We just returned from Ella's 19 (supposed to be 18mth) month checkup. She is doing well. Her weight is 22-8 pounds and her height is 32 inches and head 18 1/2. For weight she is in the 25% and her height in the 50%. She is a little bigger then Claire was at this age but not by much.

I feel like such a slacker since I have not posted much about Ella. They say that happens with the second one but I don't feel great about it. So I finally have stopped to do it now.

Ella is a awesome. OK done. See you later. Kidding :)

Ella has grown up so fast. It feels like yesterday when I was on bedrest and she was kicking around in my belly. She just turned 19 mths yesterday. She is such a funny girl. Always laughing and talking. Oh does she talk so much. At about 16-16.5 mths she was using over 50 words. At this point I have stopped counting. She is now speaking in 3-4 word sentences and can say words with 3 syllables. She has also worked out how to properly add "ing" to the endings on words. At the airport a few weeks ago she says "Mommy airplane is flying". Or she might say I want to "run" and then say "Claire is running". Very excited to have a second child who can communicate so well. I never expected that after Claire. I guess she has Claire to teach her. She repeats everything.

She also loves to sing. I am amazed at how much she picks up. She sings Twinkle Twinkle, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Tender Shepard (from Peter Pan), Happy Birthday, Rain Rain go away and Rock-a-bye Baby. She sings almost the entire song.

She is also very active. She likes to climb, walk down the steps (holding on of course). Starting to do some good jumping. Actually getting both feet off ground.

She also loves to read. That is pretty much the only time you can get her to sit still and focus. We have a bunch a books near her crib that she can reach. When she wakes up from a nap or in the morning the first thing she does is grab a book and start reading.

That is it for now. Have her 19th mth (late for 18th) next week so we will see how much she ways. I know she is tiny for her age.

I was driving yesterday and came to a quick stop at a light. I then hear from Claire "Woh that was close - GIRL!!" Pretty funny. Not sure where the GIRL part came from :)

Today the girls and I had a nice morning out playing at the park and shopping at Target. When we got home I was unstrapping Claire from her car seat and felt this overwhelming need to just kiss her and hug her. She did not want me to do it. So I said OK and I walked around Van to unstrap Ella and said "Ella would you like some love?" and I gave Ella a kiss and a hug. Claire got upset and started slapping Ella in the face (not too hard but enough). I got very stern with her and told her to get out of the car and get in the house. She was crying because she knew she did something wrong. I put Ella down for nap and came down to have a discussion. I asked her if she knew why I got upset with her. She says "because I hit Ella". I said yes. I then asked her why she did it then she says "Because I wanted to get the love out of her heart". I almost fell over with laughter. I had to hold it in since we were having a serious conversation. Oh this child comes up with the most adult like language.

Is is not about 14.5 months and has finally decided it was time to walk. She has been taking 5-6 steps at a time since her 1st birthday but never seemed interested in walking more. During that time her speech has grown tremendously. She is talking so much. They say kids only work on one at a time. So I figured once she felt good enough with the speech she would want to walk. I was right. She is now walking. The past 1.5 weeks she has been taking the initiative to walks. Now she is almost there. She walks everywhere and is enjoying it. She still will crawl but is walking 85% of the time. Still getting used to turning around and having her walking toward me saying "MaMa MaMa". Very exciting.

Ella had her 1 year checkup about 2 weeks ago. She is 18 pounds 6 ounces and 27 3/4 in height. She again dropped down in percentile. At her 9mth appt she was in the 25-50% but now she is in the 10-25th%. I was like what is happening? He said we will just watch it. Makes you feel a little worried as a parent - wondering if I am feeding her enough. I am slowly weening her now (which is hard) but needs to be done. The funny thing about her stats is that she is 1 inch shorter then Claire was at this age and 4 oz lighter. Does not seem possible since Ella fits very well in the 18 month clothing and Claire was still wearing the 12th close at 1 year. Who knows.

She has slowed down in the walking department. She will only take 2-4 steps at a time and that is it. Has stopped taking the initiative to let go and walk on her own. But her speech as started up again. It is said that they will only work on one or the other not both. So I guess once her speech gets to a certain point she will finish up the walking thing. Also doing well in the climbing area. She climbs and stands up on her chair (yikes!!).

