Ellie is 20 months and is so incredibly happy! It's hard not to smile when you are around her - I really need to get some video soon because I can describe her, but it doesn't quite seem to do her justice :)
The photo above is a pretty common sight these days - Ellie pulls a chair over from the table to get up to the counter where her brother often sits or to "help" when I'm working in the kitchen. She wants to be involved in whatever is going on and thinks she should be able to do everything her brother does. She's getting more and more independent about wanting to put on her own clothes (she's an expert at taking them off!). She's usually pretty good about asking for help if she's not able to do something, but when she asks for help she says "help...you?" instead of "help me" - it took awhile to figure that out, and I'm trying to get her to replace it with "help me, please". She will try to repeat just about anything you ask her to. She also recently started saying "love you" and even "love you, mommy" on occasion - adorable.
This is going to seem like an odd milestone, but it surprised me last weekend when I put a kleenex on her nose and she blew into it! You may not think about it much, but it is really difficult to teach a child how to blow their nose - it's a hard one to demonstrate! In fact I feel like I'm still working on it with G, but this one has it mastered already! Seems silly, but I was really impressed :)
Eleanor loves going outside and doesn't like to be left behind. She's always quick to get her coat and boots on. She's still not quite able to get her coat off the hook - I had to laugh when I saw this picture that Grandma Chery/Pa-Paw took at my house one day while they were watching the kids....
That's actually Graham's coat, but it looks like she got herself into it while it was still hanging on the hook - too funny :)
She loves puppies, fruit, mac & cheese, cookies, Diego, dancing, playing outside, reading stories (and being read to). She still wakes up pretty early in the morning (around 5ish) but after a sippy cup of milk she goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. She goes to bed easily at night and talks/plays in her crib before falling asleep. She still uses her pacifier - mostly at night or in the car. She gets sooo excited to see people she knows and loves, and enthusiastically shows it. She's becoming such a big girl and it's a joy to watch her grow and learn.
