Beware:

 Scout's room has become quite exclusive as of late.

At least T Rexes seem to be a pretty polite bunch.

Random Sentences Heard at Our House, I

It's been a long time since I wrote a good old Scout post.  

For the last few months, I've been writing down sentences she says that I think- I wonder what someone would think if they just heard that and didn't know Scout? For those of us that do know her, I suppose we think pretty much the same thing......

(fast walking past Rob and I on her way to her room as we sit at the kitchen table)

"I need to go get more crow's milk before my baby starts to get fussy"

"Mom, what bird would you like to be if you were an angry bird that lived in an ipad?"

"Pretend I'm a panda and we just got dinner at Chick-Fil-Bamboo"

"I wonder if Jesus likes Utah [Utes] or BYU......"

"Mom- can I be a jackrabblit that laid a bunny egg?  I already laid a giraffe that likes cowboys"

I'll keep the list going.

Sometimes it seems

Like not a lot changes around here.............

She was pretty busy this morning.

Santaclaustrophobia

I looked around the internets to see if there was an official term for the fear of Santa.  Because let me tell you, Scout has it and always has.  There is  pogonophobia, which is the fear of beards: nope, daddy is still huggable when he has given up shaving for a week (but ask me how huggable he is to me when he shaves it all but a mustache and then chases me around trying to kiss me -yes he still does that-), there is hagiophobia- fear of saints and holy things (nope, she isn't a vampire nor is she possessed nor is Santa very holy these days anyway no matter what his roots are.)  I think I'd know by now if she had rhodophobia (the fear of the color red) or cacomorphobia (the fear of fat or obese people).  These are as close as you can get to a fear of Santa.  Perhaps you could combine them all into a crammed term that incorporates them all................or you could just call it Santaphobia.

When Scout was a year old, we were in Macy's and there was a Santa wandering around handing out candy canes.  The moment he got within 20 feet of her, she absolutely flipped out.  I didn't think too much of it, she was right in the middle of the fear of anyone that isn't mom and dad talking to her that little ones get.  Then a year or two later, on Christmas morning when she woke up, I said, "lets go into the living room and see what Santa left in there for you" and a dark look of fear crossed her face when suddenly all the talk about Santa coming down your chimney and creeping around your living room leaving you stuff and eating your cookies hit home to her and she didn't like that idea at all.  We coaxed into the living room though and she shook off the creepy feeling pretty fast.

Last year, at our ward Christmas party, Santa came and then left to sit in another room and the kids were to go visit him.  She flipped and I mean a 5 year old had a fit and cried her eyes out because mamma told her we were going in there to sit on his lap, get her picture taken and get a candy cane.  This was a girl that never has tantrums and never throws fits.  I pushed her a little, thinking that she would get over it when she was there and saw the other kids happily doing it and the promise of a candy cane.  Nope, it just got worse.  I gave up, I mean, I've looked at pictures like these with a lot of sympathy in the past and I don't want to do that to my children.  And lets face it, I am not exactly crying myself to sleep at night that I don't have a fuzzy little picture of little Scout sitting on Santa's lap.  I decided that day I would respect her fear and support her fully.  Now, this is just Santa in the flesh mind you, she is fine with pictures of him and talking about him.  He just can't come within her comfort zone (which is about 50 feet or so).  


I am not sure how long Santa is going to remain an actual figure of truth to her though.  Frankly, I'm surprised she seems to think he is real this year.  She squelched the tooth fairy this year with the loss of her first tooth.  She asked me if it was me that gives her money for her tooth.  I asked what she thought and she said yes and I told her that it was me, but it is fun to pretend that it is a fairy.  I told myself before I had kids that I would play along with Santa, etc. for as long as they seemed happy with it, but if they ever asked me point blank, I wasn't going to lie to them.  I was going to hear their opinion and feel out if they seem like they want it to be real and go from there.  She didn't like the idea of a little fairy coming into her room and getting under her pillow much either, so she seemed relieved with the truth.  I am a little boggled that Santa is still allowed to come into her living room every year.  Maybe the proximity is enough to keep her at least calm, he doesn't leave presents under her pillow at least.

