Snowflakes!

Ellie and I made snowflakes a week or two ago, and it is so fun to see them hanging in the window against the sunrise in the morning. I think they're beautiful! She was even able to make a couple of them all by herself! Here she is hard at work:

And the finished snowflake:

Did I mention she cut her own bangs?

Yeah... I only found out because she got her scissors stuck in her hair and asked me to get them out. Yikes! Thankfully the damage wasn't too bad, but she did end up with short bangs for a while! They've mostly grown out now, but here's what they looked like right after the incident... Notice the one side that is significantly shorter than the other!

I told her she made her hair ugly by cutting it, and that made her sadder than the spanking she got for cutting her hair! (We have discussed the proper use of scissors on several occasions before, so she did know better!) She even called Mommom and Poppy and left a voicemail saying that she gave herself 'ugly hair'. Aside from the fact that it was so sad, it was kind of funny! I'm hoping she learned her lesson and won't do that again!

Self Sufficiency

Eliana has become very self sufficient lately. I have to say, I am loving this stage. Here are some examples:

* The other morning Eliana wanted breakfast and I wasn't ready to get out of bed yet, so I told her to find something herself. I assumed she'd find something from the pantry to snack on until I could roll myself out from under the warm covers. Instead, she opened the fridge and got out a slice of bread. Then she put it in the toaster, pushed the button, and waited. Once it was done, she got out the butter and a knife, and buttered her bread before putting it on a plate, sitting at the table, and eating some of it. She didn't finish all of it, but, wow! I was impressed.

* Two days ago Eliana wanted to play in the snow, so I told her to go get her snow pants. Instead of bringing them to me to put on her, like I'd expected, she returned from her room fully clothed in snow apparel: Snow pants, coat, mittens, hat, snow boots. The only thing she needed help with was getting her coat zipper started! She happily tromped around outside in the snow for 30-45 minutes while I watched from the comfort of the warm house. Then, when she was ready to come inside, she came to the door and knocked. This is great!

* Yesterday Eliana wanted me to make her some chocolate milk, so she brought me a cup, her rice milk, and some chocolate syrup. Then, after I poured the milk, she put it back in the fridge. I added the chocolate syrup, and she put that away. By the time I had her drink prepared, she'd put everything away. That was the easiest glass of chocolate milk I've ever made!

First Prayer...

Tuesday night Eliana said her first spontaneous prayer! I am so excited to see this side of her developing as she learns about God and a relationship with Him. I wasn't home when she said her first prayer, but Leif tells it like this:

During Ellie's bedtime routine Leif took her to the potty and she sat on it and peed. Then, when she was done, she started to get up, then stopped and sat back down. She closed her eyes really tight and said, "Thank you for food, and thank you for pee-pee in the potty!"

How sweet is that? I love to see her expressing thankfulness, especially thankfulness to God, in the little things. I love to see her making those connections. I love to see her growing up in both stature and wisdom, and I love stories like these!

Twenty...

I just listened to Ellie walking down the stairs, counting as she went. It appears that she can count to twenty! I didn't listen carefully enough to know whether she actually got ALL of the numbers or not, but I know she got most of them and in the correct order. Who knew?

Door Opener.

I'm pretty sure Eliana learned how to open her door today. I put her in her bedroom and shut the door so I could take a shower (and leave her with limited space to destroy, which she did!) and when I got out of the shower and dressed I heard something in the kitchen. Lo and behold, it was Ellie! I'm thinking that means it just got a little harder to contain her or keep her out of rooms we don't want her in.

Well, there goes my chance to wear my teenage daughter's clothes!

Eliana had her 2 year well child appointment today and, as we suspected, she's doing great! =D I forgot to write down the exact measurements for weight and height, and the nurse never told me what they were for head circumference, so I'll have to call one day and find those out. But I DO remember where she falls on the charts, so I can give you that information...

weight: 75th percentile
height: 90th percentile

Okay... there goes my chance to wear my teenage daughter's clothes! I am about the same height as my mother, who is about the same height as her mother. And we are NOT in the 90th percentile for height! So... here's to the next few years she will still look up to me! Because by the time she's 8 she'll pass me by!

