life with a two-year-old.

just some little things i want to remember about ellie at this age.

i love ellie's imagination. she makes me laugh so hard, especially when she plays with her food (which is always). usually her food/utensils are a family, the tallest object being daddy and so on down the line. she makes them hug and kiss while she sings "we love dada, yes siree! we love mama, yes siree! we love poppy, yes siree!" i guess she must be pretty happy, because she never pretends to yell or fight. she slid a penne noodle on her fork handle and said that she was putting "jammies" on the fork. that's not even as good as the incident at ikea, when she pulled her straw out of her juice box and yelled "come back here! i'm naked!" get it? the straw is naked because the juice box ran away... oh man.


she's super girly. she wants to wear a "pretty dress" all the time. if she is wearing pants or even pajamas, we have to put the tutu over it so that she has a pretty dress on. she loves sparkly and shiny things. i swear, i do not make her do this. i may enable her but i do not encourage her. she will ask to wear tights or sparkly shoes. we looked at a shimmery dress at the store the other day and she will not stop talking about it. i find her digging in my bag, looking for "makeups"and "mastick" (chapstick). for all her girliness, though, she loves to play with dinosaurs and trucks and she's not afraid to get dirty.

she loves to dance. she will grab our hands and say, "stand up! let's dance!"she will wake up in the morning and ask if we can watch the nutcracker and she will sing the music, "duh duh duh duuuh duh-duh!" she loves to sing, too. lately she's been singing "the rainbow connection." it's the best. her versions: "wainbows are visions, da only delusions" "da lubbers, da screamers and meeeeee!"

she loves her friends and nursery. she will ask me where her friends are (by name) all week long, when we are at the store or when she's going to bed or when she first wakes up. she remembers when it is sunday and she is so excited to go to church... except sacrament meeting. "i don't want to go to sacrament meeting!" she just wants to play. when people come to our house she screams and cries when they leave.

she's very good with her words and has an excellent vocabulary. i can't believe i was ever worried that she wouldn't talk. now she won't stop talking! she's getting smart, too, and sassy. lately she'll try to get out of bed by asking to "nuggle with dada." let's just say that it works often, especially because she isn't usually a snuggler. she'll do anything to get out of bed. a few nights ago she said, "i don't want to go to bed! i want to eat breakfast!" as if we could just forget about the night and go straight into the next day.

she's a parrot but she always seems to choose the sweetest things to copy. she says things like, "good morning! did you wake up?" and "congratulations! you did it!"i especially love when she talks to her sister: "poppy! you are sooooo beautiful. you're a very smart girl." she definitely loves her sister. she even asked why poppy didn't get a birthday cake, too.

some recent ellie quotes:

"oh my goodness, we goin' to mcdonalds! we goin' to mcdonalds hooray!" (she didn't even eat anything, she just played.)

"polka dots? hooray! i love polka dots!" (her polka dot dress.)

"oh my goodness, it's pink!" (about her birthday cake.)

"awww, i love blockses!"(when opening her blocks.)

puts her hands on her cheeks and "i can't ba-weave-it!

when opening her rapunzel doll: (in a reverenced tone) "ohhhh, she's soooo beauuuutiful."

she counts to ten (or higher), she recognizes several letters and she knows her colors. she's challenging and stubborn and way too smart, but she's also funny and surprising and loving and wonderful.


i couldn't ask for a better girl.


p.s. - miss poppy is officially three months old!