Our Postage Stamp Backyard

Watching "This is Halloween" for the bajillionth time.

So...I don't know if it's because I only have a few days left of this girl being one year old or if I just want to prove that I actually do dress her every once in a while, but I have been taking pictures of Ella like crazy, I have an entire week's worth of posts in pictures from the past few days, so that's what you get to see this week. 

That rather depressing little place that Ella is exploring is one of her favorite places to play, it is our postage-stamp sized backyard that looks like it belongs behind a prison. 

Ella kind of loves it.

Because it is full of dirt, and she loves dirt.

And I kind of love it too because having a sliding glass backdoor brings even more natural light into our little apartment, which I love and it's a place where I can let Ella go out while I get stuff done.

It has a little pile of dried up weeds that she likes to sit in the middle of and play in, because obviously if there is one place I don't want her to play that is the one place that she wants to play.

She comes in with little scratches up and down her legs but she doesn't even notice because that girl seriously lives outside her body.

I mean, if she is sick, she will show zero signs of being sick until I see that her nose is running or she throws up, but besides that she just acts as happy and energetic as usual, you would have no idea that she feels ill.

She never showed any discomfort from teething (even though her gums were black and blue with the teeth trying to push through).

She never had a fever from vaccines.

I can only think of 2 times when she EVER had a fever and then they were super high ones (and according to my doctor, toddlers should have fevers on a pretty regular basis, but not Ella).

When she falls down she is usually completely unphased, pulling herself up and continuing on like nothing happened.

It's really like she hardly feels what happens to her body.

But what she does feel is emotion.

Holy cow does this girl feel strong emotions.

I mean, we've discussed before how she throws up when she's upset, so clearly she feels things strongly.

If her favorite toy grocery cart gets stuck while she's trying to push it, there is this total and complete meltdown involving fireworks and explosions and laying like a puddle on the floor because how DARE anything get in the way of her pushing her cart!

And we're talking like a small shoe getting in the way of the cart, something that she could easily move out of the way, but oh no, ear-piercing tantrums are a far more effective way to deal with this obstacle.

She regularly is on the floor in a puddle.

But she also feels happiness so immensely, she can hardly contain it.

When she is happy she clenches her little fists and her jaw as if the emotion is so strong she has to try to restrain it inside her tiny little body.

And the love she feels towards us and Fenton and her favorite toys, oh I love it because it overwhelms her little self so much, my heart seriously wants to start sobbing.

She LOVES things so much, she loves her stuffed animals, and her Baby Doll and Gerard and she can't help but show these inanimate objects that she loves them.

She can go from laughing hysterically to a crying puddle on the floor in 5 seconds flat.

And part of that is being a toddler and toddlers feel emotionally really strongly but I think she is also just a person who is naturally that way.

Immense happiness and sadness and frustration and amusement.

I'm already looking forward to the teenage years ahead when hormones will be added to the mix.