"I two!"

So this is Ella's long overdue monthly update.  It will be a little shorter than normal seeing as I haven't spent much time with her in the past 2.5 weeks.  Boo!
Ella finally knows how old she is.  She no longer will tell you she's three or four.  Heck, even when we tell people she's 2 and a half she says "No, I two."
In general Ella likes to correct us.  If we call her cute, pretty, silly, little baby she says "No, I big girl!"  If we call her the wrong name (which we do on purpose) she says "No, I Ella!"  If we call gramma (Andrew's mom) grammy or grammy (my mom) gramma she says "No, that's grammy/gramma!"  And if I call Andrew's truck the car "No, mommy, that's truck."
The couple weeks before Livie was born Ella was a perfect little angel.  We had been working on communicating with our words rather than with grunts and groans and she was doing fantastic!  If she wanted something she'd say "Mommy, may I have a cookie?"  Or whatever it was she wanted.  I had to coach her through the sentence for a while before she'd do it on her own but I always responded with a "Why yes Ella, thank you for asking so nicely."  Well, I don't always say yes but you get the drift.  It's worked quite well.  She's reverted back to some of her bad whiny habits (can't blame her) but when she's with me all it takes is a look or an "Excuse me?"  and Ella goes right back to smiling and asking nicely.  We also try to emphasize asking in a happy voice.  I don't care how polite her words are.  If the tone is wrong then we try again.  And I love (when she's sad/angry) saying "Where's my happy girl?"  She immediately gets this big smile on her face and tilts her head in that "I'm a pretty princess" tilt that she so loves.
And now for our funny/adorable toddler stories!
Ella LOVES Andrew's new truck.  She gets so excited when we go for rides in it.  So lately Ella is getting more and more into playing pretend.  She'll pack her purse and then "Go work wif daddy."  Or "Go to doctors wif mommy."  So the other day...meaning several weeks ago...she was telling me how she was going to go to work with daddy in his "Boo truck" (it's blue) someday since I had told her she couldn't on that particular day.  And then she pauses.  Taps her index finger on her chin and says, "No, daddy go to work in his big boo truck.  I go to work in weal tiny boo truck because I weal tiny!"
Ella has also started saying prayers on her own...sometimes.  Ella will have us help her sometimes but she prefers Andrew or I to say them.  Lately, we'll start praying and she'll either say it with us, meaning she's saying the words at the same time as us, or she'll just take over and go on her own.  Since we're still teaching her to pray our family prayers are pretty simple and we always pray for the same things (i.e. Olivia's heart, Uncle Matt on his mission, President Monson etc.)  I love when she just takes over.  It's so cute!  A small example of how she prays on her own "Pease bess baby Yivia's heart.  Uncle Matt mission.  Pwophet.  Amen!"
Ella is girl through and through.  Her most recent obsession.  Ballerinas.  My aunt got Ella some outfits for Olivia's shower (can't be spoiling the baby only) and one of those outfits was a pair of ballerina pajamas.  Ever since then Ella will dance around singing "Bayarina! Bayarina!"  Either wearing those or not.  Then, we took Ella up to the PCMC play room and what did she find?  A ballerina barbie.  She danced with that barbie singing that song and was in heaven.  Then, baby Olivia got her big sister a present and what do you think it was?  That same barbie!  She's been in ballerina heaven.