ella in the kitchen

when she not yet two, i would sometimes come home to find ella and her father watching foodtv, which he HATES (chris, unlike me eats to live, instead of lives to eat). i am especially fond of rachael ray & alton brown. they are both a bit off and quirky, that entertains me. i also enjoy rachael's fast-paced cooking; alton, because of the science he brings to food. (i am not a scientist. biology grossed me out, i failed chemistry, and did not attempt physics.)

in the mind of alton brown, i, and millions like me, am a baking cheat. (too much chemistry involved.) i do the box thing when baking cakes and muffins. ella is thrilled by this. it means that she gets to help in the kitchen. she is allowed to sit on the counter and get dirty. not just watch me at the stove from a safe distance. it means cracking eggs, stirring batter, and most of all, licking the beaters.

yesterday, she graduated to power buttons on small kitchen appliances. the first was the blender. we were making a poppy seed vinaigrette. (she loved the sound and watching the dressing spray up the sides of the pitcher.) while we are putting things in the blender i explain to her what we are doing. her teachers will be very surprised to hear her playing in the "housekeeping" center at school and using the word emulsion. big word for a two year old. i find out next time we make dressing if she remembers what it means.

the other small appliance that she discovered was the kitchenaid stand mixer. we dumped the cake mix into the bowl, added an instant pudding pack, then the wet ingredients. (totally the wrong order, but...) she turned the mixer on, played with the speeds and helped me scrape the bowl sides, asking the entire time, "lick it?" who among us has not loved licking the beater? good thing it was bath night.

my proudest moment of our day in the kitchen together was when she patted the mixer and said "alton has dis". either she is overly observant or she is watching entirely too much foodtv. my husband would claim the latter.

bedtime rituals

ella's bedtime ritual consists of a bath, running thru the house to find dad in a towel, getting dried, putting on the star pull-up (ella reminds us that "stars are for night"), putting on pj's, combing hair, cleaning ears, putting on the sleep sack, kissing us good night, and climbing into bed.

several nights ago i forgot step seven, cleaning ears. - which i wouldn't have known were it not for the two year old with an outstanding memory - while ella went into the bathroom with dad for the q-tips, i put my face on the floor to wait. upon ella's return she said "get up mommy," thrusts the q-tips into to my face and says, "mommy, kean out my ears."

shame on us when we forget a step.

my child, the dog

ella has always enjoyed wrigley's (our rat terrier) kennel. (wrigley's house is one of the airplane approved plastic kennels.) she has crawled in and closed the door behind her. we have always figured that this was not an issue with child protective services; our thoughts being that locking the door would constitute abuse, but her getting in was acceptable play & investigation for a toddler.

while at our friend erin's house today, ella decided to go for a "test drive" in shiloh's(the 20 week black lab puppy) kennel.

after closing the gate behind her ella looks up at erin and says "lock me in". (refusal by the adults in the room produced a sound only dogs are supposed to be able to hear.) ella just continued to whine and beg to be locked inside the crate. we locked the gate, knowing that when she asked to be let out, we would comply immediately. after several minutes, erin goes to unlock the gate, ella was not at all happy. she stayed in the kennel for about 30 minutes before she finally let us unlock the door. she did not want out, she wanted shiloh with her. at least she has learned to share:)

good laughs

in the process of trying to teach manners, we all make "mistakes" that end up being rather funny. in our house we don't use the term poop. mom never let my sister and i say anything other then "i dirtied" and when it was the dog , it was she "made a mess". so i guess it is rather fitting that we also do not use those terms in our home. ella has a bootie not a butt. as the process of potty training and manners come along, i have tried to teach ella that you need to say "excuse me" when you fart. continuing with the using better(?) words than what most people say; i don't say fart around her. so after being asked many times what she needs to say when the before mentioned takes place, my dear sweet child says: "ohh, my bootie made noise."

while at aunt cathryn's house over the holiday, we continued the potty training thing, so when ella says "i hafta go potty" one of us jumps. on this occasion, i was cooking dinner, so cathryn had to take her. ella is on the toilet when she farts and says "my bootie made noise". next phrase is "my done". cathryn takes her off the potty and the entire thing starts over again at the part; moves to "i hafta go potty" & "oh, my bootie made noise"; then "my done". when this has happens for the 3rd time without ever leaving the bathroom, cathryn says and ella repeats; "oh lord" for the rest of the night that was about all she said.

long overdue update

it's been a couple of months. helped my sister move into a new house, did the christmas thing several times with different members & sides of the family, went thru granny's house with the rest of the family to sort what goes into the sale pile and what we (individually) keep. ella has done many fun things over the time i have not been blogging

so here is the quick update. potty training has been going better with a couple of dry days. ella has started back to preschool and playschool 3 days weekly, total. i am also considering putting her in a toddler tumbing class to help her use all of her extra energy. we are also going to be doing the mommy & me swimming classes in the late spring to prepare for the summer swimming season. ella is as much of a water bug as i was. for that matter, she likes the tumbling like i did too. i have no aspirations of her being an olympian in either sport, but want her to have the fun of tumbling, and the safety of a swimming class.

i hope to keep this up a little better than in the past. i was never really good at the regular journal thing, but know that i need to keep better track of funny ella moments.