Ella's first school recital

Yesterday we attended the Happy Hearts dinner at Ella's preschool. It's the big fundraiser event that her school has every year. There's a spaghetti dinner, a silent auction, and then all the children perform.

Okay, let me start off by saying that we almost didn't even go to this. I can't believe that we almost missed out on this amazing event in my child's life. Shame on me for almost missing it. Well, we had no idea that all of the kids were going to perform. We just thought it was a spaghetti dinner and a silent auction. Neither Chris or I are big fans of spaghetti and it's not like we need to be buying anything. So, there really was no reason to go. Until a couple of days ago when I got an email from Ella's school mentioning the kids would be singing. What!?! The kids are going to be singing! We were so going to be there. No way was I going to be missing this! Chris quickly changed his flight so that he would be able to go. (He actually almost didn't make it due to the bad weather we were having. He got there with about ten minutes to spare.) We called Mimi and Papa (that's my parents) and there was no way they were going to miss it either.

So, during the days leading up to event, Chris and I had pretty low expectations. We know that Ella is pretty quite at school and she gets a little scared around people she doesn't know. So, we figured that she would just stand up there and not really do much. Well, shame on me for not having higher expectations of my daughter. She way exceeded my expectations and then some. She was awesome! And I'm not just saying that because she's my daughter. Well...yes I am. I really was surprised and so were her teachers. She did so great. All the kids did a great job. I mean, what's not cute about a bunch of kids singing songs.

I know this is a little off topic but I was just looking at this picture and is it just me or is that little boy standing next to Ella really tall for a 3 year old! Wow, he's tall! He's not in her class so I don't know who he is. The four kids to the right of Ella are all her classmates.

And I don't want to forget sweet little Madeleine. She surprised us too. She was pretty attentive despite pouring raisins onto my parents laps every couple of minutes. But she definitely recognized Ella when she got up to sing and even yelled out "Ella" pronounced "A-ya".

Some of the items of the silent auction were created by the children at Ella's school. Each of the classes, created something that everyone could bid on. Ella's class made the following item. Ella's hand is on the 4. Someone bought it for $75.00.

It was such a great night. And for Chris to be there and my parents were able to to make it made it just that much more special. I've been sitting here for the past thirty minutes trying to fully capture in words how I felt about the night. I guess this is what being a parent is all about. To see your child up there - in front of all these people - singing her little heart out. My heart just filled with love and pride for my girl. It was just one of those great mommy moments and something that I will never forget.

So, you'll have to check back tomorrow to see Ella in action and see what songs she sang.

After dinner

I'm sure you have wondered what the Pearson girls do after dinner.  Well, maybe that thought hasn't exactly crossed your mind.  Anyway...a bubble bath always follows dinner but before we head upstairs, the girls make a stop in their kitchen to cook something up.  I had the video camera with me at the dinner table last night ready to capture the moment. 



In case you hadn't noticed in the video clip, Maddie is in a no clothes wearing phase right now. And I have to say that I think Maddie is so freaking cute when she says "princess".

Father's night

Last Thursday was Father's Night at Ella's preschool.  Here's daddy and daughter before they headed out for their big night together.

The night started at Ella's favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-A or as she calls it, Chick-A-Lay.  Chris told me later that Ella was a little confused as to why she was going to school and night.  Then, when it started to get dark, she kept telling Chris that it was getting dark and that they needed to get home to mommy.  But once she got to school, she forgot all about it being dark.

The purpose of Father's Night is so that the dads get to see what their kids do each day.  They went up to the music room and banged sticks together and marched around in a circle.  I'm just telling you what they told me they did.  Then they had some free time and got to play with whatever they wanted to in the classroom.  Ella and Chris went to the play-doh station and made pizzas.  Before enjoying their snacks, they had circle time.  Earlier in the week, Ella's teachers had asked each of kids some questions about their dads and wrote the answers down on a piece of papers.  Here are Ella's answers to the questions;

1.  What is your dad's favorite color?

Ella's answer:  Red

2.  What is your dad's favorite food?

Ella's answer:  Hotdogs

3.  What do you like to do with your dad?

Ella's answer:  Go to the slide park

4.  Where does your dad work?

Ella's answer:  The airplane

Ella and Daddy had a great time!  I was so happy that Chris was able to be here for it.  I know he has to miss a lot of her preschool activities and I hate that for him.  I know he wouldn't have missed Dad's Night though.  It made me happy to see just how excited he was to get to spend some time with Ella.  

For the birds

One of the things that Ella's class talked about last month was bluebirds.  And what do bluebirds have to do with January?  Nothing that I know of.  Except that the color of the month for January was blue so that's why they were talking about bluebirds.  Each of the kids made a bird feeder.  After Ella woke up from her nap that day and while Maddie was still asleep, we went outside to hang it up on our one lonely tree.  This was probably one of the only times that I was really grateful that we have one of the townhomes with a tree out front. 

