Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pre-Gaming for Ellie's Birthday

Ellie is turning two on Friday and John and I will be in Charleston, South Carolina for the weekend. Luckily for her (and us), my parents have festivities planned to mark the occasion in Buffalo. She brought cupcakes into daycare today to share with her friends. We also did a little early birthday celebration for Ellie tonight at home and she was as pleased as could be.

Ellie was so psyched to bring "cakecups" to day care today

We saved a few to sing to her at home tonight

Ellie opened some birthday gifts...

and played with her birthday gift from us - her new kitchen!

Happy (early) Birthday, sweet girl!

Early Thanksgiving Celebration

Since our little family of three will be in three different places on Thanksgiving Day, I decided that we should have a pre-Thanksgiving Dinner so John and I could enjoy eating turkey with Ellie. It was our first time making the full turkey dinner and all went well. We had Barbara and Julie and our neighbors Parker and Doreen join us. In addition to her new turkey plate, Ellie's favorite things were the pumpkin bread and the ice cream that went with the cranberry-apple dessert.

Storyteller

Ellie has loved books from her early days but she's lately been narrating stories while "reading" independently. Sometimes she uses the pictures to make up the story and other times she knows the basic story line from hearing it so often. Tonight she read Love You Forever by Robert Munsch but paraphrased the book into her own words.

Getting Ready

Ellie is getting ready to turn two. Her birthday is one week from today but she's been talking about the big day and even sings Happy Birthday to Ellie to herself. She and I had a little Q&A session in the video above. In case it's difficult to hear Ellie, she tells me that her birthday is "next week," and she's going to be "two" and then she ends by telling me that she wants to blow the candles out by herself.

Big Sister-To-Be

Today we had our big mid-pregnancy ultrasound. Thankfully, everything went well and looked good. As planned, we didn't find out the baby's gender but we did get to bring home the ultrasound photos to share with the future big sister. She seemed to enjoy seeing the baby and was all smiles and giggles while holding the pictures.

Will, Cate & Ellie

Julie brought Will and Cate over yesterday afternoon and a good time was had by all. Ellie loved having her friends over to play, she and Will did a great job changing the dolls' diapers. The only time Ellie showed any interest in John was when he had Cate on his lap. The playdate ended with a pile of semi-naked babies.

Weekend in NJ

We all had a terrific time in the Garden State this past weekend. We stayed with Jen and Corb and Ellie loved her time with Katie and Luke. They sang an early Happy Birthday to Ellie who loved the singing and eating her "cakecups."

Election Day

Election Day has left me feeling ecstatic, emotional and well, exhausted. I was somewhat shocked and horrified to discover that some of my students' parents didn't vote. The girls mentioned it casually in class and asked me if I was voting. Then they asked why. I gave an impromptu lesson on women's suffrage and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I love these teachable moments. As I reflected on my reasons for voting, the main reason was clear; simple yet complex at the same time. My reason for voting is:

I voted not only to honor the women who fought so hard to earn us the right to vote but also for Ellie. I voted so that Ellie will someday realize that anyone in this country can reach the highest office, I voted in hopes that she will grow up in a nation where all people are granted basic civil rights and I voted to show her that her voice counts. We try to model appropriate behavior for our toddler at all times and I hope that she saw something yesterday that will influence her for life. My goal is that our daughter will realize that voting is not only a privilege, but also her responsibility.

Ben's Birthday Bash

We all had a fantastic time at Benny's second birthday party on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and we spent the entire time outside. Ellie even liked wearing her old-school party hat!