2.5

I'm big on half birthdays - love to send half of a card, or cross out every other letter on a "Happy Birthday" card, or even decorate half a cake ...  you know, normal (right?) stuff. And today is Elle Belle's half birthday! (It's also the birthday of one of my best friends in the world, so I'm pretty jazzed about the day in general.)

It's hard to sum Elle up at this big 2.5-year mark. It's also weird to not naturally refer to her age in months any more - it makes her seem so old.

Elle is amazingly sweet, clever, smart, perceptive and strong-willed. After dinner, she's either cuddly and subdued or energetic and fired up. (One night she might want to cuddle, the next night she spends 30 minutes trying to throw a blanket over my head. I much more prefer the cuddling.) She's artistic - she can outlast anyone in a coloring contest and demands that you draw ghosts and monsters for her. She's dramatic - she is big in to role-playing with her stuffed animals, taking care of them and having conversations about what they want for snack or what they want to play on the iPad. She can have a meltdown in the blink of an eye and recover in the next blink.

Elle is excited about her future sibling, too. She's pretty convinced that it is a boy, so if we're having a girl she will be extremely confused. She is still learning to be gentle with Mommy's belly, although in general she's a pretty loving and not a violent or physical kid (sooo glad we haven't really had issues with hitting or biting, knock on wood). I think that once she feels some kicks from the baby she'll be even more anxious for the little one to come out and play.

Really, Elle hasn't changed dramatically in the last two years in terms of personality or what she likes and doesn't like. She still LOVES books. She is still a little parrot and picks up on almost everything. She loves playing outside. She enjoys watching football, baseball and basketball with her daddy. She loves her blankie and the iPad. She enjoys grocery shopping with Mommy and eating snacks in the car and stroller. She likes singing and fake laughing. 

She's obsessed with all things Halloween - "ghostes," monsters (although she has this weird Boston-ish accent, so she says "monstahs), vampires, owls, jack-o-lanterns, etc. She likes to be scared, but only to a certain extent, at which she buries her head in your shoulder and begs you to protect her. Sometimes she'll feign bravery and offer to protect you, but you quickly learn the truth behind her motives when she asks where the ghostes/monstahs/owls are.

She is recently daytime-potty trained (a post in itself), but now we go to the potty all. the. time. And we tell everyone about it, because Elle is not shy. Now that she's not really in diapers any more, I feel like we're really past a big "baby" thing and she'll all the more "little girl" now.

She loves almost all fruits, beans and ketchup. She does not like veggies. She doesn't drink milk unless she's duped (like at daycare, where they add milk to her hot chocolate). She likes juice but still drinks mostly water. She loves dessert - cookies, candy and ice cream make this little girl extremely happy. She's recently started to eat more pasta, but that's mostly because she spends the meal trying to slurp her noodles.

 

Fake laughing is fun!

She's a big toddler - this pregnant mama feels it every time I pick her up, and I can't hold her for long stretches of time any more. Getting her in to the car seat is a movement that can be best described as a heave, and putting her in to the cart at the grocery store counts as my upper-body workout for several days. I took her out of the crib last night and realized I won't be able to do that much longer without hurting myself. I think she weighs close to 35 pounds. She's wearing 3T and 4T clothes (the 4T pants are a bit long, but the 3T pants are usually a bit tight unless they're super stretchy). She's between a size 8 and 8.5 in shoes, and her feet are on the wide side (baby got mommy's foot genes).

Partly because of her size, partly because of her potty training progress, and partly because of the new little one on the way, we'll be transitioning her from the crib soon ... her next "big girl" change. She sleeps with a blanket over her head ... I really don't know why, but it makes her a sweaty mess when she wakes up. And leaves rings of sweat in her crib. So at least she can still leave sweat rings in her bed.

Our little baby is growing up, and I love the little person she's continuing to develop in to ... she can definitely push my buttons some times, but she's my favorite, even when she's driving me bonkers.