Published on February 6, 2006 By trina_p In Home & Family
I've attempted to write something twice now and each time it gets wiped somehow so we're trying again one last time.

Elana is now 26months and the last time I wrote was her birthday - alot has happened, so this will be long.

The surprise present Elana made for her grandparents was a plate - Nana's was blue and Grans was pink and they each had a purple hand print in the middle we wrapped them up and they got them as a Christmas present from Elana.

We put our tree up a couple of days later (I can't remember the date) but we couldn't put any presents underneath until after Elana had gone to bed on Christmas Eve because she kept trying to open them thinking they were an extension of her birthday.

Christmas Eve we had friends over like we do every year - this year was the three boys and we had ham and potato bake (first year we had just Beavs and curry, second year was Beavs & Rin and ham and salad, this year was Beavs, Alex and Peter)
Alex gave me a game called Wits End and so we played that -- the questions are really hard but very interesting.

Elana woke up at the usual time on Christmas morning and we both went in and got her (makes a change over fighting about who has to get out of bed ) and said Merry Christmas - Elana learnt how to say Merry Missmas and how to sing Jingle Bells
We got her up and lead her downstairs where Santa had left presents Hi-5 socks outside her door and trailing down the stairs until we got to her sack.

She opened her santa sack hi-5 socks x2, hi-5 dvds x2, hi-5 toothbrush, broom/dustpan/brush & mop set and a puzzle (left hand/right hand fingers 1-10)
Then she had her weetbix and then opened the presents from Mummy & Daddy under the tree. She got the fisher price ABC Animals sounds learning Zoo (but it didn't come with all 26 animals) and some clothes.
Then she wanted to open all the other presents - the ones for our families.

From Nick I got Friends series 8 & 9, a book Always & Forever by Cathy Kelly, some Guillan chocolate and a watch - Loyal, silver/gold no numbers (roman numeral 12 & 6) exactly what I love.

Not long after we went to Nick's parents house Elana got a dog called Hugo, a pink dress, a swim vest and a puzzle book. I got Watermelon by Marian Keyes, a bowl, bamboo placemats and chopsticks and christmas m&m's.
We hung out went swimming - Elana hated it and then the extended family arrived.

Had the big lunch and the big present exchange Elana got some dolls accessories, clothes, an Elmo doll and a fisher price learn through music system with Elmo's ABC

Monday was boxing Day and we went to my parents house for lunch - Mexican burritos, tacos, enchiladas and fajitas.

In the two months since her birthday Elana has grown and changed so much. She knows farm animals & sounds (cows, horse, sheep, chicken) from Hi-5, her puzzle and this book about Daisy the Cow from New MacDonalds Farm.
She knows the ABC song from the Elmo thing
and she knows many sounds names and letters from the Zoo. It came with a polar Bear ( lion (l) monkey (m) and
giraffe (g) and she already had a camel, zebra and kangaroo from another little people set she got the christmas before last.
If you haven't seen the zoo it's a mat with A-Z and a song & ?.
A - alligator
B - Bear
C - camel
etc - and each letter has A, Alligator begins with A and then the snap snap of the alligator -- and two settings ABC and sounds so pressing the ? on the ABC side will illicit a Which animal begins with E? or Find the Elephant
and pressing the ? on the sounds side they'll ask you "Which animals make
js this sound?"

So Elana will say which animal makes this sound along with the voice and she knows most of the sounds and animals.

She calls the Iguana - I but she knows the sound, same with the koala she knows the sound and she knows it's K but doesn't know koala.
Two weeks ago I went shopping at a different store to normal and I found the 4 packets of 4 of the ABC animals - so I laybyed 3 and bought one.
She now has the Zebra (z - we now have 2) penguin (p) yak (y - she LOVES the yak) and alligator (a)
On layby we have the camel (c) dolphin (d) elephant (e) hippo (h) iguana (i) jaguar (j) nightingale (n) quail (q) rhino (r) uriel (u) vulture (v) and walrus (w)

To get F (flamingo), K (koala), O (ostrich), S (seal), T (tiger) and X (x-ray fish) we have to buy the Nursery and Train

Elana is the only child I know who doesn't know the word Bird but does know Vulture, Chicken, Kookaburra, Duck, Flamingo and Quail and uses one of those words for the various flying birds around the place.

She also meows or woofs instead of saying the words cat or dog.

We started back at playgroup 3 weeks ago and Kindermusik starts again this Friday.

We bought her two books a few weeks ago - one is words the other ABC so one has pictures in categories with labels and the other has words in groups of the letter they start with.
Elana knows lots of clothes names (dress, socks, shoes, pants, hat, pyjamas) and foods (pizza, pasta, chips, ice-cream, yogurt, bread, sandwich, paella (there's no picture of that it's what she eats), rice, cracker, moolk, water, cino

She knows the words for tv, butterfly, grass, fridge, sit in the chair, play the guitar (she doesn't ever juist say chair or guitar) amimools, and the colours red, yellow, orange, green and blue – and if you ask her to find black, purple, pink and brown she can do that.
She can count as far as 16 but she can't count objects – she doesn't understand numbers but she has memorised how to count from 1-16.

She thinks the computer is for her use now – Boohbah? Wiggles? Hi-5? Bananas? Playschool? Thomas? Bambaloo? so that's fun.

She's still hi-5 obsessed – she has a skirt, t-shirt, singlet, socks, sheets, yogurt and lots of videos she even named her stuffed giraffe Tim.
But we've added Thomas and trains in general onto our new obsessions. A few weeks ago she was at Rins's house after shopping one friday and the bouys were at their dads house so she got all the toys to herself she immediately asked for the trains and track which she wouldn't go near if the boys were there.
She really likes James – she has an uncle James and she will will always try to find James while watching Thomas the Tank Engine on tv.

She eats paella (with chicken & sausage) rice, potato, fish fingers, chippolatas, noodles, spaghetti, pasta, meatballs, risotto, yogurt, cake, dried apple, pizza crusts, cracked pepper water crackers, wafers, ice-cream, jatz, ginger nuts, brunch bars, vegemite sandwiches, cheese, bread, tiny teddies, wiggles biscuits, chips. chicken nuggets, toasts, milkshakes, donuts, and cinos (babycino's are just warm milk the froth from a cappucino and a sprinkling of chocolate – there is no coffee in them)

She now asks for hugs and kisses – hugs she still says awww and pats you for kisses she'll bend her head towards you for you to kiss the top of her head

And finally she knows the names of most of the people she sees on a regular basis and can pick them out of photographs.
Pop, Gran, Nana, Debbie, Peta, James, Natalie, Scruffy (Scruff No) (doesn't know Granpa) Alex, Rin (Ri-in it's very whiney) Peter, Micah, Caleb and all the members of Hi-5 Tim, Charli, Kathleen, Kellie, Nathan, Jup-Jup and Chatterbox.

Also Humpty Dah and Annana's (humpty dumpty & banana's in pyjama's)

This is probably not a good thing

Comments
on Mar 02, 2006
She learnt Ganpa (granpa) over the weekend and I should add that Natanee, Gan and Scruckky sound like that (Natalie, Gran & Scruffy) the rest sound how they're supposed to.

Also she added H to her ABCs and we counted all the way to 20 (with help) a few days ago.