Chez Ellie Salon

I've got a full day spa running here for my daughter. Ellie's recently dealing with an ingrown toenail resulting from refusal to get her toenails clipped. Her doctor advised us to soak her feet 3 times a day in warm bubbly water for about 10 minutes and then apply bacitracin ointment on the area afterwards.
Thanks to a wonderful birthday gift I received last year, Ellie is now using my foot massage tub. While she sits to soak her feet, she gets books to read, snacks to eat, and something to drink. When the time is up, her feet are dried with fresh towels and nursed with her ointment. She's also receives daily hairstyle, face/skin treatment, and semi-homemade meals.
If Ellie were able to work, I'd charge her big time because of the added joy of changing her diaper, but since she can't work for currency, I make her pick up things around the house. She gives me that classic "look" as she does them just as her daddy when I ask him to pick up after himself.
The services provided to Ellie are for Jae as well....except the diaper. That's gross, but I do replace the toilet paper roll EACH and every single time, only to be left toilet-paperless myself like this morning.

Warm Milk

These days, Ellie's been taking at least 30 minutes to fall asleep...yikes! But that's not the bad part. The bad part comes when I have to sit next to her crib and pat her back until she falls asleep, which by then, I can no longer feel my arm and it has also turned a nice shade of purple. I am her servant. She took the ring from my finger this morning, placed it on her head, and declared herself "Cinderella" as if she's lived some horrible life....all I did was ask her to throw her shirt in her hamper! Sheesh!

Anyways, I've figured out a way to get her to sleep faster. It's called "trypto or tripto something or something like that. It's found in turkey, which makes everyone sleepy after a meal, but since it is not Thanksgiving yet and we don't eat turkey on a daily basis, I gave Ellie warm milk instead. Apparantly, when milk is warmed to a certain temp, it develops the same components found in turkey...the very same that makes one sleepy. Ah-Ha! I'm a genious! Actually, I'm really not considering how long it took me to figure this out....hmmm....sad.

So to get to the lick of things, Ellie was upset that she had to take a nap and made a lame attempt to climb out of her crib (using me as leverage!) But in the end, she decided that the pillow would be much more comfy than mommy's shoulder. Once she got her head down, she fell asleep within minutes! Oh Joy! But I have a sinking feeling Ellie will catch on soon enough.

Lego Rocks!

Can I just say how much Lego Star Wars has filled my night with so much drama? I luuuuuv it! I luv it! I luv it! I luv it!
And Ellie was so sweet today. She went in for her 2 year check-up. No shots today and no shots until kindergarten! Yeah for all of us! Her weight falls in the 25%, her height falls in the 40%, and her head falls in the.......drum roll....................................90%! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! She's a lollypop! A cute and very bright lollypop!
Jae got his new car today so that means I got my Pathfinder back! Woo hoo! It will once again smell of fresh cut flowers, fresh morning mist, and fresh McDonalds...

To Do List

• Update my driver's liscense (new address)
• find my atm cards
• call my banks to find out the pin numbers so i can use the atm cards
• touch up my highlights
• cut my hair
• buy new jeans
• get new glasses so i can obtain my driver's liscense, find my atm cards, read my new pin numbers, drive to the bank to get money for my new hairstyle without causing an accident, see my new hairstyle, and find the right size jeans

One Too Many at Ravinia Festival

On the left is my husband, Jae, when the night was still young. The picture above are two "smokin" ladies...me and Sun towards the end of the evening. Oh yeah, if you look to the right, you can see Jae behind me, passed out from one too many drinks...(nothing unusual)...

The Best...ever!

I'm so stinkin' angry! My cherished CDs are missing! "They can't just get up and walk away!"

Apparantly, they can! EEEUUUUGGGHHH!

I wish I could find things as easily as Ellie just by asking "Dave Mattews Band! Where are you?"

To Sleep or To Sit?

Nothing eventful as far as potty training goes. I haven't really gone full force with it yet cuz i'm debating whether to buy her a new toddler/twin size bed and have her get used to that transition first or to potty train her first.

