Catching up and 19 months

Ella working on cards for Mother's Day. She's starting to pose for the camera.

Ella and Maggie on Mother's Day.

Ella wearing Daddy's hat. I think it looks better on her anyway :-)

Trying out her new rain coat. It was only drizzling, but we couldn't miss the opportunity.

Taking time to stop and smell the crayons.

Ella and the alligator. Check out that hat hair!

I don't know what it is about little kids that they love to sit on anything that looks remotely like it could be sat on. She had to try out all of the rocks in this area before we could move on.

Music class. So excited for her shaky egg!

Ella watering the garden. Too bad there's not much growing in it...

My Uncle Steve sent Ella some little tabs you can drop in the bath and they will fiz and turn the water a pretty color. We had a blast experimenting with the different colors. Her current favorites are purple and green. She wasn't at all impressed with the yellow and immediately dumped it out.

I wasn't there when this picture was taken and I have no idea what's going on, I just found it on the camera. Your guess is as good as mine.

Ella picked this outfit herself. The "shirt" is a dress that her Uncle Thomas got for her before she was born. It's way too small as a dress, but works great for a top. She informed me that it was "tight" when I put it on, but really, it fit fine.

I love this face. It's her new surprised or excited face.

Ella pretending to sleep with Maggie and Aunt Susie. She made them lay down on the pillows over and over again. Silly girl! I tried playing the same game that night when it was time to go to bed and she cried. I guess it's only fun for pretend.

I don't know if I mentioned before that Ella is starting to string together two or three word sentences, but she is. Sit down, get it, want it, no want it, hi Ella!- just to list a few. She's also starting to memorize songs and books. Obviously she can't really sing along yet, but she recognizes so many songs and picks out key words. She especially picks up on the last word of a phrase in a song or book. For example, if we do Row, Row, Row Your Boat, she'll do the row, merrily, stream, and dream parts. She does her A,B,Cs too, but mainly just says c, p, d, e, and me! at the end. She loves If You're Happy and You Know it, and will say "happy? happy?" to me fifty times a day, which is a request for me to sing the song. She has renamed all of her bedtime books according to what she likes/remembers about them. Goodnight Moon is mouse; Five Wishing Stars is stars or ba depending on her mood; and the Going to Bed Book is rock-a-rock-a-rock. Sometimes I feel like we're learning her language instead of the other way around.

Ella is so into her family. She asks every single day for Mag (Maggie), Cawi (Aunt Carrie), Pa (Grandpa, used to also mean Grandma, but she's started saying Gramma too), Ewin (Erin), and of course, Daddy. Yesterday she asked for Jeff a few times too. I'm not sure if she realizes that's her Daddy's name or if she's just repeating it because she hears me say it. Many times during the day, we go down the list of where everyone is- "Daddy?"- he's at work. "Mag?"- she's with her Mommy. "Cawi?"- she's at work. "Pa?"- they're at work. "Jack?"- he's in the livingroom. Etc., etc.

I finally broke down and bought Ella some crayons. I was hesitant because I was worried about her coloring on the walls or whatever and about putting them in her mouth. So far, she's been pretty good. We don't just leave them out, she gets them for a little while and then we put them up. I've had to take them away a few times for putting them in her mouth after I told her not too, but for the most part she's really good. She was doing some "art" in the Mother's Day cards we got for other people and I showed her one time how to draw a circle and she immediately did it. Not a great circle, but she closed it which is pretty smart. Mostly she just scribbles, but occasionally she does a circle and she's quick to point it out to me.