Our little Valentine

... sends you a Valentine's kiss.

xoxo, Ella (16 months)

Future Shopper of America

Okay, this photo is back from around Thanksgiving, but I've been meaning to post it for awhile. If this image is any indication, we're going to have a serious shopper on our hands. Look at the intense concentration. The tactile connection with the merchandise. The noncommittal stance featuring a pensive right leg.

Her whole body is taking in the experience, and every faculty seems to be considering the astuteness of this purchase. Is it cute? Is it warm? Do I have jammies to go with this blanket?

I think we're in for trouble...

Oh How I Hate to Get Out of the Bed in the Morning …or When Parenting Tricks Work Too Well

I read somewhere that if your toddler is an early riser and you would like her to “sleep in” a bit, you should make the bed an attractive place to be. So, in went some soft toys and a few books. We even spent 15 minutes giving it a trial run as a play place during a non-sleep time.

And that’s all it took. Now, upon waking, Ella does NOT want to leave her bed. Nor does she want you to leave her room. She pretends to go “night-night”, she hides under the blanket, she snuggles with her blankie and sucks on her binky*, but as soon as you offer to pick her up, she dives to a prone position. Not that I can blame her, I’ve been known to enjoy a good lie-in myself.


*Binky update: The binky is back -- with a vengeance. As a baby, Ella was never very interested in binkies, being a thumb-girl. It was a chew-toy, at best. But now that her teeth cured her of the thumbsucking stage, the binky has become essential at both naptime and bedtime. We’re tying to enforce a binky-only-in-the-bed policy. Which seems to be working well. Now, if only we could get her out of bed …


Totally unrelated, but extremely cute photo: