Ellie-isms

We've been working super hard to get back on track with Ellie.  It feels that we lost a little magic when Eva joined the family.  Adding another person seemed to jumble up things and we were left with a little person that wasn't sleeping as well and was defiant about a lot.

With the help of her preschool teachers and a lot of one on one, we're back!  We still have an almost 4 year old that challenges boundaries but she's much happier, minds directions more and is sleeping better.

With this new found "grove", we've been enjoying many funny observations that come from her little mouth.

One day we had a duck pair tootling around our yard.  We were trying to describe how they were different.  The "boy duck" was the pretty one with the curly tail feather.  And the "girl duck" was colored so she would blend in with her surroundings to protect the eggs.

Later, Ellie saw the ducks again.  She said "Hey, there's the tricky one!".  We were puzzled...the tricky one?  Yes she insisted, "The one that likes to hide." :)

Another interesting thing Ellie is doing, is labeling things as beautiful and not beautiful.  It's normally categorized as something with lots of colors versus something that only has one color.  Recently, this came up in school when her group was asked to sort a pile of rocks and gemstones.  Most kids sorted by size or color but Ellie applied her "beautiful lens" to the activity.  She didn't even want to show the not beautiful ones (the rocks).

Ellie's also getting into words.  They have been practicing writing names all school year and she's been getting better and better at writing her letters. 

The other morning we passed by a schedule chart in the kitchen.  She looked at it and said "There's the Quiet Time sign".  I was astonished that she knew it said that.  I asked her how she knew that it said Quiet Time.  She looked at me like I was crazy and stated matter of frankly, "Because it says Qqquiet...Q-U-I-E-T."  Got it.