Ellison- 2 Years

Ellie is TWO!!!  She is changing and developing so fast now, it won't be long that I will no longer look at her as a baby or toddler, but as a little girl.  With a big sister she acts like such a big girl as well.

She is still the silliest girl, and every where we go people comment on how happy she is.  She is so full of energy and giggles all the time.  She is certainly a handful to take care of.  Her vocabulary, language and memory is incredible for a two year old.  I'm not just saying that because she's mine, but because it's true.  If it were opposite I'd tell you that too.  She loves to read books.  She can sit and look at books by herself or have you read to her.  Her favorite books right now are the Llama books and a children's Bible.  She loves to paint, color, cut and do play doh.  She loves Barbies and dolls, and she will take all their clothes off.  Every baby or doll or anything with clothes has to be naked.  And speaking of naked, she is in a naked streak.  Big time.  At home, she loves to be naked.  I imagine with how busy she is, is how she stays warm.  If she's not naked she has to wear pajamas.  Throughout the day she is either naked or in pajamas.  I can convince her to wear clothes to leave the house, but she has to pick out her outfits and she does make some interesting choices.


She sleeps well at night.  She generally sleeps about 9-7.   Some nights she likes to rock a bye or others she is just ready for "sweet dreams".    She loves to have her neck or back tickled to settle her down.  It puts her in a trance and she practically passes out.  She is in that phase where she thinks she doesn't need to nap.  She usually does nap every day, but there are days where she can go without one or just a quick nap in the car.  I prefer her to not nap, because then she is ready for bed early.  If she does nap, it is around 2:30 and I don't let her sleep longer than 1 1/2 hrs or much past 4:00, whichever comes first.  She is still in a crib and doesn't climb out, but she will be getting a big girl bed tuesday.  I think she will do okay with it.  She does know how to turn doorknobs and open doors, but I'm not too sure she will come out at night.  Hopefully I don't eat my words!

She eats well and will eat most everything.  She likes to get hot dogs out of the fridge and just eat them cold.  Gross, but whatever.  Whitney went through that too.  She loves her milk, chocolate milk that is!

She weighs about 25lbs and is about 32in.  I'll get official stats next week. Wears a size 6 shoe, she seems tall and has outgrown 18-24 month.  She is in 2t clothing.    Her hair is a shaggy mess.  I don't want to cut bangs, and she won't let me put in pony tails or clips.  She still has the clumsiness of a 12 month old.  She does not pay attention to what she is doing, has no sense of caution, is always moving.  I swear her nerve endings don't work and she has almost no sense of pain.  The amount of head injuries she has had, and still gets, worries me a lot.  It can't be safe.

She is potty trained.  About six weeks ago she decided she was done with diapers.  I had been thinking she could probably handle it, but didn't want to get started with it yet because she is so GROSS about everything.  She has to touch everything.  Meaning every inch of a public toilet, we started using a potty seat and then she would put the seat over her face and look through it, or put it on her head like a crown, and then there were usually pee dribbles on it.  yuck!  I would ask her to please wear a diaper.  No.  And she started out pooping in her pants.  That lasted about 3 days before she finally figured out to ask us for a diaper.  She will not poop in the toilet.  After four days of her potty training herself I figured it was time to go with it and get it done with.  She has done great. We go out without pull ups or diapers. We have gone swimming without swim diapers, AWESOME!! no swim diapers this summer!!!  She naps without a diaper.  She stays dry at night about 5 of 7 nights.    We went to Iowa last weekend, a four hour drive, and she stayed dry there and back.

Right after Thanksgiving, so just after 21 months, I took away her pacifier.  I didn't have any plans to do it, all of a sudden one day I just decided to see what happens.  With how attatched to it she was I was expecting the worst.  It did start her not wanting to nap, but she did fine at night.  I couldn't believe how easy it ended up being. 

She has started watching cartoons, whoop whoop!  free baby sitter!  Her favorite is Diego.  Diego is her boyfriend. She also likes Dora, George, and Wild Kratts. 

that's all I got for now! 

Hot Party

Whitney and Ellie took a shower after their bath just because.  When I shut the water off I asked Whitney if that was fun, and she says, "yeah, it's like a hot party!"

Ellison- 21 Months

Ellie will be 21 months on the 22nd, but I'll be way to busy that day to blog!  This girl is quite the character!  I seriously laugh at her every day.  She is so silly and thinks everything is joyful.  I cannot believe that she is almost two, she's still my baby!!  I look back at when Whitney was this age and I was weeks away from having Ellie.  Whitney seemed so grown up to me at 21 months, I guess because she was my first and I had nothing to compare her to.  I also had Whitney in her big girl bed, something I am not ready for with Ellie, though I think Ellie would be fine with it. 

 

Her biggest accomplishment these last few months has been her vocabulary.  She speaks in 3-5 word sentences all the time.  She's also learning phrases I don't care too much for a 21 month old to know.  Just this morning she told me, "stop it, mama!" and "pick it up, mama!".  Little bossy pants!  She still says her "c's" as t's and it cracks me up every time.  Otay!  She tries to say "I don't know" but it comes out as "nigh know".  She calls herself Ella now, so more and more we have been calling her Ella.

 

 

She is big into painting right now and wants to paint all day.  She also likes markers, the messier the better with her.  She loves books and could read all day.  She will ask, "what's this" or "what's her name, mama?"  Everything needs a lable.  She likes to be my helper with chores.  She is crazy as ever and still lacks the balance I would think she should have by now.  She is so clumsy and just does not pay attention to what she's doing.  I'm seriously worried about future brain damage she could be inflicting on herself.  Last week she fell off the back of our love seat onto the top of her head on the hard wood floor. I contstantly have to watch her to make sure she isn't doing something dangerous.  She has figured out she can push the chair to the counter and then climb up on the counter tops.  Her problem solving skills are too advanced for her own good.  She also puts things her mouth all the time still.  I know Whitney was way beyond that is this age.  I don't know if it's because Ellie has a paci all the time that she associates putting things in her mouth?  The other day at the zoo she licked a goat!  Ugh!

 

She is a pretty great sleeper in my book.  She doesn't sleep as long as other toddlers, but she prefers to go to sleep alone and she stays asleep, so I'll take it!  She sleeps about 9pm-7am.  She naps around 12:30 for 2 hrs.  If it's any more than two hours I have to wake her up so she's ready for bed by 9. She does not crawl out of her crib.. yet.  (knock on wood!)  She is a paci monster.  I let her have them way too much and need to confine it to naptime, and car rides.  She at least talks with them.  She will let it hang out the side of her mouth and talk or take it out to talk. 

 

She likes to go potty in the toilet, but we are not potty training yet.  She's a little too gross about it.  She puts the potty seat on her head, or worse, I'll turn around and she's chewing on it!!  She KNOWS she is not supposed to do it, but she does to see what I'll do.   Once I committ to potty trainging I don't think we'll have any problems.  I'll for sure wait a few more months. 

 

She can open the refridgerator and open doors.  She is obsessed with animals, particularly dogs.

 

She wears a size 5 shoe, 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diaper.

Happy Halloween! 2012

Whitney was able to trick or treat for her preschool and she wanted to be a witch again.  I took Ellie to the Welcome Center while Whitney was in preschool and Ellie got to trick or treat too!  If you remember, that's Ellie's bee costume from last year.  Won't be getting any more years out of that one!

Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion, though everyone thought Whitney was the Lion King.  I guess.  And they weren't sure if she was a boy or girl.  As long as she had fun and was excited about her costume, I don't care what she wears.

 

Trick or treating in our neighborhood was great.  Most houses had their lights on and gave out candy bars, score!!  Both girls did great and were so polite saying trick or treat and thank you.  Hopefully we can instill that in them, bc it drives me crazy to hear kids ask "can I have two?"  no, you can't.  It's free, take what you get and go on to the next house!

 

I love Halloween and everything about Fall, but I have been ready for Halloween to be over.  We went to our first pumpkin patch back on Sept 21, and we did multiple other events.  I'm not ready for the snow, but I'm impatiently waiting for Thanksgiving so I can get out my Christmas decor!

Tis the season!

Pumpkin Fun

 

We were going a little crazy inside with Wade being gone for a week, so Saturday afternoon we bundled up and went outside to paint pumpkins.

mommy painted pumpkins too!

pumpkin pancakes.  We started a tradition that on the night we carve pumpkins I make pumpkin pancakes.  Add some canned pumpkin to your pancake mix and voila!  orange pancakes!  add vanilla ice cream, cinnamon and sugar.  Delish!  And the girls love them.  Last night I made chili and added canned pumpkin to that too.  Couldn't even tell!  Healthy chili!

Ellie got bored of pumpkin carving and got into the bacon bits. 

and the full moon

Whitney's First Day of Preschool

Whitney started her first day of preschool today!!  Thankfully she was very excited about it and wasn't nervous.  She is going to Bellevue West High School tuesday, wednesday and thursday from 9:45-11:00 for eight weeks.   It is for a child development class and each child has a student assigned to them.  There are 12 children total age 3-5.   I believe they have a spring program and I hope to get her in that one as well.  Then next year I plan to put her in a preschool program that will be three days a week but longer hours.  We were on the fence about putting her in preschool at three, so I'm glad I found this program at the school!  She is excited to go back tomorrow!

**I did not pick out her shirt today, or decide on the sideways pony**  though I am the coolest, this day was not about me, but letting her pick out everything so she would be excited

Kite Festival

On Sunday La Vista had their semi annual kite festival.  We tried to go in May, but we arrived too late and everyone had packed up and gone.  This time we made it!  It was windy, so it was a perfect day for flying kites.  When we pulled in the look on Whitney's face was priceless. She was beyond excited.  They had some impressive large kites.  The fish kites we especially neat.

 

Whitney still thought our kite was the neatest.  Well, good.  Because we are not about to buy any giant fish kites!