Baseballs, Butterflies, & Blessings: Ellie Turns The Big 3

With three big birthdays towards the end of the summer and the start of school in a new big school, I am WAY behind.

I am determined to post about the birthdays before they go to college, however.

My goal - cover both birthdays & the super fun parties by the end of the week. I only have to wade through 3,972 pictures and make a trip to Dallas for new prosthetics (hopefully!), a specialist appointment, x-rays (maybe :() , and a creative guy to help us figure out tennis for Will (more later on that. Perhaps next week?) So, you know, the usual. I'll try to cram some birthday posts in somehow. By Christmas. Or college.

First - Ellie turned 3 in mid- August!

We began the day by parading into her room with balloons and singing.

Ellie was so so so excited about her birthday this year. Amazingly, she woke up on August 1 (after spending the night at her Lovie & Cookie's) & immediately informed Lovie that it was now August & time for her birthday! She asked daily how many more days until her party and was just so incredibly excited!

We ended the birthday wake up parade with donuts & singing. Cookie & Lovie brought donuts & presents and the day was off to a fun start!

Except that the birthday girl suddenly wasn't so sure about this whole blowing out the candles business. She just stared at them. I suppose she wasn't fully awake.

You want me to do what?

This may be a look I see more when she hits 13!

Ahhh - a pink sprinkles donut! Birthday Perfection!

We then cuddled on the couch to all watch her video together.

(I don't scrapbook - I just make yearly montage videos.)

Ellie loved her video & proceeds to watch it daily - sometimes several times a day.

These videos of herself are seriously what got us through 2 surgeries this year. She loves them.

While I did some last minute party cooking, she and her Daddy played with balloons.

It was a highlight of her morning (despite plenty of new toys!)

Ellie loves to cuddle and not only did she give her people lots of birthday cuddles, she made sure Meow Baby was well loved too!

Ellie opened her family presents on the morning of her birthday. Great-Gaggy mailed this antique red rocking chair that he & his twin sister rocked in in the 1920's-1930's! Lovie rocked in it too & I'm certain I must have as well on trips to MO.

Ellie loves having a rocking chair to rock her babies in and it's pretty special to have this family heirloom rocking chair.

She really got into the present thing this year.

The dancing baby from Cookie & Lovie was a HIT! Wow! Look at those dance moves!

(Dance parties were a staple of summer 2013.)

Daddy had to babysit.

Ellie was very helpful cleaning up after me as I made party food. R made fun of me for getting her a broom and mop but the girl loves to clean and I am not about to stand in the way of that. It's a win/win situation for me - I don't love to do it & she does. Works out well.

What's New for Ellie during the Past Year:

Ellie is a great sleeper - she still naps about 2-2.5 hours every afternoon (Praise the Lord!) & sleeps about 11-12 hours at night.

Ellie is a morning person. This drives her brother and I a little bit crazy.

She wakes up in the morning yelling, "Good morning, Mommy!" at the top of the lungs. It's kind of precious.

Ellie weighs exactly 27 pounds.

She had her first haircut this year ... and her second one right before her birthday in MO by Aunt GAC! (more to come from that fun road trip soon too. I have lots of catching up to do.)

Ellie eats just about anything. With the exception of steak, she is a great eater.

Ellie's favorite meat: fish

Ellie's favorite fruit: any of them... she thinks pomegranate seeds are candy, she loves cuties and has to be cut off. She loves fruits like apples, pears, and peaches but won't eat the peel.

Ellie's favorite veggie: spinach. She always asks for extras. She will lick the pan.

Ellie especially loves dips. She will eat anything with a dip. Sometimes, she eats weird things with dip. Today, she dipped her cinammon pizza slice in ranch dressing on her salad.

She ate ceviche and sushi this year - loved it.

She loves all desserts (except for apparently a certain brownie she ate last Nov in Disney World which she seemed to love then but recently has brought it up DAILY and told me she didn't like it.) Generally, the girl loves chocolate.

She is one of two people allowed to help her Cookie make his famous (super secret recipe) chocolate chip cookies. Her job is to lick the spoon. She takes the job seriously.

