Nell at 32 months

I never have enough pictures of Nell, but that girl won't hold still long enough to let me get a shot that isn't all blur! She is constantly on the move. Busy, busy two-year-old!

Painting at the Building for Kids

Nell to the rescue!

 For some reason, this moment really struck me. 

I gave the kids a couple of our busy bag games and then left the room. 

When I returned I noticed the color sort items were scattered all across my front room floor (and the cupcakes and popsicles were all neatly lined up). I kind of moaned, but then I realized Nell had sorted the tiny objects into groups, rather than storing them by color in the box.  

Pom poms, elastics, buttons, etc were all grouped together.
Just goes to show there is rarely one right way to complete any given task. 

 I took almost a dozen pictures and she was fuzzy in all of them ... so I told her to freeze. "Brrrrrr" Ha ha. 

Just hanging out in the Teepee at Heckrodt. 

Some of Nell's most frequent sayings include:

comfy cozy

I'm gonna spank your butt!

You're going down

don't talk to me! (this is her response when I ask her about the contents of her diaper)

One of Nell's current favorite things is playing in the water. Mostly, she just squirts Reid with the hose. He giggles the whole time and they both really enjoy themselves. The other night she picked Star Wars and Reid picked Alice the Fairy. I thought the gesture of choosing the other's favorite book was really sweet. They really do try to make the other happy during all their play time together. 

Tongue kisses are her specialty. They are just as described. No imagination needed. I don't enjoy them. At all. Each morning when Ben leaves for work he does a round of kisses. Nell always, always cusps her hands over her mouth and puts up a good fight. We know she loves her kisses, she just loves the chase even more. Hopefully this is her approach until age 24. 

Nell is so verbal it astounds me. I was reading some childhood development articles the other day and I put Nell's verbal skills at age four, at least. It said kids her age should speak in four word sentences. Kids aren't suppose to understand tenses and correct grammar until age four or five. Well, I counted a few of her sentences and the average length was about nine words -- all with correct tense. Keep in mind, that was average. Several of her sentences were 14 to 15 words long, spoken with ease. The other verbal marker that stood out to me was the nursery rhymes and familiar songs. Kids should master a handful of favorites around age 5. Nell has about a dozen down pat. 

She falls more and more in love with Coraline every day. This morning she came in the nursery (first thing) and said "hi cutey, cutey, cutey" over and over again while poking Coraline's chubby little cheeks. She kissed her repeatedly. And she has begun introducing Coraling everywhere we go. "This is my baby sister, Co-wha-whine." 

Last night at dinner Nell asked to be excused. Since she hadn't eaten much, I asked if her belly was all full. She replied with the biggest burp any family member, excluding Ben, has ever given. But she also managed to say "yes" while burping. Ben and I burst into laughter. Uncontrollable laughter, which Reid quickly joined in on. Nell, not really sure what was so funny, kept bobbing her head and -- in a deep man voice -- said "yes" over and over again through sweet little giggles. We could hardly contain ourselves. She sure is a delight, our little Nell Belle. 

She loves coloring and all things pink and purple. She loves to get dirty with Reid but insists she is a princess. The other day Reid was talking about growing up and Nell informed us she wants to be a "baby grown up." She said it with such confidence, "I want to be a baby grown up when I get big." If I tell her she has to take naps so she can grow up she immediately lets me know she doesn't need a nap because she wants to be a baby. I've stopped using that strategy. Reid is so anxious to grow up, but Nell would regress if she knew how. 

Tonight, as I was doing the dishes, I could see Nell snuggled up on Ben's lap while they swung gently back and forth out on our tree swing. She looked so content and safe and happy. The two of them were melting my heart. It was one of those moments where you look out your kitchen window and realize your life is perfect. There conversation looked so intense. Apparently Nell was telling Ben I'd taught her to fly. When he asked when she replied "tomorrow." I captured a little bit of the moment on video below. But first, a lesson in ziggle riding. 

"You just put your toes down, and ziggle and ziggle and ziggle, and slow down."