21 Months Old!!!

Our sweet Ellison is 21 months old! She loves her "buddies", puzzles, singing, coloring, and Toy Story. She is starting to count and recognize letters. I stopped counting how many words she could say when my list got to 300 earlier this month. She is saying lots of sentences - usually 3 words but sometimes more. Such a little smarty pants!

Last two pictures are a much more accurate view of how these "photo shoots" usually go!

One of Ellison's favorite things right now is the "monkey song". We sing Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, and she goes crazy and jumps around. It is so cute, but gets tiring! I think I sang that song six times in a row before 7:30 am today...

Singing "monkey song"

E had her last day at "Manda's house" this week, which was what she called daycare. I think she is really going to miss her "people"...she talks about the kids a lot. But she starts at her new place soon and I'm sure she will have a blast with her new people! 

Ells is finally starting to move into 24 month/2T clothes now. 18 month stuff didn't last nearly as long as 12 month did. She wore that size from last winter all the way through summer. And she JUST graduated to size 4 diapers - I think she wore 3s for over a year! We haven't weighed her in awhile but I'm guessing somewhere between 22-23 lbs.

Her buddies wear the same size she does...

As far as baby #2 goes, I lost 2 lbs between my 20 week and 24 week appointments. According to the doctor's records I've gained 1 pound, but I'm actually still down from where I was when I found out I was pregnant (4 weeks before my first appointment). Obviously at this point that's not good, so I have to eat eat EAT! Thinking I may try adding some Boost or Ensure into my life as well. Blech.

As I've said before, this pregnancy has been much more difficult between still feeling sick a lot of the time and how much more tired I've been. I'm finally going to give in and send Ellison to daycare more often so that I can catch up on sleep. I have always kept her home on days when I get home from work in the morning and don't have to go back to work that night, but staying up for 30 hours in a row (or more) after working three or four nights in a row just isn't working anymore. It's taken me a year and a half of daycare to get to this point, but it's really not fair to Ellison to have a sleepy, cranky mommy who can't play with her, and it's not fair to the little man if I'm not as healthy as possible. This has been a REALLY hard decision, because obviously I want to spend as much time with Ellison as I can and I hate the idea of her being at daycare when I'm at home sleeping...but I think at least for now, we ALL need this! Hopefully I'll have better news to report after my next appointment. Less than 2 weeks until the glucose tolerance test...

Looking forward to Thanksgiving, even though I work the night before and will have to spend part of the day sleeping. At least both Jay and I have off on Thanksgiving. Hopefully it will help fatten me and baby boy up!

The many uses for pots...cooking, and a spot for watching TV

Halloween and More!

Miss Ellison's Halloween costume was an owl. She didn't do too much trick or treating - just a couple houses in my mom's neighborhood - but from what I heard, she really liked watching all the kids come to the door to get candy! I worked all weekend, but I did get to see her dressed up on Saturday night before leaving for work, and she was the cutest owl ever! I'm hoping that next year Jay and I won't have to work and will actually be able to take the kids trick or treating in our own neighborhood. Since I was sleeping between shifts during our neighborhood's trick or treat, I had to put up a sign asking people to please not knock, and we disconnected our doorbell. No one smashed our pumpkins for not having any candy, so I guess we don't have a bad reputation with the neighborhood kids yet!

Ellison has had some diva moods lately. If she doesn't get what she wants, tears and yelling are sure to follow. She is still narrating the things she does, and that includes crying. Last weekend during one of her fits, she cried, "Crying...tears...!" It was pretty hard not to laugh. It's frustrating to have her getting upset over the smallest things, but we are trying hard to teach her that she can't get her way all the time!

Ellison's mean scowl 

When she's not being a diva, Ellison is a sweetheart. She always wants to give us hugs and kisses, although not always at the most convenient times (like during meals or while we are driving). She started saying "love you" recently, which melts my heart every time! She even wants to "snuggle" sometimes, which she has never been big on in the past. It usually only lasts a minute or two, but we'll take it! Her snuggliest time is bed time. She still likes to be held and have her "songs" after prayers. Usually Bingo, "happy" (You Are My Sunshine), and "Jesus" (Jesus Loves Me), in that order. She doesn't like it when we don't sing the songs! She also really likes to help us. Cleaning, "folding" laundry, cooking...hopefully she keeps this up for the next 16 or so years...

Cleaning her room at Grandma's

Helping with yardwork up north

Laundry assistant

Helping Daddy build a closet organizer for baby "Ham"

Ellison's favorite things right now are her "buddies". All the ones she sleeps with (probably about 8-10 depending on the night) have to come out of the crib each morning. She takes them out into the living room a few at a time and then comes back for more. She arranges them on the couch, then moves them to a chair, throws them on the floor, then starts over. We just went through some old stuffed animals of mine so she just got a bunch of new buddies, and she has been over the moon playing with all of them. She will usually tell us what each animal is while she goes along, so I guess it's an educational game. I can't believe how many different animals she knows. Yak, ostrich, pelican, peacock, iguana...I am constantly surprised at all the animal names she knows!

Ells also really likes books. Specifically, pulling them off her bookshelf and making piles of them around the house. Sometimes she will sit still long enough to read one - usually if the subject is either farm animals or puppies! She is great at all the farm animal sounds now (she only did "moo" for quite awhile), and she even knows some breeds of dog and will point them out in her dog book.

On the pregnancy front, things are going ok. Still having a hard time gaining weight, although I have definitely popped! Ellison calls the baby/my belly "Ham", and we are pretty sure it's because the pig on Toy Story (one of her obsessions) is named Ham, and he has a big belly. Thanks, Ells! I definitely didn't have this many food aversions or such a small appetite when I was pregnant with Ellison. I also wasn't still getting sick at 23 weeks! According to the anatomy scan, baby measures right on track, and that is what's important! I have my next appointment in a few days, so I guess we'll see what the doctor has to say.

Looking forward to starting the baby's room soon...we have changed our mind quite a few times on the theme! We may have our final decision nailed down now though. I'm hoping it will be painted by early December. I'd love to have the room at least partially done before the craziness of Christmas. I feel very behind as far as getting things ready for the baby goes. We have all the big things, but not much boy stuff, so time to get moving. Less than 4 months to go!

Can't believe it's only a few weeks until Thanksgiving...this year is FLYING by! I just celebrated my birthday and can't believe I'll be 30 in less than a year. We had dinner with my mom and Ron on my birthday, and Ellison helped Jay and Ron make me cakes! Both were delicious :)

Just a few more pics...

E loves playing outside! So many leaves up north

All dressed up

Ellison's "piano"

Ellison got $10 for Halloween from my grandparents, and made her first purchase - Mr. Potato Head! She also put some coins in her bank and saved a little money for church :)

She loves looking at animal pictures and videos!

Getting so good at doing her puzzles, what a big girl!!!