Ella Bella

Ella is just such a joy to be around. She's always happy! It's so fun to hear her putting her words into sentences lately. Here are just a few things she's been saying:

*What's the problem?
*Oh shoot!
*My nose is runny....need a tissue. (She's minorly obsessed with tissues and blowing her nose. It drives me crazy, but I guess she's following in my footsteps. Tanner calls me a grandma cause I always have tissues tucked in my clothes--you never know when you're gonna need one!)
*Wanna watch "Wiggles"
*It's okay, don't cry (mostly to her dolls who always seem to be sad and sometimes to Alex)
*Just a minute...
*"Probly" not



She ALWAYS says I love you, especially if you're being separated for any reason--of course when we leave the house, but even if I go get in the shower, if she goes down for a nap, and she even said it to our babysitter's husband when he left the house. She's such a sweetie!

She talks to her bears and dolls like they're really listening. When I go to get her from bed, she's holding one of them and says, "There's mommy." And then nods and keeps jabbering to them. She's such a good mommy to her babies. Good thing they can't breathe, though, because she likes to swaddle them in blankets really tight, and it usually includes their whole head.

She's always been a pretty obedient little gal. I'm so glad she's getting to the age she understands punishment and can go to time-out (even though it's really sad because she screams the whole 10 seconds she's in there and clings to you for an hour afterward). She definitely is getting to be more of a stinker and doing things she's not supposed to, but if I catch her and start counting, she usually obeys. She started going to nursery in January and she totally hates it! I make Tanner take her if I can because she's such a mama's girl, but she starts screaming the moment we approach the door. Even though she's screaming, she'll sit down at the table and just cry. She hates it, but she knows that's what we want her to do, so she does it. But by the time we go back to get her at the end of church, we can hardly get her to leave! The other night we were going to an activity at the church, and after we parked and started walking to the building she started saying, "Noooo puzzles!!" (That's what they have the kids do at the beginning of nursery.) Her teachers told us she hates the puzzles, but I think she just meant she didn't want to go to nursery. She thinks she hates it, but she really likes it once she gets in there.

She and Alex play so well together! It's been fun the older she gets because now they can both entertain each other. The other day they went upstairs and played for 3 straight hours before they came back down, and without any crying. I went up the stairs and listened a few times to make sure they were still alive, but I didn't want them to see me cause I knew I would disrupt this magical time for them (and me)! They love to hug and kiss (a little too much), and wrestle. Ella kind of seems to be the leader of the pack, but they just follow each other around all day and generally play pretty well. Of course there are times Alex takes cheap shots at Ella or Ella sits on Alex's face but, for the most part, they just like to laugh at absolutely nothing together. What a great couple of kids--I sure love 'em!