Silliness Abounds...

It never ceases. I try to take a picture, and the silliness comes out. At 5 years old, it's still true.

Eliana still can't have milk or milk products, so yesterday we set out to make our own version of the popular ice cream treat drumsticks. They turned out rather good! I think when she's gone through this batch we might make more! To make it fun, we put candy and blue cherries in with the ice cream. I think they were a hit!!

Jenga

I pulled out the old Jenga set here at my parents' house and played with Eliana today. It turns out, she's pretty good at it!

Happiest with a froufrou dress and a big pile of mud

When I was out doing yard a while back, the daughter decided to play on the leftover topsoil from the excavation for our foundation. I pulled out my phone and grabbed the following.

Overheard just now...

Eliana: "Here you go, Mommom!"

Mommom: "Thank you, Madame!"

Eliana: "You're welcome, Eve! Get it? Eve, like Adam and Eve?"

Anatomy of a 5-year-old's birthday...

Start by waking up and eating breakfast...

Then look at baby pictures with Mommom...

Go shopping with Mommy and Mommom and come home exhausted. Take a nap and wake up just in time to have a birthday party!

Open some presents...

Eat some cake...

And call it a good day!!

Where did the time go?

data, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Where did the last 5 years go? It's hard to believe that tomorrow Eliana will be 5 years old and that in about a month and a half this will be her daily attire as she goes off to school! She is VERY excited about going to kindergarten at Petra Academy, and is excited to see the new Petra building going up just a couple blocks from our house! She can see the new building out her bedroom window. In fact, she thinks they are building it just for her!

While this may be life in a month or so, right now we are enjoying time in Texas - the last bit of summer before school starts!

Finally Summer

Summer decided to show up in Bozeman about a week ago. The days have been warm and the evenings have been perfect and long. Tonight we ate dinner with some of our exceptionally lovely neighbors, whose band of merry children our young'un disappears among. When the sun had set over the pond, the mountains had graduated from amber to purple, and our conversation had finally wound down enough to think about cleaning up, I realized it was well after 9. Oh, wondrous Montana summers.

Of course, the kiddo has trouble getting to sleep at a decent hour under these conditions. She really only gets serious about having second dinner around 10. She's sitting a the table now having her second course. Just now, she asked me, "Dad, when is there going to be enough snow to sled?"

Ug, I thought. Summer just started. The mountains still have too much snow to get up high. Dar. I'm still hoping for the pack to melt, eagerly checking the Snotel map daily. "Well, in about five months," I said somewhat reluctantly.

The daughter emitted an eloquent sigh and languidly and morosely replied, "It's taking forever."

Mastered

(Cross-posted from Leif's blog.)

The ol' postal service delivered the diploma cover for my master's in computer science today. This was after receiving my diploma rolled up tightly in a cardboard tube a couple weeks back with a postcard voucher for a diploma cover. That was after skipping (sorry, Mom) the six hour graduation ceremony I wasn't keen to sit through at the beginning of May. That was after actually finishing up last December. That was after taking (cough) 9 (eh hem) years to finish it while working full-time, being married, moving a few times, throwing away 9 credits due to transfer, throwing away another pile of credits after abandoning my first thesis, finishing a basement, designing and building another house, and raising a baby to a pre-schooler.

I am far prouder of this degree than I ever was my bachelor's. I was raised with the expectation of getting a college degree. It was always a foregone conclusion in my mind that I would finish that one. I struggled a bit with my bachelor's (I'm looking at you Electric Circuits I), but I never had reason or occasion to consider quitting. I can't count the times I wanted to give up on the master's.

Special thanks to my wife and daughter for putting up with me during all that, to my adviser, Rocky Ross, for helping me finish, to Neal Richter for nagging my butt into gear more than once, and to Erich Hannan, my boss through most of that interval, for supporting me doing work and school.

I am so thankful this morning...

This morning I got up at 5 to go to the gym, but when I looked out the window and saw the beautiful sunrise over the mountains I got another idea and went for a run on the trails around our pond instead. It was beautiful! It makes me really thankful for our new home. We've already mentioned how much we love our new house, but I don't know that I've mentioned how much I really love our new neighborhood.

(In case you haven't yet seen it in person, the red house in the middle of the picture is ours.)

