Eleanor: ten things

1. Eleanor loves to play "ring around the rosie." She doesn't quite get exactly how to hold hands and spin in circles, but she loves to fall down. As soon as you finish singing, she screams for you to stand up and do it again. And again. And again. The only problem with this game is she literally never wants to stop once you start.

2. This girl has such a funny little body. She's very tall (90th percentile apparently), with these skinny little legs and arms...and then a giant santa belly. It's ridiculously adorable!

3. Ah, yes. Frozen. The storm that just keeps on coming. It took a long time for my kids to jump on that bandwagon but once they did, they were hooked. Jude's a little less into it then he was over the summer, but Ellie has really gotten into it lately. She wants Frozen everything! Especially Elsa. I bought her some Elsa dresses a few weeks ago and that's all she wants to wear! Target right now is everything Frozen-themed, so the whole time we walk through Ellie does her little "AHH!" scream of excitement. And since Frozen is the only thing she's really into right now, and all our other toys are basically trains, most of her christmas presents are Frozen stuff. I'm mentally preparing myself for how much she's gonna scream on christmas morning.

4. Ellie is a typical little girl. Baby dolls are one of her absolute favorite things right now. (And if she sees an Elsa doll...) We don't have very many little girl toys right now, so she only has this mini doll I grabbed at Target one day, but she loves it. I showed her how to feed the doll a bottle and put it in the stroller. Ah, it's so cute the way she just clutches to it when she walks around! I especially love it when she puts the dolly to sleep and then wakes it up. Little mama already!

5. Other favorite thing: stickers. Every where. On every thing. I now understand why my mom always hated stickers.

(you can also see just how much she wears this dress)

6. Eleanor loves to go outside and ride her push car. Now that she fully walks (hooray!) it's gotten a lot easier for me, so we happily go outside at least twice a day. She loves to draw with chalk and race around the driveway on her little push car. Every time we go out to the garage to get in the car, there's a fit thrown over not getting on the bikes. I also think it's funny that she totally knows the neighbor's house across the street and immediately wants to go over there to play.

not our bike, but she loves to sit on it.

7. Last week I finally made Ellie her first blanket. Our upstairs windows are terrible and their room gets pretty cold at night, even with the heater on. Of course, I got suckered into making it with Frozen fabric (which cost an arm and a leg, and I had to go to the God-forsaken cutting counter at Joann's, but at least I had a coupon). But it's cute and Ellie loves it. She likes to lay it on the ground and play "beach party" with her brother. She also insists on laying on her pillow (also frozen) and having you tuck her in, even though she doesn't seem to actually sleep under it.

8. Maybe it's from watching "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" too many times or just a natural interest, but Eleanor really likes to knock on doors. She'll make a knocking motion in the air and point to our neighbors house when she wants to go play. She thinks it's hilarious when Jude knocks on something, and sometimes she'll just walk around knocking on all the doors at church. I had no idea knocking could be so exciting (or cute...Ellie's just too stinkin' cute these days).

one of her new favorite games: getting pulled in a laundry basket.

like ring around the rosie, once you start, you can't stop. I've started hiding my laundry baskets.

already getting more haircuts!

9. Besides mama and dada, Ellie does say something else: "yes." Or "dyeah" as she says it. I'll ask her if she wants something and she'll respond "dyeah!" Or she'll shake her head no. It cracks me up all the time.

10. Eleanor does not like to share with Jude lately. She screams and freaks out when Jude tries to touch or take her toys (he's not a very good sharer at the moment either...) or when she wants something that Jude is supposed to be sharing but isn't. Her least favorite thing to share? Mom. Jude, being a HUGE momma's boy, will try to sit on my lap and Ellie will freak out and try to push him off. Things are certainly getting interesting (and by interesting, I mean completely frustrating) in the "mom only fan club" my kids have created.

typical Ellie hair