Ella

While I may have just mentioned in my last post, that she is in a stage that is very annoying to me right now, that's not to say that she's not still fabulous. I haven't written about her in a while and so many thing are piling up. She does so many new things so quickly I just can't keep up and have been feeling the need to jot some highlights down to savor! So here's what comes to mind right now.

She has a special relationship with the ONE pumpkin that materialized in our garden this year. She visits it at least once a day, usually multiple times. She pats it and always exclaimes something like, "It's growin'!" or "It's growed today!" or "It's turning (insert some color here because she doesn't quite have those down yet)." She loves to inspect the garden in general and point out what's ready to pick and what's not. And she likes to help harvest, although this momma get's a little stressed at her little haphazard steps!

A magnificent imagination. She's always pretending....to go to the beach, to go to the zoo, to go swimming, to go camping, to go to camp, to throw a birthday party etc. etc. And while it is generally adorable, this generally involves her taking EVERY LOVIN' toy in her playroom, to some other area, where she doesn't really use it, just piles it. She's always, "packin' up" and doing this and the sheer volume of toys that she moves and then has to be put back EVERY TIME drives me batty! And she does it OVER and OVER and OVER.

Loves her babies... stroll them, swing them, feed them, give them medicine etc. etc

She loves swinging on the hammock!

She sings lots of songs still, they just get better and better. She likes to dance along with some little kids videos like Laurie Berkner and such, but she's still a little shy with that.

She constantly asks WHY. Sometimes it's just to play the game, but most of the time it's because her little brain is really working overtime and she really is wondering about LOTS of things.

She still has a memory like a steel trap.

She is FULLY potty trained and VERY self sufficient!

She still has a pretty serious...and sweet mullett.

She continues to be the world's most persistant staller when it comes to nap time and bed time. Although frustrating at times, and we dont' give in, the things she does and says to stall are generally pretty adorable/hilarious (I need you to clip my nails, I need a tissue, I need you to snuggle me, I need you to move the pillow out of the chair, I need you to put the books on that shelf not that one, I need more animals, I'm cold I need long pants on...[when it's like 100 degrees out] and so one and so forth.) and give J and I a good chuckle in the evenings together.

She's still a great sleeper though. And she stays in bed in the morning utnil her monkey clock opens it's eyes and then instantly hear abover your head the "boom" or her leaping out of bed and then "pad,pad,pad,pad,pad,pad,pad," of her running little feet down the hall. Then she quietly walks down the stairs, tiptoes into my room, stands at the edge of me bed and says, "Boo!" or "Raawr!" or something equally cute to "wake me up".

She's still a nibbler and a picky eater. We don't give in. She eats what we give her or she doesn't eat...but she's stubborn and persistent little one (prob. doesn't help that both her parents are the same way), so mealtimes are less than our favorite times still.

She's ridiculously smart and ridiculously adorable.