Rainy days

It has been raining here off and on -- mostly on, for the past 2 days. We got out of the house a little yesterday to go to the park and a quick run to the grocery store (aka "cookie store"), but that has been about it. Ellie plus cooped-up equals me pulling my hair out! This is definitely a kid who needs fresh air and a lot of moving around, and those things have been in short supply. I know she gets bored with just me here, as evidenced by the fact that today she was pushing her little people around in an empty Ziploc box and making car noises. I try, I really do...but sometimes I have to do housekeeping-type things, otherwise the bugs would carry us off once they found us under the piles of toys and clothes. And she's a pretty good girl...well, except for this new screaming thing she has discovered. Just ask Auntie E with whom I was trying to have a conversation yesterday when the shrieking drowned us out. I think she called her "spoiled"...not that she herself has had anything to do with that! (think 35 dresses in sizes 6-9 months in my attic and a fully functioning Cinderella castle in my family room) Still, I wouldn't trade these days for anything. I know they'll be gone too quickly and I'll not be able to remember what it felt like to wrestle that wriggling, kicking little body into the "toy bath" one more time. I'm holding these days tightly, as tough as they may be.

I keep thinking I'll make a list of "Ellie-isms" so that I can help myself remember her funny little words as they come and go from her vocabulary. Now that she's talking in sentences, sometimes a new word slips in unnoticed. I did a pretty good job of tracking them for the first year and a half in her baby book, so I want to keep it up. The following is a partial list of Ellie-speak:

"Toy-bath" -- nightly bath with about 1,000,000,000 toys in it
"Nigh-nee" -- pacifier, used to call it a nite-nite so she'd associate it with sleep only.Didn't work.
"Twye it" -- She wants to do whatever you're doing, or try it. This applies to everything.
"Nake" -- snake. These are fierce and can even jump on you and smack you in the head.
"Nakey" -- not a snake. This is Ellie running from the toy-bath and hiding under the dining room table where she sometimes pees.
"Ch-Cheese" --Chuck E. Cheese--also known as the devil's playground.
"Hum-on" -- come on.
"Show you" -- why you need to hum-on.
"Cackle" --where Cinderella lives.
"Meemo" -- nemo
"Pee Pan" -- peter pan
"Ju, fwee" -- juice please
"Bug"-- anything on the ground that remotely looks like it could be a bug. This could be a string, leaf, button, or at times an actual bug. You pick these up with a wipe, just so you know.
"All-done" --She's finished eating and is about to hurl the plate of food into the air. Move fast.
"I you, Mommy"-- My favorite. I love you Mommy. I you too, Ellie.

Oh, and not sure if this one will stick, but this evening while watching Diego save a baby whale, she yelled out "Ayuda me, Mommy" -- which I came to learn is Spanish for "help me", and don't you know that little whale was bi-lingual? I bet his mommy is making her own list as we speak.