Full of Personality

I've actually started taking notes on some of the "essence of Ella" which really demonstrate her personality. Just yesterday she decided she has a favorite car - a Jeep, the soft top version. "I really like that one!" she has said a couple times lately when we have seen a Jeep. Tonight on the way home we hadn't spotted one yet and Ella was asking where the "G" is!

Along the topic of transportation, she is also fascinated with taxi cabs, counting them on the commute. We saw three at one time yesterday while sitting in traffic - one red, one yellow, one white - and she was squealing with delight. She has the same level of excitement when she recognizes a car as matching ours (even RAV4s of other colors), William's car next door or either of her grandmas' mini vans. No one else's car is really registering with her yet.

She also has one transportation-related phobia - the sound of motorcycles. We get knuckleheads revving at the stoplight near our house and a couple times in the last month we practically went deaf from the loudness. Ella was across the room the first time and let out a horrible yelp of fear I've only heard a couple times in her 2 1/2 years. I couldn't make it to her around the sofa fast enough to calm her before it became full-force panic. Now she quivers every time we hear a cycle, with Harleys being the worst offenders. I'm hoping this is short lived, but loud or unexplained sounds seem to be one of the only thing she has been scared of to date.

The pictures show her hamming it up, so sure of the world and showing me she watches everything I do. While putting on her pajamas she saw her giant fake lipstick from her purse, which she immediately put on like it was deodorant. Every once in a while you do have the camera in the right place at the right time.

And the last funny tidbit to share was at bedtime tonight. She has just grown tall enough to turn the lights off on her tiptoes. (Lights on are still an aspiration at this point.) It's still a very new accomplishment, so after she turned them off she said, "Good job, Mom!" I still don't know if she was reminding me to reinforce another independent move on her end or if she was telling me what a great job I was doing in the rocking chair watching her - but either way I am glad she is so forthcoming with the praise!