The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh
Life is what happens while I am busy planning my next knitting design.
Elly donned her princess dress and her tiara this morning.
Then, she requested Daddy’s guitar so she could sing Prince Eric’s song.
The song was similar to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but in this version Elly married Prince Eric.
And they lived happily ever after.
Elly was so excited to help me decorate the house and the tree for Christmas.
She can’t wait for Santa to come.
It is true. Every time I ask Elly what she wants for Christmas, she tells me that she wants a ball. She also wants to buy everybody else a ball. Mind you, she has a collection of balls and we always have at least one balloon blown up for her. Yet, Elly is consistent; she wants another ball. They are great for playing catch, soccer, baseball and tennis.
Thankfully, Elly doesn’t want any toys that her friends have or that she has seen in the stores we frequent. I don’t think it has occurred to her that a toy she likes playing with elsewhere could be purchased and brought home. It’s a good thing because I imagine the first discussion we would have is why a train table could not fit into our small house. Oh how she loves to put the tracks together and run the trains along them.
I am actually surprised that another baby doll wasn’t on Elly’s Christmas list. She went through a phase just a few weeks ago where we couldn’t leave the house without a baby.
Even today we had to take Baby Pearl to the garden store. Her favorite thing to do with her baby dolls is to pile them all up on the couch or the chair and cuddle with them. So more is merrier.
Occasionally, Elly asks for wings to help fly around the house or to pretend she is a bird. She had a pair, but they were damaged several months ago. She hasn’t forgotten.
As mentioned on Monday, Elly’s love for books as increased lately. Even after unpacking all the books I had in storage for her, I didn’t feel that Elly had too many books. Is there such a thing? So naturally, I bought her a book for Christmas. It’s not your typical picture book. It’s a picture book about knitting called Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf. How perfect is that?
What else did I get Elly for Christmas? As you can guess, I didn’t get her a train table. I didn’t even get her a new pair of wings, mainly because she gnawed on the last pair. Perhaps when she outgrows her need to put inedible things in her mouth. Instead I got her a dollhouse, a Lite Brite, a toddler laptop with mouse, and stocking stuffers. Shopping for kids are so much fun. Basically, I buy them whatever I loved playing with as a kid. I adored my dollhouse and Lite Brite.
Rarely does Elly gnaw on the cover of a book or tear pages out of a book anymore. Factor in her increased desire to read books and all of a sudden the two bookcase shelves that were dedicated to her no longer looked like a large enough children’s library.
Oddly enough, there was no need to buy more books. Even before Elly was no more than a twinkle in my eye, I collected children’s books. From Dr Seuss to Shel Silverstein, I loved them all and would buy them to read over and over again.
As a baby, Elly had an appetite for books. She literally tried to eat them. When one of my favorite children’s books was destroyed, I packed the rest away and put them in Elly’s closet.
On Sunday, I pulled several boxes out. Now Elly has 3 bookcase shelves jammed tight with books, two in the living room and one in her bedroom.
More boxes are still in her closet, but they are mostly chapter books and will likely stay there for another year or so until Elly learns the true beauty of books: words are far prettier than any hand drawn picture. I imagine that realization will come after she learns to read.
Of course, I don’t know for certain how to teach Elly to read. Dan and I read to her, spell words out to her (which seems mean when you realize that the only letters Elly knows are O and E), write words and encourage her natural curiosity about the alphabet. I’m kinda hoping the ability to read will just click into place like a puzzle piece. Already Elly likes to “read” books all by herself, so perhaps we are doing something right. By “read”, I mean she has memorized the book and can retell it by heart. Although, the other day she surprised us by recognizing the names Elly, Mom and Dad, but I suppose she’s probably memorized those words too. Still, we’re proud parents.
Elly singing the words from “The Wheels on the Bus” book.
I myself read a ton every single day and yet I haven’t read a traditional novel since before Elly was born. Instead I read the news, a ridiculous amount of sewing and knitting blogs, recipes, emails, road signs, etc. The sooner Elly can read, the sooner she can enjoy the amazing written world all around her. I just know she’s going to love it.
