The Clay Lady

Our plates. The moms even got to make one so I made a princess plate for Elye.

Reesi and I went on her class field trip last week to see Danielle, The Clay Lady. I've had The Clay Lady come do things with my kindergarten class many years ago. Now she has this amazing warehouse, studio, and artist's co-op. I was so impressed. She is always so good with the children and she knows how to manage a big group of kids. We made heart plates, toured her warehouse, watched an artist "throw a pot," and looked at the work in the gallery. My favorite part was when I was joking with Reesi and one of her friends. Reesi turned around, looked up at me seriously, and said, "Mom, I told you not to be yourself." In spite of that comment, she was really sweet the whole time. She wanted to hang back with me and hold my hand. So sweet. I'm not sure how much longer she will do that on field trips! It definitely made the field trip worthwhile!

Book Worm

For the past year or so Reesi has been reading in bed after we kiss her goodnight. It helps her go to sleep and I love that she has become a little book worm. Her favorite series right now is Puppy Place. I love it when a kid gets hooked on a series. It makes the teacher in me smile.

Potty Training

Right before Christmas I finally quit being lazy and took away the diapers from Elye. Elye is doing pretty well and peeing, but so far has refused to poop on the potty. She still has accidents if I get distracted and forget to take her to the potty. My favorite excuse she uses when she pees in her pants is, "My booty was thirsty." How can you argue with that?

I Blame it on Pinterest

Reesi has been wanting a dog for years. We tried giving her a sister instead, but that only held her off for about 1 year. We tried buying her a pacman frog, but we killed it in 11 days. A few months ago I was reading one of those Pinterest posts where it was words of wisdom for dads with daughters. One of them was, "One day she will ask for a dog. Let her have one." It also didn't help that her cousins got the cutest puppy for Christmas. So we caved and agreed to get one for her birthday.

The problem is when I start shopping for something I can get kind of obsessive and once I decide I want something I don't want to wait. So after a week of staying up until 11:00 browsing puppyfinder.com and researching all kinds of dogs I talked Larry into the perfect pup. Hopefully, she will be ready to come home the first week of February.

Reesi cannot wait and has already set up her bed and toys. This lead to her and Elye playing dog. Elye is, of course, the dog and she usually gets in trouble with her master. Reesi has newspaper laid out for the dog to pee on and the next thing I know Reesi's yelling, "Mom, Elye peed on the paper." So Reesi got some real practice cleaning up her doggy's pee. Nice. I guess we will be doing a lot of that over the next several months.

Little Bitty Bowling

We went bowling with Larry pitching coach and his family, the Brandon's, tonight. His daughter, Sara McGee, is only a week or two older than Elye. Elye even brought a princess dress to Sara McGee to wear because you can't just bowl in plain old clothes. Here are the princesses in action.

Five Minutes Peace

I was selfishly enjoying my computer time while Reesi was entertaining Elye. I could hear them giggling and was thinking how I love to hear them play together. I should have known they were up to no good. Reesi apparently has a future as a tattoo artist.

Zoo Day

Last Friday we were blessed with a beautiful day and warm temperatures. My friend Megan and I took advantage of it and headed to the zoo. Elye hadn't been to the zoo since she was one. She absolutely loved it. As soon as we saw one animal she was ready for the next. She also fell in love with the play area, especially the big padded area where the could jump and do flips. Elye and her buddy will shared lots of hugs, kisses, and hand holding too. Elye is already asking to go back. If only the weather would cooperate!

Christmas Eve

Building the traditional present fort

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents. We started out the morning with presents and then had lunch. The rest of the day was spent playing, playing, and more playing. We began the presents with Reesi passing out her presents. She has begun the tradition of wrapping up presents for every member of the family. Some of the presents are things from around our house and some of them are things she picked out while bargain hunting. I love watching her get excited about wrapping them all up and passing them out. We even bought her a Santa bag to keep them in this year. After Reesi, Grace, and Lyla passed out their presents we gave mom and dad their present, a framed family canvas, and then the crazy unwrapping began. The girls all loved their presents!

Elye's First Face