16 (and a half) Months

It's a little late, but Ellie is already 16 months - so it's time for her monthly "stat" post. I have actually come to really appreciate these as my memory tends to forget the little details of each month. :)

Ellie is growing like a weed. It makes me smile to think that this solid little girl used to be in the 9% for weight (when she was 6 months). When she was weighed a month ago, Ellie had ate her way to the 85% (25.1 lbs). Whew! There has never been a doubt that she loves to eat. :) Her height was in the 70% at 31 inches, but based on her growing patterns the doctor assumed this just meant she was about to have a growth spurt. And sure enough - she did! Her legs are much longer now, which is nice since she was mainly "torso and head" before. Being proportionate is a good thing. :) Ellie is wearing clothes in the 18-24 month range, with an occasional 2T in there. It used to be that she would stay in an age bracket of clothes for several months, or at least be in the category that corresponds with her age, but now she is flying through clothes waaay too quickly. Sigh.

Ellie is communicating more and more each day. I am now amazed that I can tell her an instruction and she can do it (now, whether or not she does it is a different story...). When I ask her to go upstairs with me, she toddles her way to the stairs and begins climbing. Yesterday when I told her to go around to the green side of the play structure to climb up that way instead of the slide - she did! When I ask her to please drink some milk, she brings the cup to her face. And when I tell her that her baby is downstairs, she goes and gets the baby. MY BABY IS A GENIUS!!! Hahaha.... at least let me think it! :)

Along with following instructions, Ellie is verbally communicating as well. Her verbal words include: baby, bruno, ball, whoa, go, yay, hi, daddy, dada, cracker, please (sounds like peas), thank you (sounds like day do), more. She is signing the only things we have taught her: please, more, and all-done (or silent applause if you want to be super technical about it). :) She is doing better about asking please before screaming for something, but this is a constant reminder. :)

Ellie's favorite activities include: running/walking whenever possible and most likely away from mama, playing with anything that can be stacked or food can be transferred into, coloring, playing with anything that makes music, cooking in her kitchen, playing with Bruno, swinging, and going down slides. Sounds like a little girl, huh?

Ellie's favorite toy is her baby doll, lovingly referred to as "baby." Along with her pink blankie and binkie, this is her ultimate comfort item. She loves to feed baby a bottle, walk baby in her stroller, or carry baby anywhere and everywhere. Of course, when she is "done" with baby, she throws the doll on the floor and then tosses the bottle on baby's face. Although she loves baby, when distracted by another activity she becomes a little "less-attentive" mommy. I promise she didn't learn this from me! :)

And probably the most adorable thing that Ellie now does is pray before we eat. Justin and I always hold hands and pray before we eat dinner. We would hold Ellie's hands too, but she was never really interested in what was going on. Now she holds both hands out for us to hold and bows her head. It is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. After we pray, she often wants to pray multiple more times, which we end up doing because what are we supposed to do? discourage it? Our food is just really blessed before we eat it. :)