Our Nonie


























I am not sure what we would do without Elaine. She makes so much possible. She is so generous and caring and loving to all of us. After the eighteen months she has had, she is a wonder to us and we are so glad she is back and strong and healthy--and has been, never missing a day, for the past year. Kit is smitten with her and lights up when she arrives. And Elsie often calls out for her "Na-na" when she doesn't like what her parents are requiring of her. In fact, David and I call out for Nonie when we don't like what Elsie is requiring of us. Nonie is our guardian angel!

The First Day of School: Can't You Just Smell the Crayons?

Countdown to Cousin-Time is On


We can't wait for Labor Day in Atlanta to celebrate Poppa's birthday and see all the cousins--We hear Tad is a grinner and a roller and we won't even recognize him and we adore seeing the Boukater Bunch almost four times in one month! How lucky are we?

Outerwear for Insects

One of my great joys as a mother is reading with Elsie. As a passionate reader my whole life, I revel in the double consciousness of reading books I once enjoyed myself to her. And I delight in her desire to "read" to me. I eagerly anticipate reading the Little House books, Betsy Tacy books, and Harry Potter books with her one day. For now, I am giddy getting to try out Beatrix Potter and Shel Silverstein and am surprised and delighted at what she seems to grasp. A new batch of books arrived from Amazon the other day and Elsie devoured them and after a few readings of Never Take a Shark to the Dentist she wanted to "read" the book to me. It is filled with humorous lines like "Never escort a raccoon to the bank" or "Never bring an ant on a picnic" with accompanying delightful pictures. When she read it back to me, she read it as dramatically as her Grammy might and I couldn't help but giggle when she translated "Never give a moth a sweater for her birthday" to "NEBER EBER EBER EBER GIB A BUTTERFLY A JACKET FOR HER BIRFDAY." Somehow the subtlety was lost but she had the right idea!

She does seem to get a lot more than I might imagine she would for her age, which makes me think I should step up our selections sometimes--She patiently listens to loooooong stories though sometimes she requests inane Dora books as well. Some of her favorites right now include:

• fairy tales like Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel (though we have the gory old versions and wonder if there are some better ones out there... not politically correct, mind you, just less blood and guts)
• Mother Goose nursery rhymes (and she knows many by heart)
• Curious George books (boring to me but she loves them)
• Berenstein Bears (also not my fave so we maybe we should indulge her with more)
  
• The Alexander books
• Beatrix Potter stories
• Sendak books
• Eric Carle books
  
• still--any Peggy Rathman
• sweet ones like Guess How Much I Love You, Runaway Bunny, and You are My I Love You
  
• Oldies but goodies: Boynton books, Jamberry, Goodnight Moon

And of course, I'd love any suggestions of other books she might like--particularly those just above her reach so she can grow into them...

Our Little Shutterbug

Paci Fairy: This One Goes out to Lucy and Macy

This post is long overdue--its delay began as one of those things like potty training or pregnancy: you are scared if you say it aloud too soon you'll jinx it and it won't be true... but it has been since May now and we seem to be in the clear.

Thanks to Elsie's best buddy, Camille, and her brilliant mother, Ginger, the Paci Fairy came to Camille's house and then to our house. Basically, we just rode the wave of Camille's success and had the Paci Fairy stop by while she was in town. Since that time, a number of folks asked about the Paci Fairy's visit and the agony of prospective paci-less nights so I thought I'd share our delight in the transition--especially after Lucy called tonight wanting to see a picture of Elsie with her camera from the Paci Fairy. Here's how it went:

Once upon a time there was an almost-always sweet little girl named Elsie. She loved her pacifiers when she was a baby--morning, noon, and night. As she got bigger, she just liked her pacis in the car and sleeping. And then when she got bigger, she liked her pacis only for nap and nighttime. But then when she was very big, she decided to put all of her pacis in a baggie for the Paci Fairy. She left her a note asking her to bring the pacis to all the new babies who didn't have any and then asked her to leave a special real Diego digital camera instead. The next morning, Elsie woke up and found the Paci Fairy had granted her wish! The Paci Fairy did just what Elsie requested and she LOVED her camera and delighted in taking pictures and she only missed her Pacis just for a minute one time only and then lived happily ever after, The End, it was a beautiful day.

This is how Elsie thinks of the happy endings to stories and we think of how pain-free the whole process was. Thanks Paci Fairy!

PS Notice pink nails and notice Elsie's first self-inflicted haircut--I guess she wanted her bangs back.
PSS We'll get Elsie's photographs from her camera up here soon!

Close to Home














So we had various around-the-house chores this weekend: Target, Home Depot, etc. School starts today for me so we had to get ready. Notice the pink nails on Elsie here--we even got our nails done (pink not yellow!) We kicked off the weekend with a surprise visit Friday night from Barbara, Bryce, and Brooke--which we loved. Hurricane Bryce did hit during the night--so we recovered from our long night on Saturday! We look forward to seeing the Boukaters Labor Day weekend in Atlanta--We are going to "roll tide" our way over there for the big game.

