Ella is 18 Months!!

Our "baby" is 1 1/2 years old!! I cannot believe how quickly that happened. Right before our eyes, she turned from a floppy neck baby, to a giggly crawling baby who still let you cuddle her and took naps in her stroller if you were out and about. Then she went from that to a wobbly walker who discovered an entire new world when she figured out how her feet worked. She was someone stuck in between being a baby and a toddler. Now, here she is 18 months old... a total toddler. She's silly, she's still giggly, she communicates with sentences instead of a pointed finger and grunts. She tells me what she wants for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. It's always the same, "Hamburger, rice and pasta." Every single day for every single meal. No, I don't give that to her. :) She doesn't even like hamburgers! She is a good listener and OH-SO-SWEET! Yes...she has been testing the waters lately. :) "NO!" Is her favorite word in her vocabulary. However, if we asked her if she wanted a cookie, she'd still say, "NO!"

She knows what is expected of her and she knows her boundaries. She is very good at following directions! However, when she does do something she knows she's not supposed to do... see that face above... that's the face she makes. :) She's a great helper around the house! She cleans up her toys when asked, puts away her books, walks in mommy & daddy's room when it's "time to do your hair!" She now even tries to roll her highchair into the kitchen when she sees me making her meal. :)

Every morning she tells me, "Morning Mama!" And every night she tells me, "Wuv you Mama." It melts my heart. It makes every morning a great morning and every night a great night. If we sneeze, she says, "Bess you!" If Jeff burps (because I never burp!), she'll say, "Cuse you, Daddy!" She tells everyone, "Tank you," when they do something nice. The other day we were feeding my parent's cat and Simba started purring. Ella squats down, gets real close to her face and says, "Cuse you!"

What she loves: She loves dirt! (Pic above). I know, I know.. this really bothers me because I'm not a dirt kind of person. Not a sand kind of person either. When we went to the beach she literally rolled around in it and ate it. Too bad I didn't have my power-wash with me. ;) She LOVES bunnies, "Bickey Mouse," "Inkerbell," cats, horses, dogs, birds....pretty much every animal. She loves dancing! She can still shake it like no other 18 month old I've ever seen. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Taylor Swift! I do not know how she recognizes her voice on the radio, but she does! I can't wait until she's at an age where we can take her to her first Taylor Swift concert. She loves playing outside. She loves her wagon. She loves Target (hmmm. :). She loves breakfast, lunch and dinner...yes...still loves to eat. If she had it her way, she'd be able to carry around a ziplock bag 24/7 with food in it. She loves her books. She LOVES showing us her letters in the alphabet and telling us what they are and even what sounds they make! She loves counting with mommy and has now mastered counting and recognizing numbers 1-5, 6, 9 & 10! She loves the smell of coffee. Great.... She loves her sleep! She loves playing with Jordyn & Tyler and is OBSESSED with Tyler. (It's actually kinda annoying. She asks about Tyler, sings about Tyler, talks to Tyler in her crib, waves to kids at the park and yells, "TY TY!" when...it's not Ty Ty).

She doesn't have her 18 month check-up until 2 more weeks. So, no stats. Not yet anyway. :)

Here's to our 1 1/2 year old toddler/little girl who wears size 24 month tops and 3T shorts and wastes our money on shoes because 2 weeks later and she's in size 7! To the silly little girl who loves being tickled, who loves to play make-believe, who loves smiling & laughing, who loves when Mommy sings and dances with her and who HATES her picture being taken. Great, huh... Well, she better get used to it. :)