In other news, today was day 3 with no nap, and it's going well. There are still meltdowns. But she's going to bed and sleeping and that is good. Last night she slept from 7:15 to 8:30 this morning. And she now climbs into bed with me and snuggles a little more when she gets up. I haven't gotten that sort of treatment in ... about a year! So it looks like no naps are a good thing. To celebrate I took the crib down. It's out of her room. She's a big girl now. Just a toddler bed for her.

The Result....

Well, for the past few weeks we have been fighting and fighting and fighting with Eliana over naps and bedtime. She used to be very predictable... down for a nap around noon, sleep until 4:00, down for bed at 8, sleep until 8. It was great!

A few weeks ago, though, she started fighting us on naps. She hasn't been ready for a nap until about 3:00 or later, and she sleeps for 2 hours. Then she's not ready for bed until much later than 8. There are tantrums, she got out of bed repeatedly, she climbed out of the crib when we put here in there to contain her... it was not good.

So yesterday I did something I have not been looking forward to. I cut out her nap. She's just barely two, but she cannot keep the schedule she was on, with a two hour late afternoon nap followed by sleeping from about 10:30 (or later!) to 8. She was waking up grumpy from naps and in the morning and it was just wearing her (and us!) down. It called for desperate measures, and so we cut out her one and only nap.

The result? She was pretty tired yesterday around 3:30 (as usual) but instead of putting her down to sleep I just let her watch a movie. She curled up on my bed with a blanket and her milk and watched the movie. Though she was pretty drowsy, she didn't fall asleep. She had a couple hours of down time, and then she was up and running again! Leif put her to bed around 7:45 or so and she didn't fight him. And she slept until after 8 this morning! I don't actually know what time she got up, because she woke me up! But Leif left a little before 8 and she wasn't awake yet, so he just left her door open so she could come find me when she did wake up. And she came in at 8:20.

So that's what we have. A 2 year old who didn't take a nap and for the first day in several weeks, it went smoothly. There may still be days where she'll need a nap, especially if we're out and about and she gets worn out in the morning. But if she isn't asleep before 2:00 I'm not going to let her sleep. That was a miserable pattern. We'll wean her off the movies some other time, but for now it's the only way I can find for her to sit still for down time. And she definitely needs that down time still! But today was good. She had a couple freak-out tantrums (mostly when she was tired right before down time and bed), but those are pretty standard these days. She's 2. So we'll see how today goes and take it one nap-less day at a time.

What do all these places have in common??

1. White House
2. Colosseum
3. Neuschwanstein
4. Eiffel Tower
5. Mt. Rushmore
6. Stonehenge
7. Old Faithful

Well, aside from being places listed in the landmarks flashcard set from the Target $pot, these are all places Eliana can identify by name. Our not-quite-2 year old is like a sponge these days and loves these flashcard sets. We bought them yesterday. Here she is today:

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(If you're having trouble seeing the video, as I am for some reason, you should be able to see it on Google Video here.)

I'm sure it's not polite to brag on your children, but I thought it was too cute not to share. =D

Letters

What do the letters B, K, H, I, Y, P, O, R, M, L, S, and X have in common?

These are the letters Ellie can identify without hesitation the first time when you hold them up and ask, "What is this?" Some of the others she can get sometimes, but these are the ones she's really good at.

She can also identify the number 8, but none of the others. I find it interesting that she only guesses numbers when you hold up numbers (for example, I held up a 2 and she guessed 5, she guessed 3 when I held up a 7) and she only guesses letters when you hold up letters. So she apparently knows the difference between them, despite the fact that the numbers and letters are from the same set and look the same in everything but individual shape. And while she can't identify her numbers yet, she has recently added 10 to her counting sequence.

