Ellie moments not to be caught on film

I suppose "caught on film" is a bit antiquated as any device I have for capturing Ellie's image is digital. Unfortunately, she is not too fond of said devices. She has not taken to the idea of posing or even smiling for a picture. Any smiles I get on record have to be candid, with my timing rather strategic. Most of the videos I take of her are either of the back of her while she walks and jabbers (walkie-talkie! ha!) or sneaking up behind her while she sits and plays. Once she notices the camera, she either stops what she's doing and/or grabs for the camera. Any video taken from the front ends up being a close-up of one nostril and then half her mouth as she tries to eat the camera, or her little hand trying to push it away.

So I am left with even older technology than film to try to preserve some of my favorite Ellie moments of late: the antique word. Some of these moments I did try to catch and failed horribly, and some I just really wished I had something with me at the time to preserve the memory.

• Mountain Goat Ellie. Like most toddlers, Ellie wants to climb everything she can. Often mid-diaper-change she decides to stand up on her changing table and try to climb onto the attached shelf, sans fresh diaper. When she accompanied me the first week I filled in at the nursery at church, her first move was to climb on the little chairs, then the little table and do a dance during snack time. She insists on riding the rocking horse in the family room standing up, and often drags it around the room to use as a step to reach forbidden DVD player buttons. Her favorite spot to play is on the fireplace (a losing battle we've decided), which is sort of a one-foot stage for her. She seems to navigate it well enough, so we didn't worry too much about it. Until one day Brady and I turned to see her standing upright on top of the wood stove, eying the brick mantle. I'm sure she could have scaled the rest of the fireplace without much trouble if we hadn't snatched her down. Honestly, my first thoughts were "oh, no!" and simultaneously, "I kind of wish I had the camera handy . . ."
  
• Ellie's Dance Party. We set up our stereo in Ellie's room, way back when we were still desperate to get her to sleep and thought playing lullabies might help. Sometimes we let her play with the remote during a diaper change, just to keep her occupied. She is happy to turn it on and off, play with the volume, and change discs while we get a hassle-free diaper change. One day when I went to get her after a nap, she sounded particularly distressed. Outside her door, I heard some strange thumping. When I entered, I heard loud, heavy bass backing up some pretty intense club-style music. Ellie just looked at me and whimpered and I burst out laughing once I realized what happened. Somehow she hit the right combination of buttons to set the timer to turn on the radio and wake her up from her nap (something I have never learned to do). I'm not sure about her selection of radio station, though. I thought I had a few more years before I had to get after her about her music.
  
• Reading with Ellie. The way to Ellie's heart is books (well, books, graham crackers, and Elmo). They are her best toys and some of our best memories are reading with Ellie. Lately she has been making us read The Remarkable Farkle McBride several times a day. A while ago it was The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear. One day after reading it about three times in a row, I finally told Ellie, "You read it," when she requested a repeat. To my surprise, she opened the book and yelled, "boom-Boom-BOOM!" correctly narrating the bear tromping through the forest, and then, "yum!" at the end when you eat up the strawberry. She loved to run around quoting that one (even at church) and it has been fun seeing what stands out in her favorites when she takes a turn "reading" them. But probably the best was when she sat and tried to feed cheerios to each of the ducks in an open board book, telling them "wack, wack, wack."
  
• Yogi Ellie. After having my back go out a couple times in the last few months, I decided to get more serious about doing some stretching every day. Since Ellie nap-time hours are already claimed for other things, I often end up having to do a bit of yoga while Curious George or Baby Einstein is on. Ellie has her own opinions about my new routine. It doesn't bother her a bit if I doze off on the couch while her shows are on, but if I try to do anything like read, work, or now stretch, she isn't thrilled. She marches onto the mat right in front of me and dances so I can't stretch forward or tries to pull me up from the ground. My favorite was one morning when I managed a brief routine, holding a downward facing dog pose and Ellie crawled between my feet, scooted up toward my head and shouted, "ah-BOO!" Perhaps a more interactive routine would suite.
  
• Slap me five. Dinner with Ellie often has its rewarding moments. Sometimes it just makes my day to see her scarf down her peas, rather than squish each one with her thumb until the insides pop out of their skin. Most of the time I am trying to get myself fed with my left hand while she tugs on my right arm when she wants something new. She has the vocabulary to ask for most of the food items or utensils she wants, but this system started several months ago and sadly seems to have stuck. It's not uncommon for me to be out and discover Ellie food hand prints on the right elbow of my sweater. One evening she kept tugging on my arm. I offered everything I could think of that she might want, but she kept tugging. Frustrated, I let out, "Ellie, what else do you want? Just say it." She pulled my arm up again and started patting my palm with her other hand and said, " 'igh five!" I guess I hadn't offered her everything.
• Singing. Ellie will occasionally grace us with a quick three-note song upon request, then set down whatever she's holding to applaud herself. One day I was singing a silly song to keep her distracted during a diaper change. Then I asked her to sing to me. She responded with a confident, yelling, "ahh-doy-a-doy-a-doy-a," which makes me wonder what I sound like to her. She went around the house singing like that all day. Another time as I sang her a quick lullaby before nap time, she took her pacifier out and put it in my mouth. Apparently she knows better than I do when it's time for mommy to be done.