Full of Surprises!!

After art class today, I wrote Ella's name on the back of the drawing she had made. Then Ella said she was going to write her name all by herself. And here it is:

I know there is a letter missing but I was shocked!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Well, we have made it to three. It is an exciting age. Here is a list of some of the things Ella can do this year that she couldn't last year:

1. Dress and undress herself

2. Use the potty (thank goodness)

3. Do some chores (put her own plate in the sink, put her clothes in the dirty clothes and wipe down the coffee table)

4. Negotiate with the best of them. When we ask her to do something we often hear "what about......(fill in the blank with Ella's idea of how to get out of doing what she doesn't want to).

5. Draw pictures of things that we can identify (faces, spiders, rainbows, and the letters "L" and "H").

6. Spell her own name.

7. Put together a puzzle.

8. Tell a joke (they aren't as funny as she thinks they are).

9. Sing a song (favorites are "I Love to See the Temple" and "The Colors Song").

10. Name all the different candy bars (yeah, she is genius).

And I am sure there are many more. She is a wonderful little girl and has filled our last 3 years with lots of laughs.

A Local Celebrity...

Here she is at the park...trying to keep her identity concealed from the paparazzi.

And here is the most recent sighting with her best friend "blankie".

To: Those Who Have Been Here Before...

I can't keep clothes on this child. I understand that she needed to learn how to undress herself and am grateful bc now she can use the bathroom...but seriously...how do all the Moms out there keep their kids dressed?

And please tell me I am not the only one who leaves their child alone for one second only to find this....I mean the rain-boots do add a little something interesting but I think a shirt would be nice too.

I always thought it wasn't such a big deal that she wanted to be "all maked" all the time but as of late it is starting to cause problems. You see it was always one of those family secrets that no one else knew. When I took her out in public she was always dressed so I figured people just assumed that she was also dressed at home. But lately, my secret is starting to get out. This is partly bc I can't seem to take a picture of her dressed but that was just the beginning. We also have the problem that our neighbors both have boys a few years older than Ella that like to play outside our sliding glass door. So now I have to keep the curtains closed most days. And we tend to have friends that stop by and I am afraid they are going to stop coming bc they don't want to see Ella in her under-roos. Not to mention that they might call CPS bc it looks like we don't feed the kid.


We tried have tried a few tactics:

1. We let her pick her own clothes out..but they still only stay on for about 2o min.

2. We told her she was a big girl not a baby...but she just said "I want to be a maked baby".

3. We had a talk with her about modesty. She even admitted during it that Mommy and Daddy wear clothes and don't go around "all maked" but somehow the behavior did not change. Instead she added a little dance called Ohh, My Naked Tooshie that is preformed whenever the tooshie is exposed (don't worry there are no pics of it).


And so now I am requesting help from the all those who have been here before...please tell me there is hope...I really would like to get some clothes on the child.