18 Months Old!

Yes, thats right.  Ellie has reached 18 months!  With this age we have a walking, talking toddler that keeps herself busy!  Ellie is really starting to show us who she is...a spunky little mess with a sweet personality.  She loves to get right in the middle of whatever her brother and sister are doing and is learning how to stand up for herself.  If somebody takes away a toy or keeps her from doing something she wants to do, she lets you know right away how she feels about it!  Overall though she is still the happiest little thing and still so easy to be around.  (Occasionally the approaching "terrible twos" rears its head, but mostly she's just so good!)  We all just love our little Ellie Boo!

At 18 months, Ellie:

• Weighed in at 21.8 lbs and is 30.75 inches long.  We have quite the sweet little peanut! We had a happy visit with the doctor...no shots and no crying!
• Is my little sleeper!  We are on a very consistent sleep routine, which is indescribably awesome.  She goes to bed around 8 p.m. every night without any fanfare and wakes up in the morning around 7 or 7:30 a.m.  She is down to one nap in the afternoon that usually lasts around two  hours though sometimes longer.
• Is apparently going to follow her brother and sister into the realm of picky eating.  (Grrrr)  She likes what she likes and will completely ignore any new food on her tray that she either doesn't recognize or doesn't like. (I guess that is an improvement from throwing the offending food on the floor.)  Mama continues the fight to find nutritious things for her to eat.
• Loves music!  If we turn the radio up she will stop what she's doing to hear or break out into a little dance.  She is always very interested if any of us sing and recently she has really gotten into "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes."
• Has a growing vocabulary.  She speaks in what sounds like sentences but we can't really understand her a lot of the time.  Words that stand out include ball, bubba (cooper), mama, dada, whos (shoes), suse me (excuse me), pease (please), uh-oh, something that sounds like "violet" (the dog), co-co (popcorn), chu-chu (chickens), bah (bath) and bye bye!
• Loves books!  Many times during the day I can find Ellie curled up in the chair in her room looking through one of her books all by herself.  Of course she loves it when Mama or Penny sit and read books with her.  
• Is a a little water baby!  Ellie loves to play in the bath with her sister and has just figured out how to sort of move around the pool when she is wearing her float suit.  Yesterday she even managed to climb into one of the big kids big floats and motor around the pool a little.  
• Loves my phone!  If she manages to get a hold of it, (like digging it of my purse when I don't notice) she will forcefully put it in my hand and say  "Uh!"  Like, Mom, I want my "where's the water" game! Sometimes (read rarely) she will settle for her play phone.  

Ready for bed and reading with Penny.