And on to the knees...

Most of you know that Ellie has become a very talented "scooter." She has been scooting for months, and it works quite well for her! I have been happy for her to be mobile, but I still wanted her to crawl a little before she took off on her little feet. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Well, last week, Ellie and I were baking and decorating Easter cookies with our close friends Amie and Landry. (Well, Ellie decorated the floor with the contents of the diaper bag while Landry took her morning nap, but you get the idea...) I went to check on Ellie who had scooted out of sight. She was giving me this funny look. Kind of like she had done something wrong, and kind of like she was trying to tell me something. I kept trying to figure it out, and I realized she was doing this funny thing with her hands. Ellie was picking them up alternately, reaching up pretty high, and than plopping them back on the floor. Can you see where this is going? Yep, my girl was crawling! The funniest part of the story is that it took me several moments of watching her to recgnize that she was doing it! Why on earth is she doing that with her hands? How strange! You are a funny one, Elle-girl! Oh! Oh my goodness... did she just crawl?! She was crawling! And thus commenced the celebration that would probably wake Landry... (sorry again, Amie!) Since then, Ellie still prefers to scoot, but she will crawl on command, and she will crawl to get over things since she can't scoot over a step! This also came in handy on the beach this past weekend. I think Ellie realized that crawling was a little more comfortable than filling her diaper with sand... but she still scooted a lot out there!

A few of their favorite things: Ellie

These days, Ellie especially loves her independence! She loves to:

• play with clothes. Sometimes she "wears" them, and other times she shakes them intensely.
  
• dance. Ellie waves her arms and bounces up and down when she is enjoying a song.
  
• play on the bed. She likes to let herself fall back or roll around on the soft blankets. Recently, she realized the carpet in our room has a similar appeal.
• play "water bottles and the ice chest." What, you don't know that game?
  
• "tickle" with Daddy. He tickles her, she laughs, and she asks him to do it again... and again!
• brush her teeth. Simply seeing the bathroom causes her to ask to do this wonderfully thrilling activity!
• read books
• see animals
  

A few of their favorite things: Joshua

It is so sweet to watch our kids develop and see their personalities more each day. I love seeing what interests them. It is also nice to have more of a glimpse into the way Joshua's mind works as he learns to express himself more. For example, the other evening we were sitting down to a lovely pizza dinner. It was fresh, hot pizza, so David warned Joshua to wait a minute before digging in. Joshua politely asked David to "pour a little bit of milk on it." He was very serious about this request, so I had to hide my amusement. Joshua was thinking of oatmeal, which is one of his favorite breakfast foods. We make it and then pour a little splash of milk on it to help it cool faster. (We did not fulfill his request!)

On to some favorite things. These days, Joshua is happiest doing the following:

• playing with plastic animals
• practicing "tessiss" ball (it is actually sort of baseball, but we lost the plastic baseballs for awhile, so we used tennis balls instead)
• reading books or having books read to him (Joshua has a few books memorized, and he likes to read to Ellie... but she doesn't usually behave for him. She either tries to take the book or wanders off to play with something else.)
  
• putting Mommy to sleep
  
• drinking milk out of an open cup
• going somewhere... anywhere... He simply likes to "go somewhere"
• building trains out of anything from toy train cars to regular cars to animals to people... you get the idea!
  

It's all part of having a scooter.

Well, I guess spring is officially here, even though it is going to be in the 40s tonight. We have been enjoying the park more regularly, leaving the Benadryl out on the counter, and putting the kids to bed in broad daylight!

As the season has changed, so has our Ellie... again! We had this brief window where we could go places for longer amounts of time because she was only napping once a day. She still only naps once a day, but when I am flying solo with the kids, I know my minutes are numbered... at least until Ellie can walk! She is no longer content to sit in the stroller and watch as Joshua stays busy and active. Nope, Ellie wants to participate! I can't blame her for not wanting to be strapped the stroller, but I also can't let her mop the floors of every public building we enter! (or the concrete at the zoo, for that matter!) I have memories of the knees of Joshua's pants getting worn through during his crawling months just in time for him to start walking. Still, it is one thing for some rugged little cords to have holes in the knees. It seems entirely different to wait as Ellie's sweet springy dresses and onesies turn brown on the bottom! So far, Shout has been working, and she has a pair or two of "park pants." Hopefully we will make it to walking without ruining too many cute things!

Cozy Coupe Garage

I have mentioned Joshua and Ellie's car several times recently, but I have to do so again. We use it all the time these days! And I do mean "we;" Ellie throws fits when she doesn't get her fill. And I don't think she has gotten her fill yet. And she doesn't realize she isn't completely self-sufficient as a driver just yet. It started out being so sweet because Joshua would push her around in the car and it was fun for everyone. Well, now Ellie feels very entitled to her never-ending turn, and Joshua practices his use of the pronoun "my," and before long, we all take a break from the cozy coupe by putting it in the garage... also known as Mommy and Daddy's bathroom. It fits quite nicely, and I get it out again when I have the patience to deal with it! (And I promise, I am not complaining! I am simply remarking on how these stages of our kids lives are coming and going so quickly! Joshua's new bed is in pieces on our living room floor as I type this... EEK!!)

Let the dressing up begin!

Our camera's memory card is full, and I have missed several fantastic photo opportunities today as a sad result! I will still share a couple of stories...

When I was little, I played dress-up. I don't know when it started, and I don't know if you would say I played it a lot. Having a 14 month-old little girl, I had not yet asked myself when she might be interested in such things. Well, I found out today that she already is! My friend told me that her girl has always liked to play with her clothes. She said her daughter would happily sit among the clean laundry piles. We wondered if this was a boy/girl distinction because Joshua certainly never did that! Whether it is a girly thing or not, I don't know, but Ellie has shown that she, too loves to play with clothes.

They are using a generator to work at our neighbor's house, so I can't hear anything from one room to the next. Today, I poked my head out of the kitchen to make sure I wasn't missing any shrieking. Ellie was making a beeline for me with one of David's t-shirts around her shoulders. I thought, "Oh, that's cute. I wonder if she did that or if Joshua did that." As I watched her, I realized she was kind of showing off. It was almost as if she was trying to strike a pose! Later, repeat these actions with my pajama pants. She had trouble getting them on her, so I put them around her shoulders. Ellie then requested a plastic bucket on her head, and she proceeded to play this way until nap time.

A growing vocabulary

Ellie has begun the incredible process of English language articulation. I continue to be fascinated as I watch and listen to Joshua's speech develops. Not only am I a proud Mommy, but a lover of linguistics and self-professed nerd! :) Ellie has learned a few signs, but she has also really surprised me with her new words. Her list of verbal achievements includes (no, I am not trying to be obnoxious, and yes, I know that maybe I am being obnoxious! My defense is that I want my kids to read this blog when they are older!):

• car
• bye bye
• hi
• da da
• ma ma
• ya ya (Joshua, not as certain, but I think that is what she is calling him)
• ball
• book
• cracker
  
• no
• more
• head

Also part of Ellie's verbal achievements... much yelling. She is obviously aware that we have constant conversation with Joshua, so she has taking to shouting and protesting until she gets the audience she desires! :) No, this is not the first time we have mentioned her yelling, but now there is a new intentionality to her noise!