Ella is a Big Girl now...

My little girl thinks she is all grown up. No more little kid bowls or plates. I'd better not try to give her little kid forks or spoons. And forget that soupy applesauce she used to love - it needs to be thick and chunky.

What worries me is that she is only 17 months old. Just in the last week, I've had to really put the discipline down. She is testing everything. I'm trying so hard to teach her how to act in certain situations, usually resulting in classic toddler tantrums - but isn't this supposed to wait until 2 years old?

But with the tantrums comes all new fun, too. Ella now initiates hugs with me. She just runs up to me and gives me a huge hug. I'm still trying to show her how to give kisses - which she has not initiated yet - but give her time.

We can now count to 6 on our fingers, too. I know my Aunt Diane would be proud. The goal is up to 10 in the next 2 weeks. She understands the concept, but can't always pronounce all the words. However, her vocabulary is remarkable for her age. Last night she kept repeating a sentence over and over until we got it... "I see green beans" - sounded like "I see nee nee" at first so it took us a while to understand, but once we figured it out, she was so excited - we had chicken pot pie last night with green beans in it and she was pointing out the green beans (her favorite vegetable).

We are still working on her motor skills. She was a late crawler and a late walker, but now she is just running everywhere. Her biggest thing to master is the stairs now. She insists on holding my hand and trying to go up and down them over and over. Luckily, we don't have any stairs in our house - they are just out on the deck and in the garage.

And that's the Ella update this week.

What a Day!

I should have known when the day started that it would be crazy.

It began with my daughter, Ella, opening a bottom drawer in the kitchen that she always plays in, but for some reason, today she slipped and fell right into the corner of the drawer! OUCH!!! She began to sob, so I picked her up and realized that she was bleeding. Poor thing... she caught her little mouth right on that corner and cut herself. I ran and got her a cold washcloth, which seemed to help and she stopped crying enough for me to see that it wasn't an emergency room hit - just a fat lip. After about 5 minutes, she was back to playing and almost forgot about the incident.

Then we packed up and headed to Southpoint Mall to meet an old friend, Krista, who was in town. Ella had a blast playing in the kids area, where they have tunnels to run through, slides, and fun things to climb while Krista and I caught up on our lives - both of us having gone from teachers to stay at home mothers. Krista had to leave to meet another friend after a bit, so Ella and I decided to walk the mall until Ella discovered the escalators. We went up and down and up and down and up and down until it was time to go home for lunch. However, Ella didn't seem to care about lunch as much as the escalators and she threw a HUGE TANTRUM all the way out the door (She's not even a year and a half and she's acting like she's hit the terrible twos)!

A very tired Mommy and Ella headed home for lunch and a nap (only Mommy got to clean the house instead of take a nap).