The Best of What's Around: Pamcakes, pineapple and church

We've had a busy couple of weeks, doing what I can't really remember now - I think it involved a lot of apartment showings and applications, a little traveling, a lot of family time and one toddler locking herself in the bathroom.

One night Eleanora was being very quiet, and this usually means she's up to no good. So Bryce and I went to peak on her and this is what we saw (I am hesitant to post these, because there are a lot of what looks to be cereal and goldfish pieces all over my carpet, but I decided anyone with a toddler would understand)

She was just laying down with her blankie reading up on her shapes. Adorable.

We spent Father's Day weekend at Grandpa Gary's and Grandma Joann's house. Nora played in their pool, we ate lots of good food, blew bubbles and had a fun time. She actually slept 11 hours straight thru that night, which is rare on vacation, so you know she was tuckered out. In the morning, Gary made her a bunny pancake: (aka "pamcake")

She loves pamcakes. If you ask her about spending the weekend with Grandpa she'll say "And pamcakes, and pineapple, and church"- which sums up her weekend.

Eleanora loves to watch me put on make-up. She usually pretends with me - I'll give her a brush and a closed package of blush and she'll pretend to swirl it and brush it on her face, it's very cute. Well yesterday while I was focusing on applying my mascara, she must have grabbed my eyeliner, because when I looked down she had drawn on her face and had already moved on to scooping eyeshadow out of it's case and rubbing it on her eyes,

I was laughing so hard I didn't even stop her, and she went on to show me how to use an eye lash curler,

She cracks me up.

As far as what she's been up to, it's been non-stop over here. She still talks our ear off, and a lot of the once babble is turning into sentences we understand. Sometimes she just strings words together she knows to make a sentence. We were in the car the other day and she said "I pooped, 1, 2, 3, 4. Bubbles". It's not really a matter of what words she says anymore, because she can say almost any word if you ask her to repeat you. She can spot a park a mile away and yells "PARK!!! WEE!! PARK! PLEASE MOMMY, PARK!!!" At night we start to sing her bed time song and she'll march herself into her room, we lay her down in her crib, she puts puppups ear to her nose and she says in the sweetest voice "I love you!". What else, what else? She calls herself "Nowa" now, and sometimes "Ella-nowa". She can identify red, blue, yellow, orange, pink and purple with I'd say about a 60% accuracy.

Oh and she locked herself in our bathroom last week. She often closes doors behind her. I wait until she says "Mommy help" and then I go open it for her. This time when she said it, I went over and the door was locked! I panicked. I lifted the panel to the lock (I had always wondered why it wasn't screwed down, as there are places for screws, now I know it's b/c the previous managers had a kid Nora's age when they lived here, it's for this very problem). I tried turning the tiny little peg that controls the lock, while on the phone dialing my maintenance manager to come help me. I turned until my fingers were bright red, but it wasn't moving all the way to unlock, Nora was on the other side yelling "Mommy help!" but at the same time re-locking while I was unlocking. Finally she let go and I was able to get the peg to turn all the way around and my heart started beating again. I swear I didn't breathe the entire 2 minutes she was locked in there.

She loves to dance. She loves Justin Beiber's "Baby". She dances around the living room singing "baby, baby, baby OH!, baby, baby, baby NO!" and shaking her hips and singing into the microphone.

Some pics from what I guess turned out to be all black and white photo session,