Ella-isms (Vol. 7)

Time for an update on all the wild and crazy things that Ella is doing and saying these days:

Kissy-Kissy
These days, Ella is totally into kissing the baby in my tummy.  It's very very sweet; but I do have to sometimes kindly reminder her that the Target parking lot is not the best place to be lifting my shirt up.  She also wants to kiss and be kissed everywhere--but we both end up laughing hysterically when she asks to be kissed on her "goat" (she somehow blended "goatee" with "throat") and then wiggles away from the tickles.  I kiss her every time I put her in her carseat, but the other day when I asked if I could give her a kiss, she put her finger to her chin and said, "Let me think about it"--and then proceeded to direct me to kiss her on the cheek.

First Friend Fight
Ella has a little friend named Madelyn, who I have probably mentioned before.  They are three days apart, and started at the same daycare the same day.  Madelyn's family actually just moved over to our side of town, and the two are pretty much best friends.  But a couple of days ago, apparently Madelyn told Ella that she didn't like her, and it broke Ella's little heart.  She brought it up on the way home, and then over dinner to my husband, and again that night when we were getting ready for bed.  My sweet little girl is barely two and already had her first fight with a friend!  It broke my heart to see Ella so sad, but it was a great opportunity to talk to both girls about feelings and the impact of our words.  Madelyn's mom and I have become good friends, so I gave her a heads-up so that we could talk to both girls.  The next day, Ella marched right up to Madelyn and told her directly, "You made me sad", and the girls have been happy with each other ever since.

E is for Ella!
Ella has been singing her ABC song for a couple of months now, but it seems like she is starting to recognize that each letter is unique.  She can recognize her name when it's written on her art projects from school--though it could be that she just assumes that the writing must be her name.  But she surprised my husband and me the other day when she pointed out a restaurant sign while stopped at a red light and proclaimed "E is for Ella"!  Wouldn't you know--we were right in front of an Eegee's (a local restaurant chain). 

11, 14, 16!
Along with her letters, Ella has also been getting better with her numbers.  She has been counting to 10 for months--though I think it was out of memorization rather than true counting.  Lately, she has been getting much better at truly counting out objects; and she's also trying to count higher.  But so far, she seems to jump from 11 to 14 to 16 and end there.

Lord's Prayer
Every night, we practice the Lord's Prayer.  We started by saying most of it and leaving the last word of each line for her to say.  As time has gone on, she's picked up more of it on her own--or at least she has her own variation.  I'll share what I say in italics, and what she says in bold:

Our Father!
Who art in heaven!
Hallowed by Thy name!
Thy kingdom power! (try as we might, we can't get her to say "come" here)
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this daily bread (she typically skips "day our" before "daily bread")
And forgive us our debtors/debts as we forgive our debts/debtors (she often flip-flops the two)
And lead us not into temptation! (with emphasis)
But deliver us from evil! (with extra emphasis!)
For thine is the kingdom-power-glory-forever-AMEN! (typically quickly slurred together, with a valiant "Amen!" finish)

 Full-Circle Fashion
You may remember that I posted about two years ago that my aunt sent me back the dresses that my grandma had made for me, that my mom had then passed on to my niece. Well, Ella is big enough to wear them now!  In fact, I hadn't realized just how small one of the dresses was, so it hung in her closet and never got worn (I guess it's a good thing we're having another girl!).  But we can get a couple more months of wear out of the other dresses, including this one she wore to church today:

Yesterday's blessing was the chance to celebrate my 34th birthday with reorganizing our house to make room for the new baby, followed by a glorious five-mile run, and then capped off with the most delicious dinner at Smashburger.  At various times throughout the day, Ella sweetly reminded me that it was my birthday, and sang "Happy Birthday" to me a couple times.  Nothing fancy, but it really was a very blessed birthday.