A New Elephant in Town

It used to be that Ducky was Lucie's favorite "loved one" — toted everywhere, dressed in tutus, held close during naps and at night, and involved in countless imaginary adventures. These days Ducky is most often found tossed to the foot of Lucie's bed, and Ella the elephant has taken her place in Lucie's heart.


It's hard to say exactly when the shift took place. Ella had been around for at least a year or so — a gift at the Wild Animal Park from Gigi and Papa. She had a spot among the handful of special animals in Lucie's crib, but was no where close to as treasured in her early days as she is now. As Lucie moved to a big kid bed, the stuffed elephant in her crib became "Ella", and Ducky has been playing second (or third or fourth) fiddle ever since.

Ella is Lucie's everything. She adores that stuffed little pachyderm. Though I have to admit a touch of sadness for the demise of Lucie's first lovey, Ella does seem like a good friend to enjoy future whispered secrets, slumber parties with friends, and trips to see grandparents. And, if Lucie is anything like her mother, maybe Ella might even make the trip to freshman year of college?

At this same time, Ryan has developed an affinity for a stuffed ball. It also has it's own name, "Ball-eee" (emphasis on the e), and is loved and treasured and slept on and hit and kicked and thrown all day long. It has in no way taken the place of Bunny, but is definitely at number two status. It even travels with us, providing quite a challenge to squish and fit into a backpack.

Last Hurrah

Out of the blue and with absolutely no prompting, Ryan decided that it was time to pass along his well-loved fireman costume to cousin Tate. It was definitely getting too tight, and way too short -- perfect timing for a hand over. Before we could give away old faithful, Ryan and Lucie dressed up for a farewell performance of the fireman and his tiara-wearing sister (who happens to be wearing a cousin Maggie hand-me-down).

All reports out of Tate's house indicate that the costume is continuing to get lots of love. Apparently Tate wanted to wear the "FDNY" undershirt three days straight in his first week of possession. We're happy it's found a good home. And, when the fit gets tight again, cousin Caleb is next in line.

And One Fell Out

The holiday weekend seemed like an opportune time to setup Lucie and Ryan's big kid beds. After cleaning off five months of dust from garage storage, my team of helpers installed the 32 Allen bolts (big advantage to having little hands) and climbed right in. No rails — just a padded quilt on the floor and clear instructions not to fall out.

Worked great until last night...

Little Fish

Last week Lucie and Ryan started their first independent swim class. As I wrapped Ryan up in a towel after day one he exclaimed, "That was fun!" Lucie loved it too, telling us all about her teacher Mr. John and his "crazy moves" in the pool. I've noticed that he does a little dance with her each time she jumps in to him, which she can't describe before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

The class meets four days a week, giving the kids lots of time to try out their new skills in the pool and enjoy Mr. John's antics. Lucie and Ryan have been so excited to go to class, that they deck themselves out in full swim attire -- suits, rash guards, pink and green fluorescent goggles, and pool shoes -- hours before class starts. Ryan even turned down an offer for an ice cream cone before class, worrying that it might make us late (when really it would have made us thirty minutes early instead of our usual forty-five minute early arrival). Ah, to be a kid in the summertime!

Summer Art and Reading

I should know by now that any art project requiring shaving cream and food dye is sure to turn crazy quickly. This adventure started out tame, mixing colors and shaving cream with a spoon in a baking dish. One finger dip in the shaving cream later, and blue-green foam exploded over the patio.

The kids loved it, and like with so many of our art projects, were soon naked to fully enjoy the fun.

In other less-messy activities, the kids joined the summer reading program at our library. They were so excited about earning a prize that they quickly raced through the required ten books for the first level, and begged me to return the next day. Two sweet teenage volunteers checked in their logs, gave them a certificate, and reached underneath the desk for the much anticipated prizes.

We were expecting a sticker or small coloring book, but instead both kids received a stuffed animal, book, two tickets to a baseball game, free passes to museums, stickers, numerous free kids' meal coupons at local restaurants and an echo microphone. All this for reading ten books of their selection? This was nothing like the summer reading program of my youth! (I remember being so thrilled about the patch I earned for my backpack after slogging through a summer's worth of nonfiction, fiction, how-to, mystery, and science books.)

Lucie and Ryan were hooked. The next night we read another set of ten books, and returned to the library for the next level of prizes. A second wonderful prize package was presented, along with a raffle ticket for each kid. With such a bonanza already, it's hard to imagine what the grand prize for the raffle could be. A pony? Trip to Disneyland? Dinner with Curious George?