1. LOVES school! We struggled with our decision to send her to school ALL day three days a week, but I must say she is LESS crabby on the evenings she comes home from school than on her days off. Getting to school in the morning still entails a little fuss about not wanting to go, but every time I pick her up she comes running up to me with a huge smile and lots of stories to tell me. She also seems to be making LOTS of friends, despite the communication barrier.
2. Is learning Chinese. She has really taken to attempting to learn Chinese. While if you ask her to say something in Chinese she will still only say, "Ni Jiao shenme mingzi?", it seems at interesting moments, Ellie will say something in Chinese or at least something that resembles something in Chinese. Play time consists of Ellie shouting out incoherent phrases in Chinese, which I'm thinking MUST be a good thing! She is also learning Zhu Yin Fu Hao (Chinese alphabet) at school! Very exciting!
3. Wrote a song (the second stanza she had help with to fit with the first stanza):
Jesus is Lord (2x)
He goes into your heart
And He loves you so so much
When you die you go to heaven
Jesus is Lord (2x)
He died upon the cross
He rose up from the dead
He forgives us all our sins
4. LOVES to pretend. She has quite the imagination that girl. She still enjoys playing with her doll house or getting into some dress-up clothes and pretending she's a princess.
5. LOVES Chinese food. Ellie has always been good about eating Chinese food in the States and thankfully she has continued in this way. Her new favorite: Tofu
6. Is my little helper. If I would ever allow it, Ellie would be highly entertained cooking and cleaning all day long. She LOVES to help me in the kitchen and LOVES doing her chores for coins so she can buy things.
7. Is weaning off naps. Ellie doesn't nap at school anymore (she did for a short time) and it seems she doesn't always nap on her days off either. I would say she probably only naps 2 days a week. She still goes into her room for a quiet time, but usually just reads books. We were discovering when she napped more often, the days she did nap, she wouldn't go to bed until around 10pm and would keep Siri awake with her. It seems she is better off not napping most days and getting to bed a decent time. Though quiet time is still a MUST! :)
8. Is growing up! Ellie has changed so much! It seems she is entering into the four-year-old stage and it is welcomed with open arms! Three-year-old Ellie, while mentally could handle much, physically couldn't. This led to lots of unsuccessful attempts at independence, which led to uncontrollable frustrations which led to uncontrollable tantrums. It seems as Ellie is able to DO more things she is able to be more independent and as a result is much happier. Praise God!
