I have been feeling better since Wednesday but have just now come out from under the laundry, decorations and crafty Christmas presents to blog a little.
Nothing really newsworthy. I still haven't downloaded our Thanksgiving pictures. I actually just got our suitcases unpacked yesterday.
I'm really on the ball.
I wanted to share a few things about Elyn.
She is TERRIFIED of Santa. (Look back to the Santa pic of '09 if you don't believe me.) She is absolutely TERRIFIED of him.
For example, we made a Christmas countdown craft last night (yep, on the 3rd, not the 1st of December...I don't care if you judge). (And when I say "we" made the craft, I made the craft. The girls would hop up from watching "Polar Express" every so often to run over and see if I was almost done.) The craft is cute (one day I'll post a pic), easy and can be used every year. My sister and I actually had a similar one when we were little.
So, this craft has a felt bell at the top, a long strip of green felt with 24 candy canes attached (except I only had to attach 21 since we started on the 3rd) and a jingle bell at the very end. There is a poem at the top that talks about eating a candy cane a day until you reach the bell and then Santa comes.
Okay. We were talking about the bell again today. Nora was begging me for a candy cane and I explained that we only get to eat them after our dinner, one a night until Santa comes. She said something about Santa coming to our house when we reach the bell and I agreed, "Yes, Santa will be coming to our house."
Well.
The next thing I know, Elyn is screaming her head off, in the middle of the living room, saying, "I WANT MOMMY!!!!! I DON'T WANT SANTA!" Poor girl, I guess she thought Santa was about to walk through our door that minute.
She hates Santa.
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Most nights before Matthew puts Elyn in the bathtub he puts her on the potty to see if she will go. Some nights she does, some nights she doesn't. He does that mostly because Nora goes before she gets a bath and Elyn like to do ALL things like Nora.
I'm NOT pushing the potty training thing.
AT ALL!
Elyn is not aware of this though.
Tonight she came up to me and said she had to go potty. I took her into the bathroom, took her DRY diaper off and set her on the potty.
And she tee-teed.
About 3 minutes later she said she needed to go again. Matthew took her and nothing happened.
About 20 minutes later she came up me and said she had to go to the potty. I took her and she went.
Again, dry diaper.
Grrrrrrr!
I know you probably think it is insane (especially if you have never gone down the potty training road before) that I am not excited about her being interested in becoming potty trained. It is SO MUCH EASIER to keep her in diapers! With potty training comes extra laundry, hauling the potty around in the car, asking her every 30 seconds "do you have to go potty?". I'm being lazy and I'm okay with that.
Wouldn't it be something if she just trained herself and left me completely out of it. That is what I want for Christmas.
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I take back every single thing I have ever written about Nora being strong-willed.
Oh. My. Goodness.
I had not met strong-willed yet.
Her name is Elyn Ann Henderson.
This girl is gong to make me seriously consider keeping our kid count at two. She is a doozy.
AT LEAST twice a day she goes into TOTAL meltdown mode. Whatever she wants that she is not getting, if I'm not holding her long enough, if she doesn't want her mouth cleaned off after lunch, if she is upset with Nora, WHATEVER it is, she goes CRAZY.
CRAYZEE!
We usually remove her from our area (because we really don't want to see her or hear her or deal with her) and put her in her room and close the door.
After the door is closed she proceeds to SCREAM AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS and occasionally, hit the door. And throw books on the floor. And blankets off of her bed.
And EVERY time she does those things, she gets a spanking. (Except screaming...she can scream all day long and it doesn't faze us. We're deaf to her screaming.)
You would think that she would learn. "Hit door, get spanking. Hey, I'm not going to hit the door this time!"
Oh, no, not her. Not "Miss definition of strong-willed".
I apologize Nora. You were easy. Or maybe just my "warm up".
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Elyn is a character. She is such a blessing and a challenge. We thank God for her. We are thankful that she makes us laugh every single day. We are thankful for her sweet heart and her love of Nora. We are thankful for her sweet, quiet prayers. We are thankful for her health and her desire to learn. We are thankful that she loves church, all of Nora's friends, baby dolls and school.
We love you Elyn...even when you drain the last ounce of energy I possess.
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About a week ago, I noticed that the girls had ZERO Christmas clothing items. Zero. In the four Christmases (Christmas's...Christmas'...I don't know) that Nora has been alive this has never happened. My goodness, on her first Christmas she had so much red and green that she barely got to wear it all..JPG)
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And I am in the process of making one more for each of them..JPG)
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And I am in the process of making one more for each of them.
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