Elle loved going up and down Papa and Gram's stairs which helped to improve her step skills and strengthen her hip which is still giving us trouble. She also slept in a big girl bed and did great. She went to sleep each night without delay and slept until she woke at 6:30 a.m. to crawl in bed with me for one more hour of sleep. Pretty impressive with the two hour time difference we were dealing with. It was definitely a girls week with my sister and her two girls there too. Papa handled all the drama very well and he was #1 when he set up a tent in the family room for the girls!
Cousin Averie will be five this year and little cousin Riley just turned two on the 1st. We had a birthday party for the girls with an apple cake made by Gram that Elle could eat because she wasn't allergic to it. Thank you Gram!
One of the highlights for Elle was seeing Clifford the Big Red Dog. Those people in big costumes like that freak me out. I don't want to pass on my neurosis, so I stood right next to that red thing holding Elle directly in front of it so she could stare and pet it over and over again. Ughhhhhh - I kept trying to look into the eye holes to see if I could see the person - looking for some relief or evidence to get the heck out of there. I finally told her we were done and walked out of the store, with her bawling and reaching for the red thing. The things we do for our children....
Also at the top of Elle's fun for the week was riding the monorail in downtown Seattle, sitting at the very front in the first seat with the Space Needle framed in the window. Very cool! Gram and Papa also treated us all to the Children's Museum where we had a blast in the pint-size grocery store, restaurant, bus, fire engine, craft room, etc.... It was hard to convince Elle that the next exhibit would be equally entertaining -- she caught on and loved the discovery of all the great stuff there.
We spent the last couple days near Portland at my sister's home and got a taste of the country life. Elle and I were wide-eyed while we 'helped' Aunt Kari and the cousins feed the sheep, lama, ram, chickens, dogs, cat, and horse. Elle even rode bareback! Thank you Aunt Kari for making sure we tucked our pants inside our boots. :)
A great trip; great to see the family, great to get away, but mostly great to be with Elle! She is such a joy! She's a darling traveler, goes with the flow, is happy, eats everything well and really strives to be obedient and helpful to me and her family. She's not perfect (She had a few melt-downs in the airport on the trip back, but hey, I felt like she looked!) and neither am I, but I really love and enjoy being with her!
One thing that stood out to me this trip was the appreciation Elle showed to me and others. Over and over she would thank me, Papa, Gram, and Aunt Kari when we would give her something, serve her, help her, show love or kindness to her. It was perfectly expressed at the right times - I really sense that she has an understanding of gratitude and because she felt the blessing of others, thankfulness poured out of her. My dear sweet girl - we love you, Elle!
BTW...Elle turned three yesterday and I do have some great pics and video of that to come. But first, pics from our trip....
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1 comment:
LOVED it all! Thanks for the fix! Elle is just precious (happy 3rd, by the way!), and it looks like you guys had a blast on your trip. Yeah!
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