She's got em in the palm of her hands

I was in the front yard pulling weeds and Ellie was there with me when we saw our old neighbor across the street playing with some boys, including the new boy who lives next door. Ellie went over to the old neighbor to talk to him and then she ended up inviting all of the kids in to play. So for a very strange few minutes, I had four 10-year-old boys in my house. She showed them around the house and into the backyard and then they all ran back outside to throw a football around. Ellie was sooooo upset that they didn't want to play with her and she was so angry that they "sneaked away" when they ran outside again. She threw herself on her bed and cried and then I told her we can go across the street to watch them play football. I told her she could sit on the sidewalk and watch while I pulled weeds across the street. As soon as I left, she walked up to the boys and said she was mad at them because they sneaked away and she still wanted to play. She folded her arms across her chest and started walking away from them down the sidewalk, all huffy. The boys actually followed her and tried to make her feel better and I was just cracking up watching Ellie walk down the sidewalk with four boys twice her size running to catch up to her. It was all a bluff, of course, and Ellie was very happy to have them catch up and offer to play with her again, so they escorted her back across the street and played for a few more minutes and then they left to go home.

Then Ellie went to the backyard and climbed to the top of the fence (Greg has a video of it) and sat up there to talk to the kid next door. The girl needs to live on a farm.

Nice save, honey

Ellie has a bit of a .. ahem.. temper.. and when she gets mad or things don't go her way, she has been known to call names. I will put her on time out or take away a privilege if she gets mean, so she has just developed a new strategy to save herself. When she gets upset and wants to say something mean, she'll do something like this: "That's mine and I want it back, you...poop..!" At which point I will give her a look or start to respond and she will quickly continue, "...would be a very mean thing to say." As if she were merely informing me of the types of comments I won't be hearing from her. Uh huh. Riiiight.

Donuts

I was heading out to get coffee and asked the family if they wanted anything. Ellie said she wanted a donut and as always I said no because I never let her have a donut. She finally settled on a blueberry muffin. Greg said he wanted a donut and I gave him a ton of grief about that, asking if he's going to run around for 3 hours like she is to burn off the calories and how he needs to watch his girlish figure and Ellie said in a perfect waving-me-away voice, "Let him have what he wants!" She was like an old man. I got Greg the donut and of course Ellie had a few bites of it.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty

Ellie created this new hairstyle for herself where she pulled her hair back all around her face and had me pin it back with bobby pins and then braid it. She loves it and she stared at herself in the mirror for a long time and then decided to put on her prettiest dress and her prettiest necklace and bracelet. We went out and she kept talking about how everyone was going to think she is so pretty and then she said, "I'm prettier than other girls." So of course I bristled at that and I went on this biiiiig lecture about how it's fun to dress up and make your hair pretty but that's being pretty on the outside and being pretty on the outside isn't very important. What's important is being pretty on the inside, which means being kind to others and respectful and using your good manners and helping people and treating people the way you would want to be treated. I even said that the prettier you are on the inside, the prettier people will think you are on the outside. I said, "Understand?" And she said, "Mommy, I wasn't listening to you on accident."

I said, "Forget it. You'll figure it out."

Doggie carrier beds

Nana gave Ellie a pop-up dog carrier for small dogs so that she can play with it with her stuffed animals. So Ellie was playing with it today and she brought it into her room at bedtime. After I got her to bed and left, she pulled the dog carrier into the hallway, put some blankets on the bottom of it, crawled in and went to sleep. So she's sleeping now in there, all folded up with her knees to her chest and her head halfway in and halfway out. I have no idea how she can be comfortable. I hope it is a one-time thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the new way she wants to sleep. She's already gone through phases of sleeping on the hallway floor and sleeping in a cardboard box.