Still just three.

Hey all. Just wanted to let you know that there's no baby yet. But I AM too tired and too busy nesting at this point to post Christmas pictures. So that's why there's nothing new on here. Didn't want the silence to be misinterpreted as labor pains. :) I'll keep you posted!!

A story mainly for Grandma and Grandpa's reading pleasure.

So we all know that Elianna is crazy about dressing up, hats, etc. Well the latest thing is UNdressing. It's kinda nice, actually, because she can play for loooong stretches at a time on her own now, simply taking her clothes off and trying to put them back on. (This is usually accompanied by very loud groans and grunts and then a shriek "IT'S HARD!") Well yesterday she was continuously removing her clothing as I was making supper. And then she went for her diaper. I told her 'no' several times, and then she did it again. So I said, "Ellie, if you take off your diaper, you have to pee on the potty like a big girl." Her eyes lit up, "OTAY!" (I've never offered her this choice before.) So we went to the bathroom and I said, "Which potty do you like, your little one, or the big one?" She chose the big one. So I put her naked little bum on there and held her tight and said, "Okay, now you go pee!!" And to my amazement, a look of concentration came across her face, and then we heard a very faint tinkly sound....PEE. Oh, the cheering that ensued! I never knew how thrilling pee could be. I guess she may be more ready for potty training than I give her credit for!

Musings on Ellie's People Passion

I think one of the most amazing parts about being the parent of a toddler is watching the personality of your child unfold. When Ellie was 10 months old she learned to say 'HI!', and grocery shopping was never the same. We had to yell hi to everyone. I think I thought it was a stage at the time. Now that Ellie is 21 months and she STILL says hi (plus much more...as much as you're willing to hear) to nearly everyone, I'm realizing that this is just who Ellie IS. A people person. She has this drive to connect with every person she meets (with the exception of a few scary people...like Santa Claus and Dr.Dyck).
The other day I was at my Grandma's condo and she wanted to bring Ellie up to the top floor to say hi to a friend of hers. So we knocked on the door and this lady called out, "Come on in!" My Grandma opened the door and let Ellie in while we stayed behind. Ellie MARCHED right in there by herself with her crooked pink toque and her green rubber boots and yelled out, "HI, LADY!". I think Mrs. Hires is still recovering from the shock of it...
Names are very important, too, and Ellie doesn't seem to easily forget them. We were at a family gathering on Sunday and I introduced Ellie to a bunch of new people. About 15 minutes after meeting one of my uncles she marched up to him and said, "Hi Ben!". If she can't remember or doesn't know your name, it's "Hi, De-da!" I don't have a clue why. :)
At night before bed when we pray and I ask Ellie what we should pray for she says, "Fends" (friends). And so we thank Jesus for a list of at least 20 people and then Ellie is satisfied. Often when we leave the house Ellie asks if we're going to 'chuch' (church)...and if we are, she says, "FENDS!" And starts the list of people she knows we'll see at church... "Dow-ee, Arnew, Simmy, Azewin, Sunsin, Donald, Wobbie..." (translated that's Chloe, Andrew, Simeon, Azelin, Allison, Donovan, Robbie....)
Aside from Regan (obligation to best-friendhood by cousinry...and yeah, i think i just made up two words), Ellie's very best friend in the world is "Dow-ee"...Chloe. It's heart-warming to watch them. When they spot each other in church their eyes light up, they yell out each other's names, and most recently, they give each other a big hug. They love running up and down the aisles together. Having Chloe over for a play date is like inviting peace and quiet personified into the house...for some reason, they just jive, and they play together like angels. The only thing they fight over is teapots. (Why do they only make one teapot in a set, I wonder?) Ellie seems to get tired fairly quickly by most social situations, but not by Chloe. Go figure. What a blessing! Here's a few pictures of Ellie with her bosom buddy:

Coloring up a storm.

They actually complied when I asked them to fold their hands!

Chloe's birthday partyRight before a teapot fight broke out.

