Pretending to be Asleep -- and a Commute Story

After a particularly raucous round of hide-and-seek, Mike and Ellis climbed into her bed and pretended to fall asleep. Ellis, as you can see, needs to work on her acting skills...


While I am posting, I will share a particularly delightful morning commute story. On Friday, Ellis wanted to bring a lunch pail that mike got her on a trip to Sweden, of course it was to be full of toys. She also wanted to bring a sheet of stickers we got when we ordered new sheets from Little Miss Matched. When I said yes but it would all have to stay in her cubby once we got to school, she jumped into my arms yelling"Yeay!" and gave me a huge hug.

We walked to school, leaving the stroller at home so that Ellis could tromp through the snow. It was a little slow but all-in-all went quite well. Apparently, it takes no more time to walk really slowly than it does to cruise but have to take elevators and find a car where people will make enough room for a stroller.

In the Columbia Heights station, the latch on the lunch box fell open and everything fell out. When I sighed loudly and bent down to pick everything up, Ellis said, "It's ok, Mama. It's just a little mess. It will be fine." Everyone around us laughed and cooed at how cute she was.

There was also a rather funny exchange at the Archives station. When we saw a poster for the National Gallery of Art, she pointed to a picture of a painting and said, "I want to paint a picture of an allosaurus and Cinderella." I said, "That sounds lovely, but what about Snow White and a stygimoloch? She responds, "Yeah! I want Snow White and stygimoloch and allosaurus AND Cinderella!!!"

Then when I dropped her off at Just Us Kids, Miss Shirley was leading an art project and Ellis sat down excitedly to join. When I gave her a kiss goodbye, she looked at her friend Claire, leaned over and said, "My mommy is sweet."

Trust me, not all of our commutes are this fun or charming. But this one was really delightful and worth remembering.