Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Skiing with Eliana for the Second Time

I took Ellie skiing for the first time two weekends ago at Bridger Bowl. We had a really good time.


This past weekend, Elizabeth was gone to Seattle for 4 days, so I invited my folks out to help watch Eliana. One of those days, we headed up to Bridger again. I commissioned my dad to take pictures while we skied. Thanks, Dad!




(I'm including this just to freak out Mommom. Please observe the grip Ellie has on the bar.)




I really don't know how to teach a kid how to ski other than to take her to the top and tell her to point her skis down the hill. That's pretty much what we've done both times.




Ellie did pretty well, but she refused to snow plow. She was all about the going parallel down the hill and then screaming out for me to stop her when she felt uncomfortable. She really hasn't gotten the hang of turning yet, either. On the first few runs on the second day, she'd just spin around until she was going backwards and then she's do an excellent reverse snowplow to come to a stop. She told me she needed new skis that would go straight. It looked to me like the rental shop might've given her longer skis than she had on her first day up, so we went back to check. They said we had the shortest skis they carried, so we headed to the lodge's deck for some sun, food, and hot chocolate. Afterward, things went better. Ellie's favorite part of skiing so far has been the hula hoop set up on the bunny slope for kids to duck under.







(Pay no attention to the magically appearing goggles in the third frame. I'm sure those events occurred in exactly the sequence they're presented.)


While we were skiing, Ellie kept wanting to find some way to exert independence. She seemed to decide that the lift was the place to do it, so we routinely would have disagreements as we were trying to load the chair because she did not want to ride on the same chair. She wanted to ride it by herself. I laughingly mentioned that to the lifty, who told me that they'd let a kid ride by herself if the parent approved. I didn't see that coming.


What was particularly funny to me is that Ellie seems really old and tall compared to most of the kids on the bunny slope. Bozeman is such a ski crazy town that most of the kids Ellie's age are out there skiing by themselves, ripping it up. You basically can't find kids Ellie's age on the bunny slope unless they drop by to practice skiing backwards or to ski with their younger siblings.


This is a much more typical sample of what you'll find on the bunny slope at Bridger.




See, one of the great things about Bozeman is that I look distinctly non-crazy (in comparison) for teaching my 3.5 year old to ski. I could have been this guy:


Saturday, March 06, 2010

POP

The other day Eliana was in the basement with me and she brought me her little doodle pad and showed it to me, saying, "Look, Mommy! This says 'Pop!'"

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And so it does. I was impressed that (1) she wrote it, and (2) she knew what it said. I asked if she could write it again, and I videoed her writing...



Afterward she told me that POP starts off the words Poppy and Popcorn. Yes, yes, they it does. I think we are in a learning spurt again as she is coming up with this stuff more and more frequently, showing new skills and growing in her knowledge and understanding of the things around her. It's a fun stage!

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Even if it is a crazy stage....

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(Oh, and please ignore the remnants of cookie on her face! I don't often let her look like a ragamuffin, but this was apparently one of those days!)

Friday, March 05, 2010

Wheeee... Meow.. Meow...

These two silly kitties took to playing on our swingset late in February... Silly Kitties!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Bluey the Crawdad

Can you spot him?

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Try again...

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Ellie finds no end to the pleasure she gets from searching for him in the tank.

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She has even taken to calling him "Bluey" for his blue claws. I don't know how many times in a trip to the Children's Museum she will go over to the tank looking for "Bluey," but I'd guess it's upwards of half a dozen. She is smitten with that little crawdad!

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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Drinks with Friends

The other morning Eliana got out two cups and told me she had one for herself and one for her best friend Josie. Two little cups for two little girls. She filled them with water and sprinkled some vitamin water flavoring into them, and set them out for when Josie came over. Then she decided to draw a picture of the two of them, drinking their drinks together. I love it!

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Josie is on the right, with pigtails. The way Ellie draws pigtails cracks me up because they look like little horns! But she drew pigtails on Josie's head, and then braids (the squiggly lines) on her own head. And notice the little (or big, in Ellie's case!) cups in their hands. I love that she is starting to set herself up for future coffee dates with friends already! =D

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Puzzle Time!

Eliana and I have stopped watching TV during the day and it has provided much more time for us to do things together. One of the things we have enjoyed doing is putting together puzzles! We have a couple large floor puzzles that Eliana particularly enjoys putting together with me. Here is Eliana with a completed puzzle, the first one she put together all by herself!

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Monday, March 01, 2010

Marble Run

One of the things Eliana likes to do at the Children's Museum is play with the marble run wall. The pieces are magnetic, so they can be moved into any number of configurations. Together we made one giant run out of all of the pieces, then Eliana had fun sending marbles down the chute! Here are some pictures of the fun, and a video of the marble making its way down the track!

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