So anyway, this year when we talked about going to the ward party (it was on Friday), she immediately asked if Santa was coming.  I said yes and she started to panic and ask if we could stay home.  I told her we were going, but she does not have to sit on his lap if it makes her uncomfortable.  She seemed satisfied with that, although felt the need to ask me about 6 more times that day if she had to sit on his lap.  He came in the room and she kept her cool for the most part, but started to cry when her friend ran to her and wanted to go in there with her.  We told her that Scout is scared of Santa and she left.  She was the only child left in a room full of adults, so of course she got asked a million times if she was going to go see Santa.  One nice lady told her a story about how scared she was of Santa when she was a little girl and they shared a high five.  

Just cause Scout is scared, I decided I should not have Elle miss out on Santa.  So I took Elle, and Scout actually stood out side the door and peeked into the room a few times and even after a while stood with her back against the wall right at the door way.  But then people would try to coax her in line and she would get upset.  Daddy rescued her and they watched as Elle had her turn.  

Elle was so amazed that she actually got to get so close to this amazing looking man with all that white hair on his face.  She was so cute.  No fear of Santa with this one, (in fact, the only fear she seems to have is that of getting from one the crawling position to a sitting position -or changing positions of any sort-).

Santa seemed rather taken with her too.

Potpourri (or a little Scout, a little Elles and a little Radiohead)

I've got some updates and information and blurbs about the lot, so I figured I would combine them into one post so you could get caught up on three of my very favorite things 

(I have more then 3 favorite things- Rob comes to mind, but I don't have an update of him on this post).

taken on Saturday morning, being a black footed ferret

Scout:

Scout suffered this weekend with another UTI.  Of course my girls only get things like this on Saturday, making it hard to get to see a doctor.  Saturday she had a stuffy nose and a sore throat and a low grade fever.  Saturday night she showed signs to me of a UTI.  Sunday she seemed pretty good if not a little feverish.  It was the Primary program in church and she had a speaking part, so we convinced her to get dressed and go anyway.  She has been nervous like crazy about this for months and has practiced, memorized her lines, and even had the courage to do it (once in a while).  We thought it was important that she ended up doing it, so we took her.  I would like to report that she was such a brave good girl and did it.  She was so scared and it took a lot of convincing and Paw Prints in a little purse around her shoulders going up there with her, but she did it.  We really were proud of her.  She said her part as fast as I've ever heard her talk, but she did it without looking at her cheat sheet AND feeling like crap.  I took her home after sacrament meeting and spared her the other 2 hours if that gains me any points for forcing her to go.

She took Advil through the day and seemed almost like her old self.  She woke up this morning pretty sad and hot and her back hurt in the kidney area.  Uh oh.  I made a morning appointment for her and she is now armed with antibiotics.  The deal is, the doctor said that if she still has a fever noon tomorrow, he wants to see her again and will probably recommend having the antibiotics administered through IV and that means the hospital!!  I guess the fever, which was over 102 at the doctor and it obviously getting into the kidneys makes the doctor not want to take any chances.  Yikes.  I would hate to have this happen to her.  She really seems great right now, so I have confidence that she will be fine with the antibiotics we have at home.  I can hear her right now singing cute songs, putting on costumes and playing with her jungle animals.  We did decide to get her checked out fully in a few weeks in regards to her urinary tract (she was diagnosed with reflux in the kidneys at about 3 months old, when she had her first UTI).  We are going to revisit those tests and see what they can tell us, including an ultrasound and this xray thing that is very unpleasant involving a catheter and medical imaging.   She had that test twice before 2 but not since.  This time they are going to sedate her cause it can be "tramatic" as they put it.  I think it was traumatic for her back in the day and very possibly what has caused her fear of doctors.  She isn't as scared of doctors right now as needles and shots (which of course go along with doctors), and I am afraid she is going to be getting some of those.  Good news is, they discovered that they can do it in Provo (Utah Valley Medical Center) instead of up at Primary's where she had the others, so that is something I guess.  We are really hoping and hoping for results that don't include the "S" word.

************Scout Update***************

She woke up fever free and went to school, so I am very optimistic.

Elinor:

 

Ellsies got fitted last week with splints for her thumbs.  They are worn all the time, not including baths and eating.  They keep her little thumbs out so she doesn't keep them in like she does and scratch them and all that bad stuff.  If they do their job, they should train her brain not to do that and make them used to being out and have her hands eventually work like normal little hands should.  She has really gotten good at adapting to no thumbs and holding stuff with them in and that is no good, we would much rather her use her hands like humans, as opposed to apes.  They don't seem to even phase her, she is just fine with them on (of course she is, given the tolerant little thing that she is), and we are noticing that she really doesn't do the hand flapping with them on.  She relaxes them a lot more.  Once I take them off however, she has a hand flapping party, but it's only been a couple days, so I would love to see that stop too.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  We are surprised that she stops the behavior with them on though.  Didn't think it would be that dramatic, but it seems to be right now.  So we are encouraged.  

We are heading to Primary Children's tomorrow, going to an appointment/ meeting with her doctors.  Dr. Carey arranged a meeting with us, himself, Dr. Filloux (her neurologist), and I think some interns, etc.  where we are going to go back to square one with her diagnoses.  He told us on the phone that it isn't really that strange if she has Angelman's that we haven't picked it up on the tests yet, (I assume this is because since she only has about 20% of the symptoms, it isn't a stretch that she would be in the lesser 20% cases that aren't picked up by the tests he has run thus far.  He listened to Rob tell him his concerns about her symptoms and things we feel she has lost and digressed in and he mentioned that it could possibly be something biochemical.  I googled biochemical and got a lot of talk about bio polar disorder and schizophrenia and I know that can't be right, so I decided quickly to not google anymore and just wait for the appointment.  I did however mention it to her cognitive therapist and she said he would be talking about babies that are born with an inability to process some metals or proteins or something like that, and so as the thing they can't process builds up, their body starts acting strange and reacting to it.  This is very interesting to me, thinking about the slight possibility it is something like that and wondering if she could be treated with a pill or something.  I don't know, trying not to think about it and for sure not getting my hopes up.  Just interesting.  I'm sure we'll know more tomorrow.   The appointment is at 4, and I will for sure update soon.  I would like to point out how horrible and complicated our day could be tomorrow if Scout actually had to be admitted to the hospital.  Seriously?  Could that actually happen?  Cause I think that is just a little too much don't you agree?  Fates?  Heavenly Father?  Karma?  I am letting you all know I'm not seeing that as being very nice.  (and if it is the way it is going to be, I'm going to need some instructions on how to figure it all out and make it work.)   

***************Elinor Update****************\

Last night's appointment went great.  Dr. Filloux was unable to make it at the last minute, but that didn't really matter to me.  Dr. Carey has been discussing Elles with colleagues from around the country.  Since he had a few directions to go when it comes to our next step in trying for a diagnosis, he thought it best to see Elle again in person before he decided the smartest direction to go.  His recommendation is to go with a broader rett test (his other idea at this point (the idea from a Angelman expert in Boston), is to do an eeg test -which measures brain waves)  apparently Angelman brains have really screwy eeg tests even if seizures aren't present.  If she gets a screwy test result that will tip the scales towards it being Angelman's quite a bit.  BUT given her (I forgot what he called it- the movements she has developed with her fingers), he would point more towards rett.  Here is some good news:  1. She would definitely have a lesser variant of the syndrome, and he would not expect us to see any dramatic losses at this point (ie my fear of losing eye contact and eating capabilities are very very unlikely given how she presents).  2.  Seizures starting at this time in her life with rett (after 2) are highly unlikely.  3.  Since she has shown improvement in all areas of development according to her last evaluation in August and even though we have seen some things drop off her abilities/stuff she does, he said that she would not classify as "regressing".  We figured that any loss would mean she is regressing, but apparently since she is overall showing improvement, that is a promising thing.  4.  Dr. Carey upon observation, feels that her limitations with her hands and body are affecting her cognitive abilities more then we might guess.  This gives me great hope that we will see greater things from her.  She really is more interested in toys these days and she is showing quite a bit of improvement in her motor skills- therefore, they will improve and as they improve, her cognitive skills should improve.  5.  He gave us a bit of hope about some things rett kids can do given her possible variables (ie some verbal skills, etc.)  6.  It was nice again to see with my own eyes such a wonderful doctor being so invested in our little girl and the long amount of time he was willing to spend talking to us and listening to our concerns and explanations (not to mention all the time he has spent discussing her with his peers).  It makes me sad to think that everyone in a situation similar to ours doesn't have the same experience.  We have absolutely hit the jackpot with Elle's team of doctors and therapists.  It makes me a little weepy thinking about how great everyone is and how much they invest in and love our daughter.  That is soooo important to you as a parent.

