Hello Dahlings! I am coming up for air briefly. Yesterday I dedicated the entire day to school work-so much so that that I’m actually ahead (I know, I’m shocked too), so I’ve been having a photo editing day for one of my little gigs-taking photos for the BGSU Men’s Soccer team at their home games. All day long, I have been sifting through hundreds of photos of athletic young men playing really good soccer. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it…..sigh. (by the way, if you are in BG you should come to the next game on 10/8-admission is free.. and we usually tailgate beforehand.)
I have been meaning to catch up on Ella for ages now but I’ve been so busy and the prospect of it was overwhelming since I have so much to share about her and sooo many adorable pictures.
She is going through SUCH a delightful stage (til I just jinxed it) right now and I’m aching to share her with everyone I know! During my soccer editing, I just came across these shots of her playing on the deck the other evening and I was compelled. Here’s a little glimpse of her sweetness.
This is the “cozy coupe” that Benj got when he turned two. 13 years later, his two year old little sister is loving it just as much as he did..
Gabe just came in from outside where they were playing and said, “mom she abuses me! She has been trying to stuff my entire body into that little red car!” You know he is loving it.
She is such a sweet little personality! A few things she loves these days:
*Playing in her kitchen especially with play dough. She will play quietly in her playroom for ages and if she catches me watching her she gets all embarrassed and makes suggestions of what I could be doing instead. She LOVES to bake especially the egg cracking part and suggests that we “make” every.single. day. My favourite part is when she refers to the oil as “happle dooce” she is always very insistent on adding the happle dooce.
*She still loves the iPhone but definitely prefers real toys and puzzles to the online version now. Her current favs to watch on netflix lately are: “Tigey” (Daniel Tiger), “Oso” (Special Agent Oso) and she has just discovered the delights of “Puppy” (Lady and the Tramp)
*SQUIDES! We were at the store a while ago and she was just murmuring to herself so quietly and sweetly, when I finally tuned in to her I noticed her face was just radiantly glowing. She had spotted a Barbie doll with her own miniature“squide” and she could barely speak for joy. She has no interest in the Barbie doll, but the squide..it is everything. I almost never buy my kids anything when they are around, or for a non-occasion, because I don’t want them getting any ideas…but if you think I could walk away without the Barbie squide on that occasion, then clearly you must think that I am made out of stone. I took video of us opening the box and putting it together with her ecstatic commentary. It is very, very sweet.
* Letters and numbers. She loves counting everything. She has mastered (mostly) the alphabet song and is always spelling things out to us. They must be in another language though 
*Her family. Every morning when she wakes up she asks me where each member of the family is. When I tell her she smiles sweetly like, “Aw…Gabe…at school…I love him.” “Aw….Daddy..at work…that guy is so cool” “Beej playing SocAH GAAAYME?….I miss his smile” “Gaycie…I wish she was here so we could dance to music in our room” “Fee? Gosh he makes me laugh! Her daily roll call is so precious. She is finally acknowledging herself. She used to just smile enigmatically when we would ask, “and where Ella?” . Now she points to herself and says very matter of factly. “I right here”. She is so loving, and happiest when everyone is home together.
*Mimi Mouse (“Mimi Moowwwse”) is still her most favourite toy, but she’s a huge fan of building with legos, and drawing. She has this habit of sticking her teeth out of her mouth and her finger into her nose when she is shy. It’s really charming.
*Bread and cheese is her latest fav. She also likes graham crackers (which she calls “snack” thanks to nursery at church I believe). She loves oranges and happles (on occasion) but isn’t as fond of bobo (yogurt tubes) or strawbewwies anymore. Pakes (pancakes) are a hot fav too-mostly because she can help make them, and naturally anything “chokit” related particularly “skeem cone” . Her eating is still mighty sketchy but she manages to keep body and soul together and remain cheerful. I have faith that one day…one glorious day……everything will come together in that department
*Laughing, giggling, chuckling and squealing with excitement, pretty much the entire time she is together with her siblings. They have a mutually entertaining relationship and there is no mood so moody that it cannot be broken by her charms.
