Crib fun

This makes me smile every time!

Ellie - 18 months

Ellie is 18 months and is full of personality.  She is very busy, knows what she wants, and gets frustrated when we the rest of us can't figure out what she's trying to tell us.  She goes hard all day and is typically exhausted by 7:30pm.  

Official Stats:

Weight: 22.5 pounds 25%

Height: 30.25 inches 10%

Other highlights from the past three months:

• Sleeping -  Still a rock star sleeper.  Goes to bed around 7:30 or 8.  We have to wake her up during the week, but on the weekends she typically gets up around 8.
• Eating - She is still a good eater, but has really discovered treats the past few months.  She is known to sneak in the pantry looking for a 'snack'.  I made the mistake of leaving the candy bucket with miscellaneous holiday candy, etc on the floor and she's very good at finding and unwrapping them.  The other day I asked her what she wanted for a snack and she said "M&Ms".  I said how about cheese and some crackers which was followed by a dramatic "NOOOOOO".
• Favorite activities - Ellie loves playing with her babies and lovies.  She likes to carry them around the house.  One is not enough as she likes to have as many as she can fit in her arms.  Ellie also loves Elmo and Abby.  When we go to Target she regularly spots an Elmo item from a distance.  She also still loves eating pouches and her favorite are the ones with Elmo on the front.  She'll say she wants to "Eat Elmo" for breakfast.  Ellie prefers to be outside and is not too happy that winter weather keeps us indoors.  She stands by the back door and says "outside".
• Accomplishments -  Ellie's vocabulary has grown tremendously.  My guess is she has around 100 words that she uses regularly.  She can say most of her classmates at school name.  Most of the body parts.  Names colors, but doesn't always say the right one.  One of my favorite things is to ask Ellie how old she is and she will hold up one finger and say two.  I will say Ellie you're not two and then she'll say three.  I guess she is more focused on learning to count than knowing her actual age.  She also has started to tell us if Brady does something to her she does not like.  "No No Ba-Ba" she'll say.

Brady's Aquarium

Brady drew a picture of fish and cut it out.  I then noticed he was digging in the cabinets looking for a baggie.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was making an aquarium.  He filled the baggie with water and then asked for salt as apparently his fish was a salt water fish.  After he had the water and salt in place he added his fish.  One of the aquariums even had some sea shells.  So creative!

Christmas Program

Brady and Ellie's school had a Christmas program this year.  Each class performed 1 or 2 songs.  Ellie was not too excited about being on stage, but loved clapping for the other classes once her song was over.  Brady's class was the last to perform and they did a great job singing two songs with actions.

Thanksgiving in Florida

We spent Thanksgiving at Cory's parent's Florida house.  Ron, Ann, Kyle and Katie were all there.  We had lots of fun breaking in the new house and visited a few new places in the area.

One of the new attractions we visited was the Big Cat Habitat.  Personally I thought the place was really odd.  Basically this family started taking in exotic animals that did not have a place to go and kept on expanding.  They live on the grounds in a series of mobile homes, RVs, etc.  There are several children that just roam the grounds freely.  Felt very gypsyish to me and was a bit strange.   Being a non-animal lover I can't even conceptualize what would make someone want to bring in exotic animals.  I was also weirded out by the ligers.  Do some research on the liger and form your own opinion.  Despite it not being my favorite place, Brady and Ellie thought it was pretty cool.  You could get really close to the animals and Brady got to feed a bear.

Brady loved having a pool out the back door.  It was too cold for the rest of us to swim, but he thought it was perfect and made it in the pool everyday.  Ellie thought about getting in, but decided she better stay on the side.

Ellie eating her big bowl of spaghetti.  Yum Yum!

We were about 20 minutes from Sarasota so I wanted to drive by Pinecraft, the Amish village that is on the TLC Amish show.  I was so excited to see the men driving the buggies.

Beach time.  It was a little cool, but we still had fun.  Brady thought the sand was fun to dig in and build things.  Ellie thought the same was fun to eat.

Ellie's first haircut

I really wasn't ready to cut her hair, but Ellie has decided she is not ok with pony tails or hair bows so her hair was constantly in her face.  We decided that at least in the short term we needed a solution to keep her hair out of her eyes.

Fall Soccer last game and party

Brady had a great time playing soccer this fall.  He continues to improve and has an overall love of the sport.  After the last game of the season we had a team pizza party which included receiving medals.  Ellie is ready for her turn to play and would try to escape on the field if we turned our head.  Great job Thunder!