Elise on break

Elise started talking about missing school and her teachers and friends yesterday (3rd day of break).  She made something and she said, "I want to show Ms. Gina".  Today, she was slumped in a chair and looked sad, and said (in a sad voice,  "I want to see Ms. Gina.  I want to see Ms. Christine.  I want to see Isla."

Bryant thinks that if homeschooling her would be child abuse.  Hahaha.  Elise loves being around other people.

Elise the boss

One of Elise's favorite phrases is "no, my turn."  She has to do everything by herself which is a typical toddler trait of asserting independence and sense of control in an otherwise chaotic world.  Some examples from today:

- during lunch, Elise would not eat her food and so Bryant tried feeding her a spoonful.  After chewing for a few seconds, she realized the act of unacceptable dependence that had just occurred, spit out the food, said "no my turn", and then re-ate the food with her own spoon.

- right before nap time, she asked for her "birthday bear" and so we all tried looking for it.  She told us it was in the living room and went there to look for it.  I eventually found it in her room and she became exceptionally upset.  She screamed, "No!  Elise found it in living roooooom!!"  I had to surreptitiously throw it in the living room and let her have the privilege of locating it.  Once she found it, she beamed with pride saying, "I found it!"

Iphone Love

This is what happens when you give your cranky toddler your phone while you are driving.  She takes a million selfies.  Of course I am dying of laughter when I scroll through my phone and see all these photos. 

Elise's favorite "toy" is definitely my phone.  I recently deleted the PBS app but she hasn't noticed at all because she enjoys all the other interactive apps on it.  Her favorite are the puzzle apps.

Elise is currently sleeping in her new big girl bed!  This was such a huge step for her and we're so proud of her for making such a smooth transition. 

I can't remember if I've written this before but Elise's FAVORITE thing to do is to put all of her stuffed animals to sleep by tucking them in in various arrangements with different blankets over and over and over again.  She did this for about 2 hours today.  Sometimes she gets really frustrated when the blanket is not folding in the way that she wants that she will scream and throw the blanket.  She then recollects herself and tries to start over.  It is so hilarious.

Elise's ducky prize

Elise advanced to the intermediate class for her swimming lessons and to commemorate the moment, the swim center gave her a certificate and let her pick out a prize (a small rubber ducky).  Elise was SO proud of herself!  Despite the fact that Elise has at least 5 rubber duckies, she held onto this ducky the entire day.  At one moment, we were dancing to Christmas music, and she said "ducky, too!" and ran and grabbed her ducky and had it dance with her.  She hung Christmas ornaments and said, "ducky, too!" and tried to make the duck have the privilege of hanging the ornament.

Switching gears, we experienced one of the scariest moments of our lives yesterday.  This is so hard for me to even type.  We were at Target in the customer service area, and I sat down with Elise on a bench (Bryant was standing by us).  In a split second, she tried to climb over the bench, which happened to be on a 3rd story balcony, and while I was able to immediately catch her, Bryant and I saw in our minds what could have happened in the worst case scenario.  I basically had an emotional breakdown and couldn't stop crying.  I still feel pretty traumatized.  We stayed home from church and just spent family time together.  We had to return something to Target and just the idea of going to that customer service area again gives me major anxiety, so I had to ask Bryant to do it.  Anyway, I just want to put this experience behind us but please pray for me when you get a chance.  I could use some peace!

Also, sorry that we are not really posting pictures and videos here.  Everything gets automatically uploaded to our flickr site now.  I'm assuming only family is reading this, but if you'd like the password, let me know!