With Ellie's extreme extroversion I am very curious to find out who this next little Bean is going to be! I'll keep you posted.

Mmmm! That's NUMMY!

The other day I was vacuuming up a storm (that's actually a joke...vacuuming is a slow, painful process these days) and Ellie was happy and busy around the house, playing with a little white measuring cup that she loves. I sometimes put a few drops of water in there which she joyfully slurps up with abandon and declares, "MMMMM! That's NUMMY!" If there's no real water in there, she's happy to pretend there is, and often shouts out the same thing. So I thought nothing of it when Ellie ran up to me with a huge grin on her face yelling over the noise of the vacuum, "Mmm! Nummy!". Then she did again, only this time with the front of her shirt all wet. It only took a moment for my swollen pregnant brain to register that there is only ONE place in the house where there is water readily available at Ellie's height. I immediately shut off the vacuum, grabbed Ellie's hand, and we marched to the bathroom where my nightmares were realized: the toilet seat was covered in water. "Ellie!" I said. "Did you drink water from here?" Her response? "MMMMMMM! It's NUMMY!" Now if any of you have any idea how to get it through to a 21 month old that toilet water is actually a really gross thing to drink when you are on the floor laughing and can't for the life of you keep a straight face, well, you can feel free to let me know. In the meantime, all I can do is thank my lucky stars that there was no toilet cleaner or pee (or worse) in there. And keep the door closed.

We're back!

Back from our internet holiday, that is. How refreshing! I found myself bored a lot at first (we don't have cable, either)...but by the time the month was over and we got the internet reconnected, I had absolutely no desire to go on. Nice feeling. ANYHOW! There isn't much new to report about November, except we did a lot MORE of everything...

We got to spend more time with Grandpa and Grandma Balfour when they came out from BC to visit us in the middle of the month...

And we got more toys, because they brought early Christmas with them! Ellie really missed them when they left...and now she calls a blond lady at the grocery store "Gamma".We had more play dates with Regan, as always......and hung upside down more....
...and started losing a lot more water out the tub at bath time.

We started wearing a lot more clothing...

...because we suddenly had a LOT more snow!

We now have more Christmas baking around the house. Which is disappearing quickly, thanks to Lil'Bean 2 (he/she makes mommy hungry for sweets.)

We started using our imagination more (this is Ellie in her boat with some hot soup)...

...and playing dress-up more (I didn't think that was humanly possible. As it is Ellie is usually wearing some piece of dress-up clothing at all times.)

We acquired more furniture (the bassinet = fill it up with stuff and pretend to go nigh-night)...

...because as you can see, there's a lot more baby happening and it ain't long till Junior arrives! We're pumped!
So there you have it. You are updated. We will keep you informed as the countdown to Baby #2's arrival draws near!

A Little Holiday

Hey Everybody! Just wanted to let you know that Rob and I have decided to take a month off internet to see what life is like without it. So it'll be mighty quiet on this page for a little while. Feel free to leave comments or email (robnjax09@hotmail.com) or message on facebook, as I will still be checking in now and again from my parents' house. Here's a few fall photos of our pumpkin to leave you with. (p.s. Patrick and Cheryl...I will still check your page faithfully to find out when your princess #2 is born!!! Can hardly wait!!)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Once upon a time, about 19 months ago, I met the most amazing person - my Daddy.

Now, I know there are a lot of really great dads in the world, but I think my Daddy is just the BEST one that could ever have been made for me. He really loves spending time with me and we have so much fun together that it always puts a smile on Mommy's face. Tomorrow's his 27th birthday, so thought I'd share some of my favorite Daddy memories from this month with you all.

Daddy and I read books together every day.

My favoritest part is when he does the crazy elephant noises!

He's taught me to do them pretty good!

One day I found a book on puppets and made Daddy read it to me. I think it inspired him...

...because he actually sewed me his own sock puppet! It didn't look quite like the ones in the book. But I liked it anyways. :)
On another day it was really rainy, so Daddy took me outside to help me look for worms. I just love worms. Worms go 'ssss', like snakes.

