Ella, the one-time wonder

A few months ago, Ella said the most incredible prayer that we've heard come out of an almost-3-year-old. She included just about everything she's ever heard me or Erik pray about. It was like a 2 minute prayer! Every prayer after that has been a more typical Ella prayer, which consists of basically 2 things: that daddy comes home safely and that Ethan is chubby.

Ella has a very flitty, wacky personality. She has been extremely resistant to any sort of academic teaching that I have offered. She knows how to spell her name, but sometimes she likes to throw a "K" in there. I've shown her many, many times what her name looks like and how to write it, but I've never seen her write anything more than an "E" that looks like a caterpillar. One day, the girls were writing on the driveway with chalk. When I came outside I checked out their drawings and saw Avery's name and Ella's name. I asked Avery if she had written Ella's name because it's been ages since she's written an "E" with more than 3 lines across. She said, "No, Ella wrote it." I said, "Ella wrote it?! Ella, did you write your name?" Ella: "yeah." And off she ran like it was no big deal. I couldn't believe it. She amazes me. Ella has yet to write her name again, but at least I know she CAN do it. She soaks up everything presented to her, and then proves she is capable, and then doesn't care to do it again.