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Can you believe this little runt turned 3 last week?

Ellie is full of laughs and energy, independence and compassion, nerve and courage.  She loves her froggie, her big sister, and Rapunzel.  She just moved up to a big girl bed and hasn’t had any trouble adjusting.  Her favorite colors are green and purple.  She’s a lefty.  She eats at least two breakfasts, a decent lunch, and not much for dinner every day.  She loves corn (all kinds including popcorn).  She drinks way more than the rest of us (milk, juice, water, you name it).

We had her birthday party last weekend.  Thanks for coming, friends!  I thought the weekend was going to be a wash out, but it turned out to be perfect!  We spent all day outside playing.

On her actual birthday, we brought Krispy Kreme for her class.  I intended to take her out to lunch, but we are a one car household these days (what is with all the drama in the Mauter house lately?) so lunch was a no-go.  We had dinner on the porch, which is where we always have our birthday meals for Sam (October) and Ellie (early May).

Here are all three dresses that I finished just in time:  Rapunzel, Minnie Mouse, and Mickey Mouse.  Brian was thoroughly concerned about making a Mickey Mouse dress, but I knew she wouldn’t care.  Sam wants one too.

And the finale was the tent!

We had her three year check up too.  She didn’t get any shots, so we got out of there pretty easily.  The doctor is somewhat concerned about her speech so we will need to see an audiologist and speech therapist soon.  I’m not really that concerned because she has always been “delayed” on speech.  She’ll get there on her own time, but if we need to have her checked out, that’ll be fine.

We had so much fun at the zoo on the Saturday before your birthday.  You were careful to point out that you weren’t five yet, but that we were just celebrating your birthday on that day so everyone could come.  We met everyone outside and then you got to parade in as the line-leader.  You got to pet a tortoise and a ferret and because the zoo was already geared up for Boo at the Zoo, the carousel went around backwards!

On Wednesday, your real birthday, you helped Mommy make your birthday cake.  It was a chocolate Hello Kitty cake with a blue eyes and a blue bow.  We had several little gifts for you but by far the hit was the airplane with real bullets.  :)

You’ve grown to be such an inquisitive and intelligent little girl.  Mommy and I are so very proud of you.

How time flies!
I took Ellie to the doctor today for a check up, and she’s doing great! She still has a slight murmur, from the ASD. We go back to the cardiologist in December for a check up. (We last went when she was 6 months old.) Otherwise, she’s a regular long, tall Sally in her stats.
We took her to the mall for lunch and to Build-a-Bear afterwards. She was so happy looking and picking out animals. (And I think her favorite color might be purple from all the purple things she picked out.) We were going to go all out and stuff an animal, but decided to get a smaller one that was already stuffed. It’s a purple giraffe. Neato.

Lots of cool things happened on January 11.  Here’s some.

• Alabama seceded from the union in 1861.
• Amelia Earhart flies solo from Hawaii to California in 1935.
• Los Angeles’ first snowfall ever recorded in 1949.
• Chloe Mauter born in 2008.

We hope you have a great birthday and eat lots of cake.

Love, Uncle Brian, Aunt Janie, Samantha and Ellie

My granddad’s 80th birthday party was at the Lake this year.  It was lots of food, family, and great weather.  Even though the day started out with a major mishap involving a blueberry pie, I think all the evidence has been cleaned up by now.

And check out this great picture from Lizzie’s blog.  Boy, Sam sure does love pumpkins.  I guess it’s good that she’s an October baby.