Out of the blue, Elle has latched on to Gymbo and a stuffed Missouri Tiger as her security objects. Now, any time she takes a nap or goes to bed for the night, she asks for Gymbo and Tiger, and puts them in her crib to sleep with her. As you can see, they also enjoy a good bedtime story.
I painted my toenails for the first time in ages today, which intrigued Elle quite a bit. Colin told me that I would have to paint hers, too, so I did! Even though I did a terrible job (man, those are small nails!), she looked very cute and girly. Better yet, she FINALLY wore the sandals I bought her a month and a half ago. Before now, she would simply pitch a screaming fit whenever they came near her. I guess she just didn't want to go out with naked tootsies!
Hope everyone had a festive 4th. Other than a few fireworks that merited an, "Oh, wow!" from Elle, she largely proclaimed them, "Noisy!" and was uninterested. Go figure. Maybe next year will be more exciting?
Elle is starting to create simple sentences beyond, "Go get it!" The most popular one right now is "Where _______ goes?" to ask where something out of sight has gone. She surprised me with that one afternoon at a restaurant when Colin got up to get something, and she said, "Where Daddy goes?" Then, one morning, she couldn't find her favorite book du jour, so it was, "Where Dogku goes?" And when we dropped Didge off for grooming last week, it was, "Where Didgey goes?" Too cute.
Despite this cuteness, we are seeing more and more of the terrible twos these days. Colin texted me to request combat pay after enforcing a time-out while I was at the dentist's office. Apparently, Miss Elle did not agree with her punishment for throwing her shoes, and proceeded to slap and kick Daddy. Not cool. I'm hoping that this was just a bad day because she got a vaccine yesterday and doesn't feel well. If not ... well, we'll just be as patient as we can be. Thank goodness Colin and I can trade off when it gets like this!
In the meantime, you can check out Elle's latest stats in the sidebar. She is way down in the percentiles now (30-somethings if I remember right), but the doctor says she is fine. Alas, she is a picky eater, so we're going to try a children's vitamin tomorrow to make sure she's getting what she needs to grow up big and strong. Unfortunate, isn't it, that we have to convince a picky eater to eat something in order to make her healthy ... if only she would just eat a balanced diet instead!
Elle's 2nd birthday was on Saturday, but thanks to another commitment, we waited until Sunday to celebrate. Elle didn't know the difference anyway, so it's all good. Here's the recap of Elle's birthday (observed).
To start the day, we gave Elle her presents from us. This is what greeted her when she walked out of her room on Sunday morning:
And her reaction?
Since she's a bit of a chicken when it comes to climbing on new things, we stopped the camera to help her get on. (That's why she was saying, "Help, bike!") Now, she's on the bike...
OK, so the bike is exciting, but scary. We decided to move on from that to the present Colin brought her from Paris:
Magnets!! She loves them.
After a lot of rearranging, she entertained herself for quite some time doing this:
Then, it was on to the birthday barbeque, complete with cupcakes and two candles:
Which turned into this:
And finally, after a much-needed nap, Elle opened her presents.
The Webers gave Elle her first baby doll, but since it moved and made real baby sounds, she was a little scared. Jack tried to help reassure her that it was OK by offering to feed the baby.
A while after the Webers left, Elle warmed up to the idea of feeding the baby -- but only if Mommy held it. I'm not sure, but I think that Elle thinks it's a real baby. She absolutely refuses to pick it up or hold it, but will gleefully kiss it and offer it the toy bottle or pacifier if someone else is holding on to it. Perhaps the most amusing part, though, was when she decided that she was tired of the baby cooing at her. She pointed her finger very authoritatively at the doll and said, "Quiet! Quiet!" (As if it were Didge.) I flipped the switch off, and "baby" went to bed in the toy box for the night.
After all of the terrible news yesterday, I found myself taking particular note of just how lucky I am. What is it about another person's death that makes you sit up and take notice? Is this a sad commentary about how we tend to take things for granted? Or a positive event that we need every once in a while to make us realize how good we have it?
For me, comfort came in the form of watching Elle and her daddy interact. While Colin was in Europe, I added in story time to her usual bedtime routine. She was more than happy to participate, so Colin decided to continue with it upon his return. As you can see, Goodnight Moon is a current favorite. I had so much fun just watching these two -- Colin asking Elle to point out certain objects in the story, Elle gleefully following the prompts. This was just one of those times when I thought, "You know, it's not going to be like this forever. I have to cherish this moment."
Perhaps as another reminder of the everchanging nature of life, Elle turns 2 years old tomorrow. We are spreading out the celebration over the weekend because I have a humane society event tomorrow and one of our neighbors is already having a barbecue. So, she'll get her princess crown to wear, but cake and presents will have to wait until Sunday. I don't think she'll notice, to be honest!
most recent measurements (6/29/2009): 26.8 pounds; 34.75 inches long; 48.4 cm head circumference (12/30/08 measurements: 24.6 pounds; 32.75 inches long; 47.9 cm head circumference)
