Tid-Bits XVI

As Daddy pulls the car out of the driveway, I love watching Ellie signing "I love you" and blowing me kisses while all I can see of Addie is her feet bobbing up and down, kicking the seat.

I love that sometime in the last couple of months Ellie has decided that it is NOT COOL to wake up too early. If I go to get her before she's ready to get up, she tells me she's not awake and please come back in a couple of minutes. It gives me hope that once again I may be able to sleep past 6:00 or 7:00 am.

I love how when Ellie sleeps with me, she takes good care of her mommy. She rubs my back and makes sure I'm covered with blankets. She even tucks the blanket in under my chin.

I love how when I give Addie a choice (often to try to figure out which color is her favorite), she picks both. Wise woman.

I love that at age 3 years and 5 months, Ellie has learned the trick of how to add and subtract using her fingers. She really is one of the smartest little people I know.

I love how Ellie has recently started calling Daddy "Papa" and she claims she's going to start calling me "Mama." Though I personally like "Mommy" better, who am I to discourage her coming up with her own terms of endearment. Besides, "Papa" is pretty gosh darn adorable.

I love the fact that my Ellie is so polite. Just the other day we bought a toy from the store and she asked the clerk, "Can you take the tag off, please?" The clerk seemed surprised that she was speaking to her. Then as we were leaving, Ellie turned around and said "Dank you for taking off the tag for me!" I loved that my 3-year old reminded the grown woman complaining about something in the next line over to thank the clerk who was helping her.

On occasion Ellie can't contain her feelings in just three words. "Mommy I love you hundred" or "I love you so big" seem to be her solution.

I love how Ellie is old enough now to recognize that she's just grumpy. She looks at you sadly and says "I just have da crummies because I did not eat much dinner" or "...because I just didn't get enough sleep." The poor girl is so devastated you'd think she was diagnosed with an incurable disease.

Not long ago we were at a restaurant and Addie starts getting super excited and audibly loud with lots of squeals and wiggles. It turns out that she saw her friend Otto (another baby in her class) sitting at the next table over. I guess Mommy is going to have to start paying attention to who her favorite friends are too.

Ellie knows not to touch a wall socket because it's dangerous, but when probing a little deeper about what makes it so dangerous, she says "We don't touch dat because if we do den a spider will come out of da wall and bite you! Right, Mommy?"

On a recent trip to Maryland where we were able to hang out with some friends, Ellie met Lucas. After playing with him for a while and then saying good bye Ellie asked to use the phone so that she could call Lucas and tell him that he was her prince. She insisted on calling him, but when Lucas' mom said he wouldn't take the phone, Ellie told her instead. "Can you tell Lucas for me dat he is my pwince and I am his pwincess? Ok. Thanks. Bye."

In one of her recent songs (Ellie is always singing) she sang over and over again, "I am Lori-lelle and all is good for me. All is good for me. All is good for me. And I am Lori-lelle."