Happy Birthday Ella Grace!
We have a full fledged two year old on our hands! While there are brief moments where we can tell we've entered the "terrible two's", we are seriously enjoying this time with our sweet two year old. Ella is still her opinionated, expressive, funny, sweet self and continues to be joy of our lives with her infectious smile and laugh. The biggest change with her since my last update is how verbal she is. She repeats
everything we say and still surprises us with how many new things she picks up every day and how she uses the correct words in correct contexts. We love hearing the sentences and thoughts she strings together and she amazes us on a daily basis just seeing how things click and how she's using her imagination and engaging in pretend play.
Here are Ella's two-year stats:
Height: 34.75" - 75th percentile
Weight 28 lbs. - 72nd percentile
Head circumference - 49.8 cm. - 95th percentile
She's always had a big head! She had to get one vaccination and the flu nose spray at her two-year appointment and she surprised us by not shedding a tear or even letting out a whimper! She was super excited about going to the doctor and was even more excited about getting a bandaid on her arm after her shot. So proud of our brave girl!
Some random ramblings of things I wanted to document at this age...feel free to skip to the pictures below.
While the first year seemed to be more of survival mode just trying to keep our baby alive, fed, and clothed, we're now dealing with "real parenting". It's kind of a scary thing and I know the challenges will just increase the older she gets! We took advantage of the 7+ hour drive to Sunriver this summer and listened to
Love and Logic on CD on the way down. We got some good tips on parenting a toddler and will continue to nurture her spirited self.
She gave up her binkies a few months ago. It was definitely sadder
for me than it was for her. She had only been using her binkies in her
crib at night and for naps, and we thought it wasn't doing her any harm
to just have them in her crib. We had decided a while ago that we would
work on her giving them up during the summer and figured she would have
a few tough nights adjusting. One night we had her collect all her
binkies before bedtime, walk downstairs, and throw them in the garbage
can. And that was it! I was a bit sad for
her...something about her giving up her "security blanket" she's had
since she was born. And a bit sad for me...something about my baby
being a big girl and growing up.
We're debating whether or not to make the transition to a toddler or twin bed. We woke up to hear her talking to herself one Saturday morning a few weeks ago and then all of a sudden heard a loud "thud". Cody checked the monitor and quickly got out of bed and ran to her room. He found her laying contently on the floor with her Minnie Mouse stuffed animal. While we know the thud we heard was her landing on the floor, we're not sure if she fell, climbed, leaned, or jumped out. Although she wasn't shaken up or hurt in the least we found it a little scary! She now tells us every night when we lay her down in her crib, "Don't fall out!"
She loves all things that are "babies" or really anything that is little. We're talking anything. We can usually convince her to eat a small bite of something she would normally refuse to eat by saying it's a "baby bite". She'll usually respond with, "Ahhh, soo cute!" She loves to find baby rocks, baby blueberries, baby flowers, etc. and tell us how cute they are.
Ella is a busy body and a ball of energy. She loves running, jumping, and doing somersaults. She is constantly talking our ears off. We often hear from others that she's very verbal for her age. While we love hearing her express herself, sometimes we try to play the "quiet game" in the car just to have a few moments of peace and quiet ;).
A few of Ella's current favorites:
Food: Yogurt, which accompanies most meals. It's one of the few ways she's getting any protein these days as she's pretty much a self-declared vegetarian and won't touch meat. She also loves her mac n' cheese, smoothies, and peanut butter sandwiches.
Book:
The Wheels on the Bus by Paul O. Zelinsky. We read it multiple times every day and she loves pulling and moving the flaps, and singing the song.
Song: Jesus Loves Me. So sweet to hear her sing the words along with us. When she's going to bed (and trying to procrastinate), she often asks for, "More Jesus?" It's pretty hard to resist.
Toys: She sort of goes from one toy to the next but will consistently play with her baby dolls. She often tells us to be quiet when her babies are sleeping or she'll want to feed them/give them a bottle.
Characters: Is still very into Sesame Street characters and has a new love of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Here's a run down of Ella's actual birthday day. It was so fun celebrating with her and seeing the excitement in her eyes all day!
She woke up to a room full of balloons and streamers...
...followed by her birthday breakfast!
Checking out her new bike!
Birthday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa at Red Robin followed by present opening at home...
What a fun day! Ella went to sleep that night singing, "Happy Birthday to Ella" over and over in her crib as I watched her on the monitor. I think she thoroughly enjoyed her special day!
And of course we had to take some pictures of our two-year-old, so we headed out to our favorite photo op location to capture some pictures of Ella in her birthday outfit. I wanted to make sure they were included in our blog book.