Big Girl PJ's

Despite the fact that we are still waking up to fresh snow each morning, it has come to our attention that all of the stores have stopped selling footie pajamas. None. Not at Costco, not at Walmart, not anywhere. So we broke down last night and bought Ellie two piece pj's. Cute little shirts with cute little pants, and no zippers. Size 3T.

Last night she wore a pair. While Leif was getting her ready for bed he told her that these were "big girl jammies" and she decided to be proud of that fact. She stood a little taller and said with a nod, "Big girl pj's." This morning when she woke up she told me again that she was wearing "big girl pj's" and again when it was time to get dressed. She looked so sad when I took off her jammies and put her into real clothes for the day. She pointed at them, nodded, and told me sincerely, "Big girl pj's." It was cute, sweet, and sort of sad. I'm afraid, though, that we may never be able to go back to footie jammies again...

Stacking things...

Ellie's really into stacking things right now. Stacking and counting. She can count all the way to nine, except for seven. For some reason she always skips seven. She can stack wooden blocks six high, too, which is fun. Then she knocks them down.

stacking Mommy's stamps

Oh, and she likes jumping, too. She jumps when she dances and she jumps when she plays and, oh yeah... she jumps OFF of things, too. That's the most fun.

jumping off the bottom step

Ellie's Toddler Bed...

In a fit of craziness, I moved Ellie's toddler bed up to her room from the basement yesterday. I fully intended to let Leif move it, or help him move it, or something, but inspiration hit and I did it by myself. So last night we decided to see how Ellie would do sleeping in the bed instead of her crib.

She has been wanting to climb into her crib by herself, but until two days ago wasn't able. Now she can, but not without some precarious perching! So I thought perhaps she's ready for a toddler bed so that she can get in by herself and feel like a big girl.

Of course, it does mean that she can get out by herself, but we pretty much accepted that whenever we tried to move her to a toddler bed she would get up at least a few nights. It's a process and we're ready to accept that. At least she can't open the door to her bedroom yet, so she's still contained to some degree.

So Leif tucked her in,

kissed her goodnight,

and as soon as we walked away, she popped right back up!

She laid back down and we left. We could hear her moving around in there, and she got up a few times. Leif put her back in bed once, and then we decided just to let her get used to the idea and see where it would go. After quite a while (we could hear her playing with things in there) we heard her knock knock on the door. She wasn't crying, but she was tired and definitely ready to go to bed... in her crib. So we put her down for the night in the crib and she slept until 10 this morning when I decided to wake her up!

When I put her down for her afternoon nap I asked if she wanted to sleep in the bed or crib. She told me crib. So it may take a while for her to get used to the idea of sleeping in the bed, but she'll get there eventually. She props her feet up on the crib rungs to go to sleep, though, and I think she was missing that with the toddler bed.

As a side note, all morning Ellie was pointing to or holding her belly saying, "Hurts, hurts" (but not crying or upset or visibly in pain) and I don't think she's been feeling well. I poked around on her belly a bit and didn't feel anything concerning, and she didn't seem to be in any pain when I poked around. I'm hoping a little sleep will do her some good and she'll be feeling better soon.

This is what I get...

... for telling my mom the other day that I am thankful I don't have a climber. The next morning Ellie got up and climbed on her musical table to (successfully) turn off the light by herself.

Bottle Free Day

Yesterday was the first time Eliana went an entire day without a bottle. She drank milk and water from her sippy cups and didn't seem to suffer any worse for the wear. In fact, she didn't seem to need a bottle at all during the day, including before bed. So we just didn't give her one. We'll see if she's done for good, but we at least got the first bottle free day out of the way.

What's New?

So... what has Eliana learned in the past week with Mommom and Poppy? I'll give you three guesses. Has she learned to...

a) run
b) play harmonica
c) climb

If you picked d) all of the above, you're correct! We've been here less than half our stay and already Ellie has learned so many things. She can now RUN from place to place and Mommom taught her how to climb up and stand on things like stools and tupperware containers. She's working on climbing onto the couch, but hasn't mastered that one yet.