I love that I can head out my front door and within feet I am on a trail that is great for running or walking.

I love that we are just across the street from a beautiful pond, and that our pond is home to all sorts of creatures we're getting attached to. I took a break from my run and watched a big white pelican gliding along in the water. We frequently sit at the dinner table and watch the heron who calls our pond home. There are plenty of geese and ducks, too. I thoroughly enjoy the pond!

I love that we have friendly neighbors. Whether we're at the park with Eliana, taking a stroll around the pond, or just happen to be outside when someone walks by, the people in our neighborhood are quick to smile, greet you, and strike up conversation! I love it!

I love that we live in a kid-friendly neighborhood! Many of our neighbors have small kids, so Eliana has lots of little friends to play with! The neighbors across the street have 4 little girls, 2 of whom are close to Ellie's age. Just a couple houses down from them are neighbors with a couple little boys around the same age. Down the road from us are some friends we met last year (before we OR they lived in this neighborhood!) and they have a daughter and two sons who are close to Ellie's age. And in just a week or so another one of our friends is moving in down the street and one of her sons is Eliana's friend! It's so nice to move someplace new and instantly become a part of the community. I'm so thankful for that!

I love that Eliana's preschool was just around the corner this year. I love even more that Petra, where she will be in the fall, is building a new building just a couple blocks from our house! It's fun to watch the progress and know that's where Ellie will be going to school in just a few short months!

The Wickland Bike Limo

For Memorial Day we took a family bike ride on our tandem+trailer bike. It was quite nice to be able to go for a ride all together. We went on the downtown historic district "walking" tour (of course, we rode instead of walked) and looked at all the cool old houses.

We found the walking tour guide on the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce website and enjoyed the little history lesson as we rode!

This little girl...

This little girl went to preschool....

and is not in preschool any more.

Tonight was Eliana's graduation from the preschool at Heritage Christian Early Learning Center. She has thoroughly enjoyed being there, even though she didn't start until January. She loves her teachers, Miss Sandy and Miss Michele, and they love her, too!

All of the kids from the Early Learning Center put on a program, which culminated in the graduation of the preschoolers who are headed to kindergarten next year. Here's Eliana's class:

They sang a song about 5 little ducks...

... and each recited a verse...

Eliana's verse started with the same letter as her name.

"E... Even a child is known by his deeds, by whether his conduct is pure and right."

Then the kids presented flowers to Miss Sandy and Miss Michele as a thank you for all they've done this year!

The kids even got diplomas to make the whole event official.

Ellie's will be going in a scrapbook, minus one corner. She managed to chew that corner off while we were taking pictures. Great.

Congratulations, kiddo! We are so proud of the big girl you are becoming and excited for you to start kindergarten next year!

Date Night

Last fall Elizabeth and I decided to buy season tickets to this season of Broadway in Bozeman.  We'd done it once before a few years back and it had been a nice excuse to schedule some data.  Well, although Garrison Keillor was astonishingly good, I'd forgotten that I really don't like musicals.  So, when it came time for The Wizard of Oz earlier this year, I suggested Elizabeth take Eliana.  They had a great time and the kid loved it.  

This past Tuesday, Elizabeth had a conflict, so I took Eliana to Riverdance.  Because it was date night, I went all out and took her to eat at Wendy's.  She ordered her own food, which included a baked potato with a side of crackers.  We got into our seats at the show about 4 minutes before show time.  Three minutes later she was quite impatient and was asking when the show would start, so we started looking through the crowd for people with funny hats.  That tided her over until the show started.  We both enjoyed it.  Her favorite part was, ironically, the Flamenco dancer and her beautiful dresses.  Then again, I liked the staged dance contest between the hip hop dancers and trio of Riverdancers.  It was a good night.  The next morning she said thanks for taking her on a date.

What I think is funniest about our taking Eliana to these shows is that the whole Broadway-style of entertainment, or at least the family friendly versions that manage to tour our neck of the woods, are probably more fun and more exciting for a kid than for an adult.  I wouldn't have guessed when we bought the tickets 9 months ago that it would be our baby, who's rapidly turning into a girl, who would enjoy them the most.

Great moment in parenting

The day my kid learned to climb into the car, close the door, and buckle her seatbelt was a great moment in parenting.  

