Elsie is a two-year-old

I have a renewed desire to keep record of our lives and especially to try to remember all the adventures of Elsie. Every now and then, Aaron will mention something that he says "needs to go in Elsie's journal" to which I say "what journal?" She is growing up too fast, and I've already missed and seem to have forgotten so much. Perhaps there is a way to live with such a zen-like, in-the-now mental state that it doesn't bother you if you forget things from the past, but I have not reached such a mindset. I guess, actually, Elsie is the epitome of that mindset, though her memory is getting more impressive--not to mention her astounding sense of direction. Recently, someone asked us what Elsie's first word was, and we couldn't even remember! We guessed either ball or dog, but we weren't sure. And so, here goes another push to be better at keeping record of our lives, if not for anyone else but ourselves.

So Elsie turned two in October and I didn't post about it. It was a beautiful morning on her birthday and I took her "up the mountain", as she says, to a spot along the Provo River Trail and followed her around snapping pictures of her and the beautiful colors.

Her first activity was gathering handfuls of gravel to throw off the bridge and into the river. What could be better! Down the path a little further we found more gravel, eventually a nice puddle for jumping in, and a perfect fence for posing on.

When we were done taking pictures, and the clouds took over the sun, Elsie went down the slides on the wet playground a million times. And because it was her birthday, I tried not to care that the slide was wet. 

The rest of that day consisted of, I'm not sure what until dinner at Gramma's house, a slew of Elsa themed presents, and a bunny and an owl cake (I don't know what got in to me). 

Now November is almost over, and I can't distinguish the October 18th Elsie from the November 28th Elsie, so here are some thoughts on Elsie now:

--She can put lots of words together to make pretty decent phrases and sentences. One that she learned from a Baby Signing Time video is "Nice to see you again" and "How are you doing". For some reason she switched to calling us "mom" and "dad"...she seems to be dropping the baby-ish "ee" and the end of every word. Aaron and I cracked up laughing the first time she said "poop" instead of "poopy". I guess we are childish, something about it seemed so funny.

--She can use the potty. Sometimes (rarely) she wants to use the potty. Potty training mainly seems like my burden--like it will take more time and effort on my part than hers. But we keep saying that she's practicing for her Elsa undies...because we bought her a 3-pack and sometimes she just likes to hold on to them and take them with her to places. Like the restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner.

--She also likes to speak jibberish, thanks, I'm certain, to Aaron. Right now her jibberish word is "ga-goose". At first we tried guessing what it meant by asking her--Goggles? Bad goose?--and she would just laugh at us like it was a secret we would never know.

--Elsie is, I won't say picky, but selective when it comes to eating. Her current go-to foods are Life cereal and scrambled eggs, though those seem to be on their way out. She hates meat--she's never tasted it except for in mashed up baby food, but she won't even let us put it near her. Sometimes we can get a vegetable bite in her. The biggest issue there is mainly just that I need to actually make vegetables.

--Somehow Aaron started the "Hug Song" with her. He would just hold her in a hug and sing "hug song, hug song, hug song" over and over as long as she would allow. Now it's turned into the family hug song, so I get to be included in the love. And Elsie likes to sing the song herself!

--She is also really good and singing her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Rock-a-Bye Baby, but she won't sign them for anyone except me quite yet. Just a little more practice then they'll be perfect :)

--She loves swings, slides, parks, being outside, throwing leaves off our front threshold through the fence and watching them fall (this is a ritual that seems to be necessary before every entry), Inside Out, Snoopy, playing Play Doh, coloring with crayons, playing sneaky or chase or any rough housing game with daddy.

--She has recently experienced a serious leap in her dancing power. Katy Perry's "Roar" is her favorite and will get her grooving instantly. She even jumps and gets both feet up off the ground!

I guess there are probably endless bullet points that I could write. But endless is frightening, so here I shall end.