Ella- 18 months- For the Record!

 Oh how I love this little girl. She has been soooooooooooooo fun to raise. Samuel always says he would have 10 more if they could be just like her.

 Her food sensitivities are a little better- She had an ice cream cone last night from McDonalds. I didn't hear any complaint of a stomach ache, but she had diarrhea this morning. But if there's not stomach aches, that's improvement! I think she will take the trade off! In this picture (above) she was enjoying a few bites of the neighbors birthday cake.  Two of Ella's "fetishes" include SHOES (anyones) and SWIMSUITS.  Multiple times a day she brings me shoes (usually matching) and says, "Shoes on?" And since we are still swimming down here in October, she finds swimsuits laying around and tries to put them on (usually without success)- so she brings them to me and says, "Su-suit? Su-suit?" She is totally happy once she has it on, even over clothes, and she doesn't necessarily have to go swim.  

 I've started putting her hair in a ponytail.  Samuel told me to stop it- it's making her look too old. But it's losing a little bit of curl, so sometimes she looks a little shaggy if I don't do something to it.

 How cute are baby wedge shoes? LOVE these. So sad she's almost outgrown them. (They came from Target.)

 She has this silly side to her personality and makes us laugh a lot. Especially Kalia and Annie, they think she's pretty funny.

 She still has those deliciously kissable cheeks.

A few more things I want to remember about her at this age:

She takes 1 nap, but recently has been sleeping for 3-4 hours. I LOVE it. It's really helped me be able to rest in the 1st trimester.

 She sleeps til about 7:30 or 8:30 every morning. Sleeps 12 hours at night.

She loves to say "TA-DA!!" when she does anything cool. 

She is talking a lot, and putting her large vocabulary to good use. She's putting two or three words together, some of my favorites being "Dere it is." (whenever we go hunting for her beloved pink blankie) and "Don't pease" (trying to teach her to STOP SHRIEKING.) She says that one with furrowed eyebrows and a pointed finger. Also, she is starting to be able to say, "Annie shoe" or "bye...Papa" or whoever she knows is leaving. She's also a little parrot, so when I carry her around and talk to her, I say, "Do you want to go to the park?" "Park." "Okay, let's get your shoes on." "Shoes!" "Should we bring a snack?" "Nack!" "I'll bring some apples." "Appo!"  I really appreciate her efforts to talk. I'm a big fan of "use your words."  :)

Whenever I tell her anything, and then say, "Kay?" She always answers, "Kay" like she's totally in agreement. Also, whenever I say, "right?" She answers, "Right." These always make me smile.

She is OBSESSED with playing games on the Ipod Touch. She is so attuned to any sound it makes (an email alert, the click it makes when you slide the unlock screen) she can hear it from the other room. She comes RUNNING in and starts incessantly asking, "Phone? Phone? Phone? Phone? Phone?" Usually she gets it when I remind her, "How do you ask?" And she (still) rubs her tummy (signing it) and says "pease."  But lately she's been saying please like her sisters, in her NICEST voice. It's so cute.

She likes to play a variety of games, but lately she's been checking out my Bejeweled Blitz. And sometimes she can do it (accidentally.) And when the gems start flaming, she says, "HOT! HOT!" and she won't touch those gems. It's funny.

She had her first ear infection last month- both ears actually. I thought it was pneumonia because of certain other symptoms but luckily it wasn't. Sadly, I put out a steam humidifier, and when I set her down to straighten out her blankets, she went right over to it and put her hand on it and got a second degree burn (awful blisters) on part of her hand. Luckily one visit to urgent care took care of all those problems, but her poor hand was a mess for about a week.

Other than that, she seems to have a good strong immune system. Both times someone caught Strep in our house, (once me, once Annie) she didn't catch it. Miraculously, somehow no one else caught it either time. 

She is really into splashing in the tub. I hate this. She's also discovered that she is tall enough to easily get in and out of the tub, and she does it constantly. I don't enjoy this either.

Lately she has been soooo cute when I put her to bed- still a pack and play in the storage closet. She will snuggle up into a ball on my chest (like a newborn) and then stick her ear right in my face, so that I can sing right into it and nibble on her ear. She laughs hysterically. I love putting her to bed. I sing her "Hush little baby" every night, and she's started singing the last word of each line. Melts my heart.

Speaking of singing, she loves to sing, especially the songs from Nursery singing time (which is my calling). So Eensy Weensy spider, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle...all these songs are some of her favorites and she never gets tired of them. She also likes to sing bits of songs from the radio, like "So Bad...So bad..." (from Call Me Maybe).

Speaking of nursery, she has already been going for 5 months because Samuel is her nursery leader, and I've been going to all 3 nurseries doing singing time. She loves to have a "nack" during snack time.

She still drinks her Similac formula, at least 16 oz a day, sometimes 24 oz. And yes, still out of a bottle, and usually when I put her down for a nap and bedtime.  But she drinks almond milk and water and juice out of a cup, and she will always tell me which drink she wants.

She weighs 25 lbs.

She climbs on everything. She climbs things on the playground that an 18 month should NEVER be climbing on there own. So glad she hasn't fallen (knock on wood.)

She jumps off of everything, as long as there's something soft to land on.

She jumps off the diving board to anyone that will catch her.

She won't swim with floaties on. She can swim about 60% on her own.

She loves toys that play songs and brings them to me constantly to turn on.

She asks for help by saying, "Help you?" because I'm always asking her, "Want me to help you?" So she also often brings me the Ipod when she gets stuck and says, "Help you?"

She loves going outside for any reason (a lot like Kalia.)

She lately doesn't like to be carried or ride in a cart. She wants to RUN everywhere.

Her pooping schedule is out of wack, and she regularly goes whenever we swim (hate this) and after I've put her to bed. I have to go check her closet every night for a whiff of anything stinky before I go to bed, and often I have to wake her up and change her.

She still hasn't figured out how to climb out of her pack and play.

She LOVES books and loves when I read to her.

She plays better independently than any child so far.

This is good, because 4 mornings a week, it's just me and her.

She loves ice.

She always points out pictures of Jesus.

She still has lots of baby fat and is super cuddly.

She likes to sit on the couch and watch a "show" with me after Kalia and Annie have gone to bed (and when a 4-hour nap has made it a little too hard for her to fall asleep.)

I catch her frequently at the computer, pushing buttons on the printer and hearing it make sounds or spit out paper, or pounding away on the computer. I guess she likes technology. 

She won't eat a lot of chewy textures (like bread.) She also won't eat a lot of slippery foods either. My best chance of getting her to eat any fruit or veggie is to make sure it is pureed like baby food. So often I still just feed her that. Her diet has lots of room for improvement.

Every day she asks me for a vitamin (she calls them "amin") and she points to them up on the shelf. They are my gummy prenatals with DHA. I figure they are probably actually perfect for her.

She likes to sit on the potty with the help of the tiny toilet seat, and she pretends to wipe and then stuffs toilet paper into the toilet, but she has never gone, and I'm not trying to get her to yet, but I like her enthusiasm!

She really is just the happiest little thing, and really good natured and easy to be around (for the most part!) We couldn't be happier that she's ours.