She LOVES ice water. Loves it. Doesn't like juice but will drink ice water all day long.

She still drinks whole milk (doctor's orders- she's a lightweight!). She likes her milk at night mixed into ice water.

Ellie plays babies all day long. I've never seen a child so nurturing (not that I've hung out with lots of little girls - perhaps this is a normal thing?) She just adores her babies. They keep her very busy needing to be fed, rocked, crying, needing to be diapered, lotioned, bathed, nursed, put to bed, woken up, sung to, played with, etc. She makes motherhood look exhausting and puts me to shame with her attentiveness and selflessness. When talking to her babies, her voice gets really high. It's adorable. All of her babies are named either "Nemo Baby," "New Baby," "Amy," or "Pink." It's kind of confusing but kind of makes things easy too. I'm not sure how some of those monograms would look, however.

Ellie loves her friends. She pretend calls her friends frequently and we have had to make a new family rule at the dinner table: "No talking on your (pretend) phone at the table." Who knew... she's 3!

Ellie talks to herself - usually in the car. She carries on elaborate conversations and sometimes argues with herself. When asked who she is talking to, she says, "Me!"

She sings her ABC's but always skips a few and ends it with, "Now I DON'T know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me." Cracks me up and makes me not want to teach her the missing letters.

She can spell her name (thanks to Will) and loves finding the letter "E" in public.

She thinks anything with the letter E is her name.

She loves to cuddle after naps. She loves to rock.

She loves to read stories and will typically have me read the exact same story at nap time and bed time for a good week before choosing another book.

She doesn't have many clothing opinions yet, thankfully.

She loves hide n seek but cant' stand the suspense of hiding & usually pops out of her spot.

She loves to play outside.

She is a great swimmer and just recently swam the width of the pool ALL BY HERSELF!

Yep. She is an incredible little swimmer for her age. She taught herself to dive this year and also to jump in from up high and to take breaths while swimming distances.

She knows her colors and shapes.

Ellie is rarely in trouble. She has (so far) really been a good, obedient child. I used to attribute her obedience to a lack of mobility as I think that usually little kids get in trouble when they do things like climb on tables or run away in parking lots - things that require more mobility than Ellie had. However, now she is mobile and still generally really good. On the rare occasion that she has been in trouble, she becomes very, very upset and continually asks, "Are you mad at me?" with a quivering lip. Despite repeated assurances that we are not mad at her, she continues to quiver and show great remorse. She is very, very tenderhearted.

When not being a mommy, Ellie is usually a doctor. I noticed in her annual video that most of her photos included a stethoscope around her neck! She knows words like, "surgery" and "anesthesia" and "blood pressure" and "stethoscope" and uses them correctly. She loves to give check ups and cracks us up with her seriousness. She is very sensitive to anyone in pain (like her big brother) and is quick to pat a back of a crying kid and express concern about them. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she becomes a nurse or doctor. (She's certainly gotten to know her fair sure of some amazing people in the medical field to inspire her.)

She loves playing with her big brother and knows her superheroes by name. Sometimes, she is Batgirl, sidekick to Will's Batman.

The hardest part of age 2 for us was no doubt, 2 surgeries for Ellie in early 2013 on all 4 limbs.

That was ROUGH.

The absolute best part of age 2? The miracle of age 2?

Ellie walked at age 2!

When she turned 2, she was rolling or scooting on her bottom to get where she needed to go.

She was also using a walker but was not a big fan of that.

By almost 2 1/2 yrs old, she WALKED independently!!!

It is a miracle!

With surgeries and recovery, she spent about 3 + months not walking... and then she took off again this spring! In fact, by early summer, she had taken her first independent steps BAREFOOT (without splints and shoes!)

(A few weeks ago, at the hospital in Dallas, someone told my mom that having seen Ellie shortly after her birth, he thought there was no way she would be able to walk... and wow! She is walking!)

In fact, she is starting to run in her own way! The girl is getting fast! I love watching her move and how her hair sways side to side and I just think it is so graceful and beautiful and amazing!

Watching so many things come together and so much hard work and prayers become answered during the course of age 2 was definitely the highlight for us all.