I wanted to capture how much Ellie has blossomed before we enter this new stage. A few anecdotes:
- Ellie has become so adept at using her imaginatiom. After a recent walk, she "fed" her beloved Baa "chocolate and vanilla cupcakes" -- actually leaves she had collected from our yard (one of her favorite pastimes). She also loves to use her toy phone to call her friend Annika and to receive calls from Thomas the Train.
- She really loves to spend time outside, and these days, every walk is a "nature walk." She pays close attention her surroundings and likes identifying shapes like circles (metal sewer covees) and rectangles (various signs) around her.
- She says semi-adult things that surprise us these days! After a trip to the grocery store, Ellie turned to Nitin and said, "Thank you for buying food, Dad." This morning, I told Ellie to have a wonderful day, and she replied, "Have a good day at work today, mama." I have no idea what she thinks work is, but she knows that is what we do all day!
- She also loves to make jokes. We told Zoe to stop barking one night, and then Ellie started shouting, and we told her to stop barking. Our little smart aleck said, "I'm not barking, you're barking! Stop barking mama!"
- Ellie has started napping in her big girl bed -- and she'd love to sleep there at night -- but we are not quite ready for a kid who will not stay in bed!
- She is also almost add geographically aware as I am! She knows where Annika lives, where the alley is, and when we are driving near the doctor or Nani's house.
- She has a very solid appetite. Some of her favorites are raisins, peppers, kalamata olives (she asks for them by name) and "mac-a-moly." If we tell her we are going to grocery shop, she is happy to add to the list!
- In general, she is enthusiastic and joyful, with the normal highs and lows of toddler emotions. If you ask how she is feeling, she'll usually report, "I'm feeling good," or, "I'm feeling happy."
- She loves to dance, and her favorite dance move is twirling. Her favorite dance music is the Pete the Cat soundtrack -- especially the blueberry cupcake blues,
- She is really a trooper, and she bounces back quickly from injuries. She fell and scraped her hand in Del Ray recently -- after crying for a bit, she popped back up and kept walking.
- She has recently started singing a little jingle, "it's OK to miss your name." I assume that she learned it in all. It was sweet and sad to hear her sing it. I miss her, too, and wish I could work less and spend more time with her.
- She often asks us fit huggies and kissies, and now she has starred asking me for ninbles -- pretending to eat a bite of her toes!
- She is becoming more conscious of school days, and sometimes resists. One weekend day, when were heading out, she said, "we're not going to school, we're going on an adventure!"
- Some of Ellie's favorites: a tie between her dinosaur pants, letter pants, strawberry pants; her favorite color is blue; her favorite letter is W. She also loves taking bubble baths with her foam letters -- she knows many of them, and she likes to quiz me, too: "What letter...this?"
- I love to hear her speak -- I should take more videos. Even as her speech grows increasingly complex, she is missing sounds. The letter y still replaces a lot of letter sounds. So she'll say "yipes" instead of wipes and "Yoyo" for Zozo, for example.
- The bedtime routine can be long, and she often is not as interested in reading as we wish she were at the end of the day, though she'll read book after him on weekend days. We end the night by singing Twinkle, Twinkle and each give her multiple rounds of huggies and kissies.
- She sure loves music, and will sing along to lots of songs, including the Pete the Cat songs and songs from Spanish class like the colors song and the Buenos Dias songs. She also sings the classics, like row row your boat and rain go away.
- She loves Nitin's Obama t-shirt and whenever he wears it, she shrieks, "Obama!" Nitin played get a video of Obama, too, so now she can recognize him on sight. I don't think she has any idea who the current president is, and that makes me happy.
- She seems to understand that her baby brother will be arriving soon. Whole we were watching Daniel Tiger, the jingle of the episode was, "I like to spend time with my family!" Ellie was captivated and started singing along, but sang instead, "I like to spend time with my baby brother!" Heart, melted. I hope that it turns out to be true!
There is so much to write, but I have to stop somewhere! We had a wonderful weekend with Grandma and grandpa this weekend, despite a rough start with Ellie falling ill with a stomach virus. Grandpa is funny and silly and Grandma is, of course, the kindest and most patient person that Ellie has ever met. We're so lucky that she has three absolutely doting grandparents to make her feel so special. That is all for now, but I'll try to write again soon!
