I've been so desperate to get out of the house during these cold winter months. We've been trying out all sorts of activities. A couple of weeks ago we went to Easely Art and
you made some beautiful paintings and a frame. Here's a pic of you hard at work. Being your typical meticulous self, you had to clean your fingers between each color of finger paint. We also went on a playdate with Taylor and her mama Lindsay. We met at the treehouse at Rivertown Mall. Taylor was running around, going up and down the slide, and in and out of the tunnel. You, on the other hand, had your head burried in between my legs. I really hope you get over this fear of other kids. After a while, you relented and played a little with Taylor. You seemed to get along. Here's a pic of the two of 
you together. On Monday, we are signed up for Mommy and Me Gymnastics class. I'm really excited about that. You seem excited too, when I explained what it was. Hopefully, that will help you get used to being around other kids. Lately, you've been showing a little bit more of the terrible two's type behavior, mostly with me. It seems like we've been battling over every little thing. Putting a diaper on, taking one off, going to the store, dinner time, bath time, bed time, you name it. Granted, I know it is not as bad as I've seen some kids get, but it makes me sad because you are usually so aggreeable. You have also become the queen of stall. Our bedtime routine now takes about an hour and a half to 2 hours depending on how long I let you drag it on. Daddy can do it in an hour with bath, but I prefer not to rush to avoid tantrums. First we do bath, and it's pretty much impossible to wash your hair with out tears. Aside from that, you would stay in there all night if you could. Then we watch Little Einsteins and drink warm milk with a little vanilla in it. Then we brush our teeth and our hair. Then we read stories and rock some. You like it the best when Daddy and I tell stories about a little girl named Elise.
Here's a great story. At the end of January, Daddy and I took a weekend to ourselves, and you went to visit Nana. While at the grocery store you lost your precious Abby dog. Nana went back to the store to get her, but she was long gone. When you came back home you were having a terrible time sleeping, crying in your sleep and having nightmares. While I was at work, you were up one night with Dada from 12-4am. Yikes! We had to find an Abby replacement. We had bought you another little dog, but it didn't look anything like Abby and you weren't buying it. So I contacted the Baby's First Book Club, which is where we had originally got Abby from. They didn't have it anymore, so I contacted the company that made Abby. The lady there said she used to have some, but had received over 50 emails from parents like me and she had sent them all away. I never knew how popular this dog was. Finally, I was able to locate one on Ebay. When I bid on it, it was going for $4.25, which was pretty pricey for a small, used stuffed dog. I put in a bid of $10.51. Anyway, the day the auction was due to end, I was at work. I went to check it only to find my maximum bid had been raised to 22 dollars!! I called Dada, he had had trouble getting you to bed and told me we were getting that dog at any cost! Later he raised the bid to $28. We ended up getting it for $14. The day it showed up, Dada told me I couldn't give it to you until he got home. He set it outside on the stoop and rang the doorbell. You came to see who was here. Dada opened the door and said, "Someone left something for you Elise!" You said, "Maybe it's a Thomas!" You and Dada opened it, " It's Abby!!!" You reached in and pulled her out and squeezed her very tight. "Oh Abby I missed you soooo much. I thought you were lost!" Dada told you that someone had found her at the store and knew you missed her very much, so they mailed her to us. You were so excited to have her home and slept completely fine after that. Your Dada leaned over to me and said, "I would have totally paid 30 dollars for that." ;)
