Oh, Ella...

For a while now I've really wanted to share a post about Ella, my 4 1/2 yr old daughter.
She is the sweetest kid and I feel like I've been learning a lot about her lately.Right now, she and her brother Bryce are as close as can be. They really like to play together, mostly family related imaginative play (IE she's the mommy or daddy and Bryce is the baby OR they act as the proud parents to a profusion of stuffed animals). It's when they get along best.

Ella plays the victim card a lot and cries harder and with more drama when her feelings get hurt as opposed to her receiving physical injury. Her most frequent move is to run screaming to her room and slam her door, she'll then pout on her bed till she even forgets why she's in there, if I don't have to pull her out to eat, run errands or do chores.

She also seems to like to have some quiet time to herself so I've wondered if the running to her room isn't two-fold in purpose.

Ella is getting more fascinated by the idea of reading. She seems to like the Dick and Jane readers the best and is getting good at them. Dane is constantly trying to further her education by trying spelling and math games on her, but we tell him she's just not there yet.

Ella really loves her mommy (me!) right now. She'll just stand there looking at me with an expression that says: love me! So I give her a big hug and pull her onto my lap and we hang out. Ella also enjoys:

• building Lego castles and 'guys' with Dane especially since he built her a queen with a fancy hat and 'planted' a castle garden. Did I mention the queen also has a light saber?
• her primary class
• singing Wicked (the musical) songs or anything else I am currently singing around the house
• her good buddies Brenner and McKay
• Baby Terek
• wearing dresses
• her stuffed lambs
• My Little Pony miniatures
• sidewalk chalk
• powdered sugar on pancakes/german pancakes/french toast/waffles
• water, water, water
• performing, as in singing, but you can tell she feels so shy about it at the same time.
• 'curly' hair (wavy from braids)
• 'curly noodles' (ramen)
• being outside with Daddy
• grocery shopping with Daddy

and

• ice cream with sprinkles