And yes, she can play the harmonica. I'm sort of ashamed to admit that my 13 month old figured out that you can blow into AND suck on the harmonica and it will make different sounds before I did. Yeah... feeling a little dumb about that one. I've got video of her playing the harmonica, but am going to wait until I'm at home (that is, not using dial-up) to upload it.

On the language front, Ellie was looking out the window today at my dad mowing the lawn and very clearly said "Poppy" as she watched him. Then tonight Robert came over for dinner and I said something about saying hi to Uncle Robert when Ellie looked at him, smiled, and said "Robert" as clear as could be. She called him Robert a couple other times during the evening, too. I was shocked and impressed! She's also been putting a couple words together and saying "read book" when she wants to be read to.

I'm sure there are other things to share, but it's late, I'm tired, and we need to get up and go to church in the morning, so I should get some sleep. Goodnight!

'Dat?

So today Ellie is in my craft room with me (yes, she has been so good lately at obeying when I tell her not to touch something that she has been allowed in "my" room and not gotten in trouble for several days now! - of course, I probably just jinxed that by telling you about it...) and she is going around pointing at things saying, "dat?" and looking at me with an expectant face, waiting for me to tell her what it is. Sometimes she tries to repeat what I say, but so many of the things she points at are just too big for her to say.

"dat?"
"That's an envelope."
"'ope."
"dat?"
"That's a chair."

It's cute. She's also started to recognize when she's doing something that will make us happy. Like not touching something she's not supposed to. The other day we were in here and she walked over to my stamp shelves and held out her hand, getting ready to swipe a bunch of stamps onto the floor. Before she got there, I said, "No, ma'am. Don't touch the stamps." and she looked at me, hand frozen in the air. Then she walked away from the shelves. A few minutes later she approached the shelves again, hand outstretched. Before I could reprimand her, though, she stopped and said, "No, no." put her hand down and turned away. I praised her and clapped, telling her that she was a good girl. She got a big smile on her face and clapped along. Then she went right back to the shelf, held out her hand, said "No" turned, smiled and clapped for herself. It was funny! She does it over and over. We've been down here a few times since then and she's still doing that to the stamps, but she hasn't touched them once. It warms my heart to see her starting to learn how to do what is right.

Happy First Birthday, Eliana!

We love you!

Birthday Party!!

Here's the birthday girl!! We had her party on Sunday afternoon. It was the 2nd hottest day on record ever for Belgrade at 105 degrees. We had the party at 4:00 in the afternoon, so at least we had some shade on the deck. We had 30 people there, including children. Despite the heat, we had a good time outside.



The kids played in a pop up train I found at a garage sale Saturday (perfect timing!!) and Ellie was THRILLED to have friends to play with! Here are Ellie and Zoe playing:


Poppy made a banner to fly behind his model plane for Ellie's birthday. It said "Happy Birthday Eliana". The wind started picking up and it looked like it was going to storm, so the banner had a short, but exciting flight. Then, sure enough, it rained and we moved everything inside, plus all 30 people, to continue the party.


Inside we had cupcakes and sugar cookies and homemade strawberry ice cream. Even though we practiced blowing out candles ahead of time, Ellie got a little gun shy with so many people watching her. But they sang "Happy Birthday" and she got her cupcake just the same.


At the end of the party Ellie opened some gifts from Grammee and Grandad. I'll post about her birthday gifts in another post, but here she is opening gifts with Daddy's help:


I'll post more about the gifts and other activities later, but Mommom and Poppy are still here and we have plans for this afternoon, so I leave you with this for now. Happy first birthday party, Ellie! We love you!

A Step in the Right Direction

...actually, several steps in the right direction. Tonight Ellie became a toddler; she managed to string together enough steps that we're willing to bestow her with that title. Take a look.