Let's Talk Some More

So, I'm reviewing this list and have been adding things to it the past few days.  Words that I already knew Elayna could say but had forgotten to put down.  Well here we are at the computer.  There's stuff laying on the shelves in front of us and EV points her finger and says, "bawh."  What?  "Bawh." So I follow her finger and she's pointing at a tennis ball.  Where did she learn that word?!  She's gifted.

Elayna is such a blessing.  I love being a mom.

Let's Talk

So it's been awhile since I've last updated you on Elayna's ever extending vocabulary.

Verbally, she can say:
Mama
Dada
Grandaddy (kinda)
Kitty
Hot
Uh oh
Baby
Book (kinda)
Baba (her version of Bala & O-Pa)
Mati comes out as "mami" and only on very special occasions.
and I swear I heard her say Thank You, clear as day.
Ball

Signs:
Dada
Mama
Grandaddy
Eat
Thirsty
More
Please
Thank you
Dog
Banana
Cheese
Kitty
Milk
Hot
Pinky (her security blanket)
she frantically waves "hello" & "good bye" to  everyone
Stay
Sit down
Shoes
Wipe (her own made up sign)
potty (we're currently learning "bathroom")
baby
I love you
and.... EEOOCH

We are also working on "Aunt Diane" which resembles Eeooch but with D's instead of open hands.

(Am I forgetting any others?)

Flashcards

SHOULD'VE CLARIFIED:  I used 4x6 blank notecards.  One for the number & text.  One for the counting shapes.  And one in the middle to give it more stability.  (Let me tell you, these things are hoss.  And will definitely hold up better than store-bought flashcards.)  Then I laminated the three cards together using Scotch Thermal Laminates.  But since I don't have one of those fancy $40 machines, I used an iron to seal it --with material between the iron and laminate for protection.  Voila! 

Those are all great ideas.  I love the "color your own" flashcards.  Think I'll do those next.  Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!

ORIGINAL POST:
I know she's a little young to be learning numbers and letters... but I figured I'd let her play with the images anyway, get her used to seeing them & then she can think about what they mean later.  (Thanks Rachel for the idea.  You're such a teacher.) The problem was that I didn't want to be throwing cheesy cartoon characters & other images in Elayna's face, and that's the only thing stores sell.  So I made my own.  They don't look factory-made by any means, but I kinda like that too.  They're original and unique.  (Yes, I know I've set her up for failure with a 9 that looks like an upside down 6.  She's already scarred with an atypical spelled name.  She'll survived.)

So I have a few questions.

1.  Do you think this is something I can make as a gift later down the road for EV's friends?

2.  What should I put on the opposite side of the alphabet cards?  Right now, I just have the capital & lowercase letter on one side.  I think it'd be a waste to not put something on the blank space, but I want to stay with the theme and not put something silly on it.  I'm thinking about taking pictures of things that start with that letter or even just drawing something.  What do you think?

Whoosh

So this is Mati.  Although, I'm beginning to think we should've named her "Bullet" or "Glock" or I personally like "Whoosh."

And that same road that we found our horses on a walkabout is the one that Mati runs down for exercise.  It's a mile long and we run it three times.  The first time is usually a refresher to remind Mati that when she runs in front of the jeep, it stops.  And the only way it's gonna get going again is if she stops acting like a lunatic and moves to the side of the road.  So there's a lot of stop and go in that mile and we don't count it towards the run.  Then once she's got the idea back in her head, she runs hard at 22mph for a mile and then we gradually cool down for the next mile until we're crawling at 5mph.

Potty Songs

A friend was telling me about how her niece can notify you when she needs a diaper change by doing this song and dance she sees every time someone puts a new diaper on her.  She's only a month older than Elayna, so that inspired me.  If I could teach Elayna a potty song, that would make potty training so much easier.  But the only song I can think of is the commercial for bladder control.  Any ideas?

Sponsor the Crazy Lady!

Come on people.  Let's support Tanya as she supports Special Olympics.  She's trying to raise $500 and every little bit helps!

CLICK HERE to donate.

