Stick, Stick

It's Friday so that means that Ellen Bee and Charlie Bear will be headed to Molina's for dinner. She may even wear the Mexican dress Charlie bought for her. That is, if Momma can get it clean.
Oh my, Little Bee. What a mess. It's a good thing that Momma has become a pro at getting stains out.



We had to contain the Little Bee to the tub so that she could fully enjoy her ice cream sandwich. Good call, Cece. When Ellen gets something sticky on her hands she holds them out to us and says, "stick, stick" and wants them wiped. When we were playing outside and I asked her to please not eat that stick, she stuck her fingers together and said, "stick, stick". We then had to havea discussion about the various meanings of the word stick. Love, The (sticky) Little Bee and her Momma

Rough day?

Ever have one of those days where everything you want seems to be just out of your reach?

With insurmountable obstacles keeping you from the prize?
Where one thing after another just doesn't go your way?

Does ice cream make it all better for you? Works like a charm for Little Bee!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Still Walking

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Little Bee has some more walking Muffy pictures to help you get through the week!
Remember to take time and smell the flowers as you go about your busy week.

Even if you have to multitask while doing so.

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Porch Time

When we are in Tiki Island we do a lot of porch sitting. Little Bee enjoys this important task as much of the rest of us and Grandpa even had the entire deck rebuild so that it was as safe as possible for Ellen.
Ellen has her own blue chair that is just the right size for her but sometimes she prefers the view she is allowed by the big chair.

Whatcha thinkin about, Bee?

Most likely, she is watching the birdies fly by. She loves to see the flocks of seagulls and pelicans that float by daily. She also likes to tell us about the "agua" in the bay and the palm trees that are swaying by the porch. Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Monday Mommy Must Have: Zoli Gummy Sticks

source

There are so many baby products out there trying to entice you. Some are worth it and some are not. I want to share with you some of the things that the Little Bee and I found to be worthwhile. Take these reviews with a grain of salt because every baby is different. Our next Ladybug might turn her nose up at some of the things that we couldn't have lived without.

Teething crept in to our lives fairly gently with the Little Bee getting two cute pearly whites up top. After we were lured into a sense of "we can do this", six to eight teeth decided to make an appearance all at the same time. My poor Bee! I had these Zoli teethers on hand and offered them to Ellen. She knew just what to do with them and seemed to love the relief they brought. They are especially great for the harder to reach teeth and are easy to hold on to. What are your favorite teethers? Love, The Little Bee's Momma

Hey, Cupcake!

Momma Bee loves to bake and since Little Bee has taken up an interest in cooking I decided to let her help me make cupcakes for our church cakewalk. Can you spy her little hand in mine, helping me to pour?
Ok, Little Bee, now give the batter a good stir.

Come on, you tasted it, now stir.

That's it. Good job.

Our pink cupcakes with pink sprinkles were quite the hit with the girls at the cakewalk. What should Little Bee and I make next? Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Let's Go, Muffy!

Muffy really earns her dog chow around here. Over the Labor Day weekend Ellen decided that she would take on the chore of walking Muffy. She was so proud of herself and strutted all over Tiki Island toting Muffy behind her.
Muffy was less convinced that this was a good idea or that it was even in her job description. After she and I had a talk about "job expansion" and the line in her contract about "and other duties". She was a reluctant walkie. "I have to take orders from the short, bossy human too?"

Yes, Muffy. Even the short, bossy human outranks you but she also loves you fiercely.

Sometimes a little too fierce! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Sleeping Like a Baby

I really don't have much to say about these beautiful shots of my Little Bee. She is just so peaceful and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of her while she was dreaming sweet baby dreams.

I love watching her sleep. I love watching her do anything, really, but she is just so angelic when she sleeps. She never even says "no" or "mine". Every night before I go to bed, I go in and get one last look at her before I call it a night. Sometimes she is so beautiful that I have to go get her Daddy so that he can see too. Sleep tight, Little Bee! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Mommy's Big Helper!

The Little Bee has decided that she is going to start helping Mommy cook. Mommy finally gave her a chance to give it a try one day while Daddy was golfing. (Mommy was desperate!) I just dragged this chair up to our project at hand (I really can't remember what day it is so please don't ask me to remember what we were cooking...) and gave Ellen the longest spoon we have and let her get to stirring. She loves this and wants to help every time I cook. Dinner is taking us a bit longer to get on the table these days...

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Grocery Store Fun

Even mundane chores are fun with the Little Bee in tow. She loves the merry-go-round outside of the grocery store. She also loves the balloons inside! Please note that she picked out a necklace to sport for our errand. It used to belong to Mommy but the Little Fashionista has commandeered it.

