{peplum: June and January // leggings: Old Navy (old) // chambray: Carter’s (old)}
{month thirty-three} This kid! How is she almost three?! She definitely has an opinion and is not afraid to tell you, like how she didn’t want to take a picture yesterday in the glider with Leo and thankfully Aaron captured this one of her when we were in Indiana!
Physically Eloise is a pretty big kid, bigger than most of her friends. I suspect she will be a few inches taller than me (hopefully you get longer legs kiddo!) and she has always been bigger than average on the growth charts. She runs everywhere which results in lots of tumbles and falls… She has mastered going up and down the stairs, and will finally be tall enough for her balance bike this spring and summer which I hope she enjoys!
Eloise’s hair is so, so long and very fine. It has grown out in layers and is half-way down her back! Up until recently she has been afraid of getting a haircut, almost to the point where it upsets her, so we have continued to tell her that she doesn’t have to have one and we can wait until she is ready. I am getting my hair cut when we visit Boise in July and she may choose to get it cut then (since she wants to basically do everything that Mama does). She doesn’t like ponytails or pigtails (though we can incentivize her with looking at photos on a phone if we need/want it up) and tolerates a bow clip to keep her bangs back. Most of the time though her hair is down and always in her face!
Potty training is still going well and is actually better after Daphne’s birth, despite warnings from both her pediatrician and my midwife (and a slew of other people) that a new baby would (or could) cause a regression. Eloise is consistently pooping in the potty now (though she still gets an applesauce pouch as a treat for that) and self-initiates almost all the time. We have had a few accidents in the past months, but they are all because we (both Eloise and either Aaron or I) have just lost track of time or she is consumed in playing. We aren’t quite ready to try nighttime training since it requires wake-ups in the middle of the night, but will probably try this summer while Aaron is on paternity leave since I think she is much more ready now (rather than when we tried around Christmastime last year).
Eloise loves being a big sister to Daphne and calls her “my baby.” She is (overly) helpful with everything from giving Daphne her paci to getting me a diaper. There are lots of hugs and kisses too. The first thing Eloise asks about when she wakes up from a nap or in the morning is Baby Daph-A-Nee!
All of the sudden Eloise has engaged in so much imaginative play and it is so fun! She pretends to be: a mama (to Baby Stella from nursing her to going to the grocery store), the mail man/person (she loves our mail man Teddy), to a cook (making lots of coffee and chopping vegetables), to tea party, to a librarian (reading me or her stuffed animals and dolls a story), to being Dr. Lower (with her doctor kit Daphne gave her at the hospital). And most recently she was playing with her cousin Charlotte and they were pretending with this little dog and cat play set at Nana and Papaw’s house as well as playing “bakery” at the playground (Eloise was baking pizza, but her oven was broken!).
Eloise has an amazing memory (as most kids at this age do) and remembers absolutely everything! She will hear something one time and will then remember and tell you like 3 weeks later. And she has also started memorizing books. While she LOVES to have stories and books read to her, she will “read” to herself and flip thru the pages of the book while reciting the parts that she knows. It is crazy that she knows some stories verbatim!
I think one of the most fun things about having a two-and-a-half year old is how much their language is developing and the funny things that they say. And Eloise is such a talker, so communicative, and is so, so funny! So here are some of the things we have been hearing lately:
Eloise LOVES jokes and tells them all the time. Here is one of her original jokes: “A cow walks into a barn and the barn-tender says ‘You forgot your tulips!'” (Based off of Aaron’s joke: “A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says ‘Why the long face?'”
We talk a lot about feelings and emotions, a lot in part to Daniel Tiger. Eloise now says “Grrr! I’m frustrated.”
“Oh gosh!” when something surprises her.
“Dang it!”
“Um, that’s not good.”
“That’s a good idea!”
“You can help me with this. It’s tricky.”
“Can I have more [fill in the blank] darling?”
“I am playing silly.”
Me: “What language are you speaking?” [When she is speaking complete gibberish.] Eloise: “I don’t know.”
Indian-applesauce (for Indianapolis). Though when Aaron said this the other day, she corrected him saying “Papa, it’s Indianapolis!”
When the crayon she was coloring with didn’t work: “Mama, this crayon doesn’t have any more purple in it! My purple has no purple in it! Help!”
And finally, Eloise sings all day long. It is the sweetest! And she is the best at mash-ups (combining songs together). One of her favorites is “Oh my darlin'” which is truly the saddest song ever; have you ever paid attention to the lyrics?
{weight} I would guess 32 or 33 pounds.
{hair} dark (reddish) brown.
{teeth} 20 teeth and molars.
{eyes} dark brown.
{clothes} 2T, 3T and some 4T.
{diapers} POTTY TRAINED! size 2T/3T underwear during the day and honest company size 6 diapers for naptime and at night.
{feeding} during the day, three meals, morning snack, & afternoon snack. cup of milk with every meal.
{likes} school (her friends and teachers), talking walks around the neighborhood, coloring, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, football, yelling, Duplos, digging in the dirt, splashing, counting, chewing on her toothbrush, the mailman, any person outside on the sidewalk, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, buckles, jumping, watching out the front window (dogs, kids, trucks), books, mama & papa’s cell phone (photos or FaceTime), singing & music, dancing, Sadie, bath time, shoes, mama’s bag, clapping, putting things inside a bag or box, taking lids off of things, talking, helping with anything & everything, when Papa comes home from work, airplanes/trains/buses.
{dislikes} not being included, having something taken away from her, being hungry, getting into the carseat, getting out of the carseat, not being able to do something herself.
{nicknames} Bug, E, Wheezy, E-Lo, Ellie or Elle.
Happy thirty-three months Eloise!
M