elsie - two and a half

Miss Elsie is halfway through her third year!  Such a big girl.  And while not much has changed since the last update post I wrote about her, tons has changed as well.

Elsie is still on the upper end of the growth charts, weighing in at 30lbs 5oz (67th%) and standing a whopping 37.75 inches tall (90th%)!  Ryann is 42 inches tall.  I know four inches is a big difference, but at the same time, I feel like E is gonna catch her!  While she is still wearing a lot of 2T items, she can easily pull off a 3T as well.  And some of her 2T stuff is too small, but she is particular and won't give up a few pairs of pajamas and shirts that she likes to wear.  The 2T dresses work just fine though.  I believe we are nearing the end of the life of some of her size 7 shoes as well.  She is obsessed with her yellow shoes (seen in the photo above) and for the most part ONLY wants to wear those shoes.  But her poor little toes are crammed in to them.  I would buy them in a bigger size but I bought those for Ry.  And I'm not sure if it is the color or the style or what that makes Elsie so happy, but for the most part it is yellow shoes or no shoes.

E is also still in a size 5 diaper.  Yes diapers.  Ugh.  I would have loved to have her potty trained by now, but I also have zero interest in fighting with her about it.  She is no longer scared of the potty, asks to sit on it at least every other day, and has successfully pottied in it several times.  But she has never willingly pooped on the potty.  And with a newborn, my desire to clean toddler crap out of underwear is pretty dang limited.  However, I think in the next couple of weeks we are going to suck it up, put her in underwear, and see how it goes.  Mentally she is there, I just don't know if we can convince to poop on the toilet.  She still has terrible constipation issues, and we've resorted to miralax on an every other day minimum in order to keep her from getting too backed up.  It is sad when your two-year-old says she needs some miralax.  So sad.  But hopefully by my next update the diapers will be gone!  For her at least.

We made the move to a twin bed at the beginning of July, when we moved to our new house.  I'm happy to report that is still going well.  We've only had a couple of instances that she has gotten out of bed when sleep buddy is on, but she hasn't actually left her room at all.  Nor does she call out to us when she does it, she just peeks out the window or goes in her closet.  I dunno.  She is in bed by 8pm, usually up between 6:30-7am, and I put her down for a nap around 1pm.  Lately though, she hasn't been falling asleep until almost 3pm.  I feel bad, leaving her in there for so long, but she never cries or complains.  She plays with the million stuffed animals she has stuck in her bed and just hangs out.  Same with in the morning when sleep buddy goes off, she doesn't get out of bed.  She just plays with her buddies.  I've considered telling her she can just play in her room instead of napping, but I'm worried that would back fire.  And she is still a huge grump and an emotional mess by 7pm if she doesn't nap.  If she isn't asleep by 3pm I get her out of her room, and if she falls asleep I make sure she is awake by 4pm.

This girl is still my foodie.  You can get her to do almost anything by offering her a snack, and she is much more willing and interested in trying new foods than her sister.  Elsie loves fruit, especially watermelon, corn on the cob, bread, rice, BBQ chicken, avocado, deli ham, pancakes, muffins... really the list is pretty extensive.  She loves a LOT of things.  Oh she likes mushrooms, and fried mushrooms, which makes me pretty dang happy.  Actually her and I like a LOT of the same foods, which can be good and bad.  Good because if I actually make something, I can count on her to help me eat it.  Bad, because she always wants to share what I've got.  :o)  For some reason she doesn't seem to like hamburgers or shrimp.  But I have a feeling she'll come around on those eventually.

Elsie loves to 'read' books these days.  She likes when we read to her, and makes us read the same book over and over and over again until she pretty much has it memorized.  That way she can 'read' it on her own.  Also, she is constantly hearing Ryann ask us how to spell various words, so she'll ask me how to 'pell' different words such as kitty cat and sun and whatever other random thing she is trying to draw.  It is pretty cute.  She can now recognize the numbers 1-8, except 6.  6 and 9 are too confusing to her and so she just ignores them.  And counting is about the same.  She is great from 1-14, but after that it is kind of a crap shoot.

What has truly exploded in the last few months, is Elsie's social skills and ability to string together words.  Her enunciation can still be rough, but that doesn't stop her from putting together pretty complex sentences.  I can have a regular conversation with her without changing my vocabulary to something more toddler friendly.  You know, minus expletives of course.  And she is constantly cracking me up with the things she says.  Just this morning she was trying to get something out of a box and having a little trouble.  "Ugh, I can hardly do it!  Come here wittle fella.  Come here!"  And as far as social skills go, I feel like she has a pretty good awareness of others and their feelings.  If I'm upset she is quick to notice and generally tries to fix the problem.  She tries to play with other kiddos as opposed to along side them.  She asks them relevant questions and waits for a response.  I don't know, it is hard to describe.  But I think playing with Ryann has made her play a little more advanced.

E is also great at pretend play, both with other kids and on her own.  I absolutely love sitting and watching her play on her own.  The little scenarios she creates for her buddies and such are hilarious.  A lot of times they are headed to the doctor (I think all my doctor's appointments, and Thea's, plus Daddy being a doctor, have spurred quite the interest), sometimes they are going shopping, whatever the case it is fun to watch.  She LOVES doll houses and small figurines that she can manipulate.  My mom got the girls a Calico Critters house and a couple of cat families and Elsie loves them.

As sweet as she can be, Elsie has quite the temper.  It can be scary.  All of the sudden she is swinging at you or pulling Ryann's hair.  Lately her weapon of choice has been her finger nails.  We have to talk about using our words A LOT.  She'll throw toys when she gets mad too.  Unfortunately she is so freaking cute I can't stay mad at her for long.  Seriously.  Between the curls and her ability to say the most ridiculous things at just the right time, she gets away with a lot.  We were trying to take a picture of the girls with my sister, and of course Ryann and Elsie were not cooperating.  They were finally all on the couch, but still refusing to look at me or make their faces visible to the camera.  All of a sudden Elsie grabbed Thea's waved it towards me, and in a super creepy voice said "Hi! I'm a baby!"  My mom, my sister and I?  We lost it. It was hilarious.  I was so annoyed with them but how do you not laugh at that?  Yes, I'm aware, it was probably much funnier in person.

Things that Elsie loves:  cats (unfortunate since she is allergic), coloring, playing with Ryann, helping me around the house, dumping every item from the play kitchen into a large bin and in general making a giant mess with the kitchen toys, wearing sunglasses, her papa, jumping off of things and climbing things and generally trying to give me a heart attack.

Oh Elsie girl, I love you to pieces.