Ben

Ben, the two of us need to look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I'll never be alone
And you my friend will see
You've got a friend in me

Lyrics from the song "Ben" by Michael Jackson.

Dear Ella,

Your new BFF Ben is the perfect guy for you because he's strong-willed, except when it comes to you. You two have a scheduled play date every Tuesday. The first thing you do when he comes over is take his shoes off and put them on your feet. Then you make him hold your hand, and you drag him over to wherever you want to play. He always gives you the toy you want, and he doesn't get mad when you take toys away from him. I'd say he's a keeper!

You two both get so excited when you know you get to play together. You ask all morning, "When is Ben coming over?" When you see each other at church, there is always a burst if irreverent, "Hi Ben!" and, "Hi Ella!" Shouted across the pews. I love watching you two together, and I hope you can always be surrounded by great friends like Ben.

Love,

Mom

No, Ella

Dear Ella,
Your Auntie Jani gave you a book for Christmas titled No, David.  It’s written by David Shannon, and you love his books.  Apparently, when he was a little boy, he made a bunch of drawings of himself doing naughty things and written below them were the only two words he knew how to spell: No David.  He turned this into this cute little children’s book that we read every day. 
For this blog entry, I decided to comprise a No, Ella book for you.  Maybe you can make millions someday?

No, Ella!

Ella, no!

Oh no Ella (That’s axle grease in case you were wondering)

Ella…No!

Nooooo, Ella!

No No No No No! (I had to use Dawn dish soap to scrub the Butt Paste out of your eyes.  You learned your lesson that day.)

Yes Ella, we love you.
Love,
Mom

Christmas 2012

Dear Ella,

This was your third Christmas with us, and it just gets better every year.  Here are some highlights from this Christmas.

 

You love this little scooter that Nana got for you.  You ride it around the block and to the park.  Sometimes the neighborhood kids will leave out little bike ramps that you like to ride your scooter up and down.  It’s kind of ironic that you love to scoot since Dad used to call you his little scooter.  When you were learning to crawl, you used to scoot around the floor like an inchworm.  Now you’re such a big girl and you’re scooting on two feet. 

Grammy also got a trampoline for you and Charlie that you jump on every day.  One of the best parts of living in Yuma is that we will get a lot of use from our outdoor toys.  The best parts of Christmas are: our Savior followed by Grandparents.  They both make Christmas so special for our family.  Merry Christmas scooter!

 

Love,

Mom

There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

There’s a scene from an old movie White Christmas where two sisters do this little song and dance about being sisters.  When Lily was born, your Grammy would sing this song to you and Lily.  The song is appropriate because you are completely devoted to your sister and have been even before she was born.

If little Lily is crying, you come running to her side and sing, “Oh sister, it’s ok,” as you kiss the top of her head.  You love to grab her little hand and give her high fives and “knuckles.”  If she is laying in her bouncy chair or her swing, you like to take the blanket off of her feet so that you can tickle her toes.  She truly is very fortunate to have a big sister who loves her so much and is so devoted to her.

A few days after she was born, we had some newborn pictures taken.  You were quite grumpy in the beginning of the photo shoot, but once we put Lily in your arms, you perked right up.

      

Growing up, I did not always have a good relationship with my sister.  Although we are friends now, we really didn’t get along at all when we were kids.  When I began dating Dad, I used to love to watch Jennifer and Kari play together.  They would choreograph dances to N’Sync and perform them for me.  They did almost everything together, and they truly were (and still are) best friends.  I’ve always wanted that kind of relationship for my daughters, and I believe you will be an excellent big sister to Lily.  You love her so much already, and I hope that you two will live by the motto that was hanging on Jennifer and Kari’s wall: “Sisters by chance, friends by choice.”  I’m so glad that you are my first and that you are such a devoted sister already.

 

Love,

Mom

Chicks

Dear Ella,

For Christmas this year, Dad wanted to get you some little goats since you fell in love with them at the petting Zoo.  Sadly, no one was selling goats at this time of year, so he decided to get you baby chicks instead.  We started with just three little fuzzy chicks [one white cochin and two brown cochins: Henny (the larger brown one), Penny (the smaller brown one), and Ming Ming (the white one)].

You were so cute with them.  You tried to get them to walk through your legs while you shouted, “TUNNEL!”

  Every few days thereafter, Dad would come home and say, “Look Ella, the chickens had babies!”  And there would be a couple more baby chicks in the box.  We ended up with seven total chicks over the next two weeks.  (These pics were taken about a month after we got the chicks.  Blame Lily for not having pictures of the other chicks when they were babies.)

Chloe (black and white), Linny & Tuck (brown and black speckled which you named), and Henny.

 

 

 

 

Chloe and Zoey

 

 

 

Ming Ming one month later

 

 

 

Dad got to work on building a chicken coop out in the backyard, and it turned o ut beautiful.  I can’t wait for us to have fresh eggs in about six months.

Everyday you’ll turn to Dad and exclaim, “Dad, I go hold chicks!”  He takes you out into the backyard, rounds up a chicken for you, and you get to hold it.  It’s pretty much the best part of your day.  Charlie is still too little to hold the chickens softly.  We like to call him Lenny (reference Of Mice and Men) because he gets so excited to hold the chicks that he squeezes their poor little necks.  It’s a good thing the chickens are fast.

   Oh Lenny

As much as I dislike having chicken poop all over the place, I love seeing you chase them around and watching your eyes light up when you get to hold one.  You even have cute little conversations with them through the chicken wire.  I’m glad Dad makes me step out of my comfort zone every now and then because the payoff is totally worth it.

 

Love,

Mom

Dress-up

Dear Ella,

Just before you turned two, you reached that milestone where you love to play dress-up.  There was a few months before your birthday where we had no dress up clothes for you to play with.  Luckily, you are a creative little one, and you found that anyone else’s clothes could be used for dress up.  One of your favorite things to do is to dig through Charlie’s drawers and put on his clothes/accessories.  Here are some snapshots of my favorite ensembles you have put together:

Even now that you have pretty princess dresses, you still love to put on Charlie’s clothes.  You also will take off your friends’ shoes and put them on your feet.  I can’t wait to see what style choices the future has in store for you.

 

Love,

Mom

Halloween 2012

 

Dear Merida,

Ever since I saw the previews for the Disney movie Brave, I thought that the makers of the movie must have patterned this character after you.  The movie is about a beautiful princess with curly red hair and blue eyes who is petite but fiery!  She wants control of her life and turns her mother into a bear in order to achieve it.  That’s you in a nutshell.  I decided that I wanted you to be Merida for Halloween this year since she reminds me so much of you. 

 

A few days before Halloween, we had our second annual Griffiths family pumpkin carving.  Last year you were totally into it, but this year you were not as interested.  At first I was disappointed, but your dad and I had so much fun that I didn’t care about your lack of involvement.  I did manage to get  a few pictures at the beginning of the carving party.

Our pumpkins did turn out pretty awesome.  Mine is the one that says welcome, and your dad’s is the one that has a hand coming out of the tombstone.

Each year just gets better and better.  I love being your mom and sharing the holidays with you…even though you do turn me into a bear sometimes.

 

Love,

Mamma Bear