• I understand birthdays (with candles and presents!) and can't wait for my birthday next month!
• My words surprise mum every day. Although it is often my pronunciation that lets me down.
• I take very good care of "baby". Some days she is a he and others he is a she...but either way I love her and always make sure whe has her dummy.
• I don't mind wearing my hair up if you tell me that you will do it the same as mum's or Milly's.
• I love pretend games. They always include ice-creams, bears or "crocodiles biting you"!
• I will show people I like them by saying "Do you want to be my friend?"
• I love books and stories but am getting a bit old for - gasp - Dora! I like watching movies now instead. Last thing at night before I go to bed I like to wind down by sitting and cuddling on the couch with a good movie (or twenty minutes of one). I am also allowed to watch TV first thing in the morning (but not during the day!). All up I get a good hour but I could watch it very happily all day if you let me.
• I still really enjoy playcare and playing with my friends there. Particularly Sophie, Daniel & Thomas.
• My fingernails and toe nails are permanently blue as they are on an almost daily painting schedule. I think mum and dad may have a few more colours planned for my birthday. Cassie my swimming teacher always has blue nails and so I don't know that I need any other colours. Although Milly had on orange last time I saw her....
• As Lachie gets older and more interactive I am having more and more fun playing with him. We can do a little bit of independant play together (when dad is watching over us....but with mum she closely supervises!)
• I am very independant. One of my favourite phrases is "I do it myself" - which I like to use when you are trying to do things for me that I know I can do.
• I love dresses and skirts and hate singlets and shoes.
• My favourite colour is blue.
• My perfect place would be one that was full of blue flowing dresses, TV and chicken nuggets!

* My favourite thing to wear is Milly's yellow Dress with blue flowers. Every afternoon when I get home I put it on. Every Saturday I wear it and unfortunately it is in the wash on Sundays.
* I like to wear skirts to day care and my good dresses on weekends. I love frilly skirts :)
* I wear Dora undies now!
* I am a great big sister and love trying to get Lachie involved in things.
* I am a great sleeper. Why do I have to get up at 7am? It is still dark.
* I am a great eater when I am hungry. My favourite foods are meat + chicken nuggets + BBQ chicken + cheese + fruit* I love cuddles and kisses.
* I like choosing my own clothes. I am fiercely independant and have been known to throu the odd tantrum when I am frustrated with trying to get my point across.
* I love textas. I KNOW you are not meant to eat them but they taste good.
* I love climbing , running & jumping.
* I love birthday cakes and blowing out candles. I was a good big sister and helped Lachie blow out his birthday candles. I am planning my birthday party already. I want to wear Milly's yellow dress with blue flowers and have pink and blue balloons

Over the last few months I've really started to enjoy imaginary games. My particular favourites are:

• Boats - You imagine that there are crocodiles on the floor of the house and have to get the whole family on a boat. This is normally one of the couches, but can be a more elaborate vessel as per the photo below. The main rallying technique is to call out "Crocodile biting you! C'mon Mummy! C'mon Daddy! Foot on couch! Crocodile!".
• Snap Snap - You run around the house doing big vertical claps like a crocodile calling out "Snap! Snap!". Lachlan also particularly enjoys playing this game at the dinner table with all four of us snapping simultaneously.
• Ice Cream Shop - You setup an ice cream shop on the couch with customers walking up at one end. Money changes hands and then elaborate ice creams of different colours are requested with optional sprinkles and stars.

* My Dora watching attention-span has extended into kids movies (and probably has for almost six months now). I can watch a whole kids movie. I love TV so much I will watch pretty much anything...including test cricket.
* Mum is always amazed at my patience and gentleness with Lachie. I am a good sister. Even though he is often crash tackling me and pulling my hair.
* Mum has bought me some special hair shampoo that makes my hair look beautiful.
* I love painting my toe and finger nails. For the last few weeks they have been blue - my favourite colour.
* I love meat, yoghurt & fresh savoury rolls (like cheese&bacon, tomato&cheese or olive&cheese). * I love my afternoon sleep.
* At play-care when I am inside, I like to play babies and build towers with Sophie. Then when we go outside I like to run and jump and skip and throw balls and ride bicycles and play in sand pit and do lots of fun stuff with Tom and Daniel.
* I have beautiful manners most of the time.
* If you remind me when I forget, I will use my happy voice to ask for things......

...swimming lessons!!!! Isn't it? Well that's what we do...

I am doing really well in my swimming class. We go to Lane Cove Aquatic Centre where they have a purpose built arm-pit height pool.

We do lots of big kid skills - like kicking, paddling and back floating.
We also play lots of fun games like ring-a-ring-a-rosie, finding the toys that sink to the bottom of the pool and chasing after the toys that float on top of the water.

I also get to wear really cool goggles. Its so much fun!

As one of our adventure Fridays, in December mum and I went to a Wiggles concert.

Unfortunately it turned out their was a bus strike the day of the concert, which threw a little spanner in the works.....but once we got there, it was COOL!

It has all the elements of a GREAT concert:

• We had perfect seats - first level up - two rows back (with no-one sitting n front of us!). We were at eye level with the stage.
• There were bright lights, loud music and screaming fans everywhere.
• The Wiggles sang and danced and performed their rockin' songs with the energy of a toddler.
• There was a mosh pit of big kids (5+ year olds) at the front. Actually I think there were a few mums in there too?
• They turned the lights off at one point and everyone started swaying their glow sticks / mobiles in the air to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Mum & I shared a massive tub of popcorn. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs as the spill to eat ratio was 10 to one.

All in all it was an hour and a half of non-stop fun! Although it took me a little while to warm up to the scene (I was a little overwhelmed at first), I had an absolute ball.

To top it off mum bought me a Dorothy-the-Dinosaur tail (and Lachie a plush guitar) on the way out.

What an amazing adventure!

As part of the preparation for mum's to return to work, Lachie went to PlayCare one day a week in the lead up to Chrissy. This was fantastic because it meant mum and I could have a fun-filled one-on-one day every week.
We made the most of the opportunity and did some really cool stuff. We went to the zoo twice, to Homebush Acquatic Centre (and played in the water park), to the movies, to see Santa in the city, to a Wiggles concert, we got a pedicure...loads of things! It was busy-busy-busy fun-fun-fun!
Photos to come, but we had a great time :)

* I often refer to myself in the third person and usually as Elimena and not Eli.
* I am into pretend play. At the moment I particularly like making meals for you in the oven Grandpa made me.
* I am cuddly and snuggly and love having books read to me.
* At PlayCare I love the bikes and the sandpit. I have almost smuggled an entire sandpit home in my shoes!
* I am into beads, high-heels and hand-bags.
* I love BBQ chicken, meat of any kind really and fruit.
* I still have one good sleep a day and a big big one at night (12 hours).
...and when I'm not sleeping - I am busy, busy, busy.....

Haircuts are a lot more fun when you get them done with Mum!

The Christmas surprises this year had a distinct Dr Suess theme! (Purely by chance since they are always developed in strict family secrecy...)

Since getting it from Santa, I've been addicted to I Wish That I Had Duck Feet. So, Dad decided to see what it would be like if we did have duck feet, horns, a whale spout, a long tail and an elephant nose!

One things for sure ... it's a lot of fun to try!

A long, long tail is also great, but as predicted in the book, you can get tied up with it...

For the next few days the duck feet got a lot of action around the house - including baths and flying with Uncle Jus.