Ramblings of a 4 year old

Kelly our usual sitter was busy so we had her roommate Sarah sit for us. Ella was so excited to meet Kelly's roommate. As they were settling in, Ella asks Sarah, "So, what's it like having Kelly for a roommate?"

Operation Pillow Pet

As I spoke of the "As Seen on TV" Bake Pops in my last blog being a huge waste of time, this "As Seen on TV" product is going to be a blessing. A few months ago Ella heard on K-LOVE (a christian radio station) that a family brought Pillow Pets to sick children in the hospital on Christmas Day. She told me she would like to do this someday. I thought it was a passing thought, but she continued to bring it up. When we decided we would be staying here for Christmas, Mike and I worked on trying to make this a reality. We contacted a local children's hospital but found out that actually bringing them to the children was not possible due to possible spreading of infection (both to and from the children). So we asked her about bringing them to children at a homeless shelter. She thought this was a good idea, so Mike looked into it. Now with it all arranged, we are going to bring Pillow Pets to 7 kiddos and "lovies" to 5 newborn babies on December 23. We are making blankets for all as well. Ella is so excited to do this and we are so amazed at her selflessness and caring about the needs of others. As mature as she is, I forget sometimes she is only going to be 5. To remind me of this, we were talking about the very small rooms they live in at the shelter and that they have no toys of their own to play with like she has. She then asked, "Well, do they have enough room in there to do the Hokey Pokey?"

Time Lost, Never To Be Found Again

Bake Pops. Have you heard of them? In the few precious minutes Ella has as a reward for taking a nap, she gets to watch Sprout (a PBS kids channel). Since they offer very little time for commercials, they play just a few over and over again, which leads to a subtle brainwashing. "Momma, can we get some bake pops, please, please, please???" And so it went for the past few months. Then she asked for them for her birthday. No problem I thought.. We can order a pan and give those for her birthday instead of cake or cupcakes. So I called the number on TV. Now, this is the very first time I have ever done this, so call me naive. It was a fully automated ordering system. Or should I say a hostage hotline. I was pitched anything from a jewelry club to winning a free cruise to the Bahamas. And they don't take no for an answer. Even after you press "2" for "no" , they think they haven't pitched it to in a convincing way, so they try the same pitch with a twist. After 25 minutes of this I had enough and hung up phone. I wasn't sure if my order had been completed and waited a few days to see if it had. I never received an email, so I figured it didn't go through. So I called the customer hotline (I was getting pressure from Ella about these thing so I decided to call one more time). On hold for 20 minutes then after talking to a real person, they said they had no record of my order. I talked to my mom and she said they had them at Bed Bath and Beyond. So made the trip there to get a pan (oh, how I wished I knew they had them all along). Then two days later I receive a very large box from Fed Ex. I open it up and there are SIX Bake Pop pans!!! And I was charged for them all. So I tried to sell them to my friends via massive text. Sold two so far.

Even though this was a huge waste of time, it was all worth it. Ella and I spent 4 hours making them (I decided not to total up how much time was put into this). While she was at my side with her little apron on, she was hugging my arm and kissing it, repeatedly. That made it all worth it! After they were finished I asked her if they were all she thought they would be. She said, "I didn't know we had to bake them. I just thought they came already made." Looks like we were both duped by the bake pops.