Ella at the Dentist

Last month we had our first visit to the dentist. I know, it was a little late. Ella was great! She looked a little nervous but sat through the whole exam without a word of protest. Her only concern prior to the visit was that the dentist would have a mask. It seems that the mask in her book about Dora's visit to the dentist is "scawy."

A child who takes her "pink" ice cream very seriously!

Baking Cookies.

She's been into EVERYTHING. She's quite the independent thing. My mother was visiting a few weeks ago and Ella told her that she wanted to make cookies so my mother went out and and bought cookie cutters. Ella had the attention span to roll out and cut one or two cookies before she's run off to play. Mom would just keep the dough in the fridge and they's make a couple of cookies a day. One afternoon Mom and I were cleaning out my closet and Ella got really quiet. We found her downstairs. She had gone into the fridge and pulled out the dough, gone into the drawer and pulled out the cookie cutters and rolling pin, and gone into the bathroom and pulled out her stool. She was standing at the kitchen counter, had rolled out the cookie dough and was attempting to cut cookies. I was pretty impressed.

Farm Fair and Watermelon

Ella, Auntie Amy, GeeGee and I all spent the days at the Bishop Museum's annual Farm Fair. Amy and GeeGee got to see the giant insects and tour the exhibits. Ella and I got to pet some sheep, stare at some chicks, unsuccessfully (thank goodness) fished for goldfish and sat outside eating cookies and watermelon. The watermelon was a HUGE hit. She ate two pieces.

A HUGE month!

I've been a little slow with the elimination of the binky. Well, on the afternoon of July 2nd Ella put all her binkies in a "pincess bike" box and the two up us went to the "whyberry" to look for books. When we got home the Binky Fairy had paid us a visit and exchanged all the binkies for a "pincess bike" that is "SOOOOO BOOTIFULL". We had a few tears that night and fewer at nap time the next day. A couple of days later Ella woke up VERY excited because she was sure that the Binky Fairy had returned all her binkies but it seems she was mistaken. We've now had a binky free house for over a week and all is good.

We've also had a diaper free house for over a week. We use pull-ups at night and have a had a few "assidents," one of which involved Ella climbing up the stairs to the landing to have a pee because I wouldn't give her a Skittle as a reward for an earlier pee in the potty.

In addition to being diaper and binky free we are quiet free. Ella rarely stops talking. We picked "GeeGee" up from the airport last week and Ella wouldn't stop talking. We had a couple of 20 second pauses between 3:00 and 6:00 and that was it. I wonder who she takes after? In addition to the talking she's been obsessively singing Baa Baa Black Sheep for a couple of days. Much to my amusement, it's started to dive her father slightly nuts.

She frequently talks about her "best friend" who seems to change on a minute by minute basis. Sometimes it's Bailey or Jake, or "GeeGee, or Daddy (aka" Wob-but Dan-ull"), or Hailey.

Ella and a couple of her best friends...

Congratulations, Sr. Chief Daddy!

Last month Rob made Senior Chief and Ella and I got to pin him.

As you can see, it was a VERY serious event. Rob was a bit distracted by Ella getting to know "a dive-ah".



















Here she is shaking a hand...




























Then two hands...



















Then just going all out! It took all of about 30 seconds, had all the divers on our half of the room cracking up, and showed us we need to be FAR AWAY from all divers when Ella hits puberty.

Ella's "New Best Friend".

A couple of weeks ago we headed to our favorite park. When we arrived a little girl ran up, put her face in Ella's and said "HI!". Ella immediately introduced her herself and the two ran off to play. The little girl is named Hailey and is only three months older than Ella. She's the first child we've found who's as outgoing as Ella. We met at the park a couple of night later because Hailey and her mother drove by and when Hailey saw Ella she started yelling "My friend! my friend!" Her mother was forced to stop. It's a good thing because the two nights between their meetings Ella talked about Hailey and pouted every time she wasn't in the park. As we headed home the girls gave each other hugs and Ella declared that Hailey was "My new best friend."

Well, Hailey is here tonight. When Ella heard she was coming over she started jumping up and down, clapping and yelling "My friend! My friend! YEAH!!"

So far they've run around in tutus and fairy wings, fought over a broom and tickled each other. It's pretty funny to watch them together. They do pretty we most of the time.

Trouble with a capital "T"...




















On Safari...














Drama Queens...

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!!

Rob left at 0530 today for a couple of days so last night he had Ella sign a card for me. I was waiting in her room to read her books and she comes in and our conversation went something like this ...

Ella: "Mama, I bought you a present. It's Tinkerbell! Happy Birthday!!"
Me: "Tinkerbell?"
Ella: "Yeah Mama! I made it for your Birthday. Happy Birthday!"

It seems that all presents are for Birthdays. So, when I woke up today I got to open my singing Tinkerbell card from Ella and my singing monkey card from Rob. I can't seem to get "Put the Lime in the Coconut" out of my head. Thanks Rob!!

Ella and I had an almost perfect day! We woke up, went to 'nastics, came home, took an early nap together, went to the beach, couldn't seem to drag ourselves out of the water and are going to take the dogs for a walk when it cools down a bit. If Daddy had been here it would been perfect.

Ella's Supermodel pose...

Hamming it up at 'nastics...

Drama Queen..

Right now EVERYTHING is a HUGE deal!

Ella has a new best friend every 5 minutes. She hurls herself on the ground at the drop of a hat. She can even manage to force out REAL tears. It's quite impressive. My jokingly asked if she was bipolar. My response was, "No, she's just a two year-old GIRL!!"

'Nastics

Every weekend either Rob or I takes Ella to gymnastics. This weekend we took her together. BIG mistake! HUGE mistake! She was OUT OF CONTROL. It was actually pretty funny. She wouldn't follow directions. She wouldn't let me take the photos while she played with Daddy. She REFUSED to leave the Hula Hoops on the ground so the kids could jump through them. "Coach" thinks she's incredibly high energy. I just think she's a ham who enjoys playing to a crowd.

Update and "weedness"

A couple of night ago I was being my usual, silly, slightly hyper self as I danced (badly) and sang (more badly, I know J.J., not really English) around the kitchen. Ella usually laughs. Instead she looked at me like I was a bit off and said, "Mama you weed." I (very confused) asked, "I'm a weed?" She STRIDENTLY replied, "NO! YOU WEE-UD!" Me, getting it, asked in disbelief,
"I'm weird?" Ella, with a massive grin, says, "YES! YOU WEE-UD!" My response was "You ain't seen nothin' yet baby! Wait until you're 13!"

What two and a half year old calls their mama weird?

Here are some photos of Ella with her NON WEE-UD parent!

These are the voyages of the Starship Ella...

We've been working on the whole potty training thing. Jamie, Ella's childcare provider sent Ella home on Friday with TWO pages of instructions for the weekend. Woooo! Hoooo! It seems to be working. We've actually had a couple of perfect potty days. We're still working on the public restroom thing. It seems that they're VERY scary.

New phrases and such...

While we were gone Ella surprised me with two new phrases.

One day she crawled up on my lap, cuddled against me and said "I love you Mama." Needless to say I melted.

On a VERY different day I was getting dressed and she was playing with two toys that were having "a conversation" with each other. I wasn't paying much attention when I thought I heard the phrase "Holy S%#t!" used in context. I calmly looked at her and asked "What did you jut say?" and she just a calmly responded "Holy S%#t!" I decided it was best to ignore it and have yet to hear it again.

Happy Birthday Rob!

I know, it's a little late. We had a great celebration during our trip.

Ella and Ben insisted on having their own candles to blow out.