Where did the time go....and then you were 6.....

As I reflect on the past year this poem I found really hit home and brought tears to my eyes. You have grown into such a beautiful, amazing little girl that I am so proud of

Yes, you are 5 now...

Your birthday was March 20th. You are 5 years old now. I sit back and try to remember where all the time has gone. I search my mind for all the new things you have started doing and saying and there are just so many to mentions. You have been going to the Montessori school for 9 months now. You are blossoming into an independent self-thinker with all kinds of ideas. You love music and are always singing and dancing around the house and putting on shows. You have even started creating tickets for your shows and making sure everyone has a seat. You have such a sweet mild mannered way about you. In fact I think you have an old soul. Just the other day you asked me if I would take care of you always and forever. I of course answered with a resounding yes, of course. My heart just beams with joy whenever I see your little face. I am so proud of all of your accomplishments. You count to 20 in Spanish, can hold a basic “Hi, how are you, and I am fine thank you “conversation in Spanish. You also can recite a lot of colors in Spanish as well. You are starting to read short stories by using phonics to sound out your words and can spell lots of 3 letter words by sound. You are now eating hamburgers and chicken nugget meals at McDonalds and actually tell me you are hungry. I remember when we had to fight you to eat and spent hours in feeding therapy to get you to eat anything. You have come such a long way in your short life. You are so independent anymore. It hurts me sometimes that I am no longer needed at most times but is also exciting to me that you are so independent and able to do so many things on your own. The fact that you are growing up is so bitter sweat. For now I sit and watch you, and drink in every minute of your discoveries and you are so excited to show me… soon enough I will not be enough. In fact soon enough you will not want “mom” in your business all the time, soon enough your friends will take precedent over mom, soon enough… but for now I will continue to enjoy the little moments when you want me to cuddle you and hold you and sing you to sleep….that is until, soon enough…

You can learn a lot from a 4 year old...

Tonight at a lazy dinner at Chili’s since mom did not feel like cooking after a long day at work, Elyssa asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. In a matter of 5 seconds my whole 40 years passed before me and it did take long for me to realize I had never done what I wanted to do when I grew up so I quickly answered “Elyssa – I’m already grown up and I am what I wanted to be – I am your mommy!” She laughed and said “mommy, that’s not a job”. I guess in a sense she is right, I don’t view being her mommy as a “job”- it is more like an everyday adventure. So in all my adult wisdom I decided to turn the tables on her and ask her “Elyssa what do you want to be when you grow up?”- it took her no time at all to answer. No she did not reply as I would have wanted her to and say that she wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or president of the United States, instead she looked at me with her big blue/hazel/green eyes and said “mommy, I’m going to grow up and be me”. I don’t know how she does it, but for a mere 4 years old she makes the most profound statement. I could not have asked for a better answer. So many of us establish high expectations at a young age trying to determine what it is we will end up being in this thing called life that we never take the time to just “be ourselves”. Our lives are filled with so many complicated issues and expectations that we never just allow ourselves to be “just me”. We put on personalities and adjust our ideas to meet the needs of others and never allow our own personalities to shine. Honestly, I hope that my little girl has the ability to never loose herself in the “mediocrity” of life and the conforming to what society accepts as the “norm”. I do pray that God gives her the strength to stand her ground and do what she is meant to do and not what is expected of her. Of course that all being said, mommy and daddy will still try to convince our little girl that a degree in medicine, law or engineering will never be a bad choice in life- hey we do have to keep her somewhat grounded now don’t we?

Mommy Saves the Day

It was like any other Wednesday morning, driving to work down the George Bush Highway toward work, my tunes playing in the background as my mind drifted to the days events that I had ahead of me. All I could think about was that darn RFE case sitting on my desk to follow up on this morning. It had been a horrible mess that just would not go away and I was on my way to tackle it again one more day. Then, my cell phone rang and interrupted my mindless thoughts. From the ring tone even before looking at the caller ID I knew it was Eddie. I answered but to my surprise it was a little tiny voice that answered my “hello”, it was Elyssa in a frantic voice “Mommy!”, I answered “yes, Elyssa what do you need?” I could hear the frustration in her voice as she said “Mommy, you have to come home right now!” I almost had to giggle because I could not imagine what she had conjured up in her little head that was so important that I needed to “come home”. “Elyssa” I ask “ what's wrong, what do you need?” She could barely hold it in “Mommy, Mommy , you have to come home, you have my Tinkerbell watch in your purse and I need it, I need it to wear to school!” ….and so it begins. My little girl has officially become a a girly girl. Gone are the days where she did not want bows in her hair and I could decide what she wore in the morning, she is now an independent young lady with a fashion and opinion all of her own. Although she wears a uniform to school and there is not much in the way of decision making , she does decide every morning if it is going to be 1 or 2 pony tails in her hair or if she is going to just wear it straight. She has bows and headbands that she chooses from every morning and please , lets not forget her lip gloss that she takes along with her as well. We choose from either the small one that fits in her pocket or the fancy one that she can wear around her neck all day at school like a badge of honor amongst the little girls. She has an array of necklaces that she chooses from as well. Hearts, butterflies and even “bow” necklaces are what she has to choose from. And today, this chilly October morning she was unable to find her new Tinkerbell watch we bought for her this weekend and because of that her world was coming to an end. It only took me a few minutes to calm my little girls fears that mommy did not have her watch in her purse that it was upstairs in her bedroom on her dresser. I could hear the sigh of relief in her voice as she turned to daddy and said “daddy , it is on my dresser, please go get it, mommy said it was there”. She quickly thanked me for my help and told me she “loved me more and good bye”. What an empowering feeling as a mom that I could so easily calm her frustrations and solve her biggest problem with such little effort. My mind does drift to the years ahead when it will not be so easy to kiss a boo-boo all better or find her pooh bear when he is hiding under the covers or that missing Tinkerbell watch that was not really lost. Sadly, I think about those days when her best friend steals her boyfriend, or she does not make the cheer leading squad or get the lead in the school play. I ask myself how will I then at those times make her feel safe and secure? I don't have answers for those questions now, I guess we will cross those bridges when we come to them. For now I am going to just enjoy the beautiful little girl in her pig tails with matching rainbow colored bows looking into my eyes and saying “mom your the best mom ever!” and pray that God gives me the strength to keep her safe and innocent as long as I can.

