EVB: 3 Years + 3 Months Old!

Our funny girl is 3 years and 3 months old ... Crazy as ever, Ellen continues to keep us on our toes (and laughing out loud)! Here's what she's been up to lately:

• Memorizing and signing songs: She can recite just about every tune from her favorite shoes ("Jake and the Neverland Pirates," "Doc McStuffins," "Little Einsteins" and "64 Zoo Lane"...) At our house we love classic (and new classic) Sesame Street songs and our current favorite is "Alligator King." Ellen can sing the entire song almost perfectly; now, we just need to capture it on video!
• Eating/growing: Ellen's appetite is hardy and she is still requesting more frequent snacks and "just a little splash" of juice, milk, etc., throughout the day. (I weighed Ellen the other day and she has gained about two pounds in recent months!)
• Taking her "buddies" on adventures in her books: Almost daily I find Ellen holding little figurines (Little People, Lalaloopsy dolls, etc.) and walking them across the pages of her books as she reads/talks about the pictures on the pages. At first I thought she was reading to these "buddies" or pretending that they were reading the book, but after some clarification from Ellen, I learned that the buddies go visit the scenes and characters in the books and become part of the stories. I LOVE her imagination! 
• Wearing "undies" during nap time (by request) instead of a Pull-up. Now we just need to eliminate the nighttime Pull-up!
• Starting a new ECFE class: This will be Ellen's last class in ISD 197, which we are sad about as we have loved the program/teachers. :)
• Getting ready to move: Ellen thinks it's quite special that she's the only one in the family who will have a window in her closet at our new house.

And a few recent Ellenisms:

• "I love you, but I don't love monsters or "como" (kimodo) dragons."
• "Well, I'm a little bit sad about moving to our new house because there isn't a bed or any toys there." (Poor thing thought the house would stay the only way she's ever seen it ... empty!)
• On our way to Pottery Barn the other day: "So, what is this barn we're going to?" ... And after we tried to explain that it is not actually a barn, but a store: "But we can pretend it's a barn with cows, and sheep and chickens ... Can I go in the barn?"

Not in the mood for a picture, apparently

After a little coaxing, EVB agreed to show her face (but still refused to smile).

JEB: 10 Months Old!

Holy cow, June has reached double digits in the month department! I cannot believe that she will be a full year old in just two months! Our little redhead is doing swell ... This past month she has been busy with the following:

• Pulling herself up on everything (furniture, activity table, toy baskets, Mom & Dad, etc.)
• Bending down from standing position to pick things up off the ground (she's very talented ... and flexible!)
• Waving on command (as well as whenever she's in a waving kinda mood)
• Clapping two objects together while holding one in each had (we're still working on plain old clapping of the hands)
• Raising her arms to symbolize "SO big" (see below for Junes's interpretation of this pose)
• Jabbering lots of mamamama and dadaddada sounds
• Still eating like a champ (new additions include spaghetti and other pastas with red sauce, and blueberries). We know when June really enjoys a food because she'll grunt the entire time she's inhaling eating it.
• Refusing to drink milk unless it comes directly from mom. June rejects any bottle, sippy cup, cup, straw, hose, bucket, trough ... I love breastfeeding, but I hope June realizes that we cannot carry on like this forever. (And, it would be nice if she could let Mom have an extended day/evening away every once in awhile.)
• Not sleeping through the night. Ugh. While we know June is capable of sleeping 12-ish hours straight (she's done so on a number of occasions), she is still getting up frequently during the night (like three to four times). We'll make do while we continue to share paper-thin walls with strangers for the next few weeks; however, we're going to get tough once we have the luxury of our own walls in our free-standing new house. :)
• Continuing to take two naps a day
• Still sportin' size 3 diapers and size 6-12 months clothes, but June recently graduated to size 3 shoes
• STILL working on those first teeth. I'm thinking one of these days she's going to wake up with an entire mouthful of chompers, including molars.

"SO big!"

Squirmy wormy wouldn't let Mom get a picture to show her length, but at least I got a nice shot of her pretty red hair. :)