Eliana's Self Inflicted "Trim"

From the front it doesn't look to bad-


Her left side got the worst of it, it is shortest right behind her ear-


I think she will get a very cute shaggy bob out of it, very short being the key words. I actually think the pixie style is a bit endearing on her. i'll post pictures once we get it cut.

PSA: Food Dyes Can be Lethal

We went to a class recently that served food Eliana couldn't eat. Afterwards we went to the store to pick out a treat she could have to make it less of an issue. It went something liek this:

Eliana- "Can I have this one?"
Mom- "Well, it does have food dyes in it. But you know what? They are ok from time to time... and you rarely eat anything with dyes- so sure. You decide!"
Eliana- "I'll pick this one" ::indicating the plain and boring one without sprinkles::
Mom- "Are you sure? I'm surprised you didn't choose the colorful one"
Eliana (very matter of factly)- "I'm not ready to die yet, so I choose no dyes."

I tried to explain the difference, but she would not hear anything of it. No Dye-ing for her today.

Make Believe

Malia has been pretending to be someone other than herself a bit lately "Hi, I'm not Malia. I'm Clover. Malia is staying with my family today and I'm staying with yours"

The other day she decided to be me- sporting my phone, my shoes, my glasses and my rings she walks her "my shoes are way to big" walk out of the bedroom proclaiming "hello sweetheart!" to any other child in an exagerated sugary voice. I goit quite a chuckle out of her impression of me. A minute later she emerges from the bedroom dressed as Dad. Which includes his shoes, a baseball cap, holding an Aikido book, and a very low voice. I don't know why- but her impersonation of him really tickled me.

You Want What?

Recent conversation with Sasha:

I want tuh-muh-tahs!
tomatoes?
no... tuh-muh-tahs
potatoes?
no! tuh-muh-tahs
Can you show me what you want?
::opens fridge and points to the jar of olives:: "Not black olives, tuh-muh-tahs!"

AHA- kalamatas! Not particular at all.

"Because...Nothing"

Sasha's new universal answer-

"Why did you dump out your drink?"
"uhhh... because.... nothing?"

"What would you like for breakfast?"
"uhhh.... nothing?"
So, you're not hungry and you want nothing?"
"No, I *is* hungry"
"OK, so what do you want to eat?"
"howwww.... 'bout.... nothing?"

"What do you want to wear today?"
"uhhh.... nothing?!"

"why did you pull your sister's hair?"
"because... nothing"

Friends, Bikes, and Fun...

Our neighbors have one of those powered jeeps, and the girls LOVED it. They had so much cruising around our culdesac.


We've really enjoyed getting to know our neighbors. For the first time we have kids close in age who love to play outside with us. It is really wonderful!

Eliana discovering new ways to ride a tricycle (She's not on the seat)


Malia showing off her speeding abilities:


Who needs a helmet when you have a crown?


Let me tell you, Malia is turning into quite the comedian. She thinks she is funny stuff.




And just so nobody is left out...


And we are all LOVING fall!!

Sasha Style

Think she has a future in fashion?

WOBBLY TOOTH!

Malia was complaining that her tooth hurt- and pointed down to the gum region of her lower front tooth on her left. I said I couldn't see anything and dismissed it.

A little while later she said it again so I looked closer and decided to give it a wiggle and sure enough it is loose. Not about to fall out at any move loose, but loose none the less.

Malia is THRILLED. And she just politely corrected my title from "loose tooth" to "wobbly tooth". Sheesh, you'd think her mama would know what it was called. I'm quite certain she got "Wobbly Tooth" from a Charlie & Lola episode, which is one of my favorite children's shows.

That would be the sound of my heart melting...

We recently got beds with canopies over the top bunk. Last night Eliana was wiggling all around to reconfigure her pillow to the not-so-enclosed portion of her canopy. It was quite an endeavor with the massive amount of teddy bears who must be included on her bed.

When she finally settled she said "There. Now you can kiss me better" I hadn't even realized it, but previously I had the habit of kissing her forhead each night "to seal in all the good dreams" and with the new beds I hadn't been doing so since I couldn't reach her.

Magic Beans

I love how easily these girls can create a story line to amuse themselves. Today at the grocery store we went by the coffee grinding section. We always stop to smell the wonderful fragrance- and sometimes if there are beans on the tray or floor I'll give them each one. Today the girls decided they were magic beans. Which meant they could make a wish on it and had to hold it tight without dropping it through the whole store. At one point Eliana sniffed a bean and said "smell that? that is the smell of magic!" I must confess I quite agree with her there.

If nothing else they kept their hands and minds busy for a very boring trip to the grocery store.

Malia's Reading

After dinner Malia brought 4 of her "learn to read" books to the table. These books are of the "See spot, see spot run, see the truck, goodbye spot" variety, but without the implied morbidity that I've included in my example. Anyway, I thought she wanted me to read to her, but she opened them up and proceeded to read 3 of the books to me, accurately and without any help. Now the kids can practically recite or at least paraphrase some of the books we've read over and over with them, but Malia was sounding out the letters and actually reading the story word for word. I'm really proud of her, and of the job Aly has done teaching her!

First Aikido Class

I'm not sure we'll go back to that specific instructor... but Malia was so proud ot get her Gi on like Daddy and go off to class.

