Ellie had her 15 month check up a few weeks ago.  She’s a whoppin 19 lbs, which puts her in the 3rd percentile.  However, she’s 31″ tall which is about the 95th percentile.  She’s a regular Long Tall Sally.  I still have her turned rear-facing in the car, but Brian has yet another car seat in his car so she can ride face forward.

She started at St. Peter’s daycare in early August.  After an initial rough week or two, she’s doing just fine now.  We’ve got our routine down for drop off and pick up, and they are accommodating to my schedule.

She has a particular squeal when she sees Molly.  She can say “All done.”  She can squish her nose, which is so cute.  She knows a few body parts, like ear, eye and teeth.  She can use signs to say “more,” “all done,” and just recently “please.”  She still has only 6 teeth.

Ellie likes to play with whatever Sam is playing with.  She like cars or things with wheels.  Ellie is a Daddy’s girl and loves to rough-house with him.  She’s all ears.

Q: “Is Ellie coming to meet my teacher?”

A: “No, it’s just you and me and Daddy.”

Q: “Is Daddy going to take Ellie to school?”

A: “Yes, Daddy will take Ellie to school then he will meet us at your school to meet your teacher.”

Then she sat up a little in the bed, and leaned over to her nightstand.  She began to make a pretend list.  “Then, Mommy.  Daddy take Ellie to school.  Check.  Me, Mommy, Daddy go to my school.  Check.  Meet my teacher.  Check.”  She was very proud of her To Do list and very proud that everything got checked off.

I’m just like every other Type A out there who takes pleasure in scratching things off my never-ending list.  I guess this world will have one more of those.

UPDATE:

I forgot to mention that after Samantha checked everything off her list, she gave it to me and said “Here Mommy.  Hold on to this so that Ellie won’t get it.”  She proceeded to hand me her list for safe keeping.  Silliness.

During the week we went to the beach (13 months), her 4 top teeth finally popped through.  She’s always such a trouper.

She’s been walking increasingly more, but I’m going to say officially started walking on July 5 (14 months).  Here’s a glimpse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPXQcNazDd4

During the past week or so (14.5 months), she added “Uh-oh” to her vocabulary.  She uses it regularly and appropriately, since she drops things quite often.  She already says mama, dada, and ni-ni (night-night).

Sometimes I tell myself that she’s still baby, but those moments won’t last too much longer!

At any rate, she has been doing very well without a diaper at night.  And now that we’re in the new house, we decided it was high time to reward her by getting her some “new covers” and begin decorating her room.  We had begun looking online and in a few stores.  She had picked out some red with stars from Pottery Barn (of course!).   I’ve been buying bits and pieces, but finally put the quilt on her bed last night.

I had to wake Samantha up this morning, which I absolutely do not like to do.  She doesn’t like it either.  I have found that going in and opening her shutters, without saying a word or going near her is the best way.  Otherwise, she gets very crabby.  And rightly so.

When she did finally get up, I asked her how she slept.  She said good, but that there was something under her bed.  My first thought was that she was going to tell me about a monster or some such creature.  I had wondered when that sort of imagination began.  But no.  She said there was a “hard pea” under her bed.  Oh dear.  I guess we’ve been reading too much of MamaLinda’s favorite fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea!  She didn’t comment on her red stars, but she sure did get comfy in them and turn into a giggle box when she crawled in last night.

Samantha has finally entered the imitation stage. She’s late on everything, so this doesn’t surprise me, but it’s very funny. For example, she knows that after we get ready for bed, she can pick out 2 books. She walks over to her bookshelf and begins to choose. Last
week, as she stood in front of the bookshelf, she said “How ’bout…” in a long drawn out voice. And a few days later, she did the same thing as she was standing in the pantry picking out her snack. I know she picked that up from me, so it just amazes me that she knows what it means.

Also, in the bathtub recently, she started telling her bath toys “sweet dreams” and “see you in the morning.” !! How funny is that?!

Samantha has really begun to talk these days. She’s even putting words together. “Where are you, Mommy?” She is getting new words every day, most of which are mostly intelligible.

Our tomatoes are coming along! Samantha enjoyed most of the first one, with Brian getting a few slices on a sandwich. I picked 3 more small ones today, but many more are almost ready.

I guess I’ll start with our trip to the beach. We had a great time! Samantha slept for a whopping 45 minutes in the car ride there and back. I sat in the back with her both ways so I could occupy her a little bit. And of course, I wanted to show her what she should be doing in a car, so I “pretended” to sleep a lot. Thanks for driving, Brian! Samantha LOVED the water. She plays in a baby pool a lot (8″ deep) at home so she was used to laying in the shallow water on her tummy and floating. Thanks for all the help from MamaLinda and Aunt Lettie for watching her when my back was turned.

Her ears seems to be doing fine. She wore ear plugs while we were at the beach. She wasn’t bothered by them too much, but that could have been because there was so much else to see and do. She is teething again though. One tooth has broken through on the bottom (one of the pointy ones). She’s a bit lopsided because she has 2 more teeth on the left side than she does the right. I’m guessing they’ll come in at their own pace. Anyway, she’s been drooling, congested, and coughing a lot lately. Maybe the tubes will keep her well.

Here are some random facts about her. She is a great singer, having finished the whole alphabet song by herself yesterday. Wow! She is so incredibly independent these days too. She is learning that when we give her choices, she can say yes (and it actually sounds like yes) and shakes her head for no. She can almost put her Crocs on by herself. She opened the pantry door today (although I’m not sure if it was already cracked, but she sure was working that handle). She loves being chased by the corn popper. She can say I love you and has given several sweet closed mouth cheek kisses recently.

And lastly, Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We have enjoyed a few weekends at home after a busy April. Catching up on little things makes me feel better. I’ve been decorating a little bit. I feel like I’m horrible at decorating a house, so I’ve been trying to put my style into the house just a bit. Not a moment too soon, since we’ve been here for nearly 6 years…

Samantha had her 18 months checkup last week. She’s growing well and very average. Everything was right on, except for her speech. She’s not saying as many words as is normal at this age. I’m not worried about it because the girl “talks” constantly and I know words will come in due time. The doctor is not worried about it because her “receptive” language is good. She really does understand exactly what we say. She knows most of her body parts and all sorts of other everyday words. However, her lack of words may be due to the fact that she has yet another ear infection. The doctor said it’s time to go to an ENT and get tubes. Having constant ear infections can make sounds muffled, so she may not be hearing properly, therefore her speech will be affected. I’m not totally convinced that it’s the right course of action, but we at least need to give it a try (going to the ENT that is). They might have other options for us.

We’re going to the symphony again tonight. It’s Gershwin, and should be good. We heard Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Dvorak’s New World Symphony last week. It was great and one of my favorites so far. We still have quite a few more shows in the next few months, so the offer to babysit is still available to anyone who wants it!

Also, she is a big fan of blowing kisses. Last night, skyping with Papa, she must have blown him a dozen kisses. He sure is lucky.