The P-word

Miss A has many many nicknames but the one that we've never called her is princess. It's such a typical nickname for a daughter but for D and I? We've been reluctant to use it because of the things that it can imply. We don't want people thinking that we do or they should cater to Miss A the way real princesses have it. We also don't want Miss A thinking that she can get or have whatever she wants whenever she wants or that she can't be rough and tumble if she wants to. And so, we've never called her princess!

Today, though, we ran into a bit of a problem. I put her hanbok on her (that never fit her the way it should have when she turned one because she's just a tiny girl) and she was just completely transformed into a little tiny person that could only be described as a princess...


I don't know what it is about dresses that are like this but it's like they inspire full on twirling and dancing and all kinds of princess-like mannerisms and even Miss A was immune to them in all of her one and a half years!!

The dress still has at least another two inches that the strap will be able to extend to and I'm so happy about that. Not every little girl gets to have a real dress that is so princess-like to call her own, y'know?

We've lost count of our many blessings

I have been sitting her for the past 15 minutes trying to come up with a decent lead in for our Thanksgiving rundown. The fact of the matter is that there's just no way of quantifying all of the things that we are grateful for this year. In a time such as this, when so much of the rest of the world is struggling to just tread water in an economy that seems to be a neverending tidal wave of loss, every last one of us Ellwoods has more than we could ever be thankful enough for.

Still, no matter the laundry list of 'things' that we have in our lives, there's one thing that we will all agree on, it's not what is in our lives that we love most but who are in our lives.




We could name names but that just wouldn't be fair because we thank God for ALL of our family. Glory be to God for His many blessings this year especially. As Miss A would say? A-MEN!

Thank you good genes!!!

My whole life I have longed for beautiful fluttery eyelashes. Mine are ridiculously sparse and nonexistent even with special thickening, darkening, and lengthening mascara. Thankfully, Miss A scored big in the genetic lottery to be able to get D's eyelashes instead of mine!


She's such a little beauty. I mean, I AM her mama but this isn't biased opinion that I'm offering here. Pictures don't lie, right? ;)

She wants to change her name to Noah

If Miss A's crib were spontaneously audited by a crib safety inspector, it (well, we) would surely fail...


Count the Hello Kitty slippers or not, there are 10 stuffies in there with her. TEN!!!! And there's actually one elephant that didn't fit in the frame that is tied to the one end of the crib (it's a music box of sorts). And this is pretty much how Miss A prefers to have her crib. Currently her favorite animals are the white bunny, the piggy, the big grey elephant (she uses it for a pillow), and the black cat (because it looks like our cat that we actually have). She's also got three blankets (including her favorite yellow one) that she has to have in there!

It's a wonder she can fit in there herself. *Sheesh!*

Better late than never!

If I could change anything about myself it would be that I would have much better timeliness. Seemingly no matter how hard I might try, I am always just barely missing the boat with things. Case in point? The other day when I posted something here I did so without recognizing the fact that it was my 100th post!!! Can you believe that? There have been ONE HUNDRED POSTINGS here since I started this blog a year or so ago!!!

Anyway, I wanted to recognize this occasion with some recent things that have been on the camera but - for whatever reason - haven't made it on the blog so far. These are all recent happenings and definitely important but still somehow weren't on the docket to be posted here. Don't ask me how or why it's been like this. The only thing that I could cite as the reason would be that Miss A spilled a whole glass of water on the desktop keyboard a week or so ago and since I've not been able to use it regularly I've been kind of out of sorts and therefore out of habit.

So here they are in all their glory! I give you some outtakes of my amazing family!!!

A weekend or so ago D took it upon himself to tear down the fence that has seemingly divided us from the rest of the neighborhood since long before we even lived here. It was (literally) blood, sweat, tears (and LOTS of rain!!!) at times but all of his toiling paid off and I'm sure you will agree that toiling is indeed what he did...

The A-frame contraption that he's using was his own genius design to try and create better leverage to lift some of the ridiculous cement blocks that were holding some of the fence posts in. The contraption was.... mildly helpful. Thankfully, our very kind neighborhood across the street came over and pulled the one post out with (literally) brute force. It definitely helped that he was about the size of an industrial sized refrigerator and probably could have walked onto any pro football team as one of their defensive lineman or something. (I don't know enough about football to know the positions but what I'm trying to say is the guy was HUGE.)

[EDIT: D has corrected me and the aforementioned and reports that he is the one who got the one pictured out and the neighborhood got a different one out.]

And then, of course, we've got Miss A and her best friend (our dog) hanging out on the couch watching a little bit of the Disney channel. I think they were watching Handy Manny actually.

Don't you just love how Miss A is hogging all of the blankets on the couch? Please note: She's also wearing her favorite cow print pajamas. Sadly, her lately growth spurt has her on the verge of being too big for them! Say it ain't so!!!

But I will tell you what IS so! It's Miss A's hair!!!! Check out how so very long it is these days. Think we will be able to get it into pigtails by next summer??? I would LOVE that! That would be awesome!!!

