I'm gonna poo in my daaaaaaiper

I (Bry) just put Elise to bed.  She went potty right before story time and then, just as I was about to leave, she said she had to go again.  I let her go and then came back to check on her a minute later.  Her face, sure enough, was hovering above the water in the toilet bowl.  I don't want to know what she had in mind next.

Disaster averted, I tried to sing her "Jesus loves me," which she immediately interrupted, "No! God is so good."  A minute after I left her again, we heard her saying that she needs to go poo poo.  We told her to stay in her bed and go to sleep, and then she decided to up the ante--"I'm gonna poo in my daaaaiper, I'm gonna poo in my daaaaiper!"  Now she's talking up a storm in there, but I can't hear what she's saying.

Too many people

We went on a walk today after dinner in the gorgeous Arroyo part of Pasadena with multimillion dollar craftsmen homes on the left and the beautiful nature-y Arroyo on our right.  Of course it was fun for us but not so much for Elise, who sat in the stroller, but she was a great sport overall  Our conversation towards the end of our time (about one hour in):

Me: Did you like going on the walk?
Elise: No.
Me: Why not?
Elise: It was so silly and there were too many people.

Which is hilarious because we probably passed by about three people total.  We were trying to think of where she got that and we realized that two weekends ago, we were at the Aquarium and she probably overheard Bry and I say that there were too many people there.  We really have to be careful about what we say around her!

Ice Cream

Elise is still very intrigued that I have to wear contacts.  I told her it was because I watched too many videos (hehehe...).  Here's our exchange today:

(Elise watching videos on my phone)
Me: Elise, no more videos.  Your eyes are going to get broken like mama's.
Elise: If my eyes get broken, I put ice cream in my eyes.

Precious

Bryant calls Elise "precious" sometimes and she gets really upset, saying, "I'm not precious!  Precious is a doggy!"

Right now, Bryant tried explaining to Elise that Precious means "special", to which Elise responded, "Precious not mean special.  Precious means nice".

Elise and I are both sick right now.  We have something similar that started on Thursday-- mostly bodyaches and fatigue.  It is so sweet cuddling together!  She asks me to massage her lower back.

Contacts

Elise: That is mama's contacts?  (tries to touch my contacts in my eyes)
Mama: Don't touch.  It's going to hurt.  I need my contacts because my eyes are broken.
Elise: Your eyes are broken?
Mama: Yes, I can't see without my contacts.
Elise: (long pause and staring at me) I'm so sad.

Mouths

This morning, Elise realized that some of her stuffed animals do not have mouths (like Hello Kitty). She then got all of her stuffed animals and explained the lips and mouths of each one, doing an impersonation of what each doll looked like. I am so sad I don't have this on video but it is probably the most hilarious thing she has ever done (in her short 2 year life).  For some reason, she thinks many of her dolls have underbites.

Dreams

Elise is starting to have some pretty vivid dreams.  I don't think she knows they are dreams...it seems like she thinks that they actually happened.

For the last week or so, she has been talking about how a dolphin fed her pineapple.  Today, when we asked her about it, she had a very elaborate storyline behind it.  She was at home and then a dolphin came by.  Elise put on her shoes by herself and walked out with the dolphin to the dolphin's house.  When they got there, the dolphin fed her pineapple.  Apparently, mommy and daddy were not there...it was just Elise and the dolphin.

The next dream involved a lion, that she has also been talking about for at least a week.  When we went to Disneyland with Toby, we very briefly saw the parade pass by us as we were going to the next destination.  The part we saw consisted of a Lion King on top of a huge float.  Recently, she has been talking about how a lion hit her and Toby. 

I'm not sure if this is another dream, but in the last few days, Elise has been asking me to watch the video of the man hitting the children in the face.  Of course, I got really alarmed and asked her where she saw it-- and she said on Bryant's computer.  I immediately went on his computer and didn't see Youtube or any other site up.  I asked Bryant about it and he said that they haven't been on Youtube in a long time.  Sounds like it was another dream.  A disturbing one!  And strange that she kept on asking to see it.

This is the way..

Elise started singing the song, "This is the way we wash our face" (the song she sang at her Spring Show.  Then Bryant started singing it and Elise said, "Nonono, you're too big to sing it". 

We have a neighbor cat that makes noises at night.  Elise thinks it is a sheep.  Every time the cat makes noises, we can hear her whining about the scary sheep. We have to go in and reassure her that it is Nala, the neighbor cat, but she's convinced that it is scary sheep.  

Spring Show

Last night was Elise's Spring Show and of course she was FABULOUS.  :)  She is such a performer and did all songs and dance with a lot of flair and Elise-ness (while most of the other kids just stood overwhelmed by it all).  She was SO excited for the show leading up to it and was hyper afterwards, too.  Soooo cute.

Random note--  Bryant will take Elise out to eat when I am teaching late.  Sometimes he takes her to Panda Express and she calls it the "Panda Bear Restaurant".  :)

Finger scare

Just had a big scare right now.  Elise started putting all of her rubber ties around her index finger.  I saw her doing it and didn't think anything of it.  Pretty soon she started complaining and there were so many ties that it was cutting off her blood circulation.  We were trying to rip them off as fast as possible and she was crying in a sad way we've never heard her before.  Her finger is pink and swollen but we think she's OK.  She said, "I need to eat some ice cream to feel better.  Ice cream will make me healthy".  This is at 8:50 PM, past her bedtime.  Oh well!

