15 Month Check-up

Thursday, Ella had her 15 month check-up. Here are the stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 7 oz. (vs 20 lbs 6.5 oz in May); 15th percentile
Height: 30 3/4 in. (vs 30 in. in May); 35th percentile
Head circumference: 47.4 cm (vs 47 cm in May); 90th percentile

This time, we didn't have to go digging for ear wax. Thank the lord! Dr. Spector said she was beautiful and we're doing a great job! She had a few shots - can't remember what they were for but she had a finger prick for iron and 2 shots in her left thigh. She is now old enough to know what's going on and cried the whole time we were there. Aren't we lucky?!

As she cried while he was checking her out, he made the comment "her feet are huge!" I thought that was funny. I think she wears a size 4 but she has pretty wide feet.

She's lookin' good and goes back in 3 months.

Word update:
-Yucky
-Water
-Milk
-Cheese
-What's that
-All done
-All gone
-Birdie
-Milo (her friend at school)
-Bye Bye
-Elmo (momo); she freaks out when cartoons come on, especially Elmo's World
-Ooooo aaaaah (monkey noise)

She is also in a phase where when she gets mad, she runs in the opposite direction, usually towards a wall, and has a little time out session with herself. Once she's done, she comes back relatively happy. This has become a common theme at school. We witnessed it this morning. It's kind of funny.

Oh! And you'll love this. She's quite the lover - loves to give hugs and her friends (especially the boys) love to hug on her. Her teacher whipped out the camera to show me some pictures. Right before my eyes, there is a picture of my little 1 year old baby girl kissing Wesley on the lips. Like both sitting on the ground, leaning in for the kiss and it's truly on the lips. THEN, Vera flips to the next picture - she's kissing Spencer on the lips and then the next picture is her laughing about it! Spencer's Dad was in the room as we were viewing these and Brian goes "hey, you better watch your son!" It was funny.

That's all I have for today!

EG's 15 Month Update

I haven't been very good at providing Ella updates so here are a few:

• She found her paci from the hospital and we find it in her mouth more often than not
• She is starting to carry around her blankies like her Aunt Emily. She has about 4-5 in the bed with her every night that she snuggles with. Each morning when I wake her up (so nice to say that rather than it be the other way around) she grabs one of her blanky's before we head downstairs. At night, I say "want to go take a bath?" and she grabs a blankie from downstairs and leads me to the gate so she can climb upstairs. Bedtime usually consists of reading about 15 books, some 2-3 times each. Every few minutes I say "want to go night night?" and after about the 5th or 6th time (and 10-15 book reads later) she stands up, grabs the side of her crib, and tries to climb in. That means she's ready to go to sleep. So smart!
• Her vocabulary is growing each and every day. Her teachers say that it's really picked up the last few weeks. One of her favorites is "mama." On some days, everything is "mama." "Wawa" is another. All milk, water, and juice are "wawa." Brian is teaching her to say "water" and only water when it's actually water. Haha! She knows a lot of animal sounds. Some you can't fully understand but it's easy to see she knows what she's talking about. Her favorite is "rooaar" which her Uncle Eric taught her. She has PJs with a lion on them and when she says "roar" she looks down at whatever outfit she's wearing hoping to find the lion. Of course, we don't wear those PJs 24/7 so we'll go look for that PJ top so she can see the lion. Her roar is the cutest. We'll try to get it on tape. "Baaaa" is another cute one she can consistently say when she sees a sheep.
  