Not sure what she's doing?  There's this thing called the "polar bear jump" or "polar bear plunge."  It's when people jump into a freezing river or lake in the middle of winter.  Usually it's at the start of the new year.  Insane, I know.  But at least Tanya's doing it to help raise money for a good cause.

Here are some googled crazies:

Get the idea?  Brrr.  Gives me shivers just thinking about it!

Walkabout

Last night, we get a call around 8:15pm that 2 horses had been spotted at the end of the road where Priscilla and I keep Belle & Noodle.  She goes to investigate while I put Elayna down to bed.  Fifteen minutes later, Priscilla calls to let me know that they were our horses that had gotten out and she, David, Jerry, and Josh were looking for them.  I couldn't just sit at home waiting for updates!  So like a great mother, I wake my sleeping toddler, bundle her up, strap her in the car seat and set out to look for my horse.

But here's the thing.  Both horses are mostly brown/black.  Noodle has a few white spots on her.  Belle's like 99% dark.  She has one white sock.  The only hope we had to find them was if they were looking directly at our headlights as we passed by or we caught sight of any of the white on Noodle.  I'm pulling into every field entrance I see, scanning the horizon with my headlights.  Nothing. I'm looking in every yard full of grass I see.  Nothing.

We looked for our aborigines for nearly two hours before calling it a night and committing to another search tomorrow.  Driving down the road on the way home, David's flashlight caught sight of some white.  As we got closer the horses were heading straight towards us (and possible traffic).  So I turned onto their gravel road and call after them.  Both Belle & Noodle started following the jeep like puppies.  Now I'm thinking they were right in front of us the whole time.  They stood no more than 20 feet away from the jeep and I couldn't see Belle at all (well barely, I could make out a silhouette if I tried really hard).  I could only see Noodle's white spots.  Priscilla was there in no time and we put halters on the horses and walked them .75 miles back to the barn.  Stupid horses.  Er, I guess I should say they're crafty to find a way out.

Here's a picture of the beasts.  Excuse the messy shot.  I was trying to drive, entertain a fussy baby, keep an eye on them and take the picture all at the same time.  This was my one shot before Noodle decided to take a walk through the field.  That's Priscilla leading Belle, the good, faithful follower horse.

This is my beautiful horse in the daylight.  Isn't she gorgeous, Ryan?!  This was taken in October in Jerry's indoor arena.  The Russell girls rode Belle & Noodle.  Elayna too!  (Can you see why her name is "Noodle?")

Ryan's R&R

Here are some pics from when Ryan was home!

Steal Food. Hoard Gas.

Gotta love Bill Engvall's take on snow.  He goes on about how the whole state shuts down for a just a few inches.  Check out Rachel's blog for more info on how the South deals with snow.

I woke up Thursday morning to... flurries!  It's not really the snow I'm used to, but I'll take what I can get living in Kentucky.  I was very excited and couldn't wait until it was deep enough to play in.  Ryan had already gotten up with Elayna.

SIDE NOTE: I have the best husband.  He let me sleep in every single day he was home when he could've taken that time for himself.  He really enjoyed getting up with EV in the mornings.  And she seemed to like it too since she got up earlier and earlier and, oh yes, earlier every day... We're working to get back onto the Mama's schedule.

When I'd finally crawled outta bed, Renee was still home.  I figured maybe she had gone against her good character and called in "sick" so she could have another day with Ryan.  When I asked how she was feeling, she said great.  When I asked her if she had called in "sick" to school, she said she didn't have to because they had a snow day.  A SNOW DAY.  There wasn't even enough snow to make a footprint, people!  Here are the photos to show you exactly how much snow I'm talking about.  And they were taken in the afternoon.

Here's the driveway & road. You can see how there's very little snow on the lawn but the road's solid white. That's the reason school was cancelled. The roads were covered and turned into giant slabs of ice.  Clearly this is not safe for our commuting educators and school buses.

Here's the house from the road. No, just kidding. It's the play house in the back yard.

Snowy horses: Little Bit & Hawk