E Lately

Ellery has grown up since the last time I did an "E Lately" post. She is officially a toddler (not a baby anymore!). She has really started to talk. She doesn't really say phrases or sentences yet, but has a fairly good vocabulary (for a 19 month old). Most of her words are understandable, but not complete (like she'll drop the last letter or two off of the word).

Some of the new things she is saying:

"more please" Well, this one she WAS saying, and then she regressed! haha. She said it like "mo eee" when we would tell her "say more please," but then somehow it morphed into "mo mo," so every time we tell her "say more please" or "what do you say?" she says "mo mo!" "say please!" "mo mo" "say PLEASE" "eee!"

"show" for TV, like "sheh"

"bubble" She LOVES bubbles. And actually learned how to blow them all by herself really well this week! She blew about a thousand bubbles a few days ago, and went through an entire giant bottle of bubble solution (and didn't really spill any until the end! And then she couldn't stop spilling it...). She also learned how to spit well because she kept getting soap in her mouth from putting the bubble wand on her lips haha.

"grandpa" kind of like "ga pa" She came up with that all on her own! Skyping with my dad.

"On your mark, get set, go" like "eh eh gee!" or something like that haha. I guess I can't really count this as a word she's saying, but I know that's what she's trying to say because I taught her how to race recently with that phrase and she does a cute little stance while she's saying it, and then bults off after. Love it.

"toes" she pointed to my toes the other day and said "toes!" without any prompting!

"soap" like "so"

"turtle"

"mama" ALL the time now. Which I LOVE! She used to say "dada" all the time, even though she knew how to say "mama," and now it's my turn! What I love most about it is that she says it like a question, "mama?" and I say "ya?" and then she baby talks to me like we're having a real conversation.

"poo" like a mix between "uh poo" "uh boo" and "uh voo" Not sure how to describe it other than it sounds like a mix between those. She's been telling me for about a week every time she has a poopy diaper. She points to her diaper and says that. And then today, she told me twice right BEFORE she went poo! So I'm going to order her a potty seat and start potty training soon! She seems ready. Unfortunately, today, the second time she told me, I quickly took her to the toilet to let her go there, but she pooped a little too quickly and it got on me! Yuck! Well, I think I actually wasn't THAT quick to get her on the potty. It was probably a minute after she told me. I'll have to be quicker next time.

Sort of says "thank you" when we tell her to, but it doesn't really sound much like "thank you"

"toys"

"it's hot" like "eh ha" whenever her food is hot or the water is too hot, or whatever.

Sort of says something like "what's this"

"snack" like "na"

"baby" I can't remember exactly how she says it. It doesn't sound too much like "baby" but I know that's what she's saying because of the context.

She was walking outside the other day and said "NO!" and quickly turned around and said "this way!" and pointed the new direction. I thought that was hilarious. I guess I do tell her "this way!" a lot...

"new book" (okay, she's only said this once (or twice? can't remember), but still!)

She is getting better(ish) at folding her arms when we pray.

The other day she pointed to a picture of Christ and folded her arms and bowed her head! That was totally on her own! I've never specifically pointed to a picture of Christ and told her that's who we pray in the name of. But she does recognize Christ's picture, and she must recognize that when we pray we end in His name...pretty smart girl!

She enjoys picking her nose lately...

She LOVES her baby dolls. And is very motherly.

She FREAKS out when she or we drop something and don't pick it up after (like if we drop a raison outside and keep walking). It's like the world is going to end if we don't go back for it. haha

She is a bug KILLER! So sad. Well, I wouldn't be so sad about it if it were fire ants or something like that, but unfortunately it's the poor, innocent rollie pollies that she goes after! She tries her hardest to kill them (and has been successful several times), and it's super hard for me to get her away from them when she finds them. I always say "be nice! don't touch! be soft!" blah blah, but she stomps on them anyway! haha. Yikes. Not sure what to do about that!

She likes to dance lately. And she prefers to do it holding both of my hands and dancing together : )

She sings when we sing (although her singing is just cute noise, not words).

She also loves her little toy microphone.

