Lately

I flew down to CA in March to photograph a wedding. The bride is a family friend, and my sister was a bridesmaid, so my mom, dad, sister, and nephew were all there. So glad because it was great to see them for a quick weekend. It was a super rushed, quick trip, unfortunately, but perfect weather and the wedding went fabulously.

 Me and sissy

 Love my mama

 Ellery still colors a lot, but not near as much as she used to.

 Her new favorite thing is playing in the sink. She climbs up on the toilet (all by herself) and pulls herself up to the sink. I have to turn the water on for her though. This entertains her for at least ten minutes, which in toddler time is like hours!

 Double paci time. She is so attached to those things, it's ridiculous. She's as attached as it gets.

Speaking of which, she had her 18 month check up at the doctors today and doctor said it's time to take paci away. This girl has no idea what's coming! Poor thing. This is the ONLY thing she has a real attachment to (besides me! ha). He said it will be much easier to do it now than later, and it could slow her language development if I don't take it away. He suggested taking it away whenever she is awake for two weeks, then taking it away for naps for two weeks, then all together. This sounds like a good plan, however, I KNOW it is almost impossible to take Ellery's paci away from her post sleep, so I don't think the doctor's plan will work for her. So, I think I'm just going to do it cold turkey. But not the cruel way. I'm not going to throw them all away at once. I'm going to snip the tips of them, so they don't work like a paci, but she can still HAVE them to hold and comfort her (she does LOVE to hold them!). Since she's my guinea pig child, I have no idea if this is the best solution, but I'm going to try it, so wish me luck! It may be a miserable month.

Also, from the doctor's today:

She is about 32 inches and 23 pounds.

She's healthy and perfect and did pretty well with her shots : )

 Sucking on baby Jane's pacifier. Loves her new doll.

 She's such a good mama!

 Diapers on the dolls. She is so funny, she likes to get the change pads out and put the baby dolls on them and put diapers on the dolls (although she can't do the diaper up herself just yet).

 Playing with friend, Ben. Discovered our pack and play has a secret escape door. Loved it.

 My friends Jolyn and Brittney (above) both have connections to Japan and have been making sushi for a while now, and threw a little sushi party before a big group of us girls went to see the movie The Host. Sad I didn't get a picture of the whole group, but let me tell you, these girls made the most AMAZING sushi! So good. and we enjoyed hanging out and seeing the movie. Love girls nights out!

 Ellery already likes to play dress up. I need to get her more dress up clothes : )

 Playing with neighbor, Isaac and their favorite toys: keys!

 Ellery sitting on her pile of books. She doesn't care for reading AS much as she used to, but we still read several times a day (she used to be able to sit and look at a book on her own for ten minutes straight several times a day, plus reading several books at a time, several times a day with me!).

I don't love reading to her as much as I used to either because she doesn't usually let me actually read to her anymore. Instead, she points at the different objects and characters in the books and demands that I say what it is. That's it! That's all she wants. One word only. Whatever it is she's pointing to. It's a little bit annoying haha, but I'm grateful she's learning and of course, I still enjoy looking at them and pointing the things out to her. On the bright side of that, she has gotten so smart! Just in the last few days, when I ask "where is the _____?" she can point to whatever it is! She's pretty good at finding whatever I'm talking about and knows a huge variety of things. What a smarty pants!

Other updates on us:

Ellery is currently saying:

"water" like "wa"and says it for all water but drinking water (of course, she never asks to drink water...only milk, and she does not say milk yet)

"duck" like "duh"

says most of the common animal noises in some variation or another

"meow" like "mow"

"quack" without the "ck"

"hi" (for "hi" and "bye." Also waves) Says this often and appropriately and whenever she's pretend talking on the phone.

"oh no!" (favorite thing to say! All day long...)

"uh oh"

"no" (another favorite, unfortunately)

"snack" like "nah"

"ball" sounds a little more like "bowl" says this whenever she sees a ball and often when she sees a circle.

"circle" like "cir" or "cir cir"

She definitely knows what a circle is and outlines it with her finger every time.

(P.S. she LOVES her shape sorting toy and is really good at the easier shapes)

says "eyes" "nose" and "teeth" like "eye" "no" and "tee"

She knows where the eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, lips, forehead, chin, ears, hair, cheeks, feet, and belly button are and loves to point them out! We do this several times a day.

She actually said "yellow" once (only once) and the best part is, she said it when I asked her what color something was (that WAS yellow), AND I hadn't even told her it was yellow! What a smart girl! That's the only time she's recognized a color like that or said one of the color words.

She also said "car" and "book" both only one time (in the last couple of days). "car" when we were playing with a toy car, and "book" when she handed me a book to read to her.

She says a few other little words too, that I've already mentioned earlier, so that's a pretty good vocabulary for an 18 month old, I feel like (this is mostly all really recent too).

I know she understands a ton more than what she says too, of course. I can say things like "go sit in your chair" and she will. Or "Let's wash your hands" and she runs to the sink.

