Breakfast Time

This was the first time I saw Ellison drinking the left-over milk from her cereal bowl. (Oh, yes - the occasion HAD to be marked with a photo! Ha!) She seems so old. :)

Mealtimes, especially breakfast, have become "shared" on many levels as of late. When I sit down to have my bowl of cereal next to her, she immediately ditches her perfectly good bowl of cereal by pushing it completely out of the way, then asks me to "move that" (my bowl) in front of her, and then she needs my adult spoon. Glad to share with my little bug, I now grab 2 identical adult spoons, and we each partake in eating "my" cereal. She has still taken it a step further. After about 1 bite of the cereal, she wants MY spoon (identical to hers, mind you). So we switch, and finish the bowl of cereal together.

Independent When Convenient

Can you see "guilt" written all over this sweet little face? Ellison asked me for "goldfish" crackers the other day, with which I responded a "no" along with a simple explanation. After I finished, I waited for some sort of objection (in the form of extreme whining), but silence ensued. I went about my business, then peaked around the corner wondering what she was doing. Naughty little E went and opened the lazy susan to get out a little snack cup, then opened the package, and proceeded to help herself to the goldfish. You can just see her look of victory. She always has this way of being so darned cute when she's being naughty!

This day started a whole new theme in our house, little did I know. At least a few times a day, I hear her say, "By self" when I'm trying to help her with something. For Pete's sake, we're going to be bickering about who gets to drive to the pool soon.

Daddy's Owie

A photo with her recuperating daddy. He had a shoulder scope done this week, and Ellison kept wanting to touch his bandages. A future in the medical field, perhaps? Sure, along with dancer (NOT on a pole!!!), piano player, artist, nanny, car expert, etc, etc...

Our Little Monkey

Just some shots of our little monkey girl.



I caught a glimpse of her actually picking up her sippy cup from the floor like a monkey, using only her feet to get it to her hands, rather than bending down to get it. I think she's seen me do this lazy trick one-too-many times to pick up a fallen La-La.

And she's really getting to be quite a little monkey on her "house" (as she calls it). Her house was supposed to make its way outdoors, but she uses it every single day, and my bod doesn't feel like sweating profusely in this hot, humid Carolina summer just so we can get eaten alive by Biggie-sized " 'quitos" (Ellison's pronunciation of 'mosquitos' while clapping her little hands together).

Potty Time

She's fully clothed here (duh), but this past Sunday Ellison went pee on the potty for the first time! Again, we're not real consistent here, but now she's done both deeds on her plastic throne! I guess she wanted to "perform" for an audience this time (i.e. Abby Cadabby, Curious George, Teddy, Elmo, etc.). Oh yeah, and Daddy too! This was the first time Daddy got to see Elli do anything on the potty.

Wardrobe Fun

So to give Ellison some closet fun, we hung one of those little bars from her closet rack so that she could reach and play with the hangers, and slide her clothes over (as if shopping), because she loves doing that in stores or if you lift her up to reach the ones in our closets. Well now she's started this thing where she takes all of her pants and skirts from her little rack and lays them all out all over her bedroom floor, one at a time. Trying to make it seem "fun" to put them all back is slightly more challenging.

Chalk Art

Ellison could spend days outside in the driveway drawing with chalk if we'd let her. Alyssa Fennel, one of the neighbor girls, came over to join us one late afternoon until Daddy came home.

I swear, EVERY kid wants to pick up little ones -- usually to the little ones' dismay. I'm surprised we got a smile on Ellison here; most of the time Alyssa was trying to pick her up, and Ellison would whine to be put down.

This One's For You, Meema

Now that Ellison's finally sprouting a little more hair, I've been anxious to put little velcro curlers in her hair. Ellison loved the process, and sat as still as could be, fascinated with the interesting reflection in the mirror. This was the next best thing to going to Meema's (this is what Ell has started calling her Grandma P.) for an official hairdo.










OK, so the results were a little more haphazard than we were expecting, but she's still our cute little button.

On a side note, Ellison just saw the computer screen with these photos, and started to whine. When I asked her what the matter was, she said, "curler" and touched her hair. She just had me put them in again. :)

Everything Baby

Ah, yes, not only is Daddy subjected to wearing princess hats on occasion for our little nugget, he also now has to be a "baby" when the wind blows just right. Ellison instructed her "baby" to lay on the pillow, then she covered him up with the baby blanket (OK, so it only fit his left shoulder), and proceeded to feed him with the bottle. This girl is all about her babies lately. The other day I caught her cradling her baby (the one that's practically bigger than she), while she was simultaneously swaying back and forth & bouncing up and down, while repeating, "Sh, sh, sh..." over and over. I guess even pretend babies are fussy at times.

Could these 2 look any more alike?!

Ellison's turn at being the baby.

Crazy Hair

Poor Ellison has to still wear sunblock on her head if we don't put a hat on her, since her little locks are a wee-bit sparse. It makes for some crazy 'dos, and some greasy hair for the rest of the day.

"Luv You"

Yesterday Ellison dished out her first unsolicited verbal dose of affection. To her dad, of course. :) She and Jonathan were sitting on the piano bench side by side, when she leaned her little head against his arm, then asked him to hold her as her little arm slid around his back. When he held her, her little arm started patting his back gently, and she said, "Luv you" as she looked up at him. AWWWWW!!! So SWEET!!!

Ellison's First Bike

Elli was SO EXCITED about her new tricycle, that she tried sitting on it while her dad was still putting it together. We bought it thinking she may enjoy our evening strolls around the neighborhood more. We were right - I'm just hoping the novelty of it doesn't wear off too soon. She loved it so much on our first trial walk, that she refused to get off it when we arrived back at the house. It was the first time ever that she didn't mind wearing a bike helmet. (No, we did not try to make her wear it on stroller rides. She fought it on the rare occasion that we had to put it on her to ride on the back of our bikes). Steering has become a challenge during the walk/ride now, but we're getting there.

A Few More Ellison-isms

I'm doing this more for our sake, as this blog saves me from having to write down things that I want to remember about Ellison at various ages/stages, but a few more little tidbits about Mookie at this age:

-- Over the last couple months or so, she's been into playing with my credit card holder. She likes to take out the various cards now and "swipe" them. She'll use the back of the chair or whatever, but perhaps this girl has seen me shop a little too much. :)

-- She's really focused on possession. Not the "mine" thing yet, but various times throughout the day, she feels the need to look at various random household objects and announce who they belong to. I kinda think it's funny because most objects are "Mama's". Laundry time is especially good for this. As she takes each item of clothing out of the washer or dryer, she has to tell me whose it is.

-- Though she'll now leave a tiny barrette in her hair, she will NOT leave in the clips with a bow. She immediately rips it out, UNLESS... I tell her to leave it in so she can show her daddy when he gets home. Wouldn't you know, it works like a charm. As soon as this registers with her, she gently touches the bow, leaves it in, and says "Daddy" and nods her head. She'll continue this off and on (even for hours) until indeed, her Daddy sees it. I swear, this girl will do anything for her dad! I guess they have that whole reciprocity thing going on - if Daddy wears princess hats for Mookie, then she'll leave a bow in for him.

-- She loves doing those wooden puzzles, but I was quite shocked today when we were working on them. One of them has 9 different shapes, and to my amazement, she knows exactly which one is which when I ask her! I thought, okay, the circle, triangle, etc. I could see. But when she knew the trapezoid and pentagon and such I couldn't believe it. And it wasn't a fluke - she did it repeatedly for me. (I know, you all want to vomit with my bragging...)

Coloring Frenzy

Ellison's all about coloring these days. And her mama always has to join her. She even has a favorite coloring spot. I guess she feels most inspired there or something. Anyway, we have to go near the staircase to get our creative juices flowing. As soon as I start coloring a pic, she quickly moves over to my coloring book, abandoning her work-in-progress, and takes over. If I stop coloring for too long in her opinion, then she hands me a crayon and tells me to "draw that".

Our Little Nurturer

Here is Ellison putting a diaper on Teddy. She's so into "mothering" her babies and animals lately. We're constantly being told "Shhh" (with a finger up to her mouth) because someone is sleeping.



Many times throughout the day, Ellison will lay out her La-La or her baby's blanket on the floor and lay whoever the little sleeper happens to be on it. She even lays on La-La herself, despite the fact that her body hangs off 1/2 it. The other day she took a nice box that once held jewelry, and thought to try to lay on it since it had a cushion in it.




Ellison feeding her baby. I suppose she's got some detachment issues since her babies don't have names...

20 Months Old!

Where has our baby gone???

An (ahem) interesting new development this past month comes in the form of "testing the limits". We have no idea where she got it, but suddenly Ellison gets a sheepish little smile on her face and kicks while I change her diaper, and she slaps and headbutts for no reason. Sigh. She doesn't do it out of anger or frustration, she just seems to think she's being cute and funny. Even when you sternly make it known that it's unacceptable, she smiles. We tried time-outs. She thought that was great fun & would try to play peek-a-boo. Isn't there a manual out there somewhere?! :)



Her latest thing is announcing whether objects are "big" or "little". Here's hoping she doesn't catch a glimpse of her mom's hind-end anytime soon. Her vocabulary and language skills continue to increase, and she's even begun trying to "read" to us. Yes, even the little "Caution" stickers plastered on large toys are a good read these days. And since her dad and I have taken to spelling out words we don't want her to recognize, she tries spelling now, too. It sounds something like "a, e, i, o, u" done in a stoccato rhythm.



One of her favorite things to watch is still Curious George, but now "The Wiggles" DVD has been added to the repertoire. It's impressive watching her mimic the different dance moves. She can sit/lay and color for long periods of time, and is quite good at trying to stay in the lines for her age. She's still obsessed with playing in her dad's car every evening and helping me do the laundry. She's really into mothering her baby and Teddy lately - putting them to sleep, cuddling them, consoling them, covering them up, etc. She's so into the baby thing that now when we take her on our evening strolls, she wants the stroller seat flattened out so she can pretend she's a baby. Her fave food is still Goldfish crackers, along with cereal, "meat", and cheese.

Ellison's big on kisses right now. Unless, of course, you happen to be her mother. I do suppose I wear out the request a little, though. :) But it's cute - she has to kiss just about every stuffed animal she comes across, she kisses the air toward any real animal, and she even has to kiss the caterpillar and teddy bear on her toothbrush. Photos of babies and kids (even in a magazine)? Kisses. Sketches of animals in her little books? Kisses. The cartoon-looking alligator on the box of "Alligator Krispies"? Yup.

She looks like such a big girl to us here. :(

Independence Day

We had the good fortune of attending a great 4th of July BBQ at our friends, Morgan & Bill Bullock's house. A lovely time was had - awesome food, refreshing refreshments, fun activites, good company, and a cute neighborhood parade. Ellison got to have some quality Cheerio time with her little girlfriends, Baity & Ella. Well, let's just say that Ellison & Baity were the culprits in the Cheerio free-for-all while Ella looked on. She was probably thinking, "These girls are crazy!".



















Uncle "Bill" & Company heading out to partake in the parade













The Barksdales



















The Holcombs


















Mookie and the 'rents
















Ellison LOVED her festive necklaces, courtesy of Morgan. She's still playing with them every day.















Looks like the Cheerio dinner was finger-lickin' good


















































Trying to uncover the Elmo bag o' treats

"What IS all this parade stuff about?". When a burst of confetti or candy would present itself as the parade people passed by, Ellison's first response was, "Mess!".

Ellison wowed her captive audience with a new favorite activity. This is her idea of playing with Mrs. Potato Head. When I get it out for her, this is what she wants to do. Poor Mrs. Potato Head remains without jewelry and lips every single time. (Sounds like every guy's dream, right?).

On Sunday, we got to enjoy another 4th of July celebration with a bunch of new church friends. Unfortunately, it rained/stormed, so it was a little crazy trying to keep wee ones tame and dry in close quarters, but it was still nice. We are finding out that Mookie actually is getting a little wave/curl in her hair when it's humid. It's pretty cute. :)