It's been a week now since we hung it up and just about every day Ella has asked if the birds have found it.  Sadly, I don't think they have.  But we're not giving up home.  The birds will come.

Lil' peanut at 19 months

If there was a prize for the smallest 19 month old, I think that Maddie just might win it.  She had her 18 month check-up about three weeks ago and at the time, she weighed a whopping 18 pounds and 15 ounces.  Just for reference, so you can understand just how little that is, according to the children's growth scale, 50% of kids at 18 months weigh 24 pounds.  So, Maddie is below the 0th percentile.  She's 32 1/2 inches tall, which is right on target at the 50th percentile.  If she continues at this rate, I think she's got the making of a top model!    You would think that we don't feed her but that little girl can pack it in.  Yesterday I watched her inhale a cupcake in record time.  You know, it is what it is.  At first, I was really paranoid about it.  I thought we weren't doing something right...maybe not feeding her enough.  But her pediatrician assured me that we are doing everything right. She told us to add in some carnation instant breakfast into her milk to help bulk her up.  We've been doing that for about four months.  She's just tiny.  However, I am pretty confident in saying that she has probably broken the 19 pound mark by now.  Woo-hoo!  Wow, 19 pounds at 19 months old.  

The girls have really been into giving themselves and everyone else a "doctor check-up" these days.  Between the two of them they have been to the doctor's office three times this month so they are very familiar with getting a check-up.  We don't mind the check-ups from Dr. Ella so much. It's the ones from Dr. Maddie that we are a little scared of.  They usually involve her poking her fingers into your eyes, nose, and mouth.  And that is usually followed by her bouncing up  and down on your stomach.  And all of her check-ups are accompanied by her sinister laugh.

So, if you're coming to our house for a check-up, I advise you to see Dr. Ella.  Or make sure you don't eat anything if you're going to see Dr. Maddie.  You'll regret it if you do.

Not the best start to 2010

Happy New Year everyone! I know that's about a week late but today is the first day in about a week and a half that I feel like I am among the living again. The Pearson girls have been S-I-C-K! It started on Christmas morning when Ella came into our room like a zombie. We had never seen her like that and got up and ready to take her to the ER. Then we brought her downstairs and she saw all the toys Santa had brought and all of a sudden she was revived for a couple of hours. Oh, the power of Santa and toys. But she was still sick. So, what did we do next? Well, of course we drove up to Kentucky and brought our nasty infection with us and passed it on to Chris's family. That's the Christmas spirit! Anyway, I am now at the point where we better be done with being sick for awhile. The house is a mess, the laundry is out of control and we are all sick of sitting around. Just give it a a couple of weeks and someone else is going to be sick again.

We did get one little bit of happiness this week when it snowed here in Atlanta. I know this is nothing for you people up north but give us southeners a break. We hardly ever see the white stuff and when we do it's a big event and worthy of a blog entry and a couple of pictures. Even though we got less than an inch, the girls loved it.

This next picture was taken across the street from our house. Our mailman had gotten his truck stuck on the ice in front of our house. He had to call in reinforcements to help push him out and here are the girls peering around me to get a glimpse of the action.

So, it's freezing outside. I think it's about 25 degrees out right now. But that doesn't bother the girls. This is what they were wearing tonight;

Yep, a whole lot of nothing! Hilarious.

Ho ho ho

We hear a lot this around the house these days. You just say the name "Santa" and both Maddie and Ella start saying "ho ho ho." Ella will occasionally throw in "Merry Christmas boys and girls." They are both very aware of who Santa is and that you want to be on the good list to get presents on Christmas morning.

We recently took them to see Santa. This is the Santa that I had to book a reservation for back on October 7! I don't even think I had figured out what the girls were going to be for Halloween yet but I was all about booking a time to see Santa. Yes, I am fully aware at how crazy this is. Back to the girls and Santa - they did great! There were no tears, which is really all a parent could really ask for.

Here's the play-by-play;

Ella's wish list for Santa that Daddy helped her write out.

The picture that Ella drew for Santa. Not sure what it is but based on her other drawings that look like this, my guess is that it's a slide park.

The one time that Ella smiled was when Santa was reading her wish list and asked her if she wanted a Dora kitchen. This brought out the smile and a sweet yes. And since they can't read yet, I guess there's no harm in telling you that they aren't getting "the" Dora kitchen. They will be getting a kitchen from Santa but just not the one that they see on the nickelodeon commercials. And just a little side note - those commercial are powerful! I am dreading the years ahead when they want every single thing they see on t.v. So, I hope there isn't a revolt on Christmas morning. Although, my friend Gina gave me the idea to slap a picture of Dora's face on the fridge and they'll never know the difference! Ha-ha - we just may have to do that!

Saying good-bye to Santa and getting a hug.

And finally...

Thought it would be fun to put this one in here for comparison. Wow, I can't believe that this was only a year ago!