Ellie: 2 years old

Two years ago (and a little bit...) I did the hardest thing I had done yet, and welcomed Ellie RaNay Grigsby into this world on her due date!

It was a perfect day, and EVERYTHING went exactly how I wanted it to go. Life was perfect, and we had our beautiful little girl!

Two years later, every day is a new adventure full of tantrums, whining, the occasional laughing fit, DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA, and a hug and a kiss whenever possible.

Notable things about Ellie at age 2:

• Everything is "Ellie's" and she points to herself when looking at something and calls it her own
• She has quite the vocabulary and is starting to put more words together
• She LOOOOOVES her baby dolls
• My Russian Nesting dolls are her favorite toy ever
• She loves to be girly and have her nails painted, hair done, and wear dresses and bracelets!
• She LOVES her cousin Isaac and talks about him ALL the time
• She loves to play with Grandpa Grigsby and asks for him
• She loves to FaceTime with Grandma & Grandpa Timothy
• Dancing is her favorite way to get around
• She is clearly addicted to television and Netflix. Working on changing that...
• She is VERY active and has tons of energy. She loves to go outside and just RUN RUN RUN!
• She likes to sing songs and will sing along with any song playing, and she'll get the hymn book and sing songs from it
• If either one of us is on the phone, she will grab her play phone and talk on it while we're talking
• She is getting better at saying prayers and repeating things, though sometimes she just sits there and says "amen" until you get to the end
• She is wearing size 24 month clothes, size 6 shoes, some 2t size clothes, size 4 diapers and only has a mild interest in potty training.
• She still takes a 1-2 hour nap, and I am SOOOO thankful for this!
• She sleeps in a twin size big girl bed and LOVES it. We think she's fallen out a few times, but she always gets right back in and goes to sleep, ha ha!
• Her favorite foods are: scrambled eggs, apples, blueberries, Greek yogurt, green beans, goldfish crackers, milk and smoothies. She is getting better at eating meals and will eat a lot more meat than she used to.
• She is SUPER obsessed with putting her shoes on.
• She loves her little brothers, and is always trying to help, even when her help isn't wanted...
• She loves taking baths, and anything else to do with water
• Her favorite toy is her Minnie Mouse car
• She is a pretty good listener, and talks ALL the time
• She's good at carrying a tune!
• She loves to help me whenever she can, and I love to let her learn how to do simple chores around the house
• She's very much so a mommy's girl, but she gets SO excited when daddy comes home from work, she runs and gives him a hug.
• She's always asking, "Hold it" when she wants me to hold her, or if she wants to hold one of the babies.
• She likes to lay down next to the babies, and thinks it's the neatest thing ever
• She says, "Down you" when she wants you to lay down next to her
• She's extremely possessive of her things. The babies CANNOT play with her old baby toys, or use her blankets AT ALL.
• She can almost get herself dressed, and she can put certain pairs of shoes on her feet and 85% of the time gets the right feet.
• She loves to go "buy-bye" with me and usually behaves extremely well when we're out and about
• She can count to 10, with just a tiny bit of help
• She knows a LOT of her letters
• She knows lots of colors and I think her favorite is either pink or green. Not sure yet...
• She has a GREAT imagination and uses it all the time when she's playing by herself
• She is getting MUCH better at playing by herself
• She loves to go to church, and specifically, Nursery

That's Ellie at 2 in a nutshell. I know there are probably more things, but I cannot think of what they are right now. She's a little firecracker that keeps us on our toes, but she is so much fun. Even though she makes the days really hard, I am so thankful that I have her in my life. She brings our family so much joy and happiness!