Ellison has had a few quirks in the past, but now has some new ones to add to the bunch...
1) The purse thing has taken on a new meaning. She has one of my small purses that she is always slinging over her arm and wandering around with. She also thinks she has the right to hock my in-use purse and take it as her own - she grunts every time she tries to carry it anywhere 'cause it's too heavy for her. We went to the Build-A-Bear Workshop this past weekend (got to finally spend her birthday gift card), and rather than getting excited over the actual stuffed animal, she had more fun dragging this enormous round (bigger-than-her) shopping basket around the store. It was quite a sight. Anyway, her new bear sports a tiny purse, too. Well, I should say the bear should be, but it mysteriously ends up on Ellison's arm many times throughout the day. Which brings us to #2...
2) She lately is becoming attached to random objects right before bedtime. First it was 2 little books she had crammed into her hand. She wasn't "reading" them, mind you. When it came time to go to bed, she threw an absolute fit because I tried taking them from her. So she went to bed with her books. The next night, it was her sippy cup. No, not full of anything good - it was completely empty. You should've seen the way she was snuggling it! It was curled right under her arm as if it was her Teddy (who is always in the other arm along with her "la-la" - yes, the crib's getting more crowded). Then it was her big bear's purse. And last night it was a noisy stuffed animal that plays music. So at least it gives me an excuse to go in and plant a finger-kissy on her head after she's asleep at night - I have to retrieve the current object of desire. Hey, we aren't about to have her wake up in the middle of the night because she rolled over onto these things...
3) She is trying to speak Spanish. Her little baby channel on TV has a 1/2 hour Spanish program that she adores. Several times throughout the show, they have a little segment called, "La Palabra del Dia" where someone announces the title. As soon as she hears the phrase she gets very animated and tries to repeat it - which sounds hilarious, like she's trying to roll her "r"s.
4) She's still into hording. Lately it seems to be her bibs - she whines until I give her at least 2 to carry around. Or, when we're doing laundry, she takes as many of her dirty bibs or socks out of the pile as she can, crams them into her hand, and walks everywhere with them.
5) Our calm, docile, sweet angel has a little temper! She tries to do little challenging activities, like ones that are a little beyond her age yet, and if she doesn't succeed, she "scrambles" it with her hands and begins to get a deep grunting whine with a scowl on her face. Once again, my mom said she wonders where Ellison gets this from... I have no idea who she could possibly mean. :)
"Oh, I wish I were joking, Caroline... Can you believe they actually tried to feed me that crap?!"
Suddenly the other day after letting Bo outside to do his business, I saw Ellison go to his "corner", grab his towel (we lay out a towel for him to step onto, then proceed to wipe off his paws as soon as he comes in the door), and actually try to lay out his towel for him, like she has seen us do a hundred times! I just stopped and stared at her in amazement, almost breathless! Wow, the little people truly are little sponges! She has since continued to do this task if she's in the vacinity when we let him out. She also can be heard telling Bo, "No, no" and shaking her finger at him a few times throughout the day, thus confirming our sponge theory.
Ellison likes to insist on getting "up, up, up" in the chair at the table where her toddler crayons are. Jonathan & I fall for it every time thinking we may have a little artiste on our hands, but then we quickly find out that she just wants to take the crayon apart. Sometimes we manage to squeeze a little sketch or two out of her, though ours seem to outnumber hers.
Ellison does give kisses, but they're not given out readily. I'm constantly asking her for a kiss and making a kissy noise, and her response is to giggle and run away from me as quick as she can. But the second I ask her to kiss Teddy, she happily obliges, of course. When I sometimes ask her to kiss me on the cheek, she'll stick HER cheek out and make kissy lips & a noise. I love it. :) She is quick to give herself a kiss in the mirror, though, as you can see...
Ellison tried trading in her car for another model today. She was just too confined in her little hot pink & purple bug, and she heard the MPV has a great safety rating. It was much more roomy, that's for sure. She just couldn't figure out why her dad wouldn't hand over the keys, though. In the last photo, Ellison was practicing for the drive-thrus. I suppose she's had enough of her mama's cookin'.
bikini bottoms (trust me - they will not see the light of day on a body again!), and proceeded to traipse around the house with them slung over her arm like a purse. After she seemed too engrossed in them after a while, I'd try to take them from her, she'd get a smirk on her face and try to get away from me, even hiding in the pantry.
We just can't seem to keep the camera out of our hands while in the presence of our princess! She looks so old in a couple of these photos - it delights me and breaks my heart at the same time.
The months feel like they're passing as quickly as a day does! Ellison sure is turning into a toddler. She's really picking up speed cruising around on those legs more and more every day, pushes her high chair around the house, makes "meals" in her kitchen with her dad, constantly imitates our actions, dances all the time, and is really working hard at her speech & vocabulary. She still has an incredible fondness for babies, too. She has these little flash cards with letters & pictures on them, and there's a card with the picture of a baby (a real one). She won't let it out of her hand once she finds it, repeats "baby" over and over, and even holds the card to her chest with both arms and turns side to side like she's cradling it! It's the sweetest thing. We're starting to notice what a little "horder" (?sp) she is. She loves collecting a bunch of things and fits as many as she can in her hand & just holds them (like a stack of foam letters), or she'll collect objects and put them in a pile all in between her legs as she sits. She started even doing it with 
her stuffed animals on her changing table - as I was changing her diaper, she kept requesting yet another stuffed animal be handed to her until she had all 5 smashed in her arms like a giant hug.
Of course this is just a small sampling of her Winter 2007/2008 wardrobe, but Ellison has quite the closet thanks to all of her Christmas gifts from family! Yep, she's gonna be stylin' in that minivan!
Ah, yes... the Soto family has a new pimpmobile - a minivan. Our friend, Mollie refers to it as the "Famster". Sadly, the time was up for our Envoy. We actually got all sentimental about it - it was the vehicle we brought Ellison home from the hospital in. :( Despite all of our previous misgivings about acquiring minivan status, I have to admit that I actually really love the thing. Ellison doesn't care - she's just happy to finally be forward-facing in a vehicle. Anything looks better than staring at a seat after a year. Boys better watch out - me, Ellison, Mollie, & Caroline just may decide to have a day out on the town in this G-ride! Jonathan does have is reservations about the mini-van but it's mommie's ride not daddies :)