Ellis Update

Ellis is super sweet and so much fun.

• She has a cadence of speech that I recently have realized is mine. She talks something like this: "Mommy, Baby Joyce is taking a nap decause she is sick decause she doesn't feel well and needs to sleep, okay?" The "decause" for "because" is all hers. And it is so cute. Baby Joyce is sick a lot, btw. Ellis is usually nursing her back from some horrible illness but does not mother her at all.
• One of my phrases she recently picked up is, "It's my pleasure," when we thank her for something. It is much cuter when she says it than when I do. We just love the way she expresses herself. It is a mix of an imitation of us and her own unique way of talking. And it is always so earnest.
  
• Ellis like to hug and kiss Anders. But she doesn't want to take care of him like many girls play with dolls. She isn't sure what to do with him. However, she is more and more fascinated with her cousin Ian, who interacts with her now.
• She does translate for Anders. Ellis will announce what is bothering him when he cries and she is usually right. Once she told us he wanted a pacifier in spite of the fact that Mike and I had been unable to get him to take one. Ellis picked it up, stuck it in his mouth and held it there until he took it. We couldn't believe it worked. She is also protective of him. Once, when I got frustrated with Anders and expressed it, Ellis yelled, "Mommy, don't be angry with my baby brother!"
• There are many cute mispronunciations, and Mike tries to re-enforce all of them by repeating them. I have already mentioned "decause." She also says "discipled" for "disappointed." And she adds a "t" to a lot of works that end in "n," like "win" to "wint."
• She can use the regular potty all by herself. She is tall enough to get up there all by herself and is quite proud of that fact.

Ellis saw her first fireworks this 4th and loved them. She also found that she liked wearing one of my dresses.

Unfortunately, she is princess-obsessed. We have realized that it came from some of the kids at daycare, but it is encouraged everywhere we go. I have never seen a stranger stop and compliment her dinosaur shirt, but even a princess band-aid garners enormous approval from the passer-by. We hate it but are trying to not put up too much of a fuss, as Ellis is already likely to stick with the princesses just to defy us. So we are focusing on what we like or dislike about them: we like that Belle is smart and reads, we don't like that Cinderella is passive, we like that Tiana can take care of herself, we don't like that Snow White is easily duped, etc. She has repeated some of these things, so we are hoping that some decent lessons are sinking in.