Playing in the Rain

When my mom plays with Ella, she's told me that she enjoys it so much because she is trying to recapture her youth. And of course being a grandma, she also is not as strict with Ella as I am. One of the things her and her 'Amu' like to do is run in the rain.

It rained here for quite a few days in a row and Ella seemed to ask me alot if she could go run in the rain. Each time she asked, it was either nap time, dinner time or we were heading out somewhere and didn't want her soaking wet. I'm a stickler for schedule....can you tell? Anyways, Christina also made a post quite a few weeks ago about playing in the rain and it inspired me. It made me question how she took her camera out in the rain and got the shots...but also thought it would be fun for Ella and I to do it too.

For the most part, I stayed in the garage and didn't get out in the rain as much as I probably could have. Like Christina told me, she tucked the camera under her shirt and would take a few shots before hiding it again. I tried doing that a couple of times, but also had hubby over my shoulder yelling at me to get back in the garage (since I basically begged him to let me buy the camera just a couple of short months ago. He knows how happy it makes me so he reluctantly complied). ;0)




Could you have guessed that you would see pictures of Ella dancing in the rain since that is how my child goes through life?!




And then there is "Keep Away" from Lulu. They seemed to both have so much fun running around with the Frisbee.





Ella finally looked at me and said, "Mommy, Lulu can have it now." I told her that was a very nice idea.




Ever picture how a photo should look before you even get to it and then you start to get excited to get that one shot that's perfect in your mind? Well, my grandmother sent Ella a rain coat a while back and I could not find it for the life of me! That coat is what I was envisioning when I was going to tell Ella what we were doing. I mean, I looked through her room 4 or 5 times before we went outside! I can remember it vividly. It was a bright yellow with all sorts of colors on it and it would have been so perfect for our little time in the rain. I was so bummed that I couldn't find it.

So after a while, she wanted to wear Keith's raincoat we had out in the garage. She started running around and we laughed. She looks like she belongs in the Wizard of Oz as a Lollipop kid or in Star Wars as a little Ewok from the planet of Endor or something. A good time was had by all.

Creativity

Bet you think it looks like Ella is just playing with water. And I bet you think she is just pouring water from one cup to another with no purpose. And I bet you also think she thinks she is just playing with water too.

She's not.

She's making "hot" tea for her and her "guests" to have a tea party.
She's carefully stirring duck soup to feed to our dog Lulu.
She's mixing a mud pie.
She's gently wetting the leaves so that they will be clean.
She's pouring each drop of medicine precisely in the next cup so as to only fill it up until the top bubbles over.

She's expanding her little brain with every second she is playing with that magical water and creating whole worlds and scenarios. Her little brain is amazing. Her her little brain is wonderful. And she's all mine.