Scout's Birthday!

Well, my Beantown Monkey turned 7 last week.  Man was she excited for this one.  She has had it planned for months and months.  I let her have party this year (I don't throw one every year, on partyless years I take her out for the day and we do a bunch of fun stuff).  She wanted to have a water party this time and that sounded fine by me.  She has a little plastic pool and I bought a Slip and Slide for the party and filled a bunch of water balloons.  We also had a pinata and played water balloon games for prizes.  But mostly they splashed in the water and laid on towels and did yoga (yeah, I know- weird).  I managed to keep them in the yard until the last 5 minutes, when they all wanted to go to Scout's room and see her horses.  I ran the whole party myself too, so I may have forgotten to take some pictures of the pinata and the games.  Eh. 

Scout requested the exact same cupcake cake I made her a few years ago:

I (politely) explained to her that is kind of lame and asked her if it would be ok if I just came up with a surprise that I knew she would like.  She liked that idea and I came up with something similar but different and she ended up liking it, so that was good.

I only had to make the tiniest batch of fondant and that made me really happy.  Lots of different food colorings though- but it went fairly fast and was kind of fun. 

 (Even though I didn't start until midnight.)

We served the cupcakes with ice cream sodas (raspberry sherbet, sprite and whip cream- with a pirouline cookie)  I tried to make the table look kind of elegant and grown up (ish) and the girl's were thrilled, so it worked out.  AND we only lost one of my inexpensive Ikea water goblets, and it may have been my fault (discovered cracked in the dishwater later).   There was only one second of drama, when Scout dropped her Zebra cupcake on the lawn and it was the last one.  I quickly took the zebra off her fallen one and switched it with an untouched tiger one and all was good again.  Not too bad for having 11 excited little 6 and 7 year olds around for an afternoon I think. 

Can I just share how much I am enjoying raising Scout?  When it comes to kids, she is like the whole ball of wax rolled into one.  She is obedient, smart, and funny.  I like how she isn't a tom boy exactly- she loves pretty dresses and pink, but she could care less about princesses and would rather pretend she is an elephant playing in the dirt.  She makes friends easily and is almost always willing to try new foods.  She still puts her foot down on Mexican food which I can't see her surviving in this family like that forever.  But she will always eat sushi and especially loves the fish eggs on top- so how can you argue with her?  Elle couldn't ask for a better big sister either.  Even though the promise of a sister for Scout didn't turn out the way we had all planned, she has totally rolled with it and embraced Elinor for who she is.  The doctor always gets the third degree from Scout when we bring her in, they are always asked what they are going to do to her, if it will hurt and if she is going to get a shot.  

She always lets me know if she thinks Elle needs something, or looks sad, when I ask them both a question, Scout will answer for herself and then will reply for Elinor too in a special "Elinor voice".  Yesterday they took a bath together (they never do that), and it lasted FOREVER!  The entire time, 20 seconds wouldn't go by without an Elinor belly laugh.  She was so delighted.  Scout washed her hair, splashed water in her face, did silly voices and Elle was just eating it all up.  I haven't heard her so consistently happy for so long in a long while- content- yes, actively laughing- no.  In fact, when I got them out the water was cold.  Neither one seemed to mind, silly little things.  

Anyway, I am SO proud of Scout and just love her so much.  I seriously couldn't ask for a better kid.  Love, love, love you baby girl!

Thought I would post a few pictures of her, then thought about how I have all my favorite pics of her in an album on fb, so if you click here you should be able to view them with or without an account and this saves me a lot of time and hassle.

Alright, here's one of her I love that isn't in that album

What Tiny E Does

It is time to do a yearly journal post for our little Elinor. This is her first one, seeing as this has been her first year, and also the fact that I just starting doing these for my girls this year.

