18 months!

(Ellie participating with me as I sing "If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it..")

Ellie is now 18 months old! I really can't believe how fast she has grown. It makes me sad to see her growing up but at the same time I absolutely love watching her develop her own personality. She is such a sweet, happy little toddler! I truly experience so much joy being her mommy and now do feel like I have the best job in the whole world! I can't wait to welcome our next baby girl into the family, Ellie is going to shower her with love and I can't even imagine how much my love will expand!

(Our big girl lifting her arms up shouting hooray!)

Here are her 18 month stats: 25% in weight at 22 lbs, 25% in height at 31 inches, and 75% in her head circumference! She is very consistent with her growth measurements, which means she is growing perfectly! Such a blessing to have such a healthy little girl.



What all Ellie can do now:
Where do I even begin? So much she can do now!

• Saying so many words, all animal sounds (still working on getting oink to sound right), putting together 2 word phrases like thank you, bless you, more please, want more, etc.
• Loves doing the motions to 'If you're happy and you know it', 'Wheels on the bus', and 'Itsy bitsy spider' (still doesn't sing with me though)
• finally loves to swing at the playground! (If you remember from the past, she used to hate the swing)
• climb stairs on her own, go down slides by herself, climb in chairs (her favorite)... at the playground I can mostly just stand back and watch her and she does wonderful
• very cautious and hardly ever is brave (which is great for mommy and daddy), however she isn't scared of many things either. very interesting combo...
• eats with spoon and fork (well at least tries)
• loves the word "no". If you ask her anything, usually her response will be "no"
• love pushing the stroller and helping mommy clean (can't wait for when she actually can help mommy!)
• LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to read books! Especially Elmo and Dora books.
• loves her milk, hates veggies
• mostly a good listener (I feel that we have been extremely blessed with a happy toddler who mostly tries to please her parents... we'll see how long this lasts)
• sleeps in her twin size bed great! 11 hours at night, 2-3 hours for nap most days! She's not excited about going to bed most nights, but we never have problems with her falling asleep (we might can count maybe 2-3 times in 3 months)!
  
• loves stuffed animals and soft things (blankets, towels, washcloths, clothes, anything)! She'll just lay them on the floor and lay down, so cute!
• loves to color (except for at restaurants??)
• has 11 teeth!
• can identify body parts (head, eyes, ear, mouth, nose, tongue, shoulders, toes, arm, leg, hand, tummy)
• loves to spin around and dance, I think she definitely will be a little dancer (a little side note: her favorite song still is boom boom pow)
  

I'm sure there is more, but those are the biggies. I love, love, love this age!