And finally... *sigh*... this is why Miss A cannot be trusted to be left to her own devices for even two measly seconds these days!!! Though I wasn't the "guilty party" who wasn't looking in the first place *coughDcough*, I will readily admit that this can (and will for that matter) happen to anyone of us who thinks that it could never happen to them!

The story behind the pictures? Well, D was doing his usual morning routine and trying to also eat some breakfast at the same time and while he was turned around doing something or other, Miss A took it upon herself to get a second helping of cereal. Take note of the Calvin and Hobbes face she's making as she's stuffing her face and the spoon that she attempted to use to scoop her mess off the floor and eat like a civilized person (OF COURSE).

Happy 102nd blog posting, all!!! Thanks for keeping up with All of us Ellwoods!

Say yes to the rocking chair

Recently Miss A and I have started watching the TLC show "Say Yes to the Dress!" together. If that's not the ultimate of girl bonding television programming I don't know what is!

The other night when we were watching a little of it, Miss A took it upon herself to relocate from her usual spot on the couch next to me to her rocking chair that Grammy and Grandpap got for her last year for Christmas. She's been slightly too little to use it easily or comfortably but she has just come off of a two week growth spurt and she's been getting a ton of rocking chair time in lately.

You will notice that it's sitting out in the middle of the living room and not in it's usual place by the large rocking chair (that is actually D's favorite). Miss A actually pulled it out to this position by herself and then set herself up with her favorite yellow blanket and bottle to watch the show.

She's definitely a little woman who knows what she wants and how to get it, wouldn't you say?

It doesn't get much better than this

To say I'm rarely in front of the camera would be a ridiculous understatement. What can I say? For as long as I can remember, I've just been more of a behind-the-scenes type. But for at least tonight, I changed it up though.

In my adventures of motherhood, I've ventured into the world of cooking. This is a huge deal for me as I've never been much of a cook. As a single lady, I was notorious for cooking random assortments of food and eating personal buffets of just side dishes. It wasn't until D came along that I learned that a proper meal was comprised of a protein, a starch or potato, and a vegetable. D is actually the primary cook in our home because he naturally makes a more well composed meal. I've made a point to try and learn more to be a little better domesticated though.

Of my childhood there are a handful of recipes/meals that were favorites to my brothers and me. One of them was stromboli. And because D and I are trying to stretch dollars as far as they will go and because stromboli is very delicious and filling, it was decided that now was finally the time to try my hand at it.

I've called my mother (Nana V) no less than three times in the past two days trying to make sure that I understood the recipe properly and got all the ingredients right. And because new endeavors always require me to hold someone's hand to get me through, Miss A got to be the lucky little love to help it all come together.

It's nights like these with Miss A that I know I will always cherish the most...

Miss A was very timid at first but reluctantly touched the dough toward the end. After a could of rounds of kneading she decided to just watch me and snitch from the lunch meat and cheese piles that I had put aside for the fillings. :) Having her just keep me company was more than enough for me!

I put Miss A right into a bath and then into pajamas not long after we finished the strombolis and she wasn't able to make it to see them be baked and then sliced for sampling but I think we did a pretty decent job with them.

The best part of them? Well... they were filled with so much more than just yummy fillings and really it's the TLC that made them as delicious as they are.

The mini-est Minnie mouse this side of the Mason-Dixon

I'm not gonna lie. Despite the fact that Miss A might seem like a most perfectly pleasant and cooperative little lady most of the time, she's really not always like that.

I tried to dress her up a couple of hours before she needed to be dressed so that she could 1) get used to the outfit and 2) I could ensure getting some decent pictures of her while there was decent lighting. At first she was OK with the whole idea and then it just took a downward spiral that I can attribute only to fact that she was almost on the verge of missing her afternoon nap.

Poor sweet girl!!! Not to worry. She managed to catch a little nap on the way down to my parents' house and she was well rested and in a much better mood once we got there. And then by the time it was time to go and show off her outfit? She was peachy-keen, jellybean!

Miss A was OK between houses but once we got up to the front doors, she got very shy since she didn't know/couldn't remember the people that well. We managed to visit all of three neighbors before the towel was officially thrown in. We spent the rest of the evening with my parents and a few neighbors sitting at the beginning of their long driveway saying hi to all who came through. Part way through, Miss A was changed into her piggy pajamas and piggy mask (you may remember it from previous appearances on the blog) and she was much more tolerable of that outfit but we didn't bother with pictures of that.

In any case, we had a lovely evening and the whole time I just kept thinking about how we needed to scheme for future years' activities to happen above the Mason-Dixon in a certain "Burgh" that we all know and love.

(D was thrilled with the idea and perhaps next year we will be able to pull it off!)

Note on the outfit: The hat was crocheted by me without a pattern and ended up being slightly small at the crown which is why I think Miss A was not thrilled to keep it on. The outfit was from Carter's in an 18-mos size and was a gift from Aunt H, Uncle D, and Cousin V at Miss A's 1st birthday a few months ago. Miss A happens to LOVE Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the moment the outfit was opened at the party, I knew that Miss A was going to have to dress up like Minnie Mouse if even for no reason at all. Sadly, she's still too young to make the connect between her own outfit and that of Minnie's on the show.