18 months

How did my sweet little baby grow up into a one and a half year old? Where has the time gone? Even though the last 18 months have gone by way too quickly, I have truly loved every day with Elle. She is such a sweet spirit and she has "grown up" into such a fun little girl.

Elle, here is what you are up to at 18 months.

You weigh 21.1 lbs and are 32 inches long.

You continue to amaze us with your comprehension and understanding. You really seem to grasp what we say to you and it is so fun to watch you learn new things each day. You obey so well and it makes me so glad!

You are starting to say a few more words -- like "Yeah", "Yuck", "Papa", "Noo" and "Whoa!" You make the funniest expressions and always keep us laughing!



You are very outgoing and love to wave hello to EVERYONE! If anyone ever ignores you, you just keep right on waving until they say Hi to you!

You love your cousin Grayer and are (usually) pretty sweet with him. You have held him a few times and after some inital reluctance, you loved it! You think you are such a big girl. You didn't seem to mind when Mommy held him at first, but now you are starting to show some jealousy!

I had no plans to start potty training you yet, but recently you have started showing some signs that you might be ready. I think I am going to hold off on any further attempts until after Christmas when we will get you your own potty seat. We will see how things go then. I can't believe you are already old enough to POTTY TRAIN! What's next -- a BIG GIRL BED?

You are still working on your "I" teeth. None of them have come through yet, but your poor gums are pretty red and swollen. I bet it won't be too much longer.

For the past month or so, you have been getting up around 6 AM -- AKA THE CRACK OF DAWN! You help Daddy get ready for work in the mornings and you two spend some good time together, while Mommy may or may not get back in bed -- Ha!

You spent a lot of time with your Grandparents this month and you really loved it! You are so blessed to have such great Grandparents who will drop anything to care for you when Mommy and Daddy need some time away. You love to spend time with your Nona, Mimi, and Papa (you now calls Pops that) and they always SPOIL you!

Elle Adelaide, we can't believe you have already been the center of our universe for 18 months! You continue to fill our lives and hearts with so much love and joy. Sometimes I don't know what we ever talked/laughed about before you arrived! You are the sweetest, most tenderhearted girl we have ever known. We love, love, love you!


PS. I think this will be my last monthly post of Elle. I have enjoyed looking back at some of her first months and seeing how much she has changed, but I don't think she will appreciate me continuing it until she is 18!

17 months

(I wrote this post last week and apparently forgot to post it. Oops!)

Time is flying by! It seems like yesterday that I posted Elle's 16 month update.

Elle, here is what you are up to at 17 months.

You have certainly entered the toddler/terrible two's phase this month. If you don't get your way, you throw a tantrum or start crying.

You are teething again and that also has you feeling pretty crummy some days. I am hoping that once you get the next four teeth in we can take a break for awhile!

You learned to say "bye-bye" and "Kiki" this month. When we ask you to say Grayer, you do an imitation of a baby crying -- it is really cute!

You LOVE to dance! Whenever you hear any music, you always stop and start bouncing. You love to swing your arms around and bust a move. You and Mommy have dance parties in the afternoons most days when we turn the music up really loud and dance around like crazy people! You love it when I twirl you around!

You are such a good Momma to all your babydolls. You push them around in the stroller (sometimes at breakneck speeds!) and you will stop and pull them out and love on them. You always want everyone else to hug and kiss them too!

You still have some seperation anxiety and will usually walk to all the doors in the house and say "Mama? Mama?" whenever I leave. You usually calm down pretty quickly though and I am hoping this LONG phase is going to pass soon.

You love to play at the park. You now prefer slides over the swings (that was soo 3 months ago!) and you love to climb up them and then turn around and slide down. That tends to work much better when we are the only ones there...

You are obsessed with books and bring them to me all the time to read. Your favorites are the ones with animals in them.

Elle, you are turning into a very independent girl these days. Your Daddy and I love watching you learn. You are so sweet and we wouldn't trade your hugs and kisses for anything in the world. We love you!

Elle at 7 weeks

Elle at 7 months

Elle at 17 months

Our Little Pumpkin

Noah and I took Elle back to the same pumpkin patch that we went to last year in Flower Mound. Last year we went during the week, and this year we went on Sunday. Big mistake. It was PACKED. And so very HOT. And have I mentioned how frustrating it is to TRY to photograph a very active toddler? Well, if not, it is!

All in all though, we had a good, okay, okay, only a decent time :) I was so glad to have Noah there with me though. He made it much easier and we were able to get a few cute pictures of our sweet girl. Here are a couple of my favorites...

I'm hoping to be able to take her to another, smaller patch closer to our house this week. Even if I'm not able to get any more pictures I thought it would be a fun thing that we could do together. We got this book from the library this week and she asks me to read it to her about a hundred times a day. And how could I possibly refuse this sweet face?


Happy Autumn!

What happened to my sweetie pie?

Elle is 16 months old. Elle thinks she is 16 years old. We have really hit our first round of true, full blown temper tantrums this week. She is at the age where she really wants her independence, but she isn't old enough to have it most of the time. If she gets to do something that she thinks is fun, like walking down the sidewalk out front, climbing steps in a neighbors yard, or going down the slide at the park, she wants to do it over, and over, and over again. And then when it is time to stop or go home, she has a meltdown! I have been trying to stay away from big groups of people and keep her out of stores because I don't think I can handle the humiliation of a screaming toddler. It has been difficult this week for me, because at this age she can only understand so much, but we are really having to stick to our guns and discipline her when it is necessary.

On a lighter note, we have been able to do a lot of fun things this week. We have been to the park several times, which she absolutely loves! We went over to our friend Ellie's house on Monday for a play date which is always so much fun for both of us, and on Tuesday I took her to the Dallas Museum of Art. They have a kids area with a lot of fun things to play with, so we spent most of the time there. I was dying to go look at all the exibits though, so we did a speedy run through and I think I got to see almost all of them. There is a beautiful outside atrium area where they have some fountains and large pieces of metal art, so Elle and I spent some time out there and had a snack. It was a great day!

I have been terrible about taking pictures of the little monster lately, but we are going out to my parents house this weekend and I'll try to remember to bring my camera with me. Hopefully I can get some of Elle and her little cousin.