Also--- Dr. Cary pretty much shelved the idea that she has a biochemical problem yesterday given her overall good health.  She really is super healthy and almost never sick.  That doesn't mesh with having a biochemical problem. 

        
 Radiohead:

Thom Yorke announced that they are going to be TOURING next year.  Rumors about a tour have been circulating for a few months and taunting me, but I haven't allowed myself to believe it.  Having Thom say it in so many words this week cinched it for me.  HOLY CRAP!!!!  I am going.  There is no way they are coming to Salt Lake, so Matt, B, Cat?, Rob......pack your bags kids.  We're going-- this is your chance to see Emily hyperventilate, have a heart attack, faint, or any combo of the three  (I wouldn't be surprised if they came to Denver or Vegas, but we may have to go to California).  I am not missing it this time if I have to go without food for a month.  2012 is also seeing my parent's 50th wedding anniversary which the family is going to celebrate in Mexico in August.  So I am thinking that 2012 is going to be EPIC as long as the 2012 Mayan thing doesn't pan out- if it does, that would make it epic too I guess, but the end of the world is not allowed to happen until Emily sees Radiohead live.

*shaking my fist at the Mayan gods*

Also, this has been a grand Radiohead week, they performed on the season premier of SNL on Saturday and tonight they are going to be on a Cobert Report Special.  Good, good times.

Here are a couple promos that aired for SNL and they are so funny. 

Alec Baldwin cracks me up (I particularly liked the first one).

*****Colbert Report Update*****

It was really exciting watching this and seeing that the majority of the show was dedicated to Radiohead.  Thom's interviews were as endearingly awkward as ever and I must say- I love Stephen Colbert, but him juxtaposed with Radiohead was...... I don't know-- a little cringe worthy a few times.  BUT didn't take much away from it.  (Maybe I'm just not in the mood for any shenanigans when Radiohead is around- I'm all business.) Made me laugh a lot though.  I just know they have very very strong feelings when it comes to matters of global warming and what they do as a band to leave as small a carbon footprint as possible (why they won't come to SLC) and they weren't given a chance to talk about too much of what they do, but I suppose that doesn't matter too much.  Look at me!  I feel like I am coming across as negative about the show and that is not my intention.  I absolutely loved it

"Prepare yourselves Radiohead, you're about to meet television face"

Below is the shining jewel of the night, they sang a song I hadn't heard yet called "The Daily Mail" and it Totally.   Kicked.   My.   Trash.    (in a really good way).  This song is from a live session they did and put on the interwebs called "From the Basement" back in June and I hadn't been bothered to listen to it yet.  Who knew they debuted a fricken amazing song on it?  Not me apparently.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Can I mention how much I love that Cobert's Harry Potter joke made Thom laugh?  (that intro was cut out of the show, so didn't see that until now.  Awesome.

Oh, and did I also mention they surprised me with "The National Anthem" at the end?  No?  Well they did.  Second best moment. 

(Worst moment was cutting the program off before the song was done.  I got to finish it this morning online though.)

