Ella the Surgeon

Ella's imagination has been expanding a ton!  I love it.  I don't get to witness it as much as I would like since often times she is playing in her room with the door closed and if I come in she stops.  But I can usually hear her and it sounds like an awful lot of fun.  Of course there are the games that she plays with Olivia and those I get to witness.  Yesterday Ella and Olivia were playing doctor.  For my facebook friends this may be repeat but Ella felt Liv's forehead, yelled, "Livie! You have a fever!  We have to cut your heart!"  Ella has recently been very curious about Liv's scar and has been trying to get her info straight.  We've spent time explaining to her that she never had surgery, or a feeding tube, or oxygen.  She was under the impression that all babies needed that stuff and was confused when her new cousin didn't have any.  Anyway, our explanations of Liv's birth/surgery has created a little surgeon in our midst.  Ella has also jumped on the Zombie band wagon.  She has taught Livie to walk like a zombie as well.  They are two of the cutest little zombies ever.  Of course, there's the usual games of pretend like princess' or tea parties.
Ella has so much energy!  Now, I'm not talking about the usual "Little kids are so energetic" type.  She is the craziest little thing ever.  She never stops!  EVER!  She runs EVERYWHERE!  Being in a new house has been hard on her poor little body.  She's finally getting used to the house and has stopped running into the walls...She doesn't nap anymore but is always going.  Right now, she's putting her energy to good use and is cleaning her room.  Since she found her CTR ring she has decided that she's going to be extra good and clean Livie's room too.  The energy does have it's benefits.  All day, everyday she is running around the neighborhood with the neighbor kids (she has chosen a little boy named Owen to be her new friend.  She has some little girl friends but Owen is her go to play-mate it seems.)
Ella has recently been testing my patience.  I haven't passed those tests as well as I'd have liked but we're working on that.  The past few days have been much better for both of us.  I have decided that my hormones are affecting Ella.  About a month ago I walked into Ella's room and she was quietly crying.  I asked what was wrong and she immediately burst into sobs and says, "I don't know..."  Each month there's usually one really bad week where Ella is crazy emotional and irrational.  And that bad week has been the week that my patience is always a little less.  So I'm thinking the poor thing has emotionally synced up with me.  I just feel bad for when we're synced physically too....Poor Andrew.
Ella is turning into a beautiful little lady.  Some of her social skills are still a little scary (she is a bossy little thing which her friends don't like) but she's quickly learning how to be kind in all areas of play.  I'm excited to see how much she learns, both academically and socially, when she starts preschool in about a month!!!  AHHHH!!!!
And I have good news!  I found my camera cord!  Feast your eyes!

Andrew's boss' pool.  We were going twice a week and though Ella was pretty chicken at first she warmed up by the third week.  She had learned to trust the life-jacket and was swimming all around.  Even in the deep end.  I was so proud of her!

Andrew's babies.  All three of them.  Andrew has an old '72 truck that he is planning on fixing up someday.  It drives and everything but he wants it Cruise-In quality.  Anyway, scary story.  This particular day I had taken Livie in and Ella was playing in the truck while Andrew was fiddling with the engine.  It being an old truck, it has no safety features really so Ella accidentally flipped it into gear (it was off) and it started rolling and almost ran daddy over.  He bruised his ribs trying to stop it by brute force but finally had to just run and jump in.  Scared both of them to pieces.  Ella vows she will never play in the truck again.

We got daddy weights for his b-day.  This was Ella scootching them over to him.  Love her face.

Oh the sass...Those boys were hogging that sprinkler at the splash pad.  She was less than amused.