A Valiant Effort!

I often find myself thinking, "I need to apologize to my parents for putting them through this." Monday night was one of those nights.  It began as soon as I pulled the chinese take-out out of the bag and Ella watched as I prepared her plate with Sweet and Sour Chicken and some Vegetable Lo Mein, complete with a single broccoli floret.  The moment she saw it come out of the box and make its way to the plate she made it quite clear to me that she had no intention of eating it.  Mind you that a little over a week ago she ate a full serving with not so much as a word about it.  But not this night.  No, this night, as the three of us girls sat down to eat, Ella broadcast to anyone who would listen that she did not want to eat her broccoli.  I did my best to not give her the "you will because I say you will and you're not getting down until you do now suck it up and eat that one stupid piece" line, but after the 6th or 7th announcement of her refusal she got it.  Of course, that tender little heart of hers was broken and the waterworks started.  Then what's that I hear?  The jingle of keys, the turn of the lock . . . IT'S DADDY!  I was more excited than the girls on this particular night as he is the professional in handling such matters.  And after her first informative statement of unwillingness to eat it, daddy echoed my "suck it up."   And then it came, the greatest line of all time, the line I wish I could have coined as my own, one I wish I had thought of as a kid . . . are you ready for it?  So Ella looks at daddy, her misty puppy dog little eyes and in her soft sweet voice declares, "I can't, my mouth is too tired."  I couldn't help it, I had to laugh and was seriously considering letting her win this battle.  Then daddy reminded her of what usually happens in these circumstances - mommy goes to work, Madeline and daddy eat their dinner and go upstairs to play and have fun while Ella sits at the table alone and inevitably ends up eating whatever it is she has decided she doesn't want to.  So with that very reasonable reminder she picks up that one little piece of broccoli puts it in her mouth chews it and looks to me waiting for praise and adoration.  Are you kidding me?  Daddy's home for 2 minutes and he has her eating the single piece of broccoli I have been listening to her declare abstinence from for the last 28 minutes!  A valiant effort was made by all that night but alas daddy was the victor!

Mommy's Little Helper

The last week or so Ella has been such a good helper.  Each morning when I'm emptying the dishwasher she comes to ask if she can help so we usually pull up a chair to the silverware drawer and she helps put them away.  When she's done with that she asks me to start the water and put in the soap so she can put the clothes in the washing machine for me.  It's great not only to have the help but she doesn't expect anything in return for it and often when she asks to help it prompts Madeline to do the same.

Fun times with Jude and Tirzah!

I continue to enjoy more and more our Wednesday morning playtime/mommy alone time with Miss Rebekah, Tirzah and Jude.  It's so fun to watch the kids' friendships grow and of course I deeply appreciate the time I get to myself every other week.  The weather was finally nice enough for us to play outside this past week.  The kids had a great time playing golf and tee ball.

Just needs to straighten that left arm a bit and she's got herself a good start to a great back swing.  Now daddy needs to work on her club selection a bit.

A nice little chip shot - with his driver - good form but again we need to work on his club selection.

Ella was all decked-out for the outting in her finest - because anytime is the perfect time for princess attire.  She apparently is anticipating only hitting home runs given her shoe selection.

Another great attire and shoe choice by Tirzah.

Then on Saturday the aquarium was offering its members a free viewing of the new IMAX movie "Under the Sea in 3D".  The girls and I met up with Rebekah and the kids and enjoyed a very cool movie.  It was fun to watch the kids interact with the 3D images, plus they looked SO cool in their 3D glasses.

Atlanta Zoo

Last weekend the girls and I joined Brett in Atlanta for a practice management conference he had.  We got up early Saturday morning and were on the road by 6:30!  The girls were great on the trip down there (still pretty sleepy but never did go back to sleep).  We dropped daddy off at the hotel where we would be staying later and where his conference was being held.  The girls and I ventured to Target to get come snacks for our trip to the zoo as well as a notepad and some cool pencils to draw and write about all the things we would see at there!  We arrived at the zoo around 10:30 or so and didn't get back to the hotel until around 4:00.  It was such a beautiful day and with as cold as the past couple of weeks had been it was so nice to be outside all day!  Here are some pictures from our adventures there at the zoo.  Again, there's lots of pictures and some lengthy captions so you might want to use some manual controls on the slideshow.

Kung Fu Madeline

Madeline loves to "practice" in her "fighting robe."  This keeps her busy for a good 30 - 45 minutes each day, at least she's getting her exercise.  As you will see in the video it is becoming quite apparent that she has her white momma's vertical!