Random Scoutiness VII

I was in the shower one morning and Scout pops her head into the bathroom and calls out, "mom, I am going to go golfing in the backyard and pretend that I am Scooby Doo and that I am in Scotland".  "Ok"  I answer back not thinking a whole lot about it.  To be honest, this isn't such a weird sentence to come out of Scout's mouth.  Pretty routine actually.  I did check it all out when I was dry and dressed and was delighted by the scene I saw:

Slight clothing malfunction here, but I was actually impressed she was able to figure that kilt out by herself.

 Scout lost her first tooth last month:

 

This one was followed by the other bottom front.  Rob and I have consequently found something out about Scout:  She is a total WIMP when it comes to pulling out her teeth.  She eventually let us pull the teeth out, but not before they were hanging by the smallest thread and the new tooth is growing quite big and shark like behind them.  She is currently speaking with an ever so slight and cute lisp.  Very understated, but noticeable.

Here is just a sample of some afternoon play:

She set up a beach scene with a large number of small animals.  Each has their own towel and each one is doing something different.

Here is a closeup, cause the charm is in the details.

I had to get a picture of these guys, they were the center of play for at least 3 days.  It is a little crocodile and an otter.  They had many adventures together including going on safari, driving bulldozers, visiting Nessie at Loch Ness (all done while dressed very spiff in their bowler hats).  I wish I could remember their names, but it's been too long.  Scout will remember I'm sure.

Here we have a mask she made so she could be a more convincing caracal.  I just thought it was cute and thought it was worth noting that the markings on the mask are accurate.  Also note that the mask is just taped directly to her face.  (This was a less complicated option to string or elastic.)

Yes, I know she has giant holes at the knees, but you come over and throw away her beloved pink animal dunglees! 

This is just a little blurb that doesn't have a picture to accompany it:

She walks in to where I am and asked me to tell her something that I have always wanted and now have- so I tell her a husband I love and two of the cutest little girls ever.  She goes- 

"No. That thing doesn't fit in my air-hawke basket".  

(I later learned that she was pretending that an old Easter basket was being carried by a remote control helicopter she has been wanting since she saw a commercial for it weeks before.  A few days later she told me (after I asked her to hand me something) that if she had that helicopter, she could fly it over to me.  Obviously, she has some great shines to get her hands on one of these things and have it do stuff for her and also, it could bring me stuff I really want- nothing like a husband and kids though it would have to be stuff that can fit in the basket).   

I just really get a kick out of trying to imagine what goes on in that little mind of hers and when I do, the imagry can really make me laugh................ and her with that helicopter really does it for me.

Last month when Matt and B came down for that Bright Eyes concert, they were greeted (I am very sad I didn't get a picture of this) by Scout on the porch sitting on an office chair with a cardboard box desk, wearing devil horns with a giant book for her ledger.  She said she was making contracts.  Before you (as did Matt and B) think they were about to sign their souls to the devil, you should note that the horns were there because she was being a buffalo and devil horns were the only horns we have.  

(Being a buffalo had nothing to do with the contract business she was doing, it was just happenstance- she IS Scout so really, no further explanation should be necessary.)

Here is the list of people that were to get contracts that evening:

Here is Matt and B's (Bee's) contract:

Rough translation:  We will have a time we will remember

This is my contract:

Translation: About giving Scout hugs and kisses: you can and you may

Rob's:

About dad loving me: you can and you may. (But no slops on the head).

We aren't exactly sure what a slop on the head is, but we are pretty sure she has yet to get one from her father, and well- now, he is contractually obligated to make sure she doesn't.

That next day, she was asking us all to tell her what we want to get as presents or just anything we wish we had.  It was easier to just come up with something and let her stay busy drawing.  I don't remember everything, but Matt got a skateboard, B got a new dress, and I got a new dress too, a new car, a trip to Mexico (I just said a trip somewhere and she picked Mexico), and I also got a robot maid that did all my chores (I was getting desperate coming up with things).  While the robot maid picture was awesome, (very Jetson's "Rosie", but had one red laser eye), my favorite turned out to be the ipad I asked for:

She drew "angry birds".

In case you were wondering, this was done with blogger's new format.  

