Getting Older and Making Good Choices

Saturday was my 36th birthday. It was a wonderful day full of all of my favorite things, but I can't get past the ideas of being 36!!!!! How in the world did that happen??? How did I all of a sudden take a huge step toward 40 and what in the world is happening to my body? Ok, so don't answer the second part of that question for me, but, seriously, I can hardly get up off of the floor after playing with Ella. My mind says, "Move already," but my body just won't cooperate. I'd just rather ignore the whole birthday thing all together, but Ella thinks that getting older is the greatest thing ever. It's just another excuse to eat cake, buy presents and eat good food...all of her favorite things, by the way. In fact, about half way through the day, she asked me if my birthday was "still here." She didn't want it to go away. I can't avoid them, so I might as well enjoy them I suppose!

We've been trying to talk to Ella about making good choices. We feel like it's important to use certain situations as teaching tools to prepare her for the future. She seems to understand and process what we tell her, and we can see her "use" some of the knowledge we've given her. Yesterday afternoon Ella and I were talking about random things. She looked at me and said, "I've been making a lot of good choices lately." I just have to laugh when she says things like that because she talks like she's 12 and is so serious and reserved at times. Then there are other times when she is so SILLY and can make us laugh hysterically. Here's a picture that kind of catches both sides of her at the same time. What a mess!!