Two Half

Ella is at the age where I can no longer remember how many months old she is, so I usually tell people she is "almost three". If you ask her how old she is, she says "two half". Cutest thing ever. The thought of her turning three really freaks me out. How is that even possible?!

It's amazing all that she has learned in the last year. She's talking like crazy and learning new words and phrases everyday. On a regular basis, she'll say something we didn't even know she knew - like today, for instance, she was in a grumpy mood and told us to "go away ... leave Ella alone". Well ... okay. Hard not to laugh when your two half year old is moody and wants to be left alone. I shudder at the thought of her teenage years.

Other things she has mastered - feeds herself, dresses herself (with a little help), brushes her teeth, uses the big girl potty, sleeps in a toddler bed, cleans up her toys (most days), reads us books (that she has memorized), says her name is "Ella Rose Gaghen" and that she lives in "O, Kans City", walks up and down the stairs like a pro, cruises the cul-de-sac on her trike, unzips and unscrews things (uh oh), draws lines and circles, recognizes colors, sings her ABCs and counts to 20, puts a movie in the dvd player all by herself (this girl loves her movies), is doing a lot more pretend play, and is a walking "favorite toddler songs" cd. She is also using her little stool to reach for things in high places. Just this afternoon, I watched her bring her stool downstairs from her bathroom, set it up in front of the kitchen counter, and casually reach up on top of the microwave to grab some Easter candy "chocwit". Smooth move, miss Ella Bean.

She survived the flu (the real flu) ... well, I guess we all did. This is pretty much what we felt like for an entire week:

Funny story. Ella decided that a pedicure was in order, and managed to reach high up in a drawer (that I didn't know she could reach), grab her hot pink Tinkerbell nail polish, and attempt to paint her toenails. I thought she was napping, but knew instantly by the smell in her room that something else was going on. This is what I found. "I painting toenails, mama!". Oh land. At least she knew where the polish was supposed to go; otherwise, it could have been much worse. I kept telling myself this during the 30 minutes it took to get all this polish off her feet. "Sowwy, mama. Make toenails pwitty, pwease".

The activities have begun. We started a Parent Tot gymnastics class at a cute little gym across the street from our neighborhood and Ella absolutely loves it. A 50 minute class involving across the floor animal walks, silly stretches, and very cool tumbling obstacle courses ending with a 40 foot long trampoline jump into a foam block pit. During her first class, she dove head first into the foam pit, which was a little traumatic for her. Now she runs down the trampoline and slowly crawls into the pit. I love that this class teachers her so much ... gross motor skills, balance/coordination, pre-academic skills, social skills (you should see all the 2-3 year olds in this class), and ability to follow directions. We look forward to it every week! So far, she has mastered doing a forward roll and walking across a low balance beam by herself. She can also walk her feet up a wall into a handstand, which totally shocked me. If only she could learn to stop on that blue line like all the other kids ... standing still is not one of her greatest fortes.

We enrolled Ella in preschool for the fall. Little Treasures is right down the street from us, and it has an amazing reputation and affordable cost. I quickly learned that there were only 5 spots open for the 3 year old program next year, so a good friend and I met up at 4 am on registration morning (yes, I said 4 am) with our coffee and McDonald's oatmeal in hand. We sat in my car and chatted until the doors were unlocked at 7:00, which went much quicker than we thought! We were spots number 1 and 3 in line for our girls, and I'm not ashamed at all at the effort I had to put in to do this. Totally going to be worth it for her to be in this program next year. I think she is going to love all the new adventures that await her.

All in all, things are going pretty well with the exception of a little sleep dilemma that we have been having. I'm sure we are not alone in this, but it feels like we are some days. Since Ella was about 9 weeks old until just over the age of 2, she was a fabulous sleeper. She would go to bed awake, without a fuss, and would soothe herself to sleep. She would sleep perfectly though the night and even late into the morning. We thought we were the luckiest parents in the world. Well, that being said, things changed a few months ago. Ella started to have a total fit when we would put her to bed. She would scream and scream and scream, only falling asleep when she was too exhausted to keep going. When she started all of this, she was still in her crib, so we thought changing to a toddler bed might help. It did - for about a month or so. Then the novelty wore off and she started going back to the same behaviors. Except this time, it was "dadaaaaah (or mamaaaaa)... I want kitty cat, I want water, I want another hug, I have a runny nose, cover up, please!!" She would yell and whine over and over again until one of us went in there to meet her request. Turns out, this was our biggest mistake. For a while, we could get her a stuffed animal, water, tissue, and she would be content enough to be quiet. This stopped about two weeks ago. Nothing we could do or give her was enough. It was hard to listen to our baby, but we have been trying to ignore her pleas for the past few nights. Tonight was the first night in weeks that she went to bed without a peep. Not sure if this is a coincidence, or if our strategy has been working, but we are sticking to it. Come 8:00, our house was peaceful again.

In just over a month, I will be off work for the summer and will get to spend days on end with my little girl. I'm looking forward to pool time, traveling, and all the new memories we will make together. June won't get here soon enough.