Princess Elyette

So if you know us, the last thing we'd call our little girl is "princess". In fact, even after some pleading from his mother to call Elyette something sweet, like princess, Boz still calls her "wad" and of course "Slim". Well, despite us, Elyette is ALL girl. Here's a list to make our point:

- She loves shoes! What true girl doesn't? She tries different shoes on all day. Brooke, (her aunt) on one occasion while babysitting, found Elyette lying on her bed after her nap with dolls all around her and tap shoes on her feet. If she sees shoes (whatever the size) while in a store she'll go straight to them and start trying them on. A couple months ago we went to chauffeur Elyette's uncle Ray and his friends to their winter formal. Elyette admired the girls in their formals and had to try on all their shoes! Whenever we visit somewhere she'll proceed to try on the shoes that are left by the door. Beginning with the high heels. I could go on...

-She loves dresses! Skirts will do fine, but dresses are best. I made her a green nightgown for Christmas (I'll have to make her more) and if its clean, its her first pick for bed(her next pick is large T-shirts that resemble dresses). She calls it her "Fiona dress". She likes to watch Fiona in the scene on Shrek where she sings to the bird and makes it blow up. She does all the actions and sings along, complete with the high screech at the end. She loves Fiona, even as an ogre... a princess is a princess to Elyette :)

- Spinning and dancing... I think the biggest appeal of dresses is that they are fun to spin in. We were at Target the other day and I tried a dress on and Elyette got really excited and said "Spin, mom, SPIN!" Whenever I put a skirt or dress on, she gets me to spin. After her aunt Hannah taught her a plie, she practices them all the time and of course she has fully adopted her daddy's goofy finger and hip shake dance...I'm sorry if he has ever taught this to your child (they all seem to love it though :)).

-Shop till you drop. Literally for Elyette. I was never much of a shopper until Elyette was born. She was very colicky in the beginning, and for some reason she calmed down whenever we were at the grocery store. So I took her out shopping almost daily when she was a newborn to keep her from crying. By about 9 months she began to refuse to sit in the cart or stroller while shopping because she wanted to help me shop, I'm sure many mommies can relate. Now I can get her to sit in the cart, but if she sees something she likes, she wants out. She doesn't demand that she get it, she just wants to look and will put it right back. We go to Target quite a bit and she loves to show me things, "look, mom... look, mom", and puts clothes up to herself in the mirror and spins. The best is when she sees something she likes and exclaims "oooo, tute!" Shopping with Elyette is never a short trip but its fun!

-Hair and make-up. She likes to brush her hair and dolls hair. I don't put her hair up very often, but its cute to watch her try and gather her hair together to make pig tails. She is also just starting to discover that she can dress up Jack :). She put a bow in his hair last week and said "pretty, Jack" to him as he brightly grinned his gummy smile at her. When I put my make-up on she hands me what I need and sometimes when I'm done with it, she'll say "Ette's turn!" (explanation: She's a lazy little speaker and has decided to drop the "ely" out of her name and just refer to herself as "ette").

-She runs like a girl. Her strides get faster but shorter, so she runs about as fast as she walks and she sticks her belly out. She looks very dainty when running, hehe, you have to just see it really. We were convinced she'd be a goalie or something, because at a very young age she was an awesome catch. Before she turned a year old she could catch almost any size of ball from any distance and throw them back both underhand and overhand, but somehow, she's lost it. She either can't or pretends to not be able to catch anymore... any help with this is welcome!

-She loves chocolate! She'll of course eat anything sweet or called candy, cookie, cake, etc., but if given the choice, she'll take chocolate! (a girl after my own heart).

-Recently she has really gotten into all the girly Disney characters. This morning she informed me that she wanted "Tinker Bell cereal" aka: Luck Charms (well the Safeway store brand kind). She got this new little yellow shirt that she calls her "Belle shirt". She has this new found love for Sleeping Beauty pillow that Gramma and Grampa Smith got for her. When she's changing her clothes she puts one arm out threw the neckline and says "look, like slella, mom" (translation: "look mom, I look like Cinderella" she has this funny slurred "L" sound she likes to use with "L" words). I think the one shoulder showing thing must look like Cinderella's dress thats been ripped by her sisters. She also like to put her headbands on us, especially Boz and shout in a super excited voice "slella, daddy!", Daddy loves to look like Cinderalla. She regularly quotes the Little Mermaid, especially from the scene where King Triton destroys all of Ariel's human things. Elyette likes to turn to daddy and shout "but, Daddy, I love him"... Boz is really loving that one ;), I'm sure he can't wait to hear it in 14 years.

-She also seems to have all the traits that we as woman are most blessed to have. She doesn't forget a thing (for both the good and the bad as is the case with most women), and She is very nuturing and loves to selflessly serve and care for those around her. I could definitely (and do) learn a few things from her.