the ELLA echo

thing #20

it snowed in the green room today!

first, ella made snow angels:

next, she and her daddy built a BIG snow castle:

and then--SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!

by the time we were done, we were "soaping wet" from all the snow and the only thing to do was to go back to the costume shop and have some "zevra cake" to warm us up again. 

3 year check up

38.5" tall

35 pounds

fit as a fiddle, right as rain, perfect in every way!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA!!!

"mama, my birfday is fwiday."

"that's right, ella!  how old will you be?"

"26 seconds, mama."

yep, that's just about how long it seems to me since you were born, sweet angel baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ella, do you know how old you are?"

"mama, i not old!"

no, ella, you are not old, and when i'm with you, i'm not old either.

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"mama, i need my dada."

"i know honey, but he's not here right now."

"but mama, i NEED him!"

and ella, he needs you too, the way he needs the air he breathes.  you are blessed beyond words to have him for your dada.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"mama, will you feed me just like a baby?"

"mama, will you wock me back and forf in da wocking chair, just like a baby?"

"mama, i need to hold you, just like a baby."

ella, no matter how old you get to be, i will ALWAYS feed you and wock you and hold you, whenever you ask, because you will ALWAYS be my baby.

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ella, i love you so much, i love your dada so much, and i am the most fortunate mama ever.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, SWEET ELLA!!!  MAMA AND DADA LOVE YOU MOST MOST!

thing #19

ella uses the syllable "for" in place of the syllable "to", both as a word on it's own and within other words:

"ok, i ready for go!"

"mama, can we do it forday?"

"now, all forgether!"

i love these little turns of phrase.  i will never correct them--because i don't need to.  she's come this far--starting from not being able to do anything but cry, all the way to forming 12-word sentences--all without being coached.  these little language charms will each fall away, all on their own, and i know how much i'll miss them.  i already miss the ones that are gone--the little barks that are now "woofs", the sweet "fay-fay-fay" that turned into "fable"--she's growing up too fast as it is, i'm not going to rush it by making her speak "right".

thing #18

despite my best efforts to discourage it, ella LOVES candy corn.  yesterday when we were shopping at our new favorite store stein mart, she got some gourmet candy corn, and today she bought it from me, piece by piece.  she counted out her coins--"eight, pwease!"--then i counted out her candy corn.  i believe this was our first real homeschooling lesson. 

and as she always does after any financial transaction, she offered me a cheery "thank you for shopping forday!"

thing #17

things related to fable:

1. when fable started getting more and more sick this spring, we changed her diet to something more bland and easier to digest, we fed her a homemade mixture of steamed ground beef, white rice, and cottage cheese.  we could never pass the kroger grocery store without ella almost demanding that we stop to get some doggie cheese (cream cheese).
2. ella was also very concerned that fable get fed on time.  nearly every day, she told us that we had to go home to feed her because "fable tummy grommets" (fable's tummy growls).
3. one of the first things ella said each morning was, "wook, mama, dere's your pwetty puppy!  she's so cute."

on fable's last morning, i reminded ella that fable wouldn't be living with us anymore, that she wouldn't be here when we came home that night.  and ella said, "she need to go to the doctor room, and he make her feel better, then she lick me".  i wish with my whole heart that i could have made that happen.

thing #16

ella is very sensitive to the crying of other children--usually, she will cry with them.  but when i cry, she tries to comfort me.

i've cried a lot today, and she knows why i've been crying.  she kept taking my face in her hands, saying, "wook at me, mama.  i know you sad."  then she would rest her head on my chest, or hold my chin in her hand ("wook at my chim, mama."), and from time to time she told me, "here, wet me milt-side you, it make you feel better."

it's good to know that's what milt-side means to her.  and she was right, it made me feel better to hold her, to see how pleased she was to have ways to make her mama feel better.  such tenderness is a blessing that i will never pass up, even when i know it won't help me stop crying.

thing #15

today, for the very first time, ella told us something we didn't already know.

we had just picked her up from preschool, and as usual we asked her about her day--"what did you play today"--"what did you eat for lunch?"--and usually she will tell us things like, "i pway on de swings", or "i eat all my meleen (melon)".  but today, she said, "i found a new guy today on the fwaygwound, his name of zoe, he has kwips (clips) on her hair!".  this was all news to us--we have not met zoe, i'm not even sure ella and zoe are in the same group.  ella was very excited about this new friend, and for the first time i felt left out of something really important in her life.

i know this is part of my job--to send her out into the world to have new, exciting experiences that are all her own, that she can recount to me with joy and pride--but i didn't know that it would be happening today.

thing #14

ella has always been a very tender and devoted mama to all her babies.

she carries them in my sling:

she makes sure they always have on a "fwesh, dwy diapie and dwy!":

she has storytime for them:

but the one that always makes me cry is watching her give her babies milt-side.

it is my sincerest prayer that one day, every child will have as loving a mama as ella.

thing #13

we got to see--and ride!--thomas the train!

i honestly don't know who was more excited--ella, or me and rudi--it was a fantastic day.

for some reason she kept kissing the train.

she got a certificate!

she saw "sir top-a-hat", and he waved at her!

she also saw her first clown, and her only reaction was, "hey, he got a make-ahver."

there was a lot of other fun stuff to do before and after the train ride.  she got a tattoo--"wook, mama, jus wike in da book!"

we rode a littler train too, and when she heard the whistle, she shouted, "all daboard!"

she got to play inside a big elephant, there were balls inside and she got to slide down his trunk to get out.

but her favorite thing on the playground was the HUGE slide, she was too little to climb the stairs by herself so rudi and i got to ride with her.  this sequence is oddly reminescent of another encounter with a big slide.

this morning, almost as soon as she woke up, she wanted to read her magnetic thomas book, and she played and played with the little thomas engine her daddy got for her (she already had a little train set).

ella has decided that all the littler train magnets in the book are babies, she cradles them and rocks them and then puts them in the book to snuggle with their mommies (the bigger engines).  and today she asked to wear her thomas undies, which only lasted until she remembered that she didn't have to stop playing to go to the potty if she wore diapies.