Speaking of which, she woke up this morning close to 9 AM...a record for us.  I woke up in a panic because I wasn't used to sleeping in that late.  She's been waking up late this whole week due to daylight savings (and sleeping around 8:30-9 PM).  I used to hate spring forward because it meant that I lost an hour of sleep, but now as a parent, I love it!!

I went pee-pee guys!

This is what Elise loudly proclaimed to her friends after she went potty.  They were all playing together, she went for a potty break, and when she came back to join them, she felt that all of them needed to know this. 

Longer days

Since daylight savings last weekend, we've been enjoying the longer days.  Elise spends a lot of the later afternoons playing outside with our neighbor's kids.  It's so cute watching them play together.  They have a son that is Elise's age as well as a boy that is about 6ish and a girl who is about...8?  Not sure.  The girl's name is Gabby and Elise adores her.  During dinner today, Elise asked, "Where did Gabby go?  (she's eating dinner)  What is she eating?"-- at least 20 times!  I told her that she could play with Gabby tomorrow and she's already looking forward to it.  We are so thankful to have such great next-door neighbors, especially since we share the same lot.  We just close the front gate and let the kids run around.

Now that we're outdoors more, we love our house even more, if that is even possible.  It is so conducive to kids playing outside with many different areas to play-- backyard, front yard, driveway, etc.  This house is truly one of the biggest blessings of our lives.  We've enjoyed having friends over, hosting life group, hosting parties, and having a place for the kids to run around.  At some point, we are hoping to get a gas grill and string lights in our backyard so that we can enjoy some summer bbqs! 

Stalling bedtime

A few minutes after we put Elise down to bed, she always says that she has to go poo poo.  We take her to the bathroom and she never needs to go, surprise surprise.

Tonight, she complained again but we decided to ignore her.  She started crying, saying that she pooped in her pull-up (which she has complained about before, another stalling technique).  So after about 5 minutes, Bryant went in, Elise said, "I went poo poo in my pullup!"  Bryant smelled her bottom and said there was no poo poo, and then Elise cried harder.  She said, "I went poo poo in my pullup!  Take of my PJs!  See it!  See it!" and so Bry finally took off her PJs and pull up to discover that indeed, she did a small poo.

Elise REJOICED in being right.  She said, "See!!  I did poo poo!  I told you!  I did it!  I went poo poo in my diaper!  Sorry dada!  (telling dada to say sorry).  Can you forgive me?  (telling dada to say this).  I did a poo poo!"  Then she started to get hyper knowing that she was vindicated.  She proclaimed loudly, "I want to read stories!" even though she had already had storytime, but at that point, she felt invincible and thought she had the right to ask for anything.

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland yesterday for the first time since Elise was born.  It was CROWDED and HOT!  Since David works for Disney, he was able to get us in for free.  We've been building this up for Elise for awhile now and as expected, she loved it.  What we did:

• Elise rides: Cars, teacups, and Peter Pan "boat".  Elise also loved the tram that transported us to and from the parking lot.
• Adult rides: Space Mountain, Star Wars
• Character sitings: Mickey Mouse House, Minnie Mouse House, Goofy, and Elise's (inexplicable) favorite: Pluto
• Food: Got a great discounted meal at some Mexican restaurant in the park.  Probably the best food there other than clam chowder bowl.

Elise was in high spirits the entire time- no whining, crying, tantrums, etc.  She took about a 30 minute nap in the stroller, thankfully, the same time while Toby napped. 

The entire experience is pretty exhausting, especially when it is so crowded and hot.  Seriously, you could not really move in a straight line and the entire park kind of felt like a fire hazard.  They start charging once Elise turns 3, and so hopefully we can go once more before December.  :)

Elise is not adjusting to daylight savings very well.  She finally fell asleep at around 9:30 tonight.  She complained for the first time of being scared...said that she saw sheep outside her window.  Haha.  She kept complaining about the "scary sheep".  She finally calmed down when I told her they were, in fact, kitty cats.

Toddler discipline and Shynes

Toddler behavior modification is so fascinating.  Elise started to push her bedtime later and later until she would not fall asleep until 10 PM.  That resulted in a 2+ hour bedtime routine and battle and was really wearing us thin.  I tried every trick I could find online but none of them would work.  Finally, we got a door knob safety lock so that she could not open the door on her own, essentially locking her in.  She HATED IT and would beg for us to "leave the door open".  So from the first night, that was our compromise...we would leave the door open as long as she would not come out of bed.

It takes her some time to fall asleep and so we can hear her singing, talking to herself, recounting the day, etc.  It is adorable.  Thankfully, she sleeps through the night and comes into our bed when she wakes up in the morning. 

Sleep experts say that 2 year olds should be sleeping a total of 12-14 hours per 24 hour period.  I think Elise averages at about 11.5  :)  She's always been on the low end of total sleep needed.  No matter what time we put her to bed, she will wake up 9-10 hours later.  I can't believe some toddlers sleep 14 hours per day....I know some of these kids.  Lucky parents.

In other news, we are realizing that Elise is actually quite shy around other people.  We always thought she was a super spunky and rambunctious kid because that's how she is at home and around our friends and family, but we learned from her teacher that she is one of the shyest students in the class.   I've been driving myself crazy over this, wondering if it is her or the school, and if it is the latter, then I would want to move her.  We are probably going to try out a new daycare starting this summer.  It is more expensive, farther away, and at a home, but it is with her friend Toby, has a small teacher to student ratio, and is in a mixed age environment. 

A new towel

Elise saw a new striped towel in the bathroom and said, "That's a nice towel!  Who bought that?  I like it!'