The Bible Says...

Well, it has started already. The other day I had a lippy little 3 year old on my hands, so I told her to go to her room and I would talk to her when she had a better attitude. She pouted and huffed all the way to her room. After about 3 minutes, I heard her calling to me from her bed...

"The Bible says, 'Be kind to everyone!!' You're supposed to be kind to me, Mommy!"

It cracked me up, especially since it's the exact wording of the verse she's been learning in Sunday School. We had a good talk about being kind to everyone, and other things the Bible says, like "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." which is another verse she has memorized. I do love that she is processing what she is learning and trying to put it to use, though!

I wasn't made for bitting for!

On Super Bowl Sunday we went to friends' house to watch the game. The kids all played fairly well together, for the most part.

The least part included a bite, and Eliana was on the receiving end. Not only was she in pain (it was a pretty good bite!), but she was confused, too. As I was trying to calm her down and giving her a sympathy bandaid, she told me the following:

"I was not made for bitting for! I was made for being nice to everyone!"

I loved it! She was the oldest of the kiddos there, and couldn't understand why a younger kid would bite her. She didn't try to retaliate or anything, but I loved her reasoning - that she wasn't made to be bitten!

"What'd you say? I didn't hear you!"

This is one of Eliana's phrases lately. Most of the time she only says it once, so it's not a problem. The other day, however, we had this conversation...

I was in the other room and could hear Eliana eating something. I called to her.

"What are you eating, Eliana?"
"I'm eating these really cold peas!"
"Are you eating frozen peas?"
"Yep!"
"You're cute, Eliana."
"What'd you say? I couldn't hear you."
"I said, 'You're cute, Eliana.'"
"I didn't hear you. What did you say?"
*louder* "I said, 'You're cute, Eliana!' Come in here!"
*coming into the room* "What did you say? I didn't hear you."
"Why do you keep saying that, Ellie?"
"Because I like to hear you say to me, 'You're cute, Eliana!'"

Crazy child!

Waste

So we were at the post office the other day and Ellie was looking for words to sound out while we waited in line. She followed the letters on the flap of the waste bin with her fingers and spelled out the letters as she traced them... "W... A... S... T... E" Since she's been doing a relatively good job of turning letter sounds into words lately, I thought I'd try to see if she could figure this one out, too. "What do those letters say?" I asked. She started to trace them again as though she were going to sound them out, then turned to me and confidently said, "Garbage can!"

Let him eat crumbs....

We brought home a delicious slab of coffee cake from a party last night. Unfortunately, Eliana polished it off for breakfast this morning, so Leif didn't get to enjoy it. He lay in bed dreaming of coffee and coffee cake, and the anticipation of such a glorious breakfast finally roused him and sent him to the table, where he saw the empty plate... When he expressed his dismay, Eliana told him, "It's okay! You can eat the crumbs."

Thanks, kid.

Interviews with Eliana

Since I now know how to post videos again, I figured I'd give you some interviews with Eliana. These are from a few weeks ago. =D

Conversation

Leif: Ellie, why are your pants falling down?
Eliana: (twirling and shaking her hips) Because I'm dancing! Like this!

A bean, with peas in it...

The other day, Eliana drew me a series of pictures, and told me what they were...

There was a boat in a storm...

A set of beans, with peas in them...

A storm...

And a rollercoaster...

But really.... three "scribble" drawing and... this?

I asked her questions about it and wrote the questions and answers on the paper. She knew exactly what she was drawing, and was very fond of these little pea pods. I think they're cute, so I'm sharing them with you, but this paper gets filed away in the "cherished these things and pondered them in her heart" file that I'm sure every mother has. =D

Ellie Quotes

Every once in a while Eliana says things that just throw us for a loop. Sometimes they're rather insightful, demonstrating her thought process, and sometimes they're just plain funny. Here are a few recent quotes:

• Last night Ellie was sitting at the piano, playing and singing. She was singing one of the verses she memorized last spring, and she was having trouble remembering exactly how the words went. She sang, "All we like sheep each to the way..." a few times before folding her arms and looking at me crossly. "That doesn't make sense, Mommy." she pouted. I informed her that the words were, "All we like sheep have gone astray..." when her face brightened and she turned back to the piano and kept singing. "Oh, okay!" she said cheerfully. Apparently, all she needed was the right set of words for it to make sense. =D

• Later, Leif was playing with his new vacuum coffee pot when he realized he put the coffee in the wrong section. He made some disgruntled comment when Eliana turned around and said, "Daddy, don't argue with yourself."