.....and we have another first for Elyssa

So Friday night we decided to take Elyssa to the Circus. She has never ever been to a Circus and has begged to go before. To be totally honest I have never been to a Circus before either so it was not only a first for her but a first for me as well. Because it was the first time, we decided to pay a bit extra for the tickets so we could get ring side seats, I have to say, it was totally worth the extra money. Since we waited so long to get the tickets we were unable to get center ring side tickets so they were a bit to the left of center ring, if we did not have a front row seat this could have been a problem, but since we had front row seats we were able to get up and walk down to the far right side ring and watch the show up close. It was simply fantastic. I sometimes have to ask my self what is more fun, taking Elyssa to these kinds of new adventures or watching the amazement, wonder and excitement on her face. I just love it all. During the “flying trapeze” act she was holding onto my arm half watching and have hiding her face because she thought they were going to fall. She was squealing in delight as they flipped from one to the other swing above our heads! Her favorite part was watching the elephants. They had an adorable 4 year old elephant that just stole the show. To my own surprise I really loved it all as well. I have always been hesitant about going to the circus. I was never a fan of the treatment of the animals but I did do a lot of reading and it seems most of the problems are with the “small second rate” circus's that there is a lot of animal abuse. I did investigate the Shriner Circus and it seemed ok. Of course I could just be fooling myself, but I have to try to keep convincing myself it was ok. We actually left 2 hours early for the Circus in Fort Worth and still barely made it 10 minutes early. We ran into a ton of road construction along the way and I was getting very upset that we would not make it at all. Only in TX can there be massive road construction on a Saturday! We made it with 10 minutes to spare! So when we go there they were tearing down all the bounce houses and elephant rides. I thought we had missed all of it , but the had a 30 minute intermission in the middle of the show where they set it all back up for the kids to enjoy. So Elyssa got to enjoy her first Elephant ride! She also go to bounce in the bounce houses and we tried to do face painting but ran out of time. Believe me it all came at an additional cost, funny how it all starts adding up. During the second half of the show we all enjoyed some hand spun cotton candy. After the circus we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Mexican Inn and then headed back home to the Dallas area. It always seems like such a long drive to the Fort Worth area. Elyssa fell asleep on the way home and even stayed asleep when I carried her into the house. She woke up and said “mommy, the circus was so much fun today!” That is all this mommy had to hear to know that we made the right decision last night!

New Job = New Things

Ok, so all work and no play make for a very boring environment right? Well I think we have taken that to heart in the Borden house. With 2 incomes it has allowed us to make some very nice upgrades to our happy little home. The first of these was our refrigerator. We have not had a working / functioning ice maker in our fridge for about 3 + years. So our first purchase was a new Stainless Steel French door refrigerator. Is it sad that I was so excited about an appliance for our kitchen? Well once we got one stainless appliance it was the course of natural progression that we would replace the rest of the appliances! In defense all of the appliances in our home are the original from when the house was built so did see some wear and tear. We found a great reseller on Craigslist and he hooked us up with a new dishwasher, over the stove microwave and stove. The stove was delivered today and was the final piece in our partial kitchen make over. I am pleased as punch with everything and even came home from work and cooked dinner. Now that is something that has not happened much since I've started working. My oven is so “neat” and I almost need a degree in engineering to figure out all the knobs and controls. I'm going to have fun figuring it all out. Elyssa loves having ice in the door, she gets glass after glass of ice and keeps dumping it in the dogs bowls. Good thing the dogs like ice!

Eddie is actually home this week. His new job is a travel job again and he was away all last week in Washington DC. The first couple days were really, really hard on Elyssa. She cried and cried for daddy and begged him on the phone to come home. It was not easy on me either. I had to not only get her up, dressed in her uniform and to school over an hour earlier than she is used to but also then drive to work for 9 hours and then drive home to pick her up every evening. I have a new found respect for working single moms. As a stay at home mom I used to think that stay at home moms had the hardest job out there. I ate my words the first week I went back to work! Working parents have it hard as well and I have to think on a whole different level. I almost think it is harder than my life as a stay at home mom. Before Eddie's new job he would get her up ,ready in the morning and take her to school. I would pick her up bring her home, feed her and bath her for bed. We split the responsibility. At that time, I felt like I had “0” me time, and I was exhausted all the time. Now when Eddie is away all week, I do it all....! I am over exhausted and I have to wake my poor baby up at 5:15 am, to get her to school when they open. She is the first one in the building and it is still all dark. I really thought she was going to take it a lot harder , but I think she liked having the teacher all to herself for that time before the other kids showed up. That's my little Elyssa, she is real trooper. I think that from this point forward when Eddie is gone, I'm just going to try to exist and keep us afloat! I really, really miss my days as a stay at home mom sometimes, so any stay at home mom's out there- don't do it! Don't go back to work if you don't have to! Really the grass is not greener. Take it from someone who has now walked on both sides of the grass. I almost desperately want to run back to my old life some days! But I keep reminding myself that this is ultimately good for Elyssa and she does love going to school. We have her in 3 different extra curricular activities. She is taking Tae Kwon Do, Ballet and Jazz class, and a Stretch and Grow class. Yes, they cost extra but it gives her more things to do at school and I don’t have to take her to a class after school with more time I don't ever have! She gets her karate and dance while at school. The academy does have a lot of wonderful classes that she takes part in that are all part of our tuition. She has Spanish immersion class everyday and boy does this kid know her Spanish. She came home one day and started a whole conversation with me in Spanish, I nearly fell off my chair! Amazing what their little minds will absorb. She also has music class and a computer class every week. Once she is starts kindergarten she not only takes Spanish everyday she can choose another language such as French or Arabic. We are really impressed with the school so far.

Well it is almost 10pm and way past this girls bedtime. Last night we were in bed by 8:45...yes, life as a working mom with a 4 year old....

They say change is good right?

Well I think that we in the Borden house have seen our share of change in the past few months for sure. My last post was about the wedding we went to in April, by June I had a new job. Yes , you read that right, I had a job. I really had no intention of going back to work, in fact I was not sure if I ever wanted to go back to work, of course our financial situation had something to do with it as well. Eddie was looking for a new job, but the current economic environment was just not making it easy. So when a friend of mine called and asked me to come back to work with her I had to give it a second thought. She insisted that I email her my resume as soon as possible. This was a Friday evening, on Monday I emailed her my resume to review and unbeknownst to me she had already forwarded my resume to her manager who in turn called me within 15 minutes! I must say I was a bit impressed, for someone who has been out of the work force for over 6 years it was a bit flattering and frightening. Of course my friend Jamie had a lot to do with it , she talked me up, not really sure how since I'd been a college student / stay at home mom for 6 years! Anyway I had 2 interviews within the week and was offered the job the following Monday. To be honest if it had not been such a good offer financially I would have never, ever dreamed of leaving my precious little princess to re- enter the work force. So began my problem....what the heck was I going to do with Elyssa. I explained my situation to the HR person for my new employer and I was able to put off my start date for about 3 weeks. Hopefully long enough to allow me to find suitable care for my precious little Elyssa...

