Eloise at 2 years

Eloise, our little baby Elo is going to beTWO years old tomorrow! The past few months have been a whirlwind of celebrations, sleepiness & laughter. Eloise has definitely transitioned well into her new role as big sister #2 & continues to draw much attention to herself on a daily basis with her crazy stunts & non stop action. I know, those of you with boys are laughing right now thinking "oh you just wait till the twins are on the brink of two!" For now, Eloise is just about the craziest kid we know & we couldn't love her any more!

STATS: 28 pounds- 75th percentile 

             34.5 inches- 50th percentile 

             Size 2t clothing & size 8 shoes

A day in the life of sweet Eloise...in random order. 

• Elo got upgraded to a big girl bed a few weeks ago.  This deserves a post of its own & it will get one in due time but long story short. I sold her crib while she was asleep in it via Craigslist all in the matter of a couple hours. Poor girl ended up on a mattress on the floor in her room that evening. I thought she would be really sad but instead she started jumping up & down shouting "BOUNCE HOUSE!!" She did awesome staying in her bed & has since been promoted to the blue toddler bed Char was sleeping in. 
• She is on sissy's tail when they come to our room in the morning. She repeats exactly what Charlotte says with the exact same inflections. She crawls into my bed & says "me, snuggle? me, snuggle you?" Who could resist that? Definitely not anyone who sleeps in that bed ; ) 
• Every morning we hear the chant "I wah eat potcakes! (pancakes)" She really wants pancakes every single day & requests them for each meal. We do make sure she gets her fill of them at least once every couple weeks...and I never correct her "potcakes" pronunciation.
• To say she loves O & A would be a vast understatement. She cannot get enough of them (I wish the feeling was mutual between the boys & Elo but sadly, it is not). She tries to lay on top of them, poke their eyes out & jab their pacifiers really far down their throats...all in love of course. When it is a bit more calm, she will play so sweetly with them singing songs & patting gently but she is unpredictable and can turn on them in a second. Sometimes when she is laying on top of them saying "shh shh shh" it looks like she is doing chest compressions. If they are crying, Eloise is stuck on repeat saying "baby soi-ing & soi-ing & soi-ing!"

Eloise & Owen

• She says "10 minutes" about everything. You say "Eloise, let's go outside" she says "I comin!" as she walks toward you & then adds "10 minutes!"  or you say "Eloise, you can hold Owen for just a minute then he is going night night" to which she replies "No, I hold'em 10 minutes." SO cute. 
• She sings all the time. You can say at any moment "Eloise, sing me a song!" & she will come up with some rendition of Jesus Loves Me mixed with all sorts of other words. 
• This girl values sleep & still happily naps twice a day a few days a week & sticking with an afternoon nap the rest of the days. Night time sleep is usually about 7:30-6:30 but some days lately the girls have been up & ready for the day at 5am!! She is currently only requesting her "baby you-see (Lucy)" to snuggle with. She still likes to have her bottom patted & sometimes requests that I pat "you-see's" as well. I usually do & then Eloise & Charlotte both giggle when I tell Lucy that she better be a good girl & stay in her bed all night. 

She must have rubbed her belly button just right & fell asleep while watching a show...in a crown. 

• She loves to sit at the table & draw. She draws squiggles & says "sake sake!" for snake & then she draws anything else & says "Yook! I draw "E"! Yea Eloise!" cute part is....it never looks like an "E." She has a really hard time keeping her drawing utensil on paper & has been found coloring on the table, chairs, plastic bins & on the wall behind the clothes in her closet.  I will chalk that up to a little less supervision at the current life stage than the eldest child had. She loves to roll out play doh & use cookie cutters to make shapes. Basically anything she makes out of play doh she calls a "potcake" & happily serves it to us. She is really good at pouring from one container to another especially water from a teapot or flour into a bowl when we are cooking. 
• Mondays & Thursdays are her favorite days of the week. Any guesses why? I will just say it since NO one would ever guess. It is when the trash man comes! For months Eloise has enjoyed sitting outside & watching the trash man empty the bins on our street. We have done this so many times that we know one man on our route by name. They always honk & wave at the girls. A few weeks ago when Uncle Scott was in town we were sitting in the grass when the truck went down our street. They go down the other side, around the cul de sac & then make their last stop at our driveway. Our friend Frankie dumped out our bin & then rolled it towards us while crouching down to talk to the girls. Eloise immediately jumped up, ran as fast as she could & threw her arms around the man's neck for a huge hug. She TOTALLY caught him off guard & he kind of hugged her while laughing & saying "I'm sorry, I'm so dirty" to me who was completely amused & could care less about the garbage that had touched him. It was hilarious. Also, this girl will sleep through a barking dog, a lawn mower & two screaming babies but if she hears the faint sound of the garbage man coming down the road, she jolts out of bed screaming "chashman!" as she runs to the front door.  I wish I had a picture of her with her friend Frankie!
• She can be heard saying "hol me hol me hol me" about a million times a day as she reaches up.  This is hard. My hands are usually full of babies so I do try to free them up to hold Eloise too. She is still my baby even though there are two more around these days. 
• Eloise is motherly. We went to Chuy's & the waitress gave each of the girls a tortilla dough ball to play with like play doh. Eloise rolled hers up & said "See mommy, it's my baby. Pat my baby." So I did for a moment & then she made me roll on the floor in a fit of laughter when she said "baby hungee" as she lifted her shirt & proceeded to feed her dough baby from her belly button. At least she is consistent...that's where she "pump milk baby" too!

