Hat

Ella needs a new hat. It is starting to be cool here in the morning and as the sun goes down. Clearly my hat is not the best option. She disagrees that it isn't the best option.

EllaAndouille's Tea Party

Pure Smoked Joy

Today on my way out of my office I bumped into a big pre-historic bite of heaven. Me, Fred Flintstone, and Ella were thrilled with our dinner tonight.


8 years ago (next week) I had my first taste of a smoked turkey leg. It made me very, very, very happy! It is big, it is tasty, it is kind of wierd but really fun to eat. Basically you attack it!
It is the highlight of any street festival, fair, or other gathering with vendors. The street outside my office was closed today for a Harley Davidson festival and the turkey leg truck was parked right outside our door. Brilliant! As you can see, Ella enjoyed her first attack on a giant turkey leg. If anyone is interested, join us for the NC State Fair in a few weeks. We'll be hitting a turkey leg encore.

Cheers!

Ella and I went out for drinks on Monday night. 7 sips of milk. 7 sips of juice. And 7 sips of water. All from a sippy cup. 7 + 7 + 7 = 21, and that's how we celebrated Ella's 21st birthday. 21st month that is! What a nice 21 months it has been.
The weather is beginning to cool here in North Carolina. We had soup for dinner tonight! We've been able to spend more time outside with less bugs and a lot less sweat. Ella loves to play with her ball. She'll kick it and throw it and is beginning to learn to catch it. I'm beginning to think more realistically about buying a new car, and new flat screen TV, and a trip around the world, as my confidence grows that she'll be the recipient of a full soccer scholarship to UNC and saving for college won't be totally neccesary.
At 21 months it is really Ella's language that is most amazing and still changing dramatically everyday. Just a few months ago she was transitioning from words to sentences by saying a jibberish sentence and ending it with a familiar word. Now she speaks in full sentences and never speaks nonsense. Everyday her sentences get more complicated. She's learned to pronoun switch rather than repeat directly after us:
Me: Ella is petting Dewey.
Ella: I am petting Dewey.
She's learned to turn a request into a better sentence or even two sentences:
Me: Say goodbye to Bubby and Zaida
Ella: Goodbye Bubby. Goodbye Zaida. I love you!
She's starting to be polite without prompting. We love this. This makes months and months of asking and reminding, "How do you ask nicely?" finally worth it. I wasn't sure it would ever net anything.
Part of her literacy shift is that she loves to read by herself now almost as much as she loves to read with us. She'll sit quietly on the porch with a book and turn the pages with a smile almost everyday. She's memorized large parts of many of her favorite books and starts reciting them as soon as she picks up the book. It sort of looks like she's reading even though we know she's not. Or at least we think she's not. I've taught a lot of children to read but this would be outrageous.

And finally, at 21 months, Ella is just a really nice little girl. Tonight Dewey had a seizure. I picked up Ella so we could give Dewey some space. She looked concerned and said, "Dewey is sad. He OK. He has a seizure." Then she repeated, "Dewey OK," over and over. When he was done and starting to feel better she said, "Dewey all done. I give him a kiss now." She got down gave him a kiss, turned back around, and said, "Ella hungry. Up please." There's time for loving Dewey and then there's time for dinner. Luckily for Dewey there's time for both.
The other night we went out to dinner with some friends. Oddly, half of our meals came out a good 10 minutes before the rest. Ella's was among the second shift. She couldn't have possibly been more patient or pleasant in that situation. She sat and looked around and occasionally asked in a pleasant voice, "Where's Ella's dinner?" Her patience outlasted my patience as I got hungry and started complaining. I had to check myself and learn some patience from my almost two year old.
And that's how we roll around here at 21 months. It couldn't be more fun as Miss Ella Bean Boo couldn't be more wonderful to be around. We love you so much and can't believe that two is around the corner. We're excited to see what 22, 23, and the big 24 months brings. We can only imagine it will bring a few more NOs and a lot more fun.
Cheers! L'Chaim! Happy 21 months my little friend.