One fine day....

We had one fine day amidst all the snow lately, so Ellie and I went to the park!! Here's some of her fun there!!

Wisdom from the young one

"Why is it called a restaurant if you're not supposed to lie down and rest there?"

"If you want people to be friendly to you, you have to be friendly to them."

"Is it called shampoo because it's made out of sham and poo?"

Nothing like a birthday party at the park

On the last day of April in Montana!

Recent Birthday Party

Eliana got to go to her friend Jocelyn's birthday party recently and was so excited to be there! Here she is with the birthday girl:

It was a Rapunzel party and Eliana got Jocelyn a ballerina Barbie. It was a hit!

Look at the BEAUTIFUL cake her mom, Jessica, made!! It's amazing!

The girls had a great time playing with it! ;)

And they were mesmerized once the candles were lit - can you blame them??

Make a wish, Jocelyn! Happy Birthday!!

My Favorite Picture Yet

I asked Eliana what this picture was and she told me there was the grass, clouds, sun, sky, and Josie. I pointed to the not so obvious parts of the picture and asked about those:

"That's Josie; she's a carrot. And that's me; I'm a cherry. We're Veggie Tales characters!"

This is my favorite picture yet!

Better Bike Rider

Last time I posted about Eliana learning to riding her bike, I mentioned that she was unable to get started unassisted. Well, she's pretty much gotten that figured out now. We've also been riding longer distances together. Yesterday we rode to Weebee's to buy sorbet. It's about a 2 mile trip which involves crossing a major street and riding in bike lanes. She's doing a really good job staying in the bike lane and following directions. It was a fun trip that I hope we'll be able to repeat often this summer when we don't need to wear parkas when going for ice cream.

Wii Bowling

I am sitting here watching Leif and Eliana play wii bowling. It's funny to watch Leif's competitive side come out against his own daughter. It's also funny to watch Eliana skunk Leif by getting 6 strikes in a row. It's the first time Leif has played with Ellie. Apparently she has been learning to wii bowl at Josie's house. She's either crazy good, or crazy lucky. Either way she's crazy. :)

Bike Riding Fun!

Tonight for the first time I actually got to witness Eliana's new-found bike riding skill. I was impressed! I'm pretty sure she can ride a bike better than I can now. I had fun watching her ride to and fro in front of our house and snagged some pictures.

Playing the classics

A while back Shirt.Woot had an awesomely nerdy shirt I couldn't resist.

It came in the mail yesterday and I proudly wore it today. Eliana was quite interested in the shirt and kept asking questions about the details of it. It was hard to explain why the turtles were doing those things and how they were painting a cloud on the sky.

I figured the easiest way to explain it was to show her. So we fired up the Wii, downloaded Super Mario Brothers, and set to playing. I played a few levels to show her the ropes and then turned over the controller. She laughed gleefully at being able to make Mario jump and run and so forth.

She definitely lacks the motor skills to play well, but it doesn't matter. It was still a fantastic moment. I've been looking forward to playing the classic video games with my kid for a long time. It's right up there with teaching my kid to ski and bike.

On the topic of biking, we went out riding again tonight. Given a sufficient slope, Eliana can now get started on her own. The best slopes around are found in the park across from our house, pointing straight down into the pond. She's better than I expected at translating that momentum
into forward motion around the pond when she rolls down to the trail.

As last night, she was quite resistant to heading home when I told her it was time, despite obviously tired legs, cold hands, banged up shins, and flushed cheeks. I love the spark of drivenness that I see in her.

In another sign of her growing up, when we got home, I told her she needed to take a bath or a shower. She picked a shower. She even managed to get out of the shower in a timely fashion when I told her to keep it short. I was proud of her.

Bike Rider

Today Eliana learned to ride a bike. She went around our neighborhood pond three times. She still can't get started by herself, but with a little something to stabilize her to get started, she's off.

This newfound competency was met with such humble expressions as

• I'm doing it. I'm doing it.
• Whoohoo!
• I am the greatest bike rider ever!
• I'm a five year old!
• I need to tell Josie about this.
• I am an excellent rider!

It appears she got my sense of humility. (The preceding sentence caused Elizabeth to cackle.)

To think I considered staying in to watch some silly basketball game tonight instead of taking the monster out.