• Eloise is a chatterbox & we are amazed with how well she is talking. Don't tell her sister but she can pronounce "Charlotte" better than Charlotte can pronounce Charlotte : ) She says things like "Mommy, I angry. Charlotte not share me." The other things she says all the time is "That scare me." For awhile she really hated if Charlotte did any animal sounds that were growls.  Charlotte found this funny so she would randomly growl at Eloise. Poor Eloise would come tell us "Sissy scare me!" So we would get on Charlotte about treating her sister kindly. My my, we could now call Eloise "the girl who cried wolf" because she says "sissy scare me" all the time to get out of being disciplined for whatever offense she committed! She also says "ayone me" when she wants you to go away so she can 1. be independent or 2. be naughty. 
• She calls Gaga on her "phone" all the time. She has full out conversations so much that Charlotte asked me the other day in the car if Eloise was really talking to Gaga! Haha! Speaking of Gaga, after 4 months together, this girl LOVES her Gaga. She talks about her all the time. Just a few examples: When I tell her I can't hold her that very moment she says "Gaga hol me all time" & she did which is why Eloise says "hol me" all day long ; ) If you tell her to not go potty in her panties she says "Gaga funny" which is hilarious. We have no clue why she says this! One more, she frequently says that Gaga lives at the airport & the cutest thing she says is "Gaga yuve me, Gaga miss me!"
• Discipline- a firm tone still goes a long way with Eloise but she is choosing to disobey much more frequently. She does really well when hearing what the consequence of her action will be & will say "I sorry for ____, please give me" for "forgive me." She always hugs & kisses to make up with Charlotte after an altercation. 
• Elo loves to be outside, loves to chase lizards & look at worms. She & Charlotte had a straw outside on the back porch while they looked at a worm.  Long story short, the straw became a murder weapon...I felt so awful for not paying closer attention! Those two are quite the pair & Charlotte thinks Eloise is pretty darn funny!
  
• When it's time to do business in the bathroom she says "out please" & will not go #2 until you exit the premises. This is all well & good until you leave, she closes & locks the door then empties an entire wipes container into the toilet. 
• Her absolute favorite thing to eat are "foodies" known to the general public as "smoothies." Anytime we are in the kitchen & I am preparing something, she immediately says "I help you" as she slides a chair over to the counter. She has a COMPLETE melt down if you tell her you don't need help. 
• She is getting the hang of identifying colors & shapes, can do most any animal sound.
• Elo climbs, jumps, dives & crashes to the ground with much force every day & rarely gets hurt.
• She enjoys helping to clean house with her favorite tasks being dusting with a rag & sorting silverware although she doesn't really have the hang of sorting yet ; )  

Eloise is a ham!

Eloise is a mess!

Eloise is stylish!

Eloise is precious!

Our dear Eloise, 

Two years have passed since the moment you were placed on my chest & I fell in love with a brand new baby girl all over again. You my precious girl have brought your mommy much joy & laughter over the past two years. Your sweetness is immeasurable & I feel like I will always remember you at age two with your devious little grin & your eyes cut to the side while you wait for me to giggle with you about how funny you are. It never fails, I always giggle.

You are growing & changing so fast. We love your personality Eloise! You are confident & fearless which is sometimes scary for us when we are near the street ; ) You are compassionate & loving with your family & friends. You are energetic & snuggly at the same time which can be dangerous when your baby brothers are in mommy's lap. You are happy almost every minute of every day which is one reason our home is filled with joy & laughter.

We are thankful that you are ours. We love you, we treasure our time with you & we look forward to seeing how God will shape that little heart of yours as you grow.

Love,

Mommy