Friends, Food and Fondness

Maya Loves the Water

Crying ensues when she comes out of the tubby

(what a round little head!!)

Apparently, Ella & Lucas figured out new ways to play with the rice table

Matching Belles... Ella & Michaela

Ella has been having fun visiting friends on the days Sandi is at work. We've had friends over (Jennifer and her 2 1/2 year old Lucus) and we've had fun going around town to visit Vanessa and Brooke and Colin for supper (for both Vanessa and I agree that is the hardest part of a long day alone with kids). Being the social butterfly that I am, I fill the days when Sandi is at work with stimulation for Ella and company for me.

Yesterday, the four of us went to visit my sister Kathryn and our 5-year-old niece, Michaela. Ella and Michaela love, love, love to spend time with each other and are really well matched to play together (even unattended at times which is nice and feels a little weird for me to not have her in my sights at all times.) For Christmas, Ella got the same Belle dress (from Beauty and the Beast) that Michaela has and we made sure to bring it. They paraded around the house, trading handbags every five minutes when the timer went off (Kathryn kept forgetting to set it and Michaela would ask it the time was up since it had been 15 minutes and Kathryn would say, "Yup, one more minute girls.") The picture above is the two of them doing the trade-off. Note Michaela's hands on her hip, likely instructing Ella how to properly wear the purse.

A few snipets of our afternoon with the girls:

Ella was giving me instructions (bossing me around) and telling me to go here, go there and if I followed directions (she was wagging her finger at me the whole time- do I do that?) then I could wear a dress. (At home, if she is on the edge of misbehaving we tell her if she doesn't listen she won't be able to wear one of her dress-up dresses.) I did what she told me and said to my sister, "I like to let Ella feel like she has some power. Even false power." Michaela looked up at me and said, "Ella doesn't have any power but do I?"

The girls didn't want to finish their supper and were told they couldn't have dessert if they didn't eat dinner. Michaela, as usual representing both she and Ella, said, "We don't want dessert." Pause. Then, in a small voice, Ella said, "Yeah, but I do."

And, in true spirit of two girls bonded for life by love and unending devotion, they ran circles around each other making up songs which were hard to decipher. Sandi caught a snipet of some of Michaela's lyrics, "We can do anything together, me and you, because we love each other. Ba-ba-ba do." What more could a girl need in life?