Mirror Mirror on the Floor

The other day, I put a mirror at Lily level to see what she would do. I kept the flash off so she wouldn’t get distracted, but even with the blur, you can see her little personality…

 

         

Speaking of personality, Lily has a big one. She goes from giving me sweet puppy eyes to complete craziness in the blink of the eye. In these two photos, I took two seconds to switch the flash on and the complete mood shifted…

Saturday morning, we awoke to a snowstorm. It was pretty festive. All of our plans were cancelled, visiting with Santa downtown, carriage rides, even church! I spent a good part of the day baking Christmas cookies. Ella and Loran enjoyed some time playing outside. We had a nice candlelit dinner of soup, salad and bread. A peaceful day all around. Loran and I even exchanged Christmas gifts a little early. Mostly out of sheer geeky anticipation. An iPad for me and an Archos 70 internet tablet for him. Nerds.

We’re gearing up for the big 3 year celebration. As of today, I have all of our supplies purchased AND all of our Christmas shopping is done! Ella’s very excited for her birthday. We’ve been hearing about her birthday crown for school for weeks and she asks us to sing the “Happy Birthday Song” every ten minutes that she’s awake.

The third birthday is not only the first year Ella seems to understand all things birthday – and Christmas. But, it also signals the end of her first chapter of Special Ed services. Ella requalified for services in the 3-6 category but with that, brings a new program and new providers. We’ve had to say good buy to Annetta and Mary this week who have been with Ella since she was 15 months old. When she started, she could only pivot on her stomach. No crawling, rolling or moving out of sitting. Today, Ella walked across a balance beam and then picked up toys while walking wheelbarrow style.

We’re putting our house on the market tomorrow – or at least doing the paperwork for it. Loran and I have been pulling shifts at the house getting it ready. Right now, he’s prepping the basement floor to paint it today. I’m going to touch up the wall paint and clean cabinets and floors tomorrow – and then we’ll put it out there for the world to see. I love that cute little house. It will always feel like home. Now if only I didn’t have to dig out my patio furniture from a mountain of snow…