2 Year, 4 Months (28 Months) Old!

Ellen's development continues to amaze us each and every day ... At 28 months, here are some things that she's up to:

• Reading. This girl loves to "read" to her babies. EVB's new favorite books include "Green 'Greggs' and Ham," "Are You My Mother" and "The Cat in the Hat."
• Working on her sharing skills. This is sometimes a tough one, but Ellen is starting to get the hang of it. :)
• Getting ready for her new brother or sister. (For the record, Ellen consistently tells us that our baby is going to be a boy.) She loves to talk about our baby ... how big it will be, where it will sleep, what it will eat, etc., and she frequently proclaims, "I'm a big sister!"
• Kissing. Ellen refers to herself as "the Kissy Monster" and then attacks her prey with very passionate kisses.
• Dancing. Ellen has perfected a ballerina-like twirl.
• Snuggling. In addition to her fondness of kisses and hugs, Ellen has been requesting extra snuggles lately, which we love!
• Playing dress up. Ellen's vivid imagination is put to great use as she drapes herself in my clothes and wears my shoes, and pretends that she's a princess. Other times, she puts her shirt on her head and pretends to be Rapunzel with the long sleeves acting as long, flowing hair.

Is It Really February?

Ellen was out for a trike ride on Feb. 18!

Silly Goose

V-Day 2012

Ellen had a lovely Valentine's Day! We celebrated by making heart-shaped cookies (Ellen was in charge of shaking on the "frinkles"). And, Ellen received some very nice gifts:

• From Mom & Dad: some pretend personal care items for her babies, that included a nail clippers (Ellen is obsessed with the maintenance of people's and animals' "pokey" finger nails!)
• From Grammy & Grandpa: a Disney princess tea/plate set, fun stickers and some delicious dark chocolate mint M&Ms that she has (unknowingly) been sharing with Mommy :)
• From Omma & Boppa: a Winnie the Pooh movie and little stuffed Pooh and Piglet (On Valentine's Day, Boppa also brought Ellen a beautiful red rose.)

Mmm ... a frosted sugar cookie!

Licking off the sprinkles and frosting

Fun new stuff for EVB's babies ...

Oh, boy! Princesses!

Swimming Class: A No-Go

We were very excited for Ellen to start a community ed swim class for 2 and 3 year olds; however, it didn't go quite as planned. The class description noted that parents were "not required" to enter the water, but we assumed it was still an option to join your child in the water. We assumed wrong.

At the start of the first class, we were informed that only the instructors and the children were to be in the water. Well, Ellen was not having any of that. (It probably didn't help that we'd been talking about going swimming with Daddy for a few weeks leading up to the class.) She hung in there as best as she could and through hyperventilating-inducing tears at the end she said, "I did a good job." But, we won't be returning. Hopefully we can find another class where Mommy or Daddy can participate as well. :)

Pre-class, pre-tears.

Unhappy on the ledge. :(