Easter

On Easter morning Ella BOUNDED out of bed to see if the Easter bunny had come. (As a side note, she did NOT do this on Christmas. Candy trumps Santa). She had informed JD the day before that she thought MAYBE Easter was her favorite holiday. When pushed she changed back to Christmas, but it does attest to the level of excitement she had.

Easter morning the girls discovered their Easter baskets (year round toys) had been found by the Easter bunny and FILLED. This was somewhat exciting, but the true excitement was - what is in the back yard? "I hope there are lots of treats." Yes, there were. Charlotte dove into her candy, dumped every piece out on the carpet and sat without moving until it was finished. Completely. Ella had some but then chose to put hers away so that she could have some later. (At which point she kindly shared with Charlotte who had none for later.)

With Nana after bath time.


Discovering the baskets.


The tricky bunny hid eggs in the tree!


Charlotte dresses up for Easter morning.


After the Easter festivities of the morning we went to a family friend's house and enjoyed seeing friends and eating DELICIOUS food there. The girls got to play with a bunch of other kids and even got to swim (a chilly day in Los Angeles, but still swimmable in a heated pool!).

Contemplating the pond


The whole family


Nana and the girls


The kids table at dinner


The girls with a friend

A Passing Stranger

While on a visit to the Getty museum in February the girls and I were in line when a sweet girl with a camera said that she was a photographer and loved taking photos - was I ok with her snapping a few of Charlotte? I said of course and today received a WONDERFUL surprise in my email box - a few photos of my Charlotte that are just beautiful and very much capture her...so thought I would share.

We are on Spring Break and will probably be headed to the Getty again this week. Wonder if we will have such nice luck again?

Charlotte

Charlotte is 2 and a bit now (well, 27 months to be precise) and she is one of the funniest people I know. Her favorite things are:

1) Her Ella. Every day when she wakes up - "Where's my Ella?" Luckily her Ella dotes on her as well.

2) Her dolls - baby and her new doll, "my doll". Apparently names are not one of her likes. She sleeps with Baby, her doll, her Shamu book, her baby beluga book, her Minnie phone, her turtle and her blankies ("my two" as they are called).

3) Her pink kitty rain boots. It doesn't rain a lot in LA. You wouldn't know it judging by her daily footwear. Dresses and her boots, preferably on the wrong feet. Pick your battles...

4) Jokes. She is very silly and really likes to say silly things. Her current favorite is to say very quietly one...two...three...(then so loudly MARY POPPINS! Then, amidst gales of laughter she shouts, I called you Mary Poppins!

5) Docious. Speaking of Mary Poppins, Charlotte would like there to be one song in the world and it is Docious. Also known as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Thanks to the broadway version of the song both girls can (almost) spell the word!

6) My phone. She really loves calling people on the phone. Gaga, Papa, Soup, Kait and Nana have all been on the receiving end of a Charlotte call.

Other Charlotte tidbits -
She tells us her name is Charlotte Cinderella Disneyland Walsh.
She can count to ten.
She has decided to start wearing big girl underpants and uses the toilet - and has been doing so for about 3 days with just one accident, all of her on volition.
Her favorite activities (and the ones she would like to do all day) are painting and playing in the sink with the bubbles.
She calls swimming "souping".

Ella

Ella is now 4 years old, but is so wise and thoughtful that at times it is hard to remember that she is four. Her current favorite things are:

1) School - every day she asks is today a school day?

2) Art projects - preferably using as many varied elements as she can possibly find. One day I reminded her that "nature stays in nature" (which means, DO NOT bring that bucket of mud into my house) and she very calmly told me that she was using different mediums in her art project and she needed it. She won, of course. Most of her art projects involve markers, paper, glue, scissors, play dough and ribbons.

3) The phrase "of course" - used often and completely (adorably) incorrectly. Example: Are you coming, of course? I love it!

4) Musicals - she will sit near the CD player or the computer (she can navigate her way through iTunes with ease) and her favorite musicals are currently Annie, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins the musical and The Secret Garden.

5) Books -we have read 3 of the Betsy-Tacy book series and just started the All of a Kind Family books (5 sisters, one is Ella and one is Charlotte) and she really loves reading her chapter books. I look forward to that reading time with her immensely.

6) Riding her bike. She adores riding her bike and in one quick weekend mastered her two wheeler with the training wheels. She is unstoppable!

7) Swimming. She now jumps into the pool without even plugging her nose and is learning to swim, all from Daddy. She loves it.

Other Ella tidbits:
She tells us her name is Ella Bella Cinderella Disneyland Rose Walsh.
She really really really wants to visit Texas (no idea why).
She is the kindest person I have ever met.
She still loves her fifi (blankie), pacis and her Lucy (her baby doll) and has them with her for sleeping.