A Progress Note

I think Ellison is on the brink of adolescence... I was trying to go after her as she was shutting herself in a room. She quickly peaked her head out and said, "Leave me alone, Mom!". (!)

She is TOTALLY into smells right now. If something, ANYTHING, has an odor (even my fabulous cooking), Ellison starts talking about how much it's stinky. It's made me very self-conscious to now brush my teeth BEFORE getting her out of bed in the morning. I'm petrified of taking her in public and having her comment about body odors on strangers. Even the catalytic converter in the van does not go unnoticed. "My van stinky! That disgusting!!!".

As I previously mentioned, Ellison is officially obsessed with the Wiggles, and also nursery rhymes. She could sing or have us sing nursery rhymes all day long. She even throws in her own words to some songs to the tune of nursery rhymes. Imagine the phrase "Yes, my promise" to the tune of "Frere Jacque". I need to explain: for whatever reason, when Ellison says/means "I" or "I'm", she mixes it up and always says, "My". It's a little quirk. I get her to say it correctly, but she quickly reverts back.

She's starting to discipline her animals. She came marching down the hall one day with her little stuffed puppy, exclaiming, "You haffa go in time out, Puppy!". I asked her if Puppy was being naughty, and she said, "Yes. He not listen to me!". Most of these little cracks are with such inflection in her voice.

So, I guess we're potty training/trained, even though I didn't really put it into motion. There was a day when Ellison was sick a couple weeks that she wanted to wear her big girl panties all afternoon, and did so without any accidents. I think we got to a window of opportunity last week because we just continued on and she does great! She is doing SO good with the potty! It's funny, I never thought of this as formal potty training, but oh, how much easier it is to just relax about it and let her go at her own pace! I will say that it's a little bit tougher when going #2 is in the mix, but all in all, we have very few accidents. She's even napping in her panties and stays dry. So exciting! We haven't even tried mastering nighttime yet, but she always wakes up asking to use the potty. I have to say, it's so darn cute seeing those little buns in little teeny tiny panties. We've been calling her a big girl so much lately, that now when I call her "Baby Girl", like I have so much of her life, she corrects me: "My not a baby, my a big girl!". So true, my love...

Ellison's new favorite game to play with me and Daddy is Hide-and-Seek. Or anything even remotely related to it.

She has a thing for sticks. When we are walking outside, she loves picking up and looking around for sticks. When she sees one just her size, she uses it as a walking stick for the entire walk. So cute! Her Colorado roots are coming out. :-) So many people use them on hikes there - great calorie burner! (P.S. A wrapping paper roll works great as a walking stick, too).

She now must always wear her "ballet dress" when doing her ballet dances. Always. And she does ballet several times a day. Her outfit for the day consists of me thinking, "What will fit easily under the ballet dress?".

Ellison is now consistently saying her own prayer out loud at night instead of folding her hands, wiggling around and just listening to us say it. She starts "Dear God, thank you for this food," and then goes right into "Now I lay me down to sleep..." ending with "God bless her, keep her, and protect her" (which is what Jon & I always say over her). Cracks us up - so cute to hear it all in a tiny little voice.

Everything is about us doing things as a family "together". If the 3 of us are all home (which feels rare anymore), Ellison says, "Wanna watch TV together" and gets all excited when we get to be a family. When she asked one day if I was going to work, and I said, "Nope", she smiled and wrinkled her nose, "Mommy and Daddy stay home and play with ME!"

Out of the mouth of my babe... "Excuse me, I have question por you.", "Ooh! Baby, you're heavy!", "No have to" (whenever she doesn't want to do something).

Conversation: "My frustrated, Mama." "Why are you frustrated, Ellison?" (pause/thinking) "Because... because my wanna help you and I can't" (as I was cooking on the stove).

Conversation: I was exasperated with yet another time Mookie refused to eat anything on her plate. I simply tipped my head back and whispered with a big sigh, "Frustrated". Mookie looked at me and said, "My frustrated too".

She has to do her "color paints" every single day, sometimes twice a day. Or playdough.

I know it's wierd to have a list, but I don't want to forget these sweet things. :-) That's all I can think of for now...