Dear 2 year old Ellie,

You are at your best at the moment.  This is a fun stage for all of us.  You are talking so much and definitely make your feelings known.  Your first full sentence was, "Liam being mean" and this is still one of your most frequent sentences or "_______ being mean" filled in by anyone's name who is doing something you don't want them to do.

Eating at one of her favorite places: Cracker Barrel.

I call you "girl genius" because you are super smart.  Not only do you already recognize and name ALL of your letters and numbers 1-20, but you are so independent and play by yourself like a bigger kid.  You mimic everything your brothers do but you also do your own thing.  You LOVE, LOVE to color and need to have LOTS of "colors" (aka crayons) to do your art.  I have to hide my own collection of Sharpies because you steel them anytime you get the chance and those are NOT washable!  You can draw circles and ovals all by yourself.  This week, you started writing letters when we prompted you and we were shocked that you actually wrote them by yourself (you wrote an L, N, and an A).  You know E is for Ellie and L is for Liam.

You speak mostly English but you know quite a bit of Spanish and can definitely understand directions in both languages.  You continue to be very strong-willed about your wardrobe and you insist on picking your own outfits and exercise your veto powers when I choose something that you absolutely hate.  I do love seeing you giving me "the hand" as you tell me, "No, Mama. No, Mama".  It's pretty cute.  At the moment, you have a select number of dresses that you are ok wearing but for the most part you veto dresses and prefer pants and a shirt.  You HATE jackets and throw a fit anytime I make you wear one.  You LOVE your TOMS style shoes and are pretty stubborn about wearing any other shoes.

Cheering Mama on at the marathon.

 

One day she will fill these shoes and we will race together! 

You love jumping and taking on physical challenges.  I love that about you.  You race with your brothers and can run for quite a while for your size.  We're so surprised at how long you can go without taking a break.  You entertain yourself by jumping like Tigger around the house (or down the aisles of stores).  This is why you got a personal trampoline for Christmas this year.  So far, it's proven to be a good match for you.

You are an absolute sweetheart and it is a joy to greet you in the morning.  Each morning you greet us with, "Buenos Dias Mama/Daddy".  You tell us, "I love you" throughout the day....although you're also learning to use it as a manipulative tool and tell us "I love you" when you know you're doing something we wouldn't approve of.

Things you've done recently that we've loved:

* At Epcot, as we walked around you looked up and said, "Moon, where did you go?" and you put your hands out as you asked.
* You say please and thank you without us having to remind you which never gets old.
* Anytime you cough, sneeze, or fall, you tell us, "I'm ok" before we even ask.  I think it's because I asked so often, you just learned to predict it.  I know I can trust if you say you're ok because there's been several occasions when I've asked and you've said, "no" right before you've thrown up.

I know this next year is going to fly by so we're trying to take it all in and spend as much quality time with you as possible. You seem to be growing faster than your brothers did, perhaps because you're such a fast learner and do everything they teach you.

We love you Ellison Jovie,
Mama and Daddy