A Little Piece of Me

As much as I share about my little family on our blog, there's a piece of my history that just as much a part of me - singing with my sisters. One of Grandma's requests was that we sang at her funeral...so we got together tonight to sing for the first time in years. I think this is the song we're going to share. It's a little rough around the edges, but I had a moment tonight, so I wanted to post it for memory's sake.

A Dear Lady's Passing

My Grandma Berigan passed away yesterday.

Truly a lady of class, a lady of graciousness more than most ever know in their lifetime.

My sweet childhood memories of my dear grandma,

the hotdogs on Wednesdays that no one else could master like she could,

the Lays potato chips she'd always have plenty of,

the collection of every Disney movie imagineable, specifically Mary Poppins reruns,

Barbie dolls with every latest finery,

the jars and jars of candy arranged perfectly on a well-stocked drink counter,

the "eight" dolls that we got when we turned eight...only Grandma would recognize an otherwise insignificant age in a way that made is ever so significant,

the date that every grandchild got one special time spending the day with Grandma and got to invite just one special best friend to join us, I took a childhood friend, Joanna,

trips to the dime store,

the intensity when listening to anyone's story, she was always in the "know",

her beautiful bird crafts downstairs,

the times where she'd have a "show" at her house, getting to tour her wreaths, birdhouses and decorations afterwards,

the plastic Santa in her front hall, there every Christmas,

telling me when I was little if when I went away to college and if I ever ran out of money, she would loan me what I needed so to just come to her,

her beautiful, pristine dining room,

the back bedroom filled with extra gifts for the giving,

mysterious money always hidden in her white elephant gifts,

the birthday cards that always arrived at least three weeks early,

the way it so concerned her to have polish missing from only one finger even in her last days blessing us on this earth,

Grandma Berigan,

now she entertains the angels.

Quick Update...that turned into a not-so-quick update.

Well, I am finally getting around to posting those Easter pictures I promised. We did have a wonderful weekend going to church just the three of us and spending the afternoon in a famous city park....I just didn't get the pictures up to remember it with until now! It's funny, the cuter we think little Ellie gets, the less time we have to put up her pictures! We spent the weekend enjoying each other around the house here, in fact, only got out for a quick Mexican dinner last night and the rest of the weekend was spent rearranging and cleaning out the basement, including a trip to Goodwill (I guess you can count that as "getting out"...), cleaning the house (my dear husband did it all himself since he's leaving town and wanted to leave it nice for me this week, watching tivo-ed versions of The Office and wrestling with Ellie. As you can see from pictures, she's still VERY not interested in walking. She would much prefer to climb around, over, inside, above...anything but to actually stand on her own. Oh well, much more cuddle time for us this way.

I love her little arms.

I love her little smile. Correction. I love her BIG smile.

"Num-nums" in the park- Ellie's word for, "Yes, thank you for offering. I am hungry and would love something to snack on."
Daddy daughter date type picture...makes me think of pictures to come...first dates, homecomings, proms, corsages, sigh...

Ellie's sweet tinkerbell rattle from fashionista cousin, Manda, in NYC...but not there for long!!

Cute story of the weekend tells the story of Ellie's newest word, "Night-night". It actually sounds more like "nigh-nigh" with perhaps a shade of "nah-nah"...ahh...all the things mommys get to notice with their first baby. Anyway, she woke up very early Saturday morning so nap time started arriving a little earlier than normal, but I was enjoying my coffee still and wasn't quite ready to take her up yet. Little Ellie was ready though, mid play, she suddenly looked at me, crawled all the way up to sit on my lap, lay her head on my chest for a minute and then popped her little head back up at me and said, "Nigh-nigh". Okay precious one. Sweet baby, she was ready to rest up for the next round of playing hard!

She also seems to be popping another tooth somewhere, the drool started up again and the finger is back to hanging out of the mouth every moment of the day. Update will be coming as to what tooth this might be. She has twelve surfaced already!

Oh sweet girl of mine.
It's a bird...it's a plane...It's ELLIE!

Other family updates:

Pippy is still great, starting to adjust and cuddle up to more of Ellie's socks these days. Not going to lie, she still thinks she was meant to be an only child. They don't interact too terribly much, but we have high hopes for them. Spring is always hard on her as the rain doesn't make her morning bathroom breaks quite as enjoyable or her fluffy legs quite as lovely. Note to self, need Pippy picture updates.