Elsie is in international languages camp at school this week--she told me this morning that she "needed eye drops cause she has bugs in her ears." I am not sure what language that is--come to think of it, we may have some logic issues with her. When we ask her why she has done something, her response is "cause I did." I'm not sure if she is clear on the cause and effect relationship. Perhaps they'll have a syllogism camp next week.

Sprout

Look at all the new hair Kit has grown--we think she is working on some teeth, too.

Speaking of Elsie

Elsie tells me today that she is "exhaustic"--clearly a cross between exhausted and spastic--not too much of a surprise. She may get this from her parents.

Like her parents, as I have written before, Elsie has been known to coin a phrase or two or create nicknames. In fact, she has made up these new names that she uses as default names for toys, make-believe games, or anytime a nickname is needed: Kiki and Finn. Everyone is by default Kiki and Finn.

And in other make-believe news, Elsie has two imaginary friends. One is named Megan and goes to school with her. The other is named Rachel and hangs around the house and rides in the car with us. Last week, Elsie told me that Rachel was going to hang out in the car with Judy (the giant Barbie who I now suspect was named after Judy from Pat the Bunny or is what Judy from Pat the Bunny became once she grew up and became a groupie or a streetwalker) while we ate inside at Moe's. I asked her what Rachel and Judy would do in the car. She said they would "chat." About what, I asked? "Oh several fings," she replied.

On a similar note, Elsie can sing an entertaining variation of "My Favorite Fings" with special gusto for the "Dogs Bite" refrain.

As far as bites go, Elsie refers to mosquito bites as her "bugs" as in "Mommy, my bUUUUGS are itching me" with special emphasis on the "UUUUGGGSS."

Speaking of ugh, Elsie now requests privacy when using the bathroom and we must leave her alone and close the door... until she needs to wipe and then she needs the opposite of privacy.

The opposite of privacy might be what Elsie likes in the evening when engaging in her after dinner dancing. Her "tricks and moves," as she calls them, involve lots of kicks and spins and are choreographed to be conducted fully naked. Clearly, her career options are endless which makes her daddy very proud.

Related to career options, the other day I asked Elsie what she wanted to be when she grows up--"A TENNIS" she volleyed. Not a tennis ball or a tennis player or a tennis coach... just "A TENNIS."

And a last note, whenever Elsie is remembering, she recalls what happened--not yesterday--but "last day." As in, if I don't write these down, I'll never remember what Elsie did a few "last days" ago.

Happy Girl






Aunt Linda and Uncle John captured Kit perfectly in this adorable outfit--one of many they have generously given us. She is our "happy girl"!

Like Father, Like Daughter

Kit is crawling backwards, a modified army crawl, but a crawl and definitely backwards. She can make it across the room before your eyes. As Thompson family legend goes, so did David--baby Trike was known to crawl backwards and get himself stuck under tables and backed into corners. People are going to be glad to hear Kit is taking after her daddy. Elsie tends to look like me--some people will consider that an understatement and have used words like "clone" or "mini-me" when describing her, teasing David about his lack of influence, and laughing maniacally when they see her displaying some of my willfullness right back at me. So lately, when people see Kit, their first comment is often to say, "She looks like David, right?", "A little David there at the nose?", "Do I see David around the mouth?", or disappointedly, "She looks like Elsie, doesn't she?" Elaine says otherwise and calls her "Baby David" and "Little D" almost willing her to be like her Daddy with sheer desire and a loud voice. I don't know. You can be the judge, but I will say that if she is ever going to crawl forwards, Kit needs to work on her core strength like her mommy, and thus, we are both working on our tummy time!

Naptime



Elsie gets Kono, the Titos, and Oskey down for their naps.

Full Circle

The Pace Family came for the weekend a few weeks ago and here is one of the only pictures we took--you'll see Boyd, Emma, and Elsie eating Oreos after swimming and lunch. It is not a great picture and does little to capture our good time--we were just too busy having fun to take pictures. And it was so much fun playing with them--for the adults and the children. Of course, the adults stayed up much too late. In spite of our fatigue the next day, it was incredibly satisfying to see Emma and Elsie playing together so happily at almost the same age when Ashley and I first met on the soccer field over 30 years ago!!!!

The After-Party



The After-Party was informal--people ate, drank, napped, and lounged around as Tad and Kit are illustrating here.

We Meet Again












It is hard to say who was more patient this weekend--our families and friends in putting up with one more event to congregate for, my mother in putting together and hosting yet another festivity, or Deacon Tom in "presiding over" a sacred occasion hijacked by toddlers Bryce and Elsie. Ultimately, it is hard to say who had more fun: us with all of our people gathered, Bryce and Elsie reunited, or Kit and Brooke as stars on their baptism day.

What we can say is that we are so grateful for the love and generosity and patience of our family and friends in particular godparents Barbara and Benji, Saint Pat, and kind Deacon Tom who married us almost ten years ago, not to mention "everyguys," as Elsie put it, who came to celebrate.