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!