Who is the 3 year old EGR?

Who is the 3 year old Ella?
She’s not this person.

Ella Grace, minutes old

















She’s not this person.

EGR, at her first birthday party















She’s not this person.

Ella, 2 years old, meeting her new baby brother

She looks like this…

Ella, a few weeks ago, much too big for the baby swing

…but, she’s more than just a pretty face.

At three years old, she is now fully potty trained. Even for poop. It’s been a week since she’s asked for “a diaper to poop in.” It’s been 3 weeks since she actually had a diaper to poop in. I’m ecstatic about this.

She recently started gymnastics as her first organized extracurricular activity. She goes twice a week and she loves it. It’s a good way to break up the summer monotony, and we’ll see if she wants to continue in the fall when school starts back.

She loves school. She asks weekly when she is going back to school, and in the interim, she teaches her babies and does crafts at Grandmother’s house several times a week.

She’s quite the artist – painting and gluing all sorts of things. She’s decently good at it; she has a good eye for color. I was amazed when I saw the chicken and the turtle she painted for our collection of yard animals. (She also has a duck, a bulldog, and a frog that live in our flower bed, all named and cared for regularly when we are outside.)

Speaking of color, she has become very particular about her clothing choices. Everything must match (to her standards). I pulled out a pair of hot pink shorts and white t-shirt with pink on it. She insisted it did not match and she needed a hot pink shirt. That’s what she got, with a pink, beaded ponytail holder and pink jelly shoes. Then she observed the rainbow on her shorts and informed me that it did not match her shirt because her shirt had other things on it, not a rainbow. (I can remember acting exactly like this when I was little.)

She’s definitely dramatic – able to create real tears and puddles of drool when the occasion calls for it.

She’s an excellent waitress. She waits an entire room full of tables every night before bed; she never forgets an order or a customer’s name and her manners are impeccable (Which we get to hear other times, too!). It’s funny and hilarious, and Dave and I laugh every night while we listen. She also styles hair and doctors babies and animals in her spare time.

She is the Seatbelt Police. Dave is notorious for taking off his seatbelt before we turn into our driveway, or failing to put it on until we are down the street. She calls him out every time, and does frequent checks to make sure we are wearing our seatbelts.

She’s an amazing big sister. She knows the boundaries we’ve set for Luke, and she’s right there sounding the alarm when he crosses them (“NO, Luker! We don’t play with the plugs!”). She feeds him bites of Cheerios or Goldfish in the car because he can’t quite work the snack trap himself yet. She loves to cuddle him when she’s feeling cuddly. Oh, they already fight, but she’s doing a good job of handling those situations the way we’re coaching her. (i.e. She doesn’t always run over him with her car when he tries to climb in, sometimes she just gets out and goes to another room to play by herself. She doesn’t always snatch the toy she wants out of his hand, sometimes she distracts him with something else first or just waits for him to move along on his own. We’ve only caught her picking him up by the neck once, but really, he was in her way.) Seriously, though, she loves him so much and he loves her right back. I hope we can continue to nurture that relationship as they get older so that it’s more cooperation than bickering.

She talks a lot. A lot-a lot. Sometimes my poor, introverted soul can’t handle the amount of talking she needs to do and I long for the peace of bedtime or my drive to work. The rest of the time, I love talking with her and listening to her talk with others and in play. She uses logical reasoning, she’s funny, and she’s asking the hard questions (about God, and death, and divorce, etc.). She is generally empathetic if someone is hurt or sad, and she worries about others (and herself, too, of course!).

She drives me batty with her 3 year old attitude and her flair for dramatic wailing, and then she turns over in bed to snuggle me and murmurs, “Mommy, I love you so much” just as she’s falling asleep. And, I fall in love with her all over again.

She changed me for the better three years ago today.