What can I say about this little girl? For starters, she was long awaited and boy was she ever worth it. Our family has enjoyed her addition more then we can express. She has been the most content, non fussy little thing I've ever had the pleasure to meet. As a tiny baby, she hardly ever made a peep. Now that she has found her voice, she likes to be heard when needed, but it still isn't uncommon for her to be perfectly quiet and content playing with the buckle of a shoe for an hour or more. Perhaps she is content up to a fault, since it seems to be impending her need to get places. She still won't crawl, and she still curls her feet up to her body 89% of the time I try to get her to stand and put weight on her legs.

Elinor was born and we had in our minds that she would go by "Ella". Almost immediately, it was apparent that wasn't going to work for her for whatever reason, but Elle fits her like a glove. In addition to Elle, in a year she has gained the following nicknames: Tiny E, Little Little (mom and dad's personal favorite), Little E (this was born of a mistake of Scout's, confusing the former two nicknames on the list- I love it and call her that often), Ellesabubs, Smellinor (only at particular times), and Elsinore (Hamlet's castle). There are probably more, but those are on the forefront.

When Scout was in my tummy until present she has been known as "the monkey". She is indeed and it has stuck and everything but since meeting Elle, I now know that I had no idea what a monkey was. Elle embodies the moniker far more in every way then Scout EVER did. She has definitely taken it to new heights. Her feet are more hands then her hands are sometimes. They are really quite dexterous. My favorite is when she holds her bottles with her feet. It is rare, but quite a sight. Speaking of her legs and feet, she has had the cutest and funniest little legs since birth. Ever since she was about 5 weeks old, she has been totally intolerant of blankets confining them. When she was about 6 weeks old, I bought her one of those little sleep sacks and she would fight and fight those little legs and get no sleep until I would finally unzip it and free them. She also does what we call "cricket feet", which would be her rubbing them quickly against each other and make this zip zip zip noise. Cricket feet make an appearance when: she is excited, has recently gotten her shoes on (depending on her tenacity at the time, she may do cricket feet until she has cricketed at least one of the offending shoes off), when she's bored and wants to make the zip zip noise, or any time could be cricket time.

Legs

She used to hold her legs up like this all the time when she was newborn.

Scout took these. She is especially fond of Elle's legs while in the Jumparoo. She often gets the camera and take a picture of them when they strike her as being particularly cute. Or she will run and find me to have a look at them.

We shot some video of her fancy jumping, she does this every time we put her in her jumparoo. She RARELY jumps in it, if she does it is like 2 quick jumps a session. The rest of the time she has figured out a way to swing in it. The girl loves loves LOVES swinging.
Never is Elle happier then when Scout plays with her. Scout was the first one to get a belly laugh out of her and has kept her belly laughing since. Their little combined laughter is so contagious. Nothing can snap me out of a bad mood like hearing those two laugh together. Love it.









In these pictures, they were in her crib being "Wild Mustangs". They were in a cage to protect them from the tigers. Of course Elle has no idea what is going on besides the fact that Scout is in her bed with her playing and doing fun things (and letting her hold Wish Mustang). Life doesn't get much better.

I love this picture so much.

Elle has one sleeping position and one only......

Well, that's a little about Elinor. What a great year! (It's been Swellinor).

Here is a little slideshow to end the post:

What Scout Does

She lays like the dog.............



She steals the camera and takes random pictures of:




Her toys...

Her foot.........

Self portraits......

Sneaks into baby sister's room during her nap, wakes her up, and takes pics.......(baby sister never minds)

her popcorn....

her tv shows....

random bad pics of her mother......

She also comes up with the greatest names for her toys

Some examples.......

This is "banana", "skin color" and this little dog has the misfortune of being named, "poop"

Shapes

This is "Paw Prints Glitter Stars" and "Uni"
(used to be called "Unicorns", but it was permanently shortened. Paw Prints Glitter Stars name is said in full every time though)


Last but not least- meet "Housie The Slippery Pig" (said in full every time too). This would be mine and Rob's favorite name out of all her animals and we have taken to calling House, MD "Housie the Slippery Pig".
We really have NO idea of the origin of the name.


She also dresses her animals in her clothes and purses and they go "to shows".


