Cool Kid.

Ella is growing up so fast and becoming so independent. She is also quite the little mommy with her babies and an amazing big sister to Claire.

 The last couple days she is waking up around what we think is her usual 6am; however, instead of waking us up she gets up on her own. She quietly gets  up, turns on the lights in her room, and plays. Today she even went downstairs, quietly, turned on the lights, and began to play with her babies. The only reason she even came and woke us was because in the process of trying to turn on the lamp she turned the knob to the left to where it fell off. She was even responsible enough to lay the little knob on the platform by the bulb so it wouldn't get lost. I mean who is this that we live with? It's not as if we have ever told her to go back to bed or not to wake us. She just wants to be independent and responsible. And that she is.

I also love how caring, gentle, and responsible she is with Claire. Ella is the most selfless, caring individual I have ever met. She truly loves her little sister and wants to be a big help. If I get up and walk away and Claire starts to fuss, without me even asking, Ella jumps in to make silly faces or talk in this to die for baby voice that she uses with Claire. Last night while I was making dinner the girls were in the living room and Ella had Claire absolutely cracking up. Ella even came up to ask me if this little toy robot was too small for Claire to play with. Ella is also pretty certain she is going to teach Claire to talk. And in all honesty she is using the correct technique. She holds up an object and just labels that object. She then repeats that one word label over and over. She does this while riding in the car or at home. Smart girl and pretty stinkin cute.

Lately you definitely know if she understands every single word you are saying or not. She will pick one word out of an entire conversation and ask what that means. I think it's pretty cool to know that I can truly have a conversation with her and she understands and that if she doesn't understand even one word of it she is going to clarify.

She is learning so much at school. Out of nowhere she will just blurt out information or share little tidbits with me. One day in the car she just starts reciting the pledge of allegiance. Word for word. Another day she starts counting in Spanish. She can also name a few colors in Spanish. And one day just yells out "dónde están mis zapatos" (where are my shoes). She tells me things about the continents, The United States, dinosaurs, etc. She even sings a little jingle about the months and one about the seasons and how that works with the rotation of the sun. Ya my mouth is in the dropped open position most the time I am around this children.

 

 

She has also physically grown by leaps and bounds since this summer. She was wearing 18 or 24 month shorts this summer and 2T pants. I bought her 3T pants to start out the school year, which are now too short for her! She has grown a few inches since this summer in height and has gone up three shoe sizes since summer!

 



She is a pretty amazing kid. I have always known that. What's even more amazing is that somehow, each day, she does something new to top the awesome happenings of the day before.