At (alllmost) two and a half (in a few days) she brings us so much joy and constantly delights us with her outrageous cuteness.
PS: Just as I posted this I got word that a post of mine just went live on the very snazzy What to Expect site! Wouldn’t you know it’s about Ella and my somewhat conflicted feelings regarding the toddler do-over late (r ) in life. PLEASE check it out!
Click here to read about Ella at other adorable ages.
Ella lately
Happy birthday Ellababy!
We love you more than we can say! You make our lives lovelier in every way..
It is so hard to believe she’s only been in our lives for 2 years, it feels like we’ve known her forever.
I have an app which gives me a little summary of things I posted to facebook on this day in history.
I almost fainted when I read this one today. Posted on this day, three years ago:
Finny and I are babysitting. We both agree we want our OWN baby because she is so cute. The dog wants one too because she feeds him her animal crackers.
We could never have dreamed that one year, to the day later, our “wish”was granted. It’s pretty cool the way God grants us the (sometimes unknown) wishes of our hearts even when our heads tell us that they would not be the best idea.
I’m so glad God is in charge of stuff.
Here’s what happened one year ago…
and two years ago..
Happy birthday magical little Ellabeth.xoxoxox
Guess who is 23 months old?
This sassy little someone!
I am so overwhelmed with sentimentality right now. After next month we will start counting in years not months. I hate that. I’m not ready! She is still changing every day-her vocabulary grows exponentially each day and it is so amazing and hilarious and wonderful to hear what is going on in her sweet little head all the time!
I have loved looking back on these epic recaps every month. I am so grateful to have done them, to capture her awesomeness as it changes -sometimes subtly sometimes so dramatically (even though to be honest I have hated actually doing them-they are time consuming and bitter sweet and as you can tell, I have trouble selecting just a few photos 
When Ella was 22 months old she had mixed feelings about her crib, I can’t believe we are already considering moving her to the toddler bed. It has gone so INSANELY FAST. It seems like we just barely decided on the crib sheets and got the nursery together and now…she’s almost ready to move into the big girl bedroom with her sister!
I am sorry to say that She was very very sick when she was 22 months old, but she was also
so very sweet and brave..
.
She coughed so hard and so constantly that she couldn’t ever sleep for more than a few minutes. Here she is literally falling asleep on her feet! So tragic..it hurts my heart.
Other than her bout with illness 22 months was magical. Last night at midnight I lay cuddled up on the couch with her and we chatted. I was just so overcome with my enchantment for her that I did not care that it was midnight and she would not go to sleep. I was just enjoying her so much.
When Ella was 22 months old, she was still very much into hamming it up when she saw a camera pointed in her direction. Curiously in this picture, she just wanted to hold that bottle of Sprite. The lid had to be off, but she had no interest in drinking it (even though she really really likes to sneak a sip when we have it at restaurants) she just wanted to cuddle it close.
When she was 22 months old, she took to calling me “BABY!” very joyously and affectionately whenever she saw me and wanted to hug or cuddle. Here she is running in for a hug, I can’t believe how much she looks like a baby on the left and then in the next step, like a little girl..it’s breathtaking.
When she was 22 months old she worked hard on counting to 20 (although she pretends 7 doesn’t exist and sometimes she just sort of hazes over most of the teens making vague sounds with end with “een” ..ending joyously with “ENNY!!” (Twenty!)
Would tell me when she was “TY” (tired) and would suggest a “NAP” and also a “BO-EL” (that’s going to be a hard habit to break, methinks.)
Loved taking Memmy for a walk. She especially likes to put her leash on the ground and let it wind up very quickly. Fortunately Shemly doesn’t tend to be a bolter. GOSH I love that incredibly expressive little face!
She likes to draw pictures of “special agent Oso” who she calls “bspechoo” (special). He is a series of delicate circles. There’s been a lot of drawing on walls lately-it’s our fault though. Since we got her bathtub markers and we have a huge chalkboard in the kitchen she seems to assume that any vertical surface is ideal for creative expression. As you can tell, she also likes to do buck teeth when she smiles especially when hamming it up..
