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[Ellen]

[Ellen holding Calvin] I gave birth to Ellen on December 13, 1995. I had her in a hospital. I labored in a hottub, and because of that I was able to relax and give birth without any pain medication.

Ellen's brother, Calvin, came into this world on December 16, 1998, and Ellen was at his birth. She really liked being there, and I am so happy that she was there. Calvin was born at home into warm water, and it was a very beautiful experience for us all.

I nursed Ellen during my pregnancy and am now tandem nursing, which means I am nursing both her and her little brother. It was really hard in the beginning, but I want to let her wean when she is ready. It's better now, and so we are hanging in there. She only nurses about a minute total a day now and skips some days.

Ellen is a very independent little girl with a definite mind of her own. She is a sweetie, but she tends to get hyper when she is too tired.

After Calvin was born, Ellen really struggled with not being able to go to sleep at night. For about three weeks after Calvin was born, most nights my husband would take her for a drive to see "pretty lights" (Christmas lights) so they could have some daddy/daughter time, and she could fall alseep. Then she started being able to get to sleep all right. But it really got better this summer when I set a flexible bedtime for her -- we start her bedtime routine at approximately the same time every night and it can be longer or shorter depending on how tired she seems. This way we start the bedtime routine *before* she gets too tired and hyper, and she is able to wind down better and fall asleep (before we would start getting her ready for bed when she started acting tired). Now she and Calvin usually go to bed around 10:00 at night and sleep in until about 9:30 in the morning (oh, of course, Calvin wakes up throughout the night to nurse). :-)

Rosie is Ellen's special doll.

Some Things Ellen Likes to Do

She likes to go on walks and climb on the big toys at the park and play on the swings and slides.

She likes to fingerpaint and watercolor and her newest thing (she just started last week!) is to draw with our Adobe Photoshop program. :-) (Ellen made the drawing seen on the border of this background.)

She likes to help when I cook: she grated some cheese for me today. She especially loves to help me make cookies -- I try to make them as healthy as I can! -- and muffins.

She likes macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and almost any kind of pasta, ice cream, bagels, Life cereal, oatmeal with milk and brown sugar.

She likes to watch tv, and she used to watch a lot of tv, especially after Calvin was born (to keep her occupied!!); some of her favorite tv shows were "Little Bear," "The Big Comfy Couch," "Barney," and "Blues Clues." We cancelled our cable almost half a year ago, and now we don't watch tv a whole lot, but she loves to watch her Winnie the Pooh videos.

She loves going to the library! We just started going regularly this fall (she watched Aurthur one day, and they had a show about libraries, and so she asked me if we could go to the library -- see, tv is good for something ;-)).

She likes music and dancing and is learning to sing some songs. She even likes classical music (she calls it "ballet music").

[Ellen in her ballet leotard]
Ellen loves to dance.
Ellen took ballet for about three months starting when she was about 3 years and two months old. She stopped taking ballet right before a show and doesn't take it anymore. She enjoyed most of the class and was learning to follow the teacher's directions, but when they got to the part of class where they were supposed to practice for the program she would kind of "tune out." Also she didn't like to pratice at home very much, and we didn't want to pressure her or make her practice because we wanted her to *have fun* and to do it out of enjoyment. So she never learned the dance routine. We wanted to take her out of the class sooner, but some people thought she could learn the routine, and I'm sure she *could've* if we would've caused her lots of tears, but being attachment parents partial to the concept of unschooling, I thought that it would be ridiculous to force her to practice. So we kept her in the class longer than we felt comfortable doing, and next time we will follow our instincts. But she sure did look cute! :-)

She still loves to dance at home and can still do some ballet moves, but makes up a lot it herself. It's very beautiful. She has a Madeleine video in which Madeleine does ballet which she enjoys. I am thinking about enrolling her in a creative dance class after the new year -- I think she might find a less formal atmosphere more enjoyable.

Now she goes to toddler gym. I and Calvin go too -- I wear him in a sling. We have a really good time. Another activity we enjoy is going to family story time at our library.

We try to have daily family devotions, and she attends church with us. She sits with us during the service; I admit, though, that during the service she plays with stickers and draws and has snacks and water, but I know she does hear some of it.

[Me, Calvin, and Ellen]

You can listen to the song Shine, Jesus, Shine if you would like.

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