….and then came the tears. I started crying daily at the thoughts of leaving Elyssa. To be honest she was really ok with it. She was actually excited about going to school. Eddie was ok about it, he was not so sure about me going back to work and the fact that we had to leave Elyssa with strangers. I started interviewing a few different day cares every day. I was slowly getting discouraged because everyone I walked into felt so institutionalized. The kids were in one room all day and the kids all seemed out of control. The last place I looked at and yes, it ended up where we placed Elyssa was a new Montessori Academy that I happened to notice while driving by one day. I honestly thought the place would cost way to much just by looking at it and reading about it, but I figured what the heck. I had already decided to raise the bar a bit since looking at some of my other options. I knew I was not going to leave Elyssa anyplace that I did not get that “warm/ fuzzy” feeling. We had our appointment with the Montessori academy on Thursday and by Monday Elyssa was enrolled on her new journey. We were both about to embark on a new adventure. I at that point had 2 more weeks before I was going to start my job. I spent the first week spending everyday doing fun things with her all day long. We did the zoo, spray parks, and play dates. The next week Elyssa started school. I wanted to spend a week breaking her into her new schedule. She was going to be there everyday from about 7:30 when Daddy dropped her off until about 5:20 when I would be able to get her. The first day I dropped her off, I thought my heart was being ripped from my body. I cried all the way home and thought I was doing all the wrong things. I drove home as fast as I could and jumped on my computer, the Academy had online viewing web cams so I was able to watch my little princess all day long. It really did help, but of course I did not get anything done that day at all. So much for free time, I was to busy watching Elyssa Cam! She did wonderfully her first day. I only left her about 6 hours the first day, just enough time for her to get acquainted. I took her a bit earlier the next day and I thought it would get better but I think I cried even more the second day. I have to say I was glad that I had not started work that week and allowed myself the time to adjust to leaving her with strangers. I knew that all to soon these teachers would become more like family to her than teachers just because of the mere amount of time she would spend with them, but for that first week, it was just all to new for both of us. Now, for Elyssa she loved it. She was excited to go everyday and could not stop talking about it all the way home. She would ask if she was able to go back the next day! The week went well and by Friday I was feeling a lot better about starting my own new adventure the following Monday. I started my job on July 5, 2011, and things have never been the same. On the flip side, a little over a month after I started my job, Eddie got a new job. Not just a new job, an incredible new job, that had I just waited a bit longer , would never have had to go back to work. Funny how life works like that, right? We are blessed to be in the situation we are in now. Believe me it is tempting to quit work , but Elyssa is enrolled till July and paid through July of next year so she will be in school anyway. Next year she will be in kindergarten so she will be in school all day anyway , so I will keep working. The Montessori Academy goes to 6th grade, so as long as she likes it and is progressing we see no reason to take her out.

We have all kinds of new things going on right now, but I think this is a good start to the new chapter in our lives...stay tuned for more to come...!

Reflections and Utter Ramblings...

Well Elyssa’s birthday was an utter success! We celebrated it at Bounce Town in Wylie, an establishment I will actually never visit again after that experience but her b-day party went well none the less. Everything we do in life is a learning experience and again that party was a learning experience for us. Aunt Heidi flew in for Elyssa’s birthday again. She has been here for every birthday celebration for Elyssa. Unfortunately we only get to see her once a year so it is always nice to visit. I know we all wished she lived closer to us. I’ve lived so far away from my family for so long; poor Elyssa barely knows them at all. She does recognize my parents in pictures but has not seen them in over a year. My cousin Lisa came to visit also for Elyssa birthday. She actually came the week after and overlapped with Aunt Heidi. It was quite a reunion since Lisa and Heidi had not seen each other in almost 15 years?? Funny how family dynamics work out. Cousin Lisa is actually coming to visit us again! She will be here June 15th to June 27th! She works for Raytheon and is actually coming to the Garland location to work. As a perk, she gets to stay with us and visit while she is here on business. I can’t say that I’m not extremely excited about the upcoming visit, it is so nice to reconnect!
As Elyssa turned 4, I celebrated my 40th birthday in May. Talk about a weird feeling. I am 10 times the age of my beautiful daughter. I will be 54 years old when she graduates from high school…I’ll be 58 when she graduates from college…I’ll be..wait I don’t want to go any further than that…lol, guess I just need to get her through kindergarten and let the rest of it fall into place right? When I look back on my life, it is hard for me to believe that I am 40 with a 4 year old. I guess there are worse places I could be. I now have the next 40 years to look forward to! I’ve thought about creating a “bucket list” of things I would like to accomplish but when I think about it all the things are centered on Elyssa. I have to admit that since I’ve had Elyssa my priorities and things that matter to me have changed so much.
In April over Easter weekend, Elyssa was in my friend Carla’s wedding as an adorable little flower girl. She had so much fun at the wedding. Well I’m not so sure how much she enjoyed the wedding but she really expressed herself at the reception. Our little girl danced the night away with the bride, groom and the bridesmaids! She also made some really sweet friends with some of the kids there as well. She wanted nothing to do with dancing with daddy or mommy; she only wanted to dance with everyone else. It was actually quite comical. The only way we got her off the dance floor to leave for the evening was that they shut the music down! Elyssa is quite the little partier! I can honestly say she did not get that from her mommy, I’m sure that came from daddy!!
Elyssa continues to amaze me with her abilities and words of wisdom. She recently had her first ballet dance recital. To be honest I had no idea what to expect. She was either going to get on that stage and just stand there or she was going to steal the show. To my surprise she did wonderfully and in my own personal biased opinion think she stole the show! It was definitely one of those proud mommy moments where your heart swells and you can’t stop clapping and yelling “whooo hooo!” as she finished her performance. They even awarded trophies to all the little dancers. She was so darn proud of her trophy, she put it beside her bed so she could sleep beside it. She has been attending a preschool class at one of the local city recreation centers and seems to really enjoy herself. It was actually quite humorous, her teacher kept spelling her name incorrectly. Once she spelled it with an “A” and then once with only one “s”. Well little miss smarty pants would not let it go, she kept telling her teacher that her name is spelled “E-l-y-s-s-a”. Her teacher told me each time I picked her up that she was corrected by Elyssa, she got the biggest kick out of it. We are taking a break from the class for the next 6 weeks and will pick it up again in late July.
The swimming pool is open and Elyssa is back to being a little fish again. The first couple times she got in with daddy she was very hesitant to trust her floates, but I got in with her and she finally trusted her own ability and is again floating all around the pool like a pro. Of course she loves the pool so much as soon as she wakes up in the morning she wants to go swimming! Today I told her she can when daddy comes home, to which she answered “mommy that is forever from now!” Yeah, at 4 I guess that does seem like forever doesn’t it?
Well summer is upon us and the new Dallas Zoo membership is bought and the season passes to Six Flags are being used in full force! Hopefully I can find ways to keep Elyssa happy and content this summer. Our only dilemma is she is very sensitive to the hot and is very anxious / angry when she gets too hot. I think this girl needs to get used to the idea that she lives in TX and when it’s hot, it’s really stinking hot!
Until next time….

She is turning 4...

