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| Ellie @ 3 |
Miss Ellie Muffin - I can't believe 3 years has gone by so fast-- and that soon you won't be my "baby" of the family! You are so fun to be around and so easy to take places… and you have the most contagious smile!
I'll start out with the obvious. You are ALL girl. You want to wear a dress every.single.day. This became such an issue (mainly because you ignore half of your closet to choose your favorite ones) that we have a new rule.. mommy picks out clothes every other day. Your current favorite dresses have names… there's the "sunglasses dress" the "rainbow dress" the "new dress" and the "white dress" - even on days when I pick the outfit, you still try to put one of your favorite dresses on when we get home. You even get sneaky on weekends and when I tell you it's my day to pick… you take Daddy your favorite dress and have him put it on you. In addition to your dress obsession, you equally like shoes. ALL shoes. The boot obsession was pretty intense there for a while… but now that its 110 degrees outside you don't see boots on people so you want to wear what they are wearing… which of course is flip flops. Toddlers and flip flops aren't the ideal shoe choice but you sure insist on them. At school you can't wear open toed shoes… so thank goodness Aunt Tara bought you some silver jellies… you at least wear those because they're from your cousins.
Your purses probably need their own paragraph. You have one main purse that you use and it is clear. I think you love it because it shows ALL your goodies inside. This usually includes rings, bracelets, necklaces, pretend hair equipment (straightener, blow dryer etc) the occasional football card to please daddy and a tiara. For a while, you would put every single piece of jewelry on… the bracelets would go to your elbows. Of course this gets you all kinds of attention and you love it… although you have a hard time saying "thank you" to compliments. Lately, you've taken to wearing just 3 bracelets EVERYDAY. One is from Iowa… and of course is called your Iowa bracelet. One is your great grandmother tom tom's and one is a charm bracelet with an E on it from Justice. Amazingly, if you aren't wearing them.. you know right where they are to put them on.
Your vocabulary is still pretty astonishing to me.. I can't believe how clearly you talk and how well you remember things. You know everyone's birthdays… including your own.. which, by the way, is the cutest. You say it is May Two seconds. (Because I had said you were born on May 2nd… of which the "nd" part was not a number to you… so I said May 2. This changed to May 2 Seconds. You have associations with everything. You will tell me that Anna and Caylee had the same dress that you see on someone… or the other day, you pointed out this group of guys.. and told me that Daddy had the same shirt. (I'm looking at all the men.. and none of them did)… I wasn't even going to tell you that you were wrong.. but you kept insisting I agree and you tried one more time… sure enough, the 8 year old boy with all these dads… had the same soccer shirt on that your daddy wore for a company outing to a soccer game. WHO notices this at 3!?!
Books. You love them. At your 3 year well check the doctor said "limit iPads and tv time" I had to laugh… while we might have to for your sister… your attention is never drawn by screen time. In fact, shortly after moving you into your big girl bed.. we had to make a rule. Because you were 3… you could have up to 3 books in your bed at a time. If you finish, you have to put them back before getting 3 new ones. Amazingly, you follow this really well.
Moving to your big girl bed was kind of hard on mommy.. and I waited until just before your 3rd birthday because I had decorated your room as part of your birthday surprise! Here I potty trained you before you were two… but wasn't ready for you to be able to escape your bed. BUT, it was time and you were beyond ready… already calling your old room the baby's room. I had a lot of fun decorating your room with cinderella colors.. granted I used a much darker "teal" than the cinderella blue, but you love it and that's what I love!
You take a dance class at school and really enjoy showing us things you learn… especially because Maree doesn't know them and it is rare when that happens and you love to bask in the attention it gets you. You've also found a new excitement for the swimming pool because of goggles!!! I always forget that you and Maree have larger heads… and the kid goggles I would buy I thought looked fine.. but it wasn't until we put Daddy's goggles on you that I realized you both needed adult ones! Now you are an absolute fish and are even taking off your water wings!
You absolutely LOVE crafting. You love to paint, glue, do play doh, color etc. On days of just you and me…. we could literally move through about 6 crafts in 2 hours. But rather than asking me if we can do a craft.. you'll ask me if we can do something cool. I love that you think crafting is cool because I do too!
You love to antagonize your sister… and if she wants a hug you often refuse her just to upset her. You've also taken to some serious whining…and this is frustrating because you have such good speech that I KNOW you know the words to say.. but instead you whine or grunt. Hopefully this isn't a phase that lasts too long.
You are definitely a daddy's girl… you light up when he comes home, and if he's around when you wake up in the morning or after nap time you'll tell him you dreamed of the Hawkeyes… someone is trying to get daddy's heart!! You also tell him you love Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald. Even if you get your sports confused, you'll try to impress him with throwing out "soccer, football, basketball etc) It's pretty much the cutest.
I wish I could bottle up some of your "Ellie-isms" But of course, I never remember to write down all the amazing/funny things you say. But over the last year, here are a few I do remember
If you ever are given anything and you want one more… you'd say "Can I have two ones"
For a while there, if you ever heard someone say 2… or had 2 of anything, you'd say "look mom, 2… like I am old!"
If you're referring to something yesterday, or even a week ago.. you'll say "Remember, we did that last morning!"
I don't know if this means you'll be a planner.. but every morning you let me know what you want. Lucky charms first, captain crunch next, then toast. It's often different daily, but you like to lay out the plan. And usually you only have the first one… but it must make you feel better to get it all out there.
Here are some pictures I took for your 3rd birthday - We love you SOO much Ellie muffin.
