15 month check-up (at 16 months) and more with the peas...

Giving her speech and making her point in the waiting room at the Doctor's office
Happy Drool Girl
Playing in the waiting room
Reading books with daddy while we wait for the doctor
On the scale...
Making sure the nurse gets her weight right
Contemplating life
REALLY contemplating life...okay, she's actually crunching one of her freeze-dried peas.
Bobbing for peas
This made me laugh! She had this pea under her nose for a good five minutes before she realized it.

Last Friday was Ellis's 15 month check-up. She weighed in at 19lbs and 15 ounces, which I am very happily rounding up to 20 pounds! This means she is still in the 5th percentile, but it also means that we can turn her carseat around soon. I thought for sure she'd be TWO before we could do that! Anyways, she is also 32 inches long which was quite a growth spurt for her, putting her into the 75th percentile for length.

All in all, it was a good visit. We had decided to wait on the MMR until she was at least 18 months old but when we told our pediatrician that we are spending 10 days in Italy this summer, she strongly encouraged us to go ahead with it. I agreed, as long as it was the only shot she got that day, and so we hesitantly gave it to her. It's been 6 days since then, and I can happily say that she has been just fine so far. She had a mild fever after but that's pretty common with her and vaccinations. According to the pediatrician, a pretty severe rash can develop 7 to 12 days after getting the shot, so I'm praying that she doesn't get that in the next few days. Especially since her dedication at church is on Sunday!

I'm also posting a few more pictures of Ellis munching on those peas she has come to love. I especially love the super-serious face she makes whenever one of the peas is especially crunchy! So funny. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Erin

Food!

So I wouldn't say that Ellis is a picky eater, but I would say that she is picky about the kinds of things that she likes to eat. She certainly doesn't like "normal" kid foods. For example, she won't touch chicken fingers, throws mac n' cheese on the ground, and don't even think about giving her a plain old French Fry. I know we should count our blessings that Ellis is a healthy eater. It is, after all, what we are trying to teach her from a very young age. But when we literally have to say to each other to "hide the veggies" or "don't let her drink that water", it just gets a little comical. So here is a video of Ellis eating the freeze-dried peas and corn that Vimal found at the neighborhood natural store, also known to us as the "hippy store". As you can tell, she's a huge fan since she keeps asking for "more, more". And for the record, for dinner the night I filmed this, she ate some kidney beans, about 10 spoonfuls of hummus with tahini, the corn and peas, and a little cheese. Vimal says that she eats like "someone who's trying to lose 20 pounds". Funny since that is, quite literally, all that she weighs.

Walking--Slowly

Here is a video of Ellis walking around our kitchen. She has started to do this more and more, though you can tell that she's still pretty slow and deliberate about the whole thing. The good news, however, is that she rarely falls down or gets hurt. Hope you enjoy the video. We are obviously pretty excited about the whole thing.

Happy Mother's Day

The beautiful flowers that Ellis and Vimal picked out for me.
Ellis's handwritten card. I'm not sure what it says, but I hope there is an "I love you" in there somewhere.
Having a snack on the front porch with mommy.

Mommy and baby girl.

I had a great Mother's Day with Vimal and my sweet baby girl. First, I got to sleep in later than normal and then I was woken up by Ellis bringing me a card that she had drawn in herself. I also got flowers and, after church, we had lunch at one of my new favorite Chinese restaurants. I am so lucky to be Ellis's mom and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family. It's nice to have special holidays like this one to remind us how fortunate we really are. I hope you all had a wonderful day, either celebrating the mothers in your life or the children that you get to mother.

DIRT!!!

Trying to figure out how this dirt is sticking together.
The big picture. Playing in the flowerpot.
Throwing the dirt around. Needless to say, her next stop was straight to the bath.
Pointing at the woodchips in her bucket.
She had a system in her head and was very determined to scoop the woodchips into her bucket.
HAIR! I'm saddened to say that I think her first haircut is just around the corner.

Ellis loves to play in the dirt. These pictures only capture tiny moments of all the time she spends playing in mulch, soil and woodchips. She rarely wants to play on the toys at the playground. She would much rather scoop the woodchips in and out of her bucket or dig up the newly planted flowers. I think she's a nature girl at heart so we'll have to be diligent about letting her find nature in the city.