8th birthday annual questions

We ask the same questions every year.  Okay, we haven't done it every year.  I'm not a good Pinterest mom.  Anyway, here's the list this year:

Age 8
Favorite song: Better in Stereo (theme from Liv and Maddie on Disney channel)
Favorite food: Chocolate
Favorite color: black
Favorite subject at school: writing
Best Friend: Serenity
When I Grow Up, I want to be: a songwriter
Favorite Book: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.
Favorite Sport: Basketball
Favorite game: Uno
Favorite TV show: Wander Over Yonder

Quote:
Never give up.  Never surrender."

Blast from the past, November 8, 2007: I want 4

Heh, a few weeks shy of her 2nd birthday, I asked her how old she'd be (another livejournal post):

In E news, she's still as cute as she's ever been. She's going to be 2 in a month, which is awesome and freakishly scary for me, but apparently she's got other plans. We were talking about her birthday today in the car. I asked her how old she'd be, and she said she'd be one. 
Then I said, "No, E, you're going to be 2."
She thought about it a minute and said, "I want 4."

Sort of sums up my child in so many ways, it's hilarious.

Blast from the past, July 15, 2008: I see a clue

Another old gem from Livejournal.  E would have been 2 and a half:

The point is this: my kid loves her some Blues Clues. If you are familiar with it,you will find this story amusing; if you're not, I'll catch you up to speed. Basically Blue is a dog who plays this game called Blue's Clues. She puts a blue pawprint on clues, there are three of them, when you get the three clues, Steve puts them in his notebook and you have to guess what Blue is thinking about (what game she wants to play, what book she wants to read, what she wants for snack, etc). Anyway, Steve goes traipsing around looking for clues, which are blue paw prints on various things.

So yesterday, I'm driving in the car and the car ahead of us is apparently owned by a Clemson fan. The car has one of those orange paw print magnets on the back. As we're sitting at the red light, E looks up and says "Look, mommy! I see a clue!"

Blast from the past, January 22, 2009: I know it's trouble

Another gem, mined from Livejournal.  E would have been 4 at the time she did this:

So tonight, we put her in her bed with the usual fight: I have to get some water, I need medicine for my cough (I say "you're not coughing" and she fakes a cough), I need to go potty, I need you to read me one more book (followed by reading the book up until the penultimate page where she says "I don't like this book" and gets another--she doesn't think I've caught on to that trick yet).

So after reading the last book (If You Give a Moose a Muffin), she gets in bed and I come out to the living room to play wow with my husband and with some friends of ours. Soon, I see the child standing on the steps to the living room with her duck costume hat on (from when she was 10 months old for Halloween 06) and she says she has to go potty. I take her potty, she does her thing and as I'm putting her back into her bed, her face lights up and she says, "I totally sneaked out of bed and into your room. And no one saw me."

I laugh and say "yes, you totally did." And then I realize what she's said. She sneaked into my room.

She then says "I put my money in your room." At that point she gets up, we go into my room and she has hidden a couple of play coins from her toy piggy bank in a slipper on my nightstand. And she shows them to me. Then she shows me a real quarter and says, "I put this in my mouth. I know it's trouble." 

At that point, she walks back into her bedroom, climbs in her bed and lies down.

blast from the past, October 25th, 2009: I don't have a couch!

Back in the day, I used to use Livejournal to blog.  I got a bit reminiscent, and was scrolling through some old posts over there (mostly I was looking for a recipe), and found some old E quotes.


So my kid has made the transfer from Noggin, now Nick Jr with a stupidly bad website that sucks, to PBS kids. One of her PBS kids shows she loves is Kid Fitness. it's not a bad show, they exercise a lot. I mean, he is Kid fitness. 

Anyway, he always says "come on, kids, get off that couch and move with us." Ella is concerned about this for several reasons: 1--she always gets up to exercise with him and 2) we don't have a couch. 

TV: Come on kids, get off that couch and move with us!
E: Stop telling me to get off the couch!  We don't have one!!

December 11, 2013: who's poor (forgot to post this on time)

We spent the better part of the night before E's birthday trying to get her to go to bed.  Because, much like Christmas, we had to have presents ready to be out on the table for her when she gets up. We started doing this when she turned 3 and we were trying to get rid of the pacifier.  She came out into the dining room to see presents assembled the morning of her birthday and she had to make a choice between getting the birthday presents and being a big girl or keeping the pacifier.  She begrudgingly gave up the pacifier once she saw that there were presents from grandma there, too (and grandma gives the BEST presents).

Anyway, this year, she was bored waiting for bedtime to come, and we had turned off the tv for the night, so she was spending her time pontificating on what she might get off of her birthday list.  This is part of the conversation that took place:

E: If I get birthday money from grandma, I think I'm going to keep 1 dollar and give the other 9 dollars to someone else.  Maybe someone who is poor.
Me: That's very kind of you, kid.
E: Okay, so who's poor?

I realize in the typing that it does lose something as a written conversation.
Also, we convinced her to give her money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
And, ironically, she's not getting birthday money from grandma, because grandma was here and they ordered an American Girl doll for birthday/Christmas 2 weeks ago.

