Potty Update

Ella continues to wet her diapers but has not once pooped in them since the 1st. Twelve days, twelve poops on the toilet... isn't it the pooping that is the hardest part of potty training??? She could care less about wet diapers, but is quick to tell us "Ella have stinky bum" to which we whisk her off to the toilet and she goes with no problem. Potty training is odd, we're just winging it and we figure she'll get it eventually.

Just Beachy

Ella is still doing well, her appetite isn't totally back to normal but she's active, drinking and eating toast and cheerios so all is well. Today we went to Ko'Olina. Ella has a new swim ring and she's so brave. She floats out above her head and has learned to kick to turn herself around. She's not quite kicking enough to propel her through the water but she is happy to float and be out in the water. Without the swim ring she'll walk out to her head and ends up with a wave over her. Despite this, she insists on being on her own and when I pick her out of the water and bring her back to where she can safely touch, she can't get away from me fast enough. She wants to swim so desperately, especially now that Sebastian is with us and he has so much freedom being able to swim. We will be more than ready for swim lessons in March...

Almost Normal

Ella is doing fine, she hasn't been sick since we left the hospital and we didn't have to give her any more medicine. We all went to bed really early last night and had an excellent night's sleep.

Funny, unrelated note about boys versus girls. Ella, as I have said many times is very sweet. She loves giving kisses and hugs and will make Ron and I kiss each time we kiss her when she's getting ready for bed. She gives Eskimo kisses, butterfly kisses, and blows kisses. She kisses and hugs all her toys, her blanket, her bike... she carries around her baby dolls and Barbie dolls and gives them bottles, wraps them in blankets, puts them to bed... the list goes on. She is very sweet to her friends and to ours, always running up to my girlfriends to give them a big hug. Did I mention I have a very adorable, sweet little girl??

I have been watching Sebastian for week and he is a very polite and well-behaved 10-year-old... but is it a gene boys are born with??? So far he's wrestled Ella's Elmo chair, pile-drived her dolls, "smashed" Elmo into the carpet repeating "die, Elmo, die.. aggghhhh (dying sounds)", and held a boxing/death match with her stuffed animals. Now granted, we don't have any "boy" toys in the house and he's surrounded by girlie dolls and pink stuffed animals, but really, "die, Elmo, die"??? Ella of course, was horrified, then intrigued, and then thought the whole thing was hilarious. I put an end to it and explained that while, yes, he does have brothers, and he is used to video games, Ella is a little girl who is sweet and we want her to stay that way. He is a great kid and has headed my warnings: if he can't stop torturing Ella's things, he's not to play with them at all:) There's to be no death or destruction in the house... that, I'm sure, will come later because didn't we all rip off Barbie's head at some point??? LOL

Stomach Bug

Last night, Ella woke up at around 10 because she was sick. I washed and changed her bedding and pj's and sat on the couch with her. For the next 6 hours, every drop of water that she had came right back up. I was giving her 2 tsp of water every 15 minutes to no avail. There's a stomach bug going around and after 6 hours of retching, I finally woke Ron up and we headed to the ER. We were there 5 hours, which is crazy because when we arrived we were only one of two people there. The person in front of us had a puking toddler too. Slowly, as it got towards 6am, the waiting room filled up with little kids and their buckets. We finally saw a doctor at 7 and they gave Ella something to stop her retching, but then made us wait for 2 hours to see if it worked, even though they said it's affect was immediate. Ella sucked back her water and fell right to sleep. 2 hours later we were on our way home. It's going to be a quiet day as we are both running on only a few hours sleep. Luckily, as horrible as this bug is, it's supposedly short-lived.

Hair

Ella's hair has become quite long but it's so beautifully curly, you never really get it's full length unless it's just been washed. Ron combed out her hair last night... hello 1977! I usually comb it out and pull it back or wash it and let it air dry into ringlets. This was something else.
The dolls Ella is playing with in the pictures were mine from childhood. A Russian doll from my Uncle Mike, I believe; a Hawaiian doll from my parents; and a black doll from a family friend (my favorite as I loved her bandanna and wanted one for myself). I'm glad Ella is getting a chance to play with them now, it brings back a lot of childhood memories.

My friend Christina (Emmi's mommy) recently came back from Mexico and brought Ella this shirt. It's so adorable. Thank you Christina!
Well, I've stopped looking after the little girl, Mia as of Tuesday. Ella is such a great kid and loves making friends and playing with other kids but her and Mia just couldn't get along. I kept having to separate them and the fact that Mia's never been around other kids just made matters that much worse. Ella's demeanor was changing and so were her sleeping habits. It was more than I was willing to deal with. Mia cried hysterically Tuesday and only stopped if I held her. When her mom picked her up, she wailed louder and kicked the whole way to the car... I didn't need to do much more explaining at that point and "I'm sorry this isn't working out" was sufficient. Luckily, Ella adores Sebastian and can't wait to see him every morning. She giggles hysterically a his antics and is always asking "Where Sebastian go?" when he leaves. So cute.

