Happy Twelfth Birthday Princess Ellie!

Ellie turned 12 yesterday. I can hardly believe it. And as a nice birthday gift for mama she transformed again in a way that may seem small but was really telling for us. Each year whenever she gets presents she tends to shun them. We joke and say that all new toys start off as the devil. We have had to slowly introduce them to her by doing things like playing with them ourselves, or leaving them sort of near by in view and every now and then insinuating that they might be lonely.

Even toys she has come to love and are essential to her, started this way.

But yesterday this pattern changed. She got a KiddiJamz DJ toy - which Dave found. It's really such an Ellie gift because we noticed how she plays her favorite videos on fast forward then going back, etc. in her own pattern.  We also call her "DJ Ellie" because she likes to mix the songs on her toys to fill the house with a music all her own.

So the KiddiJamz is, on paper, a perfect Ellie gift. However, after years of the initial rejection, I have developed low expectations for her acceptance of new gifts; wisely trying not to get too excited about a certain gift for her. But this year she changed.  She took to this toy the minute it was opened.

This is a picture of her playing with her newly unwrapped toy.  She would play with it for a few minutes and then push it away and stare at it. Then she would ask for it again. She did this several times.  You can see how delighted Dave is.

Today she didn't want to stop playing with it to go to sleep and she had already mastered how to record, mix the different genres, record her other toys into her mixes by holding the microphone to them. She has recorded several songs on the little "iPod-like" devise that comes with it! She's incredible and determined and focused. Ha! So this also tells me that, when she refuses to focus on her homework it's not because she can't focus, it's because she doesn't want to.  Bring it on Ellie!

I can't believe she is twelve. Time these days seems to be going by too fast. Ellie has been the healthiest she ever has and has a full life with school and after school activities like soccer and iPad class (yes, there is such thing) and homework. She is spending more time playing on her own and expanding what she can do. We are all changing and Ellie most of all.

Happy Birthday Princess Ellie!
Love, Mama