Ella is 2 and a HALF!

I know this sounds crazy, but this is the first time she has ever had her own bowl of ice cream (or in this case frozen yogurt)!  She hated it- can you tell? ;)

Ella at 2.5...

• She is hilarious- she constantly makes us laugh.
• She has gotten over her pushing phase and is actually pretty good at sharing her toys.
• She loves all her babies and is constantly putting them to sleep by covering them with blankets.
• She loves being outside and would always prefer to be outside over inside.
• She loves green beans, hummus, cheese, Gerber mac n cheese with chicken & veggies, anything sweet and milk.
• She is madly in love with her little brother and cannot get enough of him- he is the only person in the world that she will defer to, share anything with, and do anything for.
• She shows compassion and concern- she always asks me, "is Everett ok mommy?".
• Despite being very social and outgoing, she is fearful of things like Santa, Easter Bunny, animals and things she is not familiar with.
• After months and months of being all about daddy all the time, she is very much in a mommy phase right now.
• She is smart, sweet, sassy, independent, happy and just wonderful.

A little story for her to remember when she's older...I ran into one of the dads of a boy in her class at school when I was picking her up.  I didn't know him, but he said, "Oh you are Ella's mom?"  "I absolutely LOVE her.  She is the sweetest little girl I've ever met. "  He said that when he's dropping his son off and asks for a hug, his son will sometimes run away, and Ella will come up to him and give him a goodbye hug.  :)

A Very Merry Unbirthday to YOU! 18 Months

Ella's half birthday is today...I can't believe she is 18 months old already!  I often look at her and think, "wow, you are a little girl now, not a baby!"  She still isn't a huge talker, but she will pretty much repeat or try to repeat anything you say.  Today she was trying to get the ball from Rylee, and I said, "Rylee drop!" so Ella says, "DROP!"  Her favorite word is "up".

We're still not really in the tantrum phase and no meltdowns in public, but she LOVES to whine.  Oh my gosh, if they had a whining competition, Ella would win.  However, a sure fire way to get her to stop whining is to take her outside.  She absolutely loves being outside, and if she had her way, she'd be outside 24 hours a day.

She is extremely social but can get shy sometimes.  She loves to laugh and be tickled.  She wears a size 18-24 month in clothing and still wears a size 4 diaper.

So even though my last post about dresses said those were my final fabrics, I added two more!  It's been cold here lately so I felt all cuddly and decided to get some flannel fabric...have you ever seen such a cute flannel fabric?!  This is the bell sleeve peasant dress...

And then because I love all things cherry, I had to do one in this fabric (it's not flannel), which I used to make bibs with...

16 Months Old

My baby girl is 16 months old today! I've been doing mini-updates so there is not much new to report.

She is definitely entering the "terrible two's", but after some change in our attitudes, working on redirecting and rarely saying "no", she seems to be much better behaved! We still have the occasional sit on the floor and whine when I don't get my way behavior, but it has been greatly reduced...still no full blown tantrums! Yay! And still never a meltdown in public (I'm so dreading the day that that happens).  She really just gets cuter everyday- I'm so in love with her personality.  She makes the cutest faces, and her smile makes me melt.  The other day we were listening to a little hip hop in the car, and I said "dance baby!" so she started GROOVING in her carseat!  The people next to us at the light probably thought we were crazy both dancing in the car. ;)

She still isn't talking a ton, unless you count saying "dadadadadadada" over and over talking a lot! She loves her daddy! Everything else she says is fairly infrequently and reserved mostly for when you ask her to say it (if she's in a good mood). Although we *think* she has said lots and lots of words, she will say them once and never again so we're not sure if she really said them. Her words are:
*dog
*Rylee (ra ra)
*mama (she'll say it once if you ask her to, and then when she realizes she said it, she says "DA DA!")
*down
*Popple
*moo
*belly
*hi
*hello
*bye bye

She will also try to mimic the sound when you say a word she doesn't know.  Many times, we've said things like, "say bush" and she'll say "ush" so at least she's trying!  Still in a size 4 diaper, 18 month clothes, and probably between and size 4 and 5 in shoes.

