Ella Claire

It's funny to me that Ella is so small.  She's just little and dainty...especially compared to Aidan who never even landed on the growth chart because he was so tall.  What's even funnier, is she is this tiny person with a HUGE personality.  I bet God chuckled as he was knitting this one together!

Ella will be 2 1/2 next week.  I find that hard to believe, since I'm positive I just had her.  I am still recovering from my pregnancy with her, so how can she be blazing toward 3 years of age?

Here are a few Ella stories for your amusement.

The other day, she decided to call me Jenny instead of mommy.  We don't know anyone named Jenny, and as far as I can remember there is not anyone named Jenny in any of her favorite cartoons or movies.  But, she decided I was Jenny and she called me by that name all day.  If I referred to myself as "mommy," she would say, "you're not mommy, you're Jenny."

Today, we were at the grocery store.  I was looking at something in the freezer section, and she was standing next to me chattering away, as usual.  A woman was standing nearby and Ella walked up to her and said, "Hi, I'm Ella."  The woman said hi back, and then Ella said, "I'm lost."  The woman was concerned until I looked up and informed her that I was indeed her mother and she was not lost.

Our little firecracker with a sparkler in Colorado

When we got home from the grocery store, I made Ella some Safari Animal chicken nuggets for lunch.  These come from the part of the chicken that looks like a giraffe.  Ella had a couple of giraffe shaped nuggets, an elephant and a lion.  She bit off all their heads.  When I asked little Ozzy if she wanted to eat the rest of her nuggets, she said, "no, I don't like their bodies."  Imagine a bowl full of little chicken nugget animal bodies covered in ketchup.  It wasn't pretty.

Ella's newest vocabulary word is "catty-wampus."  Her pants and her shirt have both been "catty-wampus" this week.

If Ella sees a man she doesn't know she calls him "mister."  It could be our waiter at a restaurant, someone at the park or grocery store.  She will walk up to them and say, "Hey mister, I'm Ella Claire,"  "see you later mister," and "what's that mister doing?" or "where'd that mister go?"

If you call Ella anything other than her name, she will promptly correct you.  It goes something like this:
"You're so pretty."  "I'm NOT pretty.  I'm Ella Claire."  Or, "you're so sweet."  "I'm not sweet!  I'm Ella Claire."

If Ella wants you to do something and you tell her no, she'll say, "try it, you'll like it."  She's mastered peer pressure already!

She talks to "monsters" that no one else can see.  We'll be walking through the house, usually it's in my bedroom, and she'll say, "hi little monster, what are you doing?"  She never acts like she's scared, so I guess whatever she sees is okay.

It's never boring around here with Ella.  She has us laughing all day long.  I can't wait to find out God's purpose in giving her such a BIG personality!