Growing Up

Our little baby is growing up.
She is getting a personality of her very own, and developing a love for shoes and clothes.

She also loves to accessorize.

5 on Friday

I know... I missed the 5 on Friday last week. I apologize. I have no excuse. Maybe this week's will make up for it.

1. We had a busy Easter Sunday. Ellie got to wear her special Easter dress to church. I was worried about how she would behave during church since Daddy was playing bass in the choir and it was a later time than usual (right around lunch and nap-time). She must have known it was a special day, because she was an angel.

2. Instead of just candy we filled Ellie's Easter Eggs with coins, quarters and silver dollars. She loved it! Her 'piggy' has been fed a lot lately. I think next year we will just do all coins. It is cheaper than candy and lasts longer (say college savings...).

3. Speaking of her 'piggy', she loves him and loves to feed him. We raid Daddy's coin jar, she makes sure the piggy has plenty to eat and then she gives him a kiss good-bye. It is super cute and we like to think we are teaching her a little bit about saving for the future.

4. Ellie is becoming quite the helper. She loves to throw away trash... any trash she can find. On Saturday she tried to throw away her sock. Daddy had to tell her that her sock was not trash and should not be thrown away. Now I know where the missing socks go...

5. The potty training has kind of gone away. Ellie knows when she has to go and tells us. But she either doesn't get to the potty soon enough or she doesn't want to sit on the potty long enough to go. Since she is still young, we haven't pushed it. I still like that she knows when she has to go--- it is a start.

6. BONUS- On Easter Nick had gone to church early so it was just Ellie and I getting ready. Since I figured church would be full and Ellie already had a sweater on over her dress, I didn't put a jacket on her. That did not go over very well. She stood at the top of the stairs with tears streaming down her face because she wanted her coat on to go bye-bye. She kept on crying until we were part way to church. Good thing everyone at church thought the tears in her eyes were very cute... Mommy did not.

7. BONUS Part 2- See #7 and realize that Ellie is very stubborn and gets upset when things do not go as she has them planned to. She may look like Daddy, but that mentality comes from Mommy.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Love, Eleanor Ann

Game Over... The Sequel

Nick's co-workers were kind enough to give him this shirt to wear for his Bachelor party.
You cannot tell from the picture, but the man is frowning and the woman is smiling.
Nick really likes the shirt and still wears it.Ellie decided she needed to be included in the shirt as well.
So she improvised with some of her stickers.

*I apologize for the placing of one of the stickers, I didn't have anything to do with it.

Crayons

I picked up crayons for Ellie. They are for 1 1/2 years plus---
pretty close to Ellie's age.

She loved them... eating them that is.

I guess we will go back to the markers that are for ages 2+, they seem to work better.

Grandpa Larson

Someone got very spoiled by Grandpa Larson staying with us.
The question is... was it Ellie or Grandpa Larson.

For Cousin Ruby

When my niece, Ruby, was visiting the other month she asked where Ellie's pacifier was. I told her that "Ellie doesn't like binkies." Because Ellie never has really taken a binkie.

A few days after Ruby's visit she informed her Daddy that "Ellie doesn't like binkies."

Well... Ellie found one of her old binkies as I was doing some cleaning the other day...

and she liked it.

Duck

As I noted in an earlier post, we started feeding the ducks from the lake a few weeks ago. They now come into the yard and let us feed them from the deck. Ellie LOVES it! The other day the ducks let us feed them from about 3 feet away... very neat considering they are wild animals.

5 on Friday

1. It is "Kings, Queens and Fairy Tale Dreams" at day-care this week in order to celebrate the week of the young child. Steve from IPTV even came to read to the kids... Ellie loved it.

2. Nick ordered (or I ordered for him) his very own upside-down tomato growing thing. We will see what sort of bountiful fruit he grows with it.

3. Since Nick got the tomato planter, I got a DVD I have been wanting for a year. More details to come in a later blog. It didn't show up as promised last night and I was very disappointed. Tracking says it has been delivered today... thank goodness.

4. Grandpa Larson went home on Sunday. He improved so much during the two weeks he was staying with us. Ellie still asks for him every once in a while.

5. Going off of #4, we noticed Ellie had become very spoiled with attention while Grandpa was visiting. This week's task was making her the independent little girl she used to be. After a few days of fits, she is now back to normal.

5 on Friday

1. Ellie has been battling a bad cold... we are all ready for it to go away.

2. We have been feeding the ducks on the other side of our fence for the past couple of weeks. This week they flew into our yard for the food!

3. Ellie does not understand that when it is raining she cannot go outside. She gets very upset.

4. Ellie has started to say "please"... it sounds like "shhhhh".

5. Avocados and craisins... Ellie's staple foods.

Finger Painting!

Ellie loves anything art related, she must get that from her mom.

A friend of hers had given her finger paints for her first birthday and we were feeling a little crafty so we got them out and gave them a try. She loved it.
She is very serious about her work of art. This one was yellow and red (ISU colors)- so it got sent to Aunt Megan and Uncle Mike who are big ISU fans.
Did you notice that in each picture her right hand finger is stuck in the yellow paint? That wasn't just because I took all the pictures in a row, she left her finger in there the entire time and painted with the other hand. It was very amusing. She was not happy when I decided we were all done and made her take her finger out of the yellow finger paint.

5 on Friday

1. Probably the biggest news of the week: Nick’s Dad was hit by a car on Monday while walking across the street. Luckily he only suffered a broken collar bone, broken ribs and one other broken bone that I always forget. He will be staying with us for a while as he recovers a little.

2. Ellie seems to like having Grandpa visit. She enjoys him tickling her toes during dinner and has to blow him a kiss before bed.

3. Ellie is now sleeping on a cot at day-care during nap-time. No more crib at day-care for that big girl! I guess she has done pretty well. Maybe day-care can train her so when we are ready to move her to a big girl bed she stays in it.

4. Speaking of Ellie growing-up… she went potty in her big girl potty two times last weekend! I was in the bathroom getting ready and she was trying to sit on the potty with her clothes on. I asked if she had to go potty and wanted to take her diaper off--- she nodded. Sure enough, in less than 5 minutes she had gone potty and was ‘all-done’. I think Mommy was more excited than her. I know she is really young to potty train, but those two times saved us two diapers! We are not pushing the training, but if she wants to sit on it she can.

5. Ellie’s new favorite song is “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” or “row” as she calls it. She loves to sing it, or have you sing it, over and over again. It is really cute.