"Brown Bear" Obsession

It would be an understatement to say that Ella loves the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? She selects it daily for us to read to her. Mommy can now recite the book anytime Ella needs calming down. It does the trick everytime. The words from that book have a soothing effect on her. It is so cute to have her pick a book (Goodnight Moon is her second favourite) and crawl into our laps to settle in for a nice read. Tonight, all Mommy had to say was "Brown Bear" and Ella quickly went into the family room, located the book amongst her toys, and brought it to us to read to her. So impressive!

Speaking of our amazement with Ella, she continues to learn many new words. Tonight she told us "nigh-night". She even has used two words together ("Bye-Bye Daddy" or "Bye-Bye Ba-Ba aka Bronte). We've actually lost count of how many words she knows and uses regularly. The daycare staff told us that Ella is getting a bit frustrated with the other kids who don't communicate as well as she. Ella repeatedly introduces herself (says her name and points to herself) but seems confused as to why her little friends don't reciprocate. The teachers think that she is quite bright....now, if she would only WALK already!!!!! She's trying to walk but would rather get into mischief and yap away at us. She's such a funny little one. We can't help but wonder if her hypermobile hip joints make walking a bit harder to learn - they did with sitting. She will probably just start to walk when we least suspect it. She always surprises us with how and when she wants to learn something.

Stay tuned for updated pics this weekend!

Doubly Remarkable

Ella has enjoyed feeding herself for a long time. She still needs help using her spoon (with help loading it with food); however, she's seemed determined to master the skill. This evening she successfully finished a serving of yogurt all by herself. She scooped to her heart's content. This, as many of you know, is remarkable for another reason: she's eating dairy!!! She still doesn't like cheese but, maybe importantly, cheese doesn't seem to hate her as much anymore. At least she realllllly enjoys this type of yogurt. Also, she's still tolerating little amounts of wheat (yay for Puffs) and she has even had chocolate (almost every day since Easter).

Happy Easter

Ella had a nice Easter weekend. She received her first chair - it has ponies on it. She loves to crawl into it and have a drink and/or snack. She started to recover from a nasty cold. We think that the antibiotics have helped. Her new words include: "up", "hat", "baby", "bath", "belly", and "Matty" (cousin Matthew). She quite enjoys saying "up" a LOT - especially when Mommy is rushing in the morning to get ready for work. She also is starting to stand by herself. Today while Mommy was getting dinner ready she caught Ella standing all by herself. She seemed quite proud and even tried it again quite successfully for a longer period (10 seconds or so). She may walk afterall; however, we still think that she will talk to us about walking before she actually gets around to doing it as she's still more keen on communicating than walking. Ella is also tolerating little amounts of dairy and wheat (yay!). She seems to be gaining some weight - finally, as in March she still weighed 20 lbs 8 oz. She continues to gain weight but it's just at a slower pace. She's little but mighty! She also tried a little bit of chocolate on the weekend - something that used to realllllllly bother her. A medication wean has been on the horizon for some time now. We'd like to continue to try new foods before we make a legitimate attempt at taking her off her reflux meds.

Ready for Her Close-Up

These shots kill me. What a beautiful day. We hope that everyone had a restful Good Friday. Ella enjoyed the weather. She loves her hat - she even puts in on when she's inside the house. The shades last for 5 minutes - that's 5 minutes longer than we expected.