Ellie Belly

Ellie has been so cute lately. I've noticed for the past two weeks that when she needs assistance with something, she'll say "HELP! I need Mommy Power!" It cracks us up and makes me feel like a hero when I can "save the day."

She's been going through an interesting phase lately too. Despite all my efforts in the past to make sure she knows to "color only on paper" I have been noticing her personalizing 'her things.' This has been an interesting process to find out what she has personalized next. Of course she personalizes her toys, and bedroom furniture unfortunately, but even the TV and remote belong to her apparently. Even though it is rather annoying to find my house with little "Ellie"'s everywhere, it's cute and I remind her we color and write ONLY ON PAPER. I find myself saying the things I heard my parents say growing up.... "this is why we don't have nice things" being one of them.... Oh the joys.

Ellie has also been trying to figure out how to tell a joke. She loves to make people smile and laugh. Lately, she will come up to Shayne or I and tell us in a whisper to our ear, "Dad, I need to tell you a secret..... SOUR MILK." Then Shayne will laugh, and she comes over to me to tell some other joke. Her favorite being the word, "CASH" for whatever reason. It's pretty funny.

Ellie is also becoming quite the helper. It's not uncommon to see Ellie washing the dishes.... of course at this age, I have to go back and rinse them again when she isn't looking, but I'm thrilled at her wanting to help and never discourage her from it.

If you ever wanted to know, Ellie's current favorite foods are; spaghetti, spaghetti o's, ravioli's (and to think she says she HATES tomato's! Ha ha ha), macaroni and cheese,Ramen noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hotdogs of course, cheeseburgers from McDonalds, fried chicken, chicken noodle soup, spring salads with ranch dressing, and her newest favorite ham and cheese sandwiches. She'll try just about anything though, and if she sees we REALLY like it, usually and magically she likes it too.

This kid loves to DANCE too. When I have music on, she will run upstairs and get her dress up clothes on and come back down to boogy. She has to wear her clip clop shoes (short heeled Sunday shoes), and of course princess tiara. I think Ellie has a lot of potential in dance and I wish I had her in dance this year. For sure next fall. Ellie sings quite a bit too. Her favorite song year round is "Jingle Bells."

Ellie loves school and is learning bunches this year. We have a set of alphabet magnets on the fridge, and she likes to play "teacher." She'll take a letter and say, "what letter is this?" I will say, is it "A?" to which she'll reply with a huge smile, 'YES GOOD JOB!' Or if I got it wrong which I do at times just to test her ABC's, she says, 'No, try again.' It's pretty fun to see her learn. She has come a long way since last year.

We were thrilled that for the first time on her own this year, Ellie sat on Santa's lap without crying. In years past, she's been excited to to Santa, but when we came close to seeing him, she took one look and started to cry. When she was two, she RAN away. This year, as Shayne and I were looking over the picture packages, Ellie ran up to Santa before they were even ready for us. She made sure he knows she has been good and doesn't want a "rock" for Christmas. We were thrilled.

This morning, as it snowed, Ellie of course got bundled up head to toe in her cowgirl boots, coat, hat, scarf, and used my gloves to check out the snow. She went in her pajamas and all. It was cute to see her trying to roll a snowball with my very large gloves on.

Ellie also couldn't be more thrilled about her new baby brother or sister. In her prayers she always prays that the baby "will be good in Mommy's tummy." She can't wait for her birthday because I told her it will be around then that the baby will be coming. Of course she wants a sister. My ultrasound is December 22, but are going to ask the hospital to put the sex of the baby in an envelope for us to open Christmas Day. We are thrilled.

Ellie is such a blessing in our family and we love watching her grow up and being a part of her life. We can't wait to have another blessing in our family. Having Ellie makes me so excited to be a Mom again. We hope you are enjoying your holiday season!