Funny Girl

For the most part Ella has been in a great mood and well behaved for the last week or two. It's great! We're enjoying her so much! She's still not napping for more than 30-45 min but I'm not giving up hope (even though it's been almost a month). She's always rubbing her eyes by about 6pm and will sleep for 13 hours every night if we let her so I really don't think she's ready to give up napping all together.

She constantly surprises me with how much she knows and understands and how many original thoughts she has. Her newest skills include:
-doing most of the steps to help Daddy make coffee in the morning
-matching all the pairs of clean socks in a pile of laundry (then putting them in her shopping cart and putting them in the appropriate person's sock drawer-with some direction)
-helping load the washer and dryer, pouring the soap, pushing the buttons to make it start
-naming every person in a book someone she knows (usually girls are Ella, Hannah, Lexi or Mommy and boys are Christopher or Joel, men are Daddy, Uncle David and Uncle Carl) Often she really does pick people who resemble the real person. If she doesn't know anyone who looks like the character she'll name them "a new friend"
-she matches objects on memory cards with ease and is starting to be able to do the memory part (remember where they are when they're upside down)
-a number of our friends are pregnant and she seems to understand and will tell you that they have a baby in their tummy that is going to come out and be our new friend

She's been using a lot of the phrases I say and it cracks me up. She'll say "good job mom!" when I make her breakfast or "there you go! great! " when I finish doing something. Most anything we do together from pouring juice to cleaning the playroom she'll congratulate us by saying "Mommy we did it!" She also likes suggesting what she'd like by saying "How 'bout...." For instance:

Me: Ella it's time to brush your teeth and go night night
Ella (very upbeat): How 'bout more toys? ok?
Me: No Ella, come here please.
Ella: Umm, how about tv? ok?
Me: Ella...
Ella (still upbeat): Ummm how 'bout no?

Here's a conversation we had tonight as i tried to put her pajamas on:

Me: Ella can you take your socks off while Mommy changes your diaper?
Ella:ok! (takes one sock off but puts it on her other foot, on top of its original sock)
Me: What are you doing silly?
Ella (whispering): shhhh, other sock is hiding!

What Ella's been up to lately...

Ella's First manicure and pedicure courtesy of Aunt Holly :-) She walked around for a week telling everyone she had "pwitty nay-wuls." The pale pink suited her-SO cute!


I heard Ella saying "come here Raleigh, sit down, good girl" over and over and went in to check it out and found her brushing Raleigh's hair! This went on for quite a while. Such a tolerant dog.

Ella LOVES having tea parties but prefers serving "coppee" instead of tea.

Ella decided she wanted a "living room bed" and got a "hobo" (pillow) and blanket and laid down with her book. It later involved a much more elaborate set up of many pillows, blankets and books. She's in a phase of insisting that we "tuck in" with a blanket almost anytime we sit anywhere. I'm still kinda in that phase...interesting the things she's picking up that I am not intentionally teaching her (being anal about things being neat seems to be another thing she's picking up from me...ooops).

Tooth Update

We went to the dentist today and within about 20 minutes they X-rayed her, gave her a dental exam, cleaning, flouride and bonded the chipped tooth! She cried the whole time the Dr. was working in her mouth but that was only about 5 minutes so it wasn't too bad. She was a real trooper and recovered within seconds when the "tooth fixer" gave her stickers and a new Elmo toothbrush. The tooth looks pretty normal! It really was OBVIOUSLY chipped (my SIL said it looked like a fang) and now no one (except me the mom/perfectionist) can tell. I don't even have a picture of her 2nd "major" injury. Oh well, I'm just glad it's all fixed (and it didn't cost an arm and a leg)!

Oh-her first major injury was when she rolled off the bed (about 1 foot away from me) and got a black eye on the edge of a rocking chair on her way down. She was about 8 months old. It was NOT pretty and certainly wasn't "fixed" in 20 minutes.

Sad and Funny

In sad news....Ella fell while Chris was chasing her yesterday and chipped a pretty big chunk off her top front tooth. I FREAKED out and burst into tears when I saw it but the shock is wearing off and hopefully after our dentist appointment tomorrow morning I'll have good news about what can be done about it. For now, she isn't in any pain, she just has a sharp, funny looking tooth :-(

In funny (though almost sad) news...we had lunch at Amy's today and Ella had some pita and hummus and tomatoes on her plate. She doesn't usually eat tomatoes but I was trying to sell her on them....

