I don't even know where to start with this. I am so smitten with this child. I wish I could figure out why. I have wondered if it is because I made major sacrifices for her for the first 8 months of her life (you know...eating only 7 food items so that she wouldn't have belly aches and could also be breastfed.) Could sacrifice make you love someone more? My dad would say yes. However, I can't imagine feeling any differently about her if she was formula-fed from day one.Currently Kalia is in all-day kindergarten, Annie is in a preschool 4 mornings a week, leaving me to hang out with Ella every morning, just the two of us. She has the best personality. Seriously. Yes, she has her stubborn two-year-old moments, but she has a heart of gold. ANY time she sees ANY one crying, she runs over to them and just hugs them, for a really long time. And just tonight, I saw the roles reversed. Ella fell and bumped her head lightly on the bed. She started to cry a little, and Kalia, who was right next to her, leaned over and kissed her better. Ella jumped up and started hugging Kalia and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much." It melted my heart like a popsicle on the 4th of July. She is also VERY quick to apologize for anything, even things she didn't do. She LOVES to dance and she LOVES to sing, (don't even dare try to sing when she is singing). She has learned this from her sisters, especially Annie, who she spends a lot of time with while Kalia is gone. They get along really well. Kalia and Annie treat Ella so good, and really try to be good examples to her. Anytime I want them to stop behaving a certain way (or start doing certain things....ahem...Kalia...closing her eyes during prayers) I just remind them that Ella does whatever they do, and they honestly try much harder to show her the right way. I love this about all of them. Multiple times during the day, Ella runs to her room to put on a tutu. Other times, she puts on our clothes (my shirts, their dresses) and comes out, holding out her skirt and talks about being being "bootiful" or "I a pincess" Then she twirls and twirls and twirls. She also likes to lean on one foot and say, "I balance." She loves to climb on things and jump off, and she is strong and totally solid. She's one of those kids that is much heavier than she looks. She's not chubby though, so I guess she's a little ball of muscle.she currently weighs 31 lbs and is 36 inches tall. Her favorite thing to watch lately is the Barbie movie Princess and the Popstar. She knows MOST of the words to MOST of the songs, and she grabs a little thing of toll paint (for a microphone) and sings them. Preferably on a stage of some sort. Only a movie can do this justice, so I will show you what I'm talking about. She learned to whine from Annie and is testing it out occasionally, so I really stress to everyone to NEVER give her ANYTHING if she whines, cries, or moans (or throws a tantrum of course.) However, they also know that if she manages to calm herself and ask in a nice voice for something, and say please, we almost ALWAYS give it to her. That's how we reinforce good behavior around here, and it works well. Kalia and Annie are very patient with having to give up a lot of things just because Ella asks the right way. I try to give them something even better in return for their help.Ella is very enthusiastic about life in general. One of my favorite phrases from her is to hear how much she loves things. Example: "Do you remember Grandpa Dale?" Her answer: "I LOVE grandpa Dale!!!" "Do you want scrambled eggs?" And she says, "I LOVE EGGIES!" and runs to her high chair, climbs in, starts gobbling them up, and says "YUM YUM YUM, SO SO GOOD." Being around such a happy child is probably why I love spending so much time with her. How can you not love that? She can't get enough of being outside. She can pedal a little bike, ride a little pink scooter, and she wants to stop at every park she sees. She wears EVERYONE's flips flops and can keep them on her feet without any trouble. She loves to have the window down and wind blowing in her face. And even when the window is up and I'm driving, she randomly starts saying, "Go faster! Go faster!" Lately, when I leave her for awhile with someone and then come back, she always asks me, "Good day?" I guess she's heard me ask Kalia that when she gets home from school. She just pooped in the potty for the first time three weeks ago. She ran and did it on her own and hasnt done it since. We have been letting her pee on the potty for about four months. She does it several times a day, especially if I anyone else says they have to go. Then immediately she has to beat them to it. She likes to say that she has to "go potty real bad." (It's always "real bad", whether or not it's a lot of potty that actually comes out.) We have been talking about how HAPPY mommy will be when she poops in the potty, but she just isnt quite ready. She always seems to "save" her poop for naptime and bedtime, and usually waits until she's alone to do it. But on Sunday she was running around naked (common around here) and then ran to the potty, and then we hear her say, "I did a poop." She has cried wolf MANY times before, so we didn't believe her, but Annie went and checked and came RUNNING out to tell us she had ACTUALLY done a good sized poop in the potty. We all seriously REJOICED. I was so bummed it was Sunday because otherwise we would have driven STRAIGHT to the store for a donut. Instead we settled on giving her like, 3/4 a cup of chocolate chips. It was SO much chocolate. She ate every bit of it and luckily didn't have any allergic reactions to it.
She sleeps in the king bed with her sisters, but still comes into our bed every night. She still naps from 1-3 but lately hasn't been falling asleep til 8:30 or 9. She is super cheerful if we let her stay up with us and Samuel enjoys getting to spend time with her since he doesn't see her a lot with his schedule. So this works for now.
I still think she is the smartest two year old around, at least when it comes to learning and memorizing and knowing all the colors, shapes, letters, and even a lot if their sounds. She even knows the 2nd and the 8th article of faith completely. She learned them by hearing us sing them at night.
She loves Taylor Swift songs and knows 75% of the lyrics to Trouble, and when we drive she requests that song and Red, over and over.
She is the pickiest eater though. She won't eat bread or vegetables or fruit (sometimes a banana or strawberry or blueberry...if she is in the mood). We make sure to avoid corn and chicken although we are seeing some progress with the introduction of processed chicken nuggets. She pretty much won't eat anything but pasta, eggs, rice, pretzles, beef, pork, and turkey. And organic blended baby food fruit or applesauce in a pouch. And chocolate and cookies of course. She seems to have outgrown most food sensitivities... now she is just so picky. . We've let her stay on her bottle of formula just to ensure that she is getting all her vitamins, calories, and fat. Our insurance still pays for it and ships it to our door, so why not. Ella does get cranky when she's hungry, just like Mama, but she doesn't vocalize hunger or ask for food, so we have to stay on top of her eating.
I expected her to be pretty jealous of the baby but that hasn't turned out to be the case! More on that very soon.
