Our 2 1/2 Year Old!

Ellie's 2 1/2 now so I thought I'd do a post on her, since she's changed a lot since her 2nd birthday! She has really grown up in these last 6 months - she's much more independent and talking more and more! Ellie continues to say the funniest things - everyday she comes up with something and we're just like - where did she hear that?! Today's funny phrase was 'my bad'.

Ellie likes to remind us of the rules - her teachers say that she's a very good listener. Before telling us a rule, she'll put her finger up by her cheek and say, "Remember"...followed by, 'we don't run inside, we use walking feet', 'we talk with our inside voices', 'we don't hit our friends'...she reminds us of the rules a lot =)

She loves to sing songs - kid songs like Twinkle Twinkle and Baa Baa Black Sleep, but also songs she hears on the radio like Your Love is My Drug, OMG, and California Gurls! The first time she started singing Your Love is My Drug, I could not stop laughing.

Ellie is very independent and loves to put on (and more-so take off) her clothes. She changes quite often. She also has a tendency to put EVERYTHING on upside down and backwards. I'm not even joking, 9 time out of 10, she will put whatever it is she's putting on backwards. Shoes are ALWAYS on the wrong feet! Ellie's always very well accessorized. Everyday she wears bracelets. Most days she wears her watch and ring too. Some days she wears sunglasses. She loves pretties in her hair and hats at times. Stickers are also favorites on her clothes, legs, and arms. She's almost always decked out!

Over the last 5 days we've reached a big milestone - peeing on the potty! We have been entertaining the potty for almost a year now. She took her first interest coincidentally right after Emmit was born. Since then she's been going here and there. About 2 weeks ago though, she started changing her own Pull-Up. She'd get up in the morning and before coming out of her room, put a clean one on. She'd do that throughout the day everytime she wet. And then this last Saturday, instead of a Pull-Up she put underwear on and that was it! She's had a few accidents, but has been pretty much dry for the last 5 days! Pooping is a different story - those are daily accidents still, but she tells us when she has to go and after she has gone - just isn't up for going on the potty yet. So, that'll be our next milestone I guess! We've just cut our diaper changing in half - I can't complain!

Ellie really loves to play outside. This summer we've had a lot of fun playing on the slip 'n slide, sprinklers, and pool, going to the park, and playing hop scotch. She also likes her downtime - usually reading stories or watching TV. Ellie's favorite shows these days are Wow Wow Wubzy and Max & Ruby. She still likes Gabba and also the Wonderpets, but the first 2 are by far her FAVS. Ellie's loves to talk about birthdays. She'll talk about someone's birthday for weeks. This last month it's been mine, Carson's, her friend Sam's, and Emmit's coming up. She also likes to say what things are for 'little girls' and what things are for 'little boys'. Emmit can't play with a lot of things because they are only for 'little girls'.

Ellie is still quite attached to her nummy and loves her blankie. Those will be hard habits to break. She has a book called the 'Binky Box', and it's all about making a bed for binky so he can sleep by himself. Well, we call it the nummy box, and Ellie's recently made a nummy box, so we'll see.

She has yet to get her first haircut, but at least we can put some pretties in now! =)

I could probably go on and on, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something good, but all I can say is she's a little HAM right now and we love her!

Playing outside



Smelling/picking Grandma's flowers



Pretend sleeping on the swing



Silly under the coffee table



One particularly funny rendition of Baa Baa Black Sleep that Auntie Sara caught on camera.



Ellie LOVES Emmit. She loves to help him and give him things. She has already made him a birthday card. She is a very proud big sister!



Wearing Mama's shoes. She has her own princess high heels which she wears a lot! They're great at like 6:00 am clicking around downstairs - then EVERYBODY'S UP! =)



Super star!



Ellie has a little obsession with putting things on to 'make her feel better'. She says this phrase a lot - 'I put stickers on my legs to make them feel better', 'I put sunscream (that's how she says it) on my arm to make it feel better', 'Ice cream/suckers/(insert any sweet!) will make me feel better'...etc. etc. Well, this particular day, Ellie decided that rubbing almost an entire jar of Vaseline on her head would make it feel better! It was such a mess and didn't come out for 3 days!!



One VERY accessorized morning!