I sit and ask myself where did the time go? I remember the sleepless nights where I was up every 2 hours till she was 2, I remember the colic from 6 weeks to 14 weeks old when all she would do was scream from 6-10:30pm and Eddie was away traveling all the time, I remember the almost 2 months of time spent in the DOC band, I remember the almost 2 years we spent with her in feeding therapy because she would not eat… and now, she is turning 4. She can recognize all her letters, count to 20, recognizes almost all her numbers to 10, can spell her name, spells dad, mom, bible, and happy, knows her address, sings all kinds of songs, knows lots of nursery rhymes and knows all the days of the week and a bunch of things I am sure I’m forgetting. She can ride her tricycle like a pro, runs her scooter up and down the street and is starting to ride her big girl 2 wheel bike with training wheels. She is extremely observant and can give me directions to places we go on a normal basis. She can even tell people how to get to our house by telling them to “turn on Westgate to Georgetown”. She is shy at first but warms up quickly, has a innocent little smile but is quick to correct me when I call and motorcycle a bike. You can’t pull the wool over her eyes, she is quick to tell you just the way it is. I tried to get her to believe the whole idea of Santa this year and she was very insistent with me that “mommy, Santa is just a story” and the Santa at the mall was "just a man dressed up like Santa". She is very inquisitive and learned this year how echoes are created, the laws of inertia and what gravity is. She is always asking why and the definition of new words and the most recent was “dormant”. I sit in wonder all the time trying to figure out where she gets the ideas and words she comes up with. She is a skilled negotiator and will argue with the best of them. She is always coming up with new “deals” for me to agree to and is always insisting that we “shake one it” to seal the deal. She has a beautiful face that I never tire of looking at and twinkly eyes that can melt my heart. She will always be my baby and yes, she is turning 4 in five days...

Trick or Treat?

Ok, so I’ve let some time go by and now my age is showing. Yes, I cannot remember what has been going on so in order to refresh my memory I have to look through pictures since my last post. Yes, I know sad, but a sign of my time. To add insult to injury, I am now suffering from a miserable fall cold/ sinus thing. No fun at all right now for this mommy.
Elyssa is doing great as well. She is in that stage where everything is very “literal”. The other day I was getting her in the car and said “Elyssa we are off like a herd of turtles” and she said “mommy, we can’t be off like turtles, turtles don’t drive, they swim!” and then just yesterday I was telling her my nose was running so much it was going to run away to which she answered “ mommy, your funny, your nose can’t run away it does not have legs” and of course there is always the “good night Elyssa , don’t let the bed bugs bite” and she replies “Mommy, they can’t , the windows are not open!”…aww, the wisdom of a 3 year old! Her reasoning skills have just taken off! I swear she has the reasoning skills of a 12 year old. I cannot make an excuse for anything without her challenging me on it. She corrects me if I say “Dang it” and tells me I’m only allowed to say “Gummit” (this is her version of another colorful metaphor that we allow her to say when she is mad!) She is getting very excited about Christmas and there is no doubt in my mind that this year she knows exactly who Santa Claus is and that he is going to bring her toys if she is good. She has such a compassionate soul. She is always asking me if I am ok if she sees me get hurt, she says she is sorry when she has done something wrong without even being prompted. She will tell me she has made a mess and say she is sorry and helps clean it up. It amazes me how she is blossoming into a beautiful young girl. I just hope that age 13 I am still singing her praises and not trying to sell her to the highest bidder!!
Halloween was a ton of fun for us this year. Because our budget is so tight these days, we found lots and lots of free things and festivals to do. On one evening Elyssa and I went to a festival at a local church. They had 10 different bounce house and games galore for the kids to play. Everything the kids did they got candy for doing. Funny thing is Elyssa was more excited about bouncing and playing games that she almost ignored all the candy. We also went to another pumpkin patch with a friend of ours were she got to pet all kinds of arm animals and jump in the hay. The city we live in also had a community even for Halloween on the Thursday before Halloween called Boo On Ballard. It was quite an event with bounce houses, hay mazes, and candy galore of course. We spent some time there but it was very, very crowed! Trick or treating was quite an even this year. We started out at Aunt Tonia’s house for about an hour of trick or treating and then headed over to our house to hit a few of the neighbors houses. When we got back to our house, Aunt Lisa joined us for from trick or treating as well and Daddy and Keith stayed home to give out candy at our house. Elyssa did not have a long endurance for the house to house thing so we did not go very far or for very long. I think she enjoyed handing out candy at the house just as much as going house to house to get candy. She got so excited when the door bell rang!
Not much is going on here except the excitement of Thanksgiving in the air. I am going to be doing some Thanksgiving crafts with Elyssa, just not sure how creative I can get. We are spending a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. I think Eddie has to work the day after Thanksgiving (he has not yet found out), and if he doesn’t we are going to probably run out and get in the middle of all the Black Friday madness. We used to do it all the time before Elyssa was born and we actually took her the first year she was born but since then have not. So this year should be an adventure for us all….but that is another story yet to come!

Croquet Anyone...?

Elyssa got a new obsession this week. I say obsession because it seems like when she gets anything new it becomes the one thing we have to do all day long. So now we have jumping on the trampoline and her new croquet set from Aunt Red and her mom. We had a GNO at Aunt Red’s apartment on Monday. She is moving again this weekend and Aunt Lisa, Aunt Tonia and Elyssa and I, all went to help her pack up some of her apartment. While we were there Red pulled out a bag she said her mom got for Elyssa. Well, it was her new Croquet set and let’s just say Elyssa loved it! We played Croquet and jumped all day Tuesday to the point where mommy just had to say no! I love my little girl to death but being Elyssa’s favorite playmate 24/7 is a bit trying some days. On Wednesday we had to take the croquet set with us to Aunt Lisa’s house to play with, so Aunt Lisa got to play croquet as well. I can only imagine just how comical it looked to see Lisa and I playing a child size croquet set in her front yard. Like I said I love my little girl to death and will do anything for her even if it means embarrassing myself and my friends to get it done!

Well Eddie did have Thursday off and Elyssa chose to go to the pumpkin patch. We had so much fun we ended up spending almost 4 hours there enjoying it all. The weather was just perfect, a sunny beautiful day and the temperature was about 74 degrees. We could not have asked for better weather for our day. On the flip side of the beautiful sunny weather, I was not thinking about sunburn! Who worries about sunburn in October?? Well I ended up beet red all over my arms and my neck. Thank goodness Elyssa has Eddies skin and she did not get sunburned at all. I am so glad she was blessed with Eddies skin, I would hate for her to have to deal with pale, fair skinned crap! None the less we had lots of fun. Elyssa ran all through the pumpkins picking out a ton that she wanted. They had about 5 bounce houses, a merry go round and of course a hayride. Believe it or not, the whole event was free! I could not believe how much fun she had on the merry go round. It was quite cute all the little boys were pushing it round and round while the while the little girls enjoyed the ride. They would stop to let the little kids on and off, I was actually surprised how well they all behaved on the darn thing. While we were there we enjoyed a funnel cake and lemonade at one of the many picnic tables they had all set up. Of course Elyssa picked one of the small kid sized tables for us to sit at so we all huddled around it as a family. It was nice getting to spend some time as a family. Eddie has been working a lot and has not been home much these days. He informed me on the drive to the pumpkin patch that he has to work this Sunday 7am-7pm. This would all be great if he were hourly and not salary, but since he is salary it just means less time together.

Today we had a fun play date with our friends Ashley, Jack and Luke. We all took a walk to the park by their house and the kids had fun climbing on rocks and playing on the swings. It is amazing just how much the kids are growing up. It seems like yesterday when Elyssa and Jack were learning how to walk and now they are running, jumping, and riding scooters and bikes. It sure does not take long for them to grow up.

