Where to start?

She still says Back-cack instead of Backpack. She also says ‘Biolet’ for her friend Violet, though my husband has cumulatively spent around 2 hours trying to get her to say “V-V-V-Violet”. She tries to teach me, “B-B-B-Biolet”, so technically I think she’s listening.

She has convinced her 2-year-old preschool class that her name is “Poppy” (from the Trolls movie), so much so that they correct her teachers. She has a Poppy plush doll she sleeps with and carries around pretty much wherever she goes – in fact it is getting pretty disgusting… She has a Moana plush doll she calls Branch, also from the Trolls movie (if we loved her we’d get her a Branch doll, right??)

She has seen the Trolls movie approximately 22 times, and she still insists on watching it regularly. And honestly, I cannot complain. What do Trolls do? Sing, Dance and Hug (on the hour, every hour). And they love cupcakes. What could possibly be wrong with that? Plus, the soundtrack is pretty awesome.

My favorite song is Get Back Up Again – which she quotes when something goes wrong. It’s all about Poppy going out on her own, bravely, to save her friends (sorry if I spoiled it). Between this and the Zootopia song from Shakira “Try Again”, I’m pretty sure we’re building the most resilient child on the planet. Thanks, movies.

I also like to watch both Zoe and Ella dance to Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling (from the Trolls movie), which we’ve done around the house hundreds of times. May my children always dance and find happiness in music. Some of our happiest times at home are DANCING.

But back to Ella, er, Poppy. She used to like two ponytails:

But now, thanks to trolls, she most frequently requests “one ponytail, like Poppy”. I have nothing against Poppy, but come on, those two ponytail days were cute.

One thing I’ve learned from parenting, don’t get stuck on ANYTHING. You like that they don’t like pink? HA. Picture yourself owning every princess dress that ever existed, frilly headbands with flowers and sparkles, and even if they cut off their hair, they’ll want pink bows to hold it back.

But I digress. Ella. She’s a character.

Unlike her sister, who (though a confident, sassy kid) is a rule follower who likes to point out when others aren’t following the rules, Ella pretty much waits for the rule to see how she can bend, stretch or break it. Electrical outlets? Interesting. “Don’t put that in your mouth” is filtered down to “put that in your mouth”.

I am hopeful one day that will work in her favor.

She is NOT as social as Zoe, in fact, she confidently shares at strangers in a “why in the world would you be staring at me” sort of way, where Zoe would go to any stranger available and still wants to go to the playground not to play, but to make a new friend.

Ella, not so much. Zoe liked “mommy” just fine, but Ella’s mantra when tired, frustrated or in pain “I WANT MOMMY, I WANT MOMMY” (even if she’s 12 inches or less from me). Not kidding.

I think back to being pregnant with Ella, so happy to have “another Zoe” (who was and is a delightful child), and realizing that the 2nd child MIGHT NOT BE like the first one. Welcome, second equally-delightful-but-totally-different child.

Anyway, Ella rocks. Even though (as Bart recently pointed out) we’re going to have 159 hours of 1 minute or less Zoe videos and less than 1.59 total video minutes of Ella, she’s pretty awesome. Sorry, Ella, second child. It’s a thing.