there was this one time…
woke up minutes ago. I was on the couch with coffee and my book and saw her head pop up thru her doorway. she said, it’s so nice not to wake up early. I couldn’t agree more. then she comes to the couch to cuddle me and after a few minutes says, I cannot sit next to you when you drink coffee. peeyou. and walks away. there goes that moment.
lol
the other night when chris and i had gone out, left the oldest sis in charge of the little kids: 
i love this age of artistry! and free babysitting, haha! 🙂
my schedule got kinda mixed up this week, i was going to post something else but had to bump it. so here's my stand in till then. funny story to go with her cute picture :) 
today she had a playdate with a new friend. when new friend said that she lived in a tall apartment building with lots of floors and doors, elsie squealed, like at the PLAZA HOTEL, like Eloise?! 🙂 Wooooow! 🙂 it's not the plaza hotel, or nearly close, but our little girl is one who sees the glass half full quite often. i absolutely cherish that little bit about her! i'm not saying she's like that all the time, she tells it like it is too. when told she needs to wait, she says, i hate waiting.
she's almost 5. and is "so nervous" for kindergarten. when taken to Stats recently for the first time, she said, this is better than disneyland!!! and has asked to go visit more than once. she is the queen of winter wonderland and is quite disappointed we haven't put our lights up yet. 🙂 she is into this little thing where she says, "i love you more than_____" recently it was cupcakes and candy and puppies. i'm flattered 🙂
those yellow trees behind her are now bare… all year we can't wait for the leaves to change and when they finally do their presence is fleeting. kinda reminds me of parenting. 😦
i gasped. i was looking for a photo and came across this from our trip to australia in 2009. since then, she's decided to grow her hair out. everyone who knows her comments that it makes her look older. while i want to support her decision to grow it out, i loved her little bob hair cut and miss it lots! 😦 
since these pics too, she's given up hair clips and jeans. she's also given up her sippy cups which means she won't drink plain milk anymore because 'it tastes funny' and only drinks chocolate milk. all 4 of my kids did that. now cam's the only one who drinks plain milk. she also gave up bananas. and something else i can't remember. little lola has definitely been an influence 🙂
that's it. random post i wasn't planning on posting until i saw those pics and they took my breath away.
her new current obsessions! 
she actually doesn't get the full pedicure, she just gets a buff and paint 🙂 the first time she went with daddy, she was so impressed, she came home and said she wanted to be a nail designer when she grows up! ha! cameron came home and brought her a silly band, and now she's collecting them. instead of wearing them on her wrists, she prefers them on her ankles. and she hasn't taken them off in days. 🙂 i love this picture. i know she will outgrow this and be a teen and i'll say to chris, 'what happened to our girl? she used to wear those silly bands and wanted to be a nail designer?!'
spoken from experience. they grow up so fast. 😦
i've already twittered and facebooked this but i need to record it here on the ol' blog for posterity 🙂 
she's nearly 4 and has been attached to her fingers since about 3 months old. (oh my gosh, looking back at the blog to find that- i can't believe so many pics i haven't scrapped! i love my blog for taking me down memory lane for a bit tonight!) we've had plenty of family members tell her she should stop sucking her fingers. most of the time, she takes them out for a second, then sticks them back in ever so defiantly. 🙂 today while at trader joe's, a man was walking past us, stopped, looked at her and said, 'you shouldn't suck your fingers, stop that.' he then turned and knocked over a stand of oranges. i didn't say anything, i think out of pure shock. that was the first time a stranger commented on it, to her, ever! i walked away with elsie, looking at her, trying to read her thoughts. i could tell she was hurt and sad and maybe embarrassed. 
later when we were home, i asked her how that incident made her feel, and she replied, "sad…… and i wanted to punch him."
🙂 🙂 🙂 that's a girl with 2 older brothers. 🙂
ps thanks for the kind words on the brothers post. nice to know that the evolving sibling bond is similar all over the world.
—– and we would really like her to stop with the fingers. we know eventually she will stop. she doesn't do it at school.. the first few days of school, she came home, shocked that no one else did it. i think as she gets older, she'll phase it out herself. she's the only one of our 4 who does this! those pictures capture her 2 soothies. her fingers and her blue blankie. heaven to her!
the night before the first day of school, she said to me, "i changed my mind, let's just cancel it, i don't want to go." (i'm laughing that she used the word cancel- she's 3!) there were lots of tears as she cried herself to sleep. she's attached to me, just as all of my children were- but she is very social so i knew she'd be just fine! this morning, the first thing she said to me when she woke up was, "stttaaaaaaay home." 😦 heartbreak! 🙂 now if she was child 1 or 2 i might have fallen for it but by child 4, i knoooooow better and off we went as i knew there were many adventures in store for our little social butterfly! 
i made caleb's teacher a valentine card.
every night we snuggle in bed and she asks for me to yell for dad downstairs so that he can come snuggle her too. last night she knew he was gone. but she asked, where’s daddy? i said, in the airplane. she said, ever so sweetly… but i want him. 
these are from the other day. E has decided she likes ribbons. in her hair, around her waist, whatever. good thing because i have every ribbon imaginable 🙂
and sunglasses.
right after i saw these pics- i made chris cut her bangs. she's gonna be dora for halloween, so her hair is perfect for that- but the bangs were killing me.
watersix 