18 months

Every month I seem to say, "wow, we have a (fill in the blank) month old!" And this time we can say 1 and a half year old! Each month has something fun to bring. Watching Ellie grow more and more into the person she's going to be is an amazing privilege to see and be a part of.

Size/Growth: Over the last several months people have finally been able to roughly guess Ellie's age correctly. Before, she was so petite and always on the lower side of the growth charts, so people would think she was quite younger than she really was. It's been great seeing her thrive in this part of her growth - she did always impress us with her mental skills - and so now she's hitting everything fabulously. She's still in size 5 diaper, and wearing 18-2T clothes. Weight is 25.79 pounds (84%) and 31.8" (45%)!

Hair: All the time people ask me if I've cut Ellie's hair (for the record: I still haven't!). It's grown into such a perfectly cute, slightly angled, bob. You couldn't/can't really tell that her undergrowth was so much shorter. However, now it's catching up well and I've been able to put it in two low pig tails. Woohoo for more hairstyles; getting her hair out of her face.

Eating: This girl seems to always be down to eat (just like her mama). It's not like we really limit what she eats...we go off her saying she's done or wants more at each meal (3 a day) and then kind of make her snacks (1-2 a day) smaller like the typical person. If she sees you snacking during other times, other than her "scheduled" time to eat, she will want to help you finish the food off! ha. Her favorites are fruit of pretty much any kind (minus pineapple-that we know of), cheese and bread. We can get her to eat a fair amount of vegetables though and try be good at giving her a variety of foods. Just recently did we do dips; ketchup, ranch, etc. which she's really into of course. If she sees you get the ketchup out of the fridge, she'll say "dip!" - super cute. And I forgot to mention in her 15 month update that she was weened off of a bottle around 14 months. She can drink out of straw and those miracle 360 sippy cups great. She loves drinking out of our normal drinking glasses, but sometimes sips too much in and coughs. Her skills with a fork and spoon are great and yeah she'll still be a bit messy, but she's getting less and less so. The amount of teeth she has is 10! There are 6 incisors and 4 molars.

Sleep: Girl is still rocking the sleep game! She takes an on average 2.5 hour nap from about 12:45ish-3:15ish. Then at night she sleeps/stays down from around 8:15pm till around 7:15am. She has basically had sleep under control since we sleep trained her around 5 months. I believe it helps that we have stayed super consistent with the same sleep routine for nap and bedtime and the times. Plus, we just recently gave her a blanket to sleep with-shocking I know! She was just always warm enough and content enough without anything; there wasn't any need for another form of comfort other than her fingers (yes, she still sucks those two fingers...).

Milestones/Accomplishments:
- Climbing up on couch, chairs, boxes - anything reachable.
- Talking. Her vocabulary has expanded SO much. I can't even count how may words she knows and also just repeats. But here are some that are really cute and/or funny (if it's parentheses that's what the word sounds more like): careful (cheerful), blanket (blankie), frog (f@#! word...yep...a curse word! She just so clearly says the 'g' as a 'k' and boy is it funny and bad!)
- Body parts she can identity on herself + others and can say- in addition to the ones I noted in her 15 month update: bum, eyebrow (brow), elbow (bow), belly button (bell butt), nails-on fingers and toes
- Colors. She can identity something that is purple, plus says it..and she actually says most things are purple. And she can say black (back), green (geen), orange (orge) and blue (bue). However, she doesn't always correlate the correct color with object, i.e. blue ball vs. orange ball -but ever so often she does!
- Jumping. Granted she only catches air here and there, but she certainly tries a lot! And says "jump! jump!"
- Informs us when she needs to poop or has pooped.

Likes:
- Music and dancing! She is constantly saying "dance! dance!" If you don't have music playing she will always ask for it. Plus, she's really not that content with it coming just out of your phone, it needs to be playing out of the sound bar. And she still loves dancing - by herself and with you/holding her. One of our friends showed her how to go on her tippy toes while dancing and Ellie picked up on that really fast. She's getting to be a true ballerina!
- Babies. Real ones and the toy ones. She's constantly pointing them out (the real and the toys) and always getting a blanket to wrap around them. She even started to grab her toy ones to dance with.
- Blankets. Playing with them, peek-a-boo, having it on her lap during story time before her sleep times and sleeping with it. She will say "blankie!" when you're getting into the rocking chair to read and if you lay her down in crib without the blanket on top of her, she'll ask for it. Pretty sweet.
-Water...the pool...the bath...bodies of water!
- Slides. She would dive down them head first if we let her, too! Daredevil, carefree she is.

our little dancer! (she's making the baby dance as well in top left pic)

Dislikes:

- Waiting for milk and/or food. If you wait longer than usual to feed her, she will be a bit whinny at your legs until you get her to sit or put her in highchair, with drink/food in front of her. Hangry is a term we use in this instance! haha! (I get that way too if I'm not on it with my snack/meal times, so we try to be diligent with all that...for the both of us!)
- The doctors! At this last appointment she got very unsure fast, cried super hard and clung on to me the tightest she has ever done. It was very surprising (even though they warned us that could happen around this age). At all her other appointments she has been her usual sweet self, but not this time.

Things to remember:
She has such a sweet spirit about her. How she puts her hands out for you to hold or puts her hands together to pray before meals (something she just started this past week-her saying "pray (pay)" when we are putting food on the table!). Wants to smell flowers or candles. Says "bless" (bless you) after people sneeze sometimes. How when she toots, she says "poop". Pats her bum and/or ours, while she says "bum, bum".