Inside the store, the Little Bee decided to take this hot pink bug for a ride. She prefers to drive using both steering wheels. Can you see how proud of herself she is? Mommy was a bit worried about how germy this ride might be and looked a bit like Grandpa wiping it down with sanitizer before our precious cargo took the wheel. The Little Bee did not care one bit about these germs and thought this was the best trip to the store ever! We will definitely take this cart for a spin again! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

What. A. Ham.

Our Little Bee can be quite the ham. She loves to make people smile and laugh. Once she figures out something has made you laugh she will repeat this over and over. Sunglasses make the Little Bee laugh. She has many pairs and she loves to try them on and make funny faces at Mommy and Daddy. I think this tendency towards making people smile is good for so many reasons but one reason stands out a great deal to me - self esteem.

Our little ones get self esteem in the toddler years from their parents. We give them messages all day long about their self-worth in the way that we look at them, what we say, and how we care for them. This is different from babies who don't really have a sense of self yet and thus don't really have self-esteem. We do build the potential for self esteem in babies by loving them and caring for their needs. They learn that they are lovable and worthy of good care. With toddlers it is a bit more complex. They are starting to learn that they are separate people in the world and trying to discover who they are and how they fit into the world. This is why the words "no" and "mine" fly out of the Little Bee's mouth at an alarming frequency. She is telling herself and those around her that she is a separate person who can make decisions and effect the world around her. Oh, how she loves to practice this over and over!

While I was bathing the Little Bee last night she did something goofy and I smiled at her. She radiated the most beautiful smile back at me and everything I ever learned about self-esteem came flooding back at me. (Probably due to having our whole Sunday School pray for the misadventures of our little one this weekend.) It was a great reminder that I am shaping how she will feel about herself for years to come. It is my job to teach her that she is lovable, precious, worthy of great care, powerful, and a very valuable human. Right now this seems like a doable task, however, it gets more complicated with the "no's" and "mine's". This is why we have two parents. When one parent is exhausted from the Terrific Toddler Tantrums, the other can take over so that our Little Bee grows up learning just how special she is. Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Morning Routine

In the morning, our Little Bee likes to help Mommy and Daddy get ready for the day. Here she is helping me to make sure I do my makeup correctly. We put our makeup on while Daddy is in the shower. When she hears the shower turn off she says, "Dada." This is my cue that she wants to take Dada his watch and wedding ring. She is so proud to be such a great help.

One morning while sitting on my counter doing our normal routine, she open the QTip jar and did this:

I'm telling you, this Little Smartie doesn't miss a thing! We never taught her this but she observed it at some point and remembered all the steps involved in using a QTip. So funny. (I know, I know and dangerous but I had to get the picture first!) Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Ms. Angela Makeover

The Little Bee and I are having a little disagreement about her hair. I assume this is the first of many fashion conflicts we will have. I would like to see her hair pulled back in a little bow so that I can see her sweet face but she prefers to rip the bows out of her hair and stick them on Daddy. Occasionally, she will let Ms. Angela style her hair and even play dress up. In this first picture she was getting a makeover for a school fashion show. She wore her Lilly Pulitzer sundress and a hat and bag of her own design!
This crazy side pig-tail look is her favorite. Aunt Muffy and Cece think that it makes her look like a Papillion but Ellen thinks it is "pretty."

This last picture is of our Little Fashionista posing so that Ms. Angela can send me a picture of her posing during dress-up time. Daddy taught her that head-tilt and it is her current go-to pose. Ellen is asking Santa for more dress-up clothes this year! Keep posing, Sweet Bee of mine! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

I Do It Myself!

No Ellen is not 2 yet but she hasn't seem to have gotten the memo... She wants to do everything for herself. She wants to eat, get dressed and bathe all by herself. This independence is great except that she struggles to do some of these tasks alone.
Here she is showing you that she can use a fork and spoon pretty well. When she gets her fingers dirty during a meal she holds her hand out to be wiped and says "ewww."

In the bathtub we give her foam soap on her hand and let her wash her tummy, arms, legs and face. It irritates her to no end that Mommy does a spot check to make sure she got "2000 parts."


She has even tried to take off her diaper and wipe herself. Thank goodness she did not figure out how to get her diaper off! Our Little Bee has begun to be a fan of "nakey time" and likes to take her clothes off when she gets home from school. We believe that Aunt Muffy had something to do with encouraging this! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Stickers!

Mommy has to get creative to keep this Busy Bee occupied. You don't want to see what she gets into when she gets bored...
One Saturday I was completely running out of ideas when I came across a pack of stickers while cleaning the house. I thought, "these have got to be good for a few minutes peace" and showed Ellen how to decorate her arms and legs. She quickly got the picture and went to town sticking them all over herself.

No glamor for Momma on Saturday morning! Ellen managed to stick a sticker on Mommy's face. She thought this new game was hysterical and even got a sticker on Muffy's paw. Now when she sees stickers she knows just what to do and she has so much fun putting them on and taking them off. Love, The Little Bee and her Momma