Well look who's two...

These were all taken with my phone on Ellis' birthday. I need to figure out how to get the videos off my phone and onto my blog because I got some good ones that day :)






"Open presents?" Very much anticipating the fun of opening her gifts. It was hard to wait once she spotted them :)





Heard around these parts lately:

"You're doin' a good job, Mama." Ellis said while stroking my arm and tilting her head while I drew a picture for her.

Me: "Maybe Daddy will help you build a snowman when he gets home."
Ellis: "Daddy's at work, silly."

Me: Singing something...
Ellis: "Stop singing. No singing, Mama."

Regarding the dust floating around the room at home (as the sunlight streamed in, making it very visible), Ellis exclaimed, "The snow is flying, Mama!!"

"Daddy is a he."

"Chill, Daly." (Daly is our cat who can get a little dramatic/wild from time to time)

Lately

Lately we've been retraining Ellis to say she's two, since in a mere 8 hours and 15 minutes, it will be TRUE!!! So here is your last Ellis as a one-year-old-update:

She's crazy. In a good way. And typically it coincides with her dad's presence.


She's calm. In a good way. This more often coincides with my presence.


She's funny. Almost always. And she'll tell you so, too: "Ellis is funny!"

Here's the before shot of our kitchen wall that Gabe and I got all DIY on (nothing to do with Ellis other than the fact that she also had to breath in too much "construction" dust during the process).



And after:

I love how it turned out!

And here is how I find Ellis' babies, Cosette and Daisy, every morning when I come in to get her up. They start out in the crib, but always end up wedged in between the wall and the crib. :)


Another example of the special treatment they receive from Ellis:



Play-Dough is a favorite activity lately. When asked, "What are you making, Ellis?" She often responds, "I'm just makin'."


Her "silly face"---which she developed all on her own:


Still enjoys burying herself with stuffed animals:

I can't believe my little sweetie pie is turning TWO tomorrow!! How did this happen?

Some common quotes these days:

"Upsy down" = upside down

"Pincess" = princess, a term used to describe all girls --- all her.

"Opitus" = octopus

"Downders" = upstairs/downstairs

"Hi-you" = how are you (often followed by thank you when the question is asked back to her)

"Thaz mine" = that's mine----I don't know how this one infiltrated our home, but here it is. Often.

"Gahbeseww" = God bless you.

"Daddy's. Awt. Wook." = Daddy's at work.

"Have fun today!" When I leave for the flower shop on Saturdays.

"Mmmm. That's tasty."

"I wuv a ________ (fill in the blank) (said while tilting head and hugging whatever the object of her love happens to be) ---sticker; bear; tiny speck of play-dough; baby; spoon...there's a lotta love in this house.


Oh! I almost forgot. Ellis got her own mini-person's potty which she peed in once the other morning. I was much more excited than she was, but it's still progress!

This post isn't meant to be a downer, but...

I keep stumbling upon stories of people losing their homes to fire lately. We just purchased two additional smoke detectors for Ellis' bedroom and for ours. I think I'm going to buy some ladders this weekend. We only use our cell phones, so it's scary to think of how often we've gone to bed with our phones who-knows-where--->certainly not us, and especially not if we awoke to find our house on fire. It's easy to put off thinking about preparing for a fire because, it's not going to happen, right? But wouldn't you feel better if you were as prepared as you could be?

Story 1
Story 2

Only they aren't just stories; these stories are all too real to two families. Thank God they all escaped unharmed. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to wake up to smoke and fire in the black of night.

One other thing: Colorado is a high *Radon risk area, so I FINALLY purchased a radon test which I'll then send in on Saturday for the results. Our basement is a dirt floor, which isn't good when radon is a concern. So maybe you want to think about a radon test, too.

*Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that results from the breakdown of uranium in soil and rocks. It cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, and is the leading cause among non-smokers.

Some Ellis-isms

Lately Ellis has become this very empathetic girl---especially with me. She'll come to me after I hiccup, for example and tilt her head and whisper, "Y'Okay, Mama?" or sometimes, while patting me gently, she'll whisper, "S'Okay, Mama. S'Okay, Mama." Very parent-child, but in reverse.

