Eleanor is 2!

Oh my goodness Ella is 2!!! How is that even possible?
We celebrated Ella on her actual birthday with cupcakes at home. She was so excited and Matt got the most awesome video that truly illustrates Ella's personality!

At two, Eleanor is super talkative. She dances (with surprisingly good rhythm), sings, repeats everything she hears. Ella loves to watch tv and is very specific about which shows she wants to watch. She is learning to share, to take turns, and to help do little activities around the house. At home and at school, Eleanor tries as hard as possible to stand in the middle of any room that is being cleaned and only put one thing away. Ella still doesn't go to sleep easily. Her current favorite bedtime routine involves staying with Madi and whichever parent for books and songs, then sneaking out of the bedroom to sit on the couch until she falls asleep around 9. It sucks. Ella loves watching Matt play video games during these evenings. Ella's new favorite activity is pretending to drive the car. She and Madi can spend hours sitting in the front seat steering, moving the mirror, asking "where you wanna go?" while I sit in the backseat with a book. This has morphed into Ella yelling at me from the backseat "Mama stop, I drive the car not you" whenever we go places. If she is this impatient to drive already, the next 14 years are going to be very painful for her.

Science Museum with Dad

Dinosaurs from Aunt Wendi!

"Yep, I'm adorable!"

"where you wanna go?"

Sisters in rainboots!

When you can't drive the car, just be a car

Stretching with Dad

Sister selfie!

Eleanor has slowed way down with her growth in the past few months. Her two year old stats are: Weight 29.6 pounds (81st percentile), Height 34 3/4 inches (76th percentile and also happens to be exactly Madi's height when she was 2), Head 19 3/4 inches (98th percentile, still huge).
The Sunday after her birthday, we had friends over to celebrate Eleanor and watch football. We set up the tv outside, ate cupcakes, and grilled pollo and carne asada. The kids had a great time running wild and Matt and I ate leftovers for a week. It was a great day and put us all in a good mood before we had to get back into the work/school routine.