Happy 3rd Birthday Elsie!

 My big girl is 3 years old!!! Holy crap :) She is such a caring, quick-witted, thoughtful, smiley (except if she's tired) little girl. Thinking back, the past year has been a whirlwind! She was a pretty great talker for a 2 year old, and she has built up her vocabulary and abstract thinking skills, so now she is coming up with arguments or making deals to get things she wants, and planning ahead/looking forward to future events or remembering past events. It's all so amazing how much she has grown in mind and body. I'm definitely biased, but that doesn't change the fact that she has always been ahead of her developmental time in walking, talking, reasoning, and gross motor development. <3

We had her party in Madison this year because I knew I was going to buy her a big bouncy house and I wanted to be able to keep it up all week (and more). We were lucky to have Gma Elsie, Gpa Ron, Gma Melanie, Gpa Mark, Laura, Lena and Nathan stop by for the weekend and celebrate with all of us! In the morning, R/E took the girls for a walk while we got the big bounce house set up so it would be a surprise. And it certainly was :) I got a video but she and Lena LOVED bouncing around it all day. They were both super tuckered out by the end of the day. We had lunch around 1130, a 2 hour nap for Lena and chill break for everyone! Then Mark and Melanie stopped by and we had a pizza/salad dinner, more bouncing, watching some basketball, lots of chit chat which was nice, and a Frozen cake, and open some presents. Lovely, chill but fun day. Thanks everyone for coming!

Elsie's first day of school!

 

Today was Elsie’s first day of preschool at Toad Hill Montessori, here in East Madison!

Strategic decision for Spencer to drop her off, both for her sake of saying good-bye to me and vice versa. He said there was a line of cars waiting to drop kids off, and she was super excited and kept asking “is it our turn yet”? So she probably would have been fine. I def had a good 5 minute meltdown of “my baby’s going to school” after they drove off, but overall I was really excited for her.

 

When she got back she looked super tired, and she said her feet were sweaty (which they were since she wore tennis shoes and socks for 4 hours for the first time ever in her life). Questions I asked:

 

How was your first day?

“Good!”

 

Do you want to go back?

“Yes! Tomorrow I can go back and see my friends.”

 

What did you do?

“We played outside with our friends a lot!”

She had paint all over her shirt as well, so they must have been doing an art project of some sort 😉 And the school sent a couple of pictures of the kids playing with magnet tiles, and of Elsie doing a string art project.

Do you like your teachers?

“Yes”

What are their names?

“Um, I don’t know”

 

First packed lunch: peanut butter sandwich, blueberries, applesauce pouch, chocolate chip pancakes. She crushed the blueberries and pancakes, didn't eat much else. She felt bad that she forgot her lunch box at school, but then we found it in her backpack so that made her happy. Then she crushed a strawberry banana yogurt when we got home.

She was super tired and probably would have fallen asleep on car ride home, if it wasn’t so short. She asked if she could go on her Fire right when she got home, I think she needed a mental “break”, haha. I'm so glad she had a great first day!

June 2020

We got rid of wubbas (pacifier) almost a year ago, but she is going through a phase where she likes to pretend to be a baby. She stumbled upon a wubba and was all over it, to the point where she wanted to sleep with it and we were worried it was becoming more than a toy again. So I asked her if she would trade me the wubba for a toy at Target, she would get to pick out almost whatever and she went for it. So off we went to Target and were going up and down the toy aisles and she saw this set of twin baby dolls that each had their own pacifier. That's what she wanted. Could have gotten a Little People thing, scooter, pretty much anything under $50 and I would have gotten it for her. Wubba trade for twins! 

First time zipping her jacket on her own!

Lots of hikes in June, since we really don't go anywhere yet. Lockdowns are slowly easing up but that just means more dumb people potentially around to infect you. So we have been doing weekly hikes and planned our first cabin trip for the end of June with Mary, Hayden, and Sam.

COVID-19 is raging and slowly things are opening up, people are going back to work and economy kind of coming back. No mandatory mask orders, however, and case numbers keep climbing, so we are pretty anxious about it all. We really don't go anywhere except hiking, grocery store 1x week, and don't really have anyone over. Very lonely but I have the feeling we can't live like this forever.

Grandma and Grandpa Elsie did come for the weekend, which was pretty stressful for Spencer (he takes it a bit more cautiously than I). It was tons of fun, went on a couple bike rides and Elsie had lots of great times with them (she is OVER hanging out with us!)

