This post isn't meant to be a downer, but...

I keep stumbling upon stories of people losing their homes to fire lately. We just purchased two additional smoke detectors for Ellis' bedroom and for ours. I think I'm going to buy some ladders this weekend. We only use our cell phones, so it's scary to think of how often we've gone to bed with our phones who-knows-where--->certainly not us, and especially not if we awoke to find our house on fire. It's easy to put off thinking about preparing for a fire because, it's not going to happen, right? But wouldn't you feel better if you were as prepared as you could be?

Story 1
Story 2

Only they aren't just stories; these stories are all too real to two families. Thank God they all escaped unharmed. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to wake up to smoke and fire in the black of night.

One other thing: Colorado is a high *Radon risk area, so I FINALLY purchased a radon test which I'll then send in on Saturday for the results. Our basement is a dirt floor, which isn't good when radon is a concern. So maybe you want to think about a radon test, too.

*Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that results from the breakdown of uranium in soil and rocks. It cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, and is the leading cause among non-smokers.

Some Ellis-isms

Lately Ellis has become this very empathetic girl---especially with me. She'll come to me after I hiccup, for example and tilt her head and whisper, "Y'Okay, Mama?" or sometimes, while patting me gently, she'll whisper, "S'Okay, Mama. S'Okay, Mama." Very parent-child, but in reverse.

Today she was pushing her cup of juice around in the stroller. She stopped abruptly and the juice fell onto the floor. She rushed around to the fallen juice and whispered, "S'Okay, Juice."

Other notable funnies:

Sporadically yelling, "E!-L!-S! Ellis!" (Trying to spell her name)

"Ellis laughing." Whether she is, or not.

"I keen up." (I'll clean up)

Every morning when I go in to get her once she's woken up, she frantically announces, "I got-da babies! I got-da babies!" Meaning she has both of her baby dolls in her arms and is ready to get out of bed. She used to say, "Good morning, Mama!" Not anymore.

I just finished reading The Help (very good read, by the way). I borrowed it from Gabe's mom, Vickie, once Gabe's sister, Janae was finished with it over Christmas. So Janae was finishing it while we were in the Springs after Christmas. I finished it a couple of weeks later, only reading around Ellis the last day as I was trying to get it finished. So Ellis apparently had seen Janae reading a couple of weeks prior when she saw me reading the book and very matter-of-factly she points to the book and says, "Jonay's book." Then walks away. I was pretty shocked she recognized it and remember Janae reading it. Smarty pants.

zoo lights '10

Lots of purple

New Year's Day was also 50% off Day at Goodwill, so I found Ellis this perfectly cozy purple snow suit for less than $3! She reminded me of the little brother, Randy, on A Christmas Story when he protests in a muffled voice, "I can't move my arms!" I may have over dressed her, but it didn't matter; she wasn't in the mood for a snow day, so it was very short-lived.







Auntie Janae had the great idea to ice cookies with Ellis. This was Ellis' first time and she took her duties very seriously.




Here are our post-New Year's Christmas card pictures again:


You may often notice me trying to squeeze Ellis' thigh in order to elicit a smile, as shown here:






Seriously, how could anyone not love Gabe? Not that I know of someone who doesn't. Here he is Christmas afternoon demonstrating his excitement and shock over being given Colorado beef jerky:

ESL (first being toddlerese) Update

"Jingo Baws" aka Jingle Balls, more often aka Jingle Bells.

"Kissus Tee" Christmas Tree

"Ah-na-na-na-nan" Raggety Ann (the number of na's varies anywhere from 2 to 5)

"Siwwy ______" Anything and everything is potentially silly according to Ellis these days.

"Wiggo Eaws" Wiggle ears.

"Dit-do nook...Dit-do baby...Dit-do _____" Thank you (for the) milk...Thank you (for the) baby..."

"I five you." I love you. On the way in from a walk the other day, Ellis wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "I FIVE you, Mama!" At which point I literally melted to the ground in a big pile of lovey goo. Until that moment she had only ever responded to us saying to her "I love you, Ellis." This time was all on her own.

"Downstays" Meaning, please let me go up and/or down the stairs.

"No nap." Pretty clear there.

"He-you-go" Here you go.

"Otch...funny...oovie...funny...otch...oovie..." I would like to watch a funny movie, and by funny movie I mean the one with Shrek (Tereck), Princess (Pincess) and Donkey (Dunkey).

"Rocka Baby" Rock-a-bye, Baby.

"Bootsawn" Boots on, or I know I'm only wearing a diaper right now, but I see a need to wear my boots right now and I need your help to put them on please.

How to live dangerously while wearing white...

Ellis and I were very excited to get out paints for her very first painting experience. At first (and by that I mean all but the last 2 minutes) Ellis was most intrigued by dipping the brush into the water and then the paint, as well as mixing the colors. She tested them out every way possible, including the taste test (passed) and the skin allergy test (also passed). This whole event was a little on impulse, as you can see by the fact that I allowed a toddler to experiment with paint while wearing a white shirt and white sweater. I realized this halfway through and decided to just let it slide. This same impulsiveness with painting is why if you look hard enough, you'll find paint somewhere on most of my clothing.














Ellis' hair is getting pretty long. Though she only lets me put pigtails in when she's distracted by a "funny oovie" (Shrek is her fave), and takes them out as soon as she realizes I've put them in, here are a couple of pictures of her cute piggy tails.




Probably watching the funny oovie again:

Loving this right now

Made me cry. Twice. Stuff like this always does...

Enjoy! (make sure you watch the youtube video :)

Catch up from Thanksgiving, and some others, too

These pictures are all out of order, but here you go:


I decided Ellis and I needed a walk to Target yesterday. Here she is sporting the new hat made for her by her Aunt Kristi---super soft and super cute! (And yes, she is wearing her pj's under all that winter-wear)







Out of the blue this is Ellis' new favorite activity. She crawls into her folded up stroller and one by one piles her animals around and on top of her. She sat in this pile for probably 15 minutes and then said, "Hep, pease." (Help, please) She was a bit stuck and I think starting to overheat...





Here is our little "Santa" for the Christmas celebration we had with Tim, Kristi and Sammy at the Knipp's over Thanksgiving. Ellis was pretty good at staying focused enough to hand out gifts to the people she was told to hand gifts to.


Grandma and the girls:



As I've mentioned before, Ellis has this STRONG face and muscle flexing shake that she does. It's quite intense. Well, as it turns out, her cousin Sammy does the same thing! I couldn't get a picture of them flexing at the same time, but this particular evening they were both hamming it up quite a bit. So funny:





Little Miss Serious in her "nessiss" (necklace) and Grandma's shoes working on the computer:



Ellis had a blast splashing in the tub with Sammy. Sammy had fun, too but decided at one point that Ellis' excitement was maybe a bit much for her :)





All wrapped up in my scarf:




Pretty sunrise out the back a couple of weeks ago:



This reminds me of a paparazzi shot, like Ellis has disguised herself before leaving the house. In reality, this is a typical day in the life of raising a little girl:



Another sunrise:

Little star...

Ellis has a few books with children's song lyrics in them. When Gabe and I read these books to Ellis, typically we sing the songs as we go. Ellis is not a big dancer or singer...until tonight. For the first time ever, she began singing "Tinkle, Tinkle...star...HOW..." with no prompting from us. The three of us sang it together multiple times and she got a little bit better each time. I just put her into bed for the night and I can still hear her singing (or should I say practicing) over the monitor.

What a fun little person she is.