December 12, 2013: happy birthday, kid

Today, my precocious one is 8.  She's quickly moving out of baby and little girl things and into girl things.  She watches shows designed for teens and tweens.  She has a voice-activated password journal.  Although, let's be honest, I want one of those.
She still wants things like Barbie dream houses (which she got), but she also wants to dance and listen to music.  There are still glimpses of the sweetness of her toddler years, but so much of the sass that comes with being a girl in conflict with her parents about who she is and what she wants.
Every year, obviously, she becomes a little taller and more grown up looking physically.  But every year, so, too, changes can be seen in her expressions, her choices, her tone of voice.
So, today, she had her birthday pancakes and tonight we'll get her birthday BBQ (another sign she's growing up: we've gone from mac and cheese to ribs, well, and mac and cheese, too).

Parenting is always about choosing your battles.  Usually those battles are with the child herself and involve which shirt or socks to wear or how often to brush her hair or whether it's actually a viable choice to only brush your teeth once a day for less than 30 seconds (it's not, by the way).  I don't care if her socks match, nor if they match the ensemble she's chosen for the day.  I just want her to understand when it's time to get dressed and, for the love of all that is holy, to change into clean underwear every day.  Every day, kid.  Every.  Day. *
Now, as she moves into this new stage, the battle feels like it's on such a larger scale.  I'm battling against  high heels and make up, even in 2nd grade.  I'm battling against kids who put her down at school and the friends who don't stand up for her.  I'm battling against her inclination to talk back, her proclaimed boredom while doing homework, her preference to watch TV for 12 hours a day rather than to play or read.  I'm battling her inability to understand why we can't have oatmeal or macaroni and cheese for every meal, and her preference not to eat green beans or spinach.
My parents had the same battles, all of them did.  Thank God so many chose to fight them on our behalf. Some are straightforward wars of attrition, some of them feel Quixotic in their nature.  Limiting exposure to the hypersexualized body image destroying crap that's spewed out of televisions, magazines and computer screens for girls and boys alike often feels overwhelming and unwinnable.  But they're all battles worth fighting.  More importantly, they're worth her knowing that we're fighting them.  Because one day, she'll be the one fighting.  My best hope is that she'll remember us on our horses, charging those windmills, and she'll be willing to do the same for her own children.  Or for someone else's.  Or, even better, on her own behalf.

So, happy birthday, kid.  Thanks for bringing us on this wonderful, terrifying, beautiful journey.  Thanks for making us grow up and protect you, but also for bringing back the wonder of childhood and joy and allowing us to do it all over again through your eyes.  Thanks for being independent and sassy enough to remind us that it's YOUR childhood, not ours.  Most of all, thanks for being you, and in so doing, being ours.

And now that you're 8, I need to see videos of you when you were 2.  It's the way moms work.

**PS: she does change her underwear daily at this point.  But there was a time when I had to explain why it was important.  I'm sure she still has her doubts, but she gets it that we're not budging on this particular rule.

December 3, 2013: Photo post, the birthday wish list.

So, not only do we get to deal with E's Christmas list, her birthday is also coming up.  So we got the second list.  I love finding lists all over the place.  Here's the birthday list.  Somehow, it's the perfect balance after all of the foam weapons she requested for Christmas.

A leather hat?

November 28, 2013: It's Raining Men

I meant to post this earlier.  On Wednesday of this week, prior to Thanksgiving, we had a get together at our house.  We roasted a turkey (my first roasted turkey!), had most of the traditional trimmings, had cousins, sisters, friends all over to celebrate one another.
Toward the end of the evening, we turned on the X Box 360 and broke into the Just Dance Games.  Piggy was, as per usual, a great sport, and joined in along with some other friends.
At one point, E was tired out, and had taken a seat in order to rest.  So Piggy and our friend, J, were dancing.  J had chosen "It's Raining Men" as the song.

While Piggy is dancing, E says, very matter of factly, "You'd probably find someone to marry if it was really raining men."

Photo Post: Christmas List 2013

We just had quite a holiday week for Thanksgiving.  We had cousins in town, we had visits to other cousins, we had parties to attend, it was awesome.
Since Christmas is next, we have, presented below, the obligatory Christmas wish list from one very excited soon to be 8 year old.

the best is that she asked me to add "new toothbrush" after she handed it to me.

If you need translation, feel free to ask in the comments.  This is one that I feel actually speaks more or less for itself.

*P.S: I am so very delighted that she wants so many foam weapons.  It's irrational and probably not healthy, but it's delightful.
P.P.S.: I'm ecstatic that she wants a Seahawks Cheerleading outfit.  I was just going to knit us matching Seattle Seahawks hats.

November 3, 2013: I don't like the "laws"

This kid of mine is a negotiator.  She tries to cut deals all the time regarding picking up her room, doing her chores, what time she has to go to bed.  She'll offer us a piece of her Halloween candy if she can have 2 pieces.  That or she'll pick one piece to 'share' with us and one piece for her to eat.  Which is to say, we get a bite of the one she's sharing and she'll finish it, as well as eating her own piece.
She'll negotiate her way out of going to bed on time, "I'll clean up my dirty clothes tomorrow if I can stay up and watch this show today."  Granted, she offers terrible deals to me and her daddy, but to her they sound great.
If I make a mistake in my wording of instructions, she'll kill me on the details.
Last night was such a night, and I said to her she should be an attorney.