Today she was pushing her cup of juice around in the stroller. She stopped abruptly and the juice fell onto the floor. She rushed around to the fallen juice and whispered, "S'Okay, Juice."

Other notable funnies:

Sporadically yelling, "E!-L!-S! Ellis!" (Trying to spell her name)

"Ellis laughing." Whether she is, or not.

"I keen up." (I'll clean up)

Every morning when I go in to get her once she's woken up, she frantically announces, "I got-da babies! I got-da babies!" Meaning she has both of her baby dolls in her arms and is ready to get out of bed. She used to say, "Good morning, Mama!" Not anymore.

I just finished reading The Help (very good read, by the way). I borrowed it from Gabe's mom, Vickie, once Gabe's sister, Janae was finished with it over Christmas. So Janae was finishing it while we were in the Springs after Christmas. I finished it a couple of weeks later, only reading around Ellis the last day as I was trying to get it finished. So Ellis apparently had seen Janae reading a couple of weeks prior when she saw me reading the book and very matter-of-factly she points to the book and says, "Jonay's book." Then walks away. I was pretty shocked she recognized it and remember Janae reading it. Smarty pants.

zoo lights '10

Lots of purple

New Year's Day was also 50% off Day at Goodwill, so I found Ellis this perfectly cozy purple snow suit for less than $3! She reminded me of the little brother, Randy, on A Christmas Story when he protests in a muffled voice, "I can't move my arms!" I may have over dressed her, but it didn't matter; she wasn't in the mood for a snow day, so it was very short-lived.







Auntie Janae had the great idea to ice cookies with Ellis. This was Ellis' first time and she took her duties very seriously.




Here are our post-New Year's Christmas card pictures again:


You may often notice me trying to squeeze Ellis' thigh in order to elicit a smile, as shown here:






Seriously, how could anyone not love Gabe? Not that I know of someone who doesn't. Here he is Christmas afternoon demonstrating his excitement and shock over being given Colorado beef jerky:

ESL (first being toddlerese) Update

"Jingo Baws" aka Jingle Balls, more often aka Jingle Bells.

"Kissus Tee" Christmas Tree

"Ah-na-na-na-nan" Raggety Ann (the number of na's varies anywhere from 2 to 5)

"Siwwy ______" Anything and everything is potentially silly according to Ellis these days.

"Wiggo Eaws" Wiggle ears.

"Dit-do nook...Dit-do baby...Dit-do _____" Thank you (for the) milk...Thank you (for the) baby..."

"I five you." I love you. On the way in from a walk the other day, Ellis wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "I FIVE you, Mama!" At which point I literally melted to the ground in a big pile of lovey goo. Until that moment she had only ever responded to us saying to her "I love you, Ellis." This time was all on her own.

"Downstays" Meaning, please let me go up and/or down the stairs.

"No nap." Pretty clear there.

"He-you-go" Here you go.

"Otch...funny...oovie...funny...otch...oovie..." I would like to watch a funny movie, and by funny movie I mean the one with Shrek (Tereck), Princess (Pincess) and Donkey (Dunkey).

"Rocka Baby" Rock-a-bye, Baby.

"Bootsawn" Boots on, or I know I'm only wearing a diaper right now, but I see a need to wear my boots right now and I need your help to put them on please.

How to live dangerously while wearing white...

Ellis and I were very excited to get out paints for her very first painting experience. At first (and by that I mean all but the last 2 minutes) Ellis was most intrigued by dipping the brush into the water and then the paint, as well as mixing the colors. She tested them out every way possible, including the taste test (passed) and the skin allergy test (also passed). This whole event was a little on impulse, as you can see by the fact that I allowed a toddler to experiment with paint while wearing a white shirt and white sweater. I realized this halfway through and decided to just let it slide. This same impulsiveness with painting is why if you look hard enough, you'll find paint somewhere on most of my clothing.














Ellis' hair is getting pretty long. Though she only lets me put pigtails in when she's distracted by a "funny oovie" (Shrek is her fave), and takes them out as soon as she realizes I've put them in, here are a couple of pictures of her cute piggy tails.




Probably watching the funny oovie again:

Loving this right now

Made me cry. Twice. Stuff like this always does...

Enjoy! (make sure you watch the youtube video :)