Ella was pretending she was a bunny and was in her "cage" (a laundry basket) with some toys. I asked her to help me do something and she said "first I need to finish my business"; I said (trying VERY hard not to laugh), "oh, your business?" - she said, completely serious - "Yes, my bunny rabbit business."
I was at the stove cooking and Ella was watching me and said "Mommy, I wish I could make a recipe." I asked "what kind of recipe would you make?"; her reply: "a CHOCOLATE recipe!" Me: "yum, what would you make out of chocolate?" E: "donuts!" me: "donuts sound great, how will you make them?" E: "first I will need butter...then juice."
We were talking about how small a friend's new baby was, and I told Ella "you used to be that small too, you were so tiny!" and she said to me "Yes, and before that, I was in your tummy." I said "Yep, you were." Then she said, "Nomar used to be in my tummy. And when he was done in there, Cory was in my tummy." Then she paused for a second and said "But she didn't like it" I said "why not?" She said "I don't know but I just closed the door and trapped her in there!" I actually scared her because I burst out laughing so suddenly at that one.
Steve cut a tree down in our front yard that was dead and hasn't had any leaves for the last few years. Ella noticed the tree was cut and asked me if it fell over. I told her that daddy cut it down because there were no more leaves growing on it and we'd have to put another tree there. She said "I could help Daddy?" and I said "well, cutting a tree down is really hard work, I don't think I could even do it." Ella said, "Ohh it's a Daddy chore?" I said "yes, kind of, you have to be really strong to cut down a tree." Then Ella said "right, there are boy chores and girl chores." This isn't something we say to her and it's not something I've ever heard her say, so I said "what do you mean? what's a girl chore?" Her reply - "you know, like making cards!" (ha - I wish that was the extent of my chores!)
I was reading to Ella before bed and once we finished reading, she asked me what we were going to do in the morning. I said "tomorrow is Sunday, so we'll go to church in the morning." She started to say in an annoyed, protesting tone, "Oh, Momm-mmmy..." and then it was as if something magically came over her, she changed her tone and said "Okay Mommy, okay, we'll go to church." I couldn't believe her quick change of heart and how she had stopped herself mid-grumble to be so compliant. Then she said to me, "what will we do after church if I'm a good listener?" and instantly her motivation became very clear. I said "we'll do something fun, what do you want to do?" She said very quickly, "go to the playground." I said "okay, sure, we'll go to the playground", and then she said as quickly as she could "and go to lunch at a restaurant after. I want chicken nuggets and fries and milk." Ha!
On a Sunday afternoon, Ella had her coloring sheet from church and she was cutting it into little pieces and putting her little cut papers into piles. She said to me very solemnly, "these pieces are for Jesus." I said "oh wow, that is really nice." And she said "Yes, when Jesus comes here I am going to give him all these pieces." It was so sweet, I really didn't know what to say. Steve walked by and she said "Daddy, these pieces are for Jesus." Steve was even more surprised than I had been, and asked "tell me about Jesus. Who is Jesus?" And Ella answered: "Jesus is God, right Mommy?" I could've cried I was so touched by her sweetness.
Ella can be quite the sassy talker and her newest back-talk phrase is "I don't care" - she doesn't really understand how to use it but she'll say it when we ask her to do something and she doesn't want to do it. Steve told her to get her shoes so we could get ready to leave the house and she said "I don't care" and kept on doing what she was doing. This is at least the 3rd or 4th time she's said it, and I told her she should not say "I don't care" anymore because it's not nice and really yucky talk. I told her I needed her to look at me and tell me she understands me. She said (mildly annoyed), "yes Mommy I understand." Then, apparently going for the overkill, I went to say "so I don't want to hear you say that any more, and if I hear you say it again, it's going to be an instant time-out, no warnings." And then she said to me, more annoyed, "Mommy, I already told you I wasn't going to say it anymore!" She was right!
We had dinner out at a restaurant, Ella was pretty wild for a good chunk of the time. Later that night she said to me "did I do a good job listening at the restaurant?" I paused and said "well, you did pretty good...not great, but pretty good." Ella thought about this for a second and then said to me "Ok, not great - but I didn't do pretty good, I did pretty GREAT."
She certainly keeps us on our toes these days!
