Don't worry...it's not a real knife.

This is sure to make some of you flinch. Someone generously gave us a play kitchen set, including the giant plastic structure (which has been relegated to the side of the house until winter) and a big bag full of plastic food and utensils. Some of the plastic food is fruits and veggies that are actually two pieces each, stuck together with velcro (excuse me...hook and loop closures). As you'll see in the video, there is also a plastic chefs knife and a cutting board. Ellie had, up until the filming of this video, been satisfied to sit on the floor with the veggies, knife and cutting board, and she had a decent amount of success cutting those veggies in half by wedging that knife between the halves.

On this day, however, I discovered her standing in the living room attempting to cut those wiley foodstuffs with the knife in one hand and the produce in the other. Keep an eye out for classic concentration faces, right at about 25, 45, and 57 seconds. 25 is our favorite.

Eye-eee!

Ellie continues to grow almost as fast as the weeds in our garden. About a month ago we got this quick video of her messing about with a Fisher-Price Little People house (an awesome collectible I found at a garage sale but didn't pay nearly enough for to keep them away from little hands...and she loves them). She's pulling the house around and knocking into the little dingy bell. For some reason she really liked sitting on it's peaked roof on this particular afternoon, which gave me the opportunity to ask who, exactly, is sitting on the house.

New Pictures

Too ...

tired...

to be witty.

Just...

pictures.

Here's little miss sunshine herself:


Here she is having fun with the packing fluff:


Here she is eating a tortilla:

Tortilla shot #2 because one just isn't enough...
did you notice the perfect little half-circle bite marks?

And a video of a budding artist:

Words

Just a quick note to impress you all with Ellie's expanding vocabulary. Up until a few weeks ago, I was getting a tad concerned that she didn't have as many words as she "should". (I do pride myself in not freaking out about milestones but this one got me.) Out of the blue, shortly after her 18 month appointment, something clicked in her brain and zzzzoooommm, off she went. She went from signing "please" and saying mama and daddy and no* and puppies, to saying...just about anything we say. When she's alert (i.e. not tired) her repetition of our words is astonishing and astonishingly cute.

For instance, a lot of things are plural. We talk about the puppy, and she says puppies. And to top it off, her "s" has a little bit of a lisp, so it sounds sorta like puppiesh.

The real reason I'm making this post, though, is to update you all on the next phase of lanugage: multi-word statements! Yes! She's using two and three words together! The first time I realized that she had strung two words together was when she asked for "more bites." I said, OK, I'll get you more bites. It took me several minutes to realize that she asked for "more bites" without prompting from me and oh-my-gosh... that was two words! TWO words!!!

And only then did I realize that REALLY the first time she had used two words was when she starting imitating us when we say "Where'd it go?" And she says something that sounds like "Der go?" As an aside, listening to her say "der go?" is truly one of the cutest things in the world. If I can capture it on video I will post immediately. She's recently added the gestures to accompany the phrase: upturned palms and a slightly quizzical look. (Funny story about der go?. Anty Mary and Grandpa were here this weekend and we took some time to "hide" eggs in the backyard. Mary and Ellie were collecting the eggs and Ellie had one in each hand. Out of the blue, completely un-prompted, Ellie throws the eggs to the ground, turns up her palms and looks up at her aunt and asks "Der go?")

And this morning's big accomplishment: "I got you!"

She does got me!

Pictures next time.

*A note about her use of "no". It was cute until this weekend when she started using it to let me know she's really, really mad. Rewind to first 100,000 times she said it and it was still cute because she was starting the sound before she parted her lips, so it sounded like mmmno. mmno. Who can say no to that? Not me.

Ellie's House

We ordered an item which arrived in a box which was obviously, obviously, destined to become a little house for a little girl named Ellie. It has provided hours of fun in the weeks since Daddy put his construction skills to use. Note the skylight! One evening of particular fun, we caught some moments on film. The highlights are: a little hand reaching a snack out the window to share with Mama; and at the very end, as the camera zooms in, Ellie has so much fun that she falls out the door.

Weekend at Grandpa Lindy's

We spent a fun-filled weekend at Grandpa Lindy's farm. Lots of family members were in attendance for Grandpa's 65th birthday. 65! Despite inching his way towards inevitable codgerdom (that one's for you, Dad!), Grandpa did not hesitate to grab Ellie and scoot down the little sledding hill. During the first couple runs you could hear Ellie laughing all the way down. It got to the point where we had to drag her inside (complete with the requisite toddler kicking and screaming). She is officially an outdoors kid. In a moment of inspiration, I grabbed the camera and, with Grandpa and Ellie in one sled, and me in the other, I captured a few moments that I consider to be truly priceless. (Be sure to watch to the very end...)

Errr...Mother's Day 2008

Yes, I mean 2008.

Mother's Day 2008 was my very first mother's day as a mother. I loved it! I can't wait for the next one! And I now have no clue what we did that day. I think I remember a turtle sundae from Culver's, but I can't be sure. What I am sure of is that I documented the day with the following pictures. Now that I'm looking at our outfits, I recall something else: that Ellie had been wearing something really cute and awesome and precious and I think she urped or pooped on it and I had to put her into a t-shirt. Which turned out OK, because then we matched, and the pictures of us cuddled up were that much more special. Evidence of said specialness is below:





Kisses for everybody!

Compare that little button of a baby with the child she is now... sitting on a big-person's chair to eat dinner (don't mind the phone book), or creating art and tasting the markers.