communication.

(this is what is looks like when the baby cuss words come out. in this instance, she had been told that she was finished eating cookies for the night. what can i say? the girl loves sweets. i don't know where she gets it.)

 

ellie has always been pretty quiet and, until recently, she never really happily yelled or babbled a whole lot like some babies do. now she sings and jibber-jabbers and cusses me out and laughs when everyone else is laughing. the past couple of weeks, ellie has really started communicating with us. she could always say "more" in her made-up sign language, but now she shakes her head yes and no and has added another ellie sign*, "please." she has also started saying a few regular words, too, which is really fun.

her favorite lately is "yeah, yeah!" she usually sort of whispers it. i'll ask her if she wants something or likes something and she'll nod her head and whisper, "yeah! yeah!"

for example:

mommy: "ellie, do you want to watch a show?"
ellie: (points at tv) "yeah!"

mommy: "ellie, would you like a cookie?"
ellie: (nodding vigorously) "yeah! yeah!"

(ellie throws her bowl on the floor.)
mommy: "are you all done?"
ellie: (puts her hands up) "yeah. yeah. ah dah."

and my personal favorite, when she is tired or upset: 
mommy: "ellie, do you want to go to bed?"
ellie: (almost falling over) "yeahahahahahaha."

the other way she does it is this: when daddy brought her to find me in church, she walked up to me and said "yeah! yeah!" - letting us know she approved the decision.

she also says "yum" a lot. she says it while she eats, obviously, but she'll say it when she sees other people eating and she wants to eat, too. she'll say it if she sees something yummy. she also enjoys trying to feed me and give me drinks while saying "yum, yum." she tries to feed daddy, her friends and the dog. yeah, she doesn't have an issue with sharing. 

my favorite little word that she has just started saying is "whoa." when she opened easter eggs, when she gets a yummy treat, when she picks up something that she isn't supposed to have but is really cool it is "whooooaaaaaa."

funny enough, she rarely shakes her head no. sometimes she'll do it if she's mad or if i take something away, and then she'll make her little baby swear words at me (and they sound so vile, haha) and she'll fall over dramatically. the one time she always shakes her head no is when i ask if she is cold when she isn't wearing anything but a diaper. the answer is always a very serious head shake "no!" even if her little lips are starting to look purple.

i guess my mission now is to try and get some of these things on camera, right? because talking about ellie is fun, but it can't replace the actual experience.




*(in case you were wondering, "more" in sign language is touching the fingertips of both hands together. ellie points one finger horizontally to her open palm. for "please," you rub your chest with your open hand. she rubs her hands together, like she's washing them. but i know what she means, so i guess that's what matters, right?)

the eggs.

she woke up and found a trail of eggs leading out of her room, down the hall, and into the den. 

she didn't make it out of the hallway for a while because she couldn't figure out how to hold that much candy in her hands and she didn't trust us to put it in a basket.

she spent the morning finding eggs, opening them and trying to eat the candy with the wrapper still on so that we wouldn't try to ration her chocolate intake. 

there was a chickie, a sprinkler, a big ball and a bubble wand. 

let's face it, this bunny was all about the sugary treats.

chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, jelly beans, peeps, airheads and koolaid. balanced breakfast.

happy easter!

 

happy easter!  

 

elliebean jellybean, one year later. can you believe the difference?!

her hair is long enough now to hold a little bow . . . for a minute or two. 

i promise we did have a happy easter, even though this bunny doesn't really look so happy.

(best picture ever)

more egg party pictures tomorrow. 

lost. or just busy.

husband is usually spot on when it comes to finding a resemblance to celebrities and characters. 

when i got my new glasses, it was lisa loeb (except she's obviously more put-together and looks a lot less crazy than i do). 

source

then it was the comparison to sue heck.

i don't have photos as proof, but trust me. there was a striking similarity.

today, apparently, i looked like a woman who was shipwrecked for years. 

i can't deny it. 

(i made the pictures of me black and white so you can tell the difference.)

source.

(if you don't know, she's from lost. the show. you should watch it, especially since it is over and you don't have to wait forever to find out what happens next. it's pretty fun.)

that explains my life lately. shipwrecked. well, just wrecked. i have been crazy and lazy and my house and self are total wrecks. i have a few excuses, but i'm not sure you really want to hear any of them. 

i've been playing with my girl and i've started babysitting a little and, well, just doing whatever i want. 

and eating some chocolate eggs and jelly beans and all of that stuff while i'm at it. 

life is pretty good, even when things get crazy.

will have easter things to post tomorrow and/or the next day, for sure. i guarantee that they'll be adorable.

good little mommy.

as i'm sure you are well aware by now, we have a bit of dolly obsession at our house. ellie rescues her dollies from her crib in the morning, she takes them on car rides, they watch her shows with her, they snuggle her at night.

she wants the dollies to do everything that she does in the day - and she wants to do it exactly the way it should be done. in the last few days i have watched her spend (what seems like) hours trying to buckle her dollies into car seats, trying to feed them in her booster seat and trying to get their legs positioned correctly in the bumbo. she even pretends that her little walking toy is a shopping cart and pushes the babies around on it.

and what would i be without photo evidence? :)

one thing i don't have photo evidence of is the mandatory baby kisses. she brings her babies for kisses from us. it isn't optional. those babies will stay in front of your face until you kiss them adequately. we also get to hold them sometimes, too ... while she goes to get another dolly.

love notes.

we have a little whiteboard in our kitchen. i find notes like these on it when the husband leaves for work at 5:30 in the morning (i am a bad wife and i sleep in most of the time):

that's a braid, by the way (not a double helix, like i thought it was for about five minutes) (nerd). 

braid-e = bradie. get it?

also this:

it's cute, until you get to the end. see it? kiss, kiss . . . fart. 

good thing i love him.

a girl and her dog.

well, this time it's a toy dog. had to post these for our very own greatie, who presented ellie with this adorable pup while we were in utah. she loves it.

(really, she's so funny about her toys. i swear she loves them all so much. it's like toy story for real.)