Discovered a new use of her old infant car seat (she also likes to strap 2 American girl dolls in there…for a “nap”.)
Loved to play and read in her room with her sibs. Whenever she was upset, all her sibs had to say was, "ELLA! PLAY?!” and she would instantly stop crying and perk up and say “PLAY!!!” and off they would happily go.
When she was 22 months old, she was an absolute angel when we spent a long day in the hospital waiting for Gracie’s surgery and recovery. She toddled around with her huge handbag looking every inch an adorable young version of Sophia Petrillo
I took a few seconds of video here and there on that day-they are super cute
When she was 22 months old, Ella cooled slightly on the Bubble Guppies only to replace that space in her heart with an ever increasing passion for “meme” (Minnie Mouse). She can sing the Mickey Mouse clubhouse theme song (not sure if we should be proud of this, she particularly likes the “roll-call!” And does not miss one word of it. Again…unsure of whether I should be admitting this
)
When she was 22 months old she was always very happy in the mornings even though she did not sleep very well. She liked to show me her belly button. She can point out many body parts now, but her nose and saying “meep meep” when she touches it is her favourite. My favourite is when she calls her lips “Mips”.
When she was 22 months old she continued to find the tiniest most obscure “youtube” icon and excitedly point out that it “ IS Buppies and Meme!”. It’s Ella’s version of “where’s Waldo?”
When Ella was 22 months old, she still loved the “mammy mammy mammy!” rescue me game! And I can’t pretend I did not love it too. She seems to reserve it for when I really need to get away from something I am too preoccupied with and reminds me about what is really important. I treasure every single round of it and I am secretly really proud that she doesn’t let anyone else rescue her.
At 22 months old Ella never just said “NO!” Always says “No WAaaaaaaay” or sometimes “MO WAAyyyy”. usually in a really sweet, high pitched regretful little voice.
February 10
Me: She's wiping the crumbs off her hands.
Also Ella's vocab concerning Benjamin has progressed today from "Beeeejjjj TOOOOOOP " (Beej STOP!) every time she sees him to "Beeeej DON'T" every time she sees him. Fortunately he is extremely sweet and patient with her and finds this amusing rather than offensive.
At 22 months old, Ellabeth continued to be the family prayer reverence warden.
Loves to play the “fake sleep” game
With her siblings too
Loved doing “pretties” with her big sister. Ella has very much started to vocalize her appreciation of “preeeteeeee” things this month. In fact she squatted by an iphone display in T.J Maxx for at least 10 minutes recently until she had ferretted out the most “preetee” iPhone case for me. She really has excellent taste!
February 8
Here we see an illustration of what Ella tends to do when she gets her hands on something “preeteee”. (Please excuse the state of that room. We were in the middle of moving the old furniture out..)
When she was 22 months old Ella took in her first opera at the young people’s orchestra concert. She was quite well behaved and for the most part seemed to appreciate the cultural experience..
She also briefly took to living in a box. Complete with her piano, her princess couch and grafitti she drew on the walls..
When she was 22 months old our girl loved her some “cake” and “tockit” which she also refers to as “bite?! bite?!” She is a big fan of the chocolate.
Put up with her light-weight bro sleeping on her shoulder while she took care of business.
And at 22 months old Ellabeth was (happily) not too big to take her own naps on mommy’s chest, in her car-seat, tucked in by her big sister on the couch but mostly in her crib. She still loved her crib for naptimes.We just wish she went down as happily at night.
February 7
When she was 22 months old, Ella loved a “SNOWING” day!
February 19
22 months was almost perfect. Occasionally we had some conflicts over iPhone use…but even they were pretty cute.
(Her favourite game is a pretty dry shape matching game for some reason) She’s really good at it.
At 22 months old Ella continued to be very enchanted with money. She has moved on from credit cards to cold, hard cash. She calls the paper stuff “dowah (dollar)” and the coins “money”. And she loves to count them. Our little Ellabether Scrooge
. She agrees though that it is “diiiiiirrrrrrrty”. February 20