E: What's that?
Daddy: a lawyer.
E: Why would I be a lawyer?
Me: You like to make deals and to argue.
E: I'm not sure I want to be a lawyer.
Me: She can't be a lawyer, because. ..
E: I don't really like the "laws."
Me: I was going to say because it's hard work and you don't like to work hard.
E: I can work hard, I just don't like to.  Plus, I said I don't like the "laws."

(yes, she made air quotes around the word "laws")

Blast from the past. Age 3

So, our kid has this great sense of imagination, like all kids not raised in Skinner boxes.  Although now I think about it, Skinner box kids would probably have to have an active imagination, too, given the lack of stimulation.  May have to rethink my whole premise here, other than the fact that Skinner boxes were used for cats and not children, thankfully.
Anyway, when she was around 2 and a half to 3, she was doing a lot of "when I was <noun>, then I also did <appropriate activity for previous noun>."
For example, "When I was an astronaut, we went to Saturn and had lunch with the aliens."
Yes, she said that to me once.

Our favorite of all time, though, was a couple of days after she walked into the bathroom while her daddy was in there.  Once you have a child your privacy rights are all taken away.  You thought the NSA was bad, at least their snooping is all in the background, and you weren't aware of it until Snowden told us all about it.  A child, on the other hand, will follow you in to every room in your house and constantly ask you what you are doing there and why you are doing it.

One day, my husband made the mistake of not locking the door when he went into the bathroom.  She walked in there while he was in there, and saw him standing in front of the toilet.

E: What are you doing?
Daddy: Going to the bathroom.
E: Why aren't you sitting down?
Daddy: Because this is one of the ways boys are different.  We stand up to pee.
E:  Oh.

We thought that would be the end of it.  About 3 days later, we were all standing outside on the porch, visiting with friends.  Completely unrelated to the current topic of conversation (probably politics or video games), she hits us with this declarative statement before wandering in to the backyard:

E: When I was a boy and I had a tail, I used to pee standing up.

October 7, 2013: True Story

Tonight, we were watching Adventure Time.  It's one of our favorite shows.
In the course of the show, Jake, the magic dog, has a piece of tortilla chip stuck in his teeth from eating nachos.  B-mo, their video game companion, is suggesting several ways for him to get the chip out.  He nixes most of them, saying that if you got everything you wanted when you wanted it, what would be the point of living?
E gave me the single raised eyebrow look, and indicated she'd like to give it a try.

Later, as Jake brushes his teeth with no success, he mentions that he might need a toothpick.
B-Mo says, "I told you that you should have bought floss."
Jake responds with, "Floss is for losers."

From the couch, E says, "True story."

Hrm, the dentist may not be pleased at our next check up.

September 28.2013: sometimes the joke goes over your own head.

E loves the kids' joke websites.

E: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
Me: what?
E: Pilgrims.
Me, laughing: do you get that joke?
E: No.

September 27, 2013: photo post--superhero day

So, every year at school we do this Read a Thon thing.  Basically, in an effort to raise money for the PTSA (parent, teacher, student association, formerly known as the PTA), the kids pledge to read a certain amount of time each night for 2 weeks and people give them money for this.  Evidently it works as a fundraiser.  We've done fairly well the past 3 years, and E usually reads 20 to 30 minutes a night, and she's delighted when she can raise money for it and we all say, "yay, reading!" at the end of the two weeks.
This year, we read together every night, a chapter in whatever book we were reading.  We were about halfway through A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle when it started, and on finishing that, we started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  She's enjoying the stories so far (which wasn't hard with Potter, since we've seen all the movies).
Anyway, as a reward for the students if they meet their reading goal, they get to dress up in some sort of theme on the Friday where they have the assembly to celebrate the Read A Thon's end.  This year was superheroes.  E decided, rather than be one of those traditional heroes, she wanted to be Raven, from the Teen Titans.

This is a challenge, frankly, since Raven wears a body suit and a cloak, as well as a mask (no masks allowed).  We shopped around, and it's tough to find a purple cloak.  While I'm great with most crafts, I'm not much of a seamstress, so making one wasn't an option.
The raven pictured to the left is E's idea of Raven.  There are others, which vary from more childish to more sexy.  Much more sexy.  Inappropriate for a 7 year old to wear to school sexy.  Mostly, we were having problems resolving the whole "she wears a body suit" thing, since the child really needs to go to school in pants.  Again, when reviewing superheroes with a little girl, it's hard to find a female hero who isn't completely sexed up, from Supergirl and Batgirl in their microskirts, to Wonder Woman in her one piece bathing suit, and to the various other skin tight body suit options that usually involve low cut tops, corsets or other such nonsense.  How do you fight in that crap, anyway?
We came up with a "okay you have to know that E likes Raven in order to understand that this is Raven" costume, but she seemed to like it.

