1 year and 354 days

Ella playing in her "tent" on a rainy day.

First self- portrait.

Helping Daddy with the dishes.

Grandpa, Ella, and Stompies!

A girl and her dog.

Ella and Vera at the zoo.

Ella's first time on the horse on the carousel. She had ridden a few times before, but never wanted to sit on the horse. I think she liked it.

 

Ella's favorite part of the zoo- the train.

Jammies, boots, and a headband- proper backyard attire.

Ella as a kitty cat at the River Legacy Park Fall Festival.

Another self- portrait. Ella's favorite subject for picture taking is Ella.

Helping Mommy vacuum.

Ella and Aunt Susie at Mamaw's house.

Visiting Mamaw for her Birthday.

Ella and Lelihn. The robe and sunhat were Ella's choice.

Ella with "a baby on my tummy". Ella is obsessed with babies. I think she thinks a baby in a wrap is the same as a pregnant woman. Either way, she calls it a baby on the tummy and insisted on wearing her baby on her tummy. Oh, and I had to wear a baby doll on my tummy too.

Ella's Birthday present from Mommy and Daddy. It took Jeff (and several others) about 14 hours to put it together.

I was worried the rockwall might be a little hard for her, but as usual, I showed her how to do it once or twice and now she's an expert.

Ella is so light, if she just slides down the slide, she goes flying of the end and lands on her back. So to prevent that, she uses her feet against the sides to slow herself down.

Ella had been asking for cupcakes every day since we told her her Birthday was coming. This is her previewing her Birthday cupcakes.

Ella, Mommy, and Roscoe playing under the fort.

Self- portrait #3

Ella and Kevin getting ready for her Birthday party.

I didn't want to say anything on my last post because I didn't want to jinx it, but Ella is officially potty trained. She has been out of diapers, except over night, for a little over a month now. I am so glad this turned out to be such a non-event, because I was really dreading potty training. I feel like we can't take the credit for it though, other than recognizing her interested at the right time. We encouraged her, but really, she did it herself. I feel like she's too young to not need a diaper at night, but she hasn't woken up with a wet diaper in over a week now. We'll see, I guess. It would be so nice to be totally finished with diapers!

About two weeks ago the invitations for Ella's Birthday went out. She saw one and I told her that it was for her Birthday party. She immediately asked if she could have cupcakes and started listing off who would be coming. That was the first of many, many times we would have that conversation over the next two weeks. People started asking her how old she was going to be and she quickly figured out the correct answer is two. Jeff and I tried to show her how to hold up two fingers, but she just couldn't get it. Jeff told her it was like bunny rabbit ears, so for a while when someone asked, she would say "two, like a bunny rabbit".

I wanted to do a bug theme for her party because she loves bugs (specifically bees, ladybugs, and crickets), but that turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. So it was more of a garden party with some bug accents. Oh, well, I don't think she cared. She was just so happy to have everyone there. In fact, she really didn't even care all that much about her cupcake. Grandma's cookies were another story though. I know she ate at least two and I saw her steal another three (which were confiscated) off the tray or other people's plates. Not that I can blame her, they're my favorite too! She had a ton of fun and got lots of wonderful presents, which she loved opening. I think it'll take her a week or more to figure out what all she got, everyday she discovers something new.

Other new developments this month- Ella is learning to count to 20. She can do up to 13 by herself and up to 20 with some help. I might have mentioned before that she's starting to make the connection between numbers and actually counting things. She's got that down pretty well now, at least for small numbers of objects. She's known her ABCs as a song for a while now, but she's starting to recognize individual letters in writing. A, B, C, E,  & S she's pretty consistent about, and some other occasionally too. She has started telling stories and making up songs. Her stories usually go something like this: "Once upon a time, outside, baby, cloud, the mommy, roscoe, on the ground, the end. Yay!". It's hilarious. When she makes up a song she usually takes a tune she already knows and just changes the words, for example Five Little Roscoes Jumping on the Momma.

We had a photographer at her Birthday party again this year, so I will post those pictures when they're available.