A Plea for Help

The last two weeks have been well....BAD and there is really no other way to describe it. I am not sure what happened to Ella but she is not the little girl I remember. She has picked up some nice new phrases that she likes to say to be about 20 times a day. They are; "I am going to throw this at your face" or "I am going to hurt your legs" or another favorite, " I will hit you". I am not sure where she even learned these things...I promise I have never said them to her.

To add to my misery she is also hitting and throwing things at me frequently. Let me just take you on the journey of our day so you can understand.

While on the phone, I am continually being whipped with her blankie. So I get off the phone and give her attention. She wants me to paint. I do and she starts flinging the paint at me. I try to watch videos with her, she hits me 6 times. It is now time for lunch. She says that she wants me to eat with her. I make two plates of food and we sit down together. She asks for some salsa and then takes her tortilla with salsa on it and smears it all over the wall. I then make her help me clean it up and she starts putting chips in her milk. So, I move the milk away from her and she throws her tortilla at my head.

Rest assured that there are lots of time-outs in between all this drama but after the last one time-out I go upstairs to try to do the whole "show forth an increase of love" thing. I tell Ella that I love her and she says "Do you?" I say "yes" and she says "But I make you sad?" At this moment I feel like I suck.

It is then time for nap...she decides to inform me that she is too big for a nap and apparently she meant it because she didn't take one. So, when I am supposed to be having a break from her she instead hits and throws things at me. We also have a little conversation during this time where she says that she wants to move back to our old house because Daddy was there and Rayna lived closer and she got to play with Isaac and Elliot.

Make no mistake about it. I feel bad for Ella. I really thought that after 9 months she would have stopped asking to move back but she still asks everyday about it and I wish I could figure out a way for her to see the good in being here. I also know that things have really been changing around here to get ready for a new baby and that this is hard on her. I know people say lots of kids have a hard adjustment to a new baby but what I need is to know how to get through this.....

So, do any of you out there in the world of blogging have any ideas.....please...

Easter Fun!!

Supposed to be dying Easter Eggs...she was really sad when all the green came off in the bath. I guess you can tell from the picture how pleased she is with her hands.

Easter Egg Hunt!

Daddy helping find.

The best part: Seeing what's inside.

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.

Ella the Midwife

I LOVE my midwives!! Not just because they take good care of me but because they let Ella be a part of everything.

They let her see how much she weighs and they take time to talk to her about having a baby brother. But Ella's favorite part is when she gets to turn on the little machine and find the baby's heartbeat (as shown above).

As a side note, I went back and forth about whether or not to put this picture up because, well, this is not my best side (not that I have one right now). But I decided to anyway..hoping that everyone would focus on Ella's happy little face as opposed to my huge belly (though I do have a good excuse!).