Utter Exhaustion

I am looking after my friend's 9-year old step son this month. Because school starts on July 31st here, there aren't any summer or day camps in August for him. He's a really great kid, polite and well-behaved so it's no problem. Well, on Friday evening, an acquaintance stopped us and asked if I could watch her 23-month old daughter, starting Monday. She's active duty and her stay-at-home husband is leaving... for good. I agreed to watch her for a few weeks until she can find something - the whole situation seemed rather sudden.

This morning Mia came over and Ella is having issues with sharing and having someone divert Mommy's attention. Then Sebastian came and all was well. Ella loves older kids and because Sebastian is Lucas' big brother, he's used to playing games with a toddler. He had Ella playing tag and running around giggling as he chased her. It was an okay first day, though Mia and Ella napped a full 2 hours each... at totally different times. Mia's not been around other kids or at a babysitters for that matter so she's quiet, won't eat and grips her blanket and pacifier for dear life. That's been a hard adjustment as I'm used to Ella doing everything and forging ahead, fearless. I'm not used to having to coddle and coax a toddler into anything.

Five minutes before they got picked up, Sebastian puked all over my living room. Poor kid. Mia was picked up during the incident and rushed out and our friend came just in time to help me clean up his son. My rug is on our patio drying, the house is cleaned. I then cooked dinner for Ron, took the garbage out and got the mail. Ron did put Ella to bed but I'm still waiting for my wife of the year award. I'm exhausted and will start again tomorrow at 5:50am. I swear, if Ella ever asks for a sibling...

My Latest Obsessions

Just a little something I can't get enough of these days... Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" and the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance". It's been a quiet day here. Although Ella did tell Ron she needed to poop and proceeded to poop on the potty - YEAH!

My favorite song and best dance of the season:

My favorite couple and favorite two dancers: Joshua and Katee

Braids

I've braided Ella's hair the past two days and surprisingly not only have they held, they don't look too bad. Ella's come down with a little cold, runny nose and mild cough. She's been super grumpy all day even though she napped for a couple of hours. We spent the afternoon outside playing in the sprinkler and finger painting.


She was without a diaper playing in the back yard and pooped in her bathing suit. I was tired, frustrated and ended up putting her in the bathtub and very sternly told her she is not to poop in her clothes. I was so stern, she looked at me and said "Yes, Ma'am, I sorry, Mommy." Of course I melted but managed to keep my stern face and told her big girls use the potty.

Whatever it was, it seemed to work. Ron was laying down in Ella's room while she played and I was napping on the couch. Ella, on her own, used the potty, wiped her bottom and went back to playing (naked having not put on another diaper). We found the diaper, dry, in the garbage can, her potty full of pee. She just looked at us and said, "Ella did it." She's been dry ever since and used the potty again before bed. Could I possibly hope?????

Back at It

We've been home over a week now and I haven't had the inclination to post. We're finally back in the groove of things, unpacked, laundered and in a clean house. My girlfriends back home have inspired me to start cooking new dishes and we've been making an effort to eat as a family every night. It's really been helping with Ella's eating habits. She's eating everything we eat, or at least trying it and we've stopped the cheese and crackers or baby food and cheerio nonsense.

Being home, in Canada, made me miss seasons so I have decided to celebrate summer, or at least distinguish these months from the rest of the year by buying tons of fruit, including a giant watermelon, and making our own ice cream cones. If the weather can't be seasonal here, at least my cooking and activities can be.

Ella went to a birthday party on Saturday. They has a giant water slide set up and Ella exhausted herself. This kid fears nothing. Even though most kids were twice her age or twice her size, she climbed up with them and took her turns going down the water shoot.

We're Home

We're home. The flight was pretty uneventful... on time and we had all our luggage when we arrived last night (Air Canada, you just never know!). Ella was great. She drank so much juice she wet through her diaper and onto the seat but nothing a few hundred paper towels stolen from the bathroom didn't solve. She slept a bit, watched her movies and was in bed for the night when we got home at 10:30pm.
Pictures to follow, just catching up on unpacking...

Thank you everyone for making time for us, BBQing, cooking, and sightseeing with us. We are so happy to have the chance to hang out with you.

The weddings were beautiful, we had so much fun and really enjoyed catching up after such a long time!

Erin, Suzanne & Jason - Thank you for letting us crash and making our vacation affordable and hotel free. xoxo

Steph & Matt - As always, we loved hanging out with you guys. Thank you for inviting us "camping" though I use that term loosely. xoxo

Here are some pics I've been meaning to post....