Some things never change

When you're talking about a toddler's affinity for a phone, a real phone, then yeah, some things never change.

When you're talking about my compulsion to take lots of pictures of little girls in pigtails, that doesn't change either.

When you're talking about my skills of putting little girls' hair in pigtails for the first time, mercifully, some things do change.




Clearly the idea to put Ella's hair in pigtails for the fist time struck and I wanted them done Right Then, paying no heed to a mid-line part or water (or even a comb, for that matter?).



I'm a seasoned pro by the time I deemed Ashley's hair ready for pigtails! Unfortunately, no amount of water and comb could deter her hair in the back from slipping out of the pigtails and curling back up. I may need to call in reinforcements for future endeavors, yes?



Ashley Kate sending out a SOS text for hairspray: STAT!

Pomp and Circumstance

Ella is an official graduate of Pre-K as of last night! It's very exciting, yet very confusing... a graduation? For Pre-K? I know, but it was fun for her to do and for us to see so yea!

They each had a cap and gown which I found so funny. After they had been presented with their graduation certificates, they tossed their caps into the air just like the big kids! (On a side note, Ella reported that her cap had to be pinned on since it kept slipping off her head - due to the largeness of her noggin! I, for one, am not surprised. The child has had a melon head since before she was born!)

The lighting wasn't the greatest for picture taking, but I did sneak up to the front for a video. This is Ella (at the far left) with some classmates reciting John 3:16. Please take note of the overall yelling-ness that's going on here. And apply that to the whole program. Thank you.




Later, the whole class joined together to sing Brown Bear, Brown Bear. It started off lovely, but soon spiraled to half of the kids singing one part of the song, the other half singing a latter portion of the song, kind of like Row, Row Your Boat. Except not on purpose. Since I am a loving mother, I decided that this was another excellent time for a video, chaos and all. I *may* be laughing at the two cycle song at the beginning of the video, but later I am laughing at Ashley, who is laughing. Fortunately, the kids pulled it together for the last few animals of the song. Ella is the second from the left (standing next to her once hot to trot for boyfriend from Valentine's Day to the left) who eventually holds up the goldfish. (You can hear Ashley cheering at the end, and also see the cell phone that she is holding: our effort to keep her happy, if you will.)




Grandma and Grandpa were able to come down to see the big day. Grandma had the unfortunate task of wrangling Ashley Kate.



I had the unfortunate task of trying to get a picture of Ella where she didn't look asleep.


"Open your eyes!" I said. I got what I asked for.


Some people just want to share in the festivities, no matter how small the cap!


And then others just want to run away...

...to the bright lights of the stage, my darlings! See these gams? I could be FAMOUS!



Congratulations to Ella, the big grad-u-ate! (In related news, when we went to register E for kindergarten, she did exceptionally well on her readiness test! Look at her, using all those brains in that big ol' head!)

Ella's New Job

Apparently, while I was looking the other way, Ella took a job with the Modesty Police. Not that she's Miss Modesty, mind you, but rather than she wants me to be. Or, more specifically, my neckline.

Last night as I was on the floor painting her toenails, she asked me "Mama, why do all of your shirts show your breasts?" Nice.

And then:

Today, as Ella is crawling all over me, she accidentally pulls the neck of my shirt down. She saw what she had done, immediately jerked it back up (well past where it should be) and says "Mama! Don't you know it's not ladylike to show your chest like that!"

I just laughed, knowing that one day our roles will be reversed and she will be the one with the buxom figure and I will be the one shouting 'Cover Up!'

If you think we're sleeping on the job...

... we are.

Not all of us are sleeping with the two Curious George books that we begged to read before nap time, but we are sleeping nonetheless.



(Do you believe that the next day she did the exact same thing with these two books?! I wanted to take another picture, 'second verse same as the first' kind of thing, but I didn't want to risk waking her up!)

Good News From The House - And The Yard

Great news, everybody! Ashley has not had another seizure, and at this point we are rejoicing in each day that passes without one! The time between her first two was 11 days, so we were a little antsy when we neared day 10 this time around. But today makes day 16 and we couldn't be happier!

More great news on the Ashley front: she's a bona fide walker! We have had a few people comment about how now she'll be into everything and won't we wish she wasn't walking, and to that I say this: No, not really. We've been waiting a long time for this development and are more than happy to deal with the repurcussions!

There is all kinds of good news coming from out in the yard, too! We are just beginning to realize how busy we might be this summer with all of the production that's going to happen.. and here I was, bemoaning the fact that we couldn't have a garden!

Ella Grace has been indoctrinated into the honeysuckle family.


The beautiful, sweet magnolias are preparing to make me one happy girl.

The littlest, ittiest bittiest bunch of grapes forming.

Just today we discovered that we have what we believe to be a PEACH TREE!
I can't tell you how excited we all are about this revelation.



We also discovered that we have what we believe to be two pear trees!
We are delighted about this revelation too, but maybe not as much as the peach.
Sorry, pear.

Y'all remember that we also have pecans, black walnuts and chestnuts too, right?! We will be busy indeed!