 While it's not the best costume we've ever had, she got her purple and black in there, and she got her cool belt.  And, crucially, she got to wear a gem on her forehead.  Apparently that cures a lot of ills.
The shirt she's wearing is made of that underarmor type material that is supposed to keep you cool while you're being sporty.  She was trying to put it on after her shower this morning, and she announced that it was like trying to put on a wet bathing suit.

Ella: This would be a good shirt to wear under your coat when you're skiing.
Me: yes, it would.
Ella: Or if you're robbing a bank.
Me: I think I would prefer that you not rob a bank.
Ella: I said "or."

September 23, 2013: Photo post--Dear Diary

So, sometimes E has issues with getting angry.  She can't help it and she comes by it honestly.  I admit that my anger can be pretty explosive sometimes (please don't call child protective services, it's not that explosive).  E also loves her some sci-fi and fantasy themed books and games, so her imagination is fairly active.
Apparently, she had a wee run in with another girl at school.  L is her bestie from first grade, and they aren't in the same class now that they're in 2nd grade. Which means that E only really gets to see L at recess and after school, while they wait in the car rider lines for their parents to pick them up.  Evidently, L has a new friend, Z, who was not interested in letting E sit with her former BFF.
E wrote in her 'diary' about it.  And then left that diary entry on my pillow for me to find.  Names deleted to protect the other kids at school.

 In case you don't read 7 year old, it says:
Dear Diary,
Z is so mean.  I want to throw a rock at her !! I want to scream.
She would not let me sit next to L and she said Buzz of (off) loser in car rider line only Day to sit with L !!!
I want to trow (throw) her into a shark sord (sword) pit !!! Also split her in half with a sord (sword)!!
and mess everythig (everything) up like worst picture day in sentury's (centuries).  So mad! I just want to let the demon side out !!!
throw her in lava, crush her soul, ruin her hair, let a tiger out on her.

Love, so mad righ (right) now!
E

P.S. Beach is in 3 weeks 1day!  Only thing good

While I am a bit mortified by her anger, I am delighted at her prose.  We did have a long talk about the letter and what it means and how it's okay to be angry, but it's not really okay to always act on that anger.  Her feelings are justified and okay, but perhaps crushing the soul of your classmates for not letting her sit next to your friend is a bit extreme.
I suggested this to her and she looked at me like I was crazy.
  "I just ignore her and don't play with her, mama.  I can't take a sword to school anyway."

September 22, 2013: are they cursed?

I love musicals.  I just do.  I can't help it.  I played music in high school, I grew up when Andrew Lloyd Webber was churning out new, popular musicals every other year, it seemed.  I watched The Sound of Music every Easter when it was on TV, and The Wizard of Oz when it was on.
I love them.

I was nervous about Les Miserables, since it had been a flop of a movie before, and I really enjoyed the stage show.  I also wasn't sure how I felt about the singing while acting and having some liberty with the music part of that.  But, it was on during a free HBO weekend recently, so I recorded it on the DVR.
Last night, Ella was playing on her computer, watching her shows with her headset on, so I decided to watch it.  I got about 15 to 20 minutes into it, and Ella took off her headset and watched it with me for a few minutes.
After about 2 minutes of watching, she turned to me with a puzzled look on her face and said, "Are they all under a curse or something where they always have to sing?"

I'm not sure she's going to love musicals like I do.

My friends have enjoyed this story so much, I made a meme.  My first meme.

September 20, 2013: You white devil

So one of the things that the dog really likes to do is to take your seat the minute you leave it.  She has her favorite spot on the couch.  When E's in that spot, she just works her way in until both of them are there, and E's generally fine with it.  However, the adults make it harder, since we're not as small, nor as likely to want to share with a 45 pound dog.

Me, on returning from outside and finding that the dog has once again whooptied me (what we call it when someone steals your seat after you get up): Girlfriend, get up.

E: You can just say, 'shame on you, dog.  You white devil.'

A friend of ours, who happened to witness the whole thing: If that doesn't wind up online, you're doing it wrong.

Far be it for me to do it wrong.  

September 1, 2013: I will break that tie

The great thing about having a kid who hangs out with lots of adults is that she does decently well when, well, hanging out with adults.  Recently, we went to a dinner out with Aunt Piggy, who was celebrating her birthday.
When we arrived, there was only 1 seat on the end of the table where Laura was sitting, so we let Ella sit by her and Noah and I took our seats at the other end of a fairly long table.  Laura and Ella had great dinner conversation on their own.  It included the following:

Piggy: Who's my best friend?
Ella, matter of factly: Me
Laura: Okay, yes, you're tied with your mom.
Ella: I will break that tie.

The next day, I was trying to tell her how proud I was that she was so well behaved at dinner.

Me: you are fantastic, Ella, and it makes me really proud to get to take you to places like dinner last night. . .
Ella, while running into the other room: Yeah, yeah, I already know that. . .

At least we're instilling a sense of self confidence into her.

