3.5

I was such a good kid!  I was mostly obedient.  I was friends with my parents.  I was darn amazing!  So why am I being punished?

Ok, it's not all that bad.  Ella is just so STUBBORN!  She still hates eating her dinner and we'll give her a choice.  Either eat her dinner or go to bed.  She sticks to her anti-dinner guns and goes to bed early.  She does this with a bunch of other things too.  It's frustrating at times (like dinner) and other times just plain funny.  Really, I love my feisty girl.  I just hope she grows out of it, at least when it comes to our interactions.

Ella is becoming more and more independent.  Her favorite breakfast now is cinnamon toast because she can make it all on her own.  

Ella has started preschool.  Taught by my friend Shannon and myself.  So we'll see how it goes.  But Ella does seem to be learning and loves it.  She knows her shapes and colors great but is a little slower on letters.  Since we've started preschool she's really picking up on her letters.  She has also learned the days of the week, what a shamrock stands for, and how to mix colors to make other colors.  And much more of course.  I'm not that shabby of a teacher.

Ella is loving the spring weather.  It has been a LONG winter.  There's a huge difference already in Ella's attitude now that we get outside more than once a month.  She constantly is asking to go to the park and since I'm hoping to lose some weight, I oblige.  She loves making new friends at the park, though she never gets their names.  I guess that's fine since we rarely see the same ones twice.  Her latest obsession isn't just the park but what she calls the "animal park"  For those who aren't familiar with Logan, they have what is called the Willow Park Zoo.  It's tiny, housing mostly birds, but also has monkeys, a couple of tortoises, elk, and an albino porkupine.  Ella's favorite is "the bird with the feathers on his bum."  AKA the peacock.  They have a ton that just wander the park.  We went a few times last year and Ella has been dying to go this year ever since the weather was good enough.  After about a million please's and a bread outage discovery I decided to take her on our way to the store.  Since we were out of bread (thank you Andrew) we stopped by Carl's Jr and picked up some hamburgers for lunch, ate outside the zoo (they have a really nice play area there) and then headed in.  We hit the jackpot!  We did our usual wanderings.  A lot of the exhibits were closed due to the early season but we still had a ton of fun.  Ella was looking for the peacocks the whole time and as luck would have it, when we did find them the male was showing off.  Ella was so excited to actually get to see him fanning his tail.  We're not usually that lucky.  Our next spot of luck was at the tortoise cages.  They were being fed so that was fun since they usually just sit there but the man feeding them actually picked one up and held it over the fence so all the kiddies could pet him.  Ella was really nervous but after mommy pet him she went ahead and touched his shell and very briefly tickled his feet.  Then his foot moved and she got nervous again.  Of course, if you ask her, she'll tell you she was so brave.  THEN, as we were heading out of the park a woman was their with her birds.  Cockatoo's or something.  Not sure but she was letting people hold and pet them.  Ella pet one.  I wanted to hold one but of course, Ella was done at that point and wanted to go play on the toys outside the Zoo.  Ah well.  And of course, Ella wouldn't pose for pictures with the tortoise or bird.  Darn stubborn girl.

Funny story time?  I think so.

Ella has lately become obsessed with marriage.  For a very short time she wanted to marry me.  Then we explained that she had to marry a boy.  So it was daddy.  Then we explained daddy was already married to mommy.  So now it's Adam, her preschool buddy.  One day, we had gone to Walmart and as we walked passed the jewelry Ella says, "Mommy, when I marry Adam he's going to get me a ring for my finger like that!"  She's been planning their wedding ever since.  

We are in major trouble.  This girl loves all boys.  Not just Adam.  The other day she was watching out the screen door and some boys walked past and she screams "Hi!" at them.  Next set of boys, she yells, "Hi cute boys!"  Yikes!

As I mentioned above, Ella has learned what a shamrock means.  I didn't know until I taught the St. Patty's preschool lesson.  Ya learn something new everyday.  Anyway, for those who don't know, each leaf stands for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  Pretty cool huh?  So now, Ella is constantly picking clover in the back yard (our lawn isn't that great) and will say, "Mom, what does this mean?"  I have her help me because I'm old and my memory isn't that great.  So she'll help me and give me the answer.  Once I repeat it she'll say all excited like, "GOOD JOB MOMMY!  You're such a smarty pants!"  Sometimes she does get a little mixed up and will say that the leaves are Heavenly Father, Jesus, and President Monson.  But hey, she knows who the prophet is and that he is our religious leader so I'll take it.

I love the silly things Ella says.  Even when it's not necessarily the nicest.  For example, she really hates going potty by herself.  She asks for help even though all she requires is me to go in and sit with her.  Earlier today I went in and asked what she needed help with.  She said to sit down so I sat down on her potty seat (one of the ones you put on the regular toilet.)  She laughed and said, "Mommy, that's for me.  My bum is little tiny and I will fall in if I don't sit on that.  But your bum is big so you don't sit on it."  

But she makes up for her occasional accidental insult by helping mommy and daddy be good.  Ella had started calling stuff stupid when she'd get frustrated with it.  I taught her that that wasn't nice and we shouldn't do it.  So when daddy or mommy slip up a bit she gets rather cross with us and says, "Mommy/Daddy, we don't say stupid!"  I'm glad that some of the lessons I try to teach sink in.

Apparently Ella is turning into my mother.  Garbage day has become her favorite day.  One morning, Andrew was taking the garbage can out to the street and Ella asked what he was doing.  He told her that the garbage trucks were going to come get our garbage and she starts running up and down the driveway screaming "Yahoo!"  Ever since then, anytime we drive by a garbage truck she gets so excited.  I'm pretty sure she's crazy.  Fits right in the family I guess.  

Besides garbage trucks, Ella loves Panda Express (still) playing daddy's ukelele or mommy's french horn (she's learned to buzz too) She loves riding her bike, pretending, imitating different kinds of dance, playing in the rain, helping mommy, finger painting, making Olivia laugh, listening to rock and roll, watching movies, playing CandyLand, getting stickers, reading books and having mommy tell her Princess Ella stories (made up by me) or baby Ella stories (actual events.)  Her favorite movies are currently Superman, Pirates of the Carribean, Matilda, and any of the Chronicles of Narnia (which she calls the Tiger movies)  She loves being scared.  The skeletons are her favorite part in Pirates and she always asks to watch a " boo movie"  Her favorite books are any of the Pinkalicious ones and the Foot Book.  This past summer Ella spent a lot of time at Gramma's and found the Foot Book.  Apparently she made gramma read it EVERY NIGHT.  And now she had it memorized.  Watching her "read" it is so cute!  I tried posting a video of it but it's not working so sorry.  

Her dislikes are: dinner time, cleaning her room, getting dressed and hair done, and not having things her way at all times.  Life can be pretty rough at times.  

Ella's such a fun girl.  It's weird looking at old pictures and seeing how much she's changed.  She's gotten more and more beautiful.  I could be biased but I think she really is just a pretty girl.  She no longer looks like a toddler.  She is a full blown little girl.  Her hair is getting so long and pretty.  Her blue eyes are huge and gorgeous.  It's a good thing she's so sassy and then hopefully she can beat the boys off when she's older.  Or maybe I'll get lucky and she'll be a really awkward looking teenager.  A mama can dream.  Andrew doesn't care either way.  He's got 5 guns and multiple knives.