• We were watching PBS together yesterday when a new-ish cartoon came on that I'd never seen. I asked her what it was. Here's the conversation that followed:
  Me: "What's this show?"
  Eliana: "It's Dinosaur Train."
  Me: "Do you like Dinosaur Train?"
  Eliana: "I like dinosaurs. It's a show about dinosaurs. I like it."
  
  So there you have it: Ellie logic. She likes A. B is about A. Ergo, she likes B.
  

baby birds...

Ellie just informed me that baby birds eat eggs.

I guess I should explain to her sometime that no, they don't. They sort of hatch from eggs instead.

But then I'm scared that we'll have to get into the whole eating eggs is like eating baby birds thing, and I just don't want to go there. What if she stops eating eggs?!

Sigh. For now we'll just stick with the fact that baby birds don't eat eggs, they eat worms.

... and hope she doesn't pretend to be a baby bird while we're out in the back yard sometime.

Dinosaur Rex

Ellie's favorite animal right now is.... the mighty dinosaur. She loves to pretend to be a dinosaur, and she loves to talk about dinosaurs. The other day I asked her what her favorite dinosaur was and she told me, "Mike!" Mike is the dinosaur pictured above, who stands in front of the Museum of the Rockies. When I asked her what kind of dinosaur Mike was, she proudly told me, "He's a dinosaur Rex!"

Stalling Tactics

Eliana doesn't really like going to bed. A few days ago she was up to her usual stalling antics, and she went through the usual routine.

"I need you to snuggle with me."
"I need a drink."
"I need something to eat."
"I need to give you a kiss and a squeezy hug."
"I need to tell you, 'I love you; see you in the morning'."

After none of those stalling tactics worked and I left her in her darkened room, in bed, she ramped up her game. From the living room I could hear her calling...

"I forgot to tell you something!! I forgot to tell you something!!"

I went in to see what she was so desperate to tell me. She just started rambling about nothing in general, trying to keep me in her room with her.

"Goodnight, Eliana," I interrupted, "You can tell me your story in the morning. I love you."

And back to the living room I went. A few moments passed before her next idea hit her...

"Mommy! Mommy! Come quickly!"

I ignored her. She got more desperate.

"Mommy! Mommy! Come quickly! Come quickly! Ellie's afraid of her pajamas!!!"

She managed to say this with such desperation that if I hadn't known she was stalling I might have believed her. After a few more ignored pleas I was greeted by a little girl grinning in the living room, footie pajamas fully unzipped. I zipped up her pajamas, she got in trouble for getting out of bed, and I tucked her back in.

That was all I heard of her that evening, and she fell asleep just fine.

But really, when did her stalling tactics get so sophisticated? If she's doing this at 2, what do I have to look forward to when she's 7 and doesn't want to go to bed?

Drawing Letters...

Ellie loves to draw. I mean, she LOVES to draw. So yesterday morning she was drawing little squiggles, some of which looked like letters. She drew a "U" and a "D" and a "P". Then she told me,

"This one is a P. It's a P for Poppy!"

Out of curiosity, I asked her if she knew a word that started with M.

"Mommom!" she excitedly told me.

Then I asked if she knew a word that starts with E.

"Ellie Wickland is a word that starts with E." she told me.

Maybe she's getting the hang of letters and words after all.

I am Ellie's friend.

Today I made Eliana take a nap because she was extremely grumpy. It took her quite a while to go to sleep, so I had to wake her up because I had to be someplace at 4. When I woke her up, she smiled at me and said, "I want to give you a kiss." Then she kissed my cheek and whispered, "You're my best friend." That's about the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

About an hour later we were at the community center setting up for a home-based-business show and Ellie was playing with two other little girls she'd met. They were exchanging names when I heard Ellie say to one of the girls, "And this is my good friend, Mommy."

I am Ellie's friend. =D

(As a side note, my daughter tells me that her name is NOT Eliana. It is just Ellie Wickland.)

Another Ellieism

"The biggest dinosaur in the whole world is the dinosaur rex!"

This is what Ellie told me this afternoon.

Ellie-isms

I'm sitting here listening to Ellie chatter to herself, and I am reminded of just how many cute things she says on a daily basis. Most of them don't even make it to the blog, but I figured I'd take a couple minutes and put some of them on the record:

Right now I'm listening to Ellie say to herself, "PBS kids dot org" over and over. (Perhaps she watches too much PBS in the morning?)

Any time Ellie wants to spell a word, she spells it the same way, and has for months. It's always "A-O-I-A-K". I don't know what it means or where it came from, but she will repeat that letter sequence over and over and over while she's playing or drawing.

