Her word: “m’anemone” (like “anemone” but starting with an “M”)
Real word: M&Ms

Her phrase: Z+adjective
Examples: “I’m z-tired.” or “I’m z-hungry.”
What does it mean? Ellie started (by herself) using a scale of A-Z, with “Z” representing the “maximum” or “a lot” and “A” meaning the “minimum” or not very much. We sometimes talk about distance this way. ”Church is A-close, so we can walk.” and “This place is Z-far, so we need to take a bus.” Got it? She rarely uses the letters in between, mostly just “A” and “Z”.

There is also the extreme version of this phrase, when she needs to express an even greater need, like this:
“I’m A to Z, 1 to 20 thirsty! All the way through the numbers and all the way through the alphabet.”
(Ya know, because numbers above 20 don’t quite exist for her yet.)

And there’s this little gem that she threw out at us tonight (because we made her disassemble and clean up her toys):

(with crying) “Mom…You broke my feelings…all of them…you broke some of them and Daddy broke some of them…and now they’re ALL broken!!”

Finally, a little bit of 3-year old theology:

“When it’s time for us to go to heaven, will God be the engine?”

As in, train engine. As in, when we all walk in a line to pretend that we are a train and Abram and Ellie fight over who gets to be the engine.

(after finishing her piece)

“I think I can eat the crumbs.”

and

(after being instructed that we needed to save the rest for Daddy)

“I don’t want to eat more, I just want to look at it in the fridge.”

Ooh yeah I’m a wild one

Gotta break it loose

Gonna keep ‘em movin’ wild

Gonna keep a-swingin’ baby

I’m a real wild child

A couple of birds moved into our tree.

Ellie chose what color the birds would be. As you can see, she chose yellow. She probably chose white first, but then I told her we weren’t going to have white birds, at which point she selected yellow.

Since I don’t have much to say about The Birds right now, I believe this is an opportune time to explain Ellie’s very finite and clear cut Color Ordering System. You see, this past Christmas Ellie received a set of counting Duplos that included blocks with numbers 1 through 10 on them. There is also a block of the same color with a picture corresponding to the number. For example (because I don’t think that was all that clear) the #3 block is orange and there is another orange block with three ice cream cones on it, and so on and so forth. Now, the #1 blocks are white, the #2 blocks are yellow and I have already told you the #3 blocks are orange, #4 blocks are red, etc., etc.

Ever since she received that set of blocks, Ellie has become quite certain that anything that is “first” or “1″ is white. And yellow is second. Plain and simple. This might as well be Universal Law as far as she is concerned. It also means that her favorite color, the color she always chooses, is white. Every single time. And if she can’t have white? She wants yellow.

More than a month ago Ellie walked out of her bedroom and set herself down at the breakfast table looking like this:

Then, a few days ago I catch Abram doing this:

These kids. They crack me up. See a round sticker, stick it on your nose.

In truth, this picture was totally staged—I mean, the pitiful face was staged, the stitches and bandage really were real—but, they didn’t seem to bother her at all.

Bonus Chinese vocabulary learned…

to get stitches
to get stitches removed
Surprisingly different. “To get stitches” is, literally translated, “to sew stitch”. The Chinese word for “stitch” being the same as the Chinese word for “needle”. Nice. “To get stitches removed” is  ”to cut/remove thread”.

In a nutshell: Ellie’s speech has gotten too mature and complex. We tend to have two types of exchanges these days. The first is a maddening string of “Why?” questions—or in Ellie’s case, “Oh, why-yyy?”. The second is a dizzying monologue that I can never seem to remember.

But, for the sake of all the Ellie fans out there I have been stretching my brain to the max. Trying to focus and remember some of the speeches she delivers to me. It hasn’t been easy.

Really, y’all. Today I went to lunch with some friends and not only did I have to borrow a pair pants after a potty accident, but I didn’t have any money to pay for my lunch. I’m surprised I didn’t leave one of my children somewhere.

And so, without further ado, I present Ellie at her finest. (or at least Ellie at her finest as best as I can remember)

(Well, maybe just a little more ado…whereas a year ago Ellie spoke mostly in question form, these days she is nearly always in the exclamatory. At least at home. She still doesn’t so much as open her mouth to breathe when were are out of the house.)

Exhibit A: (after we drank all our “tea” and ate all the “food” Ellie prepared for a tea party)

“Mom! I’m going to wash allll the dishes in my pool! And why not? Pool water is clear. and fresh. So, I’m going to wash all my dishes in the pool. Because, I don’t have a sink, you know. That’s a good idea! And the pool water will get my dishes niiice! and cleeeean! Because, I don’t. have. a sink. Okay! I’m going to go wash dishes now!”

(It seems important to tell you that by “pool” Ellie means the carpet in her bedroom.)

Exhibit B: (Ellie will often pretend that each of the three rooms in our apartment is a different “class”. One for the Babies, one for the three-year-olds or “big girls”, and one for the Mommies. This comes from going to BSF where I go to the Mommies Bible Study, Ellie goes to the three-year-old class and Abram goes to the Baby class.)

“Abram is going to have a picnic! in myyyy room! because that’s where all the babies are! All the babies are having a picnic in the Baby class. Here I go to the Big-Girl Class! We are going to have chocolate! and muffins! and other kinds of junk! food! at our picnic! Mommy! and Daddy! You can go to the kitchen and have the grown-ups’ junk-food picnic! Abram! Go into your class!”

(things tend to fall apart when Abram doesn’t comply with her ideas)

So in sum, “A Real Conversation” may be a little spotty. But don’t despair. We just had a few great ones that you can be on the look out for, and I might just work up another way to share with you all the zany things this kid says.

Says things to me like…
“I’m a single mom of eight kids. Wanna come with me to count my babies?”
“I’m dead! I need to get in my tomb!”
“Where is Heaven? What road is in on??”
“I’m dancing to Je-sus!”

Frequently asks me to tie a bow around her. (And sometimes asks me to tie one on myself, too.)

Almost daily dumps out her toy bins so she can sort square Duplos into one and rectangle Duplos into another.

Tells me that Bearby is her best friend.

Doesn’t like to smile in public. And will bite her cheeks if she needs to keep herself from smiling.

Likes to giggle with her brother.

Does not speak Chinese, but does sing songs in Chinese.

Makes up her own words to songs. My favorite to date was one involving Jesus and a tomb set to the tune of “Do-Re-Mi”.

Collects leaves at the park to put in her bike basket.

Is multi-faceted and many-layered.

Likes to pretend she is an alpaca.

Sings, “There was a farmer had an alpaca, Ellie was her name-o! E! L! L-I-E!”

Has a hard time going to sleep at night.

Is learning some tough lessons about friendship this year.

Is three years old.

Is my girl.

Like this: when we hear Abram wake up from his nap, Ellie likes to go in first and greet him. Then she will pull every single board book off the shelf and pile them into his crib. And sometimes she will climb right in and read him a story.

I know. I can’t stand the sweetness either.

Walking to Sunday School on a cold, blustery day in Taipei.