the valentine nest: Eloise at two & a half

Eloise Hope hit the halfway mark between two & three at the end of November. I look at her & I just smile knowing the sweetness of who she is coupled with the shenanigans she is capable of. She looks so calm in the picture above holding the flowers ever so gently....she can be calm but not for long. Elo is on the go all the time! We love this girl & are thankful to have her sandwiched in the middle of our "whole family of kids." I use that phrase frequently. It was taken from an Ellis home video of me at age 7, Scott at age 3 & newborn baby Kyle all snuggled on the couch together. look at my mom & say in a nerdy way "look, it's a whole family of kids!" I look around my house sometimes & think "who lives here... a whole family of kids?" I load the dishwasher with an entire upper rack of kids silverware, bowls & sippy cups & think "yep, a whole family of kids has taken over this dishwasher!"

Anyway, Eloise is right smack in the middle of a big sis, baby boas & she couldn't be any cuter...

She is just under 30 pounds & fits most comfortably into 3T clothing although we still have some 2T items in circulation. She wears a size 8.5 or 9 shoe. She has officially "caught" her sister in shoe size since Charlotte's feet have not grown in two years! I never had a sister to share clothing/shoes with but so far, not so good, Elo always wants to wear Char's shoes & someone is not excited about that.

Eloise has recently received a new nickname....or five. We love nicknames around here : ) Our friends, those in the Ziel family have always called her Lolo so we started saying it too, we then added Lo, Loli & Lolita. Rob even made up a whole song about Lolita & how she is chiquita & bonita. It's great.

Here are some things this spunky little Lolita is up to at two & a half:

runs full speed, jumps up & down, crashes regularly
has really gotten the hang of kicking the soccer ball & loves to run down the sidewalk kicking it over & over as it bounces off the grass on either side
still rubs her belly button & holds the back of her hand over her mouth when sleepy or unsure
can stack lots of block into a tall tower, can destroy tall towers rather quickly
can count to ten but only when she wants to
knows the letters O, A, C, E which are the first initials of the kiddos around here
has not had an accident in a LONG time....knock on wood ; )
loves to eat blueberries which she pronounces "boo-bies" she also loves pancakes, turkey & cheese chunks, Cheetos, raisins, almonds & any sweet treat
sings many of her own songs
tells stories that don't make a lot of sense but are very long & usually include a monster and or Jesus shooting people with the "shooo" sound effect...not sure where that came from
she likes to sit on Bella's back
yells at the babies to not bite mommy while nursing
calls Anson "chubby bubby" & thinks of him often. She lays in our bed when the sun is coming up & says "Mommy, I want to go get that chubby bubby."
cannot for the life of her, no matter how many times we show her, get her panties on without being inside out & backwards...its hilarious
colors rather crazily with markers on paper, tables & herself
requests multiple times a day to be held & spun around or dance to music
sleeps in random places & positions ie in an infant bathtub or on her belly hanging off the side of the bed with both feet on the ground
still loves to have her bottom patted & many times convinces her sister to do it
knows a few more colors & shapes
loves to prepare "food" for us from her kitchen & says that most every item is a pancake when served

Mamasita: One thing I adore about Eloise is that she is a mini mama. She cares for Owen & Anson the best way she knows how which proves to cause a lot of crying on their part but they are getting tougher as they become accustomed to her affection. She is precious with her baby dolls & stuffed animals making sure they are fed & have clean diapers on. We all know Eloise rarely wears clothing although we are not sure why that is......we (me & Rob) agree that we love seeing her little body streaking through the house so we let her stay "cool" in her birthday suit plus some undies. Here she is feeding her baby owl.

I love that she wears shoes with undies only & then wants a baby or two strapped on....

Sissy talks a lot: A sissy talks a lot is definitely not on the Christmas list this year since we already have one ; ) This little lady has lots to say & happens to have the cutest little voice & expressions to accompany her fast growing vocabulary. Here are some frequent phrases we hear day to day:

When doing something she is not supposed to do such as jumping off the back of the couch or climbing onto the counter she says "Mommy, I be brave." I tell her I am not looking for her to be brave, just obedient ; )
If she doesn't want to eat her dinner she says "My tummy ache hurts." She also tells us "I wah yayipop, make my tummy ache feel better."
If she has two of anything she says "I have two ones!"
When it is time for a nap or bed & she is trying to stall she says "I need tell you something." We say, "yes, Eloise" & her response is always quiet jibberish with lots of "leelalula" in it.
When the girls are playing together & I overhear their conversation as Char asks Elo if she can use something Eloise usually responds with "just 40 minutes." Charlotte always asks "is that a long time?" Char asks that about every length of time we say so it makes me laugh that she asks Elo who has no idea how long that really is & she says "no, it's not a long time."
Today at the doctors office she got our pediatricians attention & said "You know what?" she leaned closer & whispered "49." ??
She knows a crazy number of her catechism questions. We were only working with her on maybe #1-12 but she knows most of the answers up to #30 just from listening in on when we review with Char. She mostly gets them right but cracks us up when we say "Eloise, how many Gods are there?" The answer is of course "one God" but she ALWAYS says "two sons" which is from something else we learned that talks about how many sons Isaac had.
This girl says "I sorry" a lot which sounds like "I saw-ee." She is definitely a quick apologizer & is saying "I sorry I sorry I sorry I sorry" immediately after whatever just occurred that was her fault. We got to laughing last night when Robby was doing an impression of her saying "I sorry I kicked you in the face mommy, I sorry I bit your finger Charlotte, I sorry I body slammed you Owen!" I am glad she wants to say sorry but I think sometimes she thinks she can do whatever she wants as long as she apologizes right away & over & over ; )

"There were never more devoted sisters": One other sweet gift I enjoy is watching a special relationship develop between these two...

They really love each other & can get to giggling so hard we cannot even get their attention. Right now they are ridiculously silly when someone burps or toots. They just dissolve into a fit of laughter. I thought only boys thought that was funny ; ) I'm in for it though considering boys may find that even funnier than girls!

Eloise does not like to go into her class at church or Thursday at school without Charlotte walking her to the door & making a big show of hugs & kisses to send her on her way. It is pretty adorable. These two spend lots of time together day & night sharing a room. Elo prefers to sleep in Charlotte's bed for nap time every day & does well climbing up and down the ladder. She snoozes for a couple hours & every now & then for three hours when she is totally wiped out. She goes down when the boys do around 1. Many times when she wakes up, she pops her head out of her room & says "Peek a boo!"

Mischievous behavior: There is a lot of mischievous behavior from this cutie patootie. I really feel like I can't take my eyes off her for very long although I do & I can't say I always regret it because I usually end up laughing hard. Here are two recent stories:

I was in the kitchen & turned off the water in the sink when I heard water still running coming from the kids bathroom. I grabbed my phone & started recording. I came around the corner to find her up on the counter with sopping wet washcloths & water pouring down the mirror as she got it "all keen mommy!" She is such a helpful girl isn't she?
We got home from school one Thursday & it is always a marathon to get everyone fed & down when they are that tired. I was feeding babies in their room with the door shut to keep the chaos out. I was gone for about 10 minutes when I heard Eloise yelling "help help!" I came out to find that she had climbed up on my craft table & found some pink embroidery thread that she unwound & ran ALL over the living rooms & playroom with. It was wrapped tightly around her foot (that could have been bad) wrapped around furniture, toys & the best part was that she had tied up Bella to where she was lying still in the middle of the floor! Haha! I had to cut the thread off of Bella & Eloise to free them & then we collected the rest. Here is the pile when we were done...