I bought her a really cute Valentine's Day tutu, but I couldn't find a shirt I liked, plus I prefer tutus to be worn with onesies since shirts won't stay tucked in.  So while she was playing outside today, I whipped this up to wear for V-Day! I think it turned out pretty cute! I intended on making hair clips with similar felt hearts for V-Day, but of course I didn't do them in time. I need more hours in the day. :)

Dancin' Queen

Some recent fun Ella Facts:

(1) She is now saying "bye bye".  It's like she wakes up with a new word everyday!  She says "this" and "that" a lot too now.  She also somehow learned how to say "Popple" at grandma's house...does anyone my age remember those from when we were young?  They were little stuffed animals that turned into a ball?

(2) She blows on most of her food and most flowers.  Grandma taught her to blow dandelions, so now she blows on all the flowers she picks.  She watches me blow on her hot food before I feed it to her so now when she is feeding herself, she blows on everything before putting it in her mouth!  Funny.

(3) She knows that "CHEESE!" means to smile big for the camera, so she's now a total ham when I pick up the camera.

(4) She is becoming a lot more FEISTY.  My Lord that girl has a personality on her.  When you say no (or yell it, scream it, cry it), she just calmly looks at you and does EXACTLY what you told her not to do.  Twice.  She has also started hitting Rylee- hard.  It makes me VERY upset, and I don't know how to stop her (any advice?).

(5) Ella loves to dance!  I finally uploaded part of the video from the other night, but she even has some new moves since then, including her "sumo" as Gary calls it.  I will say, she prefers rap and hip hop to nursery rhymes...we are creating a monster.

For the Record...

I forgot to post some stuff this weekend:

(1) Ella is officially saying "hi"...she says it in this super cute quiet voice, but she was saying it over and over this weekend..."hi" "hi" "hi" "hi".

(2) She is blowing kisses!  SO cute!  I don't know where that came from because I tried and tried to teach it to her a few months back, and she wouldn't do it so I gave up.  Then randomly this weekend I said, "can you blow mommy a kiss", and I did it to her, and she did it back!  Now she'll do it on command. :)

(3) This probably goes along with blowing kisses, but she mimics us a lot now.  And sort of scary, she seems to understand e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. now.  Things you really think there is no way she could understand...we need to be very careful with what we say around her now...especially if she's going to have a word explosion soon!!

(4) She just started using a fork by herself!  Yes, she's been using a fork for months, but only after we put the food on it for her.  Now, she stabs the food herself and puts it in her mouth!  It doesn't work every time, but she's definitely trying.

I can't believe how much she's changing and growing so quickly!  It's like overnight she can do 25 more things.  I'm so proud of my little munchkin!

15 Months Old

Naked wearing Uggs in the doctor's office...hey we had to keep her warm some way!

Ella was 15 months old on Saturday, and today she had her 15 month WBV.  Overall, she is doing fantastic!  This was the first time she remembered the doctor's office.  And she didn't like it one bit.  She was completely fine until we had to lay her on the table to measure her and put her on the scale- she cried!  After the nurse left she was fine, and as usual, got her flirt on when Dr. A came into the room...suddenly, she was smiley, laughing, running around, waving, etc.  I guess we can never switch doctors since she's in love with him!  She went back to crying when she had to get her shots- poor baby!

Dr. A said he thinks her toe walking (she does it about 40-50% of the time) is habitual and not a sign of any problem.  Surprisingly, he was not at all concerned with her speech!  He said they only require one word by 15 months, and since she is saying "daddy", he is not concerned (they re-evaluate at 18 months).  Honestly, I think she also might be saying dog (well she is saying dog), mommy, water, rylee, mine, no, that, and hi or hello but definitely not on a regular basis.  She also signs, more, eat, all done and milk.

The best part of the appointment is when he said she is more social than the average 15 month old. :)  She has really blossomed in the past few months.  She is a little cuddle bug, always hugging and kissing Gary and I, and she adores other kids.  Really, she adores people.  We definitely have a future social butterfly on our hands...class president 2027!

Her 15 month stats
Height 31.5 inches- 80th percentile (90th percentile adjusted!)
Weight 23.08 pounds- 65th percentile
Head- 45th percentile

She is getting longer and thinner (going up in the height percentile and down in the weight percentile)!

I know I always say it, but we really do just feel so blessed.  I want to pinch myself!  I STILL can't believe that I finally have my beautiful baby girl, and she is such a good baby with such a fun personality.  I don't know how we go so lucky.  I hear that we are in the "sweet spot" right now because she's at that really fun age, but she's not throwing tantrums or acting out ever really.  I just want to spend every second with her.  Good idea to keep a record of this time before the kicking and screaming tantrums start!