Sweet 16...

...And a whole lot of kissing! Kiss the baby, kiss Dewey, fish kisses, blowing kisses, kissing bumps and bruises, kissing Dewey, kiss Daddy, kiss Mommy, kiss the birdies (teet, teet), kiss the picture of Poppy on the blanket that Great-Grandma made for you, kiss Dewey. Did I mention kiss Dewey.
16 months old this week and a whole lot of kissing! What lucky parents we are to be around so much love. Even when she says "no" we still get the kiss. For now no is just another sound that she's heard around town but it doesn't have meaning--yet. Dewey is coping well with all the affection but spends most of him time out of reach again.
At 16 months Ella is truly a pleasure to be with. A true, undeniable pleasure. Today, she played with Dewey's food for 30 minutes. I know that's gross, but the 16 month accomplishment is that she didn't once put a piece in her mouth.

She lies down for a new diaper without being asked and sometime she's learned to tell us what to expect--"I just peed!"

In an intensely not monumental way, she had her first haircut on Saturday. Mom and Grammie were getting fancy haircuts and we had her cut Ella's bangs. Better than me doing it.

She's improved her walking to be able to skip and her talking now includes sentences for all to understand--"I just peed," "Up, please, daddy," etc.
Happy 16 months, big baby bean! Hugs and KISSES!

Pensive. Beautiful. And check out those fresh bangs!

A Sure Sign of Spring

The Hair Clip

Ella's hair is finally starting to grow out. It is to the point that the front is in her eyes and the back is getting mullet-esque. While she's managed to inherit a beautiful toddler blond from both of her parents. She also inherited the light weight of mom's hair with the tendency to stick straight up of dad's hair. In comes the hair clip for a shot at a new style.


Of course the style is questionable and the clip almost always ends up in someone's mouth. We'll keep trying. This can't be worse than the time someone in my family taped my hair to my forehead to try and get it under control.

Independent Apple Eater

**We're not sure if babies are "technically" supposed to be allowed to eat whole apples but we promise this activity was totally supervised and safe. That said...


Ella recently ate her first whole apple. It was small and soft and easy to eat. She wandered around the kitchen chomping strategically at the challenge before her. It was very cute.
She LOVED IT and as you can see it made her very HAPPY!

Reading Alone

When babies are smaller, cry a lot, and don't sleep well, one way to get through it is to remember that they change quickly and any "bad" stage will end soon. This trick helped a lot with the grouchy, sleepy younger Ella.
Now we are finding that it is much less fun to put that "change quickly" theory to test against wonderful, adorable, loveable behaviors with well-rested, happy, older Ella.


Example:
The last time we visited Ella's reading habits she would do anything to back her little tush right into a welcome lap to be read to. It is the most wonderful thing ever! Just one month later her habits have totally changed. She still loves to read but prefers to read alone now. She'll grab a book (or three) and find a quiet spot and get to reading. Strangely, she loves to read in her booster seat. Sometimes we have to sit next to her and pretend like we're reading together.

But remember, this too will pass. We'll just try real hard to avoid an "I don't like to read at all" phase. I'm currently in the middle of a very long one of those!