He even let me hold one!!

We got really wet but had a BLAST!

Here Daddy was making me giggle hysterically with a monkey puppet. He also chases me around the house like a lion a lot. I just love that. I laugh and I laugh...

Once in a while Mommy lets Daddy do my hair.
I think he does a beautiful job!

So as you can see, this Dad of mine is pretty neat. I wouldn't trade him for the world!
Happy Birthday, Daddy!
Lots of love,
Ellie
xoxoxo

Hooked on cheese...

It's gotten a bit more difficult lately to capture life in the Balfour household. We thought it was cute when we first taught Ellie to say 'cheese' for the camera. Now we get pictures of little else. If we actually manage to pull the camera out quietly enough that Ellie doesn't notice, she will always at least hear the flash popping up...and that second is the second she runs up to the camera, gives us her toothiest smile, says 'cheeeeeese' and almost before a person can snap the button, she's running around the other side of the camera to see what she looked like. I suppose that IS life in the Balfour household then, isn't it. Well then. Here's to cheese!

Turtle-necked cheese.

Shirtless cheese.

Tomato-covered cheese.

Black and white cheese.

Mommy-daughter-duo cheese.

Thankfulness

This thanksgiving I feel really really thankful. Sounds like a cliche, but this isn't always totally true for me. Yeah, it's always pretty easy to come up with some good things I'm thankful for when we share around the family dinner table - after all, we do live in North America....but this is different. It's like, bubbling in and maybe even over the edges of my heart. I am full to overflowing. May I get quite personal and share a few of these thankfulness 'bubbles' that are threatening to overflow? I'm thankful for...
1. A God who is faithful and committed to me and my little imperfect family.
2. A husband who sees beauty in me on my ugliest days (moodwise and otherwise :). The struggles, the triumphs, and the JOYS of marriage.
3. Our sweet and happy little girl. The gift of motherhood.
4. This little lively baby pummeling my ribcage. The miracle of pregnancy.
5. Hardships. They keep bringing us closer to God and each other.
6. My job at Hallmark...getting to see so many different types of people, and learning to love the difficult ones.
7. My parents. Watching them grandparent. Knowing the rich inheritance (metaphorically speaking :) that they are passing down to me and my children.
8. Daily bread...that we're in a place in life where we never have too much, and we never have too little. (Keeps us trusting in Someone other than ourselves.)
9. Colder weather. An overheating pregnant lady's dream come true. :)
10. That we own a Toyota. What a reliable piece of machinery!
11. Our apartment. Sure, we don't own a house yet like many of our friends, but it's definitely home (or "ham!", as Ellie calls it with glee) and there's no brighter, more peaceful place to be.
12. Books, music, crayons, playdough, blankies, disposable diapers, hot showers, donuts...I could go on, but maybe I'll save the rest for my journal. :)

Anyhow, it felt like a bit of a shame to be thankful and not share it with someone. I pray you all have a wonderful, thankful Thanksgiving weekend!

Puddle Jumping

A couple weeks ago we had a huge rainstorm on our way home from the grocery store. JUST as we parked the car the rain stopped, leaving large, wonderful puddles all over our parking lot. So I pulled off Ellie's shoes and socks, rolled up her pants and let her run wild:

What a wild child. Just look at her running wild. :)
No, she loved it. So we knocked on our neighbour Hayden's door....

And made it into puddle jumping party!

The sun even came out.

You can't see it in this photo, but Hayden went crazy and was covered from head to toe in muddy water.

Ellie stayed a bit cleaner.
As I write this we are having another dreadfully rainy day. This time, however, Ellie donned some beautiful shiny green boots (hand-me-downs from cousin Regan) and we bravely went to Extra Foods to get some chocolate chips. Ellie thought she was the coolest kid in the whole store, staring at her feet the entire time with this satisfied look on her face. So easy to please!