why though. I was kinda disappointed that she didn’t cry but relieved too. My baby girl just had her first day of school! Where has the time gone?

Now what? I have almost all day to myself and didn’t plan a darn thing to do. What was I thinking? Thankfully my sister asked me to go to breakfast and we spent 2 hours at IHOP catching up. A short stack of pancakes and some coffee helped me feel a lot better.

The entire time Ellie was at school, I was checking voicemail and sprinting to the phone after every ring to make sure that the school hadn’t called and nothing. Two ‘o clock finally came and it was time to pick her up. I was shocked to find her asleep on her Pooh Bear mat!! I thought it would take weeks before they could get her to take a nap. Mrs. Wendy said that she got her mat, placed it on the floor and went right to sleep.

Why is it not this easy at home? She also said that Ellie was one of only two kiddos that participated in the music time and story time. She said that Ellie followed directions very well, would say “please” and “thank you”, and was a joy to have. I was so proud of her! Even though she didn’t eat too much at lunch everything else was great. For the first day of pre-school Ellie earned an A+! Good job baby girl. We love you!

XOXO
Michelle

Shame On You Oprah!

I am so disappointed in Oprah because I learned that she refused to have Gov. Palin on her show. Here’s what she posted on her website

“The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.” – Oprah Winfrey, September 5, 2008

I am (or was) a big Oprah fan until today. In the past, I would ask Chris to surprise me with tickets to the show. I watched all of her shows (usually more than once), subscribed to her magazine and the list goes on. I LOVED Oprah! Today my opinion of Oprah has completely changed. I cannot believe that she is not going to invite Gov. Palin to be on her show. Despite your political party affiliation, this is a monumental event for women and Oprah owes it to her loyal fan base (mostly women) to give her the stage that she has given her candidate. Does she really think that we are buying the sorry excuse that she only had Obama on the show because he was an author of a book and not yet announced that he was running for President? Yea right! This is really pathetic of her and I really hope she reconsiders her decision. For now I have decided to cancel my Tivo for Oprah’s new season and proudly jump off the “O” ban wagon.

XOXO
Michelle

Daddy & Mommy’s Night Out

Last night was my best friend Ruby’s birthday party at Gordon Biersch’s Brewery. It was so nice to have a baby sitter and have a good time. We celebrated Ruby’s birthday with several friends. I know it’s been a little over a year since we moved back to Texas but we are reminded at parties like this one that we are so glad to be back home. Hangin’ out with our friends is just the best. We missed this so much while we were in DC. Spending another birthday with Ruby was lots of fun and we look forward to celebrating many more together. Happy Birthday Rube!

XOXO

Michelle

It's Party Time

This weekend was the party weekend. Ellie’s friends Maddie and Jesse were both turning 2 and were nice to invite us to celebrate with them. Maddies’ party was at Arbor Hills Nature Reserve in Plano and honestly I’m not a fan of parties at the park because it can get really HOT! Thankfully God sent some nice weather our way and it was the perfect day to be outside. We had a great time in the playground and getting messy with chalk. I’m not sure why I hadn’t taken out the chalk for Ellie to play with because she loved it. It’s messy and all but she’s a toddler and toddlers ARE messy!

On Saturday afternoon we helped Jesse celebrate his 2nd birthday at The Little Gym. This party could not be at a better time because Chris and I had planned on going out alone! Ellie was worn out running around the gym and climbing on the uneven bars. She just loves swinging off of anything these days. I’m not even sure how she learned how to do this. We certainly didn’t teach her. Having a party at one of these places is definitely the way to go. There is no set-up or clean-up required and the kids love it. Thanks Jesse for inviting us to your party.

XOXO

Michelle

Fisher Price Playdate

Let me begin by saying that I LOVE FISHER PRICE!! I entered this contest of sorts to win a FREE Fisher Price Playdate which included about $300 worth of free toys and goodies. All I had to do was organize a Fisher Price playdate at my home and invite some friends to check out the toys. Talk about a no brainer! Several of Ellie’s friends came over to check out the neat toys FP sent. We had a great time sharing our toys and snacks except that Ms. Ellie is still having a hard time with sharing. She was not too excited about her friends playing with her toys. I am truly at a loss…what do I do? She doesn’t like to share her stuff. I know that it’s just a phase but it’s embarrassing to host a playdate and the hosts’ kid is throwing a temper tantrum because her friends are using her new favorite toys. She has no problem playing with other people’s toys but doesn’t like for them to play with her toys. I guess I’ll just keep trying to convince her that we ALL have to share whether we like it or not. Thankfully the mommies were very understanding about my greedy daughter. We’re working on it though.

XOXO

Michelle

SURPRISE!

My sister Vero pulled off a great surprise party for her husband Scott. We had so much fun watching his reaction as he walked in the house wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and his jaw hit the floor. Several of his friends from church came by to celebrate and all of his family was there too. Scott is a great dad and husband and it’s great to do something special for him. Check out the video montage I put together for Scott's birthday party. (click the arrow to play...make sure the sound is on!)

XOXO

Michelle