15 Months

I feel bad that I've slacked on Ellie's monthly updates. Really, there's much more interesting stuff going on now than there was when she was 6, 7, 8 months old. She also keeps me a lot busier, which I guess is my excuse.

I've been thinking Sadie's past due for one of these, too. I'll try to get something up for her in the next couple of weeks!

So, Ellie. I've got lots to say about this one! She continues to be our little butterball (she weighed 24 pounds at the doctor's office a couple weeks ago), but I'm predicting that that might change a bit in the coming months. Obviously she's starting to walk now (yay!) and ever since she got sick with a sinus infection a few weeks ago, her appetite has been nada. If she loses the cheeks anytime soon, though, I think I might cry.

Ellie's all-time favorite activity is to color. She's caught onto this way faster than Sadie - probably because she watches Sadie do it all the time. But plop a pad of paper and a crayon or pencil in front of Ellie, and she's happy as a lark. She's actually got great hand-eye coordination already, which is fun to watch. Along those same lines, she's also obsessed with throwing things, just like Sadie at this age. Ellie, though, has the tone (but not the words) down to ready, set, go. It comes out sounding more like "yabee...ahhh...DOOO!" I personally think it's cuter her way. :)

One of my favorite things she does is properly folding her arms for prayers. As soon as she notices everyone else folding their arms, she instantly crosses her chubby little arms and looks around at everyone with a big, huge grin on her face.

Like I said, she doesn't really love most food these days. While she doesn't actually say no, she's a pro at vehemently shaking her head when she doesn't want something. Her favorite snacks are probably grapes and yogurt. They're some of the few foods she consistently devours. And she still guzzles milk like she's been dying of thirst in the desert for days.

Ellie is definitely our animal lover. Dogs are her favorite, but she gets super excited when she sees anything else on four legs. We need to get her to a zoo sometime soon. We watched a few minutes of Wild Kratts (a kids show about animals) the other day, and she started bouncing up and down and signing "dog" when she saw an armadillo on the screen. Go figure. :)

Her babbling cracks me up lately. The other day she was standing next to me and "talking" while I was sitting on the floor, not really paying attention. Next thing I knew, she leaned way over, put her face right in front of mine, and said "yabbadeegabayoomamadoo" with a serious expression that rivaled the most talkative adults I know. In the past three months, she's learned to say hi, bear, Aggie (guess who taught her that one?), cheeeese, grandma, baby, woah!, nigh-night, bye-bye, sshhhh! (that counts as a word, right?), and boo. She's also learned the signs for milk, cracker, hat, eat, and banana.

People always think she's mellow because she's clingy and quiet around strangers, but she's so not mellow. Watch her interact with her sister for a few minutes and you'll see that she's quite dramatic, a little aggressive (she's just started hitting when something doesn't go her way), and very, very LOUD. On the other hand, she is still awesomely cuddly and loving. I love to be the one to hand her a stuffed animal (especially her beloved "teddy") because she immediately smothers it with loves and kisses. She's also still very much a mommy's girl. I don't think she'll outgrow that one for quite awhile, which means I'm dreading the nursery transition. She's definitely going to have a tough time.

Basically, I can't imagine what we'd do without her. Love this kid!