This kid is unpredictable. Precocious, mischievous and delightful, but no doubt unpredictable. She sings the cutest songs, unprompted, smiling the biggest smile to punctuate that song. But ask her to sing? Nope.

So it should come as no surprise that a) she started writing her name before the age of 3 and b) she writes it backwards. She CAN write it forward (the letters are formed correctly and she’s done it), but she CHOOSES to write it backwards – and with flair, with “E-hugging Ls” and an errant “A”.  According to Daddy, that character above to the left is a “J” for Johnson (that’s less common).

I’m a nerd, so I tried to look it up, but I can’t find this exactly. I can find writing letters backwards or “mirror-writing” (and that neither is “weird” for this age), but not right letters, wrong direction. Who cares? I choose to think it’s a sign of genius.

Like Zoe, she has a LOT of words. Unlike Zoe (well, as far as I can remember), she still has some pronunciation quirks (Zoe was very articulate). My favorite Ella-isms?

• “I’m a Big Grill, Mom!” Yes, it sounds JUST like grill.
• She still says “Biolet” for “Violet”
• “Bumember” for “Remember”
• “Baff” for “Bath”

Yes, I remember she’s 3.

Right now Ella attends preschool, one that is more focused on social, art and movement skills (as perhaps they should be), so I have no idea how “on track” she is. But I just attended Zoe’s parent / teacher conference and couldn’t be prouder.

Zoe is in 2nd grade, reading on a 5th grade level. She is a voracious reader, in fact, which all started with her love of dinosaurs. She wanted to know everything there was to know about them, and so we own 20 dinosaur books (resulting in the nerdiest of facts about dinosaurs that our kid spouts out to whomever will listen). And now she’s fallen in love with the Rainbow Magic Fairy book series. About reading Zoe says, “Mom, I just had to find my kind of book.”

And so she has. About those fairies… One day recently she wanted to send a letter to the author, Daisy Meadows, to ask a question about the fairies. That’s when I found this:

“So My Daughter Wrote Her First Fan Letter to a Children’s Author…Who Doesn’t Exist…”

Turns out Daisy Meadows is a just a name for a collection of random authors who write these books. There’s a lot of debate on the subject (they are incredibly popular), but then, who should your kid write that letter to? Do you tell them the truth and explain or let them live the dream? To find out, I asked my sister, where I go for all sound parenting advice. She said, “Send the letter.” and simply sent me the address.

My inclination was to explain and tell her it’s ok and the world works like this in some cases and there are questions for which we may never have the “answer”. But my sister is generally smarter than I am, and so, we wrote that letter. Turns out before it got in the mail Zoe said “Never mind, Mom. I found my answer.” She had wanted to know how to tell which book was the absolute first. And she figured out the numbering system on the books. Who’s the smart one? Clearly not me.

But back to Ella the Imp. This just came home from school:

Her art is prolific, frequently signed by the author. Wonder how/if I should intervene before we have to change her name to Alle?