Eliana's New Bike

Eliana has been feeling a bit overlooked in our excitement for Malia, so we went and got her a new bike this weekend thinking we needed 2 bikes with training wheels. We had no idea Malia would catch on so fast and thought she'd need a training wheel bike a little longer.



If you look closely you can see all her beautiful art on her arms. She is really into drawing on her arms and legs right now. haha. Although she likes the new bike, she could also be spotted sneaking a ride on the tiniest tricycle we own. A tricycle that Sasha is trying to get the hang of, but is still pushing around on a push bike (they need to make these bigger!)

Not a baby anymore...

We officially have a big kid!




I'm so proud of her! A friend of mine offered to help her learn awhile ago and in typical Malia style, she declined. Once she became comfortable with the idea she simply said she was ready to learn. On the first day she was put on a bike without pedals and just asked to try and keep her balance down a small hill.


The session ended with a fall, so the next day we just worked on building her confidence back up. Letting her roll down a grassy hill for a long time. The third day she took off on her own regular bike. A few more pics:

She wanted to show you all that she knew how to catch herself-


Concentrating to get started-


"Wheeeee!"-


I'm feeling pure weeping joy for her and her accomplishment. Way to go Malia!!!

My Little Wanderer

Anyone who has been out in public with me known Eliana is a wanderer. It isn't that she means to wander... the world is just filled with so many wonderful things to see and explore. I doubt she even notices she is loosing the group most the time.

Well, she seems to have found the ability to keep a focus on where I am going and keep up with me. All of a sudden she is actually following me through a store, and not needing a hand or some constant reminder of our path to keep up. I'm so excited about this milestone.

How does it begin?

Malia has started to wonder how it all begins. First she asked me "If people come from bellies... how did the first person start to make more people?" I asked her what she thought and she answered "I think another animal laid an egg and by accident a human came out instead". Since we'd never discussed it before, I thought that was a pretty interesting theory for a 6yo to come up with.

A few days later she asked me "If new trees grow from the seeds on the mature trees, how did the first tree grow?" Which again, I thought was a brilliant question.

Who knew kids got so stinking cool and logical as they got older.

Poor Sasha...

Wednesday night Sasha climbed up on the table, and then fell off. She hit her ear on the table right before hitting her head on the tile. She usually climbs up on the highchairs, but for some reason decided to try one of the adult chairs.


Here is a close up, I'll only link for those with weak tummies.

The doctor we had was worlds better than the one who did Eliana's stitches. It was not nearly as traumatic as either of her sisters experiences with stitches. She cried briefly when they were doing the shot and when they first tried to do the stitches (but learned she needed more pain meds). They didn't have to hold her still or swaddle her, as she did absolutely wonderful with it. They were so impressed that she got a popsicle AND a lollypop while there.

It was sweet because when we got home I told her to tell Daddy about her stitches and to show him and the first thing she said was "I got a green popsicle!" You can tell what the highlight of the evening was for her. She was so tickled to discover that popsicles come in more colors than "natural strawberry". I asked her "since it is a green popsicle... do you think it is a broccoli flavored one?" She said "Nooooo. Candy!" She is so funny, that one.

But she is doing well. It is a little swollen in the picture- and even more swollen today. Poor thing. I hope it heals quickly. I took the stitches out of the other two myself to avoid further trauma. I think Sasha likes strangers enough that it will be the opposite for her though- so we're going in Tuesday to get them out.

It's Official

We're moving. To Northwest Arkansas again, closer to Fayetteville this time though.

It is bittersweet, really. I have always hoped to return, I did love living there... at the same time I wish I could pack up a few of my closest friends... Christine especially... and take them with me.

We got to touch base with some friends while we were there in town this weekend and Malia reconnected with her old buddies with ease. We had a wonderful, though slightly stressful, trip.

Our Water Baby

I've described Sasha's love of the water... and lack of fear of it. Here are some pictures in sequence until I figure out how to get video up.

Her jumping in the water:


Here she is asking to be thrown in the air- I can't believe she enjoys this, but her smile going in and coming out affirm that she finds this fun. perhaps she will be our rollercoaster baby as well. hehe


Here she is actually going away from the shallow ledge, turning around and going back towards it. Dathan came in close at the end in case she needed help- but she actually managed it on her own. You can see in the start she is hanging on to the ledge and looking up at Dathan. She doesn't wait until we are ready for her at all.



And just because they are cute and this is how we spent much of our summer:




More on the Smugmug site as usual :)

My Phone Returns

Today we went by the Verizon store and got a new phone. For those who I don't talk to on the phone often and hadn't heard... my old phone met its demise in a glass of water. I don't want to point any fingers or anything, so I'll just say her name starts with "Sa" and ends in "sha".

So, I'm back in business. You can call me again and Dathan can have his phone back!

We started the morning outside pulling weeds from our flower bed. It was nice until the sun REALLY came out. For breakfast, Sasha was asking for salad. Not having any, I promised I'd take her out later for salad. So when Daddy took the older girls to Home Depot for their kids workshop- Sasha and I went and got some salad. Then we went to Verizon and Fadi's Mediterranean Grill for lunch. It was fabulous and the Cashew Baklava was actually quite good. I tend to find baklava a bit to sticky but this one was very light.

Now Daddy is at the pool with them letting mommy have a few minutes home alone in quiet. Which reminds me... did you know the "Kiddie" pool is actually the "Kitty" pool. All these months the girls thought we were calling it a kitty cat pool. Silly girls.