Ellie offers helpful advice to the neighbourhood.

Recorded March 5.. back when it was a whole lot warmer than now.

Miss Mischief strikes again. Ellie sometimes doesn’t doesn’t stay in her bed when she is put down for her naps. The other day she decided to reorganize (or de-organize) her room. Somehow she had gotten the step stool from the kitchen which allows her to get into things that are normally out of reach. She emptied a couple drawers in her room..

..into her fishtank!

I had never actually seen how much water two diapers can absorb. Trust me, it is a lot. Other things in the tank were:

• baby wipes
• lego blocks
• three socks
• stockings
• a car from the train set
• brush and comb
• two teething toys
• three small stuffed animals
• two books
• plastic shovel
• a bottle of Vicks oil for a humidifier
• the rest of the fish food

..not to mention all the stuff around the tank that got wet.

So, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have a tank in her room. I figured something like this would happen sometime, I just didn’t think she would get that much in there! We made her sit on a chair and watch while the tank was cleaned and some of her books and toys were thrown out. She then had to help pick up everything else that she had gotten out.

Somehow, the single guppy in the tank survived all this.

The clean up is still going on.. the next morning the fish food still in the gravel had made the tank very cloudy, so much so that it was hard to see if the fish was alive.

So, hopefully she has learned her lesson about messing with the fish tank. And I have learned to keep my big tank safely out of reach.

Naomi left me home with the girls one Saturday.. so I was at Ellie’s mercy when she asked to put on her “pretty dress”. So she pranced about the house all morning, including the potty training sessions. It was too much for this photography junkie to resist.

She will never forgive me when she is older..

One of the big bribes was that if she did a poopie (sorry for the cutsie parent code words) she would get to have one of her favorite things.. french fries at McD’s. Soo… A few days later..

Big Moments in Life is brought to you by Parents of Young Kids Inc. and the letter B.

Last week our little Ellie turned three years old. As with most parents, we are amazed at how quickly her third birthday has come and how much our little baby is growing up. Three years of giving us something to laugh about, to wonder about as she learns more each day, to be amazed as she puts ideas together, to take joy in this little gift from God.

Unfortunately our family was still recovering from the flu on Ellie’s birthday, so the party was a rather quiet event. That doesn’t mean that Ellie wasn’t spoiled by many toys however.. She fully understands what birthdays are about. For days we were asking her about the special day coming up. She would answer that it was going to be her birthday. When asked about what happens on birthdays she would respond with an enthusiastic “Presents!”

We let Ellie open one present earlier in the day to keep her occupied as she was still feeling a bit sick. She got to open a Thomas the Train set, which has been her constant companion ever since.. Yes, my daughter still loves trains and tractors. Thomas is currently the favorite show to watch and now the favorite toy. Thankfully she received two trains, so when I get her up in the morning or come home from work she tells me I can come play with Duck the train while she plays with Thomas. If it wasn’t for Duck, I would have to sit idly by and watch her play.

After supper we had some birthday cupcakes and opened the rest of the presents.

Despite some of us still feeling the ill effects of the flu, we had a good day with Ellie. We are so thankful to God for the past three years with her and look forward to getting to know this little girl more in the years to come.

We have a few more photos of the big day up at: www.flickr.com/photos/johnstonekids/