YAR that was annoying!  I am sure it looks totally screwy, but I did the best I could and had a heck of a time moving pics around.  They better smooth the bugs out of this, or they are going to have some majorly irate bloggers.  

I didn't dare switch back mid post either from fear that I would lose my work.  So apologies for the weirdness, if it annoys you to read, take it up with blogger. 

You can and you may.

My favorite Scout drawing of the week

This is a story she wrote about losing her first tooth.

(She hasn't lost any teeth yet, but is quite obsessed with the concept.)



close up.......
Note: I have a small issue in being portrayed as a complete hag, but it's so funny I am willing to overlook it.
By the way, I imagine that the little squares falling at Scout's feet are teeth, but I'm not sure.
(Perhaps I will try to get a clearer picture of what is going on in this story from Scout when she gets home from school, because now I am starting to think that both are of her and the one that I thought was me, is really Scout with her "found" tooth.)

***UPDATE***
Ok, I have now been informed: so, both pictures are of Scout and the squares on the ground are toys, the square in the air is the missing tooth.

Budding Book Worm?

Scout has been learning to read in kindergarten this year and she has done really well. But, just the last few weeks, reading seems to have really clicked. We have actual moments during the day now where she grabs a few books, sits down, and reads them all. I love it. It makes me happy and it's really quite nice (she reads to herself so the silence is golden sometimes).

In addition, she really has started getting into reading at bedtime. She goes to her book shelves and grabs a giant stack when she goes to bed and gets to work. Because of this, I have walked into this scene twice this week:
I love this one, cause I like to picture the moment she got so tired she propped the book up so she didn't have to hold it anymore.






Here are some stacks of books. One stack is books to be read and the other are the finished ones.

I'm so glad she has embraced reading already and I happily picture myself walking into similar scenes for many years to come.

Random Scoutiness Vol VI

It's been over two years since I last did a random Scoutiness post (I checked- vol V was in Jan 09). I think it is high time there was another one, and I thought we could use a change from Elinor posts.

Here we have her miniature stuffed animals going for rides on her hooks.

This rock is Mama Elephant. Here is a big reason to love Scout. Months ago while we were out, Lola chewed the trunk and tail off of Mama Elephant. I was so dismayed I hid it in my closet so Scout didn't know, with the intention of buying her a new one, replacing it, and Scout would be none the wiser. Well, no surprise- I promptly forgot all about it. One day she is playing with her animal train and she chugs it by me, explains it a little bit and when she gets to the elephant part- says in a determined yet sad little voice, "this is mama elephant. All I have is this rock." I manned up and let her know what happened. She got excited that mama elephant was accounted for and made me show it to her. I did and she perked up and told me that it was ok and maybe I could just glue it. I ended up glue gunning it and Scout was thrilled with the results. She told me that she didn't want a new one, this one was just fine. A few minutes later she informed me that I COULD buy her a new mama elephant, but she still didn't want to throw this one away. She's such a loyal little thing and I don't think she can stand the thought of her toys ending up in the trash. It makes her sad.
I keep going back to how on her own, she was missing mama elephant (I got the impression that she's felt the loss for a while), needed a mama to play that day, and on her own- saw that rock, decided it was gray and about the right size, and used it and was happy. I just love that about her.

If you think the classrooms at your school are crowded...................

I imagine this dog and rooster are feeling a little like the minority here.

Last but not least, I give you "books galore".

Scout came down the stairs to dinner singing a song she made up on the fly. I eventually had to secretly record it, then not so secretly. Our favorite book you miss was "books about polka dotted zebra aliens"- Rob tries to get her to say it again in the video, but she didn't take the cue.
Watch for Elle getting progressively annoyed that she is in her eating seat, yet there is no food.