As far as her speech she does a handful of animal sounds, mom and dad of course, she said "Inge" last night. As far as sign's she is doing light, done and milk. She is getting good at identifying things. I will ask where's the "sun" and she will point to it in a book. Obsessed with balloons. She says "BA BA". She also is very focused on pointing out "eyes". She points to them in books, on her toys and on me and says "eyes". She almost took my eye out the other night :)

Yesterday morning I was making Claire her breakfast. She convinced me to buy strawberries at the store the day before and wanted some in her cereal. Unfortunately when I opened the container they were moldy and nasty. I told he I am sorry that she could not have them because they were moldy and nasty. She looked at me for a second and this unbelievable sadness came over her. She made me almost cry. Tears started building up in her eyes. I asked her what was the matter. When she finally mustered up the words to express her feeling she says "Mommy get something to smack them!". I was very confused and asked her what she meant. She said it again. I asked "smack what?". She replied "the mold. Get something to smack the mold out of the strawberries". I pretty much lost it. Where does she come up with this stuff? :) :)

Finally the day has come and Claire is now fully in underwear. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We put her in underwear here and there in the beginning of Dec and she had a bunch of accidents. Then we stopped for a little bit and then something started to click. She finally starting asking to go. I wanted to do the underwear thing while away in NY for 2 weeks but decided to keep her in pullups. Told her if she continued to use the toilet she could wear undies when we got home. She did. She only had one accident on xmas eve w/ a loose poop that she did not make to toilet.

On New Years Eve morning we had a goodbye pullup party and we threw away the one she wore to bed. She has been in undies since then. She has had 4 accidents in the week. 2 at the beginning of week and 2 yesterday. She just gets busy and does not go and then she will do a small bit in her undies and the rest on the toilet. She is wearing undies to bed too since she has been dry in the morning since the summer. This is a big milestone for her.

Before we left for NY (xmas) Ella took one step a few times. She also was able to stand for sometime when put into the standing position. During the 2 weeks while we were away she continued to improve taking more steps. She now can take 4-5 steps and then fall. She is also taking the initiative to let go of things and try to walk. Very exciting. When I put her into standing position she get so excited to walk she starts to try before she is balanced and then she does not get far. She is well on her way to walking

Ella continue to add new vocabulary to her speech. Cats are no longer (Mingo's) they are Meows - well as she says it "MAW". We asked her what a cat say and she says "MAW", ask her what a sheep says she says "BA BA", ask her what a chicken says she says "BAC BAC". Very cute

She is really getting around very well. She is very speedy in her crawling. Her cruising is also getting very solid and fast. She has also started walking with me as I hold her hands. Even walks when just holding my one finger. So she is on her way. Not trying to stand up on her own but when I put her in position she will stay up for a few seconds.

She has been eating table food for the past few weeks. I am very much happy with this since I don't have to feed her dinner. She enjoys it too. Still having issues with the sippy cup. She will not drink out of it. Holds it correctly, puts it into her mouth, tips it back but just thinks it a chew toy. Not fun. Will SLOWLY be weening her over the next few months and need her to be able to drink her cows milk from a sippy. So I guess I just need to make sure I am offering it to her more regularly.

Over the past few weeks Ella has really changed. She is talking so much. Her first real word was "Bye" or "Bye Bye" with a wave. She loves to say it and says it very clearly. She also says beginning sounds of words. "Pu" for Pumpkin and "Ba" for balloon and "F" for fan and flower. This week she said her first 2 syllable word "Baby". Not only does she say it pretty clearly she identifies when she sees one. Very cute. She was also saying "Banana" or sometimes "nana".

She also does the sign for light. She did the sign for "more" once when she wated more banana but has not done it since.

She also just started calling one of the cats names. Well she is trying to say "Ming Ming" for our cat Mingo. She actually says "May May". Very cute.

She made her first sound too. I ask what sound does a car make and she says "broom broom". So cute. Just before she found her little wooden car and started making the sound.

She is also always pointing at everything. As soon as I pick her up from her crib she is pointing. She is obsessed :) She has also pointed at Scott and said Dad or Daddy.

We are very impressed with there speaking at 10 months.

Claire had her 3 year checkup today. She is still small - 26 1/2 pounds and 35 1/2 inches. Still in the 10-25% so that is good. Meaning she is gaining what he expects. She was happy not have to get a shot today. She had a 101.5 fever last night so we held off on the shot until she was feeling better.

She has all her teeth and is healthy.

On October 27th Claire had her 3rd birthday party. This year she had a Dorothy (Wizard of OZ) bday party. She loved it. Even Dorothy (my neighbor) came and sang "Over the Rainbow". Grandma Lynn and Aunt Sheryl came from Long Island and stayed for Trick or Treating. Grammie Lynne came the week before and celebrated on her bday.

Sorry we're not going to make it on Saturday, but we wanted to send our love & best wishes for your 3rd birthday.

G&I (Los Colombo-Británicos :)

This morning Scott was on his own with the girls since I had a makeup acting class. Before Ella's nap he was playing with her on the stairs and surprised him by climbing up the stairs all the way to the top. She had a very good nap after that :) This is so amazing. She does like it she has been doing it for a while. She is not just going up from her knees but standing up holding the step above and then crawling up. Very exciting.