I went to get Ellie dressed a couple weeks ago and I pulled out some green pants to wear with a green and pink flowered shirt. As soon as she saw the pants she threw herself on the ground in a fit and cried, "Nooooo! Those are BOYS' pants!!!" (Yet she had no problem with them when Leif pulled them out for her to wear a couple days later.)

That same week I tried to put Ellie in a pair of jeans and she cried, "But Mommy, I want to be BEAUTIFUL!!" when she rejected the jeans. *sigh*

If we tell Ellie a word, she can usually tell us what letter it starts with. For example, if we ask "What letter does 'Ellie' start with?" she will tell us "E!", or "What letter does 'purple' start with?" and she will tell us, "P!".

I tried to get creative with the above line of questioning by asking, "Ellie, what is a word that starts with H?" She stopped, thought about it, smiled, and answered with a resounding, "POTATO!" I think we need to work on that one a bit. =D

I told Ellie that we were going to her friend's house for dinner tonight and asked her to guess which friend. She was having trouble, so I tried to give her a hint by saying we were going to see, "Caaaaa...." to which she responded, "Mary Kay!!" Ha ha! We are going to Caedmon's house.

Ellie has had a bit of an attitude lately and hasn't wanted Leif to talk to her. When he'd try to talk with her she'd say, "Don't talk to me, Daddy!" After getting in trouble for saying that a few times she changed her tune and started saying instead, "Don't hear me, Daddy!"

I got my first real word clarification this morning. I told Ellie that she did something often and she looked at me quizzically and asked, "Often? What does 'often' mean?" I'm not sure I did a good job explaining what often means, but she seemed happy enough with my explanation.

Today in the car Ellie started to tell me something, and she started by saying, "Actually... "

Ellie pretty much talks non stop unless she's sleeping or in front of the television.

She also makes up silly songs.

Quote o' the Day

Ellie: "I would like another banana!"
Mommy: "Don't you think that will make you constipated?" (She's already had at least one banana this morning)
Ellie: "No.... Letters! Constipated isn't a word!"

Ha ha! I don't know where she comes up with these things, but they crack me up!

On the subject of bananas, Ellie has been eating one or two bananas every morning for breakfast. She gets up, pushes her stool up to the counter and climbs up to reach the bananas hanging from the cabinet. When she retrieves one she brings it to me so I can break the top open, and then she goes off, peels the banana, and eats it for breakfast. It's been going on for a couple weeks now and I have to say I am loving the independence!

A kind of fruit.

Just now Eliana and I were sitting here when she says to me...

"I would like a banana, Mommy." (short pause) "A banana is a fruit. A banana is a kind of fruit!"

That cracked me up! You can't argue with her, though... She is completely correct!

Happy Birthday, Poppy!

Eliana called Poppy tonight to say, "Happy Birthday" to him. And somewhere along the way she ended up singing the sweetest, cutest little Happy Birthday song to him. The best part? I think the best part was how she tacked "cake" to the end of "happy birthday" every so often. It went something like this:

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Poppy's birthday cake!
Happy Birthday! and cake!

It was sweet.

Almost as sweet as the voicemail she left them last week. It pretty much consisted of a series of "I love you!"s, as though repeating it enough would convince them to pick up the phone. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way with voicemail, but that's what it reminded me of. In any event, it was pretty sweet, too.

Perhaps the greatest show of love for Mommom and Poppy today was simply a question. She colored a flower for Mommom and then asked me if we could give it to Mommom. I said we could mail it and she responded by asking if we could get on a "jet" (her word) and go to Mommom and Poppy's house and give Mommom her flower. She asked not just once, but several times. Today she REALLY wanted to go. I hope airline tickets get cheaper soon, because I'm not sure I can resist too many more questions like that!

Song Maker-Upper

All of my life I have been making up songs. It's just one of those weird things about me. I choose to think that it's a gift rather than an oddity, but I'm pretty sure it's genetic.

And I appear to have passed this marvelous gift on to my daughter.

Just now Eliana was happily singing "Jingle Bells" while I was making some cheesy eggs. So to the tune of Jingle Bells I started singing, "Cheesy eggs, cheesy eggs, cheesy eggs today..." and without skipping a beat she chimed in, "Oh what fun are cheesy eggs while we're at the farm!"

Now, I have no idea where the farm line came from, but I'm impressed with her ability to improvise like that on the spot! She kept the tune, started the line the same as the regular song, and then improvised on the subject I was singing about.

Yep! It's definitely genetic....