The New Year

I wouldn't say we're off and running.  In fact, it kind of feels like the new year took off running and ran us over, leaving us for dead.  (Work, sickness, malaise and the tornado that whipped through the house leaving destruction in its wake as a result.) Now we're peeling ourselves off the pavement and once we get our wits about us, we'll fight to catch up.  We'll get there..........

The last days of 2010 were spent having fun with Nana and Grandad, who came to visit.  A jaunt to Strong (and Dinosaur BBQ, naturally), playing games and dolls and dress-ups, the UB-BYU basketball game, the bounce house, mani-pedis for the girls and one wild New Year's party (Mary Poppins ringing in 2011 for Nana and Mommy - the only two semi-alive at midnight) were just some fun things we did together.

  

Post-New Year, we've each taken our turns with a nasty flu bug and beyond that, just tried to keep afloat.  

Ellie finished preschool at Clearfield and now enjoys two extra days at home with Mom. 

The girls continue their adventures at ballet and have started learning the dances for their recital in May.

I figured since we live in Buffalo, the girls should at least have one day spent playing in the snow. Yeah... Abby doesn't even have snow pants and Ellie lasted 10 minutes.  Oh well.  We tried. 

So, there's a peek into the start of our new year.  Much more excitement (in a good way) to come.  We hope.

QFTD

Ellie: "Before we do po nail polish, do you want some hamitizer?" (hand sanitizer)

We had some lunchmeat to go on crackers for lunch.  Abby: "Mom, can I please have some fake turkey?"

Adam: "Ellie, if someone has a hard time being nice to you, then that means you get to try extra hard to be nice to them."  Ellie, brow furrowed and finger pointed at Adam: "Yeah, but sometimes you argue." 

Abby: "Ellie, do you know what 3+3 is? 6."  Ellie: "Wow.  You sure know a lot about numbers."

Abby and Ellie were at each other, bickering about who knows what.  Me: "Girls, stop.  We do not talk like that in this house."  Abby: "Well, Ellie's being arguish."  Ellie: "No, Abby's being arguish." A: "No! Ellie..."  E: "No! Abby..."

Ellie, singing at the top of her lungs:  "I am on top of the museeeeuuum!  Oh yeah!  Oh yeah!  OH yeah! OH Yeah!  Ohh YEAH!!!"

Abby:  "Mom, I need you to pick this up immadetally.  No chit chat.  No arguing." 

At dinner I attempted to explain that milk can sometimes stain clothes.  Abby: "Tell us how!"  Me: "Well, I don't exactly know how it does - I just know it does."  Abby: "I know! Let's call Grammy and ask her!  She knows how all things work.  She's an expert on everything."

While on the way home from the grocery store, Ellie informed me she was hungry for lunch.  Ellie: "Donuts sound good for lunch.  I think I need donuts."

Attempting to help Abby realize that feeling good inside (from being nice to her sister) is better than feeling yucky, I asked her what the opposite of love is.  Abby: "Inkindful."

Abby: "Mom, can we go to Dunkin Donuts tomorrow for breakfast?"  Me: "No, silly.  You have school in the morning."  Abby:  "But Daddy goes there on school days for breakfast."  Me: "He does?"  Abby: "Yeah.  And then he goes to his cafeteria at work and buys ice cream."

Me, addressing Ellie's outburst toward Abby: "Ellie, Heavenly Father did not make our hands for hitting people."  Ellie: "Well, sometimes when our parents aren't there, people can spin around with a locker chain in their hands." (?)

I asked Ellie for some help.  Ellie:  "Can I hear something like "Eleanore, please"?"  Me: "Eleanore, por favor."  Ellie: "No.  Not "Eleanore pork and por!""

Ellie began a melt-down after I asked her to pick up her Barbies. Me: "Ellie, if you make a mess at school your teachers don't clean it up for you.  You have to clean up your mess."  Ellie: "I don't like how you're talking to me."

Abby: "Mom, do you want to be a violin teacher when you grow up?"

I was slicing pineapple for lunch and Ellie asked if she could try a bite (we think there may have been a connection to pineapple the last time she broke out in hives).  Me: "Okay, but just a bite.  If you don't break out you can have some more later."  Ellie: "Remember last time when I broke out?  That was just a dream."

I asked Ellie if she just wanted a half of a sandwich for lunch.  Ellie:  "No - I want a whole sandwich with two loaves of bread and 8 pickles."

While strumming my guitar, Abby sang (in e minor, as I sat at the computer and typed her lyrics):  "Once there was a cowgirl and her husband.  They didn't have a fridge they were so poor.  All they had was a horse and the farmer would not give them food.  Down in the village they had no things.  One day they came to a house that was called the Ashley family.  There was a mother named Alison and her husband was named Adam Ashley.  There were two girls - Abby who was 5 and Ellie who was 3.  The family gave them stuff and they left with stuff to eat and drink on their journey.  Then the farmer told them they could have all his food if they gave him all the stuff they got at the Ashley home.  But it was a trick.  He just wanted all the stuff from the Ashley home for his village.  Then he went and stole all the food and drink from the Ashleys, whose mom is having a baby tomorrow.  Then they went and had no more food and went to their village named Va-jinya.  Where there was an old lady named Nana.  Who used to have a husband named Granddad but he died.  She had some children, but her favorite ones were her grandchildren in Buffalo.  But they had another grandmother named Grammy...  The end of the story song."