Baseballs, Butterflies, & Blessings: Happy Half Birthday, Ellie! (1.5)

Happy Half Birthday, Ellie Girl!

Today you are One and a Half!

We're all so EXCITED!

At 18 months you are:

CUTE!!

(& you know it!)

extra snuggly

taking one nap a day (you dropped that morning nap this week!)

nursing three times a day

finally letting me do pig tails in your hair without resisting me (much)

still pulling out most hair clips that I put in

know the following body parts:

tongue

hair, ears, eyes, nose, belly button, toes.

You know the following animal sounds

cow - "mmmm"

doggie - you pant

elephant - motion only at this point

monkey - motion only

snake - "hissss"

lion - a very unscary but oh so cute "roarrrr"

You love love love to read books and will sometimes find books to read to yourself.

You love to kiss and rock your baby doll and your bunny gigi

You also really like wearing your bracelets and when we say the word "pretty" you shake the bracelet!

You love your daddy and say his name the most. Usually with great delight.

You sometimes say "mama" with great urging. You sometimes say "hi" and sometimes say "bubba" and "doggie" and "up"

You babble a lot. We're just hoping that turns into more words soon!

You definitely communicate. You've got the "yes" and "no" nods down perfectly.

You make funny faces on command for "mad," "happy" (see first photo above), "oh no"

You giggle a lot and love to be tickled. Sometimes you try to tickle yourself.

You love to be outside and are very happy in a swing or on the slide.

You got four teeth this month! You have a total of 16 teeth!

(And mama's still nursing!)

You do not like your hair to be cut.

You are an incredibly fast roller!

And you love to be chased while you roll

You adore your big brother (most of the time) & will sometimes say "bubba"

You love children and want to play.

Mama struggles to help you keep up sometimes with the other kids. You'll figure it out soon, I'm sure.

You are very good at puzzles.

You eat pretty much anything.

Perhaps I should point out what you don't like...

except I can't think of anything. You don't love red meat.

But you will eat it.

This month, you've loved

dips - you can dip your own chip in queso, you will dip your fingers in a bowl of beans to lick (gross), & you love mommy's homemade hummus with artichokes and olives and bell peppers

you love cous cous (Will thinks it comes from the lesser known animal of a "cous" :))

and tuna & fresh spinach (you can't get enough)
& soup!

You are such an easy baby when it comes to food since you will eat anything! When we go out, I just split our meals with you since I'll know you will eat it.

You love spices and herbs and all fruits and veggies and fish too!

We've always said our kids would have to eat what we cook. Your brother is usually pretty good about eating what I make. You... you will eat anything & lots of it!

You scoot over when I'm cooking and grab on to my legs and it's one of the highlights of my day, every day. I typically hand you little bits and pieces of what I'm cooking and you are happy.

This month you've become more independent about feeding yourself

& I'm trying to let you (even though you often make a mess!)

But you are a cute mess!

"Oh no" face

Your sidekick, Ruby, always at your side for mealtimes

You've become a great scooter. Our biggest issue is that you sometimes get stuck and don't know yet how to scoot backwards. We're working on that.

You can even scoot while carrying an object!

And this week, I turned you forwards finally. You're small enough that I sometimes still carried you in the carseat carrier for errands but I could tell you wanted to face forward in the car and you meet the weight requirements so around you went!

You are very, very happy!