Ellie is 18 months old!!

My baby girl turned 18 months old two days ago. She has such an adorable personality... She poses for cameras, has an obsession with shoes, and can't get enough of stairs, pointing at things, and smiling. She still isn't talking much but she signs a lot, just like James used to. She is communicating well. Also, Ellie has three teeth now!

We are currently visiting family in Baltimore, so this post will be a short one. I hope to post more pics from the trip when we get back. We've taken the kids to the aquarium and the B&O railroad museum and they loved both places!

James is doing well though travel and obedience do not go hand in hand for him. He tends to run away from us and run outdoors without us which is terrifying when traveling. He is seeing lots of new people and places, though, which he has clearly enjoyed. James absolutely loved the train museum and has enjoyed all the "transportation" parts of travel (planes, busses, rental van, etc). 

Anyway, a few pics of my 18mo old lil girl!!

Ellie is 17 months old!!

My baby is 17 months old today!! Ellie continues to be a happy and sweet presence in our home. She stopped saying many words except uh-oh and dada on a consistent basis, but she will try to imitate your speech patterns for almost anything you say. She also signs a TON of words, sometimes she will just hear me saying a word in a sentence and I'll look over and she's signing it!

Ellie is very determined to climb on just about anything... Today she made it to the top of the couch, sat down, and beamed in pride at her accomplishment. I think she learned the climbing from James... One of his favorite spots is te top of the couch.

Ellie has an undiagnosed problem at the moment... She's not growing much, even with her taking her thyroid meds. We saw an endocrinologist up in Portland and she said it would take 2 weeks to get the results back. One week down, one to go... We are praying it's not something with her pituitary or worse. You wouldn't be able to tell she has anything wrong except she only has 1.5 teeth and is really small for her age.

James has been making all kinds of strides recently... He's been focusing on writing and coloring, and colors inside the lines (where 2 months ago he would just scribble). We are working on writing his name, but for now he can spell it and put the right letters in order which is a good start. James also still loves anything trasportation related... Cars, planes, trains. I was talking about dreams with him the other night, and I asked him why his dream was. When I suggested being a pilot and flying in a plane, he said, "No mommy, I'm too small for that." Upon asking him what he DID want, he said, "I want to ride in a speed train! A speed train isn't too loud!" He's pretty frightened of loud sounds and is convinced that high-speed trains don't have loud horns lol!

As for me, I'm singing with the choir again and we have a concert coming up, which makes me happy. I'm doing some sewing and prepping for our next adventures, which is always fun. Eliot is working... A lot. I'm so proud of him for being so willing to work and provide, but I worry he never gets a break from it all. Such is life, I suppose. On my "night off" tonight I put a tantrumy kid to bed (which took 1.5hours) and then did some picking up of toys and laundry. Laundry waits for no woman.

And now, some cuteness of my lil 17 month old and her brother!