I even threatened time out once "If you color on the walls again you have to go to time out. Do you want to go to time out?" She said "no" and stopped. I believe she really understood me. P.S. she is a little young for time out still, but we've been trying it out the past couple of weeks and I think she kind of gets it enough that we'll continue to do it. We just put her alone in her room for 30 seconds or so (she freaks out. 30 seconds is plenty long!). We do this when she is hitting or throwing a tantrum and won't stop even after talking to her about it several times. After her time outs I hold her and explain to her about being nice. Obviously she doesn't fully get it, but I think she gets it enough that it's the right time to start. I think?

Speaking of which, she's been really happy the past few days, but before that she went through a rough little patch. She was sick though and had ant bites and has been teething forever. Nasty fire ants all over Texas! And those two bottom canine teeth have been threatening popping through for too long. Poor girl. Then she got a horrible fever and a rash that is still not fully gone away. Miss Ellery is sick too often! Fortunately she actually LIKES medicine now (it used to be like torture trying to give it to her!).

What else?:

She loves to talk on the phone (when she's in a good mood) and skype. She LOVES riding escalators. We took her to frozen yogurt for the first time ever the other day, and she loved it, of course. She's been going to bed a lot later lately (between 7:45 and 8:45). She likes to sing along when I sing the ABCs (the only one she actually get's right though is "E" ha. Good thing we named her Ellery.). She gives lots of kisses and blows kisses. We say prayers with her every night now before bed. She folds her arms about 30% of the time and ignores us or just stares at us the rest of the time. Apparently I'm always wiping the hair on her forehead, so it's not in her eyes. She likes to do it to me too. She loves Tinkerbell (not my favorite character, but hey, she has opinions too, and she chose Tink!). She learned how to turn the knob in the tub, so now we have a constant flow of water whenever she's in the tub. She's good about holding my hand when we're in the parking lot and what not. She loves the car and her carseat and buckling her carseat (can't unbuckle it yet though). We play in the car even when we're not going anywhere. She is NOT good about staying in the shopping cart at the store, and after an unfortunate accident (stood up too quickly and did a flip backwards (yes, it was terrible and everyone in the store probably thought I was the worst mother ever), we now buckle her into the shopping cart every time! She likes family hugs and when Clay and I hug and kiss. She tries to make us kiss by bringing our faces together. In fact, she tried to make us kiss during Sacrament meeting this last Sunday. I couldn't help but laugh out loud! haha. She loves lotion, and a lotion bottle can entertain her for a LONG time. And sometimes it's worth the mess. She always sticks her fist out and likes me to put a drop of lotion on the top of her hand. Then she rubs it in and asks for more. She also loves Chapstick and puts it all over her cheeks if I let her.

There is a stray cat that lives around our apartment and one day I may or may not have fed it an entire can of tuna for Ellery's entertainment sake. Later that day I saw my upstairs neighbor doing the same thing with a cup of milk. No wonder the cat hangs out around here!

My girl friends and I did a clothing swap where we all got together and laid out all our old clothes that we didn't want anymore, and then we went through and picked out all the things we wanted. It's funny how someone else can be totally tired of something, and someone else loves it! I got tons of great things! : )

I'm not so sad as I would be about moving because several of my friends are moving at the same time we are. It makes it a little easier. Still can't really find a place to live (too early). I am sad though about leaving all my friends because I've made so many wonderful ones here in Dallas. However, I know I will make more great friends in Fort Worth and keep in touch with most (hopefully all) of my friends here, so it's not losing friends, it's just making more.

I'm enjoying my calling as first counselor in the RS presidency. I spend a fair amount of time each week with phone calls and emails, but that's mostly all it is. Although that probably means I'm not doing as much as I should be. But I feel like I've had more opportunities (A.K.A. TAKEN more opportunities) lately to serve the sisters in our ward. Again, not as much as I should, but I've enjoyed the few things I've been able to do. Service really does make you happy and bring you closer to others and to Christ. Also, I absolutely love my visiting teaching companion and the three girls we visit every month. It's more like hanging out than anything. We have so much fun chatting and catching up every month, and we even hang out other times in the month as well sometimes. I also have great visiting teachers. So grateful for the inspired program and for Relief Society.

I had a dentist appointment the other day, my semi annual cleaning, AND I only have ONE cavity  which is pretty good for me, unfortunately. ha.

Also, because I've been flying so much lately, and I'll be flying a lot coming up as well, I decided to finally go in and see an ENT (Ear Nose Throat doctor) because my ears KILL me every time I fly! Apparently my ear drums are super weak (because of all the tubes I had in them when I was young), and come to find out, I have allergies (who knew?! I have no recognizable symptoms!), which, the swelling in my nose (from the allergies), connects to my ears, which makes my ears hurt worse,  because my ear drums are weak. Follow that? Anyway, the doctor prescribed me some nasal spray, taught me some tricks for flying, and basically told me to just take pain medication and Sudifed (spelling?) and that my ears may still hurt a little anyway (from the pressure changes during flight). I hope this works a little because I've shed my share of tears on planes before. Hurts so bad.

What's new with Clay, you ask? Well, he's enjoying lots of time off with the wonderful nurses schedule, working hard when he does have to work (still works nights. Is now training new nurses.), and enjoys playing with Ellery, grocery shopping and finding deals hah : ), and playing basketball Saturday mornings. He's also trying to heal a hurting knee (IT Band problems?).

Well, that's a lot of updates. That's what happens when I don't post one for over a month! I'm sure no one read all of this. It's for my journaling purposes! : )