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.

Lost and Found

I showed Ella one time how to open the laptop because she was struggling with it and getting frustrated. I'm regretting that decision. The other day the computer started talking to her, giving some kind of tutorial or something. Jeff and I still can't figure out how she did that. She's also figured out how to turn most electronics off and on, knows how to dial a real phone and use a cell phone, can play with my Kindle Fire, and knows how to use the mouse pad on the lap top. It's shocking how fast kids catch on to technology.

Ella and Baby Landon. This picture was taken right after Ella tried to sit in his lap. I love their facial expressions in the picture. They're both looking at me for reassurance- him that I'm not going to let her smack him, her that she's being gentle enough.

I finally remembered to take the camera to swim lessons! Grandma came to these lessons too, so we got double the pictures.

Teacher's pet, as always. Ella loves showing off her skills.

Ella and Erin playing in the garden at Joe T.'s.

We actually left the camera on the table apparently and didn't realize it for a few days. After looking everywhere for it, we thought to call and ask if we left it there. After a bit of run around, Jeff determined that they did have a camera that was probably ours. He went to get it and luckily it was.

Ella is sick AGAIN(!!!!) this week. I feel like she is catching every little bug we come in contact with. This one clobbered her fast and hard. She was a little run down on Wednesday, stuffed up during that night, and then full blown fever, sore throat, vomiting and diarrhea Thursday. Friday morning she started to perk up some and seemed to be feeling much better by the evening. She slept really well last night and Jeff said she seems to be feeling better this morning. She's eating, which is definitely an improvement since she (as usual when she's sick) ate almost nothing Thursday and Friday. I think I prefer this kind of illness to the more mild but ever lingering kind.

Baseball, Birthdays, and Bottoms

We took Ella to the A&M vs. TCU baseball game last week. We sat out of the grass, which sounded like it would be perfect, but it was so crowded she couldn't really run around. We spent the entire time chasing her and dragging her back to our tiny area. She made friends with all of our neighbors because she insisted on hugging them, sitting on their blankets and chairs, and hiding behind them when we would run after her.

We went to Bucca di Beppo's for my Mom's Birthday on Saturday night. The girls were a little crazy, especially Ella, but we still had a good time. Ella insisted that the spaghetti was cheese and kept asking for more. We had a lot of fun with that, but her dress will never be the same.

We're getting a bit more serious about potty training around here. Ella has asked to go potty about a million times, but a few times she actually has. We've been trying the pants-off route when we're at home, but it doesn't seem to make a lot difference. Thank goodness we don't have carpet anywhere! Sometimes I think it's just a fluke when she actually goes in the potty because she seems as surprised about it as we are. I'm not super committed to making it happen right now. She seemed interested, so we started pursuing it, but if doesn't start to click pretty soon, we'll probably take a break.

She is talking up a storm these days. She's started putting little sentences together and can even count to three. I don't think she is actually counting, but she says "one... two... three... yay!" I didn't purposely teach her that, she just picked up on it and started doing it. At swim lessons last week (forgot the camera again...), all she wanted to do was sit on the side, count to three and jump in to me. She is so fearless of the water it's a little scary. I can barely hold onto her and she's constantly going under the water. It doesn't phase her a bit though, as soon as she comes up for air, she's trying to jump out of my arms again.

She had her 18month check-up on Thursday last week. She was 23lbs 7oz (43%) and 32.9in (85%). Everything else was good as usual. Dr. Sweet was very impressed with her vocabulary, she said she knows more words and speaks more clearly than most two year olds. Yay Ella!