March

I say this at every stage of Elle's life but I really really mean it this time, this is my favorite age so far. Don't get me wrong, the tantrums and lack of patience aren't a walk in the park but those the all around cuteness of everything else more than makes up for it.

Our biggest obstacle is throwing food (and occasional hitting...mainly just me, which is odd since she is such a HUGE mama's girl). We are taking the time-out route. She gets her fair share of warnings and if she still doesn't listen she gets 1 minute alone in her crib. She doesn't like it, at all. That minute of her crying feels like an hour. Whoever puts her in timeout is the one who gets to go relieve her from it. We hug and kiss her and tell her we love her so much but she can't hit, throw food, whatever the crime is. Sometimes I ask her if she wants a timeout and she says "yes"...little stinker! She doesn't cry until I leave her in the crib but sometimes when Eric picks her up to take her she cries the whole walk to her room. Blah, punishments are no fun.

It is so funny how Elle talks to the dogs. She is always so excited to see them when she wakes up but has no problem yelling "Mermie, no!" we hear that little phrase at our house constantly...and I think it's the cutest thing in the world.

Elle loves cuties oranges, grapes, avocados and bananas but the girl also loves sweets!  I gave her a tag-along cookie the other day, she shoved the entire thing in her mouth and said "MORE!" with her mouth full...just like her daddy.

Elmo is still the love of her life and she asks to read her Elmo books or watch him on tv all. the. time.  I downloaded an app on my phone where she can facetime with Elmo, she loves it!

I have been so excited this month because Elle is finally becoming interested in books!!!  Her current favs are Elmo's 12 Days of Christmas, Charlie The Ranch Dog (she asks to read the book about Mermie!), Tickle Monster, Elmo's Merry Christmas Flap Book,  Elmo's Fuzzy Valentine and Wheels on the Bus and these 2 little board books about Elmo & Abby.  She picks what book she wants and then comes and sits in your lap while you read it.

Elle's Tickle Monster book came with gloves so you can turn into the Tickle Monster.  We have never used the gloves so Eric got them out the other day, put them on in the bathroom and walked out as we were reading the book.  She hated it. She cried and held onto me as tight as she could.  We let her try on the gloves but anytime Eric would put them back on and tickle her or me she would lose it.  We will try out the gloves again when she's older. :)

I ordered some Piggy Paint to put in Elle's Easter basket.  The day it arrived I tore that sucker open and painted her toes.  I couldn't wait until Easter.  I let her watch as I gave myself a pedicure first, she wants to do whatever mama does so this step was very intentional.  She sat on Eric's lap and let me paint her right tootsie.  It was magical, I kept saying over and over how amazing this was.  Such a fun baby "first".  When I went to paint the left one she kicked the nailpolish brush out of my had (thus flinging nail polish on the couch and carpet) and shook her little hand and said "No".  Alrighty.  So I admired her one painted foot and waited until she fell asleep to complete the pedicure.  Cutest thing EVER (the painted toes, not the nailpolish I had to scrub off the carpet and couch).

Elle's sound machine in her room also has a projection feature where aquatic or jungle images rotate on the ceiling.  She loves the aquatic one and always asks to see the "fishy's".  It only works at night when it's dark enough so during the day I tell her they are sleeping.  Some nights we lay on the floor and watch them or she lays on her giraffe chair from Grammy & PawPaw...and other nights we both just get in her crib and watch the fishy show.

Elle's bedtime routine is currently a jumbled up mess.  I know I'm fully to blame for this.  She sleeps in our bed 90% of the time.  I love when she is in bed with us (event though she must of had a soccer dream last night because I woke up to 2 little feet repeatedly kicking me in the face) I just feel like she is so much safer laying in between Eric and I.  When she is tired she will even walk into our room and say "night night!".  We have a bumpy road ahead of us transitioning her back to her crib.  The road will be bumpy for both me and Elle, I'm dreading it.  Eric harps on me every night that she needs to be in her crib.

Elle is wavering on the line between outgoing and shy....a little bit of mommy, little bit of daddy.  Sometimes she won't make a peep when people or kids try to talk to her.  Other days we will be in Target and she says "hi" to every person that walks past us, so fun to see her personality forming.  I of course get angry if she says "hi" to someone and they don't respond.  Don't they realize they should feel lucky that my sweet angel acknowledged them. ;) Kidding.  Kind of.

Since Charlie has been born she's developed a fascination with babies.  She only refers to him as "baby" even though she knows his name is Charlie.  She also loves watching videos of herself on my phone. 

 Charlie Bear

This is a lot of info for March!  And there are so many things that I feel like I'm not sharing, I just don't want to forget anything.  I want to be able to read all of these 5 years from now and be taken back to this exact age. #tear  A few more things I don't want to forget:

- She intentionally throws things on the ground and then says "uh-oh!"
- Elle likes to help me around the house.  She helps me do the laudry (loves pressing the buttons), sweeping, putting things in the trash and loading the dishwasher (she likes closing the door)

- When watching Sesame Street when she hears the end credits music come on she starts waving and says "bye!"
- Knows the difference between my phone and Eric's phone.  If she sees it lying around the house she returns it to it's owner.
- If she starts choking or a drink goes down wrong, she starts hitting the back of her neck. She learned this from my panicked reaction of always patting her on the back when something gets caught in her throat.
- covers her face with her hands when she thinks something is funny, she gets this from her MawMaw!

- Loves to share her food with people
- Loves to point out people's eyes.  We can reading a book or giving her hugs when I get home from work and she will touch my eye with her finger and say "eye".  Odd little bird.
- Loves being outside!

- If her drink isn't cold anymore sometimes she talkes a drink and says "Yuck! Poop!" I'm assuming I've said "Yuck" when changing a poopy diaper so now she thinks anything yucky is poop.
- She hums "Excuse Me" after she burps or toots...she learned this from Henry.
- Speaking of Hen, she calls him "Henny" and he is her bestest friend.

- Elle makes this adorable face all the time now. When looking at the fishy's on the ceiling, when watching Elmo...it's adorable.