New Booster!

When Little Bee began to pitch a fit at dinner time about sitting in her high chair I jumped on Amazon and ordered a booster seat with one touch shopping and free shipping (very dangerous!). She has been loving her new seat and is so excited to eat like a big girl with her Ho Ho plate and fork. We love eating as a family and taking the time to unwind together.

When Daddy is gone and it is just the Bee and Momma, I have been known to be naughty and let Ellen zone out in front of Elmo while she eats. How else can I clean the kitchen?

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Playing with Dinner

I have a very fun memory of Aunt Muffy and I having lobster races in our living room before my dad cooked dinner for us. The Little Bee was recently exposed to her first lobsters and had just as much fun as we did. Aunt Muffy and I attempted to get them to race but this was a no go. We resorted to setting them out on the kitchen table so that Ellen could get a good look at them. She was fascinated by their feelers and not one bit scared. She even tried to eat them!
She enjoyed watching us pick and crack at the shells and even tried some lobster meat. What an adventurous girl! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

New Playhouse

Please excuse these fuzzy iPhone shots but sometimes you just can't get to the camera fast enough! While hanging out at Cece's Ellen sometimes crawls inside Winnie's house. We never seem to have the camera ready fast enough and usually miss these shots. She loves to climb in and open and shut the door. She will even climb in when he is in there. Winnie does not love this.

Ellen crawls in and just cracks up at our reaction as we fumble around for the camera and attempt to capture her cuteness! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Monday Mommy Must Have: Washable Labels

I got these Name Bubbles labels as a gift before Ellen was born and have already gone through my first pack and ordered another! I use them on her clothes, bottles, sippy cups, pacifier, blankets, school bag and anything else that I want to see again. They are dishwasher and washing machine safe and look great after washing! I recently bought her a new coat and sent it with her to school. When she came home that day she had a different but similar coat in her school bag. Her teacher reminded me that I had not labeled that coat when I emailed to figure out who had her coat. Lessen learned! I love that they are small, washable and 100% customizable. I also love that when I stick one of these on her cups they don't come home from school with permanent marker all over them! (Not that I am faulting the teachers who do this - how would you keep that many sippy cups in the correct chubby hands?) Love, The Little Bee's Momma

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Little Bee!
Ellen has really enjoyed the Christmas season and hopes you have too!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Tutu Fever!

Ellen's teacher sent me these shots of Ellen sneaking a peak at the ballet lessons at school. In the first picture she is holding her hands up to her mouth as she squeals about the tutus the teacher just pulled out of a bag. She wanted to put one on so bad!

Her teacher let her watch the class and she was able to follow along and do all of the moves just like the big girls! I wish she was old enough to join in officially but it looks like she is sidelined until she is two and a half! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Oh Baby!

Ellen is so sweet with her babies. I just love watching her play with them. She gives them kisses, talks and sings to them, changes their diapers, feeds them, puts them night night, and reads them books. I like think she is emulating the way she is mommied.
The other day she picked up her baby and car keys. She kissed her baby good bye and handed her over to her teacher telling her "work". So, this is what she thinks being a mommy is I guess. That hurts but at least I also see her doing all the loving things I do when we are together.

Is it a good thing that she is learning that women can have lives and careers and also love their babies? Is she missing me and wishing I wasn't at work? Is there a way for daddies to understand the guilt of the working mother? Who knows any of these answers. I just have to keep doing my best and hope that she learns from the great things I do but also from my mistakes. I love you, Little Bee, and hope that you have more answers than I do!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Found Paci

Is this called regression? Our Sweet Bee has been without a paci since she started sucking her thumb but I guess it just looked good today. Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Boots!

Our Little Bee is quite opinionated about her footwear and we have been known to be late to events over differences in how to style outfits. For example, I would not have chosen blue rain boots to wear with a tutu but some days you just give in and move on...

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Compass Christmas Party

Our Sunday School class just got together to celebrate Christmas and do what we do best - eat, drink wine and laugh. We are so lucky to have such a great group of friends and I am so happy that Ellen is growing up surrounded by these amazing people.
Doesn't Ellen look grown up in her plaid skirt!

Caroline looked as beautiful as always. I love this sweet girl!

P's Momma and I decided that we were enjoying our wine and that Ellen could take over babysitting for a while. P didn't seem to mind this arrangement and Ellen took it very seriously.

Charlie and Davis had an even better idea for child containment and decided that they would take matters into their own hands. Here they are enjoying Emmy Lou's crate. Ellen, being a connoisseur of dog crates, thought this was an excellent idea and joined in the fun. It's moments like these that Julie thinks we should charge people for as a form of birth control. I know at least one member of our group that this is quite effective for...

