Ellie is bigger and BIGGER!

When I started writing this post in my head, about a month before Ellie turned two, I was going to title it: “Ellie is little girl!”

Back when we were teaching Ellie “little” and “big” we taught her that Mommy was a “big” girl, Daddy was a “big” boy, and Ellie was a “little” girl. Well, she learned the concept of “little” and “big”, but it somewhat backfired because from then on out anytime we would say, “Ellie is a big girl now, so…” she would respond with, “No! Ellie is LITTLE girl!”

And then as Ellie’s second birthday got closer she started saying, “Ellie is bigger and BIGGER!” (using volume to emphasize size).  Suddenly I have a two-year-old who is now a self-proclaimed “Big Girl”.

I also meant to do this update post about Ellie around her second birthday, but that idea got pushed aside by our Hualian vacation and my own apparent consumption with being hugely pregnant.

So now, without further ado, here is Ellie’s “She’s Two Now” update.

The Big Girl herself.

Ellie’s learning explosion has slowed down a bit. I was hoping her sleep would calm down at the same time, but no such luck. For a while there is seemed like she was learning new and difficult concepts every day, and just couldn’t turn her brain off to go to sleep. Now she flat out just doesn’t sleep. Sigh.

Some Big Girl stuff she’s learned…

*The Alphabet. She can sing it and recognizes all the capital letters and many lower case letters. When we read she likes to spell out the words for us. It sometimes takes a loooong time to get through a book.

*Counting. She can say her numbers up to 10, sometimes higher with a little help, and can count about 5 objects.

*Jigsaw puzzles. She rocks these. For her birthday we got her a couple of 20 piece puzzles and she had them figured out within a week.

*Her memory is incredible, and she makes connections that surprise me daily.

One day I told her we needed to go to the store to buy some milk and eggs. Her response: “Then we can make pancakes!” I can only assume that I once told her we couldn’t have pancakes for breakfast because we didn’t have milk or eggs.

*Songs and rhymes. She goes about all day singing various songs.

Sometimes she will ask us to sing a particular one, only she doesn’t ask for the traditional title. So she will ask for the “Pie Song”, or  worse, a Chinese song from Sunday School, or even worse, one Jason made up. I start desperately trying to think of a rhyme or song with the word “pie” in it. If I can’t think of it, or if I sing “Sing a Song of Sixpence”, but she means “American Pie” because someone sang it for her one time, things end in tears.

Some of Ellie’s favorite things lately…

Presents. She had a steady string of the starting with her birthday, followed by a visit from Gramp (Jason’s dad), then a visit from Grammy (my mom) and finally Abram’s arrival. Ellie now thinks every day is present day.

Her other love, bordering on addiction, is chocolate. She asks for M&Ms for breakfast. We absolutely cannot say the C-word. Her main suppliers (Grammy and Aunt Amanda) have to go home soon. Ellie’s going to go into withdrawal.

She also loves helping me do just about anything. Washing the dishes, making the bed, taking care of Abram, preparing food. I have to keep the diaper wipes away from her, otherwise she would go through a pack a day wiping anything and everything, from the floor to the feet of everyone in our family.

Finally, some pictures of my favorite two-year-old…

Ellie loves to be outside, and she hardly ever slows down. She isn’t even “full speed or crash”, she’s just plain “full speed” with forced bed rest.

Studying with Daddy. She helps herself to his book shelf and will find the big letters and read them aloud.

Wild Play with Daddy is the best.

Hiding in the corner, hoping to escape a diaper change.

Our major challenges with Ellie are bedtime, throwing food/utensils/etc. at the table and not coming when we want her to. But I’ll take the bad with the good, because I am, as usual, loving this stage more than the one before it. It is such a joy to watch her learn and grow.