Lovely Voice

I'm starting to be able to have the coolest conversations with Ellie, although she's still communicating mostly in single word utterances.

Some of her favorite multi-word utterances include, I ant some. I ant some. (slurred together like one adorable word: Iwantsome) and I sowwy.
I can't yet describe the way she says "thank you," though it's precious, and she still says, "pease" for please.

4 days a week, I ask Ellie what she did in school that day. Every time, she answers, "Bus!" Lately, she adds, "Arms up! Arms up!" (This refers to the application of the bus's safety harness, which she loves to remove en route. I scold her, of course, but am also secretly proud of her dexterity and problem-solving skills.)

One day, over lunch after school, she told me, with her own invented signs accompanying the words, "Run. Push. Fall down. Cry." Amazing! Wonderful! Story telling!

A few days ago, for the first time ever, Ellie asked me, "Why?" We were looking at a picture of her in the hospital after her heart surgery, with daddy feeding her a bottle. As she well knows, babies nurse. So "why?" was a very appropriate question! The next day, she actually answered a "Why?" question from me. (She wanted Lizzi's leash so that she could take her stuffed dog on a walk ou-side.) Fantastic! "What" and "Where" are so much simpler than "Why."

We're all about giving Ellie choices as often as possible, and lately when we do so, she puts her hands out to her sides, palms up, and says, "Pick. Pick."

Tonight, at dinner, Ellie was preoccupied with her homemade mac and cheese. Paul was talking to me about my lovely fingernails. I was explaining that I've let them get too long and need to make time to cut them back soon. They're beginning to make typing at the laptop and dealing with my contact lenses difficult.

Later, in bed, Ellie starting talking to me about cutting. She hasn't mastered scissors yet, but she enjoys practicing. She was talking about cutting Backpack, and I responded that if Backpack got cut, we'd have to fix it with Sticky Tape (these are Dora the Explorer references, for the uninitiated). Then she asked me if we'd need to fix my nails with sticky tape if I cut them!

She's hilarious! And perhaps this explains her great reluctance to allow us to clip her finger and toenails.

Edited to add a story. This morning, after preschool, Ellie was sitting on the toilet and I was standing in the doorway across from her, dancing and singing about potty, as I am wont to do.

"Cow!" Ellie interrupted me.
"What?" I asked.
"Cow! Cow! Mooo!"

I totally got dissed by my 3 year old. Time to lay off the Easter candy.