23 Months

Cheese!

Last day at the splash park. Well, last day with the water running anyway. We've been back twice since they turned the water off and Ella is very frustrated that she can't turn it on.

New hair-do. Ella will let us do silly things with her hair, but she still refuses to wear a clip for functional purposes.

Can you tell she's learning how to pose for the camera?

Wearing Mommy's shoes.

First day back at swim lessons. We were waiting our turn to get in the pool.

Although the pool was really cold, the lessons started out fine. She was the youngest in the class that day, but probably spent more time with her head under water than all the other kids combined.

Ella started shivering pretty quickly after we got into the cold water, but she ignored it until the last 15-20mins. I guess by then she'd had enough and started crying and asking me to "get out" and "wipe with towel". Her lips were blue and she was so tense from shivering she could hardly move. So I got her out and we left early. She took a long nap when we got home and when she woke up she was burning up. She was getting sick and I didn't realize it before. No wonder the water felt so cold to her, poor thing!

The same evening, we had already made plans to take Ella to her first movie. At home she was just laying around on our laps, so we thought she might do really well with the movie...

She made it a little over an hour total. We got there early, so by about 30 minutes into the movie, she turned around and laid her head on my shoulder. I asked her if she wanted to go home and she said yes and jumped out of my lap and started walking out of the theater. She fell asleep in the car on the way home, something she hasn't done in a long, long time.

Maggie's Birthday! I think Ella was more excited about it than Maggie. Ever since Jeff's Birthday, she's been really into singing Happy Birthday and telling everyone happy Birthday. Ever since the day of his Birthday, every time Jeff asks her to tell him happy Birthday, she drops whatever she's doing, runs over to him, gives him a big hug and kiss and says "Happy Birthday Daddy!". It's so cute and he has been milking it a bit.

After Maggie blew out her candle, we re-lit it and let Ella blow it out. I figured she could use the practice for her big day next month :-)

Ella, Gran and Maggie.

Ella "assisting" with the present opening. I'm starting to understand why my parents did half-Birthday presents. Not sure how that would work since their Birthdays are only a month apart....

Ella and Nan reading cards.

The Lollipop guild.

Ella and her Mommy. Ella is starting to figure out different people's relationships to each other and to her. She likes to identify us as "my mommy, my daddy" and herself as "Mommy's Ella" or "Mommy's baby". She's also figured out that Jeff and I have names beside Mommy and Daddy. Especially when other people (mostly Maggie) are around, she'll experiment with calling us by name.

Ella with her backward dress. (Kevin helped her put it on. Are all men confused about button and tag placement on baby/toddler clothing?)

Ella and Vera picking up the veggies.

Ella and Maggie attempting to balance bowls on their heads.

 

Another crazy month! I've mostly given up on posting more often than that, I had a hard time even getting this one finished... Oh, well!

We celebrated Jeff's Birthday at the end of last month with the usual end of summer bash. We had a big turn out, but this year there were almost as many kids as adults. It was a bit of a mad house. There were kids in the living room, there were kids in the kitchen, there were kids playing the piano, there were kids playing in Ella's room, and there were kids playing outside. It was crazy and loud and fun. Every time I turned around Ella had a cookie or cupcake or something. She's not used to that much sugar so she was WIRED! It was no small task getting her to sleep that night.

We had some awesome weather at the beginning of September, it was almost like fall. We did our best to get out and enjoy it. We tried to take advantage of the last days of the water park and splash pad being open, but with rain and cooler temps, we didn't get to as much as we would have liked. I'll take the cool weather over getting to swim any day though.

Ella did get sick again this month. She really didn't have any symptoms though, just the fever and obvious fatigue and then as soon as the fever went away she got a rash. That took a few days to come and go, and by a few days after that, she seemed back to her normal self. Of course that happened to fall when I had to go out of town for work and leave her over night for the first time ever. Two nights, to be exact. Everyone says it was harder on me than it was on her, I hope so. It was pretty brutal for me, even harder than I expected. I had a hard time relaxing and enjoying my relative freedom, but it helped a lot knowing she was doing ok. Jeff had a pretty easy time with her both nights I was gone and Erin said she was an angel the whole time. Between her sleeping a lot more than usual (due to being sick) and Erin keeping her busy, I think she was pretty distracted. When I talked to her on the phone she was fine and seemed happy until I would say goodbye. Then she would start crying and it broke my heart. I don't know how many time I told myself "just get through this and you never have to do it again!". And therefore, even though she did well, I decided not to go to Santa Barbara next month. I'm sure she would be fine, but I know now I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself and I would just be counting the minutes until I'd be home again. She'll be dying to get rid of me before I know it, and Santa Barbara will always be there.

I feel like a broken record, but I continue to be amazed with Ella's language development. She carries on conversations, remembers many, many songs (some she's only heard a few times), and can repeat just about anything you say to her. At the end of the night, when I'm about to turn out her light, I ask her what she did that day and I'm always surprised by how much she can remember and tell me. And if she forgets something, I can usually prompt her a little and she'll remember. She's grasping the actual concept of counting, rather than just repeating the numbers and can say her ABCs all by herself. I frequently get comments from other parents who are surprised by how well she's talking for her age. It seems funny to me now that I ever worried about her learning to talk.

Ella's memory is also pretty impressive. Back in March when Jeff's cousins were visiting we took her to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to the butterfly exhibit. The other day, Jeff said they drove by the Botanical Gardens and she pointed to it and said "Butterflies?". I can't believe she could possibly remember that after all this time, but I have no other explanation for how she would know that. She's also started playing a memory card flipping game on my Kindle and she does pretty well with it.

I realize that Ella is just doing what pretty much all kids do, but it's amazing to get to experience it up close and personal. It's hard to believe that my little lump of baby has turned into this genius (to me anyway) big girl!