She is starting to be a little chatterbox. Among her words are...hi, bye, dada, dog, all done, all gone, apple, more (sometimes--although she still relies on signs for this and for some reason says BA instead of more usually). And she knows quite a few animal sounds.
Ellie continues to love music. She jams anytime we have music on and as far as she is concerned the louder the better. She has quite a few dance moves that have at this point surpassed both her father and my abilities. She will settle for kids music too and her favorite songs right now are "Bringing Home My Baby Bumblebee" and "Wheels on the Bus" She is getting quite good at the actions. My favorite is the windshield wipers- she holds up one finger on each hand and wildly swishes back and forth! She will sing the Elmo song...La la la la! and sometimes she'll sing other things--it is starting to be actual notes she is singing instead of just chanting :)
Ellie loves to have things in their correct place. She is quite good with puzzles and sorting toys and will spend extended amounts of time working on that type of project. She also likes to have trash and recycling put away. If she finds a piece of paper on the ground she makes the icky noise (thanks to my dad for helping us teach her that!) and she trots over to the trashcan to throw it away. So far she hasn't thrown away too many things that we needed (that we know of!) This part of her personality is proving very beneficial for potty training. We haven't been pushing the issue but did pull the potty chair out of the closet last weekend just to let her get used to seeing it and get her curiosity going. Much to our surprise she picked it right up. She used the potty multiple times last weekend and has continued throughout the week. We ask her occasionally if she needs to go and she runs to the bathroom. Of course she is still in diapers and hasn't figured out that this is an all-the-time activity but we think she has made an amazing start for an 18 month old. My guess is she'll continue to try it out and it won't be long before she is out of diapers. Yay!
Coloring is one of Ellie's favorite activities. She is quite the pro at using her crayons. Unfortunately, she prefers to use a pen in most circumstances :) She also LOVES finger painting. We reserve that for a before-bath-only activity. My mom finally helped me wise up to the fingerpaint on highchair technique....toddlers to care much at all about getting paint on paper and the highchair washes off very easily.
Ellie's favorite toys at the moment are her baby dolls, she strolls them around or wears them in the sling that aunt Carissa made. If you make a crying sound she runs to pick up her baby to make sure it is okay and will rock it on her shoulder. She says "bye, bye bye" as she rocks, I think this came from us saying "Rock-a-bye" It is pretty darn cute. She is also into her play kitchen and using the keys to pretend to get in the door, reading, stacking blocks...you name it! She loves to bounce her ball and thinks it is just hilarious when it hits the ground and boings back up.
This summer has been busy so far. We went up to Asheville at the end of April to welcome Ellie's new baby cousin June Eliza. She is super cute and we are so excited to have a new baby in the family! Ellie wasn't quite sure what she should think about that new little baby but she and Vera had a great time playing.
My grandparents came for a couple of weeks in May. It was great to have them here and Ellie really enjoyed having a couple of extra people in the house to entertain. She practiced her knee trick...we are not real sure what it is all about but for some reason anytime Elle sees a bare knee she puts her forehead on it. Don't ask me where she learned this...I have no idea! Jesse, Mike, Vera and June plus Aunt Carissa came to town as well.
Jason's dad and stepmom also came for a visit and we traveled to Star to see the Hamilton side of the family. It was super nice to have Jason's dad her to celebrate Father's Day. We are so thankful to have so many amazing dads and grandpas in our lives.
My parents' exchange student from Morocco, Iliass, went home a couple of weeks ago as well:( We will miss him a lot. He really was one of Ellie's very favorite people. He could make her laugh in almost every situation and they were good buddies. We have already skyped with Iliass once but Ellie wasn't so sure about why exactly he wouldn't come out of that computer screen, hopefully by keeping in touch this way she won't forget him.
So we have been keeping busy but having a lot of fun along the way. Ellie and I did the Parent and Child Swim Level 2 class this summer and she continues to be a little fish. She loves to swim and splash and sing "Motorboat, motorboat goes so fast...."
She absolutely loves the library and going on little excursions shopping or to the park or really most anywhere. She unfortunately has decided that riding in the grocery cart is no fun at all and she demands to walk behind and push which is a little bit hard! We are hoping that phase ends soon.
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