Fake Smile

Ok, so there is room for improvement, but at least she responds to the request "smile for the camera."

I give up counting

Ellie now has enough words that I have lost track of how many she can say. She's always saying new words that amaze me.

This morning she pointed to her white shirt and said "wet" and pointed to the blue shirt and said "bue". I know she knows her colors, which is fantastic, though whenever you ask her "what color is this?" her answer is always the default "ellow".

Similarly, the default number is "twoo".

But like I said, she's always saying new words that just surprise me. She's so big now. She's is like a little person now. You may make the argument that she's always been a little person, but it's even more so now because she seems to have no problem communicating her thoughts and wants. I swear the changes she has had in the last month have aged her more than any previous month.

Next month, we're off to kindergarten!

Amazing Anna

I find it amazing that after all this time (it's been 6 months now), Ellie still remembers Miss Anna's name. Ellie has been sick the last couple of days and she didn't want to go to daycare today. It was a very pleasant surprise for both Ellie and Mommy to see Miss Anna sitting in the room at daycare, and suddenly Ellie was all about staying at school. She kissed me good bye, waved to me and ran to Anna.

I have said this often, but I wonder what memories Ellie will take with her when she gets older. I thought for sure that by now she would have forgotten Anna. If not, then at least replace her with another favorite teacher. Do you think Miss Anna might become one of those memories? Is she really that amazing?

Concert at the Vincent's II

Mommy: Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you're out too soon. The sun is still in the sky. So go back to bed and cover up your head, and wait 'til the day goes by.

Ellie: Mo! Mo!

Mommy: Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you're out too soon. The sun is still in the sky. So go back to bed and cover up your head, and wait 'til the day goes by.

Ellie: Mo! Mo!

(Repeat about 10 times)

Mommy: You want more of the Mr. Moon song?

Ellie: Yeah.

Mommy: Ok, do you want to sing with Mommy this time?

Ellie: Yeah.

Mommy: Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon...

Ellie: La la ah eh oh la aaaa mooo...

Lasting effects of Elmo

I do not think I will have a problem with Ellie being obsessed about buying Elmo stuff. Oh, she knows who he is and even knows his name (a surprise to me), but she didn't know he would come alive when she touched him at the toy store. I've never seen the girl jump so high (luckily she landed).

Elmo scared her almost 3 days ago and she still talks about him. After the initial scare, the only word she said for the rest of the evening was a very sad "Elmo" as though he disappointed her severely by reaching out and saying "Hi."

The following day she wanted to wear her Elmo shirt to school and she went up to all the teachers to explain to them how he attacked her at the store. Unfortunately, they misunderstood her and assumed she was just excited about her shirt.

Because of the incident, she has learned the meaning of "scared" and even learned the sign for it. When the topic comes up (still pretty often, even days later) she says "Elmo" and signs for "scared". Mommy responds with "Elmo scared you?" and she says "Yeah" and then goes into the details that I witnessed, though I'd love to understand the words from her perspective.

Another interesting detail on her piecing together information... When the cat hisses at her (usually because Merlin is around), Mommy says "The kitty is afraid of Merlin," to which Ellie responds "Elmo" while singing "scared".

It is so fascinating to watch her link related topics together like that.

Nose Blowing

I really do try. I try so hard. But no matter how many times I try to convince myself otherwise, I have to admit the fact that Ellie gets scared when I blow my nose.

I must be doing it wrong

I gave Ellie a time-out the other day. She hit Mommy and I said "don't hit Mommy, or we go into time-out." I stuck her in the corner and kept her hands to her side for a couple minutes. Afterwards she gave me a hug and we continued as if nothing happened.

Later, though, she hit Mommy again. I said "Don't hit Mommy. Do you want a time-out?" and she responded with a "Yeah!" and walked over to the corner. She stood facing the wall for a moment and then called for Mommy to come join her.

Hmm... what step did I miss?

Cartoon Physics

Before I got to know Ellie, I never realized that cartoon physics is based off of the study of toddler movement.

Spinning Wheels:
This is where the cartoon character starts to run so fast that he just spins in place for while. Ellie does this mostly on our hardwood floors.

Rounding Corners:
You can picture it, I'm sure. The cartoon character is running straight but then has to take a sharp turn. First his head turns, then his arms turn, then his feet finally catch up. But there for a brief moment, all body parts are going in different directions. This just cracks me up whenever we watch Ellie run around a corner. I honestly don't know how she manages to go in so many directions at once.

Forward Momentum:
Picture a surprised cartoon character, who needs to run away but is not sure where to go. Every now and then Ellie runs in such a way that I swear her feet are going left, her arms are going right, but since she's looking forward, somehow that's the direction she ends up moving. Again, I think she's defying the standard laws of physics.

Full-Arm Swing:
This is when the cartoon character walks deliberately up to another character to get revenge. I have to admit, I have never seen Ellie do this, however there was a little boy her age at the park who ran in just that manner. It was the funniest thing.

Maybe you have to spend time around a young toddler to fully comprehend what I'm saying, but next time you find yourself watching Saturday morning cartoons, keep this in mind: Their ideas come from somewhere, and I'm nearly certain it's from the little ones ruling our world.

Concert at the Vincent's

We are the first of our friends to have kids and it has definitely put us in a different social circle than them. Many of them still go out to concerts late at night while we are at home rocking out to Itsy-bitsy-spider, getting ready for a 7:45 bed time. But let me tell you, no one can match Daddy's rock version of the song!

An introduction to snow

This morning I had the privilege to introduce Ellie to snow. Granted, there wasn't a lot of it, but it was still enough to cover the ground in a magical white powder that she had never seen before. When she pointed outside, indicating something was different, I told her "Look Ellie! It's snow!" She learned the word quickly, and wanted to know more about this white stuff Mommy calls SNOW.

It wasn't difficult to convince her to put on her jacket and hat (something that usually sparks a game of "will Mommy chase me"). All I had to do was ask her if she wanted to go see the snow. At first she was very upset that I didn't want to go out to the backyard (where she first noticed the snow), but once she realized that there was snow out front too, then the excitement returned.

The problem was that I couldn't get her away from the snow to go to daycare, but I solved that by making a small snowball (again, there wasn't much snow, so it was more like a snow-grape) and I put it on her lap with her in the car seat. We were off! Once that snow-grape melted, though, she was demanding more and pointing snow out to me everywhere along the drive.

Once at daycare, we found a bench covered in snow and played there for a minute or two. Then inside, unlike her usual routine of being obsessed with books, she demanded more snow. Oh my god. She is so cute!

Ellie: Nooo? Nooo?
Mommy: You want more snow?
Ellie: Aye!
Mommy: Ok, give Mommy a hug good bye and let Miss Jana show you more snow.

I haven't received a hug good bye in such a long, long time! Mommy likes snow.