August 15, 2013: My first rodeo

So, my parents still live in Montana, where I grew up.  It means that my kid is well versed in air travel, and she's been to places most kids never even hear about until high school, if at all.
This year, my mom offered to buy Ella some cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.  Excuse me, cowGIRL boots and hat.  We also usually go to Montana during the fair in my hometown, Billings.
When we got there, we did our obligatory shopping at Lou Taubert's the western supply store of choice for my family, and got Ella her boots and hat.
That night, we had tickets to the rodeo.
We were seated, watching the bucking bronco competition.


She's mostly enjoying the rodeo, as she likes the horses.
After one cowboy gets bucked off, she looks around and then looks at me pensively and asks,
"Mama?  Is this my first rodeo?"

July 30, 2013: The kitten pooped in the spare room

So we have 2 cats at our house.  There's Bridger, my cat from when I lived in Tennessee, and he's 16.  He's crabby, he's not very tolerant of the dog, but they don't really fight.  He's outlived 3 dogs and another cat in the time that I've had him, so I guess he feels that he doesn't really have to be nice to this dog.
And we have Holly, Ella's kitten.  She's about to turn 2, so we still call her the kitten.  She is a hog, which means that when we feed Bridger, we have to lock Holly into the spare room so she doesn't eat all of his food, which she would, if given the chance.
Sometimes, she'll get angry that she's locked in there and she'll poop on the rug in there.  It's become routine enough that when we let her out, we have to check to see if she's done it.  It's frustrating and annoying, to say the least.

Me: Go let the kitten out of the spare room.
Ella: Okay.
Me: Did she poop in there?
Ella: Yes
Me: I'm going to kill her.
Ella: Don't kill her.  I picked her out.  I love her.
Me: You clean up after her, then.
Ella: No.  That's gross.  You kill her.

Holly and Bridger

July 28, 2013: You're taking this well

Did I mention that bedtime is a challenge?
Ella's favorite way to get out of going to bed on time is to get in the bed, but then have about 23981143246 reasons that she must get OUT of bed.

Ella: Mommy!
Me: What?
Ella: Can I grab my doll?
Me: Yes, but do it quickly
Ella, pausing at the entry to the living room where I am sitting: You're taking this very well.

June 30, 2013: Piggy gets these things, too

I have a best friend, Laura.  She came to every doctor's appointment with me when I was pregnant with Ella.  She was there when the kid was born.  She cut the cord.  She's been Ella's other mom since before she was even a possibility, let alone a reality.
She has a nickname, Piggy.  It's a long story.
Anyway, Ella sometimes spends a day with Piggy.  They go to movies, they go to amusement parks, they hang out at her house, they do all sorts of things.
Laura will often text me things Ella has said when they're hanging out.  Here are a couple of them:

On the phone, discussing their plans for the day:
"Yay, I love coming to your house because it smells like piano"

While out at the mall, standing in the sweet shop:
Piggy: Okay, it's a fan with candy.  What would your mom and I call it?
Ella: A fandy!

(Piggy and I like combining words to eliminate redundant syllables.  The best one I've come up with recently is trombone + ownership = trombownership.)

I also often get pictures like these:

June 23, 2013: that's how I roll

Ella got these awesome butterfly wings from her daddy one year for her birthday at the Life and Science Museum here in Durham.  hey aren't your typical wired nylon things that attach with shoulder straps, so much as fabric wings that attach with straps at the arms and hands.

She loves them.  She stretches them out when she wears them and announces that they are the best wings ever, because they slow her down when she jumps down a couple of stairs and she insists that they make her float.
The other day she had attached them to her ceiling fan.  No kidding, she had taken the elastic and attached each end to a blade of her ceiling fan, so that when the fan was on, she had this weird revolving butterfly wing thing.  I told her to take it down. Carefully.

When I went into her room later, I picked up  her wings off the floor, where she had put them on removing them from the fan, and I asked her to put them away.
I handed them to her, and she made the decision, instead of hanging them on a coat hook on the wall, to roll them up like a sleeping bag.
She casually handed them to me and said, "this is how I roll, mom."

June 2013: Ella loves World of Warcraft, too

It was bound to happen, of course.  We're both video game playing nerds.  Ella loves the computers, the internet, the video games.  She goes through phases of really really loving WoW.  When it meets up with her artistic inclinations, I think it's delightful:

Okay, okay, it's supposed to be Horde

She had me tweet this to Ghostcrawler.  See below for his response:

may 26, 2013: No one's perfect

We have an awesome dog.  She's a boxer and pit bull mix.  She is the single sweetest creature we know.  Unfortunately, she also has energy and she likes to chew things up.  So, sometimes Ella's toys become Girlfriend's chew toys.

Upon discovering just such an incident had occurred, the following conversation took place at our house:

Me (to the dog): Girlfriend, why can't you be good all the time?
Ella (to me): Well, no one's perfect.
Me: WHAT?!  I'm perfect.
Ella: No.  You're great, just not perfect.

Don't let the amazing cuteness fool you.  She'll chew up your toys. 

April 13, 2013: meeting Mike Greenberg

So, I'm a big fan of ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the morning.  Mike Greenberg wrote a non-sports related novel.  He was on a book tour, promoting the book, so he came through Raleigh.  I wanted to go meet him.  Ella decided she wanted to come with me.  I made it clear that this would be a LOT of waiting in line and very very boring.  She didn't care, she wanted to come.  It was, probably, a bad idea.

