Ella turned 22 months on November 5! It's been a really busy few weeks so I'm a bit behind, but better late than never - here is my 22 month update on Ella.
- She's a size 5 in shoes, 4 in diapers, and 18M in clothes
- She had an 11th tooth come in this month, on the left side of her bottom front teeth
- Her favorite foods are cottage cheese, oatmeal, rice, pasta, goldfish crackers, ice pops, french fries, apples and yogurt. I can't even tell you the last time she ate something green (not for lack of trying)... There are days when it seems like she eats 7 times but only 3 or 4 bites each time. Oh and I cannot forget JUICE. There have been days when she has had no breakfast or even a sip of milk to drink because all she wants is juice. She says "joos" over and over and will throw herself against the fridge. This method has not yet worked in getting her juice but she keeps trying in the hopes it will soon pay off.
- It seems like she learns new words and phrases by the day - here are some words she started saying: cookie (cook), coat, book, binky (beebee), me see, no see, outside, what's that?, trick-or-treat, bath, moon, night-night (see
Ella Says for the dates and backstory on these :))
- She just keeps getting more and more affectionate. She gives the best kisses, lots of hugs, cuddles, loves being held and is just so snuggly. I can not think of anything better than her spontaneously pucking up her little lips and leaning in for a kiss. What's so cool is just how it overcomes her - she'll be in the middle of playing with something and all of a sudden come over and give a kiss and a hug. So sweet.
- Hitting is still her biggest no-no and timeout winner. If she gets mad she'll hit me right in the face and when she's too far away she swats to equally show her disdain. I try to be really consistent with disciplining for her hitting (even if it means timeout in a Kohl's with her screaming) and hope it will be worth it.
- Favorite books - The Very Busy Spider and Fuzzy Bear's Potty Book (interestingly, it is not the whole book of Fuzzy Bear's Potty Book that she likes but just one single page - she turns the pages until she gets to that page, gets all happy, just looks at and smiles, and then protests if I try to turn the page and keep reading.)
- Favorite toys - Magnets on the fridge, and moving them from the fridge to the garbage can; Little People dollhouse and it's single inhabitant; kitchen set; puzzles
- In her dollhouse she gives her little guy a hug and a kiss, puts him to bed and says night-night, and can also put him on the computer, the potty, get a snack from the fridge, answer the telephone, and watch TV
- She loves the theme song from Little Ensteins (we're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, yadda yadda yah...little ensteins...)
- She can walk up the stairs by herself now holding on to the railing but it takes a really long time and she comes close to falling way too often for my liking
- She can be very clingy and when she's in a bad mood we cannot put her down at all. She squeezes us so tight and says "no, no, no" and picks up her feet so they don't touch the ground and will just hang like a little monkey unitl we scoop her back up. She loves being held. But now that she is a lot heavier than she used to be, it can be exhausting.
- She knows how to cover her mouth when she coughs and her nose when she sneezes, but it's always AFTER the sneeze or cough! Steve has really huge sneezes and she started to pretend to sneeze like him. Once she's older I'll have to give her a little chat about girl sneezes and boy sneezes :)
- As soon as she knows we're leaving the house, she says "GO" and is ready! She heads to the door and just can't wait to see what fun awaits on the other side.
- She still loves her purple blankie and does not want to read her pre-bed books until she is holding blankie, has a binky in her mouth, and is holding a 2nd binky. The 2nd binky is a new addition in recent weeks and it's funny how important it is to her now. When I put her down in her crib she holds the blankie up by her head in a ball, and again has one binky in her mouth and holds on to another one.
- She can be very dainty and does not like having dirty hands. If she's in the middle of eating and thinks her hands are too dirty, she'll hold them out to get wiped off before she can keep eating. If we're playing outside and they get muddy, it's the same thing, she'll hold them out to get wiped before she can go back to playing.
- She can be so particular about things and knows just how they should be. Steve replaced a curtain in her bedroom and for about a week every single time I'd wake her up, she'd talk on and on about the new curtain complete with gestures and pointing as if she'd discovered it for the first time. It made me laugh every time. Sometimes she doesn't like my hair in a ponytail and wants it down instead. Sometimes she insists on wearing shoes, sometimes she must carry a book around with her, or can eat only cottage cheese for an entire day. Sometimes if Sammy gets too close to what she's playing with she'll throw a fit. She definitely knows what she wants!
- Ella does not stop moving, with the exception of reading books and nap time, from the moment she wakes up until bedtime. She is always on a mission, has lots to accomplish and is busy busy all the time. She hustles around importantly and loves it when she has 'jobs' to do.
- She is pretty good about putting her toys away and will put all of them back in her toy boxes and then of course give herself a brief round of applause once she finishes.
- I made up something called "nice hands" several months ago in an attempt to show her a nice way to pet the dogs, and basically it's just where I take my hands and curl them up and rub her face gently with them. Well sometimes now she'll look at me so sweetly and all of a sudden curl her hands in little balls and rub them on MY cheeks, doing "nice hands" on her own. I love it!
- She can drink reasonably well from a water bottle and a certain sippy cup where the opening is narrower than the rest of the cup, without a lid. It's definitely not fool proof and she spills a lot, but is getting pretty good at it.
- We're starting to be able to reason with her a tiny bit. For example, I can tell her that the way we're going to brush teeth is that it's my turn first and then after my turn, it's her turn to brush them, and she actually says 'ok' and somewhat goes along with the plan. Or if I give her a 2 minute warning, then a 1 minute warning, there seems to be less 'no no no' when it's time to finish what she's doing. Like I said, it's just a very little bit, but I'm definitely
starting to see an understanding where she was too young to understand before.
Well I could go on and on, but this is a pretty good overview of life with Ella these days. She's absolutely a toddler heading into her twos - with the mood swings to match - but is just such a lovebug and a joy and gets more fun with each passing day.
A few photos of my little 22 month old
Just stuck her hand in a spider web and NOT happy about it
Oooh what are these?? new holly berries!
Sweet girl