Well we are sitting here watching the Rangers play the Yankees on TV while Elyssa is in her playroom watching “How to Train your Dragon”. Honestly I’ve spent more time watching her movie than the baseball game. Watching Baseball to me is like watching the grass grow, yeah, just about that exciting. Eddie is enraged about it because apparently Texas is not doing as well as he expects them to. It is almost like he feels he could do a better job! O’well, at least he is passionate about something right?

Another year older...

…For daddy that is! Yes, we celebrated Eddie’s birthday this past weekend. His birthday was actually on Friday so while he was at work, Elyssa and I proceeded to make and decorate cupcakes for him. They were red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. Elyssa had a blast making them; she is quite the little cook. She knows how to crack the eggs (I put them in the mix though), she is great at pouring in all the ingredients and she knows how to use my mixer to mix it all together. I love letting her do it, she gets so excited and of course loves to lick the bowls and the spatula when it all done. I took her shirt off for her to lick the bowl this time, last time I had red velvet batter all over her clothes, this time I got just a bit smarter. While the cupcakes were cooling in the freezer we went to Wal-Mart to get some icing and sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes with. If any of you know Elyssa well, you already know that her favorite part of decorating is the sprinkles and true to form the 4 cupcakes she concentrated on were covered with sprinkles! There wasn’t a bare patch of icing anywhere on her creation. In fact we had sprinkles everywhere including the table, her chair, and all over the floor. It was ok though, the cleanup crew (our dogs Nana and Nicole) were there to take care of everything that fell from the table. I even found sprinkles in Nicole’s fur! Elyssa surprised daddy when he got home from work and insisted on putting candles on the cupcakes and making him blow out the candles as soon as he walked through the door. He of course obliged her and she helped him blow them out. That evening Aunt Tonia came over and we all went out to eat at Souper Salad for dinner. Poor daddy was so tired from working so much last week that I’m not so sure he even enjoyed dinner. Eddie has been working a lot lately. In fact last week Elyssa and I barely even saw him. He was leaving for work at 7am and not getting home till almost 9 every night. In fact Thursday night he did not come home at all. He came home at about 3 am Friday morning and went back to work at 8am Friday morning. It was a really long week last week!

Saturday Eddie and I actually got to have a free evening. Aunt Tonia took Elyssa to see “Alpha and Omega” at the movie. Elyssa loved the movie and did wonderfully again in the theater. For our date night Eddie and I went to the Mattel Store and did almost all of Elyssa’s Christmas Shopping. We then went to Home Depot to pick up some salt for the pool, dropped everything off at home and went to dinner. Elyssa and Aunt Tonia were not even done with dinner when Eddie and I were on our way home so we met them at McDonalds. Yeah, I know a “fun and exciting” date night huh? We were home by 9pm!! I guess that all that matters is that we had fun and enjoyed each other’s company. I have to say it was nice to be able to eat a meal and not worry about what someone else was eating and doing!

Because Eddie worked so much last week, he is getting a day off this week. We have decided for him to take Thursday off. He wants to for us to go to the Zoo or go to a Pumpkin patch. We have not decided yet, but the weather is supposed to be just incredible for whatever we decide. I think that Elyssa is pushing for the Zoo, of course with her that could change today. Such is life with a 3 year old…the adventure continues…

On the Road Again...

I guess you just can’t keep us down now can you? On Saturday we took a road trip to Lufkin, TX to not only visit with Nana and Pop, we were also picking up a new old desk that Eddie’s dad wanted him to have. It was nice getting to see them but boy was it a long trip for poor Elyssa. We left at 7am on Saturday morning, picked a trailer from U-Haul and we were on the road. It took almost 4 hours to get there towing an empty trailer and Elyssa slept about an hour of the drive and was up the rest of the time asking over and over and over again if we were “there yet”. Yes, we have entered the endearing stage of “mommy, mommy, mommy, are we there yet???” How is it possible for one child to repeat these words over and over again without tiring? Ignoring her does not help the situation, she just get louder and louder and starts a repetitive “mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy” over and over again until I answer. I sometimes wonder if I’m being punished or paid back for something I did in a previous life!!
Anyway we did finally arrive at “Nana and Pops” and after a wonderful lunch went back to the house and loaded up the desk and we were back on the road again. The trip back actually took a bit longer, probably a bit more than 4 hours because of the load we were not able to drive as fast. Luckily Elyssa actually took about a 2 hour nap on the ride back so I only had to put up with 2 or so hours of the “are we home yet” song and dance. Once we were home Tonia and JT came over and helped us unload the trailer and got everything in house and everything seemed to go without a hitch. Sunday Tonia, JT and Keith came over and helped get the desk up the stairs which was the biggest obstacle of the entire trip. It is a really big, old, heavy desk so we needed additional man power to get it up the stairs.
Monday Elyssa, Lisa and I went to the Dallas Zoo. The weather here has been simply wonderful and it was a beautiful day at the zoo. The temps have been in the low 80’s and we have been enjoying every single second of it. No air conditioning and the windows are open allowing fresh air to come on in! Anyway, the zoo was wonderful. Of course Elyssa loved the kid’s area the best. She got to run through the water and play in the play area. We even went into the bird feeding area and she got to hold several birds. In fact one of the nice birds decided to nest on mommy’s head. I of course thought for sure it had just stopped to poop, but it did not, just hung out and nested! Afterwards we went the McDonalds outside the zoo and had lunch and of course ice cream cones for dessert. I have to say, the Zoo membership I bought was so worth it. We can go whenever we want and I can get up to 4 kids in free and one guest. It is really nice because we can take people with us for free!
I did forget to update that last week I did take Elyssa to the movie. We went to see Cats and Dogs: the tale of Kitty Galore or something like that and she did wonderfully!! I was so excited and relieved that it went well. So this weekend her Aunt Tonia is taking her to see Alpha and Omega while mommy and daddy go out and celebrate Daddy’s Birthday on Saturday. Whoo Hooo….date night for mommy and daddy!! I think this is our second date night in almost 3 years, tell me what do people do on dates these days??? I’m not sure we remember… anyway….Wish us luck!

Jump, Jump, Jumping Bean...

So where did the week go? Ohhh yeah, we’ve been jumping and jumping and well, jumping some more. In fact Elyssa insists on jumping in the morning as soon as she gets out of bed and before breakfast. I swear the kid could probably jump 24/7! She is certainly enjoying her new trampoline from Cousin Lisa. I think Eddie and I are enjoying it as well. Now if I could figure out how to bounce off a few extra pounds, it would be totally worth it!

We had Elyssa’s friends Jack and Luke over to play on Monday and on Tuesday we had her friends Gavin and Isabelle over as well. Everyone enjoyed playing on the trampoline and on all of the outside play stuff we have. I look around my back yard and all I see are kids play structures and a swimming pool. Pretty soon the dogs will have to move out because there will be no more room for them to run in the back yard. Elyssa certainly does not want for much when it comes to playing outside, or inside for that matter. I do know she loves all of it!