But Ellie did sit on her potty this morning and read her books about potty, but anytime I ask her if she wants to use the potty, she gives me a grunt. She never wants to sit on it while her diaper is dry...always afterwards.

Potty Training

The naptime saga ends and the potty training begins! It will probably be more interesting to read about poopy and pee pee than naptime, right?

Now that all our vacations and celebrations are done with, I can finally focus on this matter. I jump in with my sleeves rolled up waaaaay high!

Today, Ellie rolled up a bunch of toilet paper, pretended to wipe herself, called it "jhee-jhee (which means, dirty, in Korean), placed it in her potty, and said, "bye bye pee pee. bye bye poo poo.", then she placed her toilet lid down and walked away.

What Can Be...

World record! Ellie has napped past the 2 hour mark! Hoorah!

(Picture from her party...Nemo was the theme...can you tell?)

Sleepy

I'm so sleepy, so why am i still awake posting a blog? i feel like putting toothpicks under my eyelids to keep them from closing, like Tom used to do in Tom and Jerry. I love that cartoon, though it is a bit violent.

We went to emo and boo's for dinner last night. it was a peacful moment at the table. Everyone was busy eating spaghetti. Then we heard "NOOOOOOOOODD-DAAALLLL!" I turned to look at her randomness and saw she had a nice, long strand of noodle in her hand held up high over her head like she would devour it in an instant. It took her 10 minutes to eat that noodle.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ELLIE!!!

YOU WERE BORN THIS DAY, AUGUST 15TH 2003 @ 2:15pm AFTER 18 "WONDERFUL" HOURS OF LABOR

Do Not Send DCFS

After re-reading my previous post, I have to clear something up. When I mentioned using "The Force" to get Ellie to eat her corn, I meant that I used "The Ancient Jedi Mind Trick" on her.

The Conflict Within

Do you remember the scene from Star Wars when Luke Skywalker turns himself in to Lord Vador in hopes to persuade him back? "I can feel it Father...the conflict within you...there is still some good in you, I know it!" And Lord Vador says, "You don't know the power of the Dark Side."

I feel most times like I'm saying this to Ellie. Imagine Ellie as Vador...she wants to do good, but is too tempted by her stubborness and willing to have control over me. Imagine me as Luke...I know she can be turned back to the sweet napper I once knew, but I must not fight her.

Today, I saw Ellie at nap time, in her crib, rubbing her eyes, holding her blanket and lamb near her cheeks, yet forcing herself to stay awake. I said to her, "I can sense it Ellie. The conflict within you. There is still some good in you, I know it!" And Ellie looks to me as if to say, "You don't know the power of the Terrible Two's!"

We also had a face-off during dinner over corn. She wanted to eat one kernel of corn at a time while roaming the house. I wanted her to sit at the table and eat her corn with a fork. She stomped and kicked her feet as she threw her arms up in the air while yelling, "Corn!" I had no choice but to use "The Force". And she sat down and ate her corn.

Day..........I've lost track

I got back from a trip to Maryland. It was quite a nice visit. Ellie's naps were no different there than it was before, except yesterday...the day we left. She napped for 3 hours and could have gone longer if we didn't have to wake her to catch our flight.

She was quite amazing on the plane. She was very excited to look out the window and said "Bye airplane." (other airplanes still parked on the airport) as we took off. She noticed the clouds below her and seemed to be awe-struck..."cowds" (clouds) and she pointed at each of them as they flew by.

I think when parents take their children on vacation or just away from home, the rules of parenting go straight out the window. Ellie ran around with her cousins for half the day while the other half was spent watching tv. She was rocked until she fell asleep and shared a bed with me, which was no vacation for me. I've got bruises on my ribs. When did she ever learn to Karate kick in her sleep? Jumping from the couch and fireplace must have strengthened her legs over those short days.

She did "let" me feed her a potato chip every so often if she wasn't busy eating a cookie from Grandma. But I was shocked to find bright green poop from her diaper today. It was literally that color. She either devoured a green colored food product (which I assume it's main ingredient is sugar) or Maryland water turns your poop a nice shade of lime green.