Here's the saga, as told by my twitter feed:

 When we arrived, the line was out the door and around the side of the building.  It was a gorgeous day, but it was hard to stand out in the parking lot, waiting, since we'd skipped the breakfast stop to be there on time.

The above picture was almost 2 hours after we'd arrived.  She was about to lose her shit.  For real.  About 10 minutes before we actually got to the end of the line, she started to have a wee meltdown with crying and big tears and having to really focus herself to get it together.
When we finally made it to the end of the line, Greenberg looked right at her and said, "you're Ella, and you're seven and you don't like waiting in line."
It was, in a word, awesome.

Plus, afterward, we got to go out for pancakes at Elmo's.  Overall, a great day.  

March 5, 2013: why is she growing so fast?

Ella has always had her own style.  She likes to mix colors and patterns.  She has no problem with combining stripes and plaids, don't tell her it isn't okay.  She mismatches her socks.  Who has time for all that matching?  
She discovered jeans and that they are what her friends would call stylish.  She had on a new pair and was delighted to be wearing them.  
She turned to her dad and said, "if I can get a black tank top with these jeans, I'd look awesome."
At that point, I just said to Noah, "we've lost her."

And then the mom tears came. She's got her own sense and it's no longer cute stuff with animals and flowers and bows. It's older now. I knew this day would come. I was just hoping it would be tomorrow.

March 3, 2013: Lights out

Ella's not a fan of bedtime.  Getting her to agree to bed, get ready for bed, get in the bed and then go to sleep is a series of adventures.  These adventures start with requests, go to demands, proceed toward begging and usually wind up with threats.  This doesn't even address the "get back in that bed!" aspect of bedtime.

Lights out is always a challenge:

Me: Lights out, Ella, I told you that half an hour ago when I turned your light off.
(she's turned it back on after I had left).
Ella: Well, how am I supposed to play La La Loopsy when my light is off?
Me: you're not.  That's the point.  You're supposed to sleep.
Ella: Well, that's just dumb.

December 12, 2012: the jar of shame

So, like many parents our age, we grew up with coarser language being more common than our parents.  Plus, we're just jerks.  So we swear more than we should.  At one point we got the great idea to make a swear jar.  Any time someone swears, we need to put a quarter in the jar.
Well, not long after that, I noticed that my least favorite 4 letter word out of my kid's mouth is "can't".  I can't clean my room, it's too hard.  I can't blow a bubble with my gum.  I can't tie my shoes.   Mind you, these are all things that she can indeed do.  She just didn't want to or she found them to be a challenge.

So the swear jar became the Jar of Shame.  We set it up on the shelf, but it had no label.  Ella offered to make a label for us, because, well she's awesome:

yes, you're required to sing the Da Da Da part when you read that

October 12, 2012: That's why I'm so sweaty

Ella likes to run.  A lot.  She makes up racing and chasing games at school.  She explained to me one day the "vampire" game she and her friends made up at school.  It goes something like this: she's evidently the princess.  The other kids are vampires, and all have to chase her and capture her.  I suggest to her I'm not really keen on her playing a game where everyone else is trying to capture and eat her.  But then I considered the games we played as kids.

Me: I guess it's no worse than cops and robbers.
Noah: No, probably not.
Me: or cowboys and Indians.  Actually, it's probably less racist than cowboys and Indians was.
Ella: Yes it is! It's MORE racist, mama!  We run a lot of races in our vampire game. That's why I'm so sweaty.

September 20, 2012: Sometimes She Sneaks Things Into My Suitcase

Sometimes, not often, I have to go away and leave Ella and Noah at home.  I don't much like it, but it's the way it is.  In September of 2012, I had to go to a meeting that was in Phoenix, AZ.  It didn't make much sense for them to come with me, since it was mostly meetings from 8 to 4 all day and only for 3 days, and it would require Ella to miss school.   So I booked the trip and packed up, and they took me to the airport.
When I arrived at the hotel and opened my suitcase, I found some things the child had snuck in there:

August 2. 2012: now she can read

So, since we started dating Noah and I have been Instant Messengers.  I'd be at work, he'd be at a computer at home or at his shop, and he'll send me messages.  We get to chat in a way that feels closer than email but is less intrusive than phone messages.  Anyway, it worked out great to talk about things with Ella over IM when she couldn't read.  Then she learned to read:

May 16, 2012: All about my mom

I think it's a bit dangerous to hand a kid a piece of paper that says 'all about  my mom' and expect them to fill it out.  I mean, it could be dangerous or hilarious.

February 23, 2012: Photo Post, the lollipop was disgusting

Once she got really comfortable with writing and sounding out words, E started writing letters. She has written us a LOT of letters. Especially when she is not keen to tell us something she thinks we won't like to hear.

Like when she is given a cinnamon lollipop that is disgusting:

translation for the child writing impaired: Taing (thank) you for the lolepop (lollipop), mommy  apparently it wus (was) dscsting (disgusting)  taingk (thank) you anewa (anyway)

December 21, 2011: photo post, I like being awesome

So E discovered one of the many Barbie websites.  This not long after her birthday where she told everyone she wanted Barbie dolls or Barbie themed presents.
Of course, while opening presents, she gets to one from her friend, Isaac, and it's a play sword, shield and broad axe.  Upon opening said weapons, she declares, "This is what I always wanted!!!"