Me:look Ella, this tomato makes the pita and hummus extra yummy, you should try it!
Ella (pulls the tomato off and holds it out to me): no, mommy, noooo
Me:why not?
Ella (with tears in her eyes): Mom, this tomato is Bob

For those of you who do not watch the fabulously entertaining Christian cartoon "Veggietales" you may not know what Bob the Tomato is one of the main characters. Poor Ella thought I was trying to convince her to eat her friend! Way to stand up for your friends Ella, I'll take compassion over nutrition any day.

Ella's Antics

It's been another abnormal week-Chris is home but jet lagged, I started school this week and we're moving LOTS of things around in our schedule to accommodate my new full-time student status. Should be exciting (and stressful). I've been able to get some breaks from Ella since Chris got home which has made me MUCH more excited to spend time with her. Napping is still not happening but that's partially been our fault (we've had reasons that she hasn't been home at nap time 2 days in a row) so we'll see what happens when we start to try again tomorrow. I'm hopeful...here's what she's been up to...


Dressing up in her 4th of July Dress from Aunt Bobby

She sat in this chair and read to Raleigh for 30 minutes!!! I love this child.

Making Monkey sounds for Raleigh

Outing with GG

My sister, Ella, and I had a fun visit to see my grandmother yesterday. Ella let GG teach her some choreography and they danced together for quite a while! Ella loves running around GG's house from interesting "toy" to toy. We went out after that and we had a 45 min wait at Outback. Ella did pretty well...I was kinda surprised we didn't leave regretting it. Go Ella! She hasn't napped in 10 days which is HORRIBLE but her behavior has been better the last couple days. Chris has been out of town this whole time so I'm hoping that once things are back to "normal" she'll start sleeping again. Here are some pics from last night.


GG and Ella cheesing it up

GG, Ella (not looking at the camera this time-but she is getting better at posing), and Marissa

Reading while we waited for our table at the restaurant

Momentous Occassion

To give you an idea of what kind of week it's been I just want to note that Ella fell asleep in the car this evening. This may not sound like a big deal but I kid you not, it's been close to a year since this has happened. I won't go into all of the sordid details but clearly, the last few days have been crazy enough that my child, the no-car-sleeper, fell asleep. Pray we make it through the next few days and that the back-talking, no napping, waking-up-at-night-child who has moved in with me gives back sweet little, sleeps-15hrs-a-day Ella. I miss her.

Interesting...

So we live in the suburbs and I don't know anyone who fits any kind of hunting-fishing-gun-toting stereotype yet still there is a store very close by that has acres of products geared towards these hobbies. I don't quite understand how they stay open but, whatever. What drove home the point that I really don't know who buys the stuff they sell is the vending machine outside this store that I came across the other day.

No Joke-they actually have a vending machine for meal worms and night crawlers and other nasty LIVE things. Do people really pull up in their yuppy cars, wearing business suits after their drive in from DC or Baltimore and grab a pack of night crawlers before they head home to their gated community or suburban picket fence-y neighborhood? I really want the statistics on how many times that vending machine has been used. I have nothing against outdoorsy-ness, I've just lived in the area for 20 some years and don't know a single person who would buy live bait at a shopping mall. Why, you ask was I at sed store? Because it's like another world for us-an amusement park full of real animals (taxidermy style) everywhere, a waterfall, and fish bigger than Ella in a tank as big as our living room. So, people who buy live bait, whoever you are, thanks for providing an afternoon excursion destination to fascinate my two year old (and me).

Christmas 2007

We had a great Christmas this year. We celebrated with my side of the family at my Aunt and Uncle's house on Christmas Eve. My Aunt is a great cook and we had appetizers and desserts that I confess I'm still fantasizing about...mini "burgers" made with steak, shrimp and cocktail sauce, smoked salmon canapes, egg salad with caviar (I've always hated egg salad but LOVED this) and the best fudge I've ever had. I've got to get the recipes. Anyway, lots of presents and fun and Ella was the star of the party. She really loves the party environment and is almost always really well behaved, even if it's hours past her bedtime (which it was).
Christmas morning Ella slept until we woke her up at 9:45am to go over to Nana and Grandpa's house. We celebrated with all of Chris' family until well into the afternoon and again, had a great time. It really was a blessed Christmas and we're so thankful for that!


Ella has been talking about Aunt Bobbi's house and the "big, big Christmas tree" almost every day since then

Ella saw the candles on this Christmas decoration and insisted that she needed to blow them out (and kept saying "Happy Birthday to you!") GG got a kick out of helping her blow each one out

Nana bought Ella this ADORABLE Christmas dress that fit her perfectly! She had so much fun passing out presents to everyone and was very good about not trying to open them all herself

Looking hardcore with her new guitar from Aunt Marissa