Chris is well, busy at work, getting to enjoy traveling to Florida for some new clients, and, surprisingly, between house projects! He overseeded our front lawn last week and laid fresh sod over the garden we tore out last summer (growing a child is enough of a challenge for me right now, let alone growing anything green...) last weekend and after cleaning out the basement for a Craig's List purchase of a weight bench this weekend, he was full of promises of remodeling of the basement and gave me the play by play of all the great things he has planned for each square inch of the emptiness downstairs, but I've got some other things in mind before we tackle that one....new design for Ellie's room? Remodeling our bathroom? New staircase railing?

For me, I'm trying not to start the countdown yet until school's out (But it is 25 days with students and 27 days reporting for duty in case you're wondering) but am very much looking forward to luxurious peaceful mornings, long evening walks, and sunny Saturdays at the pool all with my sweet family. I do love my job though and have learned so much this year professionally. In fact, I recently took some pictures of my classroom and might post them this week. I was a part of a few book clubs this year at work trying some new strategies in Language Arts and am really excited about the progress I've made as a teacher this year. I love the challenge, the dynamic nature of everyday, the creativity teaching requires and the constant ability to tweak and grow in what I know I was meant to do.

We live a blessed life.

Easter 2010

We took a little time in the park today...pictures to come, the computer is wanting us to work on our patience...

Vote for Andrea Nelson!

Please take a moment and visit this website to vote for my (Allison's) sister, Andrea Nelson, and the original song she just uploaded, "Empty Works", to this song writing/singing contest! She has an amazing sound and is completely natural in what she does! Creating a login only takes a moment and it's worth a listen!

http://www.thenakedgospelproject.com/index.php

If you like it, pass it on!

Like mommy like daughter?

Now, first, you have to understand that every single time someone sees Ellie, their first words are, "Oh my goodness she looks like daddy!" Which, of course, this is fine by me as I think he's a pretty good looking guy. However, there's something in me that hopes for some sort of resemblance between my daughter and myself...after all...I did carry her for 40 weeks and was the one that had to deliver this sweet baby...So, the other day, my mom sent me this picture of me when I was a few months older than Ellie - once we put the two picture together, we started to see some similarities...more than we actually had ever noticed before! Kind of exciting!

And now for just a sweet picture...

Spring Break 2010

With a title like the above, some might expect some less than appropriate photos and tales of wild excursions, but in the French home, this week couldn't be more appropriate...although parts have been wild! This is Ellie's wild pose.

It's been such a blessing spending the days with our daughter, it's kind of the first all-day every-day experience I've had with an interactive, emphasis on the ACTIVE, little "toddler"...Ellie says, "Who..me??"

Ellie's wild excursions of the week:
-Enjoying reading books now, we can make it through two and a half books before this little one wants to MOVE (I considered recording my reading voice as I was cracking myself up with the effort I was putting into my inflection and animation just to get Ellie enjoying the experience...)
-Playing Patty-Cake back and forth (Daddy actually taught her this one on the drive back from Papa and Nana's)

-Woofing when she sees Pippy-dog, it mostly sounds like "wooo" (Dog was her first word, you know...Do we have a future veterinarian on our hands??)
-Standing on her own (although this is NOT her favorite thing, Ellie would MUCH rather to be hanging on to mommy), listening to birdies (Ellie was as as still and quiet as a little mouse out on the blanket yesterday amazed at the music of nature...see the following picture....again, veterinarian???)

-Learning "No...gentle" (Those little fingernails can get quite intense...she's got the fire of her mommy and daddy in her soul! We've been trying to teach her gentle touch.)
-Mealtime is now officially referred to as mess time. Ellie LOVES feeding herself. It's hard to get her to eat anything unless SHE gets to put it in that sweet little mouth. Favorites: beans, cheese, mandarin oranges, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, green beans.

All in all, couldn't be happier. All in all, couldn't be more blessed.

Our Birthday Girl

Playdates and Exploring

Play dates with our friend Avery...





New friend Reegan Noelle - born February 11, 2010!



Trying to take Valentine's Day pictures...



Loving exploring...



The theme of these pictures seems to be movement...

My two little sick babes...

Well, Ellie's fighting another bug...It must be this age, and I keep telling myself it's just her little immune system getting stronger and stronger, but poor thing...I'm pretty sure it's an ear infection. She's got a little fever, runny nose, cough and keeps tuggin her ear. Daddy's got the same thing, they like to share. However, he has really pushed through and even managed to work with a friend on installing a new front door! Pictures to come, but it's been really fun to watch my hubby turn into quite the handyman!

As for me, newest discovery: http://www.hungry-girl.com/. Lots of surfing tonight...I realized AGAIN today how much I LOVE recipes!!