The recital

She did it. She had her first recital. Can I say, that she not only performed the song the best she's ever done, but she clearly performed the best in her class. Here are a few pics from the recital, but there are more on my flickr. They're kinda blurry because it was really dark in the room. Once we figure out how to upload videos onto the computer, I'll post that, too.

It was the funniest performance ever. There are 4 girls, Ellie, Hailey, Emily (another Korean girl who's 3 1/2) and Linda (a blond Norwegian girl, almost 4). Hailey was crying the entire time while kneeling on the floor, Emily was standing still and watching Hailey, and Ellie and Linda both did most of the dance (although Ellie did better). HILARIOUS. In the pics, none of the girls are doing the same thing, if they're doing anything at all. For the second half, Hailey was wailing and reaching out to her mom. Also, her mouth is completely blue because her mom bribed her with a blue candy cane right beforehand.

Anyway, I was SOOOO proud. So was her entourage - Peter, Matthew, Sandy, Gina, and later (after she'd performed) Grandma and Grandpa. They were watching a movie and ignored my warnings that it would take longer than they thought to get there. Ellie's song was first and 2 minutes long. You come a minute late and you miss the whole thing, pretty much.

She'll perform the dance for you if you ask her. Apparently she works better with an audience, because she never wanted to practice with just me. Hilarious.

Completely irrelevant to the recital, here's also a video of her friend Noah from school. He does the two things Ellie won't - eat and sleep. Except he does them at the same time. I was in tears watching him. So cute. Hope his mom doesn't mind that I'm posting it... It's too funny to not share. He never stops chewing.

Oh, another irrelevant story. We were passing Goode Co. Seafood yesterday, and Ellie goes, "Mommy. I see a blue fish." I reply, "Yeah. That's the sign for a restaurant because you eat fish there." She goes, "Just like the restaurant we go with Gloria Eemo." OK, two things. First, you remember Gloria Eemo's name? Because you certainly never called her by it when we saw her. Second, how in the world do you remember that? In October we met up with Gloria and ate at a restaurant called Fish. We never talked to her directly about it, but I guess she was listening to us talk about it amongst ourselves.

It's so funny to me when people at church she clearly knows come up to her every week and ask if she remembers them. She's like, well, duh. Another time this girl was saying hi to her and goes, "Kkakkung! Kkakkung!" Ellie stared at her blankly for awhile, then turned to me and said, "What that eemo saying to me?" She has an amazing memory. She can even remember dance routines! Did I mention how cute she was?

Yes!

I would just like to announce that... prune juice works.

And that's all I have to say about that. You're welcome.

Mini Grammar Nazi

One of the most intruiging things about watching my kids develop is their language acquisition. Ellie was an early talker. It'll be interesting to see what Matthew does. He used to say mama when he was upset. Now he reaches for me and says, "MABA!" in a despairing voice. Hmm.

Anyway, I think if I ever went back to school (and that's a giant if), I'd want to study language acquisition in children. That was definitely one of my most interesting classes in college. I sort of wish I'd done ESL or something of the sort. Grammar is fascinating, isn't it?

I took a grammar class in college since I specialized in English. The prof looked like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons. Eerie. Anyway, I'm going along in the semester, enjoying myself, diagramming sentences to my heart's content, when one day the class all gets together to try to... I dunno, like, protest the class or something. Apparently everyone was failing the class and not a single person enjoyed it. OOPS! Sorry for ruining the curve, everyone! Of course, I didn't speak up and defend the class, but it's not like they would've been able to do anything about it anyway. Please.

Most of my friends know how anal I am about grammatical consistency and accuracy. I even edit my blogs to make sure they are grammatically correct. Peter's first draft of skits are always punctual nightmares, but it's fun because I like correcting. If I could walk around with a red pen and just correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. errors I see in public without being offensive, I'd be a happier person. Sad, huh?

What was my point? Oh yeah. So I always make a point to use adverbs correctly. Talk quietly, Ellie. Drive more slowly, Daddy. Don't scream so loudly, Matthew. Ellie has lately picked up on this. We were going somewhere the other day, and she goes, "Daddy! Don't drive so fastly!" Such a proud moment for me. :) The overcompensation thing is so interesting. For awhile, she said things were "my's" all the time.

Totally irrelevant story: Ellie and I went to get Jamba Juice. It was near a Starbucks, so Ellie goes, "There's a coffee next to Jamba Juice!" I asked her, "What's the coffee store called?" She replies, "Decaf!" I dunno... I thought that was funny.

I love Santa Claus

I'm a terrible Christian mother. I'm sorry. I know I should be teaching Ellie about Jesus' birthday and giving and sharing and things regarding Christmas, but Santa is a WONDERFUL manipulative idea. Have you ever thought about the words to Santa Claus is Coming to Town? It is SOOO threatening. You better watch out! Better not cry! Better not pout, I'm telling you why... Santa Claus is coming to town! Be good for goodness sake!

So Ellie has been Christmas shopping with me and has gotten obsessively greedy. She wants everything she sees and is convinced Santa Claus is going to get it all for her. We were buying Matthew some pants (as the 6-12 month size cuts of the circulation of his rotund little belly) at Macy's, and there were toys in the kids' department. She tells Sandy, "I want that and that and that. Santa Claus gonna get it for me."

Since then I've convinced her Santa will bring ONE present... if she's a good girl and not naughty. This has stopped many a whining incident, tantrum, and just general objection to my directions. Thank God for Santa Claus is all I have to say.

On the flip side, we have decided to give a bunch of toys away to needy kids. I've decided to get Ellie involved with this. I don't think she even fathoms children that don't have toys, but the idea made her sad. She was playing with one of said toys, and Peter told her to get ready for bed. She replied, "Wait! I have to put this toy back and give it to kids that no have toys." So that's nice.

She also knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, although she thinks baby Jesus and grown up Jesus are two different people. And when I bring up Jesus' birthday, she mostly starts talking about her own birthday party, which will be at the end of March.

Maybe next year...