The Poortinga's: Ellie @ 2

My sweet Ellie Muffin, how are you already two!!?? It's sure been fun to see how you've grown and changed - especially this last year! I went back to your 1 year blog to see if anything you did then still happened to be true now.. and a few of them were!! You still love stuffed animals, you still prefer books to TV, and you still aren't very pleasant in the car!! Here's how I would describe you at two: animal lover, flirt, creative, affectionate, quick learner, and you have a bit of the terrible 2's in you.

You love animals. You love to see animal videos, animals in books, stuffed animals, real animals… anything! At night you literally sleep with 6. You have several others, but for some reason you only want these 6…Sometimes I try to trick you and put a few new ones in… but it's a no go, and you will throw one out of the crib if it isn't one of your "6" that you want to sleep with. A zebra recently fell victim to the crib toss. You must be quite creative too, because you go to bed at 7:30 and often play with your animals making all kinds of noises/singing to them for over an hour sometimes! One day here recently we were at the park and saw a bunny. You were beside yourself that you couldn't catch it or pet it. Being that you were in the swing, you finally settled for telling the rabbit "Hi bunny" 8 million times. Dogs… you have a love/hate relationship. You are SO excited to see one and pet it… but when it gets close, you immediately shy away.

You are also a FLIRT! It's amazing how quickly girls can master this art… I remember Maree doing this too.. only she would just lunge at the guy she wanted to hold her!! If a cute guy says hi to you… you often do this little single shoulder lift/look over it at them.. and then break out into a huge grin.

You are also very affectionate. You love being a mommy to your baby dolls and because Maree isn't into babies too much, it means you get about 4 babies to play with and 2 strollers… of course you usually have to have them both going! I also love that you'll say "I wub you" all on your own if you're feeling it. But my favorite is at night. You love for me to hold you and sing you Jesus Loves Me.. you ask for it over and over. On the rare occasion you wake up in the middle of the night and I come in to see what's wrong, you'll want me to sing a song and be held… and as I'm rocking you, sometimes you'll lift your head mid-song to give me a kiss… as if to say "Thank you so much for coming to help me"… completely melts my heart.

You are also a very quick learner. It amazes me how many things you can say/know sometimes. You often say 2-3 words consistently together.. but lately you've been throwing full sentences at me.. "I want to play iPad" or after swimming the other day you came in and said "Cold mom, take a bath." For your birthday I got some new bath toys and of course they were animals. You were pointing out the seal and walrus etc… I didn't even know you knew those animals. Maree often has some temper issues and we always tell her she needs to calm down and take a deep breath…. (rarely does she actually do this)… but it is so funny because when Maree is upset you'll often go beside her and start breathing in and out really loudly and say "deep breaf" --- amazing how you just pick up on things that we aren't even aware of. The other day you were looking for something, and I told you it was on the bed in the back guest room. I knew you would never find it/understand what I said so I stopped prepping meat to wash my hands and help you… when you came out holding it saying " I find it!" My favorite though, is when Maree asks for more juice. I tell her to bring me her juice cup so I can refill it. She immediately tells me she can't find it regardless of if she's looked or not. SO, if I'm busy I'll ask you to see if you can find it.. and you get right up, find it, and bring it to me. Such a good sister :)

You aren't perfect all the time though… you like to provoke your sister as much as she likes to provoke you. Some days I think I should just wear a referee shirt. Neither of you seem capable of walking by one another without sticking a foot out, or hand etc. Sometimes when you're especially naughty, or even defending yourself… you've taken to biting…. You've also started to master some of the 2 year old tantrums when you don't get what you want… thankfully yours aren't as terrible as Maree's were at this age. You love getting away with playing with Maree's toys in her room. If I ever can't find you, I'm sure to find you in her room.

Here's some fun facts/fun things you say right now:

You're 32 pounds and 35 3/4" tall
You know most all of your colors.. silver, white, and gray are your hardest
You've been potty trained for 3 weeks
We've been teaching Maree letters of the Alphabet.. and you're benefiting from this too. You can recognize an A, E, M, O and P.
You do this hilarious facial expression thing… I have no idea where you learned this either - But you start off with this puckered up mean looking face… then you touch your chin to your chest but keep looking up with this mean expression… then you suddenly do an over exaggerated blink into this brilliant smile. It's SO funny (Video Below)
You love to pick out your own clothes.. and of course now, your own under ware
You have a shoe obsession. Mine, yours, anyone that comes in the front door
You are so perceptive. You know that saying certain things to daddy will always get you a positive reaction/one on one time: Hawkeyes! Defense! Football! Bask-et-ball
If I tell you I love you… you say back in a gremlin voice "I WUB YOU" (Video Below)
One time I told you were were going to Hobby Lobby.. you were so exited. When we got there you were SO upset. After you said "Gran-ma Robbie" about 5x I realized you thought me saying Hobby Lobby was Grandma Robbie!
Words on here can't do this justice.. so I hope I never forget what your little voice sounds like when you say it… but if I do pretty much anything for you, you really quickly say "Thankyoumom"