Pico DiPaolo

As her speech is improving, Elise is picking up some pretty funny words.  Today, when I asked her if she was ready to go inside, she said, “‘fraid not.”  I almost started laughing – it was so cute.  Our other favorite word (and when I say, “our,” I mean Joelle, Chris and me) that Elise says is, “bottom.”  She pronounces it “bot man.”  It’s truly a litmus test of whether or not she is in a good mood, too.  If she’s in a good mood, she pronounces it the wrong way because she knows it makes us laugh.  If she’s in a sour mood, she ignores our pleas to say it or replies with a curt ”bottom.”  (she learned to say it correctly very quickly.)

So, this last mention of learning what kind of mood she’s in…  reminds me that she’s started her terrible twos this past week.  Elise has always been a pretty fun, lovely child.  Sure, she can be a little demanding but was always pretty jovial.  Today at the library, she was ticked because some kid was using the computer she likes to use.  She demanded that he get off for her and when he didn’t… well, let’s just say 2 different librarians came to see if there “was a problem.”  (and we only lasted about 5 minutes in the library – I am not one of these moms that makes everyone suffer when my child isn’t behaving.)  She just gets very ornery at times.  It can be funny, in a second child kind of way.

In any case, her cuteness makes up for any trouble.  She mixes her “l” and “w”, so it brings a smile to your face when she says, “sit in your wap” or “I wuv you, too, mommie.”  I also loved how she got a box of cake mix out for me when I said I was making pancakes.

The girls were being pretty cute tonight.  Elise has gotten really good at copying everything Joelle does, step by step, line by line.  The only time Elise stops copying her is when Joelle reads and Elise, if she’s not tired, will stop and listen for a while.

After their “fashion show”, there were clothes strewn about the hallway and I asked Joelle to put one of the items away.  She said she “found it there”.  While I was explaining that she could still put it back, Elise swooped in and ran down the hall with it.  Puzzled, Petie said, “Elise are you putting it away?”  Elise said “yeah” and came back.  She went up to Petie and said “gimme a quarter”.  She had seen us give Joelle a quarter for doing things like helping us clean up, put her clothes away, etc.

So now Elise has a little piggy bank of her own, with a quarter in it. And she loves to go up and down the hall shaking it so we can hear how proud she is of her new treasure.