• She knows how old she is. You ask her "Ella, how old are you?" and she says "one" while holding up her pointer finger. I take credit for teaching her that:)
• On another note, we're dealing with some biting issues at school. As her teachers say - Ella is very independent (oh, great - she's only 1!) and knows what she wants. She does not let anyone push her around, including Wesley. Ella bites Wesley A LOT. For several weeks, her teachers were writing accident reports daily (sometimes a few times daily). Well, the teachers cannot tell the bitee's parents who the biter is. Of course, leave it to Ella to bite Wesley right as his mom and both of us walk in to pick up our kids. Now the Mom knows and is not a happy camper. Last week, she wrote a long e-mail to the director and asked for a meeting. It's not funny now but I'm sure we'll laugh about all of this in the future. Heck, I was a biter and kicked out of daycare for it! Her teachers aren't worried about it and are doing better keeping a constant eye on the two. The problem is that Wesley is always in her way ("space issues" as the teachers call it) and since she can't really talk, biting is her way of saying "go away." So we'll just go with the flow.
• To add to the biting issues, Ella does have her 13th tooth coming in...probably why she's biting so much! She's even biting herself lately. Poor thing!
• She LOVES shoes, purses, and sunglasses. Shoes must be put on as soon as she wakes up each morning. My purse MUST go with us when we leave the house. I like to only take my wallet when we're going around the block to get coffee or ice cream but Miss Priss insists that the purse go and fusses until I pick it up....she carries my wallet (greeeeaaaat! - smart child). Our little diva!
• Food choices are about the same - still not fond of meat but loves fruit and cheese...and sweets!
• She has to walk everywhere! Sometimes this gets quite annoying. Restaurant ventures are no longer fun because she stands up in her highchair and cries until one of us lets her walk around. So dinner consists of Brian taking her outside while I eat and then me holding her as she fusses while he eats. Not fun at all!
• Oh, and she doesn't obey. When we say "No,"....she laughs.

I'm sure there is much more but I can't think of more right now.

In awe of Shrek

What happens when I take my eye off of her

These two now adore each other. She was lying down next to him but got up as I tried to get a quick shot. Stinker!

She's a cute one!

Bed Wetter

So.....this morning at about 7:30 I heard Ella Grace rattling her crib spindles. She wasn't crying, we were tired, and I wasn't getting up so I went back to sleep. At 9, she started crying. I got up and went in her room to find her standing in her crib completely naked with no diaper on.

Let's take a step back here - last night she refused to wear PJs so she slept in her diaper.

Moving forward back to this morning...she wanted out of her bed fast. I reached down and her entire bed was soaked (with pee). I'm not sure when she took that diaper off but it weighed about 5 lbs and she obviously decided she needed to go to the bathroom again once it was off. Then when I got her out she wanted her blanky. They were all soaked.

Poor thing! I sure wouldn't want to be completely naked in a cold, wet bed freezing my buns off!

Lil' Pony

Big Girl, Little Toys

Ella's confused. Her grocery cart and baby stroller are not for her to ride in...but she thinks it's ok.





Oh, and one more thing...she put herself in these. No help from us.

San Diego - How We Love You

July 4th weekend we headed to San Diego. It was one of those spur of the moment trips due to not being able to take the Seattle weather any longer and desparately needing a break from work. We had a blast! I definitely wish we had a few more days there because there were places such as Old Town and Sea World we were unable to get to due to working around Ella's schedule and running out of time!

Day 1 - We spent the afternoon walking around downtown and Seaport Village

View from our room

Biggest soldier with his lady that I have ever seen:)

Seaport Village was so pretty

Day 2 - San Diego Zoo & Coronado

Waiting in line to get on the bus tour which covered 80% of the zoo grounds in 35 minutes

See the polar bear? He was very entertaining throwing around that ball.

Views from the bus

And now time to start walking around to get a closer look at all the animals

Hello baby panda

Silly bear

I didn't realize their humps leaned over like that.

Baby Giraffe

Next stop - Coronado; ridiculously beautiful! I had been here before because my grandparents once lived there but had completely forgotten how gorgeous it was.

As many times as we've been to the beach since EG was born, this was really her first experience walking on the sand and checking out the water. A bit chillier than the Panhandle waters.

Beautiful Hotel del Coronado

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3 - heaven forbid she take a decent picture with her mama

Those of you who have eaten here know what I'm talking about...the best!

Dad found this funny but I didn't once I realized she was chewing on my $350 headphones!

Day 3 - 4th of July

Laughing at our child who had a mouth full of grapes. She doesn't believe in popping in a few at a time. The more, the merrier.

It was quite unusual weather for San Diego on the 4th - 64 and cloudy. But we stuck it out and went to Coronado Beach in the afternoon. Earlier that day, we rode up to Carlsbad - super cool surfer beach town. I definitely want to go back and stay there a few days. No pictures because Ella was asleep in the car so we just oooooed and awwwwed over the views. Too bad it was sunny during our 1.5 hour drive because when we got back, it turned cloudy.

Ella love the fireworks. She wasn't scared at all. Like her new San Diego sweatshirt?