Jessica in Costume; Elyse Dancing

On Saturday, Jessica went to a birthday party for one of her classmates. It was a costume party, and she wore her Snow Princess outfit:

(I don't know if it's really a Snow Princess outfit, but with the hood up, that's what it makes me think of.)

Elyse wasn't dressed up for anything, but she wanted to dance in front of the camera:

And she wanted a picture with Snow White Bear:

You can see all the pictures at these two spots on my photography Web site:
http://www.chrisburdett.com/princess/slideshow
http://www.chrisburdett.com/elyse21/slideshow

The Gospel According to Jessica

This afternoon, Jessica decided to read to Elyse and me from the Bible (which was actually an old issue of Animal Baby). Elyse and I sat on the sofa, and Jessica sat before us on our Fisher Price stool. She told us, "I'm going to tell you the story of Jesus." She opened up her book and began:

"Once there was a manger..."

Jessica's is the only manger-centric gospel I know of.

But maybe there's a lesson that can be learned here: even a manger--which is, after all, only a feeding trough for cows and pigs and donkeys--can be a vessel for the Divine. We would all do well to strive to rise above our usual stations and be put to such noble use.

(To put this story in a little more context: On Fridays, Jessica's class goes to chapel, and I believe this morning Father Doug told them some of the Christmas story. Also, we had been listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing "Away in a Manger," so mangers were on her mind.)

Fridays with Elyse

On Friday afternoons Jessica has ballet, so when I pick Elyse up from her preschool class, we have another forty minutes or so before Jessica's ready to go. So far, the weather has been good on those Fridays, so we use the time to walk around the church and play on the playground.

Last Friday I had my camera with me, so I took a few pictures as we went along. Here are four of my favorites:

Rock City

Last Saturday we drove up to Lookout Mountain, GA, for a weekend vacation. We stayed at the Sky Harbor Bavarian Inn, the same place Jessica and I stayed back in February when we came up for our weekend adventure, and went to Rock City both Saturday and Sunday.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Rich and Jumelise and Family

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking family pictures for Rich and Jumelise and their three beautiful children. Here are some of my favorites from the days portraits:

Licking the Beater

Tonight, Mommy made banana bread, and she let Elyse lick the beater!

Jessica at Vines Gardens

This morning Jessica and I went to Vines Gardens to walk around for a while and take some pictures. We had a great time, and got some really good pictures--and then we went and had donuts.

Here are three of the best pictures:

I took around 180 pictures of her altogether, but only about 13 are truly good. You can see all of the keepers in a slideshow at my photography Web site, here:

http://www.chrisburdett.com/jessica_vines/slideshow (opens in a new window)

Elyse's First Day of School

Today was Elyse's first day of school! She's in the Toddlers class at St. Matthew's Preschool, the same class--though with two different teachers--in which Jessica started school three years ago.

We think she's really going to love preschool; she loves playing in the nursery on Sunday mornings, and preschool, in the Toddler's class, anyway, is just a chance to do that for three times as long, more times per week.

She was a little nervous when I left her, but she didn't cry, and she got comfortable and started playing fairly quickly. Ms. Jill and Ms. Nan told me that Elyse spent the whole morning taking care of the various babies in the room (the pretend kind, not her classmates). That didn't surprise me, since lately she's been very concerned with her babies at home, and sometimes has two or three under her care at once. (It's especially cute when she makes crying noises for one of them, then picks her up and gives her a big hug and pats her back and says, "'K, 'K.")

When I came to pick her up, she gave me a big smile and pointed at me and hopped up to go; she even knew to go get her backpack before we left (though she couldn't quite reach the hook on which it hung, so she just pointed at it and made urgent noises at me).

It was a very emotional morning for me, naturally, but fortunately today was the first day of the English 1101 section I'm teaching at Gwinnett Tech this semester, so I had that to keep me from worrying the whole time about how Elyse was doing (even though I knew she would be doing just fine).

Here are some pictures we took this morning, after the girls had gotten dressed but before we had to leave to be there:

(Elyse was not nearly as cooperative as these pictures suggest. Jessica did a great job of acting as a child wrangler and helping me get some good pictures.)

Miscellaneous Recent Pictures

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks to show what the girls have been up to.

First, Elyse and her Pa "doing stickers" at Granny and Pa's house:

While Elyse was doing stickers, Jessica was creating with glitter glue:

Elyse has gotten really attached to her babies lately:

Finally, as anyone who knows us would expect, reading at our house is a constant:

Lucye

Yesterday our good friends Audrey and Lucye came over to visit for a while. I managed to take a few pictures of Lucye before Jessica pulled her away to work on stickers or play Polly Pockets or something like that. Here are three of those pictures:

(She was wearing Jessica's fairy costume, as you can see.)

Billy Jo and Bruce

Yesterday, I ported my portable home studio to my parents' home to take some pictures of my second and third cousins, Billy Jo and Bruce. I enjoyed taking their pictures, and it was good practice aiming my camera at kids who aren't my own.

Elyse at Eighteen Months

Today, Elyse is exactly eighteen months old. Here are some portraits we made to honor the occasion: