Ellis

Ellis is into playing Santa. He rides around on his Tonka truck (aka Sleigh) delivering cardboard bricks (aka presents) to good little mommies and daddies. Then he carefully arranges them underneath the tree. Dress rehearsal?

This morning he bounded into my room at 6.30 with a loud "ho! ho! ho!" and then snuggled in bed with me asking me to make him a Santa costume.

I just better keep an eye out before he recruits Marlowe for Rudolph duty.

Bubble bath Santa

Ellis was under the weather over the weekend, with a troublesome sore throat. (but it's not strep, yay!) So he stayed in bed all day, with books and plenty of cartoons on the iPhone to keep him company. I don't think he suffered too terribly.

Felt extremely sluggish today.

Went to the gym this morning and took advantage of some childcare. It was a slow grind. Barely made 3 miles. I may or may not do another 5K a week from Saturday. Will pay attention to the weather forecast, 'cause I'm not going to run in cold, wet, rainy.

Went over to this place that sells gently used kids' clothes and got rid of some of M's old clothes for store credit. I don't need new clothes for the boys, but you get more if you get store credit (like 50% instead of 40%0. I've been getting these Lunch Bots (this store has a lot of eco friendly kids' stuff, too). Adorable little stainless steel containers!

I'm going to start packing E's lunch. School lunch just isn't healthy enough. So between the fun cloth sandwich bags and these lunchbots, we're on our way to an eco-friendly lunch box. Ha!

I kind of crashed this afternoon, though, and the kids watched too much tv. Shame.

This evening was Ellis's classroom open house. He explained in great detail every tiny aspect of his day. It was great fun!

And then GRE study time. I've been stalled in a morass of GRE hate for the past several weeks. But I stopped and got some index cards and new pens and pencils. I think I have a new strategy and hopefully can get some good study time in because the stupid thing is two weeks from tomorrow.

Insert Major Panic here.

I don't want to put it off, though. I just want it over with.

When we moved to this city block last October I debated whether or not to get a deaf kid sign. I kind of decided against it. For one, I didn't think it would make any difference. People would speed regardless. For another, we've taught Ellis basic street safety. He's a cautious kid and takes pretty good care of himself. Besides, I'm usually with him when he's out front. I figured a deaf kid sign was sort of moot.

We're getting a new block captain, though. The old one is just that: old, and infirm. Our block has degraded some over the years, so I'm told. The woman who is taking over grew up on the block and has recently moved back. She's been really proactive about improving some things around here (and believe me, plenty needs improving). She took the initiative to get me an application for a deaf kid sign and she turned it in. She seemed to think it would make a difference. So we got the sign.

Ellis has been really into street signs lately and knowing what they all mean. He is pretty excited that there's a street sign just for him.

But the highlight of our VBS experience this year was Ellis had his first personal ASL interpreter that the church hired for him. It was like night and day for him. He was excited, engaged.

This picture makes me nearly choke up. He's raising his hand!! He understood what was going on, understood the question, and wanted to offer the answer. One day, he stood in front of everyone and volunteered to recite his verse in ASL. It was amazing.

They also took the opportunity to build awareness of deafness and ASL for the whole group. Here is his interpreter and him teaching everyone their alphabet:

which David put to use with his name

Yea, so I basically cried.

And it really confirmed to me that we need to get him interpreter some how, some way for church. He does use his CI, but he takes in information with ASL, his native language.

FIVE!! Five, five, five. I have a five-year-old. A handful. A veritable kid!! with a long, lean body, the baby fat has gone from his fingers and toes, his shoulders feel firm, strong, muscular.

And what a birthday! Of course, one's fifth birthday must be epic.

Treats for school, ice cream cupcakes with family, chocolate cupcakes for a party.
5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

His birthday was on Tuesday. I sent him to school with Rice Krispie treats. (Ok, because i totally forgot until about 7 pm the night before about the whole treat thing.) I made him a 5 shirt. Just in case anyone was wondering.

I bought five helium balloons and one that said happy birthday.

In the evening we ate outside. I scooped ice cream into cupcake papers and let it harden again. (it worked sort of okay) But it was chocolate ice cream. And that's all that mattered.

(Oh, and the bandaid on his forehead, he got at school. It was barely a scratch. But the bandaid was very important to complete the costume of Five Year Old.)

We got him his first baseball glove and a bat and ball. Because apparently baseball is his "favorite." Hubby and I are wondering if we can find a glove at thrift store that we could kind of share. Because apparently we have to play sports now.

The following Saturday we had his birthday party. A small little group. Our Deaf friends, the "O" family, were in town. Their boys and my boys are the same age. We were so happy they could join us. Then we had the families of a friend from school and a friend from church. So in all, two Deaf families and two hearing families. (Though, what are we?? a hearing family with a Deaf kid? not exactly a Deaf or a hearing family...)

I had the crazy idea of hiking along half a mile in Fairmount Park, to my favorite spot along the Wissahickon. So I hauled in a picnic and told everyone to bring their camp chairs. The kids romped in the water and one dad even caught a fish with a makeshift fishing rod. It was lovely.

I think he feels properly celebrated. I love having a 5yo. He's such a big kid and is interested in things and can do so much. But he still likes to curl up in my lap for snuggles.

Or, Sometime You Don't Get What You Want.

Act 1
Scene: getting ready for school.

Mom: Ellis, go upstairs and brush your teeth.
Ellis: yells NOOO!
Mom: Ellis, remember what Daddy said about yelling. That is not nice talking.
E: oh. I'm sorry, Mommy. hugs
Mom: Now go upstairs and brush your teeth.
E: No, thank you, mommy.

Act 2
Scene: Marlowe has discovered the container of cookies in a bag of stuff Grammy sent over. M would help himself but can't get the lid off.

Marlowe: PLEASE!!!!!!!
Mom: No, Marlowe, those are for when it's light out. You can have one tomorrow.
Marlowe finds Ellis and hands him the container PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully, Ellis was more than happy to play the role of boss: No, Marlowe.

We all have them. The ornaments we made in school when we were little kids. I think mine was made of pipe cleaners and beads; it was supposed to be a wreath.

Ellis came home with probably the best school ornament ever. The ILY glove--a little handing signing "i love you." Yes, it is proudly displayed on my tree!

Ellis had his winter program at school yesterday. Each class did a presentation based on the universal theme "things that move." One class had a "wheels on the bus" thing, another "how animals move", and Ellis's class, well, they "got down, D-O-W-N!!!" They each got to show us their moves. It was hysterical. I had tears rolling down my face.

I did manage to snag my little snowflake for a picture afterwards. I'll try to post a video on Flickr or FB later. It was just so funny!!