This post is part of a community effort to raise awareness about YWCA’s literary program. An anonymous donor has agreed to contribute $1 for every valid name and email address entered into this Google Doc. There is no cap on the amount of money they are willing to donate. So, please hop over to the Google Doc and enter in your info; it will take you less than 1 minute of your time. Thank you!
I love to take pictures. I take pictures almost every day.
Elly is quite used to me carrying my camera bag with me everywhere. Often if we are headed out the door, she’ll hand it to me.
She is also quite used to me taking pictures of her. She doesn’t mind it a bit. Quite the contrary, she encourages me to take more pictures.
This picture was taken when we were visiting Target. As we were walking out of the store, Elly saw a mother taking a picture of her daughter who was sitting on one of the big red balls. You can see the young girl in the background posing for another picture. Naturally, Elly wanted me to help her climb up on the red ball and take her picture too.
The picture above was requested just yesterday morning after Elly laid all her babydolls on the couch and then curled up next to them under a pile of blankets. She was proud.
This next picture was requested because Elly thought she looked funny hanging upside down.
She was right.
Other times, Elly will be playing with her toys and then abruptly stop and announce that she needs to find her camera. Off she runs into her bedroom to get her camera and take a picture of her toys.
It’s so cute.
Though I finished knitting the 3-tier skirt in August, it wasn’t until last weekend that it was cool enough for Elly to wear it.
It’s a pity I didn’t get any pictures of her dancing for her favorite part of the skirt was the fact that it twirled when she spun.
A few days later when I was encouraging her to wear a skirt over top of her leggings, she asked me if I had made her that skirt too.
And then when she saw me hand mending an outfit, she asked what I was making for her.
On both occasions I just smiled and laughed.
Happy Halloween!
Elly was indeed a princess.
The tiara was short-lived though. During the day, she ran without anything on her head.
At night, she wore a fleece purple hat that matched her sweater quite well. As you may recall, this was Elly’s flower girl dress turned inside out.
I assured her that her headgear wouldn’t matter. Everyone would know she was a princess.
And they did.
The haul Elly got from our neighbors was astounding. After an hour, Elly was having to stuff the candy in, crushing the candy and chips below.
She woke up this morning singing the ABC song and asking to go trick or treating again.
Yesterday, Elly and I painted the two pumpkins she had picked out last week.
After drawing a happy face on the first pumpkin, Elly drew a line from the eye to the top of the pumpkin and announced that it was a pirate. Dan was so proud.
The paint is already flaking off because I insisted that we use Crayola washable paint rather than acrylic paint. Acrylic paint would have stuck better to the pumpkins, but it also would have stuck a bit too well to Elly and to my clothes. Elly tends to paint aggressively when she gets into a zone. Paint starts flying.
There is still the big pumpkin to decorate. Since we are stuck indoors thanks to Hurricane Sandy, we’ll have oodles of time to draw a face on it and carve it out. It’s a family affair because Dan is responsible for cleaning the guts of the pumpkin out.
Update: Elly loved helping Daddy carve the pumpkin though she refused to help clean out the seeds. She didn’t want to get her hands dirty. Ha!
This wall has always been our picture wall from the day we moved into this house.
You can see it here in the first picture Elly took on my old point and shoot camera.
Yet, for the past 4 years, it hadn’t been updated.
Even worse, there were no pictures of Elly in the house aside from one tabletop frame. There are close to a thousand pictures of Elly in my online Picasa photo gallery, but none had been printed and placed in a frame.
So, this past month, I have been updating baby pictures of my godsons with more recent pictures as well as adding more pictures of family.
Elly’s picture got the star treatment it deserved.
It’s a 16 by 20 poster print. The picture is one of my favorites: Elly playing tug-o-war with Jake.
I even framed my favorite piece of her artwork.
The whole house feels brighter and happier.
Jake lounges under the pin oak tree in the midst of the fallen leaves.
Elly hides among the pumpkins as I try to pick out the perfect one for carving.
Elly practices riding her scooter over the leave-strewn walkway.
The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh 