Elli-isms

Her fave foods (if you can call them that) right now are "big marshmallows", Florecitas (she and Mama are so happy Abuela & Titi Ana sent us another supply!), popsicles, and cheese.  Seriously, she'd live off these 4 things if she could.  And she asks for cereal (and cheese) at about every meal (then whines, and throws a fit after she fetches the cereal box only to find that she has a horrible mother who won't give in).  She's got a taste for particular kinds of cheese at different times of day, too.  Here are the categories: big square cheese, little square cheese, sprinkle cheese, long cheese, and twisty cheese.  Do you think we may have too much variety in our fridge???

Bedtime.  Oh bedtime.  We start hearing about and hour before bed, "No go night-night".  Our before-bed routine feels like it gets longer and longer over time.  Our sweet little manipulator tries as best she can to draw out the process.  Between bath, jammies, brushing teeth, brushing hair, closing curtains, reading books, praying, singing, and rocking, (with Ellison trying to keep control the whole time) we need to start at about 3pm now.

If I had a penny for every time I hear the plea "No go home" when we're out and about...  I know, it's understandable considering the bars on the doors and windows, the chains we lock her up with, etc.

She recently started writing in toddler cursive.  She writes these little squiggly horizontal lines on paper and says, "I'm writing a note to Daddy", then starts to dictate one as she writes.

She knows she's got her Daddy wrapped around her wee little finger.  Every night when he goes to put her in bed after rocking her, she tried to get more rocking time by saying, "Daddy needs Mookie".

Lately Daddy seems to be forgetting Jesus when he gets behind the wheel.  I jokingly call him Lucifer, because he turns a little nasty, spouting off about other drivers.  After one such mini-tirade, I asked Ellison, "Daddy's being naughty, isn't he?".  She ran with it:  "Daddy naughty!  No, no, Daddy.  Assolutely not.  That terrible."

She's obsessed with picking sock fuzzies out of her toes.  She's ALWAYS taking off her socks and/or shoes, especially in the car.  Every single time she whips her little foot up and starts looking for "hairs" (that's what she calls the fuzz).  Today she was happy while we were driving home because she had red "hairs"; so much so, that she put her socks back on trying to get more of the stuff to pick from between her toes - "Probly gonna do it again, Mom".

Every day she make-believes that she's leaving.  "Bye, Mom!  See you soon.  I'm goin' to the store.",  "Bye, Mama!  Goin' with the kids.  Goin' to a birthday party.", "See you soon, Mama.  Goin' to Daddy's work now", and then she shuts the door.  And she is CONSTANTLY shutting doors around here.  And many of those times, she's pushing me out of the door with her little hands telling me to move.

When I was at work, she was playing with her daddy and said, "Gonna go in room and shut the door.  Frustrated."

After yet another mealtime where Ellison refused the food that was prepared for her, I tilted my head back and quietly sighed aloud, "Frustrated."  Ellison looked at me and said, "I frustrated, too, Mommy."  Puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? :)  Their little selves feel just as frustrated as we do over our little struggles.  As hard as it is to be a parent, it's gotta be hard to be 2, too.