Mornings around here

Mornings. I am not the biggest fan. The reason mostly likely is that I am a night owl. I can be sooooo tired in the afternoon, even into the evening. I can make pledges that "since I am so tired, I am going to bed early tonight!" Yes, that has actually happened once or twice in my life. More likely though, 9 or 10 hits and something happens to me. Suddenly, all thoughts of sleep are gone and I am abuzz with all the things I could do. My mind activates and my family sleeps without me. Rob is not a night owl. Rob would be very happy to fall asleep every day of the week at 9 o'clock. So, because of my busy nights, waking babies at 6 are pretty cruel. Luckily, I have good sleepers and even better little girls. On a typical morning, Elle will wake up at 6 or 6:30 for the day. This wakes Scout up in the next room (but believe me, she'd wake up soon anyway). Sometimes Elle will accept a bottle and possibly go back to sleep, but not likely. I will usually just make the bottle and pick her up and take her into bed with us. I always have a hope that she'll just fall asleep, but she doesn't. So, after the bottle, I turn on an Elmo's world video and sit her up next to me and I check back out. On lucky mornings, Rob gets up at that time too, and makes Scout her cereal. On unlucky mornings, I get up and make her a bowl and go back to bed.
Between the hours of 6 and 8 are Scout's best playtime. For whatever reason, that is the time that her imagination soars, she doesn't need tv, and she plays really well by herself. Other times of the day, she wants the TV on, or she begs me to play with her or a friend to come play, or she just follows me around talking my ear off. But perhaps as a survival instinct, in the wee hours of the morning, she is blissfully self contained and plays so cute. When I get up, usually 8ish, I make them and myself a real breakfast such as eggs and toast, and the day begins. Part of my morning routine is to go into Scout's room and get her clothes and I always take a look around and peek at what had occupied her time that morning. Sometimes I marvel at how early she must have gotten up that day to do all the things she had done (sometimes Scout is up at an indeterminate hour, proceeding her sister).
This morning's play, struck me as particularly cute and I had to take pictures. She got me up at 8 to come see her "ecosystem" she made.

(I am sure that every mother in the world can relate to this: I am greeted at least 100 times a day with, "mom, come and see something" there is never an explanation on what will greet me, it ALWAYS has to be a surprise. My surprises range very widely in interest. Sometimes I am dragged downstairs to see a piece of thread on the carpet. Many times I am shown a horse in a book or on the tv or computer and asked, "can I be this horse?" (most likely scenario). Sometimes it's to see that baby sister is seconds away from falling off the couch onto her head. And SOMETIMES it's for something really cute and I am so glad she came and got me to see (I am always glad she comes to get me when her sister is in peril too, make no mistake). Anyway, this morning, it was for something really cute.)

This was the path to the ecosystem I was to take into Elinor's room which was where her "world" that she made was housed.


Here is the overall view. Basically, she took all of Elle's stuffed animals and many of hers and separated them into their different habitats (yes she threw around words like "ecosystem" and "habitat". Good to know PBS is doing it's job.)

I will now take you on a tour of the different habitats that went up in Elle's room while she was watching Elmo with mommy (ok, mommy drifted off a bit).

The farm pastures
(her favorite horse family, a sheep and a pig (that's housey for all of you who remember).


This is the barn.
It housed a kitty family, some dogs and a duck.

In the crib, we had the South Pole.
(Two huskies, a penguin and a snowman (for good measure). I must say, I was pleased to see the penguin in the South Pole, not the North Pole. I choose to believe that she knew that's where they live and did it on purpose. You will visit the North Pole in a minute.)


First we will go to the ocean.
(dolphin, manta ray, shark and Nemo.
Oh, and don't forget Kermit, he lives on a lily pad in the ocean - I was informed).


Can't forget the giant sea turtle.

Here we have the North Pole housing who else but Santa and three reindeer.


This is the beach.
Just one lonely crab.
(Guess it was the only beach creature she could find.)

This one's my favorite. It's the forest.
(Hedgehog, rabbits and two moose. Are you wondering what cookie is doing there? Well, the forest is creepy to Scout, so she felt it needed a monster.)

At last we have the jungle.
(featuring lions and tigers and bears amidst a gorilla, elephants, one hippo toy, Pumbaa, and some
vine climbing monkeys).



I don't know about you guys, but I thought it lacked a savannah, desert and frozen tundra. But she did alright for herself.