Clay and I went on a date the other night to see the movie 42 (about Jackie Robinson), and loved it! We got all you can eat pizza at the theatre (it was cheap that night-Studio Movie Grill) and ate WAY too much. And apparently there were more tornados in Dallas while we were in the movie, but the sirens had gone off by the time we left the theatre, thank goodness. Can't believe Tornados have touched down twice in Dallas since we've lived here. CLOSE to us, and we've been so lucky and safe.

We FINALLY found the perfect apartment in Fort Worth and signed our lease yesterday. I'll post about that soon.

Clay accidentally locked Ellery and me out of the apartment today and left for work, so I had to use my neighbors phone to call the Village police (apartment police) to let me in!

I was released from my calling at church because we are moving soon, and the other counselor is moving really soon. I've loved it, but it will be good to serve wherever I'm needed next.

Ellery is NOT doing well in nursery at church. She acts like she's completely traumatized every time we leave her! ugh. She has the worst separation anxiety! No idea why. Today was horrible. I'm pretty sure every single person at church heard her screaming! So I basically just sat out in the hall with her the entire time (minus the times that I was walking around holding her, comforting her, trying to get her to stop screaming!). It doesn't help that church is during her nap time...

She wakes up MUCH much better these days. She is generally a little sensitive, but overall fairly happy and pleasant when she wakes up now. Maybe slightly more sensitive after naps, but even then, it's NOTHING like it used to be.

She is a GREAT eater lately. She's been really good about eating her veggies and whatever we give her for the past few weeks! wahoo. We've just learned that we have to feed her veggies when she's hungry, not after she's already eaten all the yummy, sweet stuff (duh).

She hasn't been nearly as interested in TV lately, which is nice. She still watches a tiny bit almost every day, but she doesn't ask for it a ton anymore, and when she does watch it, she usually plays too, or walks away after a few minutes. And when she asks for a show, I can usually distract her with something else instead.

She loves to watch videos of herself on my camera.

 Love this girly girl <3

Fake upset because she threw her chalk through the hole in the fence.

She whines every time she gets up and down the fence. Not sure why because she totally knows how to do it and get down by herself haha.

Chalk fan

 It's been raining (pouring!) quite a bit lately. E loves it.

 Running in the rain.

 Clay surprised me with the best Mother's Day present! A new blender!!! Wahoo! It's a Ninja and it came with a full blender, a few single serve blender heads, a food processor, and with that, several different blades (like for cheese, cutting french fries, etc). Oh and it has a dough hook too to make bread and cookies and what not. It works AMAZINGLY well, and I'm in love with it. We make green smoothies several times a week, so this is fun. Although I love the fruit and veggie smoothies, my favorite is peanut butter and banana:

1 frozen ripe banana

a handful of spinach

a handful of oats

a tablespoon of natural peanut butter

a tablespoon of cocoa powder

enough milk to make it the right consistency

tiny bit of vanilla

Healthy and DELICIOUS!

 A random meal I made recently. Yummy pulled pork sandwich with homemade slaw. And some sprouts my neighbor grew and shared with me : )

 Clay's been craving Mexican street corn lately (haha), so I looked up a recipe and made it. I ended up cutting it off the cob because nothing really stuck to it. It was alright. Not a repeat. Just reminded me of Nacho Libre : )

 I really need to get Ellery a booster seat because she definitely prefers to sit at the table with us now, instead of her high chair.

 Nasty walls. Thanks to this cutie.

 I'm going to miss living RIGHT across from the leasing office (which has the lights on all day and night, so burglars think someone is always there!) and it has a cop car parked in front of it several times a day. So I feel SUPER safe here. I don't think I'll ever live in a safer location, unless I move next door to a police officer!

 Cutest.

 The picture on the right is one of my favorites of Ellery that I've ever taken. Not because it's the "best" picture I've taken of her, but because of that GENUINE smile on her face. I had just put this new dress on her and I said, "OH! You look SO PRETTY!" and she got this huge smile on her face and looked down at her dress and back at me, and just knew exactly what I was saying and was beaming with self worth and confidence. I loved it so much. I hope she can always feel beautiful in this way.

 Cutest piggies. Daddies shoes.

First ponytail ever! It was a mess after an hour! All fallen out. Not quite ready for ponytails! Close though. For sure. (yes, TV on to help her stand still!)