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Monday Mommy Must Have: Mommy Hour

This is probably my numero uno must have! I don't know how anyone could rear a child without a solid group of women cheering her on in life's weirdest and hardest moments. When I think about all the things my friends and I have laughed about, cried about and had drinks to get us through I am so grateful! Recently, I had a pretty rough experience with Ellen and was so glad to have Angela and Kristin there to literally cheer me on (so, yes Kristin I did blog about it!). I don't think a single phase has occurred without me looking into what Carrie or Alison did to get through it. They are my moral mommy compass. Julie and I were lucky enough to go through pregnancy together (she was much better at pregnancy than I was) and now we are going through the twos together (yes already and no we can't believe it either). I don't know what I would do without the margaritas we have shared! Talks with Tiffany and Sam got me through the mommy blues and I am so grateful about how honest they always are with me. As more mommies join our little fold I am so excited about the fun and hard times we will share. It seems like there are new little ones joining our group all the time and I am so excited to see how they grow up together. I can honestly say I love all of the little munchkins in our group as if they were my own children. I am proud when they succeed and so sad when they are hurting. So our Mommy group unionized and we get together at least once a month without kiddos. I think it was Alison who coined our motto, "No mom left behind". The Daddies have come to accept this and the drinks and spa bills that come along with it. They even indulge us by watching the kids while we unwind. (Don't worry we return the favor when they play golf). Love you Mommies! Love, The Little Bee's Momma

Gramps Time

Ellen has recently become a huge fan of Gramps. She got up early with him every morning while we were at the farm. They snuggled, ate breakfast and Gramps got a lesson in toddler wrangling.

Ellen enjoyed helping Gramps do all kinds of things around the farm. She helped him cook stakes, clean the smoker, drive around the property, sit by the fire ("hot, hot"), and enjoy the view at the picnic spot.
While Gramps cooked dinner in the kitchen, Ellen pulled out the pots and pans and made her own meal. This girl loves to cook!

This weekend she started calling him Papa with the accent on the second syllable. I swear this kid has some kind of foreign accent! Ellen really enjoys her time with Gramps and I think he likes it too! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Daddy Time

While at the farm with Charlie, Ellen got to enjoy a lot of Daddy time.
So did Charlie but I think Charlie liked the sticks more than anything!

Daddies let you do all kinds of fun things like dig in the dirt,

go on walks,

haul sticks,

and even run with sticks! (Big, big, sticks!) Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Dress Rehearsal

The Little Bee and her friends are getting ready for their big show tonight! I can't wait to see these sweet angels in action!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Fun with Charlie

Charlie and his family recently joined us for a weekend at the farm. Ellen was very excited to see her buddy! Charlie was very excited to see Ellen but was more excited about all the sticks and dogs at the farm.
A little doggy smooch.

Sometimes I wonder if our kiddos spend so much time together that they act more like siblings than friends. We had a few issues over sharing sticks. I really don't even think that Ellen cared about the sticks as much as she cared about letting Charlie know about "mine!".

These two had a lot of great adventures together and were pretty worn out by the end of the weekend. Both were asleep before we hit the property gate to leave!

Thanks for a fun weekend, Charlie and fam!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa, Our Little Bee has been extra good this year and has worked very hard to stay on the "Nice" list. She has even made peace with Nono NayNay (most of the time)... She asked me to put together this list for you so that you would know what she is looking for under the tree! Ellen has become quite domestic this year and is interested in babies and cooking. She has her eye on a pink play kitchen and would love this mixer and bake set to go with it.

www.playkitchens.com

She would like this sweet baby pram to push her babies on walks.

www.potterybarnkids.com

She would also like a bouncy house. I am mixed on this item but she and her Daddy insist that this is a must. They say that she can use it for parties and play dates and that they will never get sick of it.

www.toysrus.com

She would also like a wooden high chair so that her babies have somewhere to sit while she feeds them.

www.toysrus.com

Little Bee has been loving all of the Christmas festivities and I think she has been too young to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition but we think she might be ready next year. Of course she wants a girl elf.

www.target.com

Ok, serious talk time... Ellen really really wants a pair of glitter Toms, Santa. Her bestie, Betsy, has some and she has been so jealous ever since Betsy set that glitter foot down in day care. She even took one off of her to see if it was her size.

www.toms.com

So, you see, Santa, our Little Bee has quite a list. I know she is going to have a great Christmas!

Love, The Little Bee and her Momma

Ho Ho Time!

We are totally into the Christmas Season at our house and wanted to share a few of the things that are helping us to get in the mood. Ellen's pick for her favorite Christmas item thus far has been the book "Careful, Santa!" by Julie Sykes. I don't know what it is about this book but I have read it every night at least twice since I bought it. Ellen loves it and gets into every page with a different comment. source

This Shelley Kyle has had our house smelling like Christmas and I can't get enough of it! I got it at Olivine in the Village and can't recommend it enough. It is a nostalgic blend of pine, cinnamon, and clove. I have been burning two at a time!

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This next item I haven't tried yet but I am so excited about it! I stopped in Williams Sonoma to pick up some of their Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (to die for!) and decided that we needed this Egg Nog pancake mix for Christmas morning. It is flavored with nutmeg and cinnamon and I bet it will be incredible! I think we will set Daddy to work making these for us while the Little Bee plays with her new toys Christmas morning. I can't wait!

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While at Williams Sonoma (to get neither of these two items that I came home with...) I also picked up Mulling Spices, Apple Cider concentrate, and cinnamon sticks so that we can have hot apple cider as we watch our Angel rip through her Christmas presents. I am really looking forward to how good that will smell!

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The last thing on my Christmas spirit list is some mistletoe from our farm! Daddy picked this right off of one of our trees and I got crafty with it. Doesn't it look sweet hanging from our deer? I hope to catch Daddy under it soon!

I hope all of you are enjoying this season as much as we are! Ellen sees "Ho Ho" everywhere and is so excited about it. She has also been enjoying all of the fun "pawties" and chances to wear her "pawty shoes". Merry Christmas! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma