Ella: 24 months

Bells,
You are a joy to everyone you meet, being the first to welcome anyone into a room and the first to hug everyone goodbye. You are an includer and are very serious about making sure no one is left out. Your smile is contagious and your love for others is inspiring. You are a total lovebug and give the greatest hugs. I love hearing you say, "Mommy, I need you. I need to nuggle my mommy!" and you tell me daily. 

You are extremely stubborn and keep us on our toes. Let's be clear. You might be the younger sister, but you DO NOT to let anyone push you around or leave you out. You have the best pouty face around and know just when to use it to get others to empathize with you. You adore your big sister and want to do everything she is doing. You love playing house together and pretending Abby is your mommy. You look forward to the moments of the day when you get to see your daddy and take rides with him if he has somewhere to go. "Go bye my dad. Abby go too?? Both go! Both go Abby...OTAY?"

Some of my favorite things you say these days are, "Oh man!", "I know" and how you use my in place of I ("my do dat" or "my like it"). Of course the best part is that you call all the people you love "yours". "I need my Mommy/Daddy. I need my Abby. I need my Ashley. I need my Oliver." It's really precious.

You're favorite characters right now are Doc McStuffins, Olaf and Anna. While we were at Nagymama's house, you fell in love with a red convertible model car she had. You played with it for hours (and still do), putting your little people in and packing up the trunk. We just had to bring it home.

You love to set up all your Frozen little people in the car and bring them around the house. You are always asking, "Where's my Olaf? My Anna?". For your birthday, you received lots of different princess dolls. You couldn't wait to take off all of their clothes, especially their shoes. Did I mention you have a thing for shoes? Your shoes, my shoes, doll shoes. You just love shoes!

You love watching Baby Signing Time with Abby and are picking up on a lot of sign language that I never would have known to teach you. I love those DVDs. Whenever a baby is at our house, you ask to hold him or her and give the baby lots of kisses. You continue to be fearless in water and very cautious on anything involving motion.You love to play with the toy kitchen and all of the food. Everyday, you fill a bag or picnic basket with play food and I can find you somewhere in the house feeding babies or making a picnic/tea party.

Outside, you are loving the swings and started letting people push you. You say "higher, higher" until you feel the motion of the swing and then you try to jump off while it is still moving.

On your actual 2nd birthday, you woke up to find a huge Doc McStuffins balloon and a bunch of gifts waiting for you. The joy on your face when you realized it was finally your turn to have a birthday was priceless. You kept saying, "All these mine, Abby? My birthday? These for me?" After opening a bunch of fun gifts, including a Doc McStuffins remote control car, Doc jammies, a birthday dress, a LeapFrog Tag Junior Reader with books and a Frozen baby Anna doll, you enjoyed some birthday pancakes complete with whipped cream and sprinkles! Aunt Ayash arrived. We played all day and had birthday pizza for dinner. You loved every minute of it. And to think you still had a big birthday party coming up!

 

At your 2 year old well check, you weighed 26 pounds. You are 2 feet and 10 inches tall.
Not only do you love Doc McStuffins, you also love going to see your doctor. Our pediatrician is great and you and Abby have been seeing him since you were born. I love seeing your excitement when it's your turn to go. This time, you brought Doc for Dr. K to check and you brought your stethoscope, so you could help!

It's official. My baby is two and this is your last last monthly baby post.  As crazy as that sounds,  I must say I do love the transition into full toddlerhood. This stage brings other kinds of fun posts about the hilarious things you have already started doing and saying. Each season is just so sweet to me.

We adore you, Ella Bean. I'm so blessed to be your mommy.