Last weekend we had 2 birthday parties to go to. Elyssa’s friend Jamie had his 4th birthday party on Saturday afternoon and we went to her cousin Ethan’s birthday party that evening. She had so much fun but was certainly tired out from all the excitement.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to take Elyssa to her first movie in a theater. She has never been and we have been a bit scared to take her because of her sensitivity issue but I’m going to see how it goes. We are going to see Cats and Dogs: The revenge of kitty galore. It is at the dollar cinema so if she hates it, I am not out a ton of money. We’ve talked about it and she watched the trailer to the movie over and over again and laughs at it every time. She says she cannot wait to see it, but time will tell. I’ll keep my fingers crossed! We tried to take her to see Toy Store 3, but when we were going to go to the theater she threw a fit and cried that she did not want to go. I figure there is no use forcing her to do something she does not want to do. Seeing a movie is certainly not a life or death situation, if she does not want to go…so be it!

Well she is standing in front of me begging to go out and jump, alas the simple pleasures to a 3 year old!

Sept 23, 2010- Elyssa's new Trampoline

Elyssa has been blessed with a brand new 12 ft trampoline with enclosure from her cousin Lisa. Unfortunately it arrived while we were on vacation and it has taken forever for daddy to find the time to put it up. He started on Sunday and last night had it to this point (see pic). The safety enclosure will hopefully be put on tonight so she can enjoy it to it's fullest but we let her jump for a bit last night while we closely supervised her. She had soo much fun and this morning after putting our pumpkin cakes she insisted on making in the oven we quickly went back out side to jump on her new "jumping bean" trampoline. I swear this kid could jump forever! A big thank you to cousin Lisa for this super duper present for our little princess. She will certainly get hours of fun from this one. I also posted a video of her jumping in the video section as well!

Time flies when your're having fun...

Time flies when you’re having fun…

…..I guess that means we have been having lots and lots of fun! I know it has been a long time since I’ve last wrote anything in this blog and for that I apologize. Mostly to Elyssa because this is supposed to be a living diary of her wonderful life and mommy is failing miserably. I am going to make an honest effort to keep up with this blog on a daily (ok maybe weekly) basis from now on!
Sooo you ask what have we been up to??? Well the biggest thing we have done is a beautiful vacation to Honolulu Hawaii over Easter!! Daddy had a business trip scheduled for some work in Honolulu and well we decided it was a chance in a lifetime for us all to go to Hawaii. So we tallied up our frequent flyer miles and we were off! It was a 10 hour flight from Dallas and I was scared to death that it was going to be a nightmare with a newly potty trained little girl but she did great. In fact she did better than both Eddie and I did. I was ready to jump off after about 7 hours, which is a long time to be trapped in the air. The most miserable part was watching the monitors on the plane as they showed just how fast we were flying, where we were over the ocean and how much longer we had till we arrive at our destination. Once we were there we forgot all about the plane ride and enjoyed the beauty of the area. Daddy worked all day everyday and had the car so Elyssa and I spent every day at Waikiki Beach. Words cannot express just how beautiful the area is. We saw so many things and on Saturday Daddy spent the morning scuba diving while Elyssa and I went to the Honolulu Zoo. That afternoon we went to Pearl Harbor and did some other sightseeing. It was an incredible experience for all of us and Elyssa asks almost every day if she can go back to Waikiki beach.
It was not long after that trip that Eddie lost his job. Although he was able to find another job rather quickly even in this depressed economy is was quite a step backwards. Lots changed in our lives, but we are blessed that he is still working. It has taken a lot of getting used to for me having him home every night and not gone every week. Elyssa loves having daddy home every night and still runs to him when he gets home from work yelling “daddy, daddy, daddy!!” It really does make you see all that he has missed in her life in the last 3 years while he was traveling. Since losing his job he has started his MBA and is working on a few other certifications as well.
We have season passes to Six Flags this year and a membership to the Dallas Zoo so we have been to both parks a few times this year. Elyssa loves Six Flags! In fact for my birthday in May we spent the day at Six Flags. It amazes me that she has no fear of anything. She gets on the rides holds on and when they are over asks to do it again! I tell her she would not be her mother’s daughter if she did not like the fast rides because mommy has a need for speed when it comes to the amusement rides! The Dallas Zoo has been lots of fun as well. They opened a new area called the Giants of the Savannah and it is just incredible. On one visit to the zoo with Aunt Tonia we got to feed the Giraffes’ !
We have spent most of the summer visiting with friends and family and of course swimming. The pool has had a real work out this summer. Elyssa loves to swim and with her arm floaties on she is quite the little fish. We tried swim lessons this year and it was a miserable mistake. One think I’ve learned about my little girl , is that we will never ever, ever make her do what she does not want to do. She has a mind of her own and will express her opinion at will. We have decided we will pick our own battles cautiously.
We just got back from Pennsylvania visiting some family this past week. We had some frequent flyer free tickets that were going to expire, some free hotel stays and free car rental that were all going to expire so we decided to just jump and go. We got to stay with my cousin Lisa for a couple days in State College and then went to see Grandma and Pappy and some of my friends for the rest of the week. We had a great time and it was good seeing everyone again since we are not sure when or if we will get the chance anytime soon to do it again.
Elyssa is changing so much and growing up before my eyes. She is now 39 inches tall , 31 lb s, and wears a size 9 shoe! She is talking in 6-8 words complete sentences, says 3 syllable words (pretty good at pronunciation) tells me stories and makes up her own songs! Her ability to negotiate and rationalize amazes me! The other day she told me when I corrected her for doing something wrong, “Mommy, you are not being my friend!” She starts sentences now with “ Mommy, when I was a baby last year,….” And of course follows it up with “I’m a big kid now…” Since we had to cut out all things that are not necessities, she is not going to pre-school this year. She asks me all the time when she gets to go back to school and I just tell her we are on vacation from school. I figure I can teach her everything they teach her in preschool right here at home! With Elyssa everyday is an adventure!
Well I think that brings us up to date! More to come (I Promise) later….

Reflections

My baby is 3 years old now. I guess that means she technically is no longer a baby but a toddler. To me, it is almost too much to wrap my mind around. I remember 3 years ago, sitting in my chair at home and getting the call from the doctor’s office stating I needed to go check myself into Labor and Delivery immediately. My previous day’s blood work had come back bad. I remember arguing with my doctor on the phone about going to the hospital. This was certainly not the first time I had to be admitted to Labor and Delivery. I had spent so much time of the third trimester in the hospital that I was just tired of going in and out. I still had 6 weeks of the pregnancy left. Little did I realize at the time just how serious things had become? The evening seems like such a blur of doctors coming in and out of my room and the uncertainty of not only my life, but that of my little baby girl. Needless to say, thanks to lots of prayers and the work of some incredible doctors and hospital staff everything worked out.

