Roz Turns 4. Fire Stations. Christmas Buzz.

It's not every day that your best friend turns four. And in fabulous Roz fashion, we celebrated in Wizard of Oz style. Roz made an amazing Dorothy.

I took this picture right before Ella did more than her part in helping to blow out her candle.

There were kisses and laughter and sister-fighting. It was perfect. We were so glad to be part of the celebration.

On Wednesday, we set up a special afternoon for the girls. A long-time friend of the family is a lieutenant at the fire station in our neighborhood. He is retiring in a few short weeks, which amazes me to no end because I remember him getting sworn in like it was just last month. Both chicks are pretty fascinated with the firetruck scene. Especially Ella, who listens for the sirens and yells out, "There goes Chris, mom!" every time one blares by.

It is a busy station and when we arrived, they were all out on calls. So we waited in the car for Chris's return. And were serenaded with this:

As the video is ending, Ella notices the firetruck coming back and tries to play coy :)

Roz was brave enough to take the wheel with me; Ella not so much.

She did get close enough to inspect the shiny wheels, however. And the big 25 on the shiny grill.

The girls were pretty sweet on Chris. But Roz was especially smitten with him. She's got pretty good taste.

As of this writing, we are three days away from Christmas. The napping is nearly non-existent. I blame the Christmas buzz. She belts out Christmas tunes and horses around in her bed for over an hour until we pull the plug. Her mood is insanely good when she realizes she has bucked the system. And then 4:30 hits. And she nose-dives. And the mood turns sour. And the fits get BIG. And the hitting and kicking begins when her way is not achieved. And there are time outs. And me walking away saying some kind of prayer out loud...And then there's this, from Ella as she cries and screams from timeout:  "I'm telling Dr. Tracy you are not being kind to me!!!!" Dr. Tracy is her pediatrician. And I had to do everything not to burst into laughter, because when I laugh when her fit is in tenth gear it only makes her foam at the mouth mad. (Yes. Ella has a temper. It is hot and short.)

In between meltdowns, we have had some fun working on some homemade Christmas presents and wearing cute shirts.

And eating cookies from our awesome neighborhood mama-friend, Michelle.

And then brushing our teeth really well. In fact, Ella would brush her teeth every hour if we let her.

Merry Christmas, Ella-Land. We love you!!

~H