She also gets some grand ideas:

This was an idea she got to coerce a bird to come inside and be her pet.
Prompted after visiting our neighbors who have a pet bird.She also acts out her plan on how this bird is going to fall for it and eat the bread and find itself suddenly in our house (in case it wasn't clear to me).


She also enriches Elinor's playtime when mommy's back is turned:

I left Elle on the bed playing on her playmat and walked out of the room and I came back in a few minutes later and found this

This is what you find when you remove one of the "walls" of the "wolf cave".


Again, Elle didn't mind.




She provides a service to the neighborhood kids:

She decorated rocks with sidewalk chalk like Easter eggs and put them in this basket and made this sign. It says,
"Kids, have one and keep it forever"




She dresses up in Elinor's clothes:

This is a baby snowsuit and it's by a brand called "Chuck Roast" and it's printed on that little black tag. She puts this on and is suddenly a pony named Chuck Roast.

She also crashes pictures I am trying to take of her little sister-

I'll be taking a pic of Elle and suddenly:

or
or

She also is pretty good at crashing pictures she is in already:
and

and

And she pretends, oh how she pretends..............

Here she is as a mama kangaroo


a kitty

a pirate

and a super sleuth...

She also has a preferred method of going down the stairs:


(If she is wearing the one piece zip dunglees you won't see her go down the stairs any other way)


This is a post idea I got from my friend Liza, she does a post for her kids around their birthdays every year as a kind of journal entry chronicling the kids and what they are doing that year, little things you don't want to forget about this particular time in their lives. Since Scout's birthday is coming, I thought I would follow suit and do the same thing (Losties might recognize the title -I couldn't resist- it was the final episode of Lost this week -now there is something to chronicle.

Scout is the greatest little girl. Not only is she funny and fills our lives with laughter, she is a sweet heart and so good. She has a sweet (if not sometimes loud) disposition. She has never been a tantrum thrower (I kept waiting for them, but they never came). She lets me cuddle her. She gives me "big hugs" she caught on that I say I like big hugs, so she does her best. She plays so cute, but can make a mess of a room in record time (it truly boggles my mind sometimes). When she plays with her little toys she calls it, "shows" and goes through a play of sorts and that is one show. So when I tell her it's time to get out of the bath, or go to sleep, she retorts that she needs to finish "this show".
She loved school, particularly the end when they are all waiting for their parents to pick them up, she and her friends Amber, Gabby and Bella play horses and gallop around the grass and she is always mad at us if we are too early, wanting every minute she can to run around like crazy (she does THE BEST little ninny thing, where she cups her little hands like hooves and circles them around like a horse up on it's two back legs.) She is also a good student, she made it into the "1,000 club" (passed off counting to 1,000 for her teacher), she is starting to sound out how to write words and can read and sound out many words now.
She is starting to tell me that she is too old for some shows she liked 6 months ago. Is now finding some enjoyment watching some shows aimed at "tweens" (yikes!). She loves to play computer games and I let her thinking they are more interactive and teach her more then if she was watching tv (most of the games aimed at preschoolers are educational).
She has totally captured her daddy's heart. He has a very strong bond with her and they are cute as can be together. She is also an awesome soccer player, as you all have been finding out (right along with her mom and dad). She doesn't much like to go places that isn't the park or school. She is a little home body.
She had a big big change in her world this year with the birth of a little sister. While she has had her moments where she needed reassurance that Rob and I still love her, she has been nothing but totally loving to Elinor. Even when she is mad at me for paying too much attention to the baby, she shows love to the baby instead of taking it out on her. She loves Elles so much and is so excited for the day that they can play side by side together. She already does to the best of her abilities (or Elle's abilities I should say). The sound of her laughter mixed with Elle's is one of the greatest joys in my life. Scout's always been there for me when I needed a little one to hold and I will always feel a special warmth in my heart that she is my girl.
We love you Scout SO MUCH! Thanks for being such a wonderful little thing.