Quarantine Hair-dos, and Elsie LOVES overalls with all the pockets and buttons. Can get in on all by herself!

Lots of backyard pool time, weather has been nice and hot!

Running through Gov. Nelson State Park.

Flowers + playdoh is the best! Lots of pretty bouquets with flowers from around the yard.

Elsie is really great at taking pictures of other things now. Our peonies came and went pretty fast, it was hot!

Loves loves loves the kitty cats, Olive is getting better about letting Elsie pet her.

Playing dress-up with Gma and Gpa R/E.

Driving back from Gma Elaine's funeral, this NEVER happens where she fell asleep while eating. The heat and finally being able to see Gma Melanie put her over the top.

Gma Elaine's funeral in Green Bay, WI. The gang all showed up!

Part of the Montessori approach is to "help your kid help themself" and Elsie took to this idea really quick! Got her a little wardrobe that has a bunch of her clothes hanging or in baskets and everything is in one spot that she can reach (the top has pull ups and swimsuits). She has such a great time dressing herself and picking out what she wears. And it is loads better than the old rickety dresser we had to fight with to open the drawers. She'll pick out an outfit, put it on all by herself and then look in the mirror. So far she likes to pick dresses, probably cuz they are hanging and easy to see. She also likes her overalls, but it has been pretty hot lately. One time she put a dress under her overalls :)

We took Gma and Gpa R/E to the farm near us to feed the baby goats and see all the animals. It's a good outdoor activity that is usually not too busy, so less risk of getting coronavirus.

Dress up with Gma and Gpa.

Father's Day! These are some cinnemon rolls she made all by herself! Didn't want me to take the picture though.

We got to meet baby Hayden for the first time at Spencer's cabin! 3.5 months!

Elsie was a great helper, super gentle, and loving to her new cousin.

Devils Lake State Park, WI

June 11 we headed to Devil's Lake State Park. Spencer and I had been there a couple of years ago (B.E.), and we remembered loving it, but it was soooo packed the day we went so we were nervous to go during coronavirus. We got there early enough that the crowds weren't too bad, but got bad by the time we left. And it was nice the bathrooms were open again, though I'm still a bit nervous about public bathrooms. 

We took the East Bluff trail, what S and I took last time, and it was a nice climb up to see beautiful lake views. Both of us were pretty nervous about Elsie climbing all over everything and possibly falling off a 100 foot cliff. And she needs to practice listening better. However, she had a blast and was jumping and climbing and exploring and looking for worms. It was a great time, and beautiful views, just like we remembered. One other thing I'll jot down for the memory book is we need to bring more change of clothes for Els, she had a couple accidents and we went through everything we had. 

Governor Nelson State Park, WI

This park is pretty close to home, so we went to check it out. It had a pretty nice lake and beach, and was completely empty so those were the bonuses. And there was a pretty cool overlook to downtown on the docks. Other than that, the bugs were pretty bad, it was super hot, and we chose to hike through the prairie, so there was no respite from either the former or the later. It certainly wasn't our favorite hike, though I was reading after the fact and it looks like there's a waterfall here that we may have to come back and try to find. 

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"Mom, please can we buy baby brother a red toy card that has games on it? He will like that very much! "

"Ok, that's a nice idea,  where can we're go to buy one? "

"The store "

"What store? "

"The greatest one that's not dirty"

Blue Mound State Park - Flint Rock Trail

Headed west of Madison and hiked the Flint Rock Trail in the Blue Mound State Park. It was beautiful, foresty, a bit muddy, and hilly (a nice change). Unfortunately the observation tower was closed, so we'll have to go back, but the scenic overlooks reminded me of western Ireland. Who knew these hills and views were in our backyard! Only 1.3 miles but probably closer to 1.5 with walking back to the car. And completely empty, which was a bit eerie! 

Elsie walked/ran the entire thing, I kind of felt bad for Spencer having to drag and carry the stroller through the mud, but I'm NOT carrying her. Elsie's favorite is to make one of us run with her and to have the other person try to catch up. We climbed some rocks, jumped in the mud, saw some crystals, and saw a great splash pool we will have to check out once things are more opened up (but hopefully as secluded, not-crowded). No trail markers to touch on this trip, maybe next time.

5/5 hike

5/5 parking

5/5 maps/directions

5/5 distance from home

would certainly go again, bring more bug spray.