Ella-isms (Vol. 2)

It's been a couple of months since I shared some Ella-isms, so I wanted to capture some more of her antics:

Barefoot Beauty
For whatever reason, Ella doesn't like to wear shoes in the car.  Typically, by the time that I make it out of the parking lot, I hear the unmistakable rip of velcro, followed by the "uh, uh, uh" straining of a toddler trying to reach forward from her five-point harness to reach her socks and pull them off as well.  I've gotten to the point where I don't even bother putting her shoes on in the morning before we go to school.  Rather, I just put them on when we arrive at her daycare.  I don't blame her--I love to go barefoot as well.  And now that she's playing outside more at her new school, she's slowly transferring every grain of sand from the sandbox to the backseat of our car.

Clean Freak
My mother-in-law tells me stories of my husband as a child, and how he wiped his hands on a napkin after every bite of food he ate.  Well, Ella is clearly his daughter, because she does the same thing.  Tonight, she was more interested in cleaning the table, than she was in eating her food.  I can only hope that this means that she'll do well with cleaning up her room when she's older.

Mama's Little Helper
Speaking up cleaning up, I've started having Ella help me clean up her toys every evening before we read our books and go to bed.  I'm very impressed with how quickly she caught on that all her toys go in the box at the end of the day.  Even more impressive--she has begun to help me unload the dishwasher, all by herself.  She'll take each utensil out of the little caddy and stack them all up in the drawer where they belong!  Granted, they are all piled up, rather than in their own compartments, but it's still really neat that she pitched in to help out.

Monkey See, Monkey Do
When my mom was in town, she taught Ella the sign for "monkey".  We then went to the zoo before she left, and the monkeys were giving us quite the show!  Ella now signs for monkey, and tries to imitate the "whoop!" sound that they make.  Since she is so interested in monkeys, I tried to buy her some new books with monkeys, and ended up with three new Curious George books.  Turns out that Curious George came to campus today for a storybook character event, so Ella got to see him up close and personal.  She didn't quite know what to think, but she did give him a high-five and waved bye-bye.  We'll go to the zoo again tomorrow (I'm bound and determined to take full advantage of our annual pass).

Hugs and Kisses
Ella has become very affectionate lately.  When I'm rocking her and singing songs at night, she'll often pat my back or take my face in her hands, look me straight in the eye, and give me a big kiss.  When I put her down and say her prayers, she then blows me a kiss from her bed when I tell her that I love her.  The other day when I was sitting on the ground, she came up behind me a gave a giant hug.  But I'm not the only one she'll hug--she loves to give her friend Madelyn hugs as well.  We started by prompting them, but now both girls will give and receive hugs to each other on their own.  I love that she has become so kind to others.

Today's blessing was running into my friend and former colleague at the Curious George event.  She was there with her son, who is now three, and it's so neat to see him turning into a big boy.  I really miss working with her, but I'm so proud of her for following her dreams.