Above and Beyond: A Week of Ella

In lieu of my usual "week in review" post, I'm dedicating this end of the week post to my dear, sweet little Ella who is always full of surprises.  She had an especially interesting and memorable week.  Here is what our little angel (devil?) has been up to lately . . .

Future Artist

Ella kicked off her week on Saturday by winning first prize in the "design" category in the Pinewood Derby.  Now before you say "But wait, Ella isn't a boy scout!", let me explain.  My kids belong to Plast, also known as "Ukrainian Scouts", also known as "organization that loosely resembles American Boy Scouts but is co-ed and everyone speaks Ukrainian".  This year several parents who also happen to be involved with the American Scouts decided to introduce our Plast group to the joys of the Pinewood Derby - racing little wooden cars down a track to see who can make the fastest car.  It became pretty obvious during the race whose parents are involved in professions
such as engineering and whose parents pick their noses for a living.  Needless to say, the nose-pickers did not have the fastest cars. 

But all kidding aside, it was a very fun event and the kids all really enjoyed it.  Ella was a good sport even when her car kept coming in last in her particular heats.  The sparkly puffy stickers that she adhered right next to the wheels probably didn't do much for her speed.  So you can imagine how thrilled she was when her car won best design for her age group.  It really is a very pretty car - I think we have a future designer on our hands. 


Out of the Mouths of Babes:  Ella Edition
On Tuesday the kids had a day off so I took them to my office with me for a few hours and then we decided to go to Old Town Alexandria for lunch and some fun.  Here is the gist of the statements and conversations that were occurring in the back seat on our way there . . .

Ella:  Mom, you're the prettiest lady at your work.  All those other ladies there were so old.

Jack:  Yeah, they were!  You're the best looking one there, Mom!

Me:  (smiling profusely)

Ella:  Mom, don't have any more babies.  Cause if you do, you'll pay more attention to the baby than to us.

Me:  Don't worry, I'm not planning on having anymore babies.

Ella:  What if one of us dies, will you have another one then?

Me:  No, Ella, no more babies for me.

Ella:  Man, what a rip!

Jack:  Thanks a lot Ella, I guess you're saying if one of us dies it will be me.

Ella:  That's right.

Me:  Ok, that's enough.  No one is going to die.  Let's talk about something else.

Ella:  So when I get older, will I grow hair on my armpits?

Me:  (still recovering from previous conversation) yes, Ella, that's what happens when you grow up

Ella:  What about my boobs?  will I have hair on my boobs?

Me:  I sure hope not.

Ella:  But Daddy has hair on his boobs.

Jack:  That's because he's a man.

Ella:  Will you get hair on your boobs, Jack?

I think they went on like this for a while, but you get the general idea.  It was highly amusing.

Ear Piercing Controversy
For some reason this week Ella has been clamoring to get her ears pierced.  If it were solely up to me I would have pierced them a long time ago.  I had mine pierced when I was five.  My mom took me to the doctor's office and after the trauma of having the first ear pierced I refused to let them do the other one.  Then the nurse told me that I would look like a pirate if I had only one ear pierced at which point I wailed "But I don't wanna be a pirate!", grabbed the lollipop they were offering and obediently sat still for the other one.

I told Ella I was fine with it but that she had to ask her Dad.

"Why?"  she protested.  "Why do I have to ask Dad?"

"Because he's your parent too and he also has to say yes," I answered.

So she waited until we were all seated around the dinner table and then she popped the question.  John hemmed and hawed and made her squirm and then told her he would think about it.  So she told him that she would keep asking him over and over again until he said yes and then she ran away from the table giggling and laughing.

This morning she handed him this note:

So now the next question is, will she really go through with it?  When I took her for her flu shot last month I had to hold her arms down and she screamed so loudly that the people out in the waiting room probably thought we were shoving toothpicks under her fingernails.  I can't wait to see how she'll handle this.


Scraping Assistant

One day earlier this week I was scraping the paint off the kitchen cabinets when Ella asked if she could help.  I hesitated for a moment and after realizing that the chances of lead poisoning were slim to none due to the fact that the cabinets had been painted fairly recently, I grabbed an extra scraper and turned her loose.  Thanks to Ella we managed to get all the paint scraped off the next section of cabinets that I'm planning to re-paint!  One of Ella's best traits is her ability to focus and get the job done.  I have never seen her work so diligently and intensely on something before.  Just look at her go!

I'm considering hiring her full-time so we can get the job done.  I wonder if she'll accept minimum wage.  Then again, if I gave her a handful of quarters she'd probably be happy as a clam.  At age 7 her concept of money is still a bit skewed.



Goals
Earlier this week Ella's teacher asked the class to come up with their goals for the third quarter.  Here is what Ella wrote:

I love the second goal - "Go above and beyond".  I think this is Ella's motto in everything she does - whether she's designing a Pinewood derby car, complimenting me on my youthful beauty, convincing her dad to let her pierce her ears or helping me scrape ugly paint off the cabinets. 

Don't get me wrong - Ella has her difficult moments.  But those moments when she goes above and beyond clearly outweigh the other less favorable ones, such as when she's whining about eating her dinner or fighting with her brother.  Ella makes me want to work harder - if I worked half as hard as she does when she sets her mind to something, there's no telling what I could accomplish!