see how run, mind ice. see how they mind ice.

-Ella, singing a new version of "Three Blind Mice" over dinner tonight.

A few weeks ago we took out the floor potty for Ella since she was asking to go potty. She would ask to go and we would put her on. She would sit for a total of maybe 5-6 second and then get off. So that is that. Yesterday at like 1:30PM after only have one diaper change in the AM she had a dry diaper. I was like that is odd since she drank a lot in that time frame. She says mom I want to go to the bathroom. I said OK. I put her on the potty. I made sure she stayed on the toilet and held onto the handles and then she went. She did her first pee pee on the toilet. She was so excited. She was gigging through the whole thing. We will see where this goes. Claire started this at the same time and was in undies till age 3.

Ella has learned to go up and down the stairs all on her own - months ago actually. But with every advance there is a longing for an earlier time.

She stands at the top of the stairs and says "Daddy, I want Carry You. Carry You Daddy! I want Carry You?"

When I confirm "Do you want me to carry you?" she eagerly says "Yes!" and the arms go up.

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.

Last Monday we hopped on a train and headed into Manhattan with Claire, Ella, Melanie's sisters Sheryl and Meredith and their mother Lynn. We met my parents in midtown, right outside of our destination, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Which was closed.

After looking at the huge lines at the Guggenheim just a few blocks north, we decided to head over to the American Museum of Natural History on the other side of Central Park.

After purchasing our tickets, we headed straight for the top floor where the dinosaurs are on exhibit. Both girls loved it. Ella ran around saying "Dinosaur! Raawar! Raawar!" while swinging her hands around above hear head. Claire marches about saying "Stegosaurus" and "T-Rex". Ella learned that there is a creature at home that chases her called a "Daddysaur" ("D-Rex" to Claire).

Ella is working hard at her speech right now. She repeats many of the words she hears, and the babble to English ratio is dropping.

Each week Ella tags along to Claire's group violin lesson. At this age, a lot of what is taught are rhythms with words which the students will use in various tunes as they progress. Ella picks up on most of these.

One rhythm is "ta-ka-ta-ka-stop--stop--" (each - represents a quarter note duration).

Ella runs around the house yelling "Taki! Taki! Taki!" and clapping, which is pretty cute.

Another is "Run--po-ny-run--po-ny-" and that one has Ella in stitches as she shouts it out. Every now and again she changes the words and says "Run the pony run the pony" which I think is pretty cute.

This evening I was out in our backyard with the two little ladies while Melanie was out for the evening. I was sitting and watching them play on the swing (Claire), slide (Ella), pick through grass (Claire), bang on the wheelbarrow (Ella) and other little kid playtime activities.

Claire had found a stick that she was perfectly happy to carry around. It became quite useful when she discovered a spider on the concrete slab under the deck, right near where I was sitting.

She could prod the spider, and it would run along and then stop. Prod again, run more. A simple game. She was tremendously gentle with the spider and had no desire to hurt it. She just liked to prod it to run along.

Claire has had quite an infatuation with the Broadway musical Cats. It began in late March when I took her to see the national tour of Cats.

My mother bought her the book of TS Elliott poems, which she loves having read to her.

Between seeing the live show, listening to the CD several times a day, having the poems read to her and then just once seeing the DVD of Cats that arrived magically at our house last week, she knows the words to most of the songs.

Take, for example, the Gumby Cat. Something like 'I have a Gumby cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots'

It's sort of fun to take tunes she knows and twist them, so I do. Tonight, during an especially turgid diaper change, it became "I have a stinky girl in mind, her name is Elladiaperpants"

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 :)

To Ella this must be if she is sleeping like this :)

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

Monday nights Melanie is out and I play with Claire and Ella. I also get to feed Ella, and Claire likes to help hold the bottle. It is precious every week, and Ella really likes having Claire feed her.

We've been adjusting Ella's meal schedule as she shifts from breast milk to solid foods. For the second week in a row Ella has eaten less milk for this final feeding of the day. I commented on Ella not finishing her milk tonight as Claire was feeding her. Claire knowingly turned to me and said "Daddy, I know why Ella is not eating".

"Oh? Why not"

Claire lifted her shirt, leaned in towards Ella and said,

"Because she wants to eat from my boobie".

While I was laughing, Ella reached out and poked Claire.

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.