Sick...AGAIN!!!!!!

Ok, so all of you out there with little ones can probably relate to this. I feel like Ella is constantly sick. About 3-4 weeks ago she had a cold. She had been off of antibiotics for literally a week and then started with this terrible cough. So we visited Dr. Shelly and come to find out she had double ear infections and an upper respiratory infection. So we are still on antibiotics from that and then she throws up on Wednesday morning. No fever, no other symptoms and she acts like she is feeling fine so I just think it is a random occurrence. WRONG! I pick her up from Mrs. Benita's yesterday and when we get home the diarrhea begins. We lay her down for bed and the vomiting begins. We went through three pairs of jammies last night and it was around midnight before she finally got settled down. I just prayed all night to please let her make it through the night without another incident. One, because I felt sorry for her and two because I didn't have anymore clean pajamas! Is it too much to ask that we have like 2 months without sickness? Poor thing, here I am complaining and she's the one who has to suffer! I could not imagine having two. I only work three days a week and I feel like I have to take off of work all the time! (As you can see from the pics below, today is a much better day!)

Little Chef

Ella has a cottage in her playroom that she loves to play with. It has a washing machine, sink and oven for baking. This morning she made cupcakes (she prefers to call them muffins though). She cracked the egg, stirred the batter and stuck them in the oven. Then, I was the first to taste them! They were so yummy! We love playing house and Ella makes the best "muffins."

Hayden's 2nd Birthday

Hayden had her 2nd Birthday party today and we went to help her celebrate. It was a Care Bear themed party and we watched the Care Bears, colored in our Care Bear coloring books (our party favor) and played outside since the weather was perfect. We had so much fun at your party Hayden! Happy Birthday!

What's Up with Ella

So, I haven't posted in awhile about what Ella has been up to lately. She changes so much everyday and its hard to keep up with it all. First of all, she is such a girly girl. She loves make-up, purses, babydolls, jewelry, etc. She likes to comb her own hair and she loves to pretend she is putting make-up on when I get ready in the mornings. She loves shoes and likes to have them on all the time. If she doesn't have her regular shoes on then she has to have her bedroom slippers on. It bothers her when I come in and take my shoes off. She hands them to me and says, "shoes, Mommy" which means that she wants me to put them back on. She has taken a sudden interest in TV and wants to watch it nonstop. But, the only two shows she will watch are Elmo's World and the Backyardigans. So, we repeat the same 5 DVD's over and over again unless they just happen to be on. I guess we need to start TiVo-ing them! Her language has exploded over the past 3-4 months. She can repeat anything you say and talks nonstop. Her favorite phrases are "No ma'am" and "Ella do it". Which leads into her next new development: independence. She refuses to eat unless she is feeding herself, wants to sing all by herself with no help and likes to read her books all by herself. The days are over of actually reading to her..she won't have it.
Ella's favorite activities are reading (Alphabooks are her favorite). She also loves having tea parties and likes to take care of her babydolls. She rocks them and feeds them everyday. She has four and has named them: Emma (after her friend Emma Cate), Allie (after her friend at daycare), Isabel and Lucy. Today she was putting Lucy to sleep and I heard her say, "Wucy, way down" (aka Lucy, lay down). I got so tickled. She enjoys talking on the phone and wants to call everybody. She doesn't put the phone up to her ear with her hand, she does it with her shoulder. I guess she has seen me do that! She also loves to color and draw.
We are working on her colors right now. She can pick out pink, green, blue and yellow but has trouble with the rest. She can count to eleven, skips twelve and does all of the teens. She can sing her ABCs and spell her name. She has also started to recognize letters and points them out in books and on billboards when we are in the car.
Last, but not least is singing. We do this all the time. She can sing "Jesus Loves Me" all the way through and it is the sweetest. I am trying to video it but she gets shy when I turn the camera on. Her favorite bathtime songs are "Old MacDonald" and "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain". At bedtime, she likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear".
She has become such a big girl now and is no longer a baby. She still loves to cuddle and sit in my lap though, which I adore. We can't believe that she will soon be 2!

Snow Days

We had so much fun with the snow the last couple of days. This was the first time Ella got to see the snow falling so we took her out in it Sunday night. She loved it when it tickled her face! Yesterday we went out before lunch to play. We went for a ride on the sled and walked all around the yard. Daddy had to go into work so he didn't get to play in the snow with us. We wanted to build a snowman but I couldn't do it all by myself and Ella wouldn't keep her gloves on and cried everytime snow got on her hands. I guess we have had more fun admiring it from inside through the windows! Ella keeps running up to the window saying, "I see no" which means "I see snow".