First Phrase

Ellery said her first phrase this morning! The phrase she chose to use to break her self-imposed silence???

"bye bye peepee".

lovely.

I take her in the bathroom with me sometimes and when I do I make a big production of flushing the toilet and waving bye bye to the pee pee - I figure it might help down the road with potty training.

So this morning she was in there with my mom and said it. . ."bye bye peepee"

:)

AND today was the first time she actually talked on the phone with me :) SO cute!!!

Weekly Update

Yes - I'm trying to be better - only because I think I am going to start forgetting stuff so I want to get it all recorded.

Our sweet little monkey had a great week that started out kinda icky. Last Monday on the way to my parents she threw up a little - John thought she had gagged herself with her fingers - but she threw up 2 more times at my parents. After a 3 hour nap she woke up and apparently was cured. So strange!

All 4 of her eye teeth (I think those are them. . the pointy ones) are coming in - UGH - poor baby - for some reason these teeth have been even harder for her than her molars - which makes NO sense to me at all because they're pointy and the molars are flat. Once these 4 come in we'll be done with teething until her 2 year molars come in.

We've started (at John's suggestion) showing Ellery how to clean up her toys. Normally I would just pick them all up after she went to bed, but John said the other day that he feels like she's old enough to do it herself and we should teach her (turns out he's right - shhhhh don't tell him I said that). Obviously she doesn't understand "Ellery pick up your toys" but if we get down on the floor and "help" her she does a pretty great job (before she loses interest of course LOL).

Her talking is picking up too. .. . this weekend I heard "cheese" which is a new one for us! I should be keeping better track .. . but here's at least a partial list:

hi (hieee)
bye (byeie)
kitty
book
me
okay
cheese (apparently)
yeah
no (likes this one a LOT)
ball (balloons AND balls are the same you know :) )

so that's pretty much it from us. . . 2 weeks ago we had some AMAZING pictures taken in the Boston Public Garden and i'm hoping I'll have the online gallery to share here soon :)

18 months old!!!

On Monday Ellery had her 18 month "birthday". I cannot believe it. I feel like she was just born and put in my arms yesterday - a helpless squalling little pterodactyl (did I spell that right?). Now she's this beautiful, funny, smart, AMAZING little girl. (insert sniffles here)

Let's see. . we went to the pediatrician on Monday. My not-so-little girl is 28lbs 2oz and 33 inches tall - in the 90s for both percentile wise. YIKES! I asked Dr. Stephens if it was a concern and she said if she wasn't proportional (i.e. she was in the 90th for weight but the 20th for height or something THEN they would worry - but she's fine).

I asked about her talking - Dr. Stephens said they like to hear at least 6 words. . so we're good there too. . . Ellery "talked" through the entire appointment and Dr. Stephens said that I shouldn't be worried - all the words are in there. . they just haven't come out yet ;)

She still has the patches of eczema on her legs and NOTHING is helping them - so Dr. Stephens said we should just leave them alone and she'll probably grow out of them - they don't bother her so it's not necessary to see a dermatologist or anything.

All in all it was a great appointment. Ellery got her MMR finally and her last Dtap shot - first time she's had shots in her arms not her legs . . poor monkey cried and cried and cried.. :(

We also took the bumpers out of her crib - she was starting to step on them and I didn't want them ruined - her crib looks so empty :(

Anyway - here are some random pics :

Fourth of July - overdue of course

We had a pretty good Fourth of July - the weather here in MA was kind of touch and go - in the morning it was cool and rainy. ..

There's a Fourth of July tradition in my family started (by accident) by my dad when I was small. He used to take me to the parade in Chelmsford every fourth of july. He mentioned that he'd like to take Ellery. . and then mentioned that John should come also - it used to be a Daddy/daughter thing - now it would be a Daddy/daughter/Nonno thing. Makes me smile just to think of it.

So - we dressed Ellery up in the shirt Nonno brought her home from Washington, jeans, socks, sneakers and a jacket and off they went. Ellery had a great time except when the muskets were shot (several times. . right in front of her). She made friends with a doggie that was at the parade as well.

By the time they got home from the parade the weather was clear and warming up. We were off to Kristen and Kirk's for the bbq. Ellery wanted in the pool immediately and that's where she spent the majority of the day!!!! She had a blast!!! We weren't even in the car for a minute and she was passed out asleep in the backseat LOL.

I'm sure the pictures will upload in a strange order. . so here you go!

Updates all around!

So - Ellery's almost 18 months old and is starting to do so much more!

she's newly obsessed with Mr. PotatoHead (Auntie Kerrin brought her home one from Disney and Auntie Michelle and Uncle Shawn (LOL) brought her more parts recently)

She loves to pretend. .. mostly pushing her little people plane around making "bbbbrrrr" noises (think engine LOL)

Last night (07/01/2008) she counted to 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost fell over. We were in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner . . she was in her highchair - I broke a banana into a few pieces and she didn't want it so she was handing it back to John and all of a sudden "Oooooooooneeee, twoooooooooooooooooo, threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" (think very drawn out and not sounding exactly like the numbers LOL)

I heard her but didn't say anything, lest john think i was crazy. . then he looks at me, eyes as big as saucers "um, she just counted to 3"

ROFL

:)