Anyway, she got to download wee books that she could fill in for her favorite Barbie styles.  Here are a couple of her style books:

Apparently, she's awesome and likes it.

November 19, 2011: It's a card game

Ella discovered that I sometimes post pictures that she draws to the facebook or Google plus.  She also knows I can send them as messages.  She was desperate for a play date with Piggy, so she made this picture:

In case you thought there was a different Uno out there

October 29, 2011: Pot Holders

Ella decided randomly one day that she wanted to learn how to knit.  Now, I know how to knit, but I don't think I inspired her, as before this particular day, I hadn't knitted since college.  That's at least mumble mumble years ago.  She's never seen me knit.  I had no knitting supplies.  Anyway, not keen to deny her creative impulses, we headed to A.C. Moore (a local craft store) to get needles, yarn and such.  We also got a book that could help  me remember some of the knitting details.  Like how to bind off (I think I never actually learned how to do that in 4-H, as our knitting instructor moved before the end of the year, actually).
I did warn the child that knitting can be hard, but she wasn't swayed.  She wanted to make a pair of socks, like our friend, Annie, made for her earlier that month at the beach.  I suggested that we start with something easier like a scarf.  Or a pot holder.

Ella: what's a pot holder?
Me: it's for holding things that are hot.
Ella: Like hot pots?  Wait, why don't they call it a hot holder.
Me: I don't know, kid.  I don't know.

October 1, 2011: You Can't Swordfight with a Baby

Sometimes swordfights break out at our house.  It happens when you have nerd parents who like science fiction and fantasy, friends who LARP, and some play weapons lying around.

One day, I walked out onto our patio, only to find Ella, holding a baby doll, and sword fighting with her father.

Noah: You can't sword fight with a baby, it's unfair to the baby.
Ella: I'm trying to protect the baby.
Noah: You have to at least throw her up in the air, fight for a little while, and then catch the baby.

I love both of those kids.

September 18, 2011: photo post, more football fun

Ella decided that since the Titans had lost the week prior, she'd really pour on the cheering for the next week.

She donned her Titans cheerleading dress and made a sign:

September 17, 2011: Friends

Ella has a definite disadvantage around here.  We don't live in a neighborhood with lots of kids.  We don't really live in a neighborhood.  This means we have to make playdates.

One of Noah's friends has a son who is just a bit older than Ella is.  However, they live in Cary, which is about 40 minutes away, so we only get to see them at group get togethers, birthday parties and play dates.

At one point, Isaac came over for a Sunday afternoon play-date and this involved running around the house, playing with toys and such.

Ella: Why do you always follow me?

Isaac: Because you're my friend.  

Kids are so fantastic.  

September 11, 2011: photo post--are you ready for some football?

If you know me, you know I love me some football.  Like, a lot.
My teams are the Tennessee Titans and the Seattle Seahawks.  Ella will sometimes watch with me and sometimes she begs me to change the channel.

The best day of football watching we had was this one in 2011:

She felt that we needed a bigger audience for cheering

Unfortunately, during the Titans game, Hasselbeck threw an interception that effectively ended the game.  When the interception happened, I said, dejectedly, "Oh, it's over."
Ella: No, mama, that boy is still running.

Thanks for rubbing it in, kid.

Go Titans!

Unfortunately, that was not a great day for either the Titans or the Seahawks.  When I put her to bed that night, I thanked her for watching football with me, and I told her it was a fun day.
Ella: No.  It wasn't fun.  Both of our teams lost.

I love that kid.

July 4, 2011: what's a ervolution?

While watching 4th of July Fireworks, Ella asked what we do this for, anyway:

Ella: Why are there fireworks?
Me: Because we're celebrating the revolution that created our country.
Ella: What's a ervolution?
Me: Well, there was a king and he lived far away, and he wanted the people to given him their stuff and be his subjects.  They didn't want it, so they fought and made a new country.
Ella: THAT's a ervolution?
Me: well, it was ours.

Okay, so history teacher I am not.  Then I made her watch this:

May 24, 2011 : photo post on how to make popcorn

Ella went through a phase where she'd draw photo instructions for how to do various different activities.  She wanted her daddy to make popcorn for her one day when I wasn't there (that's usually my job):

I added the translation.

April 29. 2011: Prince William and Kate get married

We aren't followers of the Royals at our house.  Ella likes princesses, of course, she's a little girl and she has grown up in the US.  We're totally slaves to Disney and the massive marketing of all things princess.  So I figured that Ella would enjoy seeing a real life prince and princess wedding.

I was flipping channels and found some footage of William and Kate in the carriage, leaving their ceremony.

Me: That's a prince and princess in real life who just got married today.
Ella watches it for a few minutes, then : Why is this so important to you?

We switched the TV back to finish watching Little Bear.

March 6, 2011: photo post--Ninja

Sometimes her insights are more about something she did more than something she said.