Now I sit here in awe, the little bundle of joy is now 3 years old. How could this little being that I gave birth to 3 years ago be this amazing little girl who knows her ABC’s, counts to 15, recognizes her letter and knows her colors! She amazes me with her ability to memorize all of the nursery rhymes and songs that I teach her as well as use her own imagination to create and tell me stories. It saddens me and makes me so happy to see all of these changes in her. Part of me wants to hold onto that dependent little baby who needed me for all of her whims, and part of me is thrilled at all of her accomplishments and wants her to strike out on her own and become an independent young lady. This is such an emotional battle for a mom like me. I guess if I had another child younger than Elyssa these milestones would not be “hitting” me so hard. The realization that these parts are over forever hit me like a lead balloon. Elyssa wants a little brother or sister. She asks for one all of the time. As she gets older and observes people around us she realizes that a lot of her friends have little brothers or sisters. Unfortunately because of infertility and medical conditions, she will not have a brother or sister and it is very difficult to calm her as she protests “but mommy, please! Me want a brother or sister!” Someday she will understand…I hope.

She had an amazing 3rd birthday party. Her Aunt Heidi flew in from Arizona to spend the week with her. She loves her Aunt Heidi so much and boy did it show. For almost the whole week I was told “No mommy, Aunt Heidi do it for me”. I certainly became second fiddle for a week but I did not mind. I loved watching the two of them play together and Elyssa had Aunt Heidi wrapped around her little finger. We had a huge party for her and she was surrounded by all of her friends and family. Thanks to the help of Aunt Lisa, who spent all day Friday helping me get the food and house prepared for the event. The theme this year was Mickey & Minnie and friends. Aunt Tammy did an incredible job on her birthday cake, it was adorable and of course delicious to boot! We set up two bounce houses in our garage since it decided to rain on her birthday and all the kids had a blast in the make-shift Play Zone. The amazing thing is that on the evening of her party it started snowing and we woke up Sunday morning to 6 inches of snow. Of course we all had to go out and enjoy the snow!

Since Aunt Heidi was in town the following week was filled with fun as well. On Monday, we all took a trip to Sam Moon where all 3 girls (Heidi, Elyssa and I) all bought new purses. Isn’t that what girls are suppose to do at Sam Moon? It is the Mecca for woman! On Tuesday, Aunt Heidi, Aunt Lisa, Elyssa and I went to the Dallas Arboretum. It was a beautiful sunny day and the flowers were beautiful. They had a Texas Pioneer Exhibit for Elyssa to enjoy and even a petting zoo! On Wednesday we did some lounging around and some shopping at Wal-Mart. Thursday we had some of my friends over for dinner and we colored Easter Eggs. Since Aunt Heidi has never been able to enjoy egg coloring with Elyssa we decided to do it early. Elyssa loves coloring eggs and by the end of the evening her hands were all green/brown very much like the Shrek’s. In fact we kept telling her she had Shrek hands. Friday Heidi, Lisa and I took Elyssa to the mall to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. She was not afraid and even hugged the bunny. The pictures turned out just great. I’m so proud of her, considering last year she would not go near the bunny. On Saturday we had to take Aunt Heidi to the airport, but before we did, we took Elyssa to an Easter Egg Hunt at the church where Aunt Lisa goes. It was Elyssa’s first Easter Egg hunt and she loved it. It was so sweet watching her pick up the eggs. The excitement and smiles on her face made all of it worth it.

On other news fronts, Elyssa is potty trained. As I’ve mentioned before in previous blogs, she has been Number 2 potty trained for almost 8 months. We were having trouble with Number 1, but as of March 1st, 2010 we were diaper free in the Borden house! She still has a few accidents here and there, but we no longer where diapers or pull-ups, it is big girl panties in our house. Ok, let me re-phrase that, she does where special big girl princess panties at night (pull-ups) because I am to afraid to just use panties. She is waking up probably 85% of the time dry but I’m still not brave enough to do panties just yet! She is so proud of her self and we are so proud of her as well. Elyssa has “Potty Power”. For anyone who has ever seen the DVD, you understand what I am talking about. We finally beat the odds and even though she has stage 3 renal reflux we did it. She has her follow up with the urologist the end of May. We can pray for a miracle, that it is healed and if not we will more than likely be planning the surgery. I am just so afraid that this will hamper all of the progress we have made, but I will keep my fingers crossed that it will not.

I have rambled enough in this reflection. I guess I should blog more often, and then I would not get so long winded……nah, maybe not!

Emergency Rooms are no fun for kids...

Boy oh boy, what a week and it ended in a pretty traumatic night. Elyssa had not been feeling well all week. She started getting down last Saturday but it really did not set in full force till about Monday evening. After a few days of just continual throwing up I took her into the drs who told me she had a stomach bug and sent us home with some Zofran to help settle her stomach. She told me the only time to be concerned was if she got dehydrated or if she started expelling a dark black/brown, chunky vomit because it could mean she had an obstruction. The dr’s appointment was on Wednesday and by Thursday evening she was still puking 3-4 times a day. Thursday evening she woke up at about 2am vomiting the thick chunky dark stuff and that is when I got scared. Luckily Eddie was home and we got dress and took her to the emergency room to be checked out. We spent over 9 hours in the ER. They did several tests, hooked her up to IV fluids, and just tried to make her comfortable. She was so miserable, she did not like the pulse ox on her finger, and hated the IV in her other hand. We tried to tell her the pulse ox was her special “princess finger” and the IV board they had taped to her arm to hold the IV in place was her magic sled but after about 4 hours of it, she told me “mommy, this is not special anymore, take it off!!” We were worried for a while because the abdominal x-rays came back showing her intestines were bloated and possibly did have an obstruction. They did a CT scan and fortunately there was not an obstruction but her intestines were indeed bloated but the dr felt it was all triggered by her dehydration ( she did end up being very dehydrated), and the constant vomiting and stress on her stomach. He said that it was a gastro intestinal infection that was causing all of her issues and that he had seen several kids in the ER with this problem. It is just something that is going around right now and it was our luck that Elyssa happened to get it! The amazing part to me is that the only symptom she had was the vomiting, no fever, no chills, no coughing or sneezing…

Today Elyssa is feeling much better and acting like my little princess again. I think we are finally on the road to recovery and I can say I am just overjoyed that this adventure is coming to an end…

The ending of yet another year...

…and what a year it has been! Elyssa has blossomed into a beautiful, intelligent, loving little girl. My baby has somewhere and somehow disappeared, and this inquisitive, demanding, sweet little child has been put in her place. I do have to say I am a bit sad at the loss of my baby, but I am so excited about the future. She will be turning 3 in 3 months. Yes, 3 in three months. I almost had a small breakdown when I realized her 3rd b-day was so close. Of course this does bring on the excitement of planning her big 3rd b-day and we all know just how much fun I have doing that. I’m very confused about a theme this year, Elyssa and I will have to have a talk about this. Speaking of talking, she is doing quite a bit of it! Her vocabulary is just amazing and her ability to speak in full sentences is just amazing to me. I guess it is just normal for kids her age, but to me it is amazing that I am able to have a conversation with her and she is able to communicate to me exactly what she wants. She tells me when she is cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, sad, or having a bad day. Some of the things that she says just cracks me up. If she is upset, she will tell me “mommy, I have my feather’s in a bunch” or if she is happy about something she will say “mommy, that just cracks me out” (instead of cracks me up!!). She also tells me that Daddy is being grumpy when he tells her “no”, or that she wants to do things “by myself mommy, by my self”. Such independence and character, my little girl has!

