2 years, 10 months - 2/27/07

Only 4 months since I last wrote. Our girl is still very girly... except when it comes to her hair. She's been a bit better about it lately but barretts don't typically last very long. Her hair is getting very long... to the middle of her back at it's longest when pulled straight. I haven't had a single strand on her head cut yet. I can't bear to do it!

She's still very in to princesses, but she also enjoys Strawberry Shortcake. We get a little tiref of the same old obsessions, but at least they go in phases. Last couple of days she's just wanted to watch "Monsters Inc" over and over. I'll take that over "Cinderella" any day.

She can count most of the time... You can hear her count to 5 in this video clip. She's not potty trained yet but we've had some forward movement in that direction the last 2 days. She has gone pee pee in the potty 4 times in the last 2 days. Fingers crossed! I'm so ready to ditch our diaper champ... weird to think how excited I was when we got it.

As Ella is learning how to express herself in multiple ways I have to share some of the ways in which she misbehaves these days. One day last week as I was attempting to get ready for work Ella was throwing a temper tantrum about something. I explained that I was going to count to 3 and that if she didn't calm down she was going to have to sit in the naughty spot (for those "Supernanny" watchers you know what I'm talking about). Right after counting to 1 Ella roared at me (like a dinosaur). Apparently it had become her latest way of expressing her frustration/anger. She'd done it to Isaac a few times before. I learned today from her afternoon teacher that Ella had roared at her too. Her tactic was to explain that she's nice to Ella so she expects Ella to be nice to her. We're also working on correcting that behavior. We don't need our princess to come off as a wild animal!

Her teacher also told me how once Ella was sitting in another little boy's chair. Teach explained that Ella needed to sit in a different chair, teacher put a new chair at the table for Ella and then Ella went and grabbed that new chair and put it right back where the teacher had gotten it from, slamming it back in to place. She's done similar things at home... putting something right back where it had been removed from. I've got to work on that too.

And Ella hasn't been so great about helping to clean up at school... so we'll work on that too. I have to admit that it's just easier to clean up after a 2 year old than to get that 2 year old to help clean up. Lazy mommy. So this evening I got Ella to dump the remains of her dinner in to the garbage can, and then she placed the plate in the sink. Hurrah! Tub time is tough... I have a very hard time getting her to put her toys away... any one got any good tactics for me?

Despite all of that, I know that Ella is a very well behaved girl for her age. I've seen kids her own age and she is very quiet and calm compared to most. Either I lucked out or Isaac and I are doing things right. I'll take it either way.

Little Miss Personality: she's bossy, smart, sassy (called a Diva by some that know her), stubborn, funny, loving, cuddly, fearless. I'll add to the list as we learn more about who she is.