She's a ninja.  A colorful, delightful ninja.

January 11, 2011: Guest quote from Noah

So, one of the reasons Ella has so much insight, I believe, is that she has a really clever and funny dad.
Occasionally, I plan on throwing in a few things he's said here and there, too, mostly to remember what having them both around is like. (I'll give you a hint, it's wonderful.)

Noah: I had elderly parents.  So. . . . I knew about Triscuits.

January 2011: Temporary (thank God) tattoos

Far be it for my kid to let having on long sleeves stop her from putting on her temporary tattoos:

November 11, 2010: People can't slide down rainbows

We had, like most parents, made the crucial mistake of getting a few 'kid CDs' for driving around in the car and entertaining the child.  I call it a mistake, because once you play a kid's CD, you are doomed to play it every time you get in the car with the kid.  The one that Ella loved for a couple of years was a Fisher Price Little People CD we got on super discount at Costco.  One of the first songs (I think the first, actually) is See, See My Playmate.

Here are the lyrics.  I suspect you'll remember it when you see them, and will sing along as you read them.  If you don't, count yourself lucky:
See, see my playmate,
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever evermore.

Anyway, while we were out and about one day, we were, of course, listening to this song, and I hear this from the back seat:

Ella: People can't slide down rainbows.  Everyone knows only UNICORNS can slide down rainbows, mama.

October 4, 2010: Stop, drop and roll

We go to the beach once a year in October.  It's a way to celebrate my birthday and to get away as a family.  We've been doing it now since 2003, and it's become one of our favorite parts of the year.
In 2010, Ella had Fire Safety Week the week just before we left for the beach.  She had been telling us on the drive about doing family fire drills and how to be safe in a fire situation.

Once we arrived at the beach house, she established herself in the top bunk of the bunk bed room (every beach house seems to have at least one bunk bed room).    The first night, she was really nervous about staying in this room by herself.  She asked all sorts of questions about emergencies: how was she going to get out of the bunk bed to get out of the house?  Which door should she use?  Do we have a place to meet as a family?

Eventually, while in the bunk bed, getting ready to go to sleep, she takes a look at the dresser where we had unpacked all of her clothes.  She was quiet for a moment and then:

Ella:  If my clothes in my dresser are on fire, do I need to stop, drop, and roll?
<long pause>
Me: No, honey.  Only the clothes that you're wearing get put out by stop, drop and roll.

Thanks, Fire Safety Week.

October 9, 2010-Chicken Fingers

Dinner is always a challenge.  When you have a 5, almost 6 year old, it's often hard to find something that she'll eat with out making faces or straight up refusing.
Okay, I'll admit it, for a long time we didn't push her as hard to eat what we ate because, well, frankly, we ate out a lot.  A.  Lot.
So we'd often ask her what she wanted from the various restaurants we were choosing.  We tried to pick places that had fruit or veggies as available sides for kids (and adults) but we weren't militant about it.  Luckily, we're trying to cook at home more and eat more veggies and fruits at dinner.  Not to mention, we're working on all of us having the same meal as a family.

However, on one particular take out for dinner night:

Me: Ella, do you want chicken fingers?
Ella: No.  I don't really like them.  They're chicken.  And they have fingers.  Not hilarious.

September 30, 2010

Ella likes to build things.  She makes inventions and contraptions (her words).  She likes to make zip lines, instruments, flying machines, anything that looks cool and makes  cool sounds.

Often, when she was in her pre-K program we'd emphasize to her how important it is to go to school and get an education.  There are so many things she can learn about music and science and math and life in general.  However, this completely interferes with her love of staying up late at night and sleeping in late in the mornings.  What can I say, she's our kid.  We like to stay up late, too.

One night, when we're trying to emphasize again how important school is, she starts building something.  It involves silly bands (those crazy rubbery, stretchy bracelets that were the craze for a while) and a clothes hanger.

Ella: "I'm trying to learn how to make everything so that I can learn everything here at home and then I don't have to go to pre-school."

Turns out, she was trying to build a violin.

Feb 5, 2010

At this point, Ella, having just turned 5, is at a fantastic daycare/preschool, called the Little School in Hillsborough, NC.  They are fantastic in every single way.  Her classroom, like many in pre-K programs, has several stations: reading, sensory play, dress up, and so on.
One day, driving in the car, Ella is telling me about her school

Ella: Mama, there are Christmas clothes in the dress up box at school.  That's crazy.
Me: That's funny.
>pause<
Ella: Funny weird.  Not funny haha

So I have this kid, Ella.  She's gorgeous.  She's brilliant.  She's funny.  She's smart.  I'm biased.
Luckily, I also sometimes write down the things she says.  
My plan here is to keep a running log of her insights, her comments, her fantastic-ness.
I hope to be able to go back and get some of her older comments from when she was younger, some comments from other folks who know her best, and maybe even a few insights we've had about her.
I have no idea if this will work out or just be mostly for me to compile when she graduates from high school.  Probably, like all of my other writing, it will get ignored for long stretches and then updated occasionally.
Either way, much like Ella's childhood, we can enjoy it while it lasts.