What does the monkey say?

This is what we do instead of eating dinner. At least she's stacking things now and not just knocking them down, although she does still love to do that!

Ella and Avery at Avery's Birthday party.

Ella had her own piece of pizza, but she wouldn't leave Avery alone for hers.

This is why I'm glad Ella can't climb up on any of the furniture at home...

Ella's vocabulary is exploding, but not in the way I expected it to. She's has a few words, that mostly only Jeff and I understand, but she has a ton of animal sounds. If you ask her "What does the monkey... dog... cat... ducky... sheep... lion... snake... cow say?" she makes the appropriate noise. She's also saying mamaw, dada, bite, wawa (water), bite, book, up, cat, button, bellybutton, and tickle. Like I said, she doesn't say many of those words clearly, but I know from her context clues and repetition what she means.

I ended up starting work last Saturday, but that's the only day I've worked so far. It went well. Ella ate well and went down pretty easy for her nap for Jeff. She has seemed a little clingy to me since then, so I'm glad I haven't had to go back in yet. Hopefully she'll continue to adjust. I have a few more days of training over the next week and my official first day on my own will be the 21st. I'll be working Mondays and Wednesdays from 10a-7p with a two hour break in the afternoon and Saturdays 8a-12p. Not a bad schedule. The break on Mon. and Wed. is long enough for me to come home and spend time with Ella, which is awesome. So far, I like the job, but it's very different from what I was doing. I'm still not sure how everything is going to work out... I guess we'll see.