Ellie 2 and a Half

 Ellie is growing up so fast and is 2 years 6 months now. 

 Crazy how time flies!  She is such a little cutie and has so much personality.

  Here are a few things that she is doing lately.

• She talks and talks and talks.  She will tells stories and loves to hear stories of when she was little.  Patrick tells her stories each night before bed of her or of when he was younger.  She is fascinated with it and will repeat the stories later on or ask for certain stories each night.
• She is really good at finding matching items places.  The other day she brought be two toys that were both green and said they were the same color.  She points out shirts or things in books etc.  July 2012
• Ellie loves milk mustaches.  It is one way we can get her to drink milk lately.  She things its hilarious to have a mustache and will even show us water/juice etc mustaches.
• Ellie has always been a great sleeper but since Gavin came she had a really hard time for awhile there.  She was waking up between 2-6 times each night and crying or coming into our room.  I think this will get better with time.  September 2012
• She still loves to help my cook, especially muffins or cookies.  Here she is in her cute apron making ginger bread cookies with me.  December 4, 2012

• She is potty trained!  I really think she was ready much earlier, before she turned 2 even, but with moving a new baby coming we held her off.  She was potty trained in August for a few weeks and then shortly after Gavin was born she was having more accidents and I just couldn't handle it at the time, so I put her in diapers for a few weeks and then she wanted to again and never looked back.  We have only had a handful of accidents and she even wakes up at night with a dry pull up.  I can't quite give pull ups up at night yet....soon though.   We stopped pull ups for naps on October 8, 2012
• I love all the things you say.  You have made up a word, poot.  Not sure where it came from and it doesn't mean anything really.  You love to come up to us and say you have a secret to tell us.  Then you will whisper, "poot" in our ears.  You laugh and laugh. 
• Ellie has a little mermaid that she LOVES to play with in the bath.  She has to make sure to wash Ariel and make sure she is clean.  Then they play make believe like crazy!  Her imagination is so awesome!
• Here she is pretending again.  She really is very creative.  She is using the side of  a little crib as a ladder for her toys to climb onto her bed.  November 30, 2012

• Ellie is really great at helping around the house.  She cleans up toys great and her new thing lately is helping to set the table.  I love how everything is lined up on the edge.  Such a good little helper.  November 26, 2012

• She is still and has always been a crazy sleeper.  Here she is sleeping with the blankie on her head. November 28, 2012  

• Naps have been super hard lately.  She just doesn't want to sleep and if she does finally fall asleep, she doesn't want to go to bed till super late.  She has also become scared of "quiet time" and screams at the top her lungs(she really seems scared)  until you come back to get her.  I've been debating stopping naps completely since she is up so late(in her bed laying awake), the only thing is that then she is so tired and often falls asleep around 5:30pm or is super ornery.  Dilemmas...Here she is asleep on her chair.  She's so cute!  December 3, 2012

We sure love having Ellie and the joy that she brings to our family.  She is so fun and funny and kind to everyone!  Love you Ellie!