Elsie Lately

Now that I am not doing monthly posts anymore for Elsie, I want to still post about what she is up to and how much she is growing up (It is happening way too fast!)!  
** I apologize this is a very text heavy post

So lately, 
Elsie is going to bed around 7:30 PM and waking up between 5:30-6:00-way too early so this is something we are working on. Actually just on Sunday she slept past 7:00!  I was up for a whole hour before anyone else-what a treat :)

Elsie's favorite little phrase right now is "I love _____ so much!" (This can be anything from mommy, daddy, flowers, pretzel goldfish, or her new shoes).

Elsie is counting so much better than she was two months ago.  Back in December she would count "1, 3, 9" and then one day we were in her room and she started counting at 1 and went straight through to 13! I was shocked! 

Elsie is getting better with colors.  She knows brown, pink, red, purple, and mostly blue all the time.  She sometimes mixes up yellow and orange and green is a wildcard.  

Elsie is getting more and more into playing with her baby dolls and her stuffed animals.  She puts them to sleep, and likes to read to them.  Her imagination is really starting to bloom!  It is fun to just sit and listen to her.  

Elsie likes to hold them books when we read to her at nap and bedtime.  Sometimes she just wants to "read" the book.  Some books she knows so well she gets the story line right on.  It is fun to listen to her make up stories.  

Elsie likes to play pretend.  One day she wanted to have a tea party and the only thing we had was a stool for a table.  Everything else was imaginary.  She would go upstairs to the "Store" to get more treats and bring that back down.  When we "finished" our treats she would say "More Mommy?" and then go upstairs for more.  Another time she laid out all the DVD's and was pretending it was a store and she would go shopping and buy them and bring them home.  

Elsie will wake up in the morning and the first thing she says is "Snuggle Mommy" or "Snuggle Daddy" depending on who goes in to get her.  We have started a bad habit of bringing her back into our bed to snuggle. Some mornings she will wake up way too early and say "Mommy and Daddy's Room".  It takes a bit of convincing but we normally can get her to lay back down.

Elsie is outgrowing her 2T clothes!  And she wears size 7 shoes! She is getting so big!  

Elsie is excited about the "new house".  We drove by it the other day to test out the garage remotes and she was pretty upset that we couldn't go it.  I told her we didn't have keys for the house.  So now if you ask about the house she puts her arms up and says "we don't have keys".  If you ask her when she will tell you "Friday".  She is still excited about her three windows and two closets in her room and will be happy to tell you that one is for clothes and one is for toys.  She also is really into helping up pack up for the "new house".

Elsie has the sweetest little voice!  Well, except when she is whining for something.  We are working on getting her to talk not whine when she wants something.  Oh and her fits have intensified over the past two months too!  We have learned if we just ignore her and don't give in they end rather quickly.  One day at naptime she threw the biggest fit I have seen her throw all because I wouldn't let her nap in her baby doll cradle.  Really?!?

Elsie loves pretty much all fruits and most vegetables and pasta.  Although that all depends on the day.  It seems her food choices change from one day to the next.  For example, we haven't been able to get Elsie to eat rice ever and then last night that was just about the only thing on her plate that she ate.  They do say that it can take 7-10 times of being offered a particular food before they will start to like it-maybe that is what happened.  We don't make special food for Elsie but I do make sure to offer a fruit and a vegetable because I know I can always count on her eating that.  

Elsie is still rear facing in her carseat, although I think the day will be coming where we turn her forward facing.  I just want to get through the winter/snow driving.  She enjoys car rides and likes to listen to "music" which is not the radio but one of her CD's.  She likes to wear her sunglasses in the car and snuggle with a blanket.  

Elsie started taking a tumbling class with parks and recreation.  She enjoys the bar and beam the most.  

Elsie loves to listen to music and dance.  She will ask for it almost immediately when we get into the kitchen and in the car.  She also likes to turn on her radio in her room.  Our favorite CD's are Raffi and Sharon, Lois, and Bram Greatest Hits.  She LOVES to sing too!  She is catching on with a lot of songs, especially ones where I make up actions.  The other day I looked over at her when she was eating lunch and she was doing the actions I made up for "home on the range". 

Elsie has started to say prayers.  We started with a mealtime prayer and then moved on to a bedtime prayer.  When we started with the bedtime prayer she kept saying "food" because this was part of our mealtime prayer.  I had to explain to her that our bedtime prayer was not about food but about sleeping and so now whenever we start our prayer she says "not food" ;).  I am impressed with how fast she is catching on with her bedtime prayer trying so hard to get the words down.  She also is getting down "Jesus Loves Me".  I tried to record it the other day but of course, she started being silly when the camera came out.  We have started getting these little books mailed to us by our church and without even telling her what the books were about she knew it was about Jesus.  I asked her how she knew it was about Jesus and she opened to a page of Jesus being baptized.  It amazes me what kids pick up on.  

Elsie's favorite books right now are:  Mickey Mouse Look and Find, The Way I Love You by David Bedford and Ann James, The Night Before Summer Vacation, and Llama Llama Bully Goat.  WE have started to go to the library and I let her pick out her own books.  These are the books she tends to want to read when she choose her books before bedtime.  

Elsie went through a hitting stage this past month.  There was a week we noticed her hitting us at home and she actually had a couple of time outs.  Then at the end of the week, JoJo mentioned to me she had been hitting her friends at daycare too!  Ugh!  So over the weekend we talked a lot about hitting and so far, we haven't had anymore issues.  

Elsie loves to get her nails painted!  I do her nails way more than I do my own :)  We use Piggy Paint which is a non-toxic nail polish and it works pretty well for her.  

Elsie is just growing up so fast!  I can't believe she is tall enough to ride the rides by herself, to walk down steps without hold on (although we tell her she needs to hold the railing), pick out her clothes, jump, hop, do somersaults, and have so many opinions about everything.  Her vocabulary and ability to form sentences amaze me just for the fact that I think she should still be a little baby snuggled up in my arms.  I just love her to pieces!