Heads

 Ellie loves to dress up. Most of the time that includes putting things on her head, like this lava lava which she insisted one day must flop across her face.

I'm sure that Ellie meant to be extremely generous and kind while sharing this type of dress up experience with her little brother. Unfortunately, I am not sure that he was very impressed.

Let a Little Sun Shine In

Step one: Draw a design on construction paper.
Step two: Poke a pin through the paper tracing the design.
Step three: Put the paper on a window.
Step four: Tell Daddy to admire it over and over when he gets home.

Here's a picture where you can see what Ellie's biggest fan was doing while we were busy completing steps one through three.

Well Risen Rolls

This is what happens to coconut rolls (think cinnamon rolls, minus the cinnamon, plus coconut) when they are ready to go into the oven and then the power goes out for three, yes three!, hours. They still tasted good. :) Right, Beth?

Colored Eggs

I don't really want to mix the real meaning of Easter with the consumerism view of Easter or a celebration of Spring. I think Easter is special enough to deserve full concentration with no distractions. I did see some cute blogs about coloring eggs this year, though, so Ellie and I did this for an activity one day. We did it well before Easter, and focused on the colors and color mixing more than anything. Ellie doesn't know most people would call them Easter eggs. We were just making a fun afternoon snack to share with some friends. :)

The Day Ellie had a Pea in her Ear

 One morning while Franklin was out, Ellie let me know that the previous day she had put a pea in her ear. I was not impressed. I didn't know what to do or how big a deal this was going to be. Thankfully, we know an excellent doctor here in town, so it turned out to be a very small deal, and we made a book about it during school. These are Ellie's words, prompted by some questions by me. The drawings are all hers.

And just to prove that the story is true, here is the pea... and the ear wax. :)

A Good Mommy

Ellie loves to take care of her dolls. There were a couple days when she kept them in a sling with her wherever she went. We had to tell her to take the sling off when she went to the bathroom or was going to eat. :)
You can see Abraham is very impressed with the whole situation.

6 months

Earlier this month Abraham passed the 6 month mark. 

This is what Ellie looked at when she was about the same age.

I wanted to do a post with comparisons for each month so far, but we weren't organizing our pictures very well back in 2008. So, a note to all new parents, date your photos and organize them well in folders so you can find them years later!

A Dress Up Doll

Ellie got this magnetic dress-up doll as a gift when Abraham was born. It's been fun watching her get better at playing with it. Last week the doll came out of Ellie's room with a variety of coordinated outfits.

Relaxation

Friends

We miss you guys.

Babyfood

The baby food making has begun!
Here's some pumpkin ready to be frozen.

 I remember with Ellie going crazy with baby food making. I didn't realize that this stage of baby food making is so short. So, I'm trying not to overdo it this time.
Rice and pumpkin for supper.

And the little boy who is going to enjoy it.

Future Athlete?

Eliana

Color Fun

 Ellie was helping me make pancakes one night and she asked for blue pancakes. Why not? We also made colored syrup and watch what happened when the colors mixed.  (Notice the roses in the vase... Franklin brought them home for me from the market. :) )

 

Blue + Red = Purple

Now whenever we have pancakes it becomes a color experiment. And Ellie remembers all the color combinations!

Yellow + Red = Orange

Sitting and Reading

It's never too early to enjoy good books. This good book was given to Ellie by Grandma Dee and was dearly loved. It's now being loved by Abraham.

A bit like Daddy's feet?

CopyCat

Ellie learns by copying whatever Mommy and Daddy do. If we swing Abraham in the hammock, then when Daddy gets in the hammock, she swings Daddy.

Eating

"Please don't take a picture of me while I am eating. Just feed me more food."

Glue + Salt + Watercolors = Fun

 I saw some post on a blog about this activity, and I had the required items, so we tried it.
You just put glue on a paper in some designs, put some salt on top, and then drop really wet watercolor paints on top. You can watch the color spread and the salt absorb the color.

Then when you hang it up in front of light, it looks a bit like stained glass. I bet you've never seen stained glass as beautiful as our artwork below! :)

Shadow Love

 Someone loves his shadow. At night he tries to touch it.

And he tries to kiss it.

And then he makes me feel horrible because he give me this look like, "Why aren't you helping me get it?"

 

And I just sit smiling behind my camera. :)

A Homemade Abacus or Two

 We had a visitor who gave us a small package of wooden beads. I had seen somewhere on the Internet about making a homemade abacus, so I tried it. 

Ellie loved playing with it.... for like five seconds. Then she wanted to make her own. Apparently, mine wasn't good enough.

 So, we found a some more beads and a smaller box, and Ellie got to work.

Here's the abacus she made. 

Lest you be overwhelmed at the brilliance of my three year old, assuming that she is using the big abacus to count to 9,999 and the small abacus to 99, please be informed that the abacuses are more often used as musical instruments than for counting.