Nell Alizabeth

Nell is full of spunk. She is by far the goofiest member of our family. Lately she's been walking all over the house saying "Boo that sauce!" with just a gentle touch of her usual sass. At any given moment she is likely to bust out her piggy noise. 

And we all laugh hysterically each time. It's just such a big noise coming out of such a little girl. We don't know where she comes up with any of these behaviors. She's just always trying to get a giggle out everyone. It is her nature. 

We still love our nap time snuggles. She's always squeezing my neck extra tight to try and stop me from leaving. The other night she was having a hard time falling to sleep (she almost always lays in bed for up to an hour, singing songs and reading books to herself, but this particular night she just kept crying out for me). I crawled in bed with her a couple times to try and help her relax and induce sleeping. But it was not working! Finally I surrendered and just put her in my bed. I was becoming much more tired than she was, and I did not want to fall asleep in that tiny cave of a bottom bunk. She was out like a light within minutes of crawling under my covers. She was also sleeping right on top of me, no lie. If I hadn't fought back she would have kicked me out of my King size bed.

I've watched her grow a bit this past month. She is no longer scared of slides. In the past she would not even go down the babiest of slides, even if we offered to hold her hand or catch her. It was rare that she consented, even in our own backyard. But while we were at the zoo earlier this month she shocked me by going down a huge tunnel slide. In fact, I didn't believe our friend when he told me she'd done it. I had to see it for myself, and sure enough, she'd conquered both the big slide and the little slide all on her own that day. I'm not sure what motivated her to get over that fear, but I think it is gone for good.

Here are some photos of her at the park today:

She's always been willing to climb up

Just taking her time at the bottom. Comfy place to relax, I suppose.

And we're making improvement on her fear of noises. She no longer cries when I vacuum or blow dry my hair (the later is a pretty rare occurrence, but she insists I close the bathroom door when I do). And earlier this week she even played outside while I mowed the lawn. It was kind of a miracle. 

As you can see in the second set of slide photos, she loves to go barefoot. It doesn't matter where we are, she will take her shoes off, and once they are off it is impossible to get her to put them back on. If by chance, she does keep them on while we are out and about they come flying off the moment we get in the car to head home. She almost always has a pair or two strewn about the car. 

She is SUPER into Princesses right now. Which is great, because she is also preparing to be a flower girl in Aunt Katie's wedding. 

She's also still into dinosaurs and rescuebots and all things boy. I love her balance of rough tough girly play. She's the perfect little Nelly Belle and I can't believe my next monthly write up will be about her third birthday. Bring on those terrible three's!