Friday, August 08, 2008

Ellie is a big girl

Baby Lolo is a well-cared-for baby. She is breastfed and regularly diapered. She has scheduled naptimes, and her devoted mama is a firm believer in the co-sleeping model. Now, Baby Lolo can be carried in her own "baby yarn" (that's Ellie for "Baby Bjorn"/baby carrier).



Yesterday, we made what is probably our last trip to Blijdorp. Boy, have those membership cards paid off! The weather was downright NASTY yesterday morning, but our resident almost-3-year-old was bouncing off the walls and personally chauffeuring her mama (me) to the asylum. We decided it would be best for all concerned if we got out of the house and went to the (indoor) Oceanarium at Blijdorp. Ellie had a good time, as always, climbing up to see exhibits and running around like a wild thing.



You can see how she is growing up. This photo is from yesterday morning:


And this one is from November (look at how baby she still was then!):



She amazes me every day. Her speech is the best part of this age. She talk talk talk talk talks all the time. Don't wait for her to take a breath to give you a moment to interject; there won't be one. Sometimes, it's downright hysterical! Her logic is evolving greatly as well (much to Markus's and my detriment). That too can be quite impressive. This morning, she woke up at 5 and of course wanted us to get up too. We watched her wander over to our door, look up to the light switch, and pause for a while, clearly thinking. Without a word, she went into the bathroom for her small stepstool (for reaching the sink) and carried it to our door, placing it carefully beneath the switch. She still couldn't reach it, but it was impressive reasoning nonetheless.
There are also increasing occasions when one or both of the parents have to be corrected in our reasoning. Take yesterday afternoon for example. When she came home from the playground with Markus, she was happy and wired. As I escorted her up to her bath, I said she was a monkey and I needed to check for her tail. She pivoted on the spot, looked me carefully in the eyes, and said, "Mama, Ellies have no tails. Monkeys have tails. Monkeys are animals. Ellies are LITTLE GIRLS."
I stand corrected.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Such a nice blog. I hope you will create another post like this.

Karly said...

Too cute with Ellie's logical reasoning and correcting her parents! Don't you just love it?! It will only get better as she gets older. Case and point...
we are currently using a sticker chart to work on encouraging a good behavior that we want. At first, if Sam had one slip, I would say, ok, no sticker for the day. Then, I felt bad thinking I was being too stringent, so I started using the 3 strikes rule. If he got the third, no sticker. The other day, Sam did something after I had told him not to (not only that he knew he wasn't supposed to anyway) and I told him it was strike one. He looked at me quite calmly and said, "That's ok, I still have two strikes left." !!!! We are so in trouble! Like I said, just wait, cause the reasoning ability only gets better and better...it keeps our brains sharp trying to figure out how to stay one step ahead!