ball popper

best.toy.ever. elena can be entertained by this "ball popper" for minutes and minutes and minutes. which in the toddler world equals forever. i love you ball popper.

"i turn it on here."

"and just wait for the fun..."

"nope you can't come out."

"just kidding, i love when you pop out at me."

"and i put you back in..."


"hmmm, where should i put this one?"

"ok, i think i've had enough fun for awhile."

"psych! i'll sneak right up on you mr. ball popper."

“Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.”
Jim Rohn

more big girl...

although it's not perfected, lanie jae knows how to get off the couch by herself. she turns around, feels with her little foot and eases on down. i know this is one of "those" things that only her parents are impressed by, but the proud mommy that i am had to share.

please excuse the horible quality pics.



"If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders." ~Abigail Van Buren

just plain cute

lanie-girl playing on the slide. she shimmey's her toosh, let's go and goes down all by herself, doesn't need a push or anything. such a big girl. sniff sniff.


she also stands on the top and calls out to the world.... making sure they know she's queen of her slide i'm assuming.

(insert tarzan call here)

jane doesn't have a chance.

just being her fun little self!

she's also graduated to big-girl-closed-mouth-kisses.


Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."
Winnie the Pooh

speaking of catch

elena loves to play with the dogs. it's not quite reciprocated yet. here her and daddy are throwing dallas the frisbee.



"um, whoa dad."


"The dog was created specially for children. He is the god of frolic." Henry Ward Beecher

surprise....not

sunday we had a surprise birthday party for my mom's 60th....she was not so surprised.

happy 60th mom, we love you. despite your very poor acting.


"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" Satchel Paige

catch

elena has learned the concept of "catch." it is absolutely fabulous!

catching...

throwing...

look at that follow through...

and is there a cuter catcher?!

or one that delivers with such spunk?!

i don't think so!


"The little things? The little moments? They aren't little." John Zabat-Zinn

diva

"can i get some privacy around here?!"

"i hate dealing with the paparatzi."


"I prefer Princess. I would love to be known as a diva later on in life when I've had far more experiences." Deborah Cox

to the man in the white truck...

to the man in the white truck on saturday that blew a stop sign to cut me off only to turn into the hyvee grocery store, which then forced me to slam on the brakes and swerve with my precious cargo, elena, riding in the backseat.....i'm going to pretend that you HAD to get to the store to fetch a craving for your very overdue pregnant wife that was yelling and screaming obscenities, throwing things (knives possibly) at you and threatening your life if you didn't come home with it fast enough.

yes that's what i'm going to pretend.....because otherwise you'd just be a big tool!

to the cop that pulled me over much later that same night.......where were you at about 11am?! damn.

“My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.” Jack Nicholson

there's no such thing as PLAY time

one of my favorite things is to watch children PLAY. enjoying, exploring, discovering, creating, imagining, working it out for themselves - all without the internal dialogue of what needs to get done today, what's for dinner tonight, how they're going to afford this or that, and dwelling on their last conversation or argument with a loved one. they're so carefree and each time they PLAY, it's always like the first time they're experiencing it. i love it. there's such a beauty in it and i feel like the luckiest person ever, as i get to watch kids PLAY daily. but i have to admit, sometimes i watch with envy.

we hit a certain park about 3-4 times a week where there are wood chips rather than sand. elena loves it cuz of the wood chips. here she is elena playing with them. the wood chips bring her such happiness, seriously, for hours. how can i not be a little envious?! if only a handful of wood chips could do it for me.


"ahhhh - wood chips!!"

"oh how i've missed you since last time we played!"

"(gasp) there's just no two the same!"

"you get a kiss, my little wood chip!"


in her glory.....amongst the wood chips.


but in a way, they absolutely do....cuz i can't tell you how happy it makes me that she's a happy girl.

"It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them." Leo Buscaglia

and you know my name is simon...and i like to do draw-rings

jason's parents tell a story of jason as a little boy in which he called them into his room to see a drawing he had made....to their surprise, he had drawn a HUGE stick figure on his bedroom WALL....in permanent marker! and wouldn't you know when little jason ran out of room for the man's legs - he just continued them onto the floor. now how could one ever be mad at a young child for expressing their creativity, accomplishing something new and being oh-so-proud of their work?! so of course, as any good parents would, they smiled and commended him on his beautiful artwork!!! jason's room has had wallpaper ever since.

i love this story of little jason. and although elena has yet to draw stick figures (or anything for that matter) and is not yet able to pull us over to proudly show off any masterpieces she has done or created....little elena reminded me of the little jason story this morning:







elena's first work of art....it just happens to be on the end table.


today's lesson - put away sidewalk chalk every night.

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found." James Russell Lowell

what are you so afraid of?

elena loves loves loves being outside! she loves crawling around, picking whatever she can up, tasting a little bit of whatever she picked up, crawling a few more feet in another direction and discovering there's even more rocks, dirt, grass, etc. to pick up and explore. for what she knows of it....she's a total outdoors girl!









which is great, truly. we love playing with her outside. however today....while playing....she caught, picked up, squished and killed TWO SPIDERS with her little fingers! of course she has no clue what spiders are nor what she did to them....BUT I DO! and i'm scared to death of spiders! i, honest-to-god-truth, just asked my own father to kill a spider LAST NIGHT because i didn't want to get close enough to it! i should be thankful that she didn't try and eat them cuz then it would mean i'd have to be brave enough to wrestle them away from her! yikes.

ya know, i have been learning from my little elena everyday since she was born. she has taught me more profound lessons like - how love is different before you feel disappointment or heartbreak....to the more trivial, like the fact that i really can take a 3 minute shower. today's lesson - most of my fears (if not all) have no defense. fear is a deception, an illusion. it only feels so real.

sidenote - elena would like to apologize to uncle t and aunty steph, she did not mean to harm two innocent creatures while playing today.

"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Dorothy Thompson