17 Month Update

Since I didn't have time over the weekend to post an update, here is Ellie's "official" 17 month update.

We've seen lots of changes in Ellie in the last month. She has hit some sort of growing spurt and has definitely grown, although we haven't been to the doctor for measurements and weight, I'd suspect she's well over 20 pounds now -- maybe up to about 22 pounds and seems to have gotten quite a bit taller. I might measure her. We are not due to go back to the doctor until she is 18 months old.

She has begun to pick up signs a little more quickly, but honestly, we burned out quickly on the signs DVD and had to put it up - much like the Barney DVD that is going to be removed from the car today. UGH. She knows: eat, more, cat, dog, hat, mama, daddy, baby and we are working now on shoes. She regularly says: cat, hot, oooowww (yes, drawn out like that), mymama, hi, heya, waves hi and byebye, blows kisses, walks well, likes to dance and do the hand movements to songs and loves shoes (everyone's!). She likes carrying around purses, playing with rocks, sliding, swinging, Barney (ugh), her books, having her hair rolled (yes, it's funny too since she doesn't care for hair bows or piggies). She knows where her nose is, her eyes, her toes and her head (although she does call it her hat).

She has developed a fondness for bologna (yuk), snacks of ALL kinds (we are seriously going to have to watch this snacking thing with her) including cereals, pretzels, crackers, tortilla chips, dried fruit and miniature chips ahoy cookies. She still likes bananas, but seems to have pulled away from fruit. We are going to try some new ones. She still loves pastas of all kinds. She likes to drink from a straw and loves juice pouches. She is slowly beginning to self-wean from her bottle. I'm not going to force this as I think she will give it up on her own eventually. Same thing with her pacifier. She is down to pretty much using it about half the time at night so I'm going to let her self-wean on that as well.

I suspect she will be a fairly easy potty-trainer as she takes her diaper off regularly. She goes to Dee'Anna to tell her when she's got a poopy diaper. She loves nothing more than to run around with no diaper on.

She loves the cats and the dogs and regularly feeds them (both their food and hers) and pets them. If they are outside and wanting in, she runs to the door and yells, "HI" and starts to babble to let me know they want in. The cats are very tolerant of her. Sunshine loves her and Bear is getting better. He's just such a huge wimp. She loves the neighbors dogs: Maggie, Beau and Chewy. She wants to go over every single day to see them. I suspect she could be wearing out her welcome. *smile* Those dogs love her though.

She is sleeping much better overall. Several nights a week she sleeps through the night. If she does wake up, it is usually close to 5 a.m. and she'll take a bottle and go back to sleep.

I can't imagine our lives without her!

Ellie continues to love, love, love her "Bubba". She lights up like a Christmas tree when she sees him.