The last few months have been very busy and exciting. There were so many holidays to celebrate. In October we went to the pumpkin patch with Elyssa’s friends Jack and Luke. She had such a wonderful time, feeding the goats, going on a hay ride and of course picking out the pumpkins to take home. We also went trick or treating for the first time. We went to Aunt Na-na’s house and went with her. This year Elyssa was a beautiful princess. It was so cute seeing our little princess go up to each house and say “trick or treat” and “thank you” for all the candy. By the end of the evening she had the whole idea of trick or treating down to an art. We also went to a Halloween party at Aunt Lisa’s house. It was so much fun getting dressed up; playing games and Aunt Lisa even had a haunted graveyard walk in her backyard. She did hay rides in her wheel barrel and had lots of pizza to eat. Aunt Lisa eve n took us to a Fall Festival at the Rec Center a week or so before Halloween where Elyssa go to play games, jump in bounce houses, walk through a petting zoo, and of course eat yummy snacks. Elyssa had so much fun!

November was not only a Thanksgiving celebration but also the kick off of the Christmas season! We spent Thanksgiving at Nana and Pops in Lufkin TX. Elyssa got to stay in a hotel while we were there and she loved it. Her cousin “Eban” (Ethan) even got to spend the night in the hotel with her and she thought that was just wonderful. The day after Thanksgiving Nana and pop took us all the Lufkin Zoo. We all had a really great time and Elyssa just loved running around looking at all the different animals. We even got to ride the “choo choo” train around the zoo. A week before Thanksgiving Elyssa asked to see Santa. Now everyone remembers that last year, Elyssa would not go near Santa. This year, she not only wanted to see Santa, she sat on his lap on multiple occasions. I was just so proud of her. Aunt Heidi also came to visit in November. We had a wonderful visit with her and wished she could have stayed longer. We went to the Gaylord Texan Resort with her and Aunt Lisa to kick off some Christmas spirit. They decorate the entire resort in a Christmas theme and it is amazing to see.

December was filled with Christmas fun! We even had a playdate with her friend Jamie where we made Sugar cookies and let the kids eat all the cookies and icing that they wanted to. Hey, kids are only kids once sooo I say let them eat cookies!! We went to the Bass Pro Shop’s Christmas celebration with her friend Jamie as well. We took her to the Wylie light up night to watch the parade, but it was soooo cold we did not stay very long. She even got to see Santa at Wal-Mart and got her picture taken there as well. There were so many wonderful things we go to do this year with her for Christmas. We went to Richardson’s Santa’s village and got to see all the holiday lights and walk through some really cute cottages as well. In school (MDO) Elyssa put on a Christmas program. It was so cute! The kids all got up on stage in the chapel and sang songs. I was such a proud mommy that day. She stood up there and sang and did all the motions for the songs. Of course I took hundreds of pictures and a video of it all. Afterwards she came to me and said “mommy, all I see was daddy taking pictures and more pictures and more pictures!” I almost died laughing, she knows her mommy and daddy well! For Christmas Eve we had a Mexican Fiesta at our house for all the family and Aunt Na-na & JT. Christmas morning was incredible and magical. Elyssa really understood that she was going to get toys for Christmas this year and was so excited when she came down Christmas morning. Santa had been very hard at work Christmas Eve putting together a new red tricycle and a new princess 3 wheel scooter. She got so many wonderful things that as of today there are still items still in plastic waiting to be opened and played with. I’m in no hurry, it can be a new Christmas next week! We spent Christmas day at Aunt Cheri’s house in Irving with all the family including Nana and Pop!

That brings me to today. New Years Eve 2009. Tonight we are spending it with some friends. A small gathering of people close to us to bring in the New Year and reflect on the past. I am hoping Elyssa is going to stay up for the New Year, in fact she is still napping right now in hopes that she will be able to stay in and ring in the New Year with mommy and daddy….

Happy New Year from our house to your!

Remember me? Can I? Why? Love you more…

Yup, those are Elyssa favorite new things to say. She will look at me with those big inquisitive eyes and ask “mommy, daddy remember me?” I try not to laugh and say “Of course Daddy remembers you”. Of course she answers this with, “why mommy?” and the day begins….

I sometimes think that Elyssa talks just to hear herself talk. It is truly amazing to me but I think she could amuse herself all day long just talking to herself! I remember saying that I could not wait till she talked and we could carry on our own little conversations, now, sometimes I wish I had a good set of ear plugs!

She certainly is learning how to push buttons with the phrase “Can I?” She will ask if she can do something and I will say “no, Elyssa”. She will answer this with “Can I?” I will say “no”, she will again ask “can I?”, and Again I will “no Elyssa” a bit more firmly. Does this stop her, of course not. She will yet again ask “Can I mommy, Please!!!” I look at her and ask “Elyssa, what did mommy say?” she then will get these adorable pouty eyes and whisper “Sorry, mommy, sorry”. I honestly think she thinks if she asks the same question multiple times she will get a different answer. And this scenario will play out about 20 + times a day with the same routine. I sometimes start to wonder about Pavlov’s theory…..

The sweetest thing she says and of course I could listen to her say it all day long is “love you more, mommy”. I can’t even imagine 3 sweeter words that she could ever say. She is just changing so much and growing up way to fast. I know I’ve said that a million times but it is so true and there is just no way to stop time.

Well it is official, Elyssa is 100% “poopie in the potty” trained! No accidents for about 2 and a half months now. Of course the “pee-pee” in the potty is a whole other story. Isn’t #2 suppose to be the hard for kids to get and #1 is the easy one? Well we think that Elyssa really has no control over it at all. The last time we had her VCUG for her renal reflux it had progressed from Stage 2 to Stage 3 so it was not getting any better. The dr agreed to allow us to wait till she was 3 to do the surgery (in case we could get her potty trained with the hope that it might help) but it appears my little girl is ready to be all the way potty trained and because mommy and daddy don’t want to do the surgery she is unable to “hold it or feel the urge” to go. In fact when I ask her where does the “pee-pee” go and she will reply “in the potty mommy”. So I ask her why is it in her diaper, she looks at me and says “no fair mommy, not fair”, so I ask her again and she tells me “hush your mouth mommy”! So, I think we have decided to call the urologist and see if we can go ahead and do the surgery and pray for the best.

Elyssa has been enjoying the fall. We went to the TX state fair where Elyssa got to see, pet and feed all kinds of animals and eat her first Corny dog. We took her to pumpkin patches, fall festivals, Six Flags Fright Fest and 2 Halloween parties. I don’t think there was anything she missed out on. She even went Trick or Treating on Halloween. It was her first time and she did great. She said Trick or Treat to everyone who came to the doors and held her bag open. She of course kept asking to “eat candies” all night long as well, and of course we let her. What else is Halloween about ….CANDY!!

Right now I have flooring